Falling for Friendzone

Chapter 18

Lane's P.O.V

Tonight's the night. The night of the big football game. Two more hours to be exact. Tonight's also the night that I'm going to walk up to Ellie and tell her what's up. I'm not sure what's happening exactly, but I'll tell her everything I know.

Tick tock tick tock

One more hour. The game starts in one more hour. I need to focus. Alex is our quarter back, I'm a wide receiver, for the sake of our school's spirit week reputation of never loosing the homecoming game, I need to get along with him.

All of the football player are now in our overly crowded locker room. Coach has already said our game plan, and left for the team captains, who just so happens to be Alex and myself, to pump the team up. We had a system, I would give words of encouragement, and he would fire us up.

"Now boys" I yell. "We're going to go out there, play our game, and keep the tradition alive! This is a big game, and we all know we can't let our school down!" I scream out.

Now it was Alex's part.

"WHO ARE WE?" he shouted and we responded.

"THE PIRATES!"

"WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?"

"WIN!"

"GALENA!"

"PIRATES!"

"GALENA!"

"PIRATES!"

"TEAM ON THREE! ONE, TWO, THREE..."

"TEAM!"

3....2....1 showtime. We run out of our locker room and hear the roaring of the fans in the crowds. The field lights are bright against my eyes, but are something I've grown used too. I can smell the sweet scent of the newly cut field and dried paint. I'm ready, and I want it.

***

"WHO ARE WE!"

"THE PIRATES!"

"HELL YEAH!"

The locker room was a complete jungle. Sweaty guys jumping and yelling and body slamming each other everywhere. That's when it hits me. I won. We won. Alex threw me the game winning touchdown pass and I caught it. We were a real team tonight, and after a close win of 28-24, we can safely say that we kept the GHS tradition alive.

Coach came in to talk, but I didn't listen. It all just seemed so surreal. As fast as he came, he left, well it seemed like it to me that is.

"You coming man?"

"What?" I didn't realize someone was talking to me until he put his hand on my shoulder.

"To the celebration on the field, everyone's going to be there." Everyone huh? Perfect, this is my chance to talk to Ellie!

I took a quick shower and hurried up onto the field, that now had over 3/4 ths of our school on it. I pushed and ran through the crowds and finally I saw her, she was with the twins, Katie, Cam and Drew, just talking. Looks like Cam and Drew didn't take as long to get out here as me.

"Ellie!" I yelled.

"Lane!" She shouted. "Congratulations!" She gave me a hug, and honestly, I wasn't expecting it.

I knew that we were still arguing, but I guess tonight was an exception, but I'm not complaining.

"Hey El, I need to talk to you." I told her. I made sure to put a smile on my face so she wouldn't feel worried. She gave me a slightly nervous smile, but followed me to the side of the crowds anyway.

That's when I told her. At first she just frowned. Then she slapped me. Then she cussed me out. By now we had quite a crowd around us. I didn't get one word in, but honestly, I didn't know what to say. She finished yelling and slapped me one more and and stomped away, back to our group of friends. Cam and Drew were giving me a straight, confused glare. I just slowly shook my head back and forth, not knowing what was to happen now. Our crowd was slowly going back to the talking and celebrating.

"Lane! Lane!" Peyton called out. "Babe you did amazing tonight!" She gave me a quick kiss on the lips, sweet as always.

"Hey baby." I smiled, trying to forget about what just happened.

"Sorry I wasn't here right after the game, I had to drop something off at in my car, but I'm here now!" She happily cheered. My mind was a clouded mess.

"Hey, let's get out of here, yeah?" I asked and she smiled eagerly as she bit her lip seductively and nodded.

I couldn't stop replaying the events with Ellie in my head. Why doesn't she ever hear me out. She just automatically took Alex's side. What's wrong? I don't think I'll ever figure girls out.

Ellie's P.O.V

Asshole. That's all I think when I finish cussing him out and scurry back to my friends. They saw it all, and I have to admit, I'm a bit embarressed about the crowd that formed. Luckily they are starting to go away. Why does he keep saying these things. Alex warned me about this. How he would make things up to get me to hate him. Speaking of Alex, where is he, he's been a little distant lately. I mean, he's still emotionally involved in our relationship, but we're just not around each other as much as we usually are. I'm not worried though, Alex is always there for me, and that's what makes us so great together.

It's almost 11:00 o'clock now and Natalie and Kristen are driving me and Katie home. We've already made plans to go over to their house tomorrow afternoon to get ready for the dance. We all planned on sleeping till noon so that we could stay up late Saturday night at Dalton Bauer's annual post party. He had a huge house and nearly the entire school would be there. He has older and younger brothers that started the party, and plan on carrying it out for a few more years.

"Thanks for the ride!" I wave and yell at the twins as they pull out of my driveway.

I go inside and lock the door behind me. I let out a sigh and make my way upstairs to get ready for bed. As I lie in bed, I get out a book and start reading. Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott; one of my favorites. Just then my ringtone sounds throughout the house and I answer.

"Hey Mom!" I happily greet.

"Hi sweety! I heard that we won tonight!"

"Yeah we did, it was a great game. How's Florida?" I asked.

"Great! You'd love it here! It's so....oh hunny I'm sorry I have to go! Love you lots! Bye!"

"Oh okay Mom, love you too....bye." Then the line went dead. I sighed, I hated to admit it, but I was lonely. My parents never deprived me of their attention, but with them being gone, I never realized how much I missed them. Oh well, tomorrows homecoming! I can't be sad! I put away my book and head to sleep. Everything better work out like I hope.