Swish

Timeout - Eli

"Okay, then. 'Ball Chaser' was it? Neat little way of saying it so you can play all innocent around my dad."

The girl was more than I had given her credit for.  More powerful, more intimidating, more...everything. 

"Okay, then. 'Ball Chaser' was it? Neat little way of saying it so you can play all innocent around my dad."

I couldn't let her throw this all away for me, not when she had no idea the stakes that were riding on this one family dinner. 

"Yeah, the dad you lied about having," I said, hoping to divert the attention away from my perceived misgivings when she tried to defend her actions but her father stepped in at just the right moment. 

And then he asked me to sit next to her.  Sit there, to her right. 

It was a simple enough request, and it should have been even more simple to comply, but the thought of the two of us in such close quarters, leg to leg, almost touching, closer than we had ever been....

It was almost enough to send me running in the opposite direction, not because I didn't want to, but because I wanted to more than I should have.  Way more. 

So I took my seat, and held my breath, and when my heart didn't implode in on itself from her nearness I exhaled a deep breath and inhaled her sweet and heady perfume, a mixture of musk and sweet vanilla, the combination something so completely different that I found myself drowning in it, and wanting to know if she tasted just as good as she smelled...

Dinner was monotonous, but I learned a few things just by watching the interactions of the family.  

So, for some reason that everyone was okay with (except Virginia of course...and suddenly me?) her cousin Sara and her ex boyfriend were dating and everyone acted like it wasn't a big deal.  It was obvious how uncomfortable the Jared guy was, considering he barely spoke a word the entire night, but what really crawled under my skin was the fact that Virginia was so damn anxious she was about to crawl out of her own skin, and no one around her bothered to care. 

That leg, bouncing up and down repeatedly, it was like she was trying to break a world record for the number of leg bounces in one minute. 

There was a moment when our legs touched, however, and the zap of chemistry that unraveled between us almost choked me up on my sip of water

I zoned back in just as coach Bruins was lecturing Virginia about the fact that she needed to stay closer to home so that he could keep an eye on her...through me. 

"What? You mean you want this guy to 'watch over' me on campus? I don't know if you've forgotten, but I am a legal adult now, Dad. There are plenty of eighteen year olds who leave home for a college halfway across the country, or even in a different country altogether."

Yeah, she obviously didn't like what her dad had to say very much, and I wasn't sure I did, either. He might've been confined to a wheelchair, but I could already tell he was as much a control freak as my stepdad.  That was strike one for him...I sincerely hoped he didn't get three.  

"Yes, but I don't think their parents are paying for their education like I am for you. I know you got that scholarship for the New York Conservatory, but you didn't have enough for housing and food once you got there. This was the best choice for you, and we all know it."

We got on the subject of this weekend once the aunt changed the subject, thank god, but I got a bad vibe from her, like she was hiding something...she had shifty eyes.  

"Oh, this weekend...my new friend Maddie invited me to something. I already told her I would go."

At least Patrick's party would be semi entertaining with her there.  They tried to convince her not to go before her father spoke directly to Virginia, and then to me.