Attraction

(3) | .Aaliyah.

Caleb had the spare keys to a golf course not far from the club. It was a walking distance.

I don't know where he got the keys from and whether it was a family member who owned it or not. It felt a lot like we were sneaking in, considering it had gone past the usual Friday closing times of six p.m but he reassured me several times that this place was his private territory at night.

I wanted to ask him what he meant. Did he sneak out every evening to come here? Did he always bail on the guys to escape here while Emerald was left at home? What was it he liked about golf in the first place?

There were so many questions occupying my brain, I didn't know where to start from. One of them being why he referred to people by their initials? Was it just girls? He called Asher by his first name. What was different about Autumn and I?

He grabs hold of my hand and it goes all clammy again. I don't know if it's him spreading his sweat onto me or if my hand just seems to react that quickly.

He uncoils my fingers to place a purple ball inside my palm, then he forces me to clench my fists.

Without thinking, a question impetuously escapes my mouth. Before I can digest the words I was truly saying, my lips move faster than my brain. "So your sister's full name is Emerald Greene?"

He turns to face me after grabbing his own club and it's only then that I see the difference. He had an adult one. I had a little kiddie's one. Mine was purple, his was black so I couldn't complain. Purple is my favourite.

He hesitates, like he had something to say but only three words come out. "Ironic, isn't it?"

No, I think in my head, what's ironic is the fact my sister knew Caleb long before I had even met Emerald, but I keep that thought to myself.

He leads me over to the centre of the golf fields even though I was pretty sure you were supposed to shoot your shot from afar by the pen. That's the way Dad would do it when he left Alexis and I to play our own separate round of crazy golf so he could play the professional way with 'the lads'.

"So." I try my best to make some sort of conversation while he planned out how we were going to do this.

I wasn't exactly dressed in the ideal fashion for sports because I didn't think Rylan would try it on with me again and I certainly didn't think I would end up sneaking into--without really sneaking into--a golfing ground with a guy I barely knew who was basically a stranger to me. Had I been half a decade younger, this would have classed as a kidnap.

I didn't even know his age but he was friends with Asher so I was going to guess he was 23, too. My birthday wasn't until October so I had two more months to go until I reached that age.

"Do you call everyone by their initials or only some people?" I lock eyes with him to find him posed in the perfect position to take a hit.

He takes it and we watch the ball pirouette in the air before landing just beneath the black and white chequered flag on the light shade of green zoned grass on one of the hills.

"Depends on the initials," he says coolly, like the shot he had just taken was nothing. "I like nicknames for names beginning with A. Girls in particular."

He doesn't look at me when he says this and that was enough to prove he had a secret.

What's your secret, Caleb?

I bend down to set my purple ball down on the artificial grass. The hem of my dress shifts up but he looks away. At least he had respect. "Does that include Alexis?" I ask him.