Strings Attached

Chapter Three

"Since when do you like soccer?" I asked.

"I don't," she said, grinning. "But Henry invited me, so I went."

"Henry?" I asked, curious.

"Yeah." She blushed. "I... I didn't want to hurt his feelings."

I stared at her doubtfully. She simply gave me a shy grin, and I immediately understood that she liked Henry. Henry was a soccer player. He was not the team's star player, but he played decently. That, of course, if you think that winking at hot girls and pretending to kick a ball is a decent manner to play.

Henry was not ugly, but he did not seem to be Louise's type. Louise always went for shy and quiet boys, and Henry was outgoing and loud. Perhaps she wanted to make a change, and if that was so, then I had to be really supportive, even if that meant that I had to get used to her calling Flirty Henry hot.

"I mean it," she said, turning to see the lockers behind me, as if to avoid my gaze.

"Uh-huh," I said, smiling. "Look me in the eye and tell me that there is nothing going on between you two." She started walking, and I started walking behind her.

Louise stared at me. I noticed that she was actually quite pretty. She had blond hair that was always in a ponytail, and her hazel eyes were very big and shiny. One could tell right away what Flirty Henry saw in her.

"There is nothing going on between us," she whispered.

"What?" I told her. "I can't hear you!"

"Jeez, there's nothing going us between us!" she exclaimed, half annoyed, half amused.

"Are you sure?" I asked, with one of the most serious looks that I had ever given her.

Louise lowered her face as if she were a child who was being scolded by her mother. The thing with Louise is that she was always expecting for people to scold her. She let others step over her as if she were a mat, and that really saddened me.

"I don't know...," she finally said, shrugging. "I mean, he is cute and all that, but he is..."

"Not your type?" I guessed.

She nodded. "He is the kind of guy whom I had promised I would never date, but the thing is... he is not as bad as we thought. Whenever he is not flirting and messing around, he can be sweet and caring."

"That's what he wants you to think," I told her, sighing. "Remember Diego from tenth grade?"

She nodded. Of course she did. I always talked about him. He was a soccer player, and he was quite handsome. He and I had dated for two weeks, and then he had dumped me for a prettier and skinnier girl. I figured he had realized that I was not really worth the trouble, but it still hurt.

"Well, he used to be sweet when others weren't around. He would tell me that I meant the world to him, and I would believe him, but when his friends were with us, Diego would ignore me. That's just the way they are. They pretend to care, but they truly don't," I said.

Louise shook her head. "I don't think Henry is that way."

"I didn't think Diego was that way, but he turned out to be."

"I guess... I guess you're right," Louise said. "I'll tell Henry that I won't go to the movies with him this Friday, then."

"He invited you to the movies?" I asked.

"Yeah." Louise shrugged. "But I'll tell him I'm sick or something."

The rest of the walk to the cafeteria was silent and awkward. I was just thinking about how hurt I had been after my breakup with Diego, and Louise was probably thinking about what she was going to tell Henry the next time she saw him.