Unexpected Love

Unexpected Love 3- First dibs

Votes, comments & suggestions on how to make the story better are always welcome! 

I'm worried that its too slow going :(

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            I decided to go to the music store in town, and I didn’t feel like driving the car that our parents had gotten for Jack and me to share, so I set off walking. I had gotten into town and was looking about for the music store half-heartedly, happy just scoping out the town in general for the time being.

            “Hey, Gemma!” I heard a voice ring out from behind me.

            I turned around and saw Nick and Will walking towards me. I smiled at how they both sped up to reach me more quickly. “Hey, guys.”

            “Whatcha doing here all by yourself?” Nick grinned.

            “Oh, just looking around at the town a bit.” I didn’t want to ask them for directions to the music store, for fear that they’d come with me. That would just be awkward.

            “We were just going to get a bite to eat, come with us,” Will offered.

            I agreed, and they led the way to a diner a couple of blocks down the street. We were sitting around in a circular booth, with me sitting in between the two boys, although Nick slid dangerously close to me, hanging over me to say something to Will. We chatted for a bit, which was pleasant enough, and ordered drinks and food. The waitress seemed intent to flirt with Nick, but he paid her no attention.

            Just after the drinks had arrived, two guys walked from the back of the diner to the door, passing by our booth.

            “Williams,” the taller, dark-haired guy said. He looked about our age.

            “Cameron,” Nick nodded back, a little aggressively. The tension in the room rose. Why do guys insist on calling each other by their last names, as though it made them tougher? If I had known the people here better, I would have teased them about it, but I decided that I had best just keep my mouth shut.

            ‘Cameron’, as he was called, shifted his gaze to Will and then to me sitting in the middle. “And who do we have here?” His voice turned smoother and a smile played in the corner of his mouth.

            “Gemma,” I offered my name. “I’m new.”

            He chuckled. “I know that, sweetheart. Nice to meet you, Gemma, how’d you end up with these morons?”

            Nick draped an arm over my shoulders, at which I stiffened slightly. “Gemma and I hit it off straight away, didn’t we baby?”

            I had no idea how to respond to that, especially not with the possessive grip he had me in. But the second guy with light brown hair started laughing. “She seems to want to just hit you, at the moment, Williams.”

            Nick turned to glare at him. “Back off, Foltz.”

            Will decided to chime in here, although what he said just seemed to make things tenser. “Gemma started at King’s with us this year. She just moved here from England.”

            “She’s half French,” Nick threw in, smirking at the two and looking decidedly smug.

            “I am capable of speaking for myself,” I said, exasperated at the level of testosterone that seemed to be flying around.

            “Yeah man, she can speak for herself,” Cameron repeated, grinning. He held out his hand. “I’m Bradley.”

            I shook his hand a bit tentatively, still constrained by the arm that Nick was holding around me. “Pleasure to meet you.”

            “Shit, Williams, let the girl breathe. No one’s challenging your right.”

            “They better not,” Nick all but snarled at Bradley, who just kept smiling pleasantly.

            “Well, maybe we’ll see you around later in the year, Gemma,” Bradley said. “Williams, Foster, see you at the first game.”

            With that the two of them continued on their way to the door and left the diner. Only when they had driven off in their car did Nick let his arm drop. “I’ll be right back.”

            While Nick went off to use the bathroom, I turned to Will. “Care to explain what the hell just happened?”

            He raised his eyes slowly to look into mine. “What do you mean?”

            “I take it you have some sort of rivalry with them?”

            “Yeah, they’re from the other school in town. We play football games against them. Cameron is kind of like the Nick of Sheffield High.”

            That was an odd way of putting it, I thought. “What was with that possessive stunt and something about ‘challenging Nick’s right’?”

            Will sighed loudly and looked away. “There’s a certain hierarchy here in Sheffield. It applies to all sorts of things. Nick has first dibs on whatever girl he wants at Kings, and then it goes down the chain. Kings and Sheffield High have this rivalry going, trying to get with each other’s girls. So don’t fall for anything those Sheffield High assholes tell you, its part of some game to score points against us at Kings. Watch out.”

            I sat there stunned. I would watch out for those guys, but I thought that warning extended just as much to guys at Kings as well- what kind of absolute bollocks was all that about Nick having first dibs on a girl? They were all arseholes if they thought that’s how normal people went about their lives. “So when he said, ‘see you later on in the year’, he meant after first dibs at Kings had been met, I’d be open to be played for in the game?”

            Will had least had the decency to look ashamed. “Pretty much.” 

            “Fascinating,” I said, still dumbfounded.

            When Nick came back the food was just being served and I ate in relative silence, just listening to Will and Nick talking. Will looked at me worriedly once or twice, but didn’t say anything more. When we left, they offered to give me a lift home. I agreed, still quiet.

            When we pulled up outside my house, Nick got out to walk me to the door, although I protested that he didn’t have to. “You deserve a real gentleman,” was his reasoning.

            At the porch steps he grabbed my hand to pull me to a stop. “Gemma, there’s a party on Friday night. Go with me.”

            I looked at him sceptically, pulling my hand away. “As in a date?”

            “Yeah,” he smiled.

            “Who else is going?”

            “Everyone,” he frowned a little.

            I thought quickly. This was him exercising his right to have first ‘dibs’ on me, right? Well, I didn’t think I liked the idea. “I think it’s better if we just see each other there, along with everyone else. It’ll be fun.”

            He looked slightly stunned, as though the possibility that I’d turn him down had never entered his mind. “Oh, ok,” he all but stammered. But he quickly regained his old cocky composure, leaning into me to say into my ear, “You’ll go out with me soon enough, babe.”

            I stepped away and up the first step. “My name isn’t Babe. I’ll see you in school tomorrow.”