Testing My Feelings

Chapter 16

I gathered my belongings from the bench and headed to the locker room. Everyone else was already gone when I got there. I sat down and unlaced my cleats. I swapped them for my slides. I stuffed my other uniform and my cleats into my bag and stood up. I looked around the room for a second before I headed out to find Joshua and my mom.

"That was pretty good Andrew!" Josh called out to me as he ran up.

I turned to him and said, "I could've done better."

"You're good Andrew. You don't give yourself enough credit," he told me.

"So I thought that I could have my mom drop us off at the mall. Does that sound good to you?" I asked Josh.

"Yea. Sure," he said as my mom walked up.

"Mom, can you drop us off at the mall and pick us up later?" I asked my mom.

"Sure Honey," she answered.

"Thank you!"

The three of us headed up to the car and my mom drove us to the mall. The mall is in Sterling Cove, the city, and it's a thirty minute or so drive from the school. It took us forty minutes to get there because of some traffic.

"Okay you two. Have fun and be safe," my mom told Joshua and I.

"Of course mom," I answered.

Josh and I got out of the car and headed inside as my mom drove off.

The two of us walked aimlessly around the mall for several minutes. Neither of us had said a word.

"So Andrew, you're a really good soccer player," Josh began to tell me.

"Thanks"

"Yea, well I was thinking that I could talk to coach to see about getting you a spot on at least the JV team at school."

The Junior Varsity team, Connor was on that team. Do I really want to be on the same team as him? I've always wanted to play soccer with him but...

"You don't have to do that," I told him.

"Damn it Andrew! Don't be so modest! You're good at the game," he snapped at me.

"Alright, fine. You can talk to him and find out if you can get me a spot in the team. BUT! No promises that I will take the position." I told him.

"Fair enough. So...When you let that ball in the goal, you looked like you just witnessed a murder. What happened?" he asked me.

"Well...I saw someone," I answered.

"Who?"

"Connor," I told him.

"Connor was at your game?!" Josh asked me, a little shocked.

"Honestly, I don't know. I think I might have just been imagining it," I confessed.

"Hey Andrew, do you want to go to Cinnabon?" Josh asked.

"Sure."

The two of us spent almost all day at the mall. I felt really bad about it afterwards though. I realized that I picked the worst place to go. I made him hobble all around the mall in his boot so soon after getting hurt. It wasn't good planning on my part, but he didn't complain. I could tell all the walking was getting to him though. He started limping more and walking slower. All and all he seemed to have had fun.

"Hey, Josh? Do you want to sleep over my place tonight?" I asked him.

"Sur..." I started to say as my phone rang.

It was Connor.

"Hold on Josh, it's Connor. I have to answer this."

"Okay"