Wandering Fireflies

Chapter 22: Visiting Playgrounds At Night

Song: Yellow by Coldplay

"Dallas, what the hell?" I looked up from tying my shoe. Great, today was just my lucky day.

"Trinity, what's up?" I asked casually, knowing exactly what was coming.

"What's up? WHAT'S UP?! Why don't you tell me 'what's up,' huh? Why did you bail out on the whole exposing the soccer team thing?" Man, he's so extra.

"Dude, it's dumb. This whole rivalry thing is dumb. Let's just forget it okay? Besides, it's not like they ever did anything to us so just drop it, man." I just shook my head. Trinity was always so over dramatic. Thankfully, before this stupid conversation could go on, coach Wilson called me over.

"Dallas! Over here, now!" I ran over to an annoyed coach Wilson and a friendly, smiling coach Davidson. "Coach Davidson here has got something to tell you," she said in an exasperated voice.

"Right, so Vance, it has been brought to my attention that may be a good idea to switch some partners up. So for today, let's just switch you and Zhang and see how it goes. Is that okay?"

"Sure coach." Wow, that's pretty impressive. Zaavan actually managed to get coach to let us switch partners. Though I was relieved, I could feel my heart sink a little and it felt so weird. Every girl that I've liked before has just automatically liked me back.

"Hey," smiled Ahmed as we got to work on our first task. We were playing 'Get to Know Each Other Bingo.' Why did every teacher think that this was some magic game that bonded students together. I mean, seriously, every teacher gets us to play this game on the first day of class.

"Hey. I guess Zaavan must be seriously pissed at me. He'd rather be partners with Zhang and he hates Zhang." We both looked over and saw Zhang excitedly chatting away to a really annoyed Zaavan.

"I don't think so. I mean, he looked more panicked when he was talking to coach than mad."

"Guess I really screwed things up with him," I said with a hint of sadness in my voice. Heck, I shouldn't even be sad. He was the homophobic asshole who called me derogatory terms and punched me in the face. I should be mad at him. But I couldn't be. For some reason, I could never bring myself to hate him.

Every bit of this sucked. I already feel so weird because all of a sudden, I'm starting to have feelings for a boy. And now, when I finally kiss him, I screw things up and look like a complete idiot. Now he hates my guts and I've lost the best friend I've ever had. I'm so stupid for reading the moment wrong. I should've known Zaavan was straight. It's just that for a second there, I was so sure that he felt something too. God, I feel so messed up right now.

"Hey, don't worry about Zaavan. It seems as if he thinks that you're a really good friend so it will just be a matter of time before he forgives you. Besides," Ahmed quickly scanned our surroundings before lowering his voice. "If you ask me, Zaavan really cares about what others think of him. I think he just wants people to like him and at the first sign of a problem, he runs away. So just try and make up with him, he is actually a really forgiving person."

I smiled at Ahmed. "Thanks man. That's a relief." Hardly though, because now I had to actually face Zaavan. Great, now how was I going to get him to talk to me when he's completely avoiding me?

I got my answer after practice.

"Hey Vance! What are you doing around 8:00 pm?" asked Dashiell.

"Nothing really, why?"

"Since it's a really warm day today, Katja wants to go on a nighttime bike ride, you in?"

"I don't know..." I said hesitating. I haven't ridden a bike since aunt Lucy started touching me. I just feel really uncomfortable and I don't think I can ever get back on a bike.