Just Friends

Chapter 8

Alex

He needed a distraction.

All Alex thought about nowadays was Alexa. Her eyes begging him to kiss her, her soft hair, her lips against his, her hands playing with the back of her hair. He almost groaned just thinking about her. 

So, he decided that he needed a distraction.

He looked around himself in the hallway and landed on some members of the female population. Jennie, cute, short, dark brown eyes, but not dark enough. Bailey, curly hair, but the wrong color. Franny, too tall and her hair was long, but straight. Not that height nor hair length mattered usually, but something bothered him about it anyways.

He closed his eyes, sighted and leaned back against his locker. Suddenly flashes of Alexa in her bathing suit from their last vacation together appeared. It had been black and thin and left too little to the imagination. He hadn't thought much about it then, but for some reason it did now. His mind wandered back to that very day.

"Alex, you suck at this." Alexa had said as she went through the pictures he had just taken of her with her phone. "You need to find the right angles." He had in turn rolled his eyes, taken her phone from her, thrown her over his shoulder and jumped into the water with her screaming his name.  

Screaming his name.

His eyes immediately shot open when he thought that. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but everyone seemed to be busy with their own. 

Suddenly his eyes landed on someone. He had never seen her around before. It was a girl with short blonde hair and tropical blue eyes and she seemed to be walking straight up to him. She stopped just before him and he could smell her sweet perfume. She gave him a sweet smile just before she opened her mouth.

"Could you show me to the office, please?" she had a British accent.

"Erm, sure." Alex said and began to lead the way. "Are you new?" he asked.

"Yes, I just moved here from Brighton in the UK." she said. Alex nodded. "My name is Tess, by the way." she introduced herself.

"Alex." Alex replied. 

The rest of the walk to the office was quiet. When they reached the office, Tess thanked him and went inside. The bell rang signaling that the next class was about to begin so he walked in the direction of the room.

Alex sat down in his usual seat and had Alexa in front of him, Jake on his right and an empty seat to his left. He fist bumped Jake and waited for Alexa to turn around to acknowledge his presence, but she ignored him by talking to Lottie. 

Class had just began when someone knocked on the door. Principal Theodore stepped inside with Tess behind him. Principal Theodore introduced Tess as an exchange student that would go to the school for a few months. The teacher told Tess to take the empty seat next to Alex and she greeted him with a "Hello again."

Class ended and so did the school day. The only time Alexa spoke to Alex was when she told him that she'd be getting a ride from Lottie, and that she wouldn't be needing a ride the following day either. Alex had only nodded in confirmation.

Alex and Jake had soccer practice after school, so they went on the direction of the locker rooms. Sometimes being a guy sucked. When you had confusing feelings about things you really didn't have anyone to talk to about it. Alex and Jake changed in silence. When they got out to the field, coach told them to warm up by run a few laps around the field.

"Tension between you and Comette, huh?" Cole smirked  when he ran up next to Alex and Jake.

"F U!" Alex cursed which made Cole's smirk grow even wider.

"Don't blame me. The two of you were the ones who decided to kiss."

"Man, maybe you should just stop." Jake told Cole, but it was too late. Alex was already boiling. Before anyone could react, Alex's fisted hand collided with Cole's face. 

Cole and Alex stared at each other in shock and Jake was quick to step between them. Some other guys on the team were quick to join too and some of them grabbed Cole and some grabbed Alex. Unfortunately, coach had witnessed it too. He immediately called Alex over.

"Go take a shower. You're out of today's practice."

Alex didn't argue. He knew how much coach hated any sort of violence. Alex walked into the changing rooms, feeling frustrated. He slammed the door to his locker harder than needed, he threw his clothes into his locker using a lot more force than needed. He took a long shower and then he left. 

He walked down the hall and spotted Tess. She studied him for a while before she spoke. "You look like a child who's being told that he can't have sweets on a school day." she chuckled.

"I hit one of my team mates." Alex shrugged.

"How badass of you." Tess said sarcastically.

Alex took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. "Are you free right now?" he asked Tess.

"Yes." she replied.

"Do you want to do something?"

"Sure."