Chapter 20: Hell Rises
"So," Sam said and took a seat next to me. "I hear that you have your counties game today." Sam swung an arm around me and pulled me close to her. Her skin tight dress clung to her body as she rubbed against me.
The lunch room was crowded, as usual. But what wasn't so usual was that Sam was sitting next to me. On a typical day, Sam sat on the opposite side of the lunch room surrounded by her friends. I was alone at my normal table, in order to focus on my studies. With soccer becoming so intense, it barely gave me anytime to do my homework or study. Even without soccer, I barely studied. Lunch was the period for me to get some food and knowledge in me.
That's what a normal day looked like in the cafeteria. Normal didn't consist of Sam plopping a seat next to me and talking about my after school activities.
It was a very strange moment and I felt extremely uncomfortable.
"What's it to you?" I snorted and threw her arm off my shoulder. She reeked of Pink perfume.
"I just want to wish my little sister good luck." She smiled. All I wanted to do was punch her. She always used the little sister term with me. She was literally born three minutes before me. That hardly gave her the right to be my big sister.
"Go away," I mumbled and buried my face in the sandwich Mom had made me.
"Will Aspen be going?" Sam asked with a cocked head. She watched me closely. A smile grew on her face. She knew that this was slowly getting to me.
I stopped eating. My sandwich fell to the table.
"Stop."
"I'm just curious." Sam shrugged and took one of my chips.
"Well stop," I said again. I was sick and tired of her always asking questions about Aspen. She had boyfriend for Christ sake! Shouldn't she have been spending the time worrying where he was all the time?
"I don't plan on doing that." She pushed away my bag of chips and stood up. "I'll see you at the game." Winking, she left my table and rejoined her friends who were all laughing.
. . .
Everyone came to the soccer game that day. It was a miracle that the girls got to counties. We always lost the game before this. Maddison was on the sidelines with me. The entire game she talked and talked about what was happening on the field. Hello! Maddison! I was watching the same game right next to her.
"Can you believe all these people showed up to watch us play?" Maddie said as she scanned the crowd. "It's so awesome." She smiled and began nodding her head.
"They're here to watch them," I said and pointed to the players on the field. "Not us."
"Mood killer," Maddie mumbled, but I waved aside her comment. If I engaged, there would just be more talking, and nobody wanted that.
Aspen was in the crowd smiling at me. I would have smiled back at him, but Sam was glued to his waist. At any minute, I swore that the entire field would catch on fire from my anger. Hell would have even risen above the earth's surface because of how mad I got just looking at Sam's flawless face. She really was that too: flawless. Somehow, she got no acne, while it felt like I was covered it in. She was even an inch taller than me, and even though it was only an inch, it bothered me. To make it even better -or worse, whichever was preferred- she looked even more perfect strapped to Aspen. The contrast between her pale and his tan skin just looked ideal together.
"You rock!" Aspen called when he noticed I was watching him.
I gave him a tightened smile and tried to wave, but my hand felt weak. My entire body felt weak.
"Way to go Cait!" Maddie suddenly shouted next to me. My focus went to the field now. Forget about Aspen. He could have never liked a wicked person like Sam, right?
My eyes searched the field for the ball, and I noticed we had a penalty shot in the opposing teams box. Cait was standing over the ball, and all the other players were scattered around the goalie box.
"What happened?" I asked. Maddie glared at me with a look that said you should've been paying attention. Rolling my eyes, I looked towards Hannah.
"She was about to shoot when number seven side tackled her," Hannah said nicely.
"Thanks," I said with a tiny nod. Hannah smiled and everyone's attention now turned to Cait. Her fingers kept rubbing against one another as she stared at the goalie. The goalie jogged in place.
"I can't watch," Coach Lavester said and took a seat. Her face buried itself in her hands. Maddie patted her back for comfort. Coach wacked her hand away quickly. Hannah and I laughed, and that caused us to get a glare from Maddie.
Cait scored the goal after that. Everyone went crazy in the crowd. Coach Lavester even jumped up and hugged all of us on the bench. It was first time that I ever saw her show much affection. We won the game too. Our defense were able to block any balls that rolled to our side. Nobody scored another goal after Cait. We were playing CrestFall again, and this time they seemed to have came at us with a lot more strength than the first game. If it wasn't for the penalty shot in the beginning, I didn't think we would have won. We got lucky, but secretly I just wanted the season to end. After that game we had divisions, and if we won that it was off to states. I hated being on the sidelines, so honestly, I wanted the season to be over. It made no sense for me to bust my ass at practice just to get benched when it came to any game.
"That's awesome that you won," Aspen said walking over to me. I smiled and let him bring me in for a light kiss on the lips.
"Thanks for that," I said once he pulled away.
"Honey we are so proud of you!" I heard my mom's voice as she pranced over to me and engulfed me in a hug. I murmured a thanks and looked towards Quinn and Becca for help. The hug was suffocating.
"Don't hog all of her!" Quinn yelled and pulled me from my mother's grasp. Mom frowned, but I was relieved to be in the friendly arms of my best friends.
"She didn't even do anything," Sam scoffed all of a sudden. My eyes shot away from my parents and to the devil herself. Sam smirked at me from behind Aspen. Her arms were folded comfortably on her chest.
Caleb frowned. "Sam, I know you're mad that you're not getting that much attention right now," he said with a smirk. A glimmer of adventure sparkled in his eyes. "But don't worry." Caleb began to walk closer and closer to her. Sam scrunched her nose and hid further behind Aspen. "I can give you all the attention you need," Caleb purred and locked his hand around Sam's arm. She let out a yelp as Caleb spun her in towards him. Her body rested against his chest.
"You're revolting," she sneered and pushed herself away from him.
"Stop hiding your love for me!" Caleb shouted and tossed his hands in the air.
Sam's eyes darted around the field to make sure no one was listening, but unfortunately everyone was watching them. Mom and Dad were even snickering to one another at the funny event, which it was. Quinn and Becca were practically on the floor from laughter
"Babe, we can tell people now." Caleb shook his head as he talked. "Don't worry." He went in for another hug, but this time Sam ducked away and fled to Aspen once again. He wrapped his arm around her as she hid behind.
"Knock it off, dude." Aspen rolled his eyes at Caleb's childish ways. My eyes narrowed though. It was a joke. It was funny. Why did Aspen have to go off and act as if Sam was a damsel in distress?
"Grow up," Caleb laughed. "It was a joke." He looked between Sam and Aspen. "If I was you man, I would be protecting the other Branson." He turned around and began his walk down the path towards his car.
Becca's eyes frantically looked at everyone who was there. He's my ride, she mouthed just before she bolted off after Caleb.
Caleb turned around before he left the field. His eyes locked with mine, blue eyes sparkling. "I'm sorry." He nodded towards the field and grabbed Becca's hand. Together they disappeared down the path.
I knew what he was sorry for. He was sorry that we won, sorry that I didn't play once. He was sorry that Aspen didn't understand how much soccer depressed me. Aspen claimed to hate soccer, but he played the entire game. I hated the sport too, but in a completely different way. My hatred was because all I did was watch. At practice, I worked my so hard to place a spot on the varsity team, and for what? To watch the game from the bench? That wasn't what I wanted. My parents were such soccer fans, so it was embedded in my brain to play the sport. It only sucked that I sucked.
Aspen came up to me and wrapped his hand around my waist. "Want to get out of here?" He whispered into my ear.
I shook my head and headed for the path alone. "I want to go home."
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Theres you chapter :) I feel like I haven't posted in forever, even though it's only been a couple of days. I honestly didn't know what to write for this chapter. Like I said in the beginning, this entire book isn't prewritten. I'm honestly just writing whatever I think and then posting it. And besides I was on vacation so my writing juices weren't really flowing, but now I'm home and I can get back to my writing (but I do have a lot of summer work to do so I'm sorry if I don't post as much anymore).
What'd you guys think of the chapter? Did I do okay?
Is there kind of scene (or character) that you want to see happen? Maybe I'll write that :)
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I love you all
- Sarah <3