When One Player Meets Another It Becomes One Heck of a Game by: Faerie_Writer
Chapter 1
(Summer's point of view)
Things changed for the worst that September 18th, five years ago. Funny how I remember the date so clearly over others, but I suppose it's kind of like how you remember a nightmare over a dream. The horror you feel is so much more overpowering, that the nightmare just sticks to your brain like, for instance, the date of a disaster.
September 18th.
Five years ago, that was the date of a certain Jeremy Hall's party. I was in 6th grade then, much younger and unwise then I am now at the ripe age of 16. Too much younger and unwise to realize it would be stupid to fall for a guy like Max Williams.
But I had fallen for him, fallen for him hard.
Thoughts and fantasizes of him kept me awake at night and I sure didn't pay attention in class anymore as I daydreamed of his perfection. I wasn't the only one to fall for Max though, which was my biggest disadvantage when it came to him.
I thought the chance of me being with him was like a large rainstorm covering and watering the whole Sahara Dessert; slim to nothing. I was pretty but in no way was I the prettiest, and I was smart, but not the smartest. I figured why would Max, who could have the best, settle for less then perfection?
Of course, even if something is slim to nothing, that means there is still a slight chance upon something magical happening. And happen it did on that September 18th five years ago. My dreams came true and formed what is now my inescapable nightmare.
Five years ago, today, Max Williams asked me out.
Allow me to explain.
I went to Jeremy's party with my two closest friends who at the time were Molly Sanchez and Deanna French. I say 'at the time' because only Deanna and I are still friends now. Molly and I have drifted apart for very obvious reasons...
Which I will explain later. For now just think I was at the party with them.
Now being my best friends, they were very, painfully, aware of the affections I harbored for Max Williams. They also knew I never thought he would look my way once in my life, and they figured they had to do something.
They decided upon a dare.
I had been sitting on a blue couch at the edge of where everyone had formed into a dance area, when it happened. I had been staring across the room at Max who was surrounded by a group of his friends, and I had let out a longing sigh. The two girls had heard this, and thinking it the perfect time, came over and dared me to ask Max out.
I thought they were crazy but they insisted that Max never refused a girl who asked him out.
"Yeah!" I had exclaimed. "All the girls who ask Max out are upper classmen, or super smart, or super pretty of course he wouldn't reject those. I'm none of that, what's to keep him from rejecting me?"
"You're pretty, don't you remember how jealous I've been of your shade of brown hair. I mean it's like a nutmeg color while mine looks like I dipped it in mud." Deanna had been quick to assure me.
"Yeah! And your eyes are like really pretty sapphires, not to mention you beat me in every test in school..." Molly had exclaimed like that was saying something. Molly was NOT the brightest crayola in the crayola box. She made D's or F's on everything.
I'm not saying I was the brightest either. With a few A's and mostly B's scattered across my report card, I absolutely wasn't the smartest kid in our school. The only thing I was best at was I was the hardest worker. Something Max later learned to appreciate me for...
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Again.
Anyways they asked me to ask him out. I didn't want to, because, really, who wants to be shot down by the guy they insist they're in love with? But since I was the hardest worker, I worked hard to make my friends and the people around me happy... it was a stupid reason, but it was enough.
Enough to get me to agree to the dare that is.
"Please..." They had begged me with eyes wide and pleading. I had bit my lip as I looked at them unsurely, before giving one curt nod. The two girls had squealed so loudly that a couple heads turned in our direction.
I had shushed them, then looked over at Max and his crew. I had bitten my lip as I had wondered, how was I supposed to talk to Max with his friends around him like that. But to my surprise, when I had looked again, Max wasn't with them.
He had been walking towards me.
Luckily my friends had enough sense to make themselves scarce, so that when Max had taken his place on the couch alongside me, we were alone.
"Uh... hi Max." I'd said softly, and Max had looked at to me with an unreadable expression. Whether it was bad or good I hadn't know.
"Hi."
I had nearly jumped at his voice. It had been firm, melodious and deep, it still is. Max had always had a perfect voice. Part of the attraction I guess. Max was perfect in every way. Smart, athletic and with his light filled, electrifying green eyes, his perfect year round tan, and his sandy beach blonde hair with natural highlights, he wasn't bad looking either.
His only fault was the fact that he was a player. I hadn't known that when he had sat a across from me 5 years ago. Do I wish that I had known then? Yes. Would it have changed anything?
Probably not. Not unless someone included that because Max was a player in two weeks from the couch incident I'd find him kissing my ex-best friend Molly under the bleachers on the football field.
But I didn't know then, and when Max and I had both suddenly blurted out, "Will you go out with me?" at the same exact time, I hadn't said no. I had blushed and said, "Yes."
Then Max had looked at me seriously, and said, "I'm telling you this now, so there won't be tears later if you find out... I was dared to ask you out, OK?" I shouldn't have really given any reaction to that, but at the time I couldn't help but let out a small giggle.
Max had stared at me curiously, "What?"
"I was dared to ask you out too." Max had given a heart-melting grin at that. "So, we're cool then?" He'd asked.
When I think back to it, I should have said 'no'. I should have walked away like nothing had happened. But I had just said, "Yeah we're cool." And just like that suddenly we were going out.
The first two weeks were like walking on a dream. I'll tell you now, we never kissed, and I highly doubt we ever will. Not sure why, but I was the one girl Max was content to just hold hands with.
That was fine with me. You see, my mom had always been trying to set me up with someone. She claimed I needed more romance in my life, as I was too serious with my schoolwork and such. My friends had agreed with my mom as well, so having someone like Max around made my life easier.
Then the two weeks of bliss passed and like is said, I had discovered Max and Molly kissing under the bleachers. The day was October 2nd, four days before my birthday. Not that Max had known that it was my birthday in four days. Even now, he still doesn't know my birthday's October 6th but... I digress. So, to continue, when Max realized I was there, he had sent Molly away and had looked at me with like he was about to do something tiring.
That should have been my first sign that the boy was no good, but I had ignored plenty of the other signs so this one just slipped me by. "So..." he had finally said after a moment with a sigh. "I guess we're over."
I blinked. "What?" I had asked. The stupidest thing I could have asked. I should have agreed. I should have just walked away, saved myself the pain, but how was I supposed to know what was going to happen? Besides, don't judge me to harshly, I was young. I had just conquered the age of fairytales, and now was in the time of romance novels and crushes.
To have a guy, and the most desired guy in the school at that, to be looking after you... made you feel special. Made me feel special. I wasn't see-through anymore. People paid attention to me. Guys looked at me for longer than just a flicker now, and my name passed peoples lips, I had gotten their attention.
"That's her." They'd whisper as I passed by in the hallway with a fit of awe. They still did that now, but it was more accompanied by a snicker rather than awe. A snicker at how I could still be together with a guy who didn't love me. But that was my life, and at the time I had liked that life.
I hadn't wanted him to leave. I hadn't wanted to become the nobody that I used to be again. Max had just looked at me. "I cheated on you." He had said, with a confused look on his face, the only time in my entire life I'd ever not seen him look sickeningly sure of himself. "Don't you want to end it?"
"No." I had said so quietly, that I thought he hadn't heard what I said, and was about to repeat myself when he had answered, "Ok."
I had just looked at him, "Ok?"
He'd nodded, "Ok, we'll stay together... for now... if you make me one promise."
"Only one?" I had asked, while he nodded, "Only one."
Only one. How bad can that be? I had thought to myself.
Only one. That's how many promises it took to change my entire life.
Only one.
"Ok."
"Do you swear," Max had asked, "that'll you'll keep it? Above anything? You SWEAR?" He'd asked me so urgently, that I couldn't dare to think to refuse it. So I had softly whispered, "Of course."
"Alright, will you promise me, swear to me, that you won't break up with me, that if anyone ends the relationship it'll be me? Do you promise? Remember, I won't let you break it."
Not that I couldn't break it, that he wouldn't LET me. Of course I didn't think anything of it at the time, all I wanted to do was be together with him for another five months. I figured that would be enough time for the boys to realize that perhaps there was something about me that made me worth dating. And I had thought, maybe, just maybe, I could change him.
It was so easy in my mind, "I promise."
"Ok," he'd said, "now no matter what, you can't break up with me."
I had nodded and we had went our separate ways. I'd figured he'd break up with me himself, I just hoped it would be after five months or so, that way I'd be his longest relationship ever and my plan would work.
One week passed, then another, and suddenly we were at our one-month anniversary. We were still together and Max was still kissing other girls, but I didn't mind all that much. Just four more months. Already boys had taken to looking after me, wondering what seemed to keep Max with me, unable to break up with me.
Another month passed, then another and another, and before long five months had passed, and I found myself wondering and waiting how long it would be before he broke up with me.
We made it to a year, and my schoolmates weren't the only ones stunned. Of course, everyone knew Max also kissed other girls (they didn't know that it wasn't 'also' but 'only'. The whole time we've been together he's never kissed me) so they didn't understand why he didn't just break up with me, or why I wouldn't break up with him.
But I did. While they assumed that I stayed with him because I was so madly in love with him, it was only because of my promise. I was a handworker, and I worked hard to make sure that what I promised was kept. Not to mention that the longer I stayed faithful to Max, the more any other guys interest dwindled and disappeared leaving me with no one else to date.
I was 'Max's girl' to them, untouchable. More like forbidden. If any of them even attempted to even tap me, Max would punch their lights out, and Max made sure that they knew that. And it would be that way until Max broke up with me, which I realized on the date of our three year anniversary, wasn't going to happen in my lifetime anytime soon.
And I knew why too. Unlike every other girl Max may have kissed and whatever else, I was the only one Max brought home. Why? Max was heir to a large, important company, (so on top of being hot and smart, he was also rich) and his parents didn't want him playing around.
So by producing me as his girlfriend at his parent's occasional dinners, a girl who had decent grades, a pretty face, and was sweet and kind, he proved he was responsible and didn't need to be watched over.
I mean, what kind of girl would allow her boyfriend to mess around with other girls? Surely, not me. At least... that's what HIS parents' thought, where in the reality it was the exact opposite.
So, in a way, Max and I were convenient to each other, I kept his parents of his back and he kept my family off mine. So, I was comfortable with the relationship. In a way, minus the fact that no guy (except Max's trusted friends) would get in a five-foot radius of me, it was like I wasn't dating Max. I had no strings that a relationship usually attached. I was free to do as I pleased.
Yet, I was dating Max. And I think that the fact that there was no love between us was the most disappointing thing out of it. Not that now, that many years have passed, was I going to break up with Max. It's not like I could if I wanted too, Max would drag me back kicking and screaming. I mean, I tried a little while ago to just get CLOSE to another guy thinking that if Max can have other girls... what's wrong with me having another guy?
The results were not pretty. In fact, I think the kid gets of the hospital today. Of course, nobody could prove it was Max and his crew, but I knew it was. It was too much of a coincidence.
After about five years of dating I had figured out that I was a prisoner in my own relationship. And I had figured that out five years too late.
Yeah, five years. Max and I have been dating for FIVE whole years today. I can't escape from him, because if I tried I'd need to have a guy waiting for me. A guy who could defend both him and myself on matters of looks, money, social issues and strength.
Basically I was looking for Mr. Right, and judging by my luck with men, finding him while I was glued to Mr. Wrong was practically impossible. I thought the chance of me finding Mr. Right was once again like the chance of a large rainstorm covering and watering the whole Sahara Dessert; slim to nothing.
But five years ago, on September 18th the slim out of slim to nothing had occurred, and once again on that date, September 18th the magic of the universe was going to occur again.
Because five years after Max and I began dating, on September 18th of my sophomore year, the guy who I found might, just MIGHT be Mr. Right showed himself.
I'll never forget it, I'll never forget the day I met Will Marks.
<End of Chapter 1>
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Thanks guys, I hope you liked it, and Max's point of view on the whole incident is up next, so stay tuned,
Faeire_writer