"You're sick again, dude?" Dylan asked me in the locker room as putting on his shoes.
"Um, yeah. Not terribly sick. Just a little flu," I told him, blowing my nose with a piece of tissue. "You know, the weather is extremely cold."
"Dude, you haven't even got snow in this town but you already got a flu," George added.
"You'll get double flu the time snow is coming," Jake double-added. So much for me being the gossip subject.
"What a talk," Collins joined, smirking. "Perhaps you did something last night, huh?"
"Yeah, dude!" Austin exclaimed. "What did you do with Valerie last night? Make out?" And everyone cheered. I just shook my head in disbelief that my teammates liked to spread out a bullshit gossip.
I laughed. "Jesus. We didn't make out, okay? It was just an outdoor date," I explained.
"Outdoor date? What the hell is that?"
"What kind of date is that?"
"What food did you eat?"
So many questions stimulated a violent sneeze.
"Holy shit!" Everyone exclaimed.
I blew my nose. "Sorry, guys. It's pretty bad, I guess." I blew my nose again. "It was just a usual date. Dates are usually in restaurants but our date was different. We did it outside in the Piers Park, with blankets, hot tea, and cup noodles. It was more fun than the restaurant." After I'd explained it, all of them looked pretty startled. Silence. Quiet.
Until Jake broke the silence by saying, "It happened last night?" I nodded. "First date?" I nodded. "Great job, asshole!"
"Who came up with that idea?" Jake asked.
"Me." I sneezed again.
Boys are just like girls, I guess. We talked a lot about the Behind The Scenes of Every Date, shared ideas, and feelings. We could be cheesy just like girls because boys have feelings, too. While girls try to look right and perfect, boys want the date to be right and perfect.
"I should definitely do that with Sarah," Jake said.
"No, dude. No. Don't," George said, walking towards Jake. "You know Sarah. She's a cheerleader. She's all sophisticated and I don't think she's into with the outdoor things. Match your dream date with her character."
"Yeah. George's right, Jake," Dylan added. "You should think of something else. Valerie likes sports and she is carefree. So if you take Valerie on an outdoor date, she'll be just fine. Even less, it's cold."
See? We shared ideas, feelings, and opinions.
"Unless you guys are ready to get sick like me," I added pityingly.
"Are you sure you're able to play in the final in that condition, Ben?" Collins asked.
"It's just a flu, not a swine fever," I answered playfully.
I got a flu, Valerie texted me and I almost laughed aloud reading her text because her condition was as same as mine.
Congratulations. Me, too. Haha. It was eventually my reply to her. We were seriously texting all day long, though we were supposed to be meeting at BVC this afternoon. We usually didn't text. We called, or met face-to-face. Because I honestly couldn't handle texting so long and many. I wanted to call her but I couldn't. The training was so strict.
I bet on my hat ur flu is worse than mine. She answered two minutes later.
I knew I couldn't call her because the training was so strict but I could text her when Mr. Jo gave us time to drink. I replied twenty minutes later after her last reply, Didn't think so. So, you're wearing a hat now?
That was the least of time and the fastest I could possibly reply. Hers was two to seven minutes. Nope, haha. Why'd u think so?
That's what u said, though.
It was our last text, maybe she knew I was busy training, or sneezing, or blowing my nose. I wanted to text her again but I knew maybe she was busy studying, or sneezing, or blowing nose. So I didn't text her.
I went out the locker room when we were in the break time of our training. We were given thirty minutes to have lunch. I was with Jake, Dylan, George, and Collins. We were walking the hallway like pop stars on the red carpet. But I didn't feel like that anymore after I met Valerie. She changed everything. But this is what remained the same.
"Dude, you're never going to change, are you?" Collins asked me, patting my chest.
I raised my eyebrows. "What?"
"Those girls," he said, eyes on a group of girls walking towards us, smiling at us but winking their eyes at my direction. "will always have their eyes winking for you."
I looked at them pursing their lips at my direction and I scrunched my face, disgusted. "Holy sweet Jesus," I said. They laughed.
"Hi, Ben," one of the girls with blonde hair and short skirts and sneakers greeted me. I turned to her and smiled. She looked so young but covered with the over make-up she looked old.
"Hi," I said to her.
"When's the final game?" she asked in a flirty tone.
"Tomorrow," I answered simply. I wasn't even going to flirt with her or thew. Didn't they hear my speech about Valerie? "Right. I have to go." I pointed at my mates.
"Okay. Good luck," she replied. Flirty tone and eye winking. The other girls waved their hands and I just smiled.
"Thanks," I muttered.
"You'll always be the perfect senior asshole in this school," Collins added as we entered. I shook my head in disbelief.
I straightly chose an empty table for us. "You eat, dude?" George asked.
"I'll hitch your lunch," I said. He poked my head playfully and went to stand in a long line of waiting turn of the lunch.
I pulled out my phone from my sweatpants pocket and called Valerie. The fourth beeped, she picked up.
"Hey!" she chirped excitedly.
How I loved her voice. "Hi. I miss you."
She chuckled. "Really? I thought we had spent the last couple of days together."
"That's the thing," I replied. "I'm getting used to having you by my side all the time."
I could hear her cheeks flushed red. "Pretty much makes sense," she said. I laughed. She was adorable without doing anything great. "Shouldn't you be practicing?"
"Should I? If I want to meet you right now, should I go practice?" So much for me being flirty.
"Don't push it, Ben," she said, laughing.
"Aren't you supposed to be in class now? What's with the noise?"
"It's supposed to be English class but apparently the teacher is sick. So, free time!" she chirped.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around. "Dude. Here ya go." George came with two trays of lunch and put them on the table. He saw my phone against my ear. "Who are you calling? Valerie?" I put a finger on my lips as he sat down next to me.
"Who's that, Ben? Collins?" Valerie said to the phone.
"Uh, no. It's the annoying student body president," I said and she laughed. George slapped my head. "All right, Valerie. George is mad because I won't have lunch with him." He slapped my head again. "Bye. I'll pick you up, okay?"
"Okay. Bye."
I put my phone inside my pocket and turned to George beside me who was already eating, "Did you buy this for me?"
He nodded. "You should be thankful."
I laughed. "Thank you."
"Yo, Miller," the others came and sat on the chair. "Thought you didn't want to eat."
"George, the student body president, was generous that he bought me the lunch," I patted his head.
"Hands off my head. I'm not a puppy, Mill," he said.
***
I drove off my school, towards Valerie's school. The weather getting colder each day, as it approached to the middle of November, and December. I couldn't wait outside because I'd be frozen. So I waited in the car until she came out and got on my car instantly.
"I hate flu," she said, shrugging. "How are you?"
I looked at her, smiling. "I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm fine," she answered, shrugging again.
"You sure? You don't seem fine." She sighed aloud and shrugged again. "You want to talk about it?"
"My friends made fun of you, of us," she said.
"O- Okay. And, what did they say?"
"They told me that you can't choose a right girlfriend. They said you chose me because you pitied me. They said you sleep with girls. They called me a hoe because I want to date you."
"W- Why? I mean, why did they think of that? They don't know about us." I looked at her eyes, crinkling and watery. Tears welled in the corner of her eyes.
"I don't care, Ben! I don't care," she cried out. "I just couldn't stand them making fun of you. They keep saying bad things in front of me, waiting for me to explode but I know I couldn't. It would just make them feel good to make fun of you!" She cried hard. I pulled her with my arms, hugged her as she cried into my chest.
"They're just jealous of us, Valerie. It's okay. They don't know about us."
"I'm sorry," she said, sobbing.
"Hey, hey. Listen to me." She looked at me. "Words are just words. If you think they're not true, then they will be never be true. Remember our illustration? If you think it's going to rain; then it will. Remember? The same thing with now. Don't mind them. People are just jealous because we are happy. People only care about our mistakes." I ran my thumb across her cheek to wipe her tears. "They don't know about us. If they still annoy you about this thing, walk away from them with your best friends. Okay?"
She nodded. I knew lecturing her wouldn't wash away her sadness. The only that could was to be there for her and hug her until she was okay. And that's what I did.