Chapter 8

Liam

As an athletic training major I spend most of my time in the athletic building, so between classes and baseball I don't spend a lot of time in other areas of the campus. This semester my internship is with the volleyball team. Most other seniors in my major wanted to work with a higher profile team like our football, hockey, or soccer teams but between my classes and baseball practices working with the volleyball team was the best fit for me. This is the first semester where we really get to work with other students, assessing them and assisting in providing treatment when necessary.

When I chose my major freshman year, I chose it thinking it would help me if I ever got injured when I made it to the major leagues. However, over the course of the last three years I've actually found that I'm passionate about the field, about helping other athletes.

I sit on the sidelines with the head athletic trainer, we're there to assess and watch the players who have reported problems. The volleyball team completes their first match, winning by a landslide. After the win, I help wrap a girl"s wrist that she broke last semester and is still trying to regain full strength in. By the time the match is over and I'm done with my duties, the head athletic trainer, our internship supervisor, releases me for the night.

Walking out of the building and towards my car, I pause on the sidewalk to text Ryan and let him know I'm headed home, even though he'll still be at practice for a bit. Right before I hit send on the text, a small figure runs into me. I jut my hand out to keep this person from falling down slightly annoyed that they weren't watching where they were going. That is, until I look down and see a familiar hoodie, I trace my eyes up further and see the strawberry hues I've been dreaming about all summer.

"Emilia?" I'm shocked to see her. I hoped I'd see her eventually of course but I hadn't imagined it would be on the first day of school. Finally the girl looks up, her bright blue eyes staring into mine, widening.

"Liam. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I should've been watching where I was going." She shakes her head at herself.

"Hey, it's okay." I smile at her, unable to believe the girl I can't stop thinking about was placed right into my lap. Forget being annoyed, I'm beyond excited right now.

"Oh, here!" She pulls back slightly, my arm falling from her elbow. Removing her backpack, she grabs the hoodie by the bottom to pull over her head. I stop her, tugging it back down.

"No, you can keep it. It's chilly out." It's really not that cold, she'd be fine in a t-shirt but seeing my clothes on her just feels right.

"Are you sure? I've already had it all summer. Oh and your sweatpants. I can get it all back to you." Am I sure? Of course I'm sure, the only thing better than seeing her again is seeing her in my hoodie with my name and number on the back. That's a dream come true right there.

"Emilia, it"s fine. Please keep it."

"Are-"

"Do not ask me if I"m sure again." I cut her off, earning a shy smile from her. "Where are you headed anyway? It"s dark out."

"Oh, I just got done with work. So I'm just headed back to my apartment."

"Where do you work?"

"Well, I have two jobs, but the one I just got off is at Nico's, the Italian restaurant down the street." She hikes her thumb back over her shoulder pointing in the direction of Nico's.

"Can you not park there? Is your car in this lot?" I ask thoroughly confused, why wouldn't they let her park there? It would be so much safer than having her walk down the road back to campus.

"Oh," she giggles awkwardly, "um, no. No car, I'm walking."

"You're walking alone? It's getting dark."

"The rest of the walk is on campus, it'll be fine." She shrugs. Fine? I don't think so. What if she runs into a creepy guy just like she did at my party. The thought alone has my blood boiling.

"Let me drive you." I blurt out.

"You don't need to do that."

"I want to."

"Are you sure?" This girl, does she always feel like she's an inconvenience?

"Yes, I'm sure." I grab her backpack off the ground but don't hand it to her.

"You don't need to carry that."

"I know." I try to hide the sides of my mouth turning up.

"C'mon I'm parked right over there." I point to my right. We walk together towards my Jeep and I open the passenger side door for Emilia to get in, climbing in she opens her mouth to say something but before she can I say "don't" and quickly shut the door. I place our bags in the back and then hop into the driver"s seat.

"Read-" I'm interrupted by a stomach rumbling and even though I'm hungry it's not mine. I look over at Emilia, her eyes wide with horror.

"Oh my gosh, that's so embarrassing." She hides her face in her hands but I can still see the color hitting her cheeks. "I didn't have time to eat at work today."

"Actually that's perfect. I'm hungry too. Let's get something to eat. Have you been to that burger place in the center of town?"

She seems to contemplate this before answering. "No, I haven't."

"Perfect, we're going there."

We sit down at The Burger Palace and a server comes over introducing herself as Vanessa. I"m too busy staring at the ocean eyed girl in front of me, wondering how I got so lucky today to run into her, to notice that Vanessa is looking at me smiling.

"Oh hey, Liam."

Finally looking over to my left and there's a tall, slender girl with long dark hair and dark eyes. She angles her body to me, pushing out her chest. "Hey Vanessa." I give her a soft smile. Vanessa is someone that has been to some of our parties before and I've seen her at other parties as well as games. From what I know about her, she's a jersey chaser and has tried to hook up with Ryan and myself.

"What can I get you?" She fans her eyelashes at me. I look down at the menu trying to avoid as much eye contact with her as possible. The last thing I need is Emilia thinking something is going on between us. Not that she would care but if she did.

"Chocolate milkshake and a double burger with bacon, please. Emilia?" I turn my attention back to the girl I brought there. Vanessa looks a little shocked for a moment, like she forgot about the girl sitting in my booth, before plastering on the fakest smile I've ever seen. Actually it looks more like a grimace than a smile.

"Just a water and a single burger for me. Thank you." Emilia hands her menu over to Vanessa who definitely rolls her eyes before walking away.

"Someone's a little territorial." Emilia mumbles the words but I hear them all the same

"What do you mean?"

"I mean she obviously likes you. Have you guys hooked up or something?" Exactly what I didn't want her thinking. Realizing what she actually just asked Emilia covers her mouth. "Oh my gosh, pretend I didn't ask that, that's none of my business."

I can't help but laugh. "No, we didn"t hook up. But yes, she's tried to but she also tried to with my brother."

"Oh gross." She shudders. "Not that you or your brother are gross." She quickly states. "I just can't stop embarrassing myself in front of you huh?" She shakes her head at herself. "I just meant the fact she would do it with both of you. That's a little creepy, no?"

"Yeah it definitely is." I can't help but laugh, this girl is something.

Vanessa comes back over, placing water in front of Emilia and a chocolate shake in front of me, giving me a wink and flirtatious smile before she goes. Across from me Emilia is trying to hide her giggles behind her hands. That noise has me smiling. I only got to hear her laugh briefly the night we met, it wasn't the most laughable of nights but when I did hear that sweet sound it did something to me. It felt like something I could listen to forever.

Emilia's phone buzzes, her face dropping when she looks at it. She unlocks her phone quickly, fingers flying across the screen to text someone.

"Everything alright?" I ask, sipping on my milkshake.

"Yeah, just forgot to text James." My heart stops and jaw drops. James. Is James her boyfriend? If he is, why wouldn't he drive her home and make sure she's safe? She deserves better than someone like that. Wait, she didn't have a boyfriend in May. Did she meet him over the summer? I catch myself spiraling and quickly snap my mouth shut, deciding to just nod my head. "He's a server with me at Nico's." I breathe out an audible sigh of relief, though this James could still be someone to her. She would've said if he was, right?

After she puts her phone back in her pocket, she's staring at my milkshake but pulls her water in front of her, scrunching up her nose as she sips it through the straw. I slide my milkshake across the booth to her, trying to hide my grin, a lot of girls won't order what they really want on dates, to impress us I guess? What's more impressive is being yourself on a date, in my opinion anyways. Not that this is a date, though I wouldn't be complaining if it was.

"Isn't sharing a milkshake something people do on dates?" She raises an eyebrow giving me a questioning look, maybe she's a mind reader. I want to say yes, this is exactly what people do on dates, but if this was a date with her I would have taken her somewhere much nicer than this.

"Or if they're friends." I blurt out without thinking. I mentally slap myself for telling the most beautiful girl I've ever seen that we're just friends. Right as I'm about to elaborate, say we could go on an actual date, Vanessa interrupts, again, with our food. She puts down Emilia's in front of her not sparing her a second glance, then puts mine down bending down purposefully to show off her cleavage. I keep my eyes on Emilia but glance towards Vanessa when she stands up, who winks at me with a sly smile.

"Yeah, friends. Friends is good." There's something in her expression that I can't quite read. Disappointment? That's probably wishful thinking.