Tiebreaker (It Takes Two 2)

I caught his eyes resting on my boobs and legs for a few minutes longer than decent on many occasions. He never made a move though. Not once. So I shut that part of myself off, resigned myself to being his best friend and maybe giving someone else a chance to steal my heart away.

Noah and Crystal had both decided to attend the University of Oklahoma. Things had been rocky between them for a while. I only knew this from what little Noah told me. I didn’t pry. By then all hope had been lost.

Zach and I had been dating close to a year the day Annabelle got sick. It was late October. The first cool day of the season and Zach talked me into ditching practice and Bebe’s match to go with him and a bunch of his baseball teammates to the OU home football game.

Excluding the times when our matches coincided, I had never missed one of Bebe’s matches nor had she ever missed any of mine. Noah was playing for OU that day. He was the reason I agreed to go. Not without some guilt. Zach didn’t know how I felt about Noah. All he knew was that he was a family friend, a big brother of sorts.

If he had any idea about the filthy dreams I was having about my big brother, he might not have asked me to go. Zach and I hadn’t slept together and he was getting increasingly more aggressive about it.

“I swear, Maren, you only get shy when I’m trying to kiss you,” he slurred, his hazel eyes glazed over.

As good as it had been with Zach, and it had been––spending time with him made me feel semi-normal and he understood how important tennis was to me––there was no denying that something was missing.

We were in his teammate’s girlfriend’s Jetta, the only person sober enough to drive. Packed liked sardines in the back with two other guys on the baseball team I didn’t know very well, I had to sit on Zach’s lap to fit.

The bunch of them had started drinking early and Zach was already well on his way to being completely plastered. The stench of beer and whiskey wasn’t exactly putting me in the mood to make out in front of an audience.

“Your friends are right next to you,” I muttered.

“They’ve seen me kiss a girl before.” He laughed and I almost asked the driver, Jessica, to stop the car so I could get out. “Relax, baby.” He sucked on my neck, grazed the skin with his teeth. I shoved him away as much as I could with the little room we had.

By the time we reached the stadium and parked, the game was about to start, the OU team soon to be running out onto the field. Ditching a drunk Zach in the parking lot, I pushed through the crowd to get as close to the tunnel that led to the locker room as possible.

I wanted to see Noah and wish him luck. Between my training schedule and him being at university, I hadn’t seen him much that year. He always made time for me when he came to visit his parents but that was about it.

“Hey, eighty-eight! Noah Callahan!” I yelled as soon as I spotted his number running out with the rest of his team.

Hearing my voice, he turned and scanned the fence line until he found me. With a wide bright grin that made my heart ache, he jogged up and held out a fist, amber eyes shining in unabashed amusement.

“On jump.”

“On jump,” I echoed and fist-bumped him.

“Wait for me here after the game. I need to talk to you.”

I remember the thrill of anticipation I felt. I had no idea why he wanted me to wait for him, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. When he turned, to get back to the sideline, Crystal waved at him from the other side of the tunnel. His smile flattened, his expression suddenly troubled. It was enough to confirm that they were indeed having issues.

“Talk soon,” he said, before making his way over to her.

I watched, stomach twisting in knots, as she grabbed him by the jersey and placed a quick kiss on her lips.

Zach and the rest of crew never made it into the stadium. I stood at that fence line alone until halftime, long enough to watch Noah catch the touchdown pass that put the Sooners ahead. After which, I found Zach and his friends still hanging in the parking lot and in no condition to whether a mob of OU football fans. By the time they dropped me off at my house, four hours later, Zach and I were no longer speaking. Whatever Noah had to speak to me about was overshadowed and forgotten by the sad realization that Zach and I were close to done.