Crushing On The Enemy (Crushing on You 1)

“At least I should have a quiet evening to catch up on homework,” she sighed and killed the engine.

Inside she found her mom crying at the kitchen table. Her hands shook as she crossed the room and stood by her side.

“Are you okay, Mom?” she asked softly.

“Yes, honey, I'm okay,” her mom said and attempted to wipe away the tears that had fallen freely down her cheeks.

“Then why are you crying?” she asked and put a gentle hand on her mom's shoulder.

“I filed for divorce today,” she said.

“What?” Alyssa asked.

“I don't want to talk about it right now, honey,” her mom said.

“I'll give you some time alone,” Alyssa nodded.

She secretly dumped the ruin clothes in the trash bin without telling her mother. Cody would be gone from their lives for good now, but would her mother survive it? Alyssa hadn't seen her mom look so broken since her father died.

“I miss you, Dad,” she sighed leaning back against the bin, “I wish you were here. I think you'd like Jake and you would have told me what a jerk Ryan Matthers was before I spent three years crushing on him.”

Alyssa pulled her phone from her pocket and stared at its cracked screen.

“Are you ever going to call me, Jake?” she asked.

“He's most likely still cleaning the field,” a voice answered from behind her.

Alyssa startled and nearly dropped her phone as she turned to face the owner of the voice.

“Mattie!” she said, wide-eyed.

“I figured someone had to save you from the divas,” Mattie grinned.

Alyssa threw her arms around the other girl and cried tears of relief that soon turned to tears of pain and sorrow. She told Mattie everything that had happened since Ryan asked her out, in painstakingly slow detail. Alyssa knew Mattie most likely knew the events, but she was thankful for the listening ear.

“So when do I get to meet your boyfriend?” Mattie teased.

“He's not my boyfriend,” Alyssa giggled.

“Not yet,” Mattie laughed.

Chapter 8: Jake

Jake had volunteered to help his teammates clean up the Panthers' field in hopes of getting back in their good graces, but it wasn't working. The guys were still refusing to talk to him, but Jake tried to keep a good attitude about it. After all, he's not the one that made the mess, but he was helping to clean it up.

What he hadn't told the coach or his teammates was he had another motive for helping with the cleanup. He wanted to see Alyssa again. Jake had spent most of Sunday trying to work up the nerve to call her, but in the end he spent the afternoon arguing with himself in the mirror. By the time he went to bed he had a headache and didn't want to think about it anymore, but that night he had dreamed about her.

His heart skipped a beat when she walked onto the field. He grinned at her, but could tell she was having a much harder time of things than he was. Jake had always been content to letting most things go, but seeing her upset made him want to change the situation. He wanted to hug her and tell her that it would eventually pass and she would be okay, but he knew talking to her in front of the others would only make things more difficult for them both.

His father hadn't been happy when he got home early Sunday morning. Their shouting match had lasted for more than an hour, before Jake finally gave up and went to bed. Things only got worse when the whole town began to talk about him dating the rich girl.

He was beginning to understand a strange truth about small towns and the folks who lived in them. Most of them didn't care about the truth or the names involved, they only wanted something to talk about. He remembered how they had talked about his mother for more than a year after she ran off.

“One more year,” he reminded himself as they finished clearing up the last of the toilet paper from the field.

He left the field without saying goodbye to the guys, because he hoped to be able to spot Alyssa around town before he headed home. Jake spent an hour and a half driving in circles and was about to give up when he spotted her car pulling into the Chinese food restaurant.

His heart skipped a beat as he made an illegal U-turn and pulled in beside of her. He was smiling like a fool when she opened the door and stepped out of her car.