R | A Most Awesome Teenage Life | 2/2
Part One
Saturday, his play is slightly better. He still feels jittery, worried it’ll be a repeat of last week. He doesn’t score, but he’s not as nervous and sloppy, and Coach Caruthers slaps him on the back after the game, giving a smile like he’s glad Nathan’s getting back to himself.
His dad shows up, still a bit quiet and awkward but he appreciates the gesture. Nathan’s worried to overstep whatever bit of respite he has here, so he just smiles and nods at him as they join up and head to the parking lot.
He stutters when he sees the cheerleading team practicing at the next field over, and Jessica’s too obvious when she looks over then purposely away. Her voice is loud and shrill as she jumps into place and goes with the group, and he feels uneasy with it all, now knowing how fickle she really was … is. That just because he didn’t go to one party, she acts like she hardly knows him.
“You okay?” his dad asks with an easy hand at his neck.
Nathan takes a deep breath and shakes his head. “Yeah, whatever.”
“Not the end of the world, kiddo.”
He’s about to shake it off, but he sees Katie with her friends, the ones who’re always at the soccer games. She’s just staring back and he huffs before turning away to keep going to the parking lot.
*
Tuesday, Nathan feels like it’s another day for torture because when he’s in the equipment room and tidying up all the sports balls, Katie comes in and offers help. “I’m fine,” he grumbles.
“You mind if I just hang out?” she asks awkwardly.
He looks over his shoulder and she’s picking up loose volleyballs and returning them to the basket, clearly helping him anyway. Then she leans against the volleyball basket and fumbles with the top ball. Going back to bagging footballs, he mumbles, “Whatever, like I care.”
He’s silent as he works, and Katie doesn’t do much but bump a volleyball between her palms. It’s fairly uncomfortable, but Nathan doesn’t want to say anything to her. He shoots her angry looks here and there, but on the whole is ignoring her. Which prompts her to say, “I don’t know why you’re pissed at me.” He looks over, curling his mouth down and remaining quiet. “Jessica’s already talking to new people. She’s just fussy. And annoying. And kinda dumb. God, I don’t know why anyone ever likes her.”
Nathan stares at how Katie said it without a trace of anger in her voice. More like she honestly was completely baffled by it. “Yeah, well, you’re friends with her.”
She frowns. “Friends is a loose term. She gets outta the house and I get rides.” He stares more and she shrugs and almost smiles. “Her parents believe her when she says she’s with me and I hate walking. Works for both of us.”
The ease to her stance and voice makes him finally chuckle and then he shakes his head. When the bell sounds, they both look to the door. Nathan glances at her long enough to say, “Thanks for helping,” rather pathetically.
Katie nods and tries to will him into a smile with one of her own. “Jessica’s all pretty but nothing else. It’s not the end of the world.”
He snorts. “My dad keeps saying that.”
“That Jessica’s pretty?”
There’s a glint to her eyes that makes him laugh and shake his head as he heads out. And he’s smiling on his way to his locker, feeling a little better about the whole thing.
*
Over the next three weeks, Nathan goes through school, working with Katie on Tuesdays and Thursdays and getting along well enough that the time flies. At home, he’s still grounded and minding himself as best as he can, doing the dishes, taking the trash out, and being as quiet as possible in his room.
His dad slowly eases back into himself, mostly notably with random touches. He squeezes Nathan’s arm, tugs at his shoulder, rubs over his head. It’s not as often as it usually is, but Nathan’ll take what he can get.
The last Thursday of his sentence, his dad comes into his room and settles at the edge of his bed. Nathan shuffles up to make more room than is necessary, and almost smiles when his dad moves closer. “You know, this wasn’t any easier on me than it was on you.”
Nathan nods and lets him keep talking.
“You saying that, it wasn’t just the language, you know that, right?”
“Yes, sir,” he nods again.
His dad snorts and parrots, “Yes, sir. Jesus. When’d you start that?”
“I’m sorry,” Nathan replies, hoping that everything is heard in those two words. “I didn’t mean it like that.” When his dad just watches back, he starts rambling. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you and Jensen. You know I like Jensen being here. It just slipped out. I don’t know why I said it. I’m really sorry.”
He nods and slowly slips a hand over his ankle, holding and squeezing. “It’s a crappy lesson. But you see that the party really wasn’t that big a deal, right?”
Nathan replies pathetically, “Yeah.”
“And all that anger and yelling was for what?”
“I know.”
“Wasn’t worth it, was it?” Nathan looks up with a frown that eases up when his dad smiles at him. “Yelling at us and getting grounded, and you’re in the same spot you were a month ago.”
He looks down to his hands, fumbling fingers over each other. “My fingers are way prunier.” After his dad snorts, Nathan says, “I hate doing the dishes alone.”
With a nod, his dad leans forward to engulf him in a hug. Nathan moves right into it and holds tight. “Kinda hated making you do it. Except for the part where you actually did the dishes.”
“Dad,” he whines as they part.
“House ain’t ever been this clean before.”
*
Friday after practice, Jensen is late. He’d texted that he would be, so Nathan’s not too annoyed, except for the fact that he’s beyond bored. It’s the last day of his being grounded, and he has yet to get his iPod back, so it’s oddly quiet on the far lawn. But then he hears the distinct noise of a foot smacking a ball. He’s heard it a million times in the last 10 years; there’s no mistaking it. But the soccer field is in the opposite direction, and he’s confused when he hears the whoosh of a net and can only spot one girl playing on her own at the makeshift goal in the other direction.
He has time to waste, so he wanders over and then stalls when he realizes it’s Katie. And she’s sprinting up to a line of balls and wasting each one of them into the net with what he knows is practiced precision.
When she taps the balls back to the line she’d had before, he chuckles, which draws her attention. Katie flushes on top of the slight pink of her exerted face. “Hey,” she says awkwardly.
“I had no idea.”
“What?”
“That you played,” he says as he gets closer and shuffles a ball in the space around him, dropping his bag to the ground.
“Yeah, well, no girls’ team.”
He nods with a frown then suddenly asks, “Where you get all the balls from?”
“From sweet talking Caruthers.” Nathan looks up and she chuckles. “Why do you think I was always in the room? Doing favors for favors.”
“Huh,” he says lamely then kicks the ball over to her. She easily handles it, dribbling around and then smacking it into the net. “You always play this late?”
Katie nods and keeps her eyes on her feet pushing a ball around. “On Wednesdays and Fridays. As long as I do the equipment in between.”
Nathan watches as she easily nails a tight-angled shot to the net’s upper corner then lodges another one into the lower end of the net. “You’re good,” he says quickly and then looks embarrassed to be so impressed.
She shrugs and is a little embarrassed herself. “Not as good as you.”
He laughs. “Well, no. No one is.” With a quick kick, she nails him in the shin and laughs at his quick grimace. Nathan relents with a laugh. “Okay, fine, that was a little much.” He taps it at her and watches as she bumps it right back. They fall into an easy rhythm of kicking it back and forth, and it’s comfortable. Surprisingly so. But then he thinks about the last few weeks of horsing around in the equipment room, shooting baskets and tossing footballs, and he really shouldn’t be shocked. “Where’d you learn to play?”
“Pee wee leagues. Then with my brother.” He’s surprised as she pauses and looks sheepish. “I think you played with him.”
“What’s his name?”
“Ryan. Ryan Parker, half brother actually.”
Nathan smirks, thinking of the kid he played with through all of pee wee and juniors, and how in a year or two they’ll play again when Ryan moves from the sophomore team to varsity. “Yeah, Ryan’s good.” Nathan kicks a quick shot at her, but she blocks it easily and pushes it right back. “Not as good as you,” he smiles. And then it grows when her smile amps up and he feels like he’s looking at someone so different than the girl he’s sorted jerseys and bats with.
His brain stops at the thought and hangs onto it, and then his stomach turns over and he feels like he doesn’t know what to say to her. Like being impressed by her soccer was the first of several dominoes to fall into place and make him realize that while getting to know Katie, he started to like her.
Katie kicks the ball over again and they dribble it between them while she says, “You’re here late. Been leaving early lately.”
He chuckles awkwardly, not even sure he wants to admit to it, but then he remembers how she admitted to not liking Jessica. “Been grounded for a month.”
Her eyebrows go high. “Really? For what?”
There’s no way he’ll repeat the words, so he settles on, “Talkin’ back to my dad.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, right?”
“A whole month?”
He shrugs and says uneasily, “It was kinda bad. Just fell right outta my mouth. Couldn’t take it back fast enough.” She’s frowning in playful sympathy and it’s comforting and amusing, so he just starts rambling. “We got into a big fight over Rich’s party. They said I couldn’t go and I got so pissed I just started saying crazy stuff.”
Katie nods and her voice is quiet. “You didn’t miss anything.”
Nathan nods, too. “Yeah, I see that now.” He’s about to say more but he hears a horn and winces. “Shoot, I think that’s for me.”
She stops the ball, drawing it back with her toe then kicks it up to catch. Nathan smirks because it’s kind of awesome to see her do that, and maybe hot. He’s not sure yet. This liking an athletic girl is kind of new to him. Katie smiles, “Thanks for playing around for a bit.”
He grabs his gear and walks backwards with a wave. “Thanks for letting me play.”
Katie calls to him, “Good luck tomorrow!”
“You going?”
“Of course,” she smiles.
He likes how easy it is, and how her voice is light like she’s entirely comfortable with herself. One rough swallow and a quick inventory of a stomach flip and a fast heartbeat later he jogs back near her. “Hey, maybe after … maybe we could get something?” Her smile widens and he feels good enough in that, that he goes on with more confidence, with the push he had when talking to Jessica but with a bit less arrogance. Though it falters for a moment he looks over his shoulder at the car, feeling like there’s an audience, no matter how far away Jensen is. When he turns back, he says quickly, “There’s this ice cream place we always go to after my games. They have good burgers. Milkshakes, too.”
Katie’s still smiling and then taking a deep breath and nodding. “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
He grins and jogs away with a wave. When he’s in Jensen’s car, he’s practically beaming and Jensen slaps a hand at his back. “Catching on I see.”
Nathan wants to grumble back, but he just shakes his head and looks out the window with a smile.
*
After Saturday’s game, where Nathan gets three goals, leading his team past a division rival to make the playoffs, he spots Katie and jogs over. He pulls his shirt up to wipe his face, knowing he’s sloppy and soaked with sweat, like always. But then he’s smiling when he’s right in front of her. “I’m disgusting,” he chuckles.
She laughs easily. “Nah, you just played hard. Showoff,” she adds while elbowing him in the gut.
Nathan moves away with a smirk but stops when he sees his dad and Jensen moving closer, and he groans. He’s not looking forward to them being anywhere near Katie, especially since it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since he realized he liked her. But part of him feels less worried than he always was talking to Jessica all those afternoons.
“God, you’re gross,” his dad says with mock disgust and tosses a towel at his head.
“Yeah, wonder where he gets it from,” Jensen mumbles.
“Exactly,” Nathan says with a roll of his eyes. Then he falters when he realizes Katie’s still there and he should say something. “Hey, so, we were gonna get food,” he says awkwardly to his dad, motioning with a short nod to Katie.
His dad gives a tight smile and nods before moving closer to Katie with his hand out. “Hi, I’m Jared, Nathan’s dad.”
She laughs with how Nathan rolls his eyes, even though he does step in. “Yeah, okay. Katie, dad. Dad, Katie.” Then he looks at Jensen and points between them all. “And Jensen, Katie. Katie, my dads.”
Katie shakes their hands, and either doesn’t pick up on the frozen moment or decides to let it go. But Nathan can feel two distinct sets of eyes on him. Instead of dealing with it, he offers to meet Katie at her house so he can go home to shower, and she takes it with a smile and waves as she walks away.
“Nathan,” his dad says gently with a meaningful gaze and heavy hand on Nathan’s neck.
He blushes, realizing what’s got his dad so emotional. To combat it, he wiggles out of the grip and complains, “C’mon, you’re gonna embarrass me in front of the girl.”
“Girl’s gone, kiddo,” Jensen drops in.
Nathan doesn’t miss how Jensen’s smile is especially soft and his eyes are strong on him. He just pulls his shirt up over his nose to hide anything on his face, like always. And then he winces and pulls it down. “Okay, can we go so I can shower?”
“Yeah, you’re pretty rank,” Jensen nods and nudges them towards the car.
His dad curls an arm around his shoulders and tugs him in tight. His voice is small. “You’ve never said that before.”
“Not a big deal,” Nathan returns while watching their feet move forward.
“Yeah, it is.”
Nathan looks up and sees his dad’s eyes are shiny, and he groans, just to hide how even he’s starting to feel affected by the moment. “You’re gonna cry? Seriously? Not even Jensen’s crying.”
“Yeah, I’m totally dry,” Jensen says.
“Shut up, both of you.”
Nathan and Jensen laugh together and his dad tries not to. Nathan easily asks, “So it’s cool if I go out? Grounding’s over?”
His dad eases up on his hold, but strolls with the arm still around his neck. “I s’pose. You gonna be a gentleman?”
“Naturally.”
“You gonna hold the door open? Ask her thoughtful questions? Gonna pay?”
With a raised eyebrow, Nathan asks, “You gonna give me some money?”
Jensen chuckles from the other side of Jared but stays mostly quiet.
His dad points out, “You get an allowance.”
“That’s not really enough to treat a nice girl to a nice lunch.”
“Well, aren’t you smooth?”
Nathan grins. “Learned it from my pops.”
His dad tugs him back in tight, sounds happy and proud. “That’s right, buddy.”
He points around them. “I meant Jensen, but I guess you’re alright.”
“Oh, you little …” his dad starts but soon enough Nathan’s racing to the parking lot and he’s chasing after him.