Page 66 of Diving In
“Really? Sam. I love you, but your hand-eye coordination is atrocious. Remember that time we had to play tennis at school?”
“I wasn’t that bad,” he protests, and I turn to AJ.
“He hit himself with the racquet more times than he managed to hit the ball. Halfway through, his racquet broke. Out of second-hand embarrassment, I think.”
Sam scowls but continues to follow us.
“I have a team, guys,” AJ calls to three of the track runners, who immediately make their way over.
I line up for the first shot and sink it immediately.
“Fuck, Kath, you’re good at this.” AJ gives me a high five.
“All those years of netball.”
Their player misses their next shot. AJ misses one. Then the third one on their team lands it.
“Fuck’s sake,” says Sam, downing the drink whilst the others cheer, before dropping the cup.
He shakes out his arms and eyes the table. Biting his lip, he lines up the shot and throws it perfectly. I gape at him.
“Want to take that comment back about my coordination, KitKat?”
“Nope. For all I know, that was just a lucky shot.”
I take him in as he stands there looking at me smugly, and my whole body heats in response. I can’t deny it. I still find Sam hot. And his new confidence doesn’t hurt matters. He seems to have really come out of his shell in America.
“Me next.” As I step forwards his hand trails across my bare back, and I suppress a shiver.
Twenty minutes later, Sam and I are on fire. AJ bowed out after drinking four more cups, but the pair of us managed to fend off three other teams. As Sam makes the final shot of the game, Austin whoops, and claps him on the shoulder.
“Stop terrorising the athletes. Let’s go play another game. They’re just about to start one inside.”
“You go,” I tell Sam. “I’m just going to enjoy the temperature out here for a bit longer. That house feels like a sauna.”
I sit on the low wall in the garden and pull out my phone, firing off some texts to Claire and Tom about my trip, before getting up to go back inside. But just as I walk through the door something catches my eye and I freeze. A petite girl in heels is plastered to Sam’s front. She reaches up to ruffle his hair, and he laughs in response. I wait for him to push heraway… but he doesn’t.
My hands clench. Not just my hands… Something in my chest clenches too. So hard that it hurts.
I see Austin in the corner and he follows my gaze, before frowning at Sam.Fuck.
Sam and I agreed to be just friends after that summer. To leave the past in the past. In fact,Iwas the one who proposed it. So why do I still think about what could’ve been? What’s wrong with me?
I walk back outside and pretend to be busy on my phone. But with the time difference, all my friends are asleep. Now that I’ve replied to the texts from earlier today, there’s nothing left for me to do except stew in my thoughts.
I hear footsteps on the tiles behind me and turn to see Austin.
“You OK?” he asks, hands in his pockets as he leans against the wall.
“I’m grand.” But I know that my voice doesn’t sound right.
I don’t trust myself to say anything else, so instead, I tip my head back and look up at the night sky. There’s a crescent moon, and it looks annoyingly beautiful.
“Look. It’s not really my place, and I don’t fully know what’s going on, because Sam doesn’t talk about it. But I know that he’d never do anything intentionally to upset you,” Austin says after a few moments of silence.
“Like allowing other girls to hang all over him?” I say caustically, before catching myself. “God. Sorry, that came out wrong,” I sigh. “I don’t mean to sound so bitter. It’s just complicated. Sometimes the lines of our friendship feel blurry, even though we’re apart, and I forget that he’s not mine. My best friend, my person, my…” I trail off and take a breath. “Anyway, then I get annoyed with myself. Because we’re just friends. Nothing more. I don’t have a right to be upset.” I pause. “Sorry, that was a speech.”
Austin just nods. “Life’s messy. You can’t help who you love.”
