Live for You by Marquita Valentine

with
her.”
    I smack the wall with my
palm, softly. Once, twice then a third time. My entire body shakes.
I want to go home, but I can’t. Too many memories. Tears burn in my
eyes. My throat is thick with them. “’Kay. Love you, Daddy. Momma,
too.” I have to end this phone call, before I’m too emotional to
enjoy a night out.
    ***
    Lacey rams a girl wearing
fishnet tights and a skull t-shirt. I cheer and high five the guy
sitting beside me. Lacey introduced him as her good friend Wyatt
Tanaka right before the game started.
    Good friend? I saw the way
she looked at him. The way she smiled and hung on his every word.
Lacey’s not fooling me.
    “ She’s a beast out there,”
he yells over the crowd. More than a few women check him
out.
    Wyatt is beautiful. There’s
no other word for him. He has inky black hair and sexy dark brown
eyes, face perfect with high cheekbones and full lips. I can’t help
but compare him to Cole. He’s about the same height, nearly as
filled out, but where Cole’s arms are free of tattoos, Wyatt has
full sleeves.
    Best thing about him
though: He looks at Lacey like she’s his entire world. It’s why I
don’t mind sitting with him, while he waits for his buddy to show
up. I’ve never seen two people deny who they want to be with so
much, with the whole we’re-just-good-friends routine.
    “ Usually Cole’s on time.
Don’t know what’s keeping him,” he says as the ref blows a whistle
and we sit. “Something with the bar I bet. I’ll text him to be
sure.”
    Cole? Bar? Cold washes over
me, followed by a wave of heat. I suck down the rest of my water
and twist back on the cap. It can’t be the same guy. But how many
Cole’s that either work or manage a bar in Forrestville could there
be?
    “ There he is,” Wyatt says,
then shouts Cole’s name and waves him over.
    Heat spreads over my face
and down my chest. Cole hasn’t spotted me. Yet. I stand, ready to
excuse myself, but Cole bounds up the bleachers, his blue eyes
lighting on me. They flash, gaze slicing from me to Wyatt. His face
turns red and his full lips thin.
    “ Oh God,” I
croak.
    “ Dude, Lacey is on fire
tonight,” Wyatt says as Cole joins us.
    “ Who’s your date?” Cole
asks.
    I fume, crossing my arms
over my chest. So that’s how he wants to be? He wants to pretend
like he doesn’t know me? That yesterday he didn’t have his damn
tongue down my throat or his hands all over my body? God, how could
I have been so wrong about him?
    Wyatt doesn’t notice any of
this though. Lacey’s back on the track, large white star on her
helmet and he’s concentrating on her. “This is Lacey’s friend, Rae.
She’s visiting her grandmother.” He lets out a piercing whistle and
then claps. “That’s my girl.”
    The redness fades from
Cole’s face, his eyes less bright. He turns his attention to the
rally, ignoring me and cheering for Lacey. Of course I’ve found the
one girl in the entire town that’s already friends with him. Just
my luck.
    For the rest of the time I
watch and cheer Lacey on. She’s so confident out there, in her
plaid skirt and bright pink shirt. She waves at the crowd, getting
them to stand up and cheer harder.
    I don’t look Cole’s way,
though I feel his eyes on me more than once. My stupid body is all
too happy about that.
    Finally, the ref blows the
whistle again and Lacey’s team skates out onto the track, shouting,
hugging and fist bumping. They’ve won. Wyatt shouts for Lacey once
more and she glances up at us, a smile on her pretty
face.
    Not until Wyatt leaves to
go wait for Lacey at the locker room entrance and I shuffle behind
does Cole finally speak to me.
    “ Slumming with the regular
folks, huh?”
    I step to the side, out of
the way of the mass of people leaving, and turn to face him. “Now
you know me? Wow .
Way to be an ass, Cole.”
    “ You weren’t exactly
greeting me with open arms, Rae.”
    Rae not Violet. I take
comfort in that. Yeah, he’s still perturbed