How the hell could I have forgotten? In between classes and getting ready for the game, I’d barely logged into the site to message Sophia. If I’d remembered while we were still in the locker room and I had my cell in hand, I could have sent her a message not to bother because I’d be busy.
“What the hell do you mean, you asked Sophia to meet you? She doesn’t like you, right? Why would she agree to that?”
Logan didn’t get it. Come to think of it, since I got the information; I hadn't let him know what I put it to use for. I looked around at the other guys, then tugged him a bit further back. We were still warming up before we needed to go out and play. We had maybe a couple of minutes, and I wanted to try and run back to send that message.
Only, there wouldn’t be enough time, and I was in the starting line-up.
“Do you remember that time you called me over to Sophia and Dana’s room to hack her computer?”
He arched his eyebrows. “Yeah. You found something about a dating site right?”
I gave him a look and waited for him to connect the dots himself. In a few seconds, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped open.
“Dude!” he hissed, getting close to the others wouldn’t hear. “Don’t tell me you joined a dating site just to mess with Sophia.”
I glanced at the others to be sure they weren’t paying attention to us, then lowered my voice.
“That’s exactly what I did.”
“Damn. I didn’t think you did anything with it. I kept waiting, and nothing happened.”
I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t notice because you’ve been so preoccupied with Dana, but I’ve been chatting with her frequently on the site.”
“And?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows, a smile playing on his mouth. “Do you have her eating off the palm of your hands already? You know, you’ve got a lot of charm so it should have been easy.”
I rolled my eyes and ignored his question. “I have a problem right now. I asked her to meet up, and I think I might have given her the same time as the game. Now I can't go, and I can't even tell her!”
Logan winced. “Yeah. No way would the coach let you off the field right now; we’re about to start. If you even try, you’ll probably get into trouble for it later.”
I flattened my lips. I knew that much, which was why I hadn't just charged off the moment I realized it. I looked toward the locker rooms, still tempted to try, but right then, the coach called out to us.
“All right, team! Get your butts over here!”
I winced, and Logan gave me a consoling pat on the shoulder.
“It should be fine this way, though, right?” he said as we walked slowly to the others. “You wanted to prank her, right? Getting her to fall for you then standing her up, was kinda shitty. Doesn’t matter, because she would curse you out if you did go.”
Logan was probably right, and I knew that, but it still bothered me. There was nothing I could do. I joined the others, barely hearing a word when the coach, then the team captain each said something. Then, we went out to the field. In the mood I was in, things could go two ways; I’d play good to work out my frustration, or I’d do badly because I was preoccupied.
Either way, I doubted the Sophia issue would be out of my mind. I’d have to think up a way to make things up to her later.
Chapter Eight
Sophia
I waited impatiently for class to finish up. I’d barely heard what the professor said the whole class because I was so excited.
Today, I finally got to meet him.
The moment class was over; I was one of the first to get up and struggle through the crowd to get outside. It was so unlike me. Usually, even when I was sitting down doing nothing, I tended to wait for the room to clear up a bit, but I was running late, and I still had something I wanted to do.
I need to go back to the room first and get ready there…
When I woke up, in my excitement, I’d just pulled on whatever clothes I got my hands on, even knowing the meeting time wouldn’t be until after my second class of the day. I didn’t look terrible; if anything, I was dressed the same as I was every day. But I was meeting a guy I was hoping to date, so I should dress up a bit more, right?
I hurried back to the room. I found it empty, but I did remember Dana said she had something to do. I was in jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. I pulled them all off and found a dark blue skirt that fell to just above my knees and a white blouse. I tied a small scarf in a bow around my neck, then pulled on sandals with a bit of a heel. I took a quick glance in a mirror. I didn’t use a lot of makeup, usually, so I just touched up my lipstick and ran back outside.
The meeting place was on the bench close to the main library. It sat under a tree several feet away from the library’s front entrance. In the current weather, spots like that were popular with couples, where you could catch some sun and shade just moving a little bit. It was a little breezy, but not cold, and I sat down holding my cell tightly in my hands.
I waited, biting down on my lip, my heart beating fast in my chest. I looked around, wondering if the guy was someone I already knew. If I would recognize him before he came and sat beside me. There were a few people walking around, but a lot less than I would have expected. Even the number of people going in and out of the library was a lot less than there should be. I could tell because I went there frequently myself. The new testing period wasn’t so far away that people would be slacking off.
“Where is everybody today?” I mused to myself. “Don’t tell me they all decided to slack off.”
I frowned, wondering if I’d missed something, but then dismissed it. It didn’t matter. I was just distracting myself from the anxiety.
When is he going to get here?
There hadn't been any exact time given, but he had said to meet around lunch so we could eat together afterward. If my stomach weren’t so full of butterflies, I probably would have been hungry, since I’d been in such a hurry in the morning I didn’t even eat breakfast. I wondered what we’d eat if we’d be going off the school grounds. Maybe a restaurant in the city?
I daydreamed a little about it, imagining sitting at a restaurant with Student X across from me. He’d be tall, muscled, good-looking…blond with blue eyes and with a killer smile.
When I thought hard about it, the person I imagined sitting across from me, looked amazingly like Elijah.
Shit! Get that out of your head! I scolded myself immediately, scowling as I looked down. Instead, I imagined Student X being tall, but not too tall, just tall enough that I could wear high heels around him. He’d be slim but muscled with dark hair and dark eyes…
Or I could wait and see what the guy looks like.
I took a deep breath and decided to go with that instead, checking the time on my cell then looking around again. When I saw someone off in the distance, or coming out of the library, I would perk up. But no one came to a stop in front of me, and I would deflate, before telling myself to wait some more.
Just like that, an hour passed. The butterflies in my stomach
had calmed down enough that I was starting to feel hungry now.
Maybe something came up, I thought hopefully.
I opened the dating site on my cell. It looked a little awkward on my cell since I used a mini-browser, but for my purposes, it was enough. I checked, and there was nothing. The last few messages I’d sent a while ago hadn't even been replied to. I felt disappointed but still waited.
Another hour went by. I wasn’t even looking around anymore, and I kept checking back to our chat messages. I even double checked the time and date I was given, and tried sending a few messages, but nothing. It took me a while, but I could admit it to myself.
I was stood up.
“Dammit,” I muttered, teeth gritted, hands squeezing the edges of the bench.
I bit down on my lip, blinking my stinging eyes, then jumped up. I put my cell away in my purse and headed toward the dorms. Before I left, I took a last look around, but the place was deserted, just like it had been a couple hours ago.
When I got back to the room, I practically kicked the door open and slammed it closed. For a long moment, I just stood there, staring at the back of the door and trying hard not to cry and be so upset.
It’s not like I even know him. We’ve only talked online for like three weeks…
“What’s wrong with you?”
I whirled around, my eyes widening in surprise. “Dana! What are you doing here?”
Her lips lifted in a sardonic smile. “This is my room, too, you know. Why wouldn’t I be here?”
I rubbed my eyes and frowned at her. “I figured you’d be out with Logan or something.”
“Yeah, no,” she said with a sneer. “He’s busy at the moment, I just left him to it.”
I moved to sit down on my bed, kicking off the strappy sandals and setting my purse down. I glanced over at my desk, where my computer still sat and made a decision. I got up and went over there, sitting down. Then I turned my computer on and logged into the site.