Page 14

OLIVER

I hadn’t intended to spend all afternoon at Maya’s house, but I really didn’t want to leave her side. Mr. Shelton wasn’t batting an eyelid as I snuggled next to Maya. She seemed happy to play the fake relationship for her parents and was extra grateful when I replaced her icepack and brought her another drink—almost like I was in my own house.

But that’s how the Shelton house was—comfortable, homely. Mr. Shelton’s commentary was spot-on and I could tell he loved the game for the sake of the game. Not like Dad—for him there had to be an end result—a championship title or a college scholarship. That pressure took the fun out of the sport, when you just wanted to play with your friends, for your school, for the sheer joy of it, and where the stakes weren’t always hanging over your head.

When the game finished, the doorbell rang and with the arrival of Maya’s friend, Sammy, I detected a frostiness that sent the indoor temperature plummet despite the heating.

“Oliver.” She said my name curtly, like a teacher about to give out a failing grade, and her dark hair tied up in a severe knot matched the stern vibe.

“Yeah.” I said, somewhat terrified of her. “Sammy? Nice to formally...finally...meet you.” I didn’t know what I was saying, only that it was blatantly clear she wasn’t a fan of me. Which was something I’d never encountered before.

“Look at this,” Maya said, showing Sammy the M&M jar, “isn’t this just the cutest?”

“Yeah,” Sammy said with a nod but no emotion, “it is.” She presented Maya with a gift bag, and Maya gushed in thanks as she pulled out bags of popcorn, gummy bears, peanut butter cups, nail polish, face masks and other beauty stuff.

“Uh, I think I should leave you girls to it,” I said, standing up and stretching my shoulders. I had been sitting for a while and there was some stiffness in my upper back.

“Yeah, we’ve got real stuff to do,” Sammy said with a complete lack of subtlety, her fierce expression confirming that I wasn’t welcome.

“Um, hey, you don’t need to walk me out.” I motioned to Maya who was trying to get up.

“I need to use the bathroom,” she said with a giggle.

I willingly helped her up, though noticed Sammy keeping an eagle eye out. When I was about to grab her crutches, Maya shook her head. “I can hobble,” she said, “it’s not far.”

“We’ve got game review tomorrow and it’s bound to be a long one, but I’ll call you, okay?”

“Yeah, thanks for the flowers and my favorite thing ever,” she said, glancing down at the candy jar with a smile.

“You’re very welcome.” I wanted to kiss Maya but I hesitated, Sammy standing protectively to the side, like she was guarding her from me. “Uh, um...I’ll see you later?” And despite Sammy’s intimidating glare, I gently wrapped my arm around Maya’s back and pulled her close for a soft and swift kiss on the lips.

Maya looked up at me with bright eyes, her smile radiant and so full of joy that my heart skipped a beat, and a shiver raced through me, the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention.

And it hit me—this was real. This feeling couldn’t be faked, it wasn’t pretend. I wasn’t acting. I could’ve bought Maya a bag of candy, but no, I’d come up with the idea to divide the candy into colors because I wanted to impress her.

And there’s only one reason you want to impress a girl—and that’s when you really like her, when you really care about her.

IT TOOK MOM NO TIME at all to set up Penny Adlam as my mentor for the Senior Project. She signed all the paperwork and arranged to have our first meeting within a couple of days. I was kind of pleased to be meeting Penny—as she’d always insisted I call her—racing there straight after football training on Wednesday because the nightly pep talks from Dad about the final were bugging me.

“You have the chance to be legends, to write your name in the history books,” Dad said, mirroring what Coach Gregor had been saying all week. “This game is the final assignment, Ollie, and nothing less than an A will be acceptable. Colleges will be fighting for you, I know it. Your future depends on this.”

I nodded agreeably because there was no sense, at this late stage, to fuel a fire. And besides, I wanted to enjoy the week, the hype, the camaraderie within the team. Savor my last high school football game.

Meeting Penny and getting started on my project would give me some relief from Dad’s constant harping on about this game being everything, if not the reason for life itself. It was grating on me and only the memory of spending time with Maya and wrestling these new, not-so-fake feelings was stopping me from lashing out at him. Yeah, I loved football but that didn’t mean I had to play it in college, right? Why couldn’t I be like my brothers and study a career I wanted? Why did a football scholarship have to be the be-all and end-all of everything?

Penny’s restaurant was part of the Snow Ridge Golf Course complex. With indoor and outdoor seating and a wrap-around terrace offering views of the 18th hole and the mountains, it made for a popular lunch spot by day, and the bar and four large screen tvs made it lively at night. Mom and Dad were regulars on the weekend.

“Hi Penny,” I greeted her brightly, hoping she wouldn’t mention the breakup.

“Hi, Ollie, how are you? I haven’t seen you since you and Savvy...” Her lips pressed as if it was an accidental slip of the tongue.

I drew in a deep breath, trying to maintain composure. “If this is going to be awkward—”

Penny brought her hand up to her mouth, signaling a zipping motion and shook her head. “Absolutely not. I’m sorry. I’m not going to interfere in my daughter’s love life, and your mom was so enthusiastic about your project that I jumped at the chance to help.”

“I really appreciate it.”

“Your mom says your protein balls are pretty tasty.”

“Huh?” I frowned. I’d never given Mom any of my protein balls to eat.

“Oops,” Penny said with a chuckle. “Apparently she sneaks them from the fridge. Guess I shouldn’t have said that.”

There was a surge in my chest, a swelling, amazement that Mom had tried my protein balls and raved about them to Penny. She’d never said anything to me. If anything, she’d tell me off about not cleaning up the kitchen after I made a batch. Washing up the food processor could be such a pain.

After putting on a cap and an apron, Penny showed me how a commercial kitchen worked. She had set up a workspace where she was getting her desserts ready for the dinner menu. She worked meticulously and efficiently, measuring and mixing ingredients—and yes, I learned that vanilla doesn’t come from a jar at the grocery store, but a vanilla pod that you cut and scrape the seeds out of. Penny whisked up a French Vanilla ice cream which she covered in clingfilm to refrigerate before putting it in the ice cream maker. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t taste the finished product, but I was already inspired to make my vanilla coconut balls more authentic by using the real thing.

“You know, I can’t believe Savannah never brought me here, to the kitchen,” I said. “It’s been awesome.”

Penny smiled. “I can see you enjoyed it.” And with a wink, she said, “Savvy only comes here to eat. Not to work.”

But I wasn’t here to diss Savannah. “Thanks so much, Penny. It’s been fun.”

“Well, after the big game, you must come for dinner. I don’t want to ruin your routines before game day. Your mom said Coach is a little superstitious.”

“Yeah, he’s going a bit overboard,” I said. “So, what will we do next time?”

“I thought we’d look at different flavor combinations and if possible, can you bring in a few samples? Let’s see what Nicole’s raving about.”

“Yeah, of course,” I said. My smile was wide and I was buzzing—until I went out to my car. Savannah’s truck was parked next to it and she jumped out as soon as she saw me coming.

“I heard you were doing your senior project on cooking,” she said, leaning against the door of my car.

“Yeah, your Mom is mentoring me.”

“If you wanna get back together, just say it,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Excuse me?”

“If you wanna get back together, you could just say so,” she repeated, curling the end of her hair around her finger. “You don’t have to use Mom as an excuse.”

My first instinct was to lash out and tell her she was crazy but I took a breath to calm myself.

“I mean, since when have you ever wanted to be a chef?”

I inhaled deeply again, not wanting to start an argument, but Savannah seemed intent on pressing.

“You can pretend you don’t miss me, but I see through your game, Ollie. You chose a project so Mom could be your mentor. And so you can be close to me.”

I didn’t want to jeopardize my mentorship with Penny by insulting Savannah, but she had to know we were never getting back together.

“I’m with Maya now,” I said softly, raising my eyebrows to indicate she should move away from my door. “You know that.”

“Ha!” Savannah rolled her eyes with an evil sarcastic laugh. “That’s just some little fling to make me jealous,” she sneered. “It’s pretty obvious.”

“It is?” I asked.

“Of course it is. Everyone knows you’re just using Maya to get back at me.” And with a flick of her hair, she fake smiled, and took a photo with her phone. “Good choice though. I mean, you’re getting A’s in AP English now.”

My throat tightened and my chest heaved over Savannah’s inference. Did everyone think that I was fake dating Maya as payback to Savannah and using her to get better grades? I felt sick to my bones.

“You’re wrong,” I said.

“Am I?” she said with a condescending pout. “You mean you have real feelings for little Maya Shelton?” She laughed as if it was the most outrageous thing.

I glared at her, signaling that she should step away from my car. I wrenched the door open and revved my engine, screeching out of the parking lot.

My blood was boiling, anger rising, totally furious—but at who? Savannah...or myself? Savannah had spoken a truth I couldn’t deny—yeah, I’d used Maya. In the heat of the moment, an impulsive decision, I’d put Maya on the spot, practically pleading that she fake date me.

And she had...but why?

Had she felt threatened, manipulated, bullied?

My heart beat roared in my ears as I hated that I might have pressured her into fake dating me. And added to that, my actions hadn’t fooled anyone, least of all Savannah. And the nerve of her thinking I wanted us to get back together.

This was all a shambles, messier than I had ever intended. I needed to sort this out. I’d taken it too far. I didn’t want Maya to be a joke, or even a talking point and Savannah was turning her into one. And it was obvious Sammy disapproved. I had to apologize to Maya...and admit that my feelings were no longer fake.

And there was no time like the present.

I’d drive straight there now, open up and tell her how I really felt.