Chapter 36: Scott

"She said what?!" Jake exclaimed, jaw dropped and all.

"She said she loved me," I repeated. Me and the guys just finished practice, chilling on the bleachers drinking gatorade. My head still reeling at the words Maria told me. It's been a week and a half, I basically avoided any way to see her. Whenever she found me, I would make up excuses about all day practices. I even switched seats to not sit next to her during Physics. I almost gave into texting Lauren, I knew she stopped sleeping with Dom. Hell no. I should take my dad's advice but it's too soon. Call me a coward, I can't say it back. Not yet anyway.

"Then what else happened?" he asked.

"We hugged and I left."

"You didn't call her after that?"

"No. I've been dodging her physically and technologically. I had a nice chat with my dad though."

"Cool," Jake responded.

"You should," I heard Logan say, turning to his direction face full of disbelief. "She just said something meaningful to you and you're blowing her off. Do you even feel the same way?" On pause of his words, I took a drink of my Gatorade.

"I like her a lot," I started, staring across at the green/brownish field, "but it's not love. At least I don't think so."

"How does anyone know if they even feel that shit?" Dom asked, shaking his head. "It's just a fucking word you say when you're having sex or making out."

"Yeah but when you say it finally, you have this relief feeling. You feel like you're walking on air." I looked at Jake who has a faraway daydream expression.

"Jake you sound like you're in a romcom right now. But Scott, Logan has a point about you blowing her off. Now I can't get a chance with Terri because she's Maria's friend." He let out an exasperated sigh, held his head on his hands. We all snickered at him then leading to a full fledge laugh. I really missed hanging out with my buds, but I missed Maria too.

Maria:

"He hasn't called or anything?" Rachel asked, taking a chip from the bowl. I just shook my head no and grabbed a handful of chips. After school, Rachel and Terri came over to discuss plans for prom but ended up talking about our relationships i.e. Scott. Terri told me that she's been flirting with Dom for a while but haven't seen him since he's always at practice. Scott's ignoring me. I told Scott I loved him, a big mistake but that's what I felt in the moment. I might lose him after this, but I was glad to say it.

He made me feel special in his own way, I'm not clingy around him but now it had me calling him, texting him and almost stalking his social media statuses. He's always at practice, didn't sit next to me in class. Is this his inadvertent way of dumping me?

"You shouldn't have said that." Terri squeezed my shoulder with sympathy.

I let out a frustrated sigh, "he had to know."

"Are you sure it's love?" Terri asked.

"It's strong enough to be love."

"Infatuation?"

"I can't say I'm infatuated with him because that word is more for things than people."

"You can be infatuated with people, I'm infatuated with Ansel Elgort," Rachel said, I nodded in agreement. Ansel is a cutie.

"You know what, let's change the subject," I went to the fridge to grab three drinks of passion fruit punch and handed it to them. "Like how are you and Liam?" I started to swoon. They've been doing well so far.

"Well, we kind of got into an argument yesterday."

"Why?" Terri and I said in unison.

"He thought that I wasn't over... Scott. I told him I was."

"Why would he say that?" Terri asked. I frowned a little.

"He told me that I was staring at him from afar," I snorted a little, knowing she wouldn't do that. But she stayed silent, looking at me with a blank face.

"Were you?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I saw him from the lunch line, He looked at me and gave a friendly nod and smile but that's it. Liam assumed I was stealing looks. We haven't spoken." I narrowed my eyes confused.

"Oh." My tone knowing, "I know what you're talking about. I pointed at you and Liam before getting our lunch because you guys looked so cute snuggled together."

"Why didn't you tell us about it Rach?" Terri asked in a worried tone.

"It's my relationship, I didn't think you two would care." We both scoffed at her response, Terri stood from her seat to give her a side hug.

"We're friends, we always listen to each other's problems until we tell the other that we don't care," Terri said. Rachel and I laughed, I stood up too and we all group hugged. We all headed to go to the living room; Terri grabbed the remote and began flipping channels. She stopped on the movie 'Obsessed' with Idris Elba and Beyonce. I felt my phone vibrate inside my pocket, the screen notifying me of a text. im sorry for ignoring u. meet me at the spot at the park- Scott