Blue-Eyes leans over and brushes his lips against my cheek. "Do you want me to help you to the door?" he asks as I open the passenger side door and prepare to get out. I shove Cereal under my arm and clutch my tiny box to my chest. My cast bangs against the side of the door as I climb out.

"No, no," I shoot him a smile, "I'm fine." 

His expression clouds with worry, and the face he makes kind of reminds me of a kid who is sitting on a giant pile of ants but doesn't know it yet. He sits back in his seat and stares at me. I dismiss his concern with a wink, "See you tomorrow."

"Oh!" his exclamation makes me jump, and he leans over so I can completely see his face again. His lips are twisted into a wide grin, "There's a football game tonight. Because of my arm, I can't play, but I still get into the game for free. I wanted to see if you wanted to go with me."

It takes all my will power not to grimace. I'm not really the sporty type, and the last football game that I went to bored me to tears. "Sure," I press my lips into a firm line, "I'd love to. Let me double check with my mom though." 

He nods and then winks, "Love you. See you later, Alice." 

I confirm my love for him and then wobble toward the house, my crutches almost disappearing within the sand-coated dirt. My mother hovers around the front door. When I reach her, she waves to Blue-Eyes as he starts to pull away. "He wants to take me to a football game," I say as we enter the house. 

My mother snorts, "You? A football game?" 

I sigh, "I know. It's not exactly ideal." 

"So you told him no, then?" Her eyebrows arch in surprise, and she folds her arms across her chest, eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you feeling alright? I never thought you'd turn down a date with that boy." 

"I didn't," I scowl at her. I slink my way toward the staircase and sit down on the bottom step. "I told him I'd ask you about it, but I'd love to go." 

My mother snickers, "And you want me to be the bad guy and say no?" 

I remain quiet. I'm not quite sure how to answer her yet. While I hated the idea of being surrounded by hormonal, screaming teenagers and being suffocated by the intense Florida heat, I knew that football was a big part of Blue-Eye's existence, and that it would mean a lot if I was there for him. I want to be there for him. But I also don't want crowds of sweaty teenagers rubbing against me as they cheer for the home team. 

She eyes me for a little while as I squirm on the staircase, refusing to meet her gaze. "I think you should go," I glance at her, shocked, and a little disappointed, "I think it will be good for you to go to a game down here. Football is really important down here in the south." 

I roll my eyes, "Mom." 

"Do you need any money? What about tickets?" She claps her hands together and grins widely, "What about your outfit? You have to look cute. Do you have anything cute in your school colors?" 

"I'll figure it out," I grumble as I climb to my feet. My fingers curl around the banister for support as I limp my way up the staircase toward my bedroom. Most football games started around six, so I had about an hour or two to get ready. I begin to skim through different outfit ideas; she was right, I had to look cute, and supportive too. 

As I reached my bedroom, the thunderous sound of my mother bounding up the staircase echos throughout the house, and rips me from my mental closet. I stop and glance over my shoulders, confused. 

"Wait," she presses her lips together as she nears the top and sees that I have indeed waited for her. "I wanted to talk to you about something else, too." 

My eyebrows crinkle, "What?" 

She ushers me into the bedroom and sits down on the edge of my unmade bed. I stand in the doorway, using the smooth white frame for support, and she pats the mattress beside her. "Come sit," she smiles nervously. 

I grimace, but do as she asks. 

My mother runs her hands up and down her thighs, nails scratching against her dark-washed jeans. I watch her silently and wait for her to spit it out. She glances at me from the corners of her eyes and then sighs. "Okay, so I know how you and Seth have been together for a month, and I know that that is a very long time in teenage-years." 

I make a face but let her continue. 

"And I know that after a while, sometimes you're pressured into doing things that you don't want to do...inappropriate things that you shouldn't be doing at your age, but a lot of kids do anyways. I mean, you always hear about girls getting pregnant nowadays and I just..." 

"Wait a minute," I cut her random babbling off, "Are you trying to give me the talk?" 

She shoots me a wounded look. I wave my hands around wildly and shake my head, "No, no. Mom, no. Seth and I have done nothing, and won't be doing anything for a very long time. Please don't worry about that." 

Her exhale of relief is like a slap in the face --it is like she honestly expected me to already have lost my v-card, and to practically be pregnant. Irritation swallowed me whole, and I scowled at her. "I'm not that irresponsible." 

"I know," she grimaced and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I just don't want you to make the same choices that I did." 

I purse my lips. My mother was a teen mom; she had me at the ripe age of sixteen, and married my father --and her boyfriend of two years at the time-- a year later. He died a few years later, when I was four, over in Afghanistan. 

"Anyways," she shakes her head and climbs to her feet, but not before pressing a quick kiss to my forehead. "Go get ready. I'll leave you alone now. I just wanted to make sure that you were playing it safe." 

I snort and close my eyes. The door clicks shut behind her, and I exhale, eyes flickering back open. I stare at the door to my closet and internally groan, Oh, what to wear. 

Blue-Eyes plants his fist to the horn --his special way of alerting me to his presence-- at around five thirty, and I almost trip down the stairs as I rush to get outside in my strange arrangement of cast and platform-heeled boot. I sport some short, frayed shorts and a white t-shirt with a gator opening its toothy mouth toward several cranes on a river bank. It's close enough to school spirit. 

He opens the passenger door for me as I approach the car, and I watch as his gaze flickers over me. His lips twitch back into a slight smile; I think he likes what he sees. 

The second we pull into the school parking lot --and manage to find a spot among the chaos of cars-- I open the door, and am immediately assaulted by frantic screams and overly-excited cheers. I hide my grimace and Blue-Eyes entwines his slender fingers with mine as we walk toward the gate. There are several people crowded around the gates; campus advisers stationed at the entrance to check tickets. Blue-Eyes holds up a pass and one of the campus advisers smacks him on the back as he says, "Get better before next season, got it?" 

We walk across the courtyard toward the gym, cutting through the small line of people waiting for the concession stand, which has been set up in front of the cafeteria. The stadium sits directly behind the gym, and is nothing more than a --seemingly artificial-- grassy field and two sets of metal bleachers set up opposite of each other. Students and parents over flow the metal seats, and spill out around the bleachers, clustered around their own tents and fold-out chairs. Blue-Eyes drags me around the mess and toward a single, long metal bench filled with football players. 

"Seth!" Some of them shout in greeting as we approach. I smile and nod like the good trophy girlfriend as he hugs some of his friends --two of which I actually recognize as the twins I'd seen with Seth at the mall, when I first saw him. 

They both smiled and hugged me. "I'm Zach," one shouts above the screams from the bleachers as he grins at me, and then the other introduces himself as Tyler. 

"Hey," I shake Blue-Eyes by the arm, and he glances over at me, eyes wide. "I'm going to go get some drinks. Are we going to sit around here?" 

He nods and leans over, pressing his lips to mine. My eyes widen in shock, but then I start to kiss back, grinning. "Do you want me to go with you?" he asks as he pulls away. 

I shrug, "Catch up with all your friends. Just don't move, I don't want to lose you, okay?"

He laughs and nods again, and I limp back toward the school courtyard. Luckily for me, it isn't a very long walk, and the line is shorter compared to what it was when we passed it before. 

As I'm walking back, someone calls my name. 

Confused, I turn around, gaze scanning over the crowd as I try to locate the source of the shout. It takes me a few seconds to notice the blonde head bouncing toward me through the crowd, and the crease between my eyebrows grows deeper. Bimbo emerges from the crowd, and stares at me intently. 

"I need to talk to you," she says.