The Beginning of Never (The Never Trilogy #1) (11 page)

He turned to face me. "Are you an only
child?"

"Yeah … you?"

I could feel the smile in his voice when he responded.
"We're four – all boys. I'm the last,” he said. “I always wondered what
having a sister would have felt like though.”

I could sense him trying to shift the topic and I
appreciated it. “I always wanted a brother, and I know exactly how it would
have felt. It would have been awesome. Boys I
think,
are the coolest people ever. Girls are too complicated.”

“Says the girl who has given me more hell in a few days
than I’ve known in an entire year,” he said, and I laughed.

We spoke for a while after that until we ran out of
neutral topics of conversation. I began to feel drowsy but just before I shut
my
eyes,
he rose and walked towards the stream.

Lying on my side, I watched him go, my eyelids heavy
with exhaustion. With his hands in his pockets, he just stood on the banks and
gazed straight ahead for more minutes than I could count.

Even in my drowsy state, I was still basking in the
euphoria I felt from being with him and communicating with him. It felt like
every dream I’d ever had, had come true, and that was beyond silly because I
didn’t have any dreams. But I was sure that if I ever did, and they came true,
this was exactly how I’d feel- excited and awed and content, all at once.
Like I needed nothing more to make me happy.

I realized it was a dangerous reaction that I was
letting myself indulge in, but he made me want to just throw away my
reservations and learn to lean on somebody else for a change. Having to be
strong and act hard when I knew I was anything but was exhausting, and I wanted
more than anything to let go, even if it was just for a little bit.

A little over an hour later, I opened my eyes to meet
the view of a dull sky. Instantly, I remembered where I was and turned my head
to meet Nathan’s gaze as he sat with his back against the tree. He was watching
me, and it was uncomfortable, so I sat up and subtly checked for drool signs at
the corners of my mouth.

"I'm sure you realize how creepy that is," I
joked, trying to smooth out my hair, but he didn’t say anything.

"We need to get back," he said, and I wasn’t
too happy to hear that.

"Already?"

He nodded, and then got up to start putting his things
together. I helped, and in no time we were back to school.

When we reached the residences, we met the sports field
packed with students watching a football match that was going on between the
Lonsdale and
Cartmel
boys. Others who wanted to just
enjoy the day were either sitting on the pews, or
laid
out on blankets by the corners of the field. It was a cool afternoon, and
everyone seemed to be making the most of it.

After a light brush of my hand, Nathan headed towards
his dorm while I went to mine. On my way, I thought back to our day; his battle
with the candles, his surprise and my complete and utter tranquility. He’d left
the cake box with me, so as I repeatedly glanced at it, I couldn’t help the
smile that rose to my lips.

I headed straight to my room to
change into more comfortable clothes. However, Kate bounded in a few minutes
later in her full volleyball attire and her hair in a tight ponytail.

“Oh thank God you’re here,” she said, and I immediately
grew wary.

“What do you want?” I asked suspiciously.

“We have a game in twenty minutes,” she said. “Get
dressed.”

“What is that supposed to mean? Don’t you mean you have
a game in twenty minutes?”

“No, we both have a game in twenty minutes,” she said,
as she threw open my wardrobe to look for the jersey I’d been given for the
society at the beginning of the year, and had only worn once. “I’ve been coming
here all day but Olivia said she had no idea where you’d gone to. I wasn’t at
dinner last night so I couldn’t tell you then.”

I stood up, glaring at her. “And how am I suddenly
playing volleyball in twenty minutes?”

“Well, I volunteered you,” she said, as she turned to
face me. “The society planned a friendly game with the boys and we were short
of a player. Don’t
worry,
it’s not a big deal. It’s
just for fun.”

My face darkened. “Well, I am definitely not going. If
I wanted to play volleyball I would’ve been active for the last eight months.”

“Lenora, don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Everyone’s
expecting you.”

“But I suck at the game!” I cried.

She sighed. “That’s why I volunteered you, because it’s
not a real game. I suck too, but I want to have fun.”

“Right,” I said. “I’m sure you’re on the school team
because you suck.”

“C’mon. It’s a society thing not a team thing,” she
said as she pulled my shoes out from the bottom of the wardrobe. “We’re late
and I’m not going without you. Unless you want
Elka
to take my head off later,” she added, referring to her house prefect. “Please
Lennie
.”

“Fine,” I said, and pushed her away from the wardrobe
so that I could search for my things.

*

We arrived at the court ten
minutes later to meet more people present than I would have liked. It was of
course, better than the mayhem that was currently taking place on the field,
but having more than half of the bleachers on both sides filled, was just as
nerve racking. I headed to the locker room to quickly change,
then
returned to see that the teams were already huddled
together.

Dragging my eyes away from the excited male spectators
that sat watching, I followed Kate as we met up with the rest of the team. I
knew why they were there of course. The spandex shorts female volley ballers
were obligated to wear hugged our behinds like a second skin, and in most
cases,
were
so short that they rode high to almost the
top of our thighs.

The uniform always bothered me, which was why I had
gotten mid-thigh spandex shorts to replace the much shorter ones I had
initially been given. I stood out immediately from the rest of the team as some
even had their butt cheeks proudly sticking out. Boys on the other hand wore
loose above-the-knee shorts, so I had always wondered what the deal was with
the female uniforms.

My hair was still wild so as
Elka
started to lay out some basic instructions for us, I tamed it to the back of my
head with a black hair tie. We were going to have a best-of-three sets match to
twenty-five points each, and there was no catch– just plain, hard fun or in my
case, hard torture.

I still didn’t understand why I had agreed to this.
Usually, an unyielding ‘no’ was the easiest word for me to say, but nowadays,
it was almost as if my shell was melting. Most things got to me now more than
ever, and it was beginning to scare me. I decided to just survive this one and
then revisit my resolve to become a robot.

Kate grabbed my hand and dragged me along as we headed
over to meet the boys. She seemed to be jumping out of her skin with excitement
and I had no idea why, but all that faded when we stood face to face with the
six boys … and Nathan’s blue eyes, locked with mine.

He was at the extreme end with James by his side, and
averted his eyes as soon as they had locked with mine. James said something to
him as
Elka
called out the girls that would be
collaborating with their team, and he
smiled,
the
heart-stopping grin that I had been subject to all morning. Unlike the rest of
us with jerseys, he had on a white t-shirt that although loose on his lower
body, clung perfectly to his sturdy upper body.

Kate’s small squeal startled me as her name was called,
and she, along with two other girls went over to join the boy’s team. I didn’t
recover early enough to feel disappointed that I wasn’t chosen to be on his
team, until we had taken our positions on the court with me at the extreme
right corner of the back row. The pressure was on, now more than ever, and I
was so sure that I was going to completely humiliate myself.

With a loud shrill of the whistle from
Elka
, who was now the referee, the game began. Kate served
excellently from her side of the court. It flew through the air, bounded off
the arms of the two players in our team that were supposed to receive it, and
was sent back by the third to Nathan’s team. It came back almost immediately
with a dizzyingly fast block that was played by a really tall boy next to the
net, and of course, hit the ground of our court to the delight of his teammates
– a point to them and none to us.

The point of the game was to earn points by grounding
the ball on the opposing team’s court or having them commit a fault, which I
did more than twice by both touching the ball consecutively, and completely
missing it when it was passed to me. After the first set, which brought the
other team to twenty-five points to our
thirteen,
I
started to consider pleading with the team to let me go. I was doing more harm
than good.

They all spread out to retrieve their water bottles as
soon as we had a break, so I was left standing and looking lost in the middle
of the court. I did manage to find my hair tie, which had flown away during the
game, and used it to secure my sprawling hair- more tightly this time around.

Heading up to the bleachers, I sat behind the team as
they talked and drank, thinking of how to bring up the subject of my leaving. I
could always say that I had developed a headache or that I was sick – anything,
but I just had to get out of there. I had caught Nathan’s gaze on mine only
once during the game and it was when I had let the ball, that had been clearly
aiming for me, pass through my outstretched arms. It had been humiliating, and
I had quickly looked away to hide my shame.

Another loud shrill brought us together, and
Elka
addressed us. “Some people have brought the obvious
fact to our attention that some of you are suffering out there.” She said. I quickly
looked away, but turned back when I heard everyone laugh as she pointedly
looked at a red-haired boy on Nathan’s team. He was apparently worse that I
was. I had been too occupied with my own failures to notice.

“So we’re switching members …” she said, and she raised
her voice to speak over those who had started to grumble, “…
since
this is a friendly game and we’re
supposed to have fun and help each other!”

“
Alexandre
and … Kate, would
you exchange with …” She turned to examine our team.
“Marcus
and James.”
She looked again. “Laura and Sam, please exchange with
Joseph and … Lenora. No! Stacy.” She examined her damage. “I think that should
do. Hope everyone is okay with that. We begin in three minutes guys,” she said,
and the new teams returned to their seats to get acquainted.

Kate immediately latched onto me as we walked back, but
I was too nervous to pay attention enough to scold her for getting me involved
in this in the first place. We took our seats and to my surprise, Nathan came
over and sat next to me, a sports water bottle in his hand. Kate tightened her
hold on my arm, but when I turned to ask her what was wrong, she just stared
straight ahead, her neck stiff and lips tightened.

“Are you thirsty?” Nathan asked, and although I for
some reason couldn’t meet his eyes, I nodded and took the bottle he offered.

“You’re doing well out there,” he mocked, and this time
I met his eyes with a murderous glare. He grinned. I raised the bottle to my
mouth and after a good, long drink, handed it back to him. He immediately
raised the bottle to his lips and took a good long drink for himself.

The lower part of my stomach tightened in response to
the familiarity of his act, but there was no time to dwell. It was time to get
back on the court. However, just before we split up and took our positions, he
briefly held my hand and whispered into my ear, “Just have fun.”

I shook my head. “Impossible.”

He let go with a smile, and headed to his front row
position while I headed to the back. I met Kate’s frown as she headed to the
front too, and I wondered what her problem was.

Nathan got me to serve the ball, twice, and each time
he came to my side and softly spoke instructions to me. It was uncomfortable
because a lot of eyes were on us, but there was too much pressure all around
for me to dwell on that. The game was too quick for him to guide me in playing
properly, but each time I played in a weak way, he mouthed corrections as
quickly as he could.

Time for dinner drew dangerously close and so we
decided to end the game after the second set, which brought us to a win over
the other team with twenty-five points to twenty-two. A tie in total, and I was
more than happy when the whistle shrilled the game to an end. Nathan walked off
toward James without a word, leaving me subtly staring after him until Kate
came up to me.

“What the hell just happened?” she asked, and I turned
a puzzled gaze on her.

“What do you mean?”

“
Alexandre
,” she said. “How
do you know him?”

“Uh, we just met a while ago.”

Her voice rose. “He’s the one I’ve been telling you
about. Why didn’t you tell me you were friends with him?”

I noticed a couple of heads turned to us so I frowned
at her. “How was I supposed to know he was the one that you were talking about?
And we’re not friends. I just know him.”

“How can you say you aren’t friends, or did I not just
watch the both of you practically play the game together?”

I was surprised that she seemed so upset about it.
"I didn't know he was the one you were talking about, okay?" I said,
but she scoffed in disbelief.

"That can’t be true.”

“I’m serious,” I insisted, wondering why I was even
bothering to convince her.

“I told you he was Italian.”

"Nathan's not Italian Kate, he's Portuguese,"
I said.

She was confused. "Wait, what? Who's Nathan?"

I realized my error. "I mean Alex. Nathan's his
middle name."

Her mouth dropped open, and I wanted to slap it shut.

"You already know his middle name?" she
yelled, and I cringed from the noise. More heads turned.

"Kate you seriously need to stop yelling."

"But why didn't you tell me?"

"Again," I repeated, close to snapping.
"I didn't know he was the one you were referring to."

"When did you guys meet? How did you start talking
to each other?"

With an irritated look at her, I turned around and
walked away.

“Lenora,” she called and she came after me. I tried to
think of the best way to end this fuss.

"We're family people," I said and she
frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I didn't know what to say so I just ignored her, and
grabbed my bag to head over to the locker room to change. She did the same.

"Tell me," she insisted.

"I'm really tired Kate, I'll tell you some other
time, okay? Trust me it's not that interesting," I said.

"Fine then, but could you introduce me to him ...
tonight at dinner?"

I groaned. "Kate, don't push this, I can barely
stand the boy."

"Well it's not for you Lenora, it's for me. Can
you please do it or not?"

"Fine," I muttered, needing her to drop the
issue. She squealed in delight. I couldn’t believe he was the one that she and
Olivia had been pining over. I wasn’t overly surprised, but I did feel stupid.
It should have occurred to me.

We changed quickly and were soon on our way to the
dining hall, but I couldn’t help thinking-
what
the hell had I just agreed to?

*

Kate made me go earlier than I
would have to the dining hall, and we secured a table not far from the one
Nathan had been at the previous night. We weren't too close, but at least we
would be able to see him if he sat there again. Her friends were all on our
table too because apparently, Nathan was the object of many a teenage
obsession. I didn’t realize I had started to wish that he wouldn’t show up,
until he strolled in with James a few minutes later and I’d felt depressed. He
had now changed from his sports attire and was in a white hoodie, and dark
jeans.

Returning my gaze to the novel I had since lost
concentration in, I wondered how I was going to tell a boy I was barely
acquainted with to come over and play Casanova. I was dreading it, and barely
held myself from snapping at Kate when she called me to alert me to his
presence.

“Go bring him over,” she mouthed, and I gave her a
‘you're-out-of-your-mind look’.

"
Lennie
," she
urged.

I asked her if she was joking, "You want me to go
over there and speak to someone that the whole school apparently has eyes
on?"

"Come on."

"No way," I said. "I don't want to be
labeled the next obsessed idiot – no offense. I'll try to get him to come over
instead."