Listen to Your Heart
Page 40

I looked. I stood in almost the exact center. To land here, the ball would’ve had to come through those posts.
“Admit it,” he said as if he knew I had come to the conclusion I had.
“It could’ve bounced off the—”
“No it couldn’t have.”
I laughed. “You’re right.”
He was still behind me, holding my shoulders. “What’s that?” he asked.
“You’re right!” I yelled.
He pulled me back against his chest with a laugh. “Yes, I am.”
That’s when the stadium lights went on and a loud “Woo-hoo!” sounded from the top row of seats. Diego dropped his hands from my shoulders, and I took two quick steps forward. We both looked toward the noise to see Alana standing there with her hands in the air. Frank joined her a minute later.
He pointed to us on the field. “You can’t hit golf balls from there, Martinez!”
“I already proved my point!” he yelled back.
“Don’t you have to prove it to them?” I asked.
“You were the one who didn’t believe me.”
“I believe you now,” I said.
“Hey!” a deep voice called from beyond the stadium seats. “You kids are trespassing!”
“Run!” Alana yelled.
Diego didn’t hesitate. He grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me back the way we’d come. The stadium lights went out, and we were plunged into darkness. I wondered if Frank had done that to make it harder to find us.
My heart was pounding a thousand beats per minute as we sprinted toward the unlocked gate that separated the football and baseball fields. When we crossed from one field into another, the beam of a flashlight swept back and forth over our heads. At first I thought it was Frank, but then there was another light. Diego pulled me behind the metal bleachers to the left and we smashed ourselves between the chain-link fence and the seats.
My temple pressed against the side of his neck where I could feel his pulse racing.
“My parents are going to kill me,” I whispered. It was always so important to them that I kept an upstanding reputation at all times. It always felt like our livelihood somehow depended on it.
“We won’t get caught. It’ll be fine,” Diego said just as quietly back.
Shouts rang out from behind us and I closed my eyes, as if that would make us more invisible. I tried to calm my breathing, take in one breath at a time as evenly as possible. In through my nose and out through my mouth. Diego smelled good—a sporty scent mixed with mint. He was chewing gum, I realized. My heart slowed its pace, and I came back to my senses, making me fully aware of the fact that I was smashed up against Diego, seemingly every inch from my ankles to my head touching a part of him.
“Did you get a chance to read any of that magazine?” he asked softly.
Magazine? What was he talking about? Oh, right. He’d given me the latest Lake Life magazine that was now in my car somewhere. I actually had read an article from one of the copies in the marina. He was trying to get my mind off of our situation, I was sure. I was acting like a huge wimp right now. It was nice of him to distract me. What was that article about? “Wakesurfing. I read an article about wakesurfing.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked. “Was it good?”
“I haven’t tried it yet. It made me want to.”
“Is that all?”
“So far. I’ll read more … later.”
“Okay.” He took a step back the way we’d come, and I nearly stumbled without his support. “I don’t hear them anymore,” he said. “Want to make a break for the car?”
“Do you think security saw the car?”
“No, it’s parked over by the hill. They wouldn’t have checked there. It’s not even on campus.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Alana and Frank were already at the car when we arrived. They were laughing and retelling the story to themselves loudly.
When Alana saw us, she flung her arms around Diego’s neck. “You made it!”
“Barely,” I said when she gave me a hug as well. “That was close.”
“Close?” Frank asked. “As if you were getting hauled off to jail?”
“Obviously not jail but there would’ve been some consequence.”
He scoffed. “Were you seriously scared?”
A burst of anger flamed in my chest looking at his mocking face. “You weren’t scared because you get away with crap like that all the time. Even when everyone knows you did something, nothing happens to you. You’re Frank Young.”
“Then why wasn’t Alana scared? Or Diego?”
I looked at the other two, waited for them both to tell me they were, but they didn’t.
“Guess your theory about the spoiled rich kid didn’t work this time,” Frank said.
I swallowed back embarrassment, my pride tasting bitter in my mouth. “Let’s just go before security decides to check the city block.” I climbed into the back seat of the car, having to move the golf club to do so.
“For the record,” Alana said loudly as she and the others joined me, “I was a little scared of getting caught, too. I think Kate is right. You have never experienced real consequences, Frank.” She squeezed my hand, letting me know she’d said that just for me. I appreciated it.
“Whatever,” Frank said. “Don’t pin this on me this time.”
We drove home, more silent than we’d been on the way there. When the boys had left and Alana stood in my kitchen gathering her things, she said, “Diego didn’t ask me to the Fall Festival tonight.”
“Well, half the night you were with Frank. I think maybe you were sending him the wrong idea,” I said.
“Maybe he’s not into football … or carnival rides. Maybe he doesn’t want to go at all.”
“That could be.”
She nodded like she’d just solved a mystery and felt much better. She picked up the grocery bag she’d loaded full of leftover supplies and said, “You know I love you and always have your back.”
“I know,” I said, seeing where this was going before she even continued.
“And most of the time I agree with you about Frank.”
“I know. I was wrong this time.”
“You were.”
“Thanks for sticking up for me anyway,” I said.
“Always.” She gave me a hug and headed for the door. “But maybe you should apologize to him,” she dropped on the way out.
I didn’t want to apologize to Frank. But I knew Alana was right. He had been decent. Nice even, and I had thrown unfair accusations at him. So I’d apologize. I wasn’t going to search him out and beg his forgiveness. But when the opportunity presented itself, I’d do it.
“Humility. It goes a long way,” Samantha said. I turned the volume up on my phone one notch because my dad was dropping blow-up tubes into a box, and it was loud. I was across the store, boxing the swimsuits. Our season wasn’t quite over but it was getting close. Come October, the only people who came to the marina were fishermen. “I like a confident guy as much as the next girl,” Samantha continued, “but a guy who doesn’t relate every course at dinner back to one of his accomplishments would be better.”
“How did he relate the salad course to his accomplishments?” Tami asked.