The calendar marked the day as the third Saturday after school had started. A crisp early September breeze blowing through the town of San Palomino, Colorado rustled the changing leaves, another signal that summer was officially a memory and autumn was in full swing. As with most weekends, the group of young teenagers over at Roger J. Cortez Community Park was taking full advantage of the day off from school. Today, they had organized a round of kickball, and the game currently stood deep in the ninth inning and still highly contested despite the 5-2 score.
“Go on, Jeff, give it a ride!” Skylar Cooper, nearly fourteen and a Freshman in high school, shouted encouragingly to her best friend, Jefferson Rivers, a sixteen-year-old Sophomore.
Currently their team was behind with two outs, but that didn’t bother them much. Normally in this type of situation, Sky would have called him by her personal nickname for him, “Giraffe”, which she’d given him due to his impressive 6’4” height, but she didn’t want their friends to get the wrong idea. Especially since his current girlfriend, a very pretty girl from Mountainside Prep named Elektra Gataki, was on their team. More importantly, she currently stood right next to her in their team’s dugout cheering him on with her.
“Give it the big boot, Jeffy!” Ellie yelled with a powerfully radiant smile.
The older girl with her classic beauty, flawless olive Grecian complexion, perfect teeth, and gorgeously flowing, waist-length dark chestnut hair, looked absolutely radiant. Compared to her, Sky’s fair-skinned paleness, braces, and way-too-straight, shoulder-length ginger hair (even with Sky having pulled it back tight into a cute and sporty ponytail) felt intensely Plain Jane.
Out at the plate, Jefferson grinned, his dark mocha chocolate features adding to his budding handsomeness. Even without the fact that he was a star running back on the San Palomino High Stallions football team, many of the girls around Sky’s age and older had already picked up on the fact that he was most likely going to be quite a catch. Indeed, even as he took his stance in preparation for the coming roll from the pitcher, you could almost feel the dominant energy radiating off of him, could easily see the proof of how hard he worked in the gym and on his conditioning. Add in the fact that he pushed himself hard in the classroom to maintain his top-flight grades, and it was already clear even at this age: the girl who ended up winning Jefferson Rivers’s heart would have a prime male specimen for a partner.
Even Sky herself had to admit he was getting pretty attractive, but she still saw Jefferson as her best friend in the world, and she figured that’s how he would always be. Hell, they’d known each other most of their lives, and had been friends since she was in second grade and he in third. They shared too many special memories for her to even contemplate thinking about risking what she considered her most treasured friendship. Besides, this was Jeff, and it wasn’t like his feelings towards her as his best friend were ever going to change, either.
BOMP!
Sky was pulled out of her quick reflection by the heavy sound of foot connecting to rubber, and saw the kickball soaring towards the five-foot-high outfield fence. When it bounced off the chain-link with a harsh CLANG! there was a slight groan, but Jeff was flying around the bases behind Cale Travis, another teammate who’d already gotten on. One of the outfielders managed to get it in, but it wasn’t soon enough. With a cheer, Sky and her teammates celebrated her best friend managing a glorious two-out, two-run, in-the-park homer! As Jeff and Cale trotted towards the dugout, their team whooped and hollered, handing out to both the customary high-fives and sport-related butt pats. They were still behind by a run, but now they actually stood a chance to win!
“Awesome job, Jeff!” Sky congratulated as he came in and stood between her and his girlfriend, high-fiving her best friend.
“Thanks, Sky!” the young man replied with a smile.
“That was amazing, sweetie!” Ellie gushed, lovingly hugging his arm.
“Thanks, Babe,” Jeff offered back, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek while Sky merely smiled at them, happy that he seemed to be enjoying spending time with the sweet girl.
“You’re up, Jilly-Bean,” Trey Griffin, their unofficial coach, commented to his very steady girlfriend, Jillian Rayburn, who also happened to be Jefferson’s cousin.
The young woman smiled, her light-brown skin shining in the sun. With a quick-but-not-too-quick kiss to Trey’s lips, Jillian headed out to take her turn at the plate. As she watched the exchange between her friends, Sky couldn’t help but feel a twinge of longing and jealousy towards her friend’s cousin. Trey and Jillian had been together unofficially since 4th Grade, making it official as soon as they hit 8th Grade and their parents approved. Meanwhile, Sky had never managed to maintain anything beyond a date or two apart from a recent fiasco. There was always someone else catching the eye of whatever guy she was interested in at the moment.
Truthfully, though, that didn’t hurt as much as the reasons Sky so often perceived to be why. What stung the most was that the “other girl” always seemed to her to have something better than her. Maybe she was prettier than Sky. Or she was thinner than Sky. Or she was smarter than Sky. Or she was more well-developed than Sky. Or whatever the other girl might have that was better than what Sky had.
But hey, she still had her male BFF, as well as the group of friends they had here at the park today, and that was fine with her...at least, it always felt like it was good enough for the moment.
Turning her attention back to the game, Sky realized Jillian had just kicked a solid double. Jeff’s cousin now represented the tying run, which meant the next person to kick had a chance to possibly win the game! Sky momentarily thought she was glad it wasn’t her, until she heard...
“Your turn, Sky,” Trey called. “Just give it the best shot you’ve got.”
Sky gulped. Hard. Of course she’d be the next one up with the game on the line, she thought glumly. Without question, Sky was one of the weaker kickers on their team, but with two outs and not enough players for subs, it was without a doubt her turn at the plate now.
“S-sure. No p-problem,” she confirmed, trying to show a confidence she didn’t feel. Wiping a bit of nervous sweating from her brow, Sky took a deep breath and nodded her readiness. Unfortunately, though, she still hadn’t moved from her spot.
“Go for it, girl!” Ellie attempted to spur her forward with another trademark perfect smile.
Sky nodded again and took another deep breath as she started to walk forward, hoping it would help her to replace her nervousness with confidence. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the desired affect—at least, it didn’t until she felt Jeff’s reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“You got this, Sky,” he offered calmly and low. “Just keep your eye on the ball and then kick it with everything you got. Pretend it’s Billy Raskin’s balls.”
Sky couldn’t help the laugh that escaped, though she tried. Billy Raskin was the most recent guy who’d left Sky wondering why she wasn’t good enough. She’d finally found something that seemed long term, and then Billy had broke her heart by willingly kissing another girl while supposedly just having started to officially date Sky.
Jeff always seemed to know her so well. It was part of what made him her best friend. Somehow he’d known The idea of kicking Raskin in his family jewels was more than enough to get her to forget her jitters.
“Thanks, Jeff,” she replied with a smile, trotting out to the plate with a renewed confidence. Standing on the pitching mound was another friend, Francisco “Frank” Castillo. The Hispanic young man let out a grin when he saw who was up.
“Move in, guys,” he called with a good-natured grin, and Sky knew for a fact he was simply harmlessly teasing her, especially since none of his teammates took him seriously.
“Just roll the ball, Frank,” Sky challenged with a smile, letting him know his friendly taunt didn’t phase her.
Frank obliged, letting a speedster bowl towards her. Sky focused hard on it, trying to mentally turn it into an image of Raskin. Unfortunately, zeroing in on that put everything else out of balance, leaving her monster of a kick wildly missing the ball. More embarrassingly, it sent her into a spin that left her on the seat of her shorts in the dirt. That brought a few good-humored chuckles from both teams, but Sky couldn’t begrudge them because she knew her attempt had to have looked ridiculous. As she sat there coughing in the rustled up dust and beginning to blush, however, through all of the laughter she could hear one voice.
“Focus, Sky!” Jefferson called, her best friend apparently doing his best to keep her level-headed, a gesture for which she was grateful.
Picking herself up out of the dust and quickly brushing the baseball diamond dirt off her butt, Sky grinned back at him before turning her attention towards the pitcher’s mound.
“Nice one, Frank! But I’ll bet you’re too chicken to give me another one like that!” she dared her friend.
The “oooh”s that followed that gauntlet throw-down made Frank smirk.
“Hope you’re ready, then, Cooper!” he countered.
With that he rolled a scorcher, even faster than the last! But this time Sky was able to focus on the ball itself, and when she let fly with her leg she felt a satisfying thump. Surprisingly, she sent that poor ball flying! For a moment, she stood transfixed, unable to believe she’d even made contact. She didn’t even register the fact that the kickball was now screaming towards the fence until it sailed over it for a home run! Even more of a shock, it cleared the outfield barrier by a good seven feet! As she started to make her way around the bases, it didn’t exactly feel real, nor did it as Sky finally made it to home plate, where her team was waiting to congratulate her.
But something definitely sunk in to her dazed state as Sky suddenly let out a very surprised “EEEEP!” and leapt about two feet high! Somebody’s congratulatory butt-pat had just landed just a bit too hard for comfort!
As she stood there in the seconds afterwards, wondering who had done it, she felt a little bit strange that she wasn’t offended as much as she thought she might be. Or was that as much as she should be? One big question loomed higher, however. Who had popped her so solidly on the backside?
“What the hell, Jeff?!” she heard another girl, Stacey Bradley, calling in shock and protection from in front of her.
Sky’s eyes went wide, and she turned to see none other than her best friend, Jefferson Rivers, standing there in surprise with his hand held out. There was a shocked look on his face, and a sheepish and apologetic frown starting to form. From the look in his eyes, everyone else was starting to stare at him, too, but Jeff seemed to only glance at them momentarily before he became solely focused on what Sky knew was her own confused and severely blushing face. That it had been Jeff who had inadvertently slapped her so hard on the ass suddenly put a new, slightly confusing dimension on the whole situation...
“Oh my god, Skylar, I am so sorry!” he immediately began rambling. “I guess I got too excited for you and the fact that we won, and then I got carried away, you know I would never intentionally, I never meant to hurt...you know I wouldn’t do that...”
Though she didn’t know why, Sky suddenly caught a case of the silly giggles at his obviously embarrassed ranting, and it was as if a switch suddenly flipped. All of sudden she began to understand why every other girl thought Jefferson Rivers cute, no, more like incredibly handsome. And when he seemed to start coming out of his embarrassment and started to let out a bit of an uncomfortable smile, she immediately felt a warm feeling deep in her chest. She’d never felt it before, and had certainly never expected to feel it towards her best friend.
“Sky?” Jeff prodded nervously. “You okay?”
Despite the looks she was getting, Sky couldn’t help it and let out one more laugh before delightedly replying, “Yeah, I’ll be fine, Jeff.”
She then took a few quick steps and wrapped her best friend in a hug, and for some reason couldn’t resist breathing in his scent when he thankfully joined in the gesture and enveloped her small form in his big arms. Have mercy, he even smelled more attractive...
“You sure you’re okay, Sky?” he asked once more, though the nervousness in his voice was slowly ebbing away, thankfully.
Sky leaned back in his arms, and stared into eyes she’d never before found so richly brown and warm. “I promise I’m fine, you big goof. Even if my butt might disagree at the moment. After all, you pack a wallop.”
Jeff couldn’t resist laughing at that, joined shortly by Sky, as well as the others. Even Ellie seemed to realize the whole thing was an accident, and she immediately accepted when he offered her an apologetic hug and kiss.
But for the first time, despite having seen them do this multiple times, Sky felt a pang of jealousy for the other girl’s place in the young man’s life. Without knowing why, she had to divert her eyes.
Later that afternoon, as Jeff drove her and Ellie home, Sky felt miles away from their conversation during the ride, though she did her best to make it appear she was still present. And when he dropped Sky off first as he always did in these situations so that he and Ellie could have a bit more time together, Sky couldn’t quite put her finger on why this time felt different than the rest.
As she lay in bed that night, she couldn’t help but think about that swat, and wonder why’d she reacted the way she did. Though she’d never admit it in a million years to anybody (except maybe to the guy she eventually married), she already knew, or had at least guessed some things about herself. And if her reactions to today held any indication, at least one of her suspicions might very well be confirmed.
But then a possibly world-altering thought occurred to her: Was how she’d reacted due to the swat itself, or to the fact that it had been Jefferson Rivers who’d done it? If she were truly honest with herself, the swat itself had been a surprise more along the lines of shock, while learning that it had been her best friend had stirred feelings she couldn’t quite grasp or explain at the moment. The big question rolling around her mind now, however, was whether or not it was worth it to risk her most important friendship over finding the answers.
Needless to say, Sky found her mind tumbling over scenario after scenario as she drifted off to sleep that night, most of them involving somehow finding a way to get Jeff to see her as more than just a best friend...and maybe more than that eventually...
