One of the Guys by Dawn Doyle

turned to the tests we’d done, before the game. The
pressure of the game, on top of finals, caused the guys to get a
little stressed.
    “ You’re lucky you don’t play.” Lex
said, surprising the hell out of me.
    “ Why?” I asked,
confused.
    “ Because it’s
stressful; especially now. We had finals last week and all of the
studying and practice to do was a lot.” He said.
    “ Yeah. We don’t get much time to do
anything else.” Pike added.
    “ I don’t even want to see another
math problem.” Said Stu, his head in his hands.
    “ I may not play baseball, but I do
other things besides study, you know.” I said.
    I heard Carl snort a laugh, which
Logan answered with a glare.
    “ Your days are so cushy. Studying
and school. Oh, and that old lady you shop for.” Added
Lex.
    “ Actually, I still
train.”
    “ Train what?” Asked Stu.
    “ Gymnastics?” I said, more like a
question. They knew I went, but they’d never seen me
‘perform’.
    “ I didn’t know you still did
that.”
    “ I never stopped.” I
said.
    We never talked about it, I guess,
so they had no reason to think I did.
    “ Show us something.” Said Lex, with
a smile and I saw his eyes glance over my body again.
    “ No.”
    “ Why not?”
    “ Because it’s
not the time, or the place.” I said, as if it were a ridiculous
thing to suggest. Yeah, like I was about to do a row of back
handsprings down the hallway. I’d take a lot of students out by doing
that.
    “ Another time, then.” He said,
still smiling at me.
    I glanced to Logan, and I saw that
he wasn’t happy with Lex, at all.
    “ We should get going.” He said, and
he put his hand around my shoulders, steering me down the hallway.
Not as he’d done the last time, but around me
nonetheless.
     
    If I didn’t know any better, I’d
say he was being territorial over me. The way Lex had spoken, and
looked at me, Logan hadn’t liked it. Maybe there was something else
in Lex’s actions that I’d missed that Logan had picked up
on.
    No. You’re not going to think like
that. Just savor the moment that Logan is touching you. Don’t
think; just feel.
    That I did. I felt his warm hand on
my shoulder, lightly gripping as we walked down the hallway to my
homeroom.
     
    “ I’ll see you in class.” He said,
steering me through the door, out of the reach of Lex.
    Before I walked even a couple of
paces, I heard the rumble of Logan’s voice saying something and
Lex’s laughter, followed by the others. I let it go and sat at my
table, waiting for the bell to sound for the first
period.
     
     
    Walking into Chem class, I saw
Logan in his seat, next to Carl. Carl was saying something to him,
and Logan looked pissed. Like really pissed.
    “ Hey.” I said, sitting down in my
usual spot on the other side of Logan.
    “ Hey.” He said, his expression
changing immediately.
    He smiled at me and there was no
trace of the scowl he’d been shooting at Carl.
    “ Is everything ok?” I asked,
glancing to Carl who was looking down at his desk.
    “ Yeah. Everything’s fine.” He said
as he shifted in his seat. “Lex was just kidding, you
know.”
    I was taken aback by Logan’s
comment. I hadn’t thought about Lex at all, and he must’ve thought
I had.
    “ Oh, Um… ok.” I said, a bit unsure
of what else to say. “I never even gave that a thought.”
    Logan’s eyes snapped to mine, and
his cheeks turned pink, ever so slightly.
    “ Oh, I thought you would’ve been
angry with him.”
    “ No. He was kidding, and I don’t
have to prove myself to him anyway.”
    “ No, you don’t.”
    I saw the faintest frown on his
face before he turned away when the teacher walked into the
room.
    Logan sure was acting strange this
morning.
     
    During Chem class, I was well
aware of Logan’s constant fidgeting in his seat. Carl was chuckling
under his breath, and I really wanted to throw my book at his head.
Something was going on with Logan, and Carl was finding it funny. I
wasn’t. I