Love is in the Alphabet: An Excerpt
This is the first chapter from my free ebook. Download the whole book here or here.
Ainsley
I whip my head around to see the school’s soccer captain for the boy’s varsity team, Diego, grinning as he practically runs toward where me and my two best friends, Baylee and Cali, are sitting and eating lunch. Baylee, Cali, and I have been best friends since preschool, and since my name starts with an A, our trio has been commonly referred to as A-B-C. It usually doesn’t bother me, but Diego and his friends have a tendency to be obnoxious, and since it’s Friday, I can bet obnoxious will be an understatement. I roll my eyes at the thought, and take a sip of my water. Baylee does the same while Cali smiles widely at Diego as he reaches our table. Cali and Diego have been hooking up since the previous summer, and to the unknowing eye, at times it can appear that they’re an actual couple, but so far, nothing is official.
Diego pulls Cali up from her seat, and brings her into a hug that could be used for a scene in a sappy rom-com. Baylee and I look at each other, and I can tell we’re both wondering when Cali and Diego will finally announce themselves as a couple instead of just acting like one.
“Get a room!” Diego’s friend Freddy jokingly yells as he joins Diego in front of our table.
Diego and Cali break away from each other finally, and Cali sits back down. Her expression is something of a mix between elated from Diego’s affection, and slightly angry at Freddy since she’s convinced the reason Diego hasn’t officially asked her out has to do with the influence of his less-than-attached friends.
“Do you boys need something?” I ask.
“Yes. First off, we are not boys. We are big, strong men. Don’t forget that.” Freddy answers triumphantly, and Baylee smiles as she looks at him in adoration.
Baylee has had a crush on Freddy for years, but he never let on. Obviously these “big, strong men” aren’t perceptive enough to pick up on her hints. I don’t blame her for still liking him, though. With his rising status as the school’s football star, he’s quite a catch. It also helps that he has gorgeous muscles that male models only dream of having, longish, black hair that looks so perfectly styled you’d think he spends hours on it when he really just wakes up with it, and tanned skin. If he wasn’t so into himself, and didn’t care so much about sports, I would probably have a giant crush on him too.
Diego is also quite a catch. His incredibly tall and angular frame does much to draw attention to the size of his obvious muscles. His short, dark brown hair is constantly spiked up, drawing attention to his green eyes that contrast with his darkly tanned skin.
“And secondly, we would really appreciate it if you three fine ladies of the A-B-C went with the very sexy men of the D-E-F to the carnival tonight.” Diego finished.
The carnival takes place on the three mile stretch of beach in this town every year a couple weeks before summer break, and is pretty much the most talked about event every time. I’ve always found it to be more of a waste of time than anything else I could come up with to do, but I have to admit that with the guys there with us, it could actually be really fun.
“Who’s the E?” Baylee asks, positioning herself in a rather flirtatious manner as she gazes at Freddy, and Freddy grins.
“Evan.” Freddy answers.
Of course Baylee already knew that. Freddy and Diego are rarely seen without their quieter counterpart, Evan, and in Evan’s case, I mean quieter in a social aspect. While Freddy and Diego wreck havoc on and off the sports field, Evan raises hell as captain of the debate team, and hardly participates in any of the overbearing tirades of his two friends. In fact, right now I can see him leaning against the wall of the school building, headphones on, completely uninvolved in the bustling world around him. His sexily built arms are crossed over his powerful chest, and his foot is tapping in rhythm to the bobbing of his dark-curl-covered head. The gaze of his puppy-dog brown eyes is directed at nothing in particular, but I must have been staring for too long because he suddenly looks over at us, and I quickly avert my attention, imagining the laughs he’ll share later with Freddy and Diego over my obvious interest in him while he has zero interest in me. They wouldn’t be so wrong either. As co-captain of the debate team, I’ve had plenty of chances to develop a major crush on Evan, but he’s rumored to only date women who are already sharing their career success at their high school reunions, so my interest in him is one of my best kept secrets.
“We’ll talk about it and get back to you,” I say, snapping my attention away from my personal dilemma, “but not if you don’t walk away right now and leave us alone.”
Freddy salutes us jokingly and then walks away while Diego lingers a little longer, looking at Cali. Cali blows him a kiss, and he looks saddened by her lack of affection before turning and walking away. I bite my lip to keep myself from being annoyed by their obvious lack of communication. I’ve gotten into the debate with Cali a thousand times before, and it’s proven to be a complete waste. She’ll learn eventually that getting over her fear of rejection and actually speaking her mind solves much more than hiding everything inside and expecting everyone to read her mind and solve it all for her.
“So Cali, are you two official yet?” Baylee asks before taking another sip of her drink.
“Not yet. But I’m planning on changing that tonight if we go. I see you still haven’t told Freddy how you feel?” Cali answers.
“Nope, but I’m planning on doing that tonight if we go.” Baylee says, and then they both turn to look at me.
“I guess we better go then.” I say, and they both smile.
I wonder if I’ll actually have fun tonight, but even if I don’t, I’ll just be glad that my friends will be happy.
