Foul Ball

The campus library was nearly empty as I stepped through the front doors and paused inside the building. It was late for a school day, after seven, and only a few stragglers were left, cramming for tomorrow morning’s exams or panic-writing a term paper. It was only the start of the semester, but the good kids were already taking advantage of study time.

I looked around the enormous library, feeling out of place and lost. I hadn’t stepped foot in a library for years, let alone this one, and I almost turned around and bolted right back out the door. I could be practicing right now instead of hanging out at the damn library.

“Hey,” someone called from a small roundtable, raising her hand in the air to beckon me over. “Are you Jayce?”

“That depends on who’s asking,” I cracked, but the girl didn’t smile. Tough crowd.

“I’m Macey,” she said, standing from her chair as I walked across the library floor to join her. “I’m your English tutor. You’re late.”

“Or maybe everyone else is early,” I said with a grin, and Macey frowned at me, less than impressed. I sat in the empty chair across from her, digging into my bag for my laptop. Macey watched me as I did this, her deep, topaz blue eyes searching my face. Elbow-length, straight, dark brown hair was loosely braided and flowed to one side of her neck. Thick reading glasses sat perched on her nose, making her look more intimidating than she probably was, and the old jeans and tie-dye t-shirt she wore were simple, but the outfit complimented her curves nicely. As I laid my laptop on the table, Macey shoved her hand over the table for me to take. When I touched her, her skin was surprisingly soft and warm, and it molded well into mine.

“Jayce Gregory,” I said, holding her hand for a moment too long.

“Macey Britton,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you finally.”

“Finally?” I said with a grin. “Have you been waiting long?”

“You mean, besides last week when we had a tutoring session scheduled, and you didn’t even show up?” Macey asked, blue eyes flashing.

“Oh,” I said slowly. “Right. Sorry about that. My practice ran a little late.”

“Right.” Macey flashed me a smile that might as well have been deadly, then cleared her throat and pushed her own textbooks aside so we could focus on my English paper. It didn’t matter. I could only focus on her, this strange girl sitting in front of me. She didn’t care who I was. Hell, she apparently didn’t even care to know who I was.

What a breath of fresh air.

“Had I known how cute you were, I wouldn’t have missed our session last week,” I said with my best golden boy smile. Macey stared at me silently, and not even a single smile cracked onto those plump pink lips.

“Cute,” she said instead, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I heard you were like this. I’m so glad that it’s true.”

“Wait.” I leaned forward, resting my palms on the tabletop in front of us. “You’ve been asking around about me?”

“Oh, God, no,” said Macey. “I heard your name and asked some friends if they knew you. Turns out, they did.”

“And what exactly did these friends of yours say about me?” I asked, wondering if I should be offended or not.

“They said a lot,” Macey said with a shrug. “But why do you care?”

“I don’t.”

“Good. Then let’s get to work, shall we?” She adjusted the spectacles on the bridge of her nose, eyes narrowing in my direction, and all I could do was sit there and stare at her. She wasn’t my usual type, but something about her was drawing me in. “Hello?” Macey said, waving one hand in front of my face. I blinked once and then twice, tilting my head to the side to scope her out.

“Let’s start over,” I said finally. “I want to give you a better first impression.”

“I don’t care about first impressions, Jayce,” she said. “I care about getting on with this so I can get back to my night.”

“Did you have big plans?”

“Sure, if you consider big plans to be vegging out in front of the TV with textbooks, then I had huge plans.” Macey smiled then, barely, but it was gone before I could even confirm it was there.

“By all means, don’t let me keep you.” I grinned and winked to show her I was kidding, but no single hint of a smile appeared anywhere.

“I was told that without tutoring, you might just fail English,” she said, taking a crotch shot. “Is that still the case?”

“That’s what they keep telling me,” I admitted. “But I think they just like to believe that since I’m a jock, I’m an idiot.”

“And you’re not?” Macey asked, her expression never wavering, even for a second.

“No, I’m not.” My playful mood was fading quickly. This wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, and it wasn’t even the homework I had to blame.

“No?” Macey said, and this time she did smile. She smiled big, mocking almost. “You’re not an idiot? Then prove it.”

And that’s all it took. All I needed, really. I laughed, shaking my head. Macey watched me silently, eyes narrowed. I liked this girl. I liked her a lot. And when Jayce Gregory wanted something, he got it.

Macey Britton would soon be mine.