Page 12 (1/1)

Rose was still trying to concentrate on his use of the word consequently He’d been doing that all day Throwing in these big words--words a would-be trouble to prove so Then his last state for her response to hi there all summer

"Really? All summer, huh?" was all her lameness could think of to say

"Yeah, since Sal is with your sisout I don’t know anyone else out here"

Thoughts of hanging out with hi his na it to be nice And he didn’t even have the job yet Sal didn’t seeuys like Vincent were beyond inexperienced prissy girls like her Hanging out to hi she was in no way ready for, so she kept her response minimal

"Yeah, that’d be nice"

She almost said cool instead of nice, but even that sounded a little too eager So about the way he looked at her told her he already kneithout even asking just how inexperienced she was Her demeanor probably screamed that she was still in the never-even-been-kissed club while he was probably already a man in every way Even if he already knew, she wanted to be clear in case he ondering No uy like Vincent was, doing so would be nice Nothing more

This party is not the sa his text, feeling her insides instantly go wild She’d been staring out theof Sal’s backseat daydreauy she’d ain Just because they’d exchanged nuoodbye didn’t ain She’d been certain she would be forgotten as soon as they drove away, and here he was texting her, not even tena deep breath, she took his words for what they orth He was bored

Pushing the fact away that he could be texting anybody else, yet here he was texting her, she refused to make more of it than it was and texted back

It’s alht?

Not only did he text her all her way home he continued to do so even on his way home He said he had two hours to kill in the back seat of his dad’s car, and Rose decided it was just that He was killing ti her of a new ht up, she kept re herself about the impossibility that they could ever be more than just friends

As the days passed she kept expecting his texts to dwindle until they stopped all together, but just the opposite happened Not only did they continue, Vincent suddenly became the person she texted with the most The scary part was she liked it tooher, she’d start to worry it was the beginning of the end; then he’d text soain It’d been weeks now, and she nooke to his texts with a giant s Rosie! How you feeling?

Rose: =) Morning Vincent And I wish I could say I wasn’t but I’reat; you’ll see You’re a born athlete I’ve read that ood at one sport, typically excel at any sport You got this!

Rose s he’d texted her, but she especially liked hoas always so encouraging Never one to be so full of doubt, she was now, so this really helped She was trying out for the varsity volleyball teairl, but she’d only ever played volleyball when she tried out for the team her freshman year Now she wanted to move up and letter in volleyball, too But there were so ht be better than she was If she stayed on the junior varsity team, she’d be a starter for sure, but if she went for varsity, she etabout trying out and just staying in JV Vincent, however, was adaret it Unlike her he was convinced that not only would she make the team she’d be a starter for sure And he’d never even seen her play! Her phone pinged again; she smiled instantly

Vince: "I can accept failure; everyone fails at so" ~Michael Jordan~ You can’t argue with Jordan, Rose! You HAVE to at least try

Rose laughed out loud He was always doing this Quoting souuess can’t argue with Jordan…or you

Vince: Oh, you never wanna argue withsilly It wasn’t even that funny, but heGrace, as usual, was giving her that look Rose knew her constant texting with Vincent made her sister nervous But he was so far away What could she possibly worry about?

Weeks later she started practicing on the varsity volleyball teaabout having been right again They were still texting day and night, and Rose was finally free of her fear that he’d suddenly stop The fact remained that he lived two hours away and neither of them had a car Rose didn’t even have her license yet, so they spoke in ter more Rose liked it that way It took the pressure off of trying to be cool or sexy or flirtatious Though he did say things so with her and gave her ato bed one night, she got a text out of the blue froht that was it for the night Then her phone pinged