Ryan Hunter

this morning. Mitchell and Liza in a pose that pressed her perfect body flush to his. He leaned down those few inches that he was taller than her and whispered something into her ear that made her blush an adorable pink.
    “Man, you’re pitiful.” Justin shoved me forward, and only then did I realize that I had actually stopped walking.
    Gnashing my teeth and keeping my eyes glued to the much safer ground in front of me, I moved past Mitchell and the girl I’d been dreaming off since third grade.
    “Hey, Hunter.”
    I knew I should just keep walking. I’d see Tony in a minute on the train, anyway. But the weaker part of me looked up just as Tony let go of my girl. “Hi, Mitchell,” I said back as my gaze went out of control and swept over Liza, taking in every inch of the suntanned skin that her illegally short pants exposed. I acknowledged her and smiled. “And Mitchell’s groupie.”
    She didn’t say good morning , or how are you doing , or even get lost and don’t ever talk to me again , though the latter might have been written in her green eyes that seemed to always turn that demonic shade darker whenever she looked at me. I knew she wasn’t my greatest fan. Not because she personally hated me, but because she blamed me for taking away her precious time with Tony. Mitchell had let that bit of information slip one day after she had all but growled at me for doubling the training time.
    “See you, Mitchell,” I said and walked away.
    “Save me a seat in your compartment,” Tony shouted after me.
    I waved at him over my shoulder but didn’t look back. “Sure thing.” If it wasn’t me and Justin doing something stupid, it was always me and the team guys hanging out. We were really close. Like closer than family close. And yet, none of them knew of my obsession with a girl that only had eyes for my best player. Yeah, sometimes you just had to accept the crap life threw at you and put a shit-eating grin on your face.
    I climbed the two steps into the coach before turning around to bump fists with Justin. “Enjoy the sun in Santa Monica,” he said. “I hear the girls down there are hot!”
    “I’ll check them out and let you know.” Maybe. If I could get Liza off my mind long enough to relax with another girl, something I hadn’t done in quite a few months. If this madness was going to hang on any longer, my reputation would be in serious trouble soon. But I had the weird feeling that it was only going to get worse for me.
    Justin pointed a finger at my face. “And you take care of Nick. If he comes back with one scratch on his skin, I’ll hold you personally responsible.”
    “Yeah, right.” I flipped him off, because we both knew that his little brother was…well, a little accident prone. Whatever happened during the next five weeks while we were at the annual summer soccer camp, that kid would come back with a limb in a cast, no matter what. The question was just which limb it was going to be. Some of the guys on the team had a bet running. I had twenty on any finger of his left hand, but Justin didn’t have to know that.
    I found Frederickson and Alex Winter in a four-seat compartment in the middle of the train. We waited until Tony joined us, then closed the opaque sliding doors, and settled in for the three-hour train ride. We had chips, we had Root beer, and it was just us guys. I decided that the next five weeks were going to be one helluva good time for all of us. But then I sneaked a glance out the window and caught Liza still standing at the platform, her arms folded around her middle, her face sad.
    If that look had been because of me and not my buddy, I would have felt a damn lot better.

    The first three days at camp were hell. We played a serious schedule every day, and by the time we were let off, our legs were on fire. By then we weren’t up to anything other than grabbing some food and dropping into the pillow. But we got used to the drill fast, and on day four, Mitchell, Winter, Frederickson, and I thought it was okay to stretch the camp rules a little and sneak out after dark for some fun.
    Santa Monica had a few very cool places for students to hang out. No alcohol in the place called The Teen Spirit , which was fine with all of us, but awesome music and some eye candy, too. It didn’t take long for a bunch of girls to close in on our table like we were the light to their moth lives. Two of them each sported something black that could barely be called a dress,