The Deep End

3

Chapter Song: Dance Monkey- Tones and I

"One more Parker lets go." Callum's voice was hoarse in my ears. 

I held my breath and began to squat down, letting out a sound that was between a growl and a scream on the way up. I let out a breath of relief and began to rerack my weights with the help of Cal. Of course, he would be my spotting partner.

Since the lacrosse team and the swim team had to share the weight room today both coaches thought it would be fun to intertwine us together, school pride, and all that. There was an uneven amount of girls, being the noble captain I was I volunteered to be paired with one of the lacrosse boys. I wouldn't have if I had known it was going to be Cal. 

I just knew he would make fun of me or one of the guys would. They always found a way to say something. On another hand, it felt a little weird to be paired with him since he came into my room last night. We hadn't talked about it when we had class together earlier today or even now. I just tried to act like the whole thing didn't even happen.

A small part of me was glad he was my squatting partner. Mainly because he was cute, and the fact he asked to hang out at Riley's. I still wasn't sure what all that was about, but I was still looking forward to it. I always thought I was seen as one of the guys or just Liam's sister, but maybe I wasn't after all.

"Alright hulk your turn." I turned to face him then added, "but you do know that I won't actually be able to help you right?"

"I think you can handle it." He winked at me starting to add his own weights to the bar.

As he began to squat I noticed he too does the half grunt half yell noise too. Maybe it was a common sound after all.

I also noticed his sweat shining like dew on his pumping muscles. It was just a little bit distracting. He had gained a lot of muscle in the past year. He used to be a little bit scrawnier than the rest of the boys, but now he stood apart from them. It was weird seeing him like this now. Did I really not pay him any attention last year?

I tried not to actually. I always had a small crush on him, even when we were kids. I was so mad Liam would spend all his time with him and not me. I was also jealous that Cal liked Liam better. Now I found it all kind of funny since we still got along fine. I still couldn't help but have a crush on the guy. Who wouldn't?

"You're drooling." I heard someone whisper behind me.

Immediately I snapped out of my daze focusing on Kylie through the mirror in front of us. I stuck my tongue out at her, as we both started to laugh. I was about to tell her how I was not in fact drooling, but she walked away before I got the chance.

I wondered if anyone else caught me staring at Cal. I hoped not. It was already embarrassing enough about my own thoughts, let alone Kylie catching me staring. Thank God it wasn't Liam.

I had to snap out of this. Okay, so I may have had a little crush on him. Big deal, every girl did. Besides, we were both technically off-limits from each other. If he wasn't Liam's best friend things might have been different.

In middle school, Liam told me that I wasn't allowed to date any of his friends. Riley, on the other hand, could but it was strongly not recommended since we counted her as our sister. He also told his friends that under no circumstances were they allowed to date me. For some reason, they all agreed. Probably because I was an ugly little duck or something.

"Hello, Earth to Kenny you in there?" I saw Cal's hand waving in front of my face.

"Oh sorry, what's going on?" I said forcing a smile.