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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.

"You okay?" He asked. "And it's time to stretch, c'mon." He nodded towards the mats in the corner.

"I'm fine." I smiled again walking with him to a free space beginning our stretches.

I pulled my arms away from me, quickly realizing how tired my body felt. Maybe I shouldn't go for a run tonight. I couldn't put too much strain on my limbs. All eyes were on me this season, and I didn't have room for error. No pressure or anything.

"Cal truth or lie." I broke the silence pulling a foot behind me in a standing position. I saw him give me a smile, accentuating his dimples when he answered "truth".

"Okay let me think." I pulled my foot in closer ."Your muscles have gotten bigger." It only him smile only more, and his ears began to glow pink.

Anytime I was with Liam and his friends we would always play truth or lie. It was actually Riley's favorite thing to do. One of us would always start out by asking the other two words. Then the person that was asked would say something relating to a truth or lie. The other person would go saying a phrase and then the other would have to guess truth or lie. It was a silly game, but entertaining, to say the least. Plus it gave me a reason to break the silence.

"Noelle cheated on me." He said rolling out his shoulders not meeting my eyes.

"Lie," I said with no hesitation. He didn't say anything, but now I actually thought that I might be wrong. "I'm sorry Cal." I frowned shifting to my other leg and repeating the stretch.

"It's no big deal." He shrugged scooting closer to me as more people came to our mat.

"It doesn't make it okay though." I stopped stretching for a moment to look up at him.

"Yeah well, there's no point in being with someone who doesn't care." He gave me an apologetic smile in between stretches. I decided not to ask him more about what he meant. There were too many people around for that kind of talk.

Did he mean me? It's not like I ever had a boyfriend or anything. Sure I went on dates with some guys around school but nothing ever actually serious. Anytime anyone would ask me about why didn't I have a boyfriend or anything I would just say that I didn't care enough to find one. Having a boyfriend wasn't everything. I had goals I wanted to achieve. Sometimes guys just got in the way of things.

"I didn't mean you, Ken." Cal eyed my movements. It was almost as if he read my mind.

"What? No why would you?" I tried to look away while trying to keep my balance. It was always harder on my left leg than my right.

As more people came Cal had to come closer to me. So close that I felt his body heat inches from mine. My eyes glazed over his body once more wishing he was closer to me.

Stop it.

I shook my head back and forth hopping a little on my foot trying to regain balance.

"I saw you checking me out." He smirked wiggling his eyebrows. Great. Here came the teasing.

Dammit.

I needed to be more smooth about that. This was even more embarrassing than Kylie catching me. I just needed to stop looking at him completely.

I just looked at the ground as he is inched even closer to me. Why did it feel like everybody on the teams were on this mat? Wasn't there room somewhere else?

I finally decided to give up trying to leave the space but I got tangled up in sweaty bodies and suddenly was knocked to the ground. I tried to get up immediately but another body fell on top of me right then and there knocking my head back onto the mat.

I bit back tears after my jaw collided with the mat. The mat gave some cushion but was still solid if someone with enough weight fell on top of you. As I tried to turn over the body rolled to my side, and I locked eyes with his deep brown eyes.

"Uhh." Was all I could muster.

Cal winced clearly embarrassed. "Sorry, it wasn't intentional."

"Yes because we all plan to fall all over each other." I tried to make it a joke as I rubbed my jaw but ended up lost in his eyes.

He inched closer to my face, pools of longing or lust swirled in his irises. I slightly tilted my head up towards his. Then I got hit by something damp snapping me out of whatever moment this was. I looked down and saw that it was a sweaty towel. Quickly I threw it across the room while I gagged. Disgusting.

"Get a room." Liam laughed at me. Glad to see he was in a better mood today. I was surprised he even made a joke.

Could this day get any worse? Or more embarrassing?

I picked myself up off the floor and immediately headed for the doors to grab my things out of the locker room. The day was a total embarrassment. I couldn't wait to go home and hide. First I would take a shower and try to wash off my shame followed by trying to sleep off my self-pity.

How pathetic was I? Trying to hide from one of my closest friends just because we possibly just shared a moment together. Did we share a moment?

I waited for Liam outside his car as he walked out with Cal. Great. Just great. It was about to get a lot more embarrassing.

I watched as Liam punched him in the shoulder laughing as they go their separate ways. Cal gave me a slight nod which I returned. I didn't really want to talk to him after that. I didn't even want to be in the same car with Liam either. It was all so embarrassing.

Liam was watching our awkward head nods trying to contain his laughter. He looked like a child. I groaned as he got closer. When he got close enough I punched him in the shoulder.

"What," I groaned again.

"Oh, nothing." He continued to giggle as he started his car.