Thoughts streamed through her mind so quickly that she could barely catch any of them. The majority of them were angry and bitter. How was she supposed to make friends? Back in Minnesota, she had been the most popular girl in her class, and she knew from that position that it was next to impossible to start at a school junior year and make a name for yourself.
On the plus side, though, she would be losing her false reputation as a slut. Some bitter ex-boyfriend had spread that rumor about her after they broke up, and unfortunately, everyone had believed it. Gosh, that one had really screwed up her guy life.
Suddenly, a voice yanked her from her thoughts. “Look out!” Her head snapped up, and a basketball whizzed right by her head, missing her by an inch or two. Shocked, she looked over to where it came from to see two guys, one a tall guy with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers baseball cap on, the other a short guy with dirty blondish-brown hair.
“Oh my God, are you all right?” called the tall one. He took a few steps toward her.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little surprised. I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going,” she replied.
“We’re so sorry,” said the short one, following his friend.
“No problem. No harm done.” She looked around to realize that somehow, she had ended up in a park, and she had no clue where she was. “Okay, this is going to sound really strange, but I’m lost. Can you tell me how to get back to Pine Street?”
“Sure, that’s where I live,” baseball cap boy said. “I’m Nick.”
“I’m Beth.” She studied him carefully and realized how stunningly gorgeous he was. Even though she couldn’t see his hair, he had bright blue eyes, clear skin, and a sparkling, straight smile. And man, was he built! If all the guys here looked like him, maybe living in Ruskin wasn’t gonna be so bad after all.
“I’m Brian,” said the other one, who was pretty cute, too, but in a little boy kind of way. He wasn’t as hot as the other one, and besides, he looked to be in his early twenties, too old for her.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m kind of new here, if you couldn’t tell. My mom and my sister and I just moved in,” she told them.
“We can walk you back if you want. How did you end up getting lost? I mean, no offense, but this is kind of a small town,” Nick said.
“I took a walk and I didn’t pay attention to where I was going. Then I figured out I was totally lost when I realized I was in a park.”
Brian looked at his watch. “Crap! I was supposed to leave to go back to Orlando a half an hour ago! Kevin’s gonna kill me!” he exclaimed. “And I have dinner reservations with Leighanne tonight.”
“Okay, have fun!” Nick said.
“See you later, Frack. Bye, Beth! It was nice meeting you!”
“Yeah, nice meeting you, too,” Beth said.
Nick grabbed his basketball from the grass behind her and they started walking home. “Where did you move here from?” he asked.
“I moved here from Minnesota. I lived in Wisconsin until my parents divorced when I was eleven, and then my mom and little sister and I moved to Minnesota. My mom is a professor, and she got an awesome job offer from Tampa Bay, so here we are.”
“Oh, that makes sense. So you’ve lived in three different states, huh?”
“Yeah. What about you? Did you grow up here?”
“Yeah, I did. Well, I was born in New York, but then we moved here.”
They continued to chat until they reached her house. “Thanks for walking me back. It was nice meeting you, Nick.”
“Bye, Beth. If you need me, I’ll be two houses down,” he told her. As she walked up the sidewalk, he stopped her. “Wait, I was kind of wondering if you wanted to hang out on Sunday. I mean, since you’re new here and all, I thought we could hang out…” he trailed off.
She smiled. “I’d love that.”