The Perfect Match

Meet my friend

Unbroken silence. The sunlight glinted off her golden hair as she slightly crouched, knees bent. Her muscles tensed. She pounced toward the ball as it skimmed over the net. A bead of sweat slowly inched down her face, ignored. She swung her racquet forward. The call’s momentum suddenly stopped. It shot back over to the other side of the court, winning the game, set, and match.

Josh jumped from his seat to scream and cheer happily like all of those around him, nearly jostling David completely off the bench.

“She won! She won!” Josh cried ecstatically, pumping his fist in the air.

“Yeah, she did an awesome job,” David said, standing up quickly in order to prevent being knocked down and trampled on by cheering high school students. “What did you say her name was again?”

“Samantha, but everyone calls her Samy. Come on, let’s go over to congratulate her,” Josh said, not really looking to see if David was following, before he walked away toward the clump of people congratulating the winner. Josh shoved his way through the sea of teenagers, calling out as he went, “Move aside! Relatives coming through!” David’s eyebrows slightly rose, wondering if Josh really was this girl’s relative, or if he was just trying to get through the crowd.

“Samy, you did great!” Josh cried, giving the girl a hug.

“I didn’t think you were going to come!” Samy said as she returned the hug, happy to see her cousin.

“Of course I came! This was definitely your most important match! I may not have come to any of your other matches, but I made sure to come to this one. You know tennis is not the most interesting sport in the world to watch,” Josh said.

This comment elicited a laugh from Samy, but she slowly stopped as she saw who was standing behind Josh, pointedly watching her. It was the star quarterback on the Amarillo Highschool’s football team, and one of the most popular guys at the school. His dark, intense brown eyes were unnerving, and she readily turned her attention back to Josh as he began to speak.

“David, this is my cousin, Samy. Samy, this is David, a friend,” Josh introduced.

Samy smiled at David and said, “Thanks for coming to my match. Josh must have bribed you.”

David gave a small smile back and answered, “He did, but I am glad that I came. You played an incredible match.” Samy smiled brightly underneath the praise once she realized that he had been joking about being bribed, and looked again into the intense brown eyes that were still gazing at her.

Hearing her name being called by her coach, Samy said to Josh, once she had forced her eyes to leave David’s face, “I need to go receive my medal…”

“Hey, why don’t you come with David and I and go get an ice cream to celebrate?” Josh asked, his fingers running through his blonde hair, a sign that he was up to something.

“Um, I don’t know. It’s kind of been a long day,” Samy hedged, her feet shuffling in the direction of her coach.

“It’ll all be on me,” Josh begged, wagging his eyebrows and not so discreetly looking from Samy to David.

“Give me a second to receive my award and talk to my parents and then I’ll come,” Samy reluctantly said, and then quickly walked away, wondering what Josh had in mind and if it would be worth it to put up with his shenanigans if it meant spending some time with the tall, dark and handsome David.

“Cool,” Josh said, slightly surprised that he had gotten his shy cousin to concede. “What do you think of her?”

“She is pretty and seems nice,” David said, his eyes still following Samy’s moving figure. “And I’m definitely digging the tennis skirt look.” David turned towards Josh and grinned, not paying too much attention to whatever Josh had started rambling on about. Probably about their last football practice. It didn’t matter that much at the moment; David was just looking forward to what was looking like would be a very enjoyable evening.