It's a whole mix of bubbling excitement and complete horror standing so close to Trevor, his arms holding me up. I smile up at him.

"Hey," I say, maybe slightly too loudly considering he's mere inches away.

"Oh good!" Mike shouts from behind me, making me jump just a bit.

I swing around to face him, causing Trevor's arms to drop away from me.

"Hey, Trev," Mike says. "Emma here is new to the whole pool thing. Maybe you can teach her a couple tricks."

I turn to see Trevor's reaction, but he only shrugs like it's no big deal as he wiggles out of his coat.

"Sure," he responds, putting his coat in the booth and gesturing for me to lead the way. I don't know where I'm going, but I assume the pool tables are through the door I've glimpsed in the back.

"How's your roommate?" he asks, startling me with his close proximity.

I tilt my head up to look at him with a smile. "Still in bed," I tell him, and his eyes widen.

"Seriously? Why?"

We've stepped into the pool room. Trevor and I automatically make our way to the empty pool table towards the far back; the other two tables are already taken.

"She claims she's comfortable," I explain as I watch him pull two sticks and a small block of chalk from the wall.

He just lifts a brow in my direction and shakes his head slowly like he's disappointed in her level of intellect. "She is very..." He looks at the ceiling as he trails off, apparently looking for the perfect word to describe her.

"Peculiar?" I supply.

"Yeah." He turns his focus to the sticks in his hands and begins rubbing the chalk on the tips. "But it's more than that. Like, she may actually have some mental issues."

I laugh at his serious tone, and he just looks at me with a grin.

"What?"

"I don't know," I respond. "She has moments of somewhat normalcy, but you're right; she really is like that one piece of caramel popcorn that accidentally got mixed in with the original flavor." I take the offered pole from Trevor.

He lifts both brows at me in question, so I continue. "Like, she's absolutely not like any other person I've ever met, but once you get a little taste of her she's kind of addicting, and sweet."

Trevor guffaws as he leans his pole against the wall and prepares to arrange the balls inside the triangle frame. Silence stretches between us as he collects all the balls from the pockets and organizes them like a pro.

"Do you actually know what you're doing?" I ask curiously.

He pauses to look up at me before continuing his task. "Yeah. I play pool at least once a week," he tells me. "This is called racking. The '1' ball is always positioned at the front."

I watch in fascination as his fingers move with practiced ease.

"The 8-ball is always placed right in the center," he explains. "The bottom corners have to be one stripe and one solid. It doesn't matter which colors you use, though. The rest of them don't matter. You can put them wherever you want, but I tend to try and pattern them solid, stripe, solid, stripe as best as I can."

"Easy enough," I comment as I watch him position the racked balls so that the yellow ball is perfectly centered over the white dot on the table and then he carefully removes the frame.

"Ready?" he asks, as he steps away from the table to grab his pole.

I nod cautiously.

"Okay, I'll break first so you can get a hang of what's going on," he tells me.

I watched him take aim as he leans over and eyes up his target. In one fluid motion, the triangle of organized balls explodes into chaos. It looked easy until he started aiming and shooting ball after ball into random pockets.

"You're good," I say as I watch in awe. "I'm claiming you as my partner when we play teams with Lindsey and Mike."

"Sure. It only makes sense that we extend our partnership to places outside of school," he says as he knocks another ball into the left middle pocket.

I can't help but wonder when the word partnership will change into the word friendship. The idea of a relationship is just a dream at this point. Friendship will have to do.

"So, are you actually going to teach me how to play or just keep showing off?" I ask once he's managed to get four balls pocketed.

He looks up at me as if just now realizing that he forgot his entire mission for bringing me back here. 

"Sorry." He offers an impish grin before setting his pole against the wall. "Okay, show me what you got." He crosses his arms over his chest.

I glare at him before following his lead and crossing my arms over my chest.

"What?" he asks, throwing his hands in the air with an innocent shrug.

"You're supposed to teach me. I've never played in my life." I pick up my stick and wave it around. "How am I even supposed to hold this thing?"

Trevor is quickly by my side, pulling the weapon from my grasp.

"First of all, avoid poking any eyes out by not waving the cue stick around like a caveman," he reprimands. "Secondly, did you not pay attention to anything I just did?"

"Please, just show me again?" I beg, since I couldn't exactly admit that the only things I was watching were his triceps flexing and his back muscles rippling each time he bent over to take aim.

"Here." He says handing me back the pole. "Hold here with your right hand." He moves my grip to the back of the pole. "And then rest the narrow end on your thumb. You can loop your index finger over the pole too for more stability." He's positioning my fingers as he speaks. "Now test it out a few times before you actually hit the ball. Line up the tip of your stick with whichever part of the cue ball will send it rolling towards your target. The goal is to get all the solid balls, except the black one, into any pocket you can."

I nod as if I completely understand the language he's speaking, but I'm pretty hopeless. My first attempt results in me skimming the edge of the white ball sending it basically nowhere. It just rolls about an inch and then sits there sticking its tongue out at me. I try a few more times with the same result until I get a bit ticked and hit it too hard sending it sailing over the table to bounce across the room. Trevor retrieves the ball and places it in the same spot.

"Softer this time," he warns before releasing his hand from the white globe and stepping back.

I nod in irritation and determination. Biting the edge of my bottom lip, I lean over and eye up my opponent. This stupid little white ball needs to learn to cooperate. I give a little shove putting the white ball into motion and it rolls across the green felt surface of the table. I hold my breath as I watch it approach the orange '5' ball. It rolls and rolls and rolls and... tap.

I erupt into a fit of cheers as I jump into the air prancing around like a chicken. Once my pent up energy has been released, I sigh and lean against the table to offer Trevor my best cocky grin.

"You literally just tapped the five," he says with boredom. He's not impressed.

I turn and point at my success. "I hit the ball!" I gush incredulously.

"Uh huh." He's looking at me like there's no hope. "And it didn't move at all. You realize the goal is to get the ball into the pocket, not just touch it, right?"

"I'm just glad I didn't knock anyone out by sending the ball flying across the room again." I huff while folding my arms over my chest again.

Trevor just swings his head back and forth with pity in his eyes.

We take turns for awhile, and I eventually get the hang of things. I'm not at all good, but I can at least hit my mark now. I'm now watching Trevor's backside as he leans in for the aim. We're on our 3rd game now since he's won each round within five minutes. I realize that even though I've been checking him out shamelessly for the past three minutes my mind hasn't really been in it. Instead, I'm thinking about Trinity and the abuse she suffered from me.

Trevor makes a hit and turns to face me victoriously with hands pumped in the air. I smile at him, but don't realize that he's just won the fourth round.

He seems to notice my sudden sullen mood, as he quickly drops his arms and takes a step towards me. "What's wrong?"

I guess I'd kind of been staring off into space, and I'm brought back to the present by his question. I shake my head to clear my thoughts, but there's just something I have to ask because it's been driving me crazy. "Why didn't you ever do anything?"

---

Please, please, please vote, comment, and/or share! I hope you're enjoying where this is headed. :) Also, feel free to share your thoughts? What are you liking/disliking so far? :)