Page 90 of The Love We Make

“Yeah, you were great,” mom said.

I looked to Madison who just gave me a small shrugged, “Eh, you did ok.”

I laughed and threw my glove at her, making her laugh back. “Shut up.”

“Hey, your coach said the team is grabbing pizza,” my dad said, rubbing his hands together. He loved pizza.

I got excited about pizza too. And Madison was a pizza connoisseur. The girl knew her pizza.

We made our way to the car and got to the local pizza place near the field in record time. Some of the team was already there and the guys called Madison and me over to sit with them.

I maneuvered Madison away from the others and pulled a chair out on the end for her to sit in. Did I look obvious? Probably. But the guys would provoke me more if I didn’t sit between them and her.

We started talking about the game and how much fun it was. We laughed at the impressions we did of the umpire and how mad Coach was at a call. Everything was fun until we got our pizza.

Then the guys started making me mad. Ronald especially.

“Hey Madison, who is Ethan’s crush?”

Madison’s eyes got wide and she looked at me. I never told her I had a crush on anyone, so she had no idea.

“Um, he didn’t tell me,” she responded.

“I think it's your blonde friend,” Ronald said.

“It is not!” I yelled.

“Then tell us! We are your friends!”

“I don’t have a crush on anyone!”

“That isn’t what you said earlier,” Ronald touted.

“I lied so you would leave me alone.”

Madison was watching us go back and forth, not sure where she should interject.

“Isn't it that girl from your mom’s work?” She finally asked.

My mom didn’t work. She stayed home.

So the look I gave Madison was one of equal confusion. But when I looked into her eyes, she had them wide and trying to somehow relay words to me through eye contact and brain waves.

“A girl from your mom’s work? Really Ethan? How are we ever supposed to know who that is?” Ronald moaned.

And it hit me, Madison was saving me. She was deflecting and giving my friends a made-up person so they would leave me alone.

So I played along and nodded, “That is why I didn’t want to tell you. Because you don’t know her and never will.”

“Man, that stinks,” they all said, no longer interested because now they couldn’t tease me over it. They couldn’t threaten to tell her or make fun of who I liked.

I would never tell them who I was really crushing on.

Ever.

Because my real crush had just saved me.

She was always saving me.