It's been a month. An entire month.

I know, you're all like "How could you possibly survive a month with such a completely brainless bonehead like Carson?"

And I hear you, completely understand. The truth is, I'm barely hanging on.

I spend as much time as I can outside of the house. I spent a lot of time at Dylan's, and I sleep over at his or Luna's on the weekends.

Also I found a new friend (with certain benefits) who is keeping me very preoccupied.

I'll save you the gory details, but his name is Greyson. He's one of Zach's friends and the quarterback of our football team. We're not dating, though. He 'doesn't have time for a relationship,' and honestly, I don't have enough patience to form an actual bond with anyone.

Anyway, he asked me to come to his football game today. I wasn't really too keen on going. If you ask me, it's a bit girlfriend-y. But unfortunately, Grey told Zach he invited me and now we're all going. So I really don't have much of a choice now.

"Madeline Spencer, you and Luna have approximately two minutes to get your asses down here before we leave without!" Dylan yelled from downstairs.

We ended up hanging out at my house before the game, and Luna insisted we do an outfit change, not that I really cared. But to make life easier, I complied with her and allowed he to pick out my outfit.

"C'mon, let's go before they get upset," I said, grabbing Luna's arm and yanking her out of the room.

* * *

Luna tapped my shoulder, "Maddie, I see your man."

She pointed to the corner of the field, where the football team was running in. Grey was in the front of the pack, running past the cheerleaders' banner to their side of the field.

I rolled my eyes, "He's not my man. He's my.. friend."

"Is that what you're calling it?" She laughed, "Damn, he's a hunk, huh? Go you for scoring a senior!"

"Luna, I think Zach's lips are getting cold, why don't you go kiss him?" She laughed but finally got off my back.

We were all sitting near the top of the stands. We make Zach and Luna sit behind us because no one wants to watch them make out for an entire game.

Dylan had run to go get popcorn from the stand so I passed the time by watching Grey. He was passing a football back and forth with one of his teammates, and damn did his arms look good while he did so.

He caught me looking at him and waved.

When his friend passed the ball back to him, he shouted something before dashing off to the stands... where I was.

Grey stopped at the fence between the field and the bleachers, and signaled for me to come join him. I did as he pleased, of course. How could I say no to a man in uniform?

"Hello, beautiful," he smiled.

"Shouldn't you be warming up?"

The announcer droned on. The last thing I needed was everyone's attention on me.

Grey gave me a smug look before sticking out the football, "Kiss it."

"Ew, why?"

"For good luck!"

"I thought you said you were sure you were going to win tonight."

"I did, but a little extra luck never hurts," he smiled.

"That seems... like something two people in a relationship would do," I replied.

He shrugged, "So what? Is it really that big of a deal?"

"Do they really have to do that?" I groaned.

"The sooner you kiss the football, the sooner the attention is off of you," Grey responded, in a sing-song voice.

I rolled my eyes, "Fine." So, long story short, I kissed the football, the whole crowd clapped, blah blah blah.

"See, that wasn't so hard," Grey smirked. He reached down to the ground and picked something up, tossing it over the fence to me. "Here, wear this. So I know you're rooting for me."

I caught just before it hit the ground. It was his hoodie. How cliché.

"Now, can I have a kiss, for good luck?" Grey asked. He reached his neck forward, puckering up.

I flicked his forehead, "You'll get a kiss after you win. Now, go, you kind of have a team depending on you."

He laughed but ran off.

I stood at the rails, watching him for a moment. That is, until I felt something hit my back. I turned around and was hit again, this time in the face, with popcorn.

I looked up the stands where Luna was laughing her head off while munching on popcorn.

I made my way back up to where we were sitting, and tried to not look too fazed.

"That was cute," Luna said.

"Don't start," I groaned.

* * *