#12: Embarrassing Moments Are Life's Highlights

I was still riding the high of reading Ryuu's last text message by the time school finished. Megan gave me a weird look when she met me at my locker.

"What's up with you?" She asked.

I shook my head and replied in a sing-song voice, "No-othing."

Megan's blue eyes narrowed. "It's Ryuu, isn't it?"

"Ha! No." I tried to sound as convincing as I could, but my acting skills weren't Oscar-worthy because my best friend wasn't convinced. "...maybe."

Megan squealed and I flinched. "Oh my god! What did he say this time?! Show me, show me!"

So I did.

"That's so cute!" She gushed after reading our texts. "I never pegged him for the personality test type of person. Guess you do learn something new every day, huh?"

I couldn't agree more with her. Ryuu Gavril was turning out to be much more different from what I thought he'd be like.

"Does Eira have practice today?" She asks, and I nodded. "Want me to stick around then?"

I shrugged. "Sure! If you got nothing to do."

"I have homework, but that's not important." She looped her arm through mine and I rolled my eyes at her words. "We're hanging in the parking lot, or are we going to watch their practice today?"

"I feel like watching."

"To the soccer field, it is!" Megan raised a finger in the air, pointing in the general direction of a said soccer field with a mock look of determination that made me laugh.

I was never one for sports, especially since l lacked the bodily coordination to do anything remotely sporty, so how my sister can run around kicking a ball was

beyond me. But, she's always been the outdoorsy one. Me, I preferred sitting somewhere quiet while playing my guitar. Music has always been my passion, and sports have always been my downfall.

So really, I shouldn't have been surprised when a stray football came flying straight at my face when we passed by the football field. The force and shock were strong enough to have me land on my ass and see stars in broad daylight.

"Oh my god! Eleanor!"I heard Megan screech, just as several boys from the football team came running over, though their faces didn't register in my brain because l was focused only on one.

Ryuu Gavril was kneeling in front of me, all geared up and sweating with a worried frown creasing his perfectly shaped brows. That made me frown a bit.

They weren't shaped like a woman's, but they were perfectly symmetrical and that made me just a bit jealous.

I've always had a hard time with my brows.

Then his chocolate brown eyes met mine, and that was when I came to my senses. He was asking me something, and I didn't catch it.

"Damn, Ryuu! Still dazzling girls after hitting them with balls!" One of his teammates teased, causing the others to share a chuckle.

But Ryuu didn't join them. Instead, he threw them a glare and said, "Somebody brings me a towel! A clean one, too!"

There was a command in his voice, one that was hard to ignore, and l got to admit, it was very sexy.

Wait…towel?

"Towel?" l voiced my thoughts.

"Your nose is bleeding, Eleanor!" That was when I realized that Megan was kneeling next to me and that my nose was, indeed, bleeding.

"Oh my god!" I quickly brought a hand up to wipe at the blood but Ryuu grabbed my wrist. I was getting ready to ask him what he was doing when a face towel was

handed to him, and he passed it on to me.

"Here." He smiled at me. "Sorry about that, by the way."

With a towel under my nose, my voice came out nasally as I replied. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine!

"You sure?" He quirked up a perfect brow.

I nodded. "Yeah."

He looked a bit doubtful, but when their coach shouted for them to come back, he gave me another smile, and a pat on the shoulder before slowly standing up and jogging back to the field with the rest of the football team. Megan was fussing over me, saying something about driving me home, but I wasn't paying attention. The only thing I was focused on was how good Leo's butt looked in his uniform as he jogged away.

Megan did end up driving me home, and after seeing my condition, mom agreed to pick Eira up after her soccer practice. So I was all alone with an icepack on

my nose was stuffed with pieces of Kleenex as I lounged on my bed when my phone came alive with a text message from none other than Ryuu Gavril.

Ryuu-fuckin-Gavril:

"DUUUUUDE!!! I HIT A GIRL AT SCHOOL WITH A FOOTBALL!!!!!"