“I seem to be making a habit of that, don’t I?” she replied with a chuckle.

“SO not funny!” I shouted, but joined in with her laugh. I couldn’t help it, it was contagious.

“Then why are you laughing?” she asked with a sly grin.

“Touché,” I countered. “So what are you doing in here so late?” I asked, suddenly painfully aware of how close she was standing to my smaller form with a lack of shirt and still unbuttoned jeans.

“Oh, just waiting to see if my favorite freshman needed a ride home,” she stated, eyeing my scantily clad form. Those feelings in my stomach were back and stronger than ever.

“That would be, uh, nice, thanks.” I said, smiling big.

She smiled back, saying “Well then you should meet me in the parking lot after you finish dressing,” then she looked me up and down again, “or you could just come like that,” she continued, leaning in and whispering the last part quite closely to my ear.

I just stood there, shocked, watching her walk away. ‘Did I just imagine that?’ I asked myself. ’I must be taking all of this the wrong way’ I thought. ‘She couldn’t be flirting with me, I’m just mistaking her friendliness for something more’ I rationalized. After that, I hurried up, getting dressed and grabbing my things before hurrying out to my ride.

The car ride to my house was filled with a comfortable silence between us, only my directions breaking it. Surprisingly it felt normal after the events that had previously occurred in the locker room. This just furthered my suspicion that I was imagining the flirty advances. I mean, we were both straight, there was nothing but a possibility for friendship there… Right?

“Sooo, we’re here,” she said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, yeah, thanks for the ride Ashley.”

“Anytime, Spencer,” she replied.

We said our goodbyes, I walked into my house, and she drove off, leaving me bewildered as to the direction this was going. What were we? Friends? Acquaintances? We certainly didn’t act like only acquaintances in the locker room earlier… But I suppose that encounter was a little too friendly to have been between ‘just friends’ either. There I went again, reading into things farther than necessary.

‘What was this girl doing to me?’ I wondered to myself as I lay in bed sleeplessly that night.