The Dream by Cayla Marie (reading list .txt) 📕

Chapter 1

Anna Conrad’s right foot touched the steaming sand. Her left foot was in the air moving forward as her toes left the ground. Anna didn’t make contact with the ball that was set by her partner, Sophia Flynn. Not because the set was too far outside, or too close to the middle, but because Anna’s waist was stopped by a strong arm. She spun around to yell at the person that stopped her from one of the many perfect sets she loved to pound to the sand.
She would’ve yelled. She would’ve been mad. She couldn’t. The strong arm belonged to a six foot brown-eyed, shirtless, tan, athlete. He bent down to pick up the ball on the ground. Anna realized he saved her from the worst thing that could happen to a volleyball player: tripping on the ball.
This could, and would have resulted in an injury. A sprained ankle, rolled ankle, or a broken ankle would be the end of the beach volleyball dream Anna and Sophia had grown up with.
“I’m sorry,” he flashed his snow-white teeth.
Anna picked up her mouth off the floor and spoke, “It’s alright. I’d rather miss a set then hurt my ankle.”
“Are you guys playing tomorrow?” He was referring to the tournament.
She nodded. “Every tournament.”
“Anna, we have to practice!” Sophia yelled from the other side of the court.
“Drew,” he said. “I’ll try to watch you guys tomorrow.”
Anna kept her eyes on him as he jogged to the court behind theirs. Drew. No. She couldn’t let a silly boy distract her from the biggest tournament of her and Sophia’s lives. This was the make or break of their future. Either they won or lost. If they won, they would go to college and play on a scholarship. If they lost… That wasn’t an option.
“Anna!” Her head snapped back to Sophia. “Let’s go!”
She stepped back and got ready for another set. Anna needed to be a hundred percent ready for this weekend and she couldn’t afford for one guy to get in the middle of that. She was going to forget about him. Right now.
“Anna!” She blinked and looked at Sophia. “What is the matter with you?” Sophia walked over to Anna. “Who was that guy you were talking to? He must be pretty important for you to act like this.”
“Just some guy. I think his name was Drew,” she turned her head towards his court.
“Yeah, he’s cute. He isn’t cute enough for you to act like this. Snap out of it. We have to work on volleyball all day and the rest of the week and I don’t think we will be ready if we work twenty-four hours.”
Anna picked up the water bottle. “Can we take a two minute break?”
Sophia held up one finger and walked away. Sometimes Anna wondered what life would have been like if she went to the parties with other friends. Who was she kidding? What other friends did she have besides her friends she met through volleyball? None.
What kind of person would she be if she gave it all up before high school? Anna always questioned if putting herself through all this was ever going to be worth it. What would she do if she didn’t get a scholarship for volleyball? She would have wasted every weekend and every Friday night for what? Nothing.
“Anna!” She was really getting sick of hearing her name.
She ran over to the net. “Blocking?” Her partner nodded.


Chapter 2

For the next hour, until the sun disappeared, they practiced. Darkness set in and the girls grabbed their stuff and headed back to their hotel room. Anna took a quick shower and headed down to the lobby. Sophia stayed and ordered room service.
Anna walked around the lobby trying to find a restaurant. She didn’t want to go to the fancy restaurant, because her hair was still wet, she had no make-up on and she was in jean shorts and a tournament t-shirt. Anna peeked her head inside a simple food place.
“They have the best hamburgers.”
She turned around and saw Drew showered with a shirt on.
“Have you been here before?” Anna asked looking back.
“Once. I grew up in town. It’s beautiful here.”
“A little bias aren’t we?” Anna teased.
Drew shrugged. “If you want, I could show you around.”
Anna examined the restaurant and nodded. “Anything is better then staying at a hotel on a Friday night.”
Drew chuckled at her. “You might want some jeans though. I have a motorcycle.”
Anna agreed. “I’ll go up to my room and come down in five.”
She walked away and waited for the elevator. Once inside, she immediately started thinking of which jeans she wanted to wear. Her mind searched her visual closet and thought of her new pair. They fit her perfectly, almost as if they were made for her. They were tight around her butt and thighs, but loose enough so they didn’t show too much.
Anna ran into her room and changed quickly, not wanting Sophia to ask where she was going. She knew what Sophia would say, and she didn’t want to hear it. Anna deserved to go out. Everyday for the past three years, Anna and Sophia practiced volleyball. Every week a guy would ask one of them out, and they would always turn them down.
Finally a good, cute guy came along, and Anna wasn’t sure she could say no this time. She was eighteen and still hadn’t had her fist kiss yet. Sophia, on the other hand, didn’t care. She had a serious boyfriend once, but things didn’t work out.
Once the girls became serious about volleyball, Sophia’s boyfriend didn’t like that. He got angry and yelled at her constantly about how volleyball was more important to her then he was. She laughed in his face and agreed.
“One minute to spare, I’m impressed,” Drew commented when Anna walked outside.


Chapter 3

In four minutes, Anna put on a pair of jeans, foundation, and mascara. Drew, on the other, hand spent four minutes waiting outside, still in his jeans and Volcom t-shirt she had seen him in at the restaurant. Drew walked to his motorcycle and pulled it up to the front of the hotel. Anna put on his extra helmet and hopped onto the back.
She held onto his toned, muscular body like she was falling off a cliff and he was the only stopping her from dropping to the rocky ground. He made sure not to take sharp turns and went to spend limit. They reached a sports bar that was packed.
Anna had always been a sports girl growing up. She watched her favorite college football team every weekend and cheered on her small town’s pro basketball team. She was pleased when they stopped.
“I hope you like these kinds of places,” Drew sad putting their helmets in the back.
“Are you kidding me? I begged my dad to take me to these places when I was younger,” Anna smiled.
Drew laughed and they walked in the sports bar. Everyone was cheering for their teams and having a good time. Anna smiled and followed Drew to a table watching all the TV screens show every team that played that fall night.
“I’ll just have water,” Anna blinked at the waitress.
“Sweet Tea please.”
She looked at Drew who wasn’t paying attention to the very attractive waitress. Anna looked at him confused.
“What?” He asked looking down at his shirt.
“Well, most guys would look back the waitress when she was eye flirting with you.”
“I hate to correct you-“
“But?”
“The ‘most guys’ part should be changed to ‘most jerks’.”
Anna couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh really?” Drew smirked. “Ok.”
“I’d much rather talk about you then jerks anyway,” Drew replied as the drinks were set on the table. “You play volleyball I know that. Sorry for stopping you today from that set. I would have felt so bad if you broke your ankle because I shanked a ball. What else do you do?”
Anna sighed. “I don’t have time for anything but volleyball. When I can, I play my piano in my hotel room. Sophia, my partner, hates it. I usually wear my headphones when I play, or I don’t play at all.”
“It’s your release.”
“Exactly.”
“After that bad game, you just want to play. Escape from the anger,” Anna nodded in agreement. “No one really knows what you are going through at that moment, not even your partner. When you work so hard for something, one little game pisses you off to the point where you just want to smash something.”


Chapter 4

She couldn’t believe how he described everything so perfect. Anna knew exactly what he was talking about. She went through all of that. The waitress came and took their order and left.
“So, what do you do? Besides play volleyball.”
Drew searched for the words. “I run. Everyday I get up and run. It’s my release from the world. I just plug in my iPod and run. I think a lot too which gets me in trouble sometimes.”
“In trouble? What do you like think of ways to kill people or something?” Anna joked.
Drew laughed. “No. My partner, Luca, just hates when I run for long periods of time. He is afraid I will tire myself out or something before a game.”
Anna shook her head. “Partners are just a waste of space sometimes. Sophia and I are like sisters and we still fight almost everyday. If we didn’t know each other so well, we would loose every game.”
Talking to Drew was easy. She didn’t have to try to come up with a conversation starter. Everything flowed easy and after they ate, a couple invited them to watch a game. Anna quickly agreed and Drew soon followed.
Drew immediately found out why Anna took up their offer so quickly. Her favorite college football team, the Gators, were playing. She told him about how she grew up in a small Florida town two hours away from Gainesville. Her dad went to college there, and brought her