Welcome to Ohio

Twenty Four

"Dude, no." Alex says to me as we sit in her room, and I raise an eyebrow at my girlfriend.

"Did you just call me dude?" I ask, and she shrugs.

"I think I have a right to call you Steve, you're going to be gone for Valentine's Day." She says, and I sigh.

"Well, considering our Valentine's Day track record, it could be a good thing." I say, and Alex smacks my arm. "Ow! Okay! I'm sorry, I'll make it up after the SheBelieves Cup." I say, and Alex sighs.

"But it'll be well into March by then." She says, and I kiss her cheek.

"Maybe next year." I say, and Alex just pouts, so I pull her close, and grin as she tells me not to tickle her, but of course, I don't listen, smiling as my girlfriend laughs in my arms, until she gets her legs between us, and uses her feet to push me away, so I just lean against her feet, and stare down at her. "What just happened?" I ask, and Alex smiles at me.

"I won, that's what happened." She says, and I chuckle.

-

The next day, I was landing in Texas for camp, and meeting up with the team at the hotel. I would've preferred to be at home for Valentine's Day, but I spent my day training at AT&T Stadium, wishing I didn't have to put my cleats through the torture of being on the same field as such a dumb team for such a dumb sport. I think the only football player I can stand is Zach, but that's totally not because he's married to my teammate, who I share a name with. Not at all. I'm lying. That's the only reason I like him. He's been cool to me the few times I've interacted with him.

"You really don't like the Cowboys, do you?" Mal asks me as we're taking a break, and I shrug.

"No, not really. I don't get the concept of American Football. Bunch of brutes chasing a lopsided ball, competing to see who can get a concussion faster." I say, and she laughs.

"You never had any friends on the football team in high school?" She asks, and I snort.

"I never had friends. Period." I say, and Mal's smile drops.

"Sorry." She says, and I shrug.

"It's okay."

"Alright ladies, enough talk, let's get back to work." Dawn says, so we get back to practice.

-

On the 16th, as I'm laying on my bed, relaxing before practice, I get a notification that dad has posted a vlog, so I immediately tap on the notification, and watch the vlog. It was really just a travel vlog. Mom and dad went to New York for some reason and I'm not going to lie, that video is the thing that reminded me that it was mom's birthday. I feel guilty about it, so after watching the vlog, I FaceTimed mom, and wished her a happy birthday before spending a little while on the phone with my parents before I had to hang up and go to practice. Dad challenged me to vlog while he vlogs, so I took my camera with me, and filmed most of it. After practice, we were handed over to Dawn for some lifting, and she absolutely murdered us, but it's just life, get murdered by your fitness coach, rest, come back stronger, lather, rinse, repeat. I spent every night playing Tobin and some of the others on Mario Kart, but I brought my Xbox One, which had FarCry New Dawn pre-ordered, so when the game was released on the 15th, I completely abandoned Nintendo, and played that in my spare time. Noah, of course, got the game, too, so we were competitive about our progress the next morning. He was ahead of me, because he had a little bit of a headstart on me because of time zones, but I actually played FarCry 5, so I know what's up, Noah didn't play 5, so he's confused about backstories, and easter eggs, which didn't really matter, but I liked bringing that up when he spoke about missions I haven't been given yet. Which he thinks is hurting me, but when he spends a couple of days not talking to me for some reason, I grind the game, so the next time he calls me, I've shot way past him in the story, so we make a pact to not talk about the game any longer.