youngblood | a.i.

twenty || beat me at my own damn game

I looked around the room, seeing number 8, Aj Young. I smiled lightly before looking back up, nodding to Coach. There's those first-game jitters.

"You're gonna have to watch how Irwin works with his wings when you're waiting to go in. He'll be relying on you," Coach explained. Of course.

I looked over to the same boy who had sat on my roof for almost an hour the night previously, feeling my mind fill with thoughts I didn't have time for. His small smile was almost contagious as he leaned against the lockers across from me. For once he must have been able to read my eyes too because I watched as he mouthed the words "you'll be alright."

I looked back over to Coach, feeling the smile pull on my face, but I didn't want him to know that. I was supposed to hate Ashton Irwin.

Coach gave us our pep talk, getting us so high-strung that the energy in that locker room was contagious. There were lockers rattling, echoes filling the room from our chants. Moments like this were when I was okay with feeling my emotions, cause for once I didn't want to feel numb. I was content, even just for a moment. But that contentment quickly drained- it always did. It quickly replaced with nerves as we moved as a team out the locker room doors and out to the field.

I stuck by Cal, trying to calm myself down more than anyone else. We stretched as a team, warming up for the last-first game for a large portion of our team. Not only was it my last-first game, but it was also my first-first game too, and I was more nervous about messing up for my team than I was about myself. Thankfully, I didn't have to start though. Less than ten of us sat on the bench as we watched the boys start the game, cheering them on to keep them moving.

For the most part, it started with a lot of back and forth, but the other team seemed to be working their defense more than we had to. Coach switched in and out players but I stayed focused on what was happening, knowing my name probably wasn't going to be called. I watched how Aj played the whole field, being up with Ashton when they pushed and being back with Mikey and Luke when they needed help protecting the goal. He and Ashton worked in sync when they pushed forward, and I only hoped I could be good enough.

We all watched in silence as Aj ran the ball up the wing, passing into Ashton once they broke the line of defense. I watched how carefully Ashton set up, his precision like no other. He had each movement down to a science, every step he took calculated. It worked in his favor when the ball sunk in the top corner, just passing the goalie's glove. The team erupted in cheers, including us on the bench, but I couldn't help but notice how the first place your eyes fell was to me.

He didn't look at Aj who ran up to him, or the rest of the team on the field celebrating from their line of defense, his eyes fell on me. And I didn't know what that meant, but my smile was subconscious as his lit up the field.

Finally, as the whistle blew for halftime, the team came running off the field. With a goal up, the team's energy was still positive. Coach gave the halftime pep talk, getting the same contagious energy from the locker room again. They were so ready to keep fighting and that energy made moments like this burn into memories.

I put my hand in with the guys, counting off the chant like they had earlier, throwing my hand up with them as the second half was called. All the boys filed back onto the field, and I watched in awe as the 40-minute countdown started on the scoreboard. The boys moved as a team rather than just individually, and I lived to see those moments. They worked together to protect our goal and they worked together to push toward the opposing team's goal.

Coach pulled people off and sent others in all through the game, never calling me. I was thankful for it. I still needed time to relax. That was until something slipped through the cracks and the opposing team got a goal, tying it at 2-2. The whole bench let out sighs, knowing we had 10 minutes left to win this.