Avalanche

| the beach |

"Ready, set, hut!"

The football flew into their quarterbacks hands, and the game was on.

I played defense mostly, and Hangman tended to gravitate towards me every play. I did my best to guard him, but he stood a head taller than me, so him catching almost every ball was inevitable. I didn't care, I was having fun, and this was distracting me from the fact that my father was dying.

I called Iceman on the phone every night, but it soon turned to texting because his throat was taking a turn for the worst.

I knew Maverick had also visited him recently, so I didn't know what to feel.

It felt as real as the first time he had cancer, but I didn't have hope he'd survive the second round of it. My sister was even coming to visit with her family... I don't know if that was going to go down well.

But my worries faded every time someone scored. It felt like we were a team—even Maverick joins in at one point, but being the old man he is, he just can't keep up on the ground.

Once, he even gets tackled, and Rooster goes over and helps him up.

I realize this has been Maverick's goal all along—to turn us into a team. And it's worked pretty well.

Once Maverick is spent, he jogs towards the Hard Deck, towards Penny who had been ogling him for the last half an hour.

Distracted by the two lovebirds, I get tackled, hard.

I grab the hand that's been jutted into my face, and I realize it's Jinx who accidentally tackled me. I haven't talked to him since Top Gun, when I drunkenly rejected him.

"You good Avalanche?" Jinx asks.

I blink, "Yeah, I'm good."

Hangman looks at me, mouthing, are you really okay?

Yes, I mouthed back, rolling my eyes.

Jake nods, and then we return to playing.

Although, my favorite part of us playing is when Hangman scored, I could watch his victory celebration over and over.

Jake flexed his arms, veins popping out, and throws down the football into the sand.

Coyote, Payback, and Fanboy are in on it, dropping to the ground as if Jake's skills are earth shattering.

We spend hours playing on the beach, forgetting our responsibilities for a moment, before stopping out of exhaustion.

The sun begins to hang over the horizon, the sky bleeds different shades of red and orange.

It's time to leave, and get back to reality. Back to real training. Back to Top Gun.

I scoot my sunglasses back up to their original spot, up to the bridge of my nose. I slip back into my dress and my sandals, trying to ignore the slight sunburn I have. I grab my keys out of my bag, and then sling it over my shoulder, ready to turn in.

"Zoe!" I see Hangman running in the sand to catch up to me.

"Yeah?" I asked him.

"Do you wanna go and do something tonight?"

I stared at him, awestruck. Was he asking me out on a date?

Taking my hesitation as a sign of uncomfortableness, Jake says, "We don't have to if you don't want to I was just wondering—"

"No I'd love to Jake." I said, trying to assure him.

"Wanna go get dinner or something?" He asks.

My stomach growled, I guess we had been having so much fun playing we forgot to eat. "Sure, know any good restaurants around here?"

"I have the perfect place in mind. I can drive."

"Okay, lead the way." I said, and we walked over to the Hard Deck's parking lot.

Hangman opens my door for me, and closes it shut when he makes sure I'm in all the way.

Once he turns on the engine, I'm welcomed by 80s power ballads humming from the radio. It makes me back to the night when he took me home, and I left my leather jacket in his car. Why did he keep it for so long?

A tired sense of quietness has swept the car, we're both sunburnt and sweaty from playing football all afternoon. Luckily, the drive to the restaurant isn't long, it's only 5 minutes away from the Hard Deck.

Silk Road Asian Restaurant.

I thought that Jake would take me to get barbecue, or burgers and fries, he seemed like that type of guy, especially based on his music taste.

But I loved Asian food, especially noodles. I wondered if he knew that.

"Well Ms. Kazansky, here we are." Jake says, parking, and then unbuckled his seatbelt.

I follow his example, "Thank you Mr. Seresin." I said politely, stepping out of the car.

It was an old fashioned restaurant, and the food smelled heavenly.

"Where did you find this?" I asked him, wondering where he had extra time to find a restaurant outside of our Top Gun hours.

"I found it back before we graduated. Sometimes the Hard Deck felt too crowded, so I wandered and stumbled across this place."

"It's wonderful," I said, my eyes wandering to the string lights above us, in between red paper lanterns.

Suddenly I felt very underdressed in my sundress, but Jake looked the same way, so it have me comfort we both looked like we didn't belong here.

We ordered food, we dined, we laughed. I can't remember having a better date, and it was with Hangman of all people.

When we were down and ready to pay (Jake stole my purse so he could pay without any issues), an old Asian lady, probably the owner, came over and said, "You two look so adorable together. It reminds me of me and my husband back in the day."

I laughed nervously, "We're not togeth—"

"Thank you," Hangman interrupted me, and once again, I'm shocked.

Was he trying to make me fall in love with him?

Yes. Yes he was.

❅