We all sat in the living room, talking and conversing until closer to game time. The boys were now dressed for the game and needed to leave in a couple minutes. We all stood up and continued our conversations at the door. I stood with Carlos, Caitlyn, Grace, Lance and Marco. Grace had been flirting with Lance the whole time and it was almost funny how shy he was.
I looked down and covered my mouth at the sight of Carlos' crocs. They were even worse than regular crocs. "Carlos your crocs are so ugly oh my god." I laughed and Caitlyn frowned.
"I think they're cute."
"Yeah," Carlos huffed. "They're cute."
"No." I made a face and everyone laughed. I looked up and made eye contact with Marco.
He was laughing and smiling and my heart leapt at the sight.
"We have to go, Delano." Carlos nudged him as he looked at his apple watch. "Bye, Caity." He leaned over and kissed her. "I love you."
I watched as Grace said bye to Lance and he flushed when she kissed him on the cheek and grinned. I smiled at the interaction and Grace looked at me and shrugged happily.
They were about to walk out the door when I looked up to see Marco looking at me expectantly. He had his hand on the door and the other boys had left. He used his free hand to brush the dark hair out of his eyes and then grab his helmet and cleats. "Coming, Hazel?"
The way he said my name stabbed at my heart and Caitlyn leaned down to whisper in my ear.
"He doesn't care about what happened in your guys' past. It'll be fine, Haze." She said.
I took a deep breath and tried to smile as I walked through the door he held open. I was on another level of uncomfortable as he caught up to walk next to me. I needed to break the awkwardness fast. "Do you think crocs are cute?" I asked while looking at the ground. Good one Hazel, that's the perfect conversation starter. He probably will be so weirded out.
"No." He laughs and points down to his adidas. "You know, you don't have to do a stupid dare someone gave you at a party right?"
"Yeah." I shrug. "They basically forced me though."
"Wow thanks." He puts his hand on his chest like he is hurt.
I just smile and keep looking at the ground. It's too awkward to look at him. We approach the ticket booth and I start to pull my money out.
"She's with me." Marco interrupts my actions. The ticket lady smiles at us and winks.
I frown at her assumption. "It's not like that though." I say quickly. "I can pay my own way in." I glare at Marco.
She raises an eyebrow as I hand her a five and start to walk without Marco.
"Jeez, you're a feisty one, huh?" He says from behind me and I narrow my eyes even though he can't see me.
"I just don't need your help. And we're not together so why wouldn't I pay my way in?"
He's silent for a moment. "Sorry."
I stay silent as we walk toward the entrance to the field. I can feel his eyes on me as I walk across the track to our bench side. I sit on the track and immediately open my phone as Marco sits down to put on his cleats. Swiping through instagram stories, I only get through 6 before Marco nudges me with his foot.
Every game, we have a tradition where the girlfriend of a player goes onto the field before warm-ups to put eye black on their boyfriend. If the player doesn't have a girlfriend, they pick someone to do it. Of course this had to be part of a dare for me. I cant help but be glad Jackson isn't here to see this. I've always been the one to do his and I didn't even think of the fact that he wouldn't have someone while I was doing Marco's.
