Argument with Heart

XIV

Carla's face lit up at the sight of the scenario and she pulled Ian to join them.

"Are you not going to show me how good you're at this?" Carla asked,

"Hmm....I would love to, but I don't want to oil the fuel between the teams," Ian raised his hands declining the offer.

"Admit it, you guys are scared that we'll win," Carla spoke and all the other girls hooted.

Now its a prestige issue. Ian scanned the arena and counted the heads with a disappointment that the girls had outnumbered the opposite gender.

"Alright, lets show the girl. What's it take to be the winning team" Ian ran towards the other side of the net and positioned himself for the game.

A shrill shriek echoed his ears and he averted his gaze locating the loud sound. His vision of trajectory landed right on where Sean and Samantha were having a splash game within themselves. Mainly, he was drowning her with the liquid and she was trying to escape his thrashing.

His gaze stayed at the couple, enjoying the water play and he almost forgot that he was supposed to handle the ball back across the net, resulting a hit on his head.

A loud thump and a curse erupted at the same time, making him realized his folly.

"Stop daydreaming, Mr Stark," One of the twin, which one he was not sure, teased him.

Ian rubbed that side of the hit and smirked back at her.

"Don't make that face. It's the looser face," another person spoke and all the guys booed at the member across the net.

"Alright, lets show them" Nathan patted his shoulder and joined the army.

Ian discovered that Kelly had also joined them with a spectator audience hooting for the game. His pride puffed with engery and he plamed the ball across the net which was beautifully tackled by the other team with a smack hit back to them.

It went on, to and fro until Ian got  distracted again, by the same source of loud sound.

"Boooooo......" Comes the response from the opposite gender.

"What are you doing man?" Nathan asked with a defeating tone. "You're letting them win," he pointed at the placard holders, displaying their scores. What, four versus zero? When did that happen?

Ian didn't know what he was doing, his half attention was at the far sight, at the couple and half of his attention was on  the game. He ran his hand through his hair with the frustration he'd felt, or was it jealousy. 

"I'm sorry mate, not in a good form, I guess," he complied with a decent reason. A quick glance over his shoulder at the ocean and it confirmed that, yes, he was affected by Samantha's closeness to Sean. He sneaked another peek at them and saw Samantha enjoying the high wave with her swift movement. A game she always loved and he always brooded. 

After some time when the game points objectively registered, across the net team, as the winners, all took off in different directions, mingling in their own lot and minding their private business. But Ian was still glued to the same spot as his eyes never got strayed away from her. 

As he was watching her, Kelly's voice drew closer as she spoke. "They look so much in love," Kelly spoke following his line of vision towards Samantha and Sean. 

Kelly wanted to know if he was affected by the whole arrangement. 

Ian just looked at her and didn't respond to her declaration. He pretended that he his eyes were on the pair of kids, trying to make a sand castle near them.