Battle of the Captains

defense

I sighed with a shrug, giving in to their wishes.

Kyle immediately hopped out of the car, practically pumping his hand in the air in victory. "You're the best sister ever."

"He says that now," I told Austin, shaking my head. "The other day, I was the ugly, evil boss in his video game."

"Well, you do give off that vibe," he said. I opened my mouth to throw back a comeback or something but when nothing came out, I laughed instead, playfully punching his shoulder. "I was just kidding."

Of course I knew that. Austin was a friend, not an enemy like I'd thought and he'd proved that when he defended me from Blake. We had our differences but I was glad we were compromising now. But old habits did die-hard and teasing was just a part of our daily routine. This time, the teasing and the insults were only ever jokes. I liked them better that way.

I followed Austin and Kyle out of the car with an innocent eye roll. In his pocket, Austin's phone buzzed, notifying him that he'd received a text message and he paused to check it, his brown hair covering his eyes as he did so. I wasn't a prying person or anything like that but I found myself standing on my toes unconsciously to check it out as well. "My mom," he told me when he'd noticed. My cheeks reddened slightly as he began to type in a reply. "Want to grab my bag from the back?"

I took that as an opportunity to relive myself of embarrassment. "Uh, yes, sure."

Austin always brought a sports bag in the trunk of his car incase he ever needed to play. That was something I learned from our time together. He seemed to be the type of guy who was always prepared when football was involved; kind of like my brothers. The bag was light, probably only containing a couple of extra t-shirts, a pair of shoes and a football or something. It didn't take much effort to lift the bag out of the truck or maneuver it onto my shoulder.

When I got back to the boys, Austin was pointing at the field and showing Kyle something football related and a smile sneaked it's way onto my face. My brother wasn't the easiest kid to get along with– or maybe it was just me– but Austin was practically working miracles, getting the unreachable boy to actually listen to what he was teaching without protesting, which was something he did because he thought he was always right or when he just wanted to annoy someone.

I stood beside them. "Let's go." The earlier they started practicing, the sooner we got to eat, right? I ruffled my brother's hair, making him frown because I was 'treating him like a little kid' and he ran ahead of us.

Austin reached for the bag on my right shoulder, farther away from him, and he slipped his hand under the strap. "Thanks."

"No, I got it," I insisted, tightening a hand on the handle of the bag but he pulled again.

"It's fine," he said. "Thanks." And then he replaced the back with his hand and my shoulders were tucked under his long, muscular arm.

My skin, my stomach was on fire. Like warning bells and warm butterflies at the same time, threatening to make my body explode due to the collision.

Austin hadn't put an arm around me without a purpose to annoy me before. Life had always been like 'would this piss him off' or 'would this piss her off'. My first instinctive reaction was to pull away and shove him or twist his arm or something violent but I couldn't, I just couldn't. This was safe. This was comfortable. No, this was wrong, but somehow right like not wanting to try out the zip line because it's so high off the ground but loving the feel of the adrenaline rush and the fresh wind brushing your face, wishing to be back on the safe, steady ground but not wanting the beautiful feeling to end so soon. I didn't want this feeling to end ever.