Synonym

Chapter 31

So here I am.

The past hour was spent waxing and painting my body in makeup. I had a few scars on my legs from turf burn and being a teenager so they had to cover those and make me look flawless. I didn't care that this was a nude shoot, I was getting payed extra and I didn't care if I was on display. I loved my body and I would show it off with no issue.

I think the people who run the magazine were secretly hoping for me to agree to the shoot. They had hand picked the youngest and hottest of us for the cover. Low and behold, choosing the woman and the Asian showed diversity. Then throw in my boyfriend, who is easily one of the most famous and lusted after faces on the team thanks to the Nike campaign. It was marketing at it's best.

It was a professional setting, but I couldn't help but give Finn's body a once over when he and Jason walked onto the set. The background was a plain grey so the focus would be on us.

"You know, Jason, I never thought I'd be this close to you while naked." I remarked while walking up to the two men. When I got closer, I could see that they too had been waxed and made up. Patches covered our pubic areas and I had some of the smallest pasties I had ever seen glued onto me.

The air was slightly awkward but not because of three of us. I think it was our other teammates who were also naked, waiting for their individual photoshoots, felt more out of place than the three of us.

The director of the shoot was a small Latin man who looked to be about thirty. When he approached us, he had an offensive/midfielder Olympic stick in his hand and two helmets under his arms. His name was Marcus; we had talked to him earlier in the day.

"So Sylvia, hold this." He handed me the lacrosse stick, not wasting a second. Time is money. "I want you to get into a shooting position and cover the center of your breasts with your left arm when you are in the windup."

"Like this?" I asked while pulling the stick back. I wanted his approval before he got behind the camera to adjust because my left arm wouldn't cover my right breast. This wasn't a baseball ball. You don't hold it that high up.

His eyes ran over my body in a thoughtful way, critiquing the way I was standing. "Face the camera straight ahead," Marcus gestured at the camera in front of me. "And turn your torso to the right. Good. Now bring that front thigh up by bending your leg, on your toes, weight on the back leg. Perfect." He instructed me on how to turn.

It was the perfect temperature in here. I wasn't sweating and I wasn't freezing. I was thankful that this was an inside shoot as opposed to outside. I know a lot of professional models didn't have that luxury.

I held the position as he instructed Jason to stand at my right, his body angled towards mine slightly. He was told to put the helmet over his junk area and look ahead. The helmets were the same ones we used for playing. They were navy colored with black metal face cages and the words 'USA' printed on the sides in red.

"This is really weird." Jason whispered to me while Marcus directed Finn on how to stand.

"Why? This has to be less awkward that hearing us have sex." I whispered back.

Jason snorted. We were still looking ahead of us while we were talking so I couldn't see his facial expression. Neither of us would dare break position. "I think at this point I'm quite literally a part of this relationship. But no, it's weird because of all this people staring at us."

There were about 20 staffers doing various things with lights and cameras, doing makeup on the other guys, and deciding on poses. There were a lot of people in the room to be naked with.

My muscles were starting to get sore already from holding this position. Thankfully, Marcus was behind the camera the second he finished positioning Finn. My boyfriend ended up angled towards my body too. His right hand held the helmet the same was Jason did, leaving me in the middle.

Marcus's head moved from behind the camera as he studied us. "Do we have anything smaller? The helmet and her butt look to busy that close together." He yelled so every assistant on set could hear his demand.

Both Jason and Finn snorted while I resisted the urge to hit Jason in the head with the lacrosse stick. He was so close to it that it was tempting. So close. So fucking close. "Remind me to punch you two after this. It's not funny." I muttered under my breath. My arms were burning by now. Man, I thought I was in shape.

"I think it is extremely funny. But also, can they hurry up? I can't stand like this forever." Jason whined quietly.

"Says you." I scoffed. He was just standing there. I was in a difficult pose with sore arms and legs. "Now stop complaining. I can't help the size of my ass."

"I for one, am definitely not complaining about the size of your ass. But if we could hurry this along that would be great. I don't think I can keep it in my pants much longer." Finn teased, making me want to hit him in the head too.

I know what he was doing. He was trying to make me hot and bothered to make me more miserable. It won't work this time, Griffin.

"Seriously? How has your dick not fallen off yet." Jason scoffed. Finn didn't have time to respond because Marcus was walking towards us with lacrosse gloves and a yellow ball in his hands. Our uniform gloves were plain white with light gray palms.

"Okay. Keep your position but put these gloves on. I want your right hand to cover and in the left hand, toss this ball up to about your mid fore arm height." Marcus ordered. I felt shifting behind me before the Latin man returned to the camera. "Perfect. Now everyone suck in....and flex...."

Fuck, I wanted to sit down after this. My arms were dead. At least my face was supposed to be hardened and cold, not sexual or smiley. I don't think I would have the strength to do that right now. When the image was finally taken, I was more than happy to relax and roll my shoulders.

Finn, Jason, and I did our individual shots first because our makeup was the freshest. Jason's position ended up being the side view of him going in for a catch, with his stick going forwards in an attack position. Finn's was similar to Odell Beckham's cover where he was doing the whole leap thing, but instead of a football and an arm out, he looked like he was cradling the ball.

Rob ended up covering his junk with his goalie stick, wearing only goalie gloves. Ant and Malik had a joint photo where they did a face off on the ground, that photo would be double the size of all the others. All the other poses were variations of catching, shooting, or covering with helmets, sticks, or gloves.

My individual shot was also on the ground. It was a sitting shot from my left side. My left elbow was resting on one of the blue helmets while my body was positioned similarly to how Kim Kardashian was in her nude desert photoshoot. The only difference was that my hair was coving my nipple area instead of paint.

In all honesty, I never would have imagined being on the Body Issue of ESPN magazine if you had told me that a year ago.

The images wouldn't be released for a few months, but one thing was for sure; we all looked hot as fuck. If that didn't boost lacrosse viewership for the Olympics than I don't know what would.

Now I just have to worry about losing to Canada.