After All

Chapter Eighteen

Just when I thought winter would last forever, spring came out in full force. The snow melted, the temperature rose, and we shed our layers of clothes and grumpy moods. We took to studying outside, lying out on the green grass in the quad until the last rays of the sun set every night.

Lacrosse season was coming to a close, with only a few games left. Ryan had practice every day and games twice a week. I tried to get to as many as I could, though it wasn't always possible. I had cleared my schedule for the game today though. We were playing our biggest rival and Ryan was starting at attack.

Cassie and I were in our room getting ready, though if we didn't rush, we'd miss the entire game.

"Are you sure this looks okay?" I asked her, checking my reflection in the mirror. "It's not creepy or weird?"

"Absolutely not," she replied, applying bright red lipstick under her eyes like some kind of war paint. We both went all out when dressing for sporting events, donning our school's colors of red and white from head to toe, even though we barely knew anything about the rules of the game. "What guy wouldn't want his hot girlfriend to make and wear a t-shirt with his name and number on it?"

"Are you being sarcastic?" I asked while flicking off a piece of fuzz from the red number thirty-one painted across the chest of my white t-shirt. The name PARKER was emblazed on the back in between my shoulder blades. If I was going to do this, I wanted it to look perfect.

"Not at all. Seriously, that boy is so in love with you it's ridiculous. He's going to love this."

"I hope so. Now come on, let's go."

We grabbed the red and white pompoms we'd bought at the bookstore and headed out the door.

The walk up the hill to the athletic field was so much more pleasant in the warm sun than it had been in the icy cold. We found seats on the metal bleachers in the middle of the home section and immediately began cheering wildly. Ryan up looked up for the briefest of moments and caught my eye. He winked before turning his focus back to the game.

No matter how many times Ryan tried to explain the rules to me, I never really understood the game as being more than a soccer-like version of catch with big and little sticks. But I cheered along with the rest of the fans, hoping to look like I knew what was going on. I spent the rest of the time ogling Ryan and the defined muscles in his calves, highlighted by the shorts he wore.

The game was close, a nail-biter, so much so that even Cassie and I were grabbing each other nervously the last two minutes. But in the end, our boys pulled out a nine to eight win over the other team. Cassie and I jumped to our feet, screaming and waiving our pompoms in the air. Ryan gave me a nod and huge smile as he headed off to the locker room with the rest of the team.

Having done her roommate duty by sitting through the game with me, Cassie begged off when it was over to grab dinner with Alexis. I descended the bleachers alone and made my way to the tunnel that led to the locker room to wait for Ryan to come out.

He emerged a short time later, wearing athletic pants and a lacrosse t-shirt, his hair still glistening with water from the shower. He dropped the bag from his shoulder as I sprinted towards him and jumped into his arms. He leaned me up against the wall, my legs wrapped firmly around his waist as I planted kisses all over his face.

"Congratulations, that was awesome!" I exclaimed. "I could watch you play for hours."

"Thanks, Sunshine Girl," he said, still beaming from the win. "That's good, cause I never get tired of seeing you up in the stands. Now let me take a closer look at this shirt you have on." Ryan dropped me to my feet and stepped back to admire it. I spun around in a circle for him to appreciate the whole thing.