"Hey dude!" Laker turned and I peaked around Cole's giant body to see that it was, in fact, Dean.
Of course.
How did I not know they were roommates??
Dean greeted Laker with a casual looking handshake of sorts, but his gaze fired right at me as I peaked around at him. A pleased glint flashed through his deep dark eyes as they met mine.
Cole pulled his arm from around me to stand more in my way, blocking me from view, and blocking my view of Dean. I pushed at his meaty shoulder to get him to step to the side some. Though giving me a confused look over his shoulder, he stepped sideways.
Dean was already looking my way as Cole sidestepped and our eyes met easily. There was a small question in them though. Probably regarding Cole's attempt to hide me. It wasn't uncommon for the guys to hide me from new social situations. Typically, I would even be appreciative of him trying to keep me out of view, but this was different. Not that they knew that. I caught Leo shooting a look between Dean and I out of the corner of my eye, but ignored it, lost in shades of mocha latte.
"Hey, I'm Cole," Cole spoke up from in front of me.
Dean's gaze slid almost reluctantly from mine to look at Cole.
"Dean," he said, friendly enough, though not the way he talked to me, I noted. Dean stuck out a large hand and Cole took it easily.
Laker jumped in, "This is my roommate," he explained and glanced to Leo, "Dean, this is Leo, our captain, like I was telling you."
Leo was standing in a 'strong guy' kind of stance now, with his arms crossed. My best guess was that he had caught Dean looking at me. Big brother mode activiated.
Dean nodded at Leo briefly, seeming unconcerned with his stance as he turned to look at me again.
"Hey Emilia," his expression softened ever so slightly as he greeted me.
Feeling my lips pull into a little smile, I waved at Dean from over Cole's shoulder. The little pleasure from hearing him say my name was short lived though.
Leo cleared his throat, "You know my sister?"
Oh here we go, I felt my hands curl into the ends of my sleeves.
Dean looked back to him, one dark brow lifting, "Yeah, I do."
"The three of us sit together in Anatomy," Laker added, obviously oblivious as ever to the tension in the air. I guess that's probably what made he and Dean at all compatible as friends, since tension seemed to follow Dean around like a lost puppy.
"Is that right?" Leo asked, holding his stance.
"It is," Dean responded. It felt odd to hear him talking in his short little responses, though they were so typical for him. Maybe I was getting too used to the way he was around me...
Leo turned to me now, an obvious look in his eyes, 'I expect an explanation,' the look said.
I huffed lightly and rolled my eyes at him and all his macho protective big brother-ness.
'He's a friend from class, Leo, stop looking like you're going to ask him for an arm wrestling contest,' I signed so that only he could understand, 'He's your keeper, shouldn't you try to be friendly?'
Leo gave me one last glance through narrowed eyes before he turned back to the others, loosening his posture only slightly.
"So where do you want me captain?" Dean was still standing in the same casually intimidating way as always, though it was more relaxed than Leo's had been for sure.
"Some of us are warming up out on the field," Leo nodded his head in that direction, "You have gloves?"
"Yeah, I played in highschool," he nodded.
"Heck yeah he did, crushed it too," Laker smiled broadly, "Let's go dude!"
Laker took off for where James and Kara were not turned to look at us. Dean began to follow more slowly, shooting me a subtle smile over his shoulder as he went. Leo and Cole both turned to me when they were gone.
'A friend from class?' my brother signed.
I nodded with a shrug.
"Interesting friend choice for you," Cole gave me an amused look, not looking quite so offended as his best friend.
I decided to shrug again.
Cole chuckled at me before dragging Leo onto the field with him. Kara passed them as she practically sprinted over to me. I had to hold back a laugh at the shock and excitement on her face.
When she reached the bleachers, she scrambled up to sit next to me and whispered breathlessly, "DEAN is here!"
I nodded, 'I know.'
"Well, did you know he would be??!" she whisper yelled at me.
I couldn't help but chuckle, shaking my head no.
She smiled, "This is so exciting! What did he say?"
I grabbed my phone now, 'Just hello.'
"Like he only said 'hello'? How did he said it?" her imitation of his low voice was amusing, but she gave me a stern look as I laughed, "This is serious, get it together!"
I held my hands up in surrender, 'He said "Hey Emilia" and that was about it.'
Kara nodded slowly, "So he used your name, interesting, interesting."
I rolled my eyes even though I'd also taken note of the fact that he'd used my name. I decided not to tell her that I'd practically swooned at that.
'It's no big deal, he's just here to play,' I wrote.
"Well I wouldn't say it's NOT a big deal, your brother was being," she pursed her lips, "big brother-ish, did something happen?"
I rolled my eyes yet again, 'He was just being overprotective when Dean said hi to me. New information though, he's Laker's roommate!' I intentionally changed the subject off my brother's overprotectiveness.
"What?" her eyes went wide, "Since when?"
'I don't know, I knew they were friends though,' I typed.
"I wonder if maybe Laker was at school with him before everything?" she gasped, "Do we know where he's from?"
My eyebrows pulled together as I tried to recall, 'I want to say it was Milville, but I'm not 100% on that. Definitely somewhere North of here."
"That would definitely fit," Kara said, "You should do some sleuthing."
I huffed, 'That stuff doesn't matter to me though.'
"You're no fun," she huffed back
'The past is the past, it doesn't define a person,' I shrugged. As much as my past defined me, I know that was a bad thing. I didn't want it to define me, and I was sure Dean wouldn't want his to either.
Kara held my gaze for a moment before sighing, "You're right, but it would be fun to be sleuths."
'We'll find you a different investigation soon, okay Nancy Drew?'
"I'll hold you to that Watson!" we both giggled.
Suddenly, there was a piercing whistle to our right. A guy in all black that I didn't recognize, who looked like an upper classman jogged down the path and past our bleachers, "Okay guys! Sorry I'm late!"
"He must be the ref," Kara said.
'Does the school arrange them?' I asked.
"I think it's more like a club of guys that does it, I'm honestly not sure," she shrugged.
I gasped with a smile, prompting a weird look from Kara, but I quickly typed, 'There's your investigation!'
"Oh shut up!" we both laughed again.
Leo and who we assumed was the other captain met the ref in the middle of the field briefly, and then suddenly the game was starting. Intramural soccer was very different from professional or even college soccer, from what I understood from the guys. While the professional level of the sport was a little slower, more about strategy, this mostly informal organization of regular students just wanting to be competitive was very very fast paced and more about violence apparently.
An extreme amount of shoving and running into people seemed to be happening on the field, and the game was moving almost as fast as hockey. They were also playing within a space only half the size of a real soccer field.
When Leo scored the first goal (assisted by James) Kara and I shot to our feet - me with enthusiastic clapping and Kara enough with whoops and hollers for the both of us.
The guys high-fiving each other as they ran back to center field for another kickoff. The ref was already waiting, so without much ado, the ball was back in action. The opposing team seemed motivated by our guys' goal, because they swiftly took possession and a very aggressive offensive. Kara let out an audible gasp as one of them shoved Cole before making a crossing pass.
The defense was falling apart quick. I looked to the goal, was Dean ready? I found him staring at Cole who was now spriting to cover the guy who had shoved him over.
Then, Dean began to move. Deadly precise, but hulking and dark, he was suddenly on top of the shover, who was back in possession of the ball. Like he hadn't seen Dean, the player bounced off of Dean almost comically, like a cartoon character running into a wall. Then the ball was shot clear across to the other end of the field.
Kara let out a loud "Hell yeah!" as James quickly took possession and headed toward the goal. I hardly noticed though.
I was watching Dean. He nodded at Cole, who nodded back before running back into the game. Dean backpedaled toward his goal. Reaching his spot, he too slipped his attention away from the game play.
Our gazes met and held, a slow smile breaking Dean's face. I smiled back, giving him a few silent claps. Smiling bigger at my gesture, he exaggeratedly mimed tipping a hat at me, even giving a slight bow. Before I could let out a small giggle, though, a loud cheer broke out on the field. Must have been another goal.
But, quite happily, we'd both missed it.
*****
A little shorter this time around, and a bit like filler, but we love prolonged eyecontact and smiles ;)
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