Blaise Beck- Day
Present
I hadn't been in America for a while.
Two years to be more specific.
Soccer of course had me traveling all over the globe and I would travel anywhere as long as that anywhere didn't involve the country of the united states. I knew wherever I went she would follow and that's exactly what I didn't want.
Until now.
Leaving her was never the plan–and not answering her letters wasn't either. But I knew that if I responded it would only give her the hope of me coming back and I just had to wait a while until I knew it would be good for me to come back.
I just wanted everything to be good for her.
I was put in a difficult position.
My eyes had not once left the window since arriving at my apartment that sat over the edge of campus. "Sir, where would you like these?" I turned my head for a split second to see that he was holding my most valuable possessions.
And I wasn't talking about trophies or medals.
Nothing that money could buy, and nothing that a high profile status in a society could provide for you.
"On the desk, please," I spoke, my eyes back to the window.
Her letters filled those journals. I mean, everything she had ever written me was in there. Everything. Even before I left— every little message she passed me in class, was in there. It was a reminder as to why I left– why I had to leave, why I had to get out of there for the benefit of everyone.
If you had been following online within the last week or reading magazines that had just been published, you probably have concluded that I decided to take a year off from soccer in Paris.
And boy oh boy was it a shit storm. A complete shit storm. I suffered losing five million dollars, which isn't even a dent in my account but still, it's a hefty fine. I thought coach was going to have a heart attack when I told him I needed to go to America for a year to study.
'Study what? How to find a fucking brain? Have you gone off your rockers?'
I could still hear him yelling through the phone receiver. And to answer his question, maybe I did go off of my rocker but he didn't read that email she sent me– I did.
I just needed to go check on her.
Of course, the entire world who ate, slept, and dreamt of soccer decided to call me a lunatic because I was one of the best, brightest, and the youngest– and probably most well-paid players in the league. They thought I had it all.
They thought even more that I was a looney whenever the news broke that I fled back to America to return to my education. Who in their right minds would leave a thirty million dollar contract with one of the best soccer teams in the world to study at Penn State?
I would.
Staring out the window, my eyes were searching for her. The girl who would wear these bulky glasses, the girl who had braces, and an overwhelming amount of acne before I left. The girl who would much rather build a volcano for a science fair than go to any social event. Technically speaking, the science fair is a social event, for me, it would be social suicide, but for her it made her feel special.
And anyone who dared ruin her special parade was on my hit list.
I wonder if she would be climbing up the steps, struggling to carry a million candles at once. Or maybe she would struggle carrying all of her journals. Maybe she branched out and finally learned how to paint– she had always dreamed of it.
Had she finally gotten rid of her random collection of binoculars and magnifying glasses? Did she still plant a ton of milkweed for caterpillars to sprout into Butterflies?
There was so much about her that I felt like I had missed and I hated myself for missing it. A slamming of the box had me taking my eyes off of the window completely. "Careful– with that box." I hissed at the move-in worker.
His eyes fought to be everywhere but mine as I walked over to where he sat. I knew what was in those boxes and they were important. Important to me and someone else, but I would die if one of them had gotten misplaced or broken.
Walking over to the box, the mover ran away as I ran my fingers down the spine of every single item in the box making sure that the dense objects were okay, and that they still spoke to me.
The unanswered words were left alone as someone cleared their throat behind me. It was a familiar voice that spoke and one that I knew I was about to get into a heavy amount of lecturing.
"So you couldn't call me back but you could take my plane?" Dad's voice was humorous behind me. I turned to face him as he wiped his fingers all the way down my kitchen island. The flat black and white marble surface were so clean you could see his reflection as he walked closer to me. "I would like to see my spawn once in a while, you know?" Yeah, I know dad. I'm sorry. I can't help it. I couldn't help it.
And hopefully, I could now.
"That private school did you well– huh? Private school and a professional soccer player..." I didn't answer him as he sighed at my silence. I had always been quiet. I didn't speak as much as everyone would have expected me to.
Don't get me wrong– I loved to be loud at parties, and I loved going out. But sometimes I would go through phases where I would just be silent. I would go through these phases because my entire life I always had someone asking me questions but someone else would always answer them for me.
So what was the point of talking?
"Mannon told Mom that you got up and left. Why didn't you tell her that you were leaving?" That time I smirked, finally meeting his eyes. His eyes and mine were identical, and it was like looking in a mirror sometimes.
But then there was Mannon. She was beautiful, she was essentially the perfect woman. She was a great role model to kids, and she was so smart. But the issue is the fact that no matter how many times I tried to imagine her as–
"Hello?" Dad snapped his fingers, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"I didn't feel like talking."
And it was the truth.
"You can't ignore your girl friend forever, Blaise." Yes. Yes, I could.
We met in the private school after I left and everything stopped. She was the girl that I had to beat to get the number one spot in the class for grade point average. She was captain of the girl's soccer team, and not to mention— her father was a big-time lawyer and into politics. She was so sweet and so kind.
We had been friends for almost a year now.
He cleared his throat. "What? You couldn't move yourself? You had to hire people to come to do your dirty work?" He leaned over, flicking my wrist. I rolled my eyes. "You're ignoring me, you're ignoring mom, you're ignoring your girlfriend." There it was— the G-word, but this time he didn't mean it the way I meant it.
"She isn't my girlfriend," I spoke in my defense. He shook his head, "Then what? You guys just casually go out clubbing together and sometimes she has hickeys all over her neck when you carry her out the club door? Or when you leave separately and she's bawling her eyes out while you have someone else in your arms?"
"We aren't into each other like that. We just hook up." I muttered out my words, in French though so the movers couldn't understand what I was saying. Dad's eyebrows raised. "Like that shit ever worked out for anyone—" He pointed at himself.
"Let me just allow you to see it from Mom and I's point of view okay?" He walked over to the door, shutting it, and then turning the lock so the movers couldn't come in and hear us. "The start of summer two years ago you came to the both of us and said that you found a nice preparatory school in France and you wanted to leave— immediately. You wouldn't give me a reason why and you wouldn't give mom a reason either, Slater said he had zero clue, and Sage—" I winced and he cut off his words as soon as I winced.
"Don't even get me started on Uncle Reese's kids— you told nobody why and you just wanted to leave. So you left, which is fine because you know what you called every week and we knew how you were doing. But then you got to the age of eighteen, and you decided that you were too cool to talk to mom and dad? That's fucked up, Blaise. And you stopped replying to Sage's—"
Again with the wince.
"I love that you came back. I love that you came home. I love it— I expect you to call more since we are on the same continent now though." He pulled me into a hug, but it wasn't a nice hug as he grabbed my ear and pulled it.
Why did I come back?
Why was I even here?
"Slater is down near the HUB with the boys. Sage—" He sighed, his shoulders dropping.
"I hope she finds you and she kicks you as if you were a penalty kick."
I snorted. Yeah, right.
I knew Sage like the back of my hand. She wouldn't hurt a damn fly, let alone curse anyone out. She's going to be over the moon to see me. I know she will.
I also have a new tattoo to show her.
"Dad," I breathed out his name. His eyes meant mine again.
"Thanks. And I missed you and I love you. It's good to see you." His eyes melted as he smiled. But that smile came and went in a flash. Instead, a chuckle replaced it.
"Good luck."
I furrowed my eyebrows, "With what?"
He pointed toward the HUB lawn out the window. "As I said, go see your boys. They missed you."
This campus was huge.
I mean, I grew up around the campus. But this campus truly was huge. Yet despite all of the people that went here, the attention was on me. The disgusting amount of attention that I just wanted to fucking shoo away.
As soon as I stepped five feet onto that lawn, I was being noticed.
"Hey!" A short guy jogged next to me. A soccer ball was tucked under his arm as he tried to keep up with my stride. "I'm Benji!" He was practically wheezing.
I chuckled, "Hi Benji. I'm Blaise–"
"Oh my god– I know who you are! I could pass out but since we've already met before I figured it wouldn't be as bad this time." Where were those fucking boys?
"We met in Australia? Remember when Paris Saint Germain stayed there for two months during practice season? You hosted that session for people to come train with you? Remember?" No. I didn't.
I remembered Australia though.
Nodding, I turned my head to see him– his smile was so bright and so wide. "You are such an inspiration. You are the best goalie out there, seriously." I patted him on the back.
"Benji, that is very nice of you. Thank you so much," He just stared up at me. He walked alongside me until I was able to spot Slater from a mile away. I mean, nothing says toolbag like Slater Williams wearing his jersey and showing every person who walks past his abs.
God.
That could have been me.
"It was really nice to meet you, Benji. We'll catch up later!" I shook his hand before beeling for the man in the number nine. Right next to him was Drew in the number ten. Then right next to Drew was Baker– who was wearing a number four. Baker was in a deep argument with Leighton, who was also wearing a number four, but it was a basketball jersey instead.
Nothing has changed.
Where's Sage. I couldn't wait to see her.
As I walked closer to the group, whispers got loud, and phones were pulled out and pulled started to crowd me. I took in a deep breath as I tried to balance out everything. I had always replayed this moment a million times in my head but I never thought it would ever happen again. Maybe because I was too cowardly or maybe it was because I thought they would hate me for the rest of their life.
The boys hating me? Likely. And I was okay with that.
Sage on the other hand? No way. She couldn't actually hate me. Not a chance in hell.
You can't hate someone who gave you so much to love.
And I would know because I tried everything to get her off of my mind, including trying to hate her.
But you couldn't hate someone like her. Someone who worshipped the life of things living, like plants– you couldn't hate someone like that. She was the embodiment of growth, empathy, and love. She didn't have a rotten bone in her body even if she was fed something bad.
Leighton walked away just as I was approaching, and when I was first spotted– I wasn't sure how I was supposed to take it. "No shit," Baker laughed as his eyes ran over me.
That caused Slater to ask him what he was saying that for. Drew's mouth was just there, hanging– wide open. But when Slater stared at me, he stared at me with such fire in his eyes, I thought he was going to burn me.
"Noooooo shit," Baker repeated. He stepped away from the football crowd as I walked closer to them. He met me in the middle before wrapping me in a hug.
"Ohhh you're in big trouble big boy. Big trouble, naughty, naughty, naughty." He repeated before laughing.
Drew was the next to walk closer to me. "Hey, Drew. Long time no see buddy."
Drew couldn't answer though because he was cut off.
"Should've made it a longer time." Slater butted in. I met his stare, his stare full of fire and hatred. "Hey, Slater. How are you?" I tried to make conversation but he wasn't having it.
"Two years too late for that question, don't you think?" I swallowed hard at his words.
Okay.
Maybe I would not be okay with all of them hating me. Because if one hates, they all hate.
"Why are you here?" His question was short and to the point.
I mentally had prepared myself the entire plane ride over for this question and how to answer it. However, the issue I the fact that I couldn't just say it was because of Sage's mail because I didn't want to blurt out her feelings like that.
So my safest bet was to give the dumbest answer possible in hopes that I would be able to talk with Sage alone about the email.
"I got invited to your sister's wedding." He furrowed his eyebrows.
"That's in November."
I nodded.
He looked down at his watch before staring at me again. "You're about two months early to the party." Right. I know. "Don't you have somewhere else to be with other people?" He asked again.
And you know what, all of his questions were completely valid.
"I'm back for a while. Until after the wedding," I explained. He went to speak again but the sound of a police siren wailed in the air. This caused students to leave, scattering away from being near me and the three boys who I couldn't tell if they were happy to see me or not.
"Right, well, I'm just staying in the penthouse in LionsPoint. If you wanna come to talk." I opened the communication door for us. "And.."
I led off.
"If you could tell your sister the same as well, that would be greatly appreciated." I ran my left hand through my hair.
My last sentence had the three of them chuckling amongst themselves. "Will do. Good luck."
Why the hell does everyone keep telling me good luck?
Slater crushed the beer can in his hand, staring me dead in the eye. Sending me a warning that whatever conversation we just had was over– well done and over. I nodded, clicking my tongue to the top of my throat.
People who were once surrounding me were staring at me, waiting across the road on the lawn. Waiting to see where I was going, who I would be with, and if they could come. Shit.
I walked around the various buildings, the buildings giving me coverage from being seen by people. My eyes caught sight of the greenhouse. Something that never had been a thing until Ellie started this about four years ago.
I slowly and discreetly walked into the empty greenhouse and couched down. The greenhouse was see-through, but nobody was going to come in here on move-in day. Who the hell would come to look at succulents during move-in day.
The door handle jingled and that's when I saw my life flash before my eyes. I crouched down lower, staring at the body that was walking through the door. I stared at the ground, watching the black boots go to the opposite end of where I was at. My eyes traveled up the body.
Fuck.
Wow.
She looks familiar.
Those legs. Those curves. That's a really fitting skirt. And good god– she was hot from behind.
I watched as she walked to the ferns, her back was still facing me. God, she looked so familiar, was it one of the girls I went to high school with?
That's when I heard her sniffle, my eyes widened. Was she crying or did she have seasonal allergies?
I slowly stood up wanting to know what was wrong with this girl and why she looked familiar. That's when she bent down for a hose, that's when I caught a glimpse of her face.
Oh my god.
That's Sage.
She's right there standing before me.
She was wearing a short black skirt– she had curves now? Woah– what? And her face, she wasn't wearing glasses! My Sage, was not wearing glasses– who was this girl?
I walked up behind her and uttered the thing I loved saying to her most growing up. I couldn't help it, the words just flew out of my mouth like muscle memory. It was something I said every time I caught her crying or hurt. It was our thing.
"What's wrong caterpillar? Need me to kiss it better?"
She gasped loudly, spinning around and spraying me in the face and all over my crisp white shirt. My hands reached out to the hose, shoving it towards her. My hand covered most of the head of the hose, so it only sprayed her in the most minimal amount.
She finally dropped the hose and with a very good observation, I could tell off of the bat that my hand did a terrible job at covering that water from hitting her. She was wearing a white shirt too, and that wet white crop top gave me the pillaged view of something that she didn't have before.
Holy shit, Sage Williams had tits.
My eyes roamed all over her face taking note of the nose piercing and the belly button piercing. She was a woman now. A full-fledged woman. When she wrote telling me she had finally received her period, she was not kidding.
"Hey, beautiful." I greeted my best friend. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she wrang out her shirt like a wet dog. God, she was beautiful. She opened her lips to speak, and I couldn't stop staring at them.
I missed those lips.
I missed the way they talked to me.
I missed the way they kissed me.
"Fuck you."
I snapped out of my state and focused on the words that she was spewing from those lips that I once claimed as my own.
"I missed you." I took a step closer to her and that's when I felt her fist hit my stomach. I coughed at the impact as she took a step back away from me.
"I didn't miss you." That's a lie. I know you miss me. You wouldn't still send me shit if you didn't miss me. You thought about me. You thought about me just as much as I thought about you, admit it, Sage.
"Why are you even here?" She groaned as she started to walk toward the exit of the greenhouse. I wasn't letting her get away that easy though.
"Your sister's getting married."
Snorting she opened the greenhouse door, purposefully slamming it in my face. "In two months. You have two months. So, that means you are more than willing to leave at any time now."
I smiled at her. I loved it when her nose scrunched up when she was angry. "Great. I'd be willing to leave on my own time then." She continued to walk at a fast pace across the campus. She hadn't gained any height on her but man, she sure could walk fast.
"How's your garden?" I asked.
"Dead." I rolled my eyes at her answer. So this was how it was going to be?
As we approached a building, a large building that had many people outside of it– I was gaining stares and so was she. "Sage, can we talk? You could at least be happy to see me."
And that's what made the girl who couldn't stop walking– stop walking.
She turned sharply on her feet before walking toward me. She poked her finger into the center of my chest.
"When I said fuck you– I meant it. Fuck you." I stood stunned as she looked me in the eyes with a kind of fury that she never had. It was a fury I tried to keep her away from.
She took a step back, scanning a key card before entering a building that locked right behind her.
Hey besties!
The show is starting ;)
Thank you all for everything! I love you all!