Rina
Alone as Derek left behind to change, I walked back onto the field. It wasn’t that late like I’d thought. Sure, everyone seemed to be here but the ‘election’ was yet to begin.
I did notice Nicole in the dugout with Steve but opted to steer clear of them and started doing warm-ups near the group of kids who obviously were here for the tryouts. It should’ve been awkward, doing these exercises alone while almost everyone had warm-up buddies. But I hardly felt it.
Truth be known, I felt pretty proud of myself. ‘A lot’ had happened these last few days and if this were only 1 year ago, I doubted I’d been able to tackle these situations like I had. Well, at least that was what I’d thought I’d been doing: tackling!
Kim showing up just out of the blue would’ve been enough to weigh me down to the floor. That added by Jen’s yet-to-unfold secrets and Nicole blowing hot and cold, not to mention those marks all over my chest would’ve been a hell lot more than I could possibly take. Yet I found myself with a smile, making new friends even. What the hell was ‘right’ with me?
So I was virtually floating on the air of pride when I fell into another conversation with a boy.
“That makes sense.” He opined as I told him that I wasn’t here for the tryouts initially. “I mean, no offense, but I don’t think you are really cut out for the position.” He said, giving me the third once-over of the day.
I said nothing back but just gave him an I-know nod smilingly. He continued. “And it is good to know,” he said, glancing around but never slowing the pace, “that you are really here for the team.”
I gave him a puzzled look at which he answered. “Enough girls had tried out not for the team but for the player.” I followed where his gaze ended up and met eyes with Nicole from her dugout conversation. Immediately I broke the gaze. “I believe you are not into girls?”
“Umm, no.” it was just an answer to keep safe. Actually, I hadn’t given a serious thought about my sexuality, or my into-ness. But Kim was more than a friend; that was for sure.
“Great.” However, though I wasn’t gay, the homophobes didn’t exactly occurred to me as people to be friends with. And this guy was turning out to be just that. So I felt more than glad when I heard Derek pipe in.
“Hey, Seth.” Falling into stride with us, he greeted the guy.
“Hey.”
“Rod wants to talk to you.”
“Really? I’m off then. Hey, nice to meet you.” He waved and parted away to the sidelines. I turned to Derek as we kept our pace.
Now that we were a little closer than we had been earlier, I noticed that he was not that taller than me like I’d thought. He must be at least five ten. That’d make me about only 5 inches shorter. But still I had to look up at him.
“Umm, shouldn’t I join him? I mean, if Rod wants to …”
“No, Rod didn’t say anything. I just wanted him gone.”
I could only manage a simple ‘Oh’. A wrap of silence fell over us as we started another lap. It was kinda awkward so I opted to break it.
“That’s a lot of people.” I said as we jog-trotted past the guys who were doing stretching exercises and such. “It won’t matter anyway.” I said and he looked at me with a silent ‘why’ on his face. “I’m not very good at this.”
“What?!” Ultimate shock plastered over his features, he exclaimed. “Why did you even let me loan you my shirt, then? My brand new kit?”
“That’s irrelevant. You could’ve gotten me a spare one.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You said, and I quote, ‘I didn’t want to go to the locker room and come back the whole way out here’.”
“Well, that was just an excuse. I just wanted to see you in my shirt,” he grinned, “as well everyone.” That earned him a well-deserved glare.
“And I also wanted to give you something back.” He scratched the back of his head, looking awkward. “Thanks a lot for not reporting me to the board or the principal.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for some time now.” We slowed down and finally stopped some distance from where Rod was surrounded by the newcomers.
“Haha. No, really. I’m already on probation so that kind of harassment would’ve completed my record and of course totally made my day.”
“Well, in that case, you’re welcome.” He gave me a smile and I returned it.
“But just so you know, that wasn’t me sucking up to you for the last 30 minutes. I really want us to be friends. Officially.”
An inadvertent but a heartfelt chuckle left me, “Of course. What do you think we’ve been for the last 30 minutes?”
“Well, I did mention ‘officially’.”
I would’ve countered back was it not for Rodriguez who piped in, quite loudly.
“Mr. Hughes. We could start now. That is, if you are done briefing the Miss.”
That started a laugh riot, but strangely no flushed cheeks! Derek gave me a smile and trotted towards the goal, as did Nicole. Looking around for Steve and not finding him, I joined the other new kids as Rod explained. It didn’t sound to me like a proper program but well, when you’re in Rome, you gotta do it the Roman way, right?
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Nicole
I wanted to hurt someone. Ian: despite the fact that the miserable part of my life started the night he brought his crew to my home, I did feel sorry for the guy. He had enough reasons to hate me, like I had more than enough of them for him. But all that was before my eyes landed on a fresh pair of love birds.
Now I needed to hurt someone. I thought I had her pegged out just a little bit, if not all. It wasn’t like she was getting it on with him right there on the field, but I’d thought she’d at least try to avoid him by a miles’ radius.
But, no! There she was, going all lovey-dovey with the guy that’d just tried to bone her the other day and would have if it hadn’t been for me. She was lucky I still felt sorry for taking advantage of her that night. Yeah, she was so lucky that I’d lost the battle to convince myself that those tears we’d shared that night weren’t just a fine-art façade she’d pulled.
I didn’t hold the gaze and walked past them to the sidelines as soon as our eyes met. I didn’t even notice Clayton sit down beside me as I kept my gaze on them all the while they talked to Rod and even after they were gone, I kept watching just at everything, and nothing at the same time.
For a second, I’d thought I got my life back, at least a piece if not whole. It’d be never whole again, not without Mom. But Dad had to come back. Rina showed up, complicating everything and now Ian. Why wouldn’t they just give me a break?
“I know you’re upset but if you want an explanation, I’m here.”
I was surprised, more at how I totally zoned out than Steve successfully sneaking up on me. This usually didn’t happen to me; out of a classroom, that is. But this time, it was kinda good for me. I felt … calm, actually. Wasn’t sure if I saw her again with Derek, though.
“Say what you gotta say.” Sighing out a packet of hot breath, I gave him the green light.
“What do you wanna know first?”
I gave him a searching glance. “Okay. Where is Clay?”
“He left when I asked for his spot beside you twenty minutes agoyou aren’t … het up?” he didn’t even pause between those two sentences.
“Am I supposed to be?”
“This is new, and news!” He grinned. I rolled my eyes and set my gaze back into the nothingness. He continued after a while. “Actually, I only found out this morning that he was here.”
“What’s he doing here?” I sensed him looking out into the field too so didn’t turn to him when I asked.
“For the film fest.”
“That isn’t till the end of this term.”
“Says he was only here to talk things over but Stane dragged into the concert so he’ll be here for a while.”
“Isn’t that great?”
“I didn’t tell you ‘cause I thought you had enough on your plate.”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
A pause settled in and I felt his eyes on me again. “What’s going on, Nik?”
“I don’t know, Steve.” I said as my eyes landed on Rina with another boy. They set their eyes on me the same time as I did mine on them. But she instantly turned away. Good, at least she knew what guilt was.
I didn’t know for sure if I wanted her to make the team. If she did, that’d mean I’d get to see her more often. That’d also mean my stay-away-from-her plan totally going south.
“This won’t be happening again anytime soon so I’m gonna risk it.” he braced himself and I didn’t know what it was for but it made me chuckle a little. “How’s it going with your father?”
Why wasn’t I surprised he asked that? But I needed someone to open up to. And he’d always been there for me when no one else was, or could. “He might’ve changed a bit.”
“Did you talk?” he asked, surprise clear in his voice.
“Yes,” I turned to make something clear, “BUT it was not because you told me to.”
“You did it on your own, then.”
“Not exactly but we did talk. He apologized.” I didn’t wait for the surprise look on his face to form or any further question to build and turned my attention back to the group forming on the pitch. My eyes quickly scanned the area for her and found her, this time again with Derek!
Jesus, why can’t ‘I’ just give her a break? She had every right to flirt with anyone she wanted. She was gorgeous, after all and, it wasn’t like she belonged to me. She couldn’t, right? Arghhh, I never realized I had this much on my plate.
“And did you…?”
“Steve, you should know better to ask me if I …forgave him.” I asked exasperated, stressing out the word ‘forgave’.
“I meant to ask if you’d also talked to Rina.”
“Kinda. I gotta go, it’s starting.” I stood up and he did also. “No one’s home tonight so why don’t you come by the house later? I know you two get along well.”
“Maybe. But go easy on the girl, okay, Nik? She seems only to wanna help you.”
I grasped the bar under the roof of the dugout and leaned out of the confined space. “I don’t need help.”
It was good to finally see her without anyone by her side. I didn’t notice she was wearing her hair in a loose bun, which gave her an adorable look. A thin sheer of sweat carpeted her near anime-perfect features. But despite all that, despite all my efforts to stay my gaze on her face, my eyes failed NOT to betray my dirty mind dropping down to the kit she had on.
It was rather big, loosely fitted in her small frame, making her all the more cuter. However, it wasn’t the jersey that entranced me but the tantalizing movement beneath that made the material too alluring to take my eyes off of it. It also made me check on my own chest now and again to make sure it stayed flat, that is, when I somehow managed to tear my attention away from her.
Then I finally found a reason to dislike Rod. Unlike coach, he never dragged whenever he had to do the explaining. And as usual, he made it quick, cutting short my chance to ‘watch’ her. The new group started chatting noisily like a bunch of kindergarteners when Rod turned away from them to us.
Since the first game was drawing near, there wasn’t time for Rod to go through a proper routine. The plan was rather simple, though. We players shot. They gotta make the saves. Only three would get shortlisted, each of whom will be a part of the practices tomorrow where they’d get another chance to prove their worth.
Rod beckoned us to him as he took out his notebook. “Trevor Maxwell,” he called and turned to us, “Alex, will you help him?”
Alex readied the ball just outside the 18 yard line as Trevor stepped up in front of the goal. He’d have to first show us how he’d respond to a free kick. He didn’t. He just stood there as the ball was slotted in through the left bottom corner. Still, he was given another chance, this time against a further shot but it was safe to say that he failed to impress the assistant coach enough.
Other six kids stepped up, only one of which showed any sign of significance. When it came to the eighth A. N. Other, It was my turn to take the shot so I walked over to the free kick spot and was in position when Rod called out.
“Rina Haven.”
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Chloe
After about 20 minutes of just sitting there, cuddled up to each other, I finally managed to break away. “Thanks for bearing with my bullshit.”
“Hey, I asked! So no worries.” She teased, somehow bringing a smile to my lips. “But you still owe me the rest of the story. What happened after that?” Sighing I leaned back onto the arm of the couch, facing her.
“It’s okay if you wanna...”
“No, no. it’s alright.” I folded my hands and relaxed back into the arm of the sofa as she did the same.
“I didn’t know what happened to that guy and to be honest, I didn’t really care.” Resting my head onto backrest, I hugged my knees and looked into Mag’s eyes. But she wasn’t there. All I saw was the other half of my heart.
“They transferred me to another orphanage, probably to whitewash the whole thing. The only reason I didn’t complain was that she also had to go with me. To make it short, we became inseparable during the two years that followed.” I couldn’t hide a smile on my lips as I remembered the happiness those days brought to us both.
“Then this person, this woman as it later turned out, started sending money and stuff for her, said in the letters that she was a friend of her parents’. But it did nothing except make enemies for her. Everyone looked at her at first with envious eyes then with jealousy. And the whole thing made us grow closer. I became her shadow. She became my soul. Over time, I came to realize that I couldn’t live a meaningful life without her. And I thought she felt the same for me.”
Mag sat up, anxiety clear on her face.“It was the summer before our sophomore year. The woman finally showed up. Said she wanted her to go to a boarding school. Said she wanted to adopt her. I never saw her, though.”
I stopped without even knowing I did as the day replayed in my mind.
“So?” Mag asked, snapping me back to reality.
“I’d thought she’d turn her down once she’d heard it, you know, because I’d done the same for her. I’d turned down a few couples that wanted to take me in and she knew that the only reason was her. So it did more than surprise me to hear her reply to her that she’d think about it. ”
“I felt betrayed, Mag. My whole world stopped revolving. I couldn’t deal with the fact that she was going to leave me. “I gave out a little lunatic laugh as I remembered how I was then, “So I left her before she did. And it was too late when I realized what I’d done and went back. She was already gone.”
“I couldn’t forgive her. I was only gone for about three weeks. She should’ve waited for me. She shouldn’t have given in that easily and grabbed that bitch’s hand and went with her.” I heaved a deep sigh then. “I would’ve.”
“But,” My heart grew heavy and restless as it usually did whenever I thought about what I could’ve done, “If I could take it all back, I’d go back there. I’d listen to her.” By the look on her face, Mag knew exactly what I was talking about, what I was feeling.
“Maybe she’d wait for me when I finally got out of that place. Maybe if I hadn’t acted on such stupid impulse, we’d still be together now.”
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