I notice a blonde with glasses wearing an oversized Vipers sweatshirt and looking like she wants to be anywhere else. Which is weird because at Northgate the soccer games are the equivalent to football games for other colleges. Everyone wants to come and be included. But not the girl who I sit next to. She doesn’t look up or acknowledge me in anyway, and I wonder if she’s here alone. Or maybe she’s dating one of the guys on the team since she’s clearly wearing one of their hoodies.
Not that I can speak to that since I’m wearing one of Colin’s and most definitelynotdating him.
It’s the way she seems uncomfortable that has me speaking up.
“Hi, I’m Mayson,” I introduce and she jumps, clearly not expecting anyone to talk to her.
“Hey, I’m Riley.”
I nod toward her hoodie. “You know any of the guys?”
She opens her mouth to speak, but then the crowd cheers loudly, cutting off whatever she was about to say, and I look onto the field where the players are running out from the locker rooms. At the same time Riley is joined by a guy carrying snacks.
Of course, the Vipers should be led by their captain, MadsKeller, but Colin is the first to run out. I roll my eyes at the obnoxious striker pumping his arms in the air as he does everything to draw as much attention to himself.
He scans the crowd during his showboating and his eyes lock on mine sending a chill down my spine. He smiles, clearly pleased I’m here like he asked. I fight every urge in my body to flip him off, but then he winks and breaks our eye contact to focus on prepping for the game.
“Is that your boyfriend?” Riley’s question has me cringing.
“God no, he’s my stepbrother.”
She hums curiously. For a moment I wonder if she’s going to ask me more, but she doesn’t and I breathe out a sigh of relief.
My focus is purely on the match once it starts anyway. My adrenaline spikes as I watch, just like it would if I was the one on the field playing. I watch their center mid, Reynolds, keeping most of my focus on him since we play the same position. It’s always interesting for me to see and compare where I could improve.
The men’s game is slightly different than ours, and I recognize that, but I also fully believe my team could be out there up against the guys and win.
The visiting team gets possession, dribbling the ball back toward the Vipers goal. Our winger, Gomez, tries to get possession when they pass, but fails and our goalie, Keller, is locked in waiting for the shot.
They take it, the ball just barely gets past his hand and into the goal. The crowd lets out a collective groan while the opposing team celebrates their win.
For some reason during that moment my eyes find Colin’s once again, and see he’s already looking up at me, though I don’t know why. And not only is he looking at me, but he lookspissed.
I narrow my eyes at him, silently asking, “What?”
He just shakes his head, raises his chin and then gets back into position for the next play. Again, I hear Riley make some sort of humming noise next to me, but I’m too busy being wrapped up in whatever that just was to care.
It seems like the Vipers losing a goal so early in the game has them more fired up than before, evident in the aggressive playing strategy they adopt. Of course in soccer you can’t gettoocrazy, this isn’t hockey. But it seems like Colin doesn’t care about that because he definitely makes some questionable shoves that the refs don’t even call.
The intensity of the game increases and I’m completely locked in. Especially when Colin has possession of the ball, doing what he does best, much to my dismay. He may piss me off but one thing I can’t say about him is that he’s a shitty player. He shoots the ball toward the net, bypassing the goalie so easily it looks like he wasn’t even trying.
This time when the crowd celebrates, Colin hardly acknowledges his teammates. Instead, he turns toward the crowd and looks right to me. I hold my breath in anticipation for whatever he’s going to do, but all he does is smile before turning away.
To anyone else it looked like a normal smile. To me, I know that means he has plans. I don’t know if I’m more afraid of what those plans could be, or how badly I want to find out.
I hate to admit that it’s a good game, and that I actually really like watching the guys. There are a few moments I feel like I would play differently if it were me on the field. I get a sick satisfaction thinking about telling Colin every criticism I have from the game. Even though they won, I have a list I could give him.
I bet he would love that. Biting back a chuckle at thethought, I see Riley and her friend whose name I never actually caught are standing and waving goodbye.
Pulling my cap down on my head, I make my way out of the stadium and feel like I should go anywhere other than home. I don’t want to be around the man I just watched play my favorite sport for the last hour and a half.
Mostly because watching him was more stimulating than I want to admit. I already can’t help myself around him and this might make it worse. As I’m walking out, I pull my phone out in search of a different distraction in a group chat with a couple of my teammates.
Mayson
What’s everyone doing?
Maeghen
