When she locked eyes with Avery, he grinned, it was then when Hailey remembered some texting from Friday night that may or may not have been embarrassing.
“Hey, Avery, sorry I bothered you Friday night. I was a bit … tipsy.”
He laughed, “That’s you tipsy? I’d love to see … I mean, you weren’t bothering me. I was actually with family and bored out of my mind when you texted. So thanks for improving my night.”
Was it just Hailey, or was Avery blushing a bit? Must be because it’s chilly out.
“Anytime! I’ll send you dick pics more often!”
That’s when everyone else’s heads snapped up tolook at her.
Abby regained the ability to speak first, “How did you … what?”
“Relax, you guys. It was pictures of penis-shaped paraphernalia from my friend’s bachelorette party.” She took a breath before looking off into the distance at nothing. “There were penises everywhere, as far as the eye could see. But somehow I survived to tell the tale.”
“You dork, ha!” said Abby.
Hailey decided it was time for a subject change. “Abby, did you figure out where you’re traveling yet?” Abby brightened and launched into a top ten list of the places she was thinking of traveling. Apparently narrowing down that list was proving to be quite a task for her.
She had originally gone to school for writing and editing but was finding the job market a bit soul-crushing at the moment and was stuck in a customer service job she hated. Who would have thought when they were in college they would have to fight against artificial intelligence for jobs. It was like no one learned their lesson from the “Terminator” movies.
Abby figured taking a break from it all and leaving the country to discover a new culture would clear her headspace a little before she came back to the dumpster fire of reality, as Hailey loved to call it.
“It’s so cool you’re going by yourself. Idefinitely don’t have the courage to do that,” Avery told Abby. She beamed back at him.
“Right? I mean, no one really has the time to go with me anywhere, unless one of you changes your mind! I’m really excited about it. I’ll probably do one of those organized tour things so I don’t have to plan as much, but I’ll definitely take a lot of time to myself.”
“Oh my goodness, you should totally write about your adventures!” Hailey brightened at her own idea. “You could blog about it!”
“Not a bad idea. I’ll definitely think about that one! Gonna try to decide on a locale in the next month or two.”
Hailey started clapping and bouncing where she sat. “I can’t wait to live vicariously through you! And maybe sneak into your luggage!”
She spent the rest of her time stretching trying to figure out if she could swing a vacation and keep Abby company. Maybe if she picked up a few busy weekend shifts at the restaurant to pay for a flight. Ugh, all the inventions in this world and why hasn’t anyone invented teleportation yet? Or at least an automatic laundry folder?
———————————
The first two games were easy wins for the team and they got a decent seed in the bracket. They were facing thegray team, the Knights, in the first elimination round.
While they were regrouping at the next field, a few of them changed out some of their layers. The chill of the morning was gone and it was starting to get warm.
Hailey tried really hard to not look when Avery took off his shirt. She definitely didn’t notice his lean torso with abs for days and that crazy “V” thing men had. Didn’t notice at all.
Shaking off the distraction, she ripped off her sweated-through long-sleeve shirt and was left standing in a sports bra that somehow made her tits look fantastic and also supported them. She didn’t have much going for her, but at least she had a decent rack. She tried on so many damn bras to find this one. Almost as annoying as trying on bathing suits.
Once she got her new shirt over her head, she snuck a glance at Avery and noticed he was already watching her, and he certainly wasn’t looking at her eyes. He turned back to the field once her shirt was on. Turnabout was fair play, she guessed.
The bracket showed that the gray Knights lost their first two matches, and Hailey’s team made it three wins in a row. They were steam rolling through the first two elimination rounds and they just had one more to get to the championship.
Avery managed to knock two goals into the back of the net in the semifinals and they were sailing into thechampionship round.
Ugh. The green team, the Goblins. Taking a look at them, they resembled monsters. Definitely bigger than them, but the Cherry Stems were probably quicker. Like a version of “Space Jam,” but without the cartoons or Michael Jordan. The Goblins also had this douchecanoe on their team that always played a little too rough. Even Cole took games against them more seriously.
The game was divided into two twenty-minute halves and the first half went by without any goals for either team. Cole was getting too much action in the net and they needed to shut green down in the second half.
Cole’s halftime pep talk was one of the most inspirational and motivating things Hailey had ever heard.
He took a deep breath, looked at all of them and said, “Do better.” Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best pep talk, but it was really all they needed to hear.
