He smiles and waves me off as he walks in the opposite direction from the arena. I watch him go for a minute before turning. I glance at the athletic building briefly before putting my head down and hurrying to my office. If I had a tail, it’d be between my legs.
There’s a bag on my door that I spot from down the hall. When I reach it, I pull it from the handle and let myself in. Once I set my things down, I open the bag to find a note.
Hi, Coach!
I’m sorry I missed you. I didn’t want to be late for class, so I’m leaving this behind and I’ll stop by later today.
Here’s a jersey of mine that you can wear to show that you support a student athlete. I hope it fits. I took a guess since I didn’t think to ask for your shirt size.
Thank you again!
Carly
I grin as I take it from the bag and shake it out. Pulling my shirt over my head, thankful for a reason to get the cum stain off me, I put on Carly’s jersey instead. With a grin still firmly in place, I head for the bathroom to take a look.
I’m not sure I’ve ever worn a jersey from another sport. It’s strange not having long sleeves. but I don’t hate this at all. The front has a dragon, the back has THOMPSON and her number 71. The colors are black, gray, white, and purple. Honestly, it’s probably one of the coolest jerseys I’ve seen.
I’ve always wondered where teams come up with their names, logos, and colors. I mean, there’s the Buffalo Skidmoss and their logo is a hockey puck with green sludge dripping off. Who thought that was a good idea? Who went walking in a swamp, saw goop, and said,hey, this would make a great team logo!
No one can even say what a skidmoss is! I’m confident that it’s made up and at this point, I think it’s a gimmick that they keep. Now and then, their official page on ShareIt will show their hashtag growth for #WhatIsASkidmoss. They’re in the millions.
Not going to lie, I’ve looked it up too.
“Aww, Coach!” I hear as I step out of the bathroom. Turning, I find Leo looking at me with a harassed look. “Are you really wearing a lacrosse jersey?”
I chuckle. “Seems to me like those girls are resourceful and reaching out to coaches of other teams,” I answer, giving him a pointed look.
Leo sighs dramatically. “Fine. I’m pretty sure that counts as cheating on us, though.”
I know he says it teasingly, but it makes me flinch. Just the single word. Cheating.
“No one would know I’m sponsoring a student if I wore one of your jerseys,” I counter, trying to cover up the slip. “They’d just think I’m showing favoritism.”
Leo rolls his eyes. “I guess.”
“Get to the gym.”
He grins and turns to head back down the hall as I return to my office, ignoring the way my heart races.Cheating.I’m a cheater now.
The worst part is I can’t convince myself that I’ll be able to push Lemon away if he approaches me again. Does that mean I like it? Is it just curiosity or an experimentation thing? Maybe it has something to do with Lemon himself? The fact he’s so hostile and yet, he still wants to mess around with me.
What am I even saying?!
I don’t understand what’s going on with me!
Shaking my head, I drop back into my chair and turn on my computer. It loads and I just stare at it. Even when it pulls up the login screen, I just stare. Unable to bring myself to do anything.
Maybe I need to turn off for a while. Stop thinking.
Getting up, I shut my office door and change into a set of gym clothes. Grabbing a bottle of water, I head for the hockey gym.
There are three different gyms on campus. One in the hockey arena, one in the athletic department—which is much bigger than the one here in the arena. And the third is in the campus commons for the entire campus to use. I’m not sure anyone would kick a non-athletic student out of one of our gyms, but there you have it.
Leo’s here, as I suspected he’d be, and so are two other players. I join Hakeem at the treadmills. He grins when I step up to the one next to him.
“Heya, Coach,” he says.
I incline my head. “Hakeem. Good to see you.”
