This is one of those sports where cardio matters. I should have been running on the beach this summer.
Fortunately, there’s only twenty minutes left of practice so, at most, I’ll be running around for twenty minutes. It’s not awful.Unlike so many people, I don’t hate running. I’m not going to say it’s my favorite thing to do, but I don’t hate it.
We’ve been split up into colored shirts. I’m in a dark blue shirt so my teammates are in black, blue, and purple. Our opponents are in every other color, which is primarily light gray and white.
The whistle blows and we’re moving. The ball comes to me almost immediately, and I kick it away. I’m going to pretend it was intentional, but I even used the skills we were just working on and didn’t look in the direction I kicked.
Thankfully, it made it to my intended target, another guy on my team. I run up and down the field, barely touching the ball until we’re right in front of the net. I nearly collide with another guy. Our feet come together, and the ball goes up in the air.
The other guy hits it off his head. It goes wild and comes back to me a minute later. I kick it up behind me as I dart around the player blocking my path and kick it when it comes back down. It hits the goal in the upper right corner.
“You’re really good,” one of the guys says, slapping my back. I think his name is Jeff Doherty. That’s what Coach Harper called him, right?
I give him a smile. “Eh,” I answer, wobbling my hand back and forth.
He laughs.
I don’t make another goal, but Jeff comments on my skills a couple more times. While I’m not sure I earned that praise, I’ll take it. I’m slow to move toward the bench where everyone is gathered to grab their water.
With my head bowed, I focus on my heart racing and my breathing. I don’t feel excessively out of breath, so I’m thankful for that, at least. However, I’m very aware that I’m heading toward Alka. He’s already on his feet and talking to Coach Harper, though I think he’s still looking in my direction.
I move as slowly as I possibly can without making it look like I’m intentionally stalling for time. I ran hard. Played hard. Mypanting isn’t faked, so when I grab my water and slowly—so fucking slowly—make my way back to the locker room, it’s probably at least semi-believable.
It’s full of excited chatter, lockers opening and slamming. I hear the water from the showers in the distance and guys talking. It’s normal.
And Alka’s not in here, so I don’t feel so…aware.
“You take the summer off, Kip?” Jeff asks.
“Yes,” I admit, glancing up at him. Oh good, this is going to work in my favor. “I need a minute.”
He laughs as I lean against my locker and continue to slowly sip my water. The locker room is already thinning out as guys head to the showers.
“Dude, it was weird the way you and Coach were looking at each other,” the man across from me says. His locker name reads R. Gupta. “What happened there?”
I shrug. I’ve been trying to find a plausible explanation for that, especially since Alka sat on the bench for the entire practice and watched me. I both loved it and found it unnerving because I knew everyone else saw it too.
“Dunno.”
“It’s like he saw a ghost and you were put on the spot,” he says, shaking his head. He shuts his locker while flinging a towel over his shoulder.
“Yeah. Deer in headlights,” I agree as I turn my back on them and open my locker. I don’t want to lie, but I’m obviously not going to tell them the truth either. Besides, it’s not like we planned this. I can’t help but think if we said justonemore thing about where he works or soccer orsomething, we’d have at least had a heads up and not seconds to prepare for this moment.
But I’m not throwing him under the bus and claiming it’s all him watching me and making it weird. If they’d been looking at me before he said my name, they’d have seen that I was already preparing for the moment when Alka saw me.
My water is empty, so I can’t use that as a means to slowdown anymore. I concentrate on undressing and shoving my sweaty clothes in the top of the locker before shutting it. I grab a towel on my way to the shower and settle in for a long one to give everyone else time to get out.
It’s maybe twenty minutes or so later by the time I turn the hot water off. I dry in the shower, just to prolong the moment a little more before finally heading back to my locker. There are still stragglers finishing getting dressed, but they’re just about done. I don’t have to move so slowly now. As I pick up my phone, I realize I didn’t text Lix, so I do that now. It’s going to be a minute anyway. I’mgoingto see Alka.
Where do I even find the coach’s office? What am I going to say?
Just as I finish stuffing the rest of my dirty clothes into my bag, I hear footsteps. I shut my locker door, pocket my phone, and zip my bag as Alka stops at the end of the row of lockers.
My breath catches as I look at him. He looks around before stepping toward me, nodding. There’s no chill. I practically leap into his arms, our mouths crashing together.
Warmth seeps through me like I’ve been outside in the snow for far too long and my body is learning how to reabsorb heat again. His arms grip me tightly. I want to climb him and wrap around him like a koala.
“I’m sorry,” I say when our mouths break. “I tried to warn you over the phone, but I didn’t know if it was actually an emergency. Maybe I should have just blurted it.”
