“Hey guys,” Amber turned towards the guys behind them and Tessa’s face grew scarlet red. “Which one is Tristan Kelly?”
“Amber!” Tessa elbowed her friend aggressively, absolutely dying inside from embarrassment.
“Kelly?” One of them replied with a shocked tone. “Everyone knows he’s a tight end, the best in college football.”
“He’s a what?” Amber asked with a chuckle. “A tight end? What in the hell is that?”
The group laughed at her lightly and were more than happy to appease her ignorance.
“Don’t worry about it. He catches the ball, makes lots of touch downs. Number 18.”
“Oooh, number 18,” Amber said with a teasing tone. Tessa simply rolled her eyes.
“Can I haveyournumber?”
“Maybe if they win,” Amber replied, giving a seductive smile over her shoulder and turning back towards the field.
“You’re the worst,” Tessa said, but her eyes were scanning for 18.
The sun had already gone down and there was a slight breeze in the air. It was now the last week in September, and the leaves and temperature had begun to change. Tessa remembered how Tristan told her about his favorite weather to play footballbeing in the cold snow and how he hated to play when it was hot outside. She grunted, annoyed with herself for paying such close attention to things he said.
“There is he!” Abigail grabbed Tessa’s arm and pointed towards the field.
“Put your finger down!” Tessa hissed, immediately swatting her friend’s hand away.
“Oh my God where?” Amber asked.
Tessa was mortified and wanted to melt into a puddle and never return. Their seats were literally right up against therailing. The section of family and friends was a high priority for seating and were envied by everyone else at the game. When the security guard had scanned their tickets and shown them to their seats, her two friends yelped in surprise and excitement, and she wanted to run away. She was hoping she would be a faceless figure in a sea of tens of thousands of screaming students, but nope. Their seats were front and center, right on the field. And the last thing she wanted was for Tristan to spot her and her friends pointing and giggling at him.
“Sorry Tessa, we’ll play it cool,” Abigail said, feeling a rare wave of sympathy upon seeing her friend clearly uncomfortable with their outbursts. She always loved to give her a hard time but knew when to back off a little. She shot Amber a warning glare.
Tessa took a deep breath and brought her eyes back to the field, scanning, looking, anticipating; and then there he was.
She watched his magnetic and powerful figure walk across the field with some of his teammates. He held his helmet in his right hand and began slapping his teammates on the back, hyping them up for the game that was about to start. Her stomach flipped and her heart raced. This was a new level of hot she had never seen before. She had only seen him on Thursdays after practice, and he always looked annoying handsome in his casual sweats.
This was something else entirely. The look on his face was different. It wasn’t the kind, soft, easy-going eyes she was used to looking in. Now his eyes seemed darker, more focused, bordering on threatening as he looked towards the other team. His already huge figure looked even bigger in the tight athletic pants and huge shoulder pads. The way he walked back and forth across the field, seeming to be deep in thought, perhaps mentally prepping himself for the battle ahead gave off an energy, aura, and level of confidence she wasn’t sure she’d seen before in a guy. Especially not the guys she usually dated.
“Tessa... he’shot," Amber said as quietly as she could. Abigail didn’t say anything but simply snuck a sideways glance at Amber and raised her eyes brows in an attempt to silently agree.
“I don’t want to hear another word from either of you for the rest of the game,” Tessa said defiantly, but knowing damn well that her friend was right.
Annoyingly, Abigail was right. She was starting to get into the game. Luckily her friends were able to answer most of her questions, and the questions they didn’t know they were brave enough to turn around and ask the guys behind them, who explained everything so intricately and passionately it amazed her. It started to make more sense to Tessa why Tristan was so obsessed with football by seeing all the people around her being so severely invested and enthusiastic about the game; she wasn’t sure she had seen this level of passion from people before.
“He’s having a good game by the way,” one of the guys said to them, “Kelly. He hasn’t scored but he’s got a hell of a lot of yards, and did you see that catch he made during the last play? Insane.”
“So, he’s like, a good player?” Amber asked coyly, peaking at Tessa.
“You could say that,” the guy answered with a sarcastic laugh. “He’s got NFL scouts already coming to see him play, if that puts it into perspective for you.”
Wow, so Tristan’ goals of playing in the NFL were not pipe dreams. All his hard work and commitment were going to pay off. That made Tessa smile.
At halftime, the game was tied. Both teams were playing high level and aggressively. Tessa had watched in amazement at how powerful and commanding Tristan was on the field. How fast he ran, how he was able to throw his large body across the field tocatch the ball in one of his gigantic hands. He made it all look so easy, like it was the most natural thing in the world. She had also never seen him so serious or focused before, and the look in his eyes as he walked off the field at half time brought a surge of warmth through her belly that was unfamiliar to her.
“It’s a tight game," Abigail said as they sat down to watch the halftime entertainment. “LSU’s defense looks great out there. I always liked watching football with my dad, but when it came down to the wire and it was a close game I always got too anxious to watch.”
“I can’t even imagine the anxiety the players feel,” Tessa said, feeling a slight bit of concern come over her for Tristan, thinking about him being upset or stressed about the game.
“These guys are tough as nails,” Abigail said, “This is a super high pressure and physical sport. I’ve always been in awe ofhow they can play so stoically through close games like this.”
