Forever Is Now

Lessons Learned

Mackenzie  | pov

"Wayne, I am going to fall. I don't like that!" I scream as he attempts to teach me to roller skate on the track that surrounds the football field. He has been holding me the entire time and any time he lets go, my body almost hits the ground.

He is starting to look frustrated. "I don't get it, you can ice skate but you are struggling with this?"

I look at him shocked, almost offended. "It's not the same thing though," I say to him with a bit of an attitude.

Wayne just looks at me, unmoved by my tone or facial expression. "Same principles apply,"

I decide to 'apply' what I know about ice skating to this and after a few stumbles, I get it right. I am wearing the black pair with a black Nike gym set. We do several laps around the track until both of us have had enough.

"I didn't know you were allowed on the field on Sundays," I say to Wayne as we sit on the bench facing the field, changing our shoes to sneakers.

"As long as I'm practicing, coach doesn't mind. In fact, he would even encourage it," he says and stands, holding up a football ball. "So, you up for a game?" Wayne has the brightest smile on his face and I can't say no.

I quickly get up and grab the ball, sprinting away from him. I reach the touchdown area and have my own celebration, cheering like there was a crowd watching. "Would your coach still approve after finding out you were out run by a girl?"

He just laughs and grabs the ball from me. "I've seen you play and heard stories. Why don't you want to play in college?" I know he is talking about netball.

"I was good at it, great even. But lost the passion for it when I started getting old enough to know the politics that surrounds sport after high school. I also don't like the constant moodiness that girls have towards each other. It's like I always need to make sure that they like me or if they don't, I need to correct them whenever I feel direspected," I tell Wayne, he is about to say something and I already know what it is, "And no, I can't ignore them, I've tried."

He nods slowly, "So love the game but hate the players?"

I smile at him, "I've never thought if it like that but yeah. If I had 7 or 8 girl friends who loved playing the sport and we were on the same team all the time, I would definitely continue playing. But next week is my last match, probably for the rest of my life," and I am okay with that. I have spent some time thinking about this and decided it was not worth it. "Since I am doing it for fitness and health, I can easily join a gym or take up a different sport,"

"Like tennis?" Wayne asked.

I smile, knowing he is referring to the conversation we had for the first time, months ago. "Yeah, maybe. Enough about me, are you actually going to practice or am I a distraction?" I face him and stand on tippy toes to kiss him.

He looks down at me and pecks my lips, "a distraction but a good one," Wayne pecks me 2 more times and takes a step back. "Do you know how to throw the ball?"