Right Place, Wrong Time

4. Go Blue

High up in the stands, the wind seemed to buffet Lauren on all sides, her hair blowing in her eyes. Impatiently, she tucked it behind her ears and scanned below for Joey. The plan had been to meet outside the stadium but he'd texted to say he was running late, so she and Darren decided to go in and save a spot for him. A great plan, as long as they could find each other.

She needn't have worried, though.

"There," she smacked Darren's arm, pointing down through the people shuffling into rows of seats to the tall boy in the bright yellow shirt with blue face paint smeared across his cheeks.

Darren cupped his hands around his mouth. "Joey!" he called.

Joey's head snapped up, spotting Lauren, who was waving her hands in the air, and his face broke into a grin. He jogged up the steps to meet them, slipping in beside them.

"I see you got the memo," Lauren said.

His eyes flicked down to her much more understated theatre school shirt and he grinned. "Go blue."

Darren reached past Lauren to clap his back. "One of us already."

A loud cheer rose up through the crowd, the only signal to Lauren that play had started. She scanned the field for the ball, and proceeded to lose track of it repeatedly throughout the first half. At half time, Darren offered to go get drinks, leaving Lauren and Joey listening to the band.

"Are you having fun?" he asked.

She wrinkled her nose, and he laughed. "Does anyone actually enjoy watching a bunch of guys run around throwing a ball to each other?"

"Any sports you are into?"

"Women's gymnastics. I was a gymnast as a kid."

"I can see that," he nodded.

"Because I'm short? Or because of these muscles?" She pushed up the sleeve of her t-shirt and flexed, laughing when Joey's face turned red.

He cleared his throat. "I bet you were great at it."

"I was alright," she said. "Clearly I didn't make it to the Olympics."

"But if you did, we wouldn't have met," he pointed out.

She smiled at him. "No, we wouldn't have."

"A little help?" Darren said, back and balancing three drinks in hand. They both rushed to unburden him.

Play started again, and Lauren was back to trying to keep track of what was going on. She shook her head to get the hair out of her face, wishing she'd thought to bring a hair tie, when she felt fingers at her temple, Joey brushing a stuck strand off her face. She smiled at him, heat searing her skin, felt more acutely in the cold wind.

"Thank you."

"No problem," he said, eyes turning back to the field, and she forced herself to look away too.

The noise of the crowd was her best gauge of how things were going. The first half had been low rumblings as they trailed behind, but now Lauren winced at the repeated loud cheers when the Wolverines scored. They pushed their way into the lead, Darren and Joey both bouncing with excitement on either side of her. When time was called and the winners official, the cheers became deafening. After celebrating like he'd scored the winning touchdown himself, Joey pulled her into a hug, leaving her laughing in surprise against him. Another set of arms wrapped around them, Darren joining the hug, and Lauren wondered if this strange trio really might work.

The stadium began to empty out with people heading on to their own celebrations, and they joined the tide of people.

"That was great for your first game," Lauren said, turning over her shoulder to look at Joey as they descended the stairs. But she should have kept looking where she was going, because she rolled her ankle on the next step down. Images of herself falling flashed through her mind, cut short by the hand that gripped her arm, holding her up.