worth the risk • dean portman

chapter one

morgan

"Five, four, three, two, one....!"

As the final buzzer sounds, all you can hear are the ecstatic cheers coming from me and my teammates. We've just successfully defended our state championship, and I can't deny that I just played the game of my life.

Being a outside defender, a lot of the game is relied on me. I have to make sure that the opposing midfielders don't get any space as they run near the outline of the field, and I have to slide to cover my teammates if they get beat.

In simpler terms, it's a lot of work.

The first thing I do when the buzzer sounds is immediately run to my best friends, Ella and Sadie. I throw my arms around them and start to jump up and down like a lunatic, but I don't even care how crazy I look. I've just become a two-time state champion, and a back-to-back one too.

We then share in a huge group hug with our team, and I don't think I've ever been happier. My life is so amazing right now that it's genuinely surreal. I have the best friends in the world, an amazing family, and the perfect boyfriend. What could be better?

Speaking of boyfriends, he's who I run to first when Hofmann lets us go. He throws his big, strong arms around me and kisses the top of my head. "I'm so proud of you. You're amazing."

"No, you are." I hug him tighter and smile to myself. I genuinely don't know how I got so lucky.

I honestly never thought that I'd have a boyfriend in high school or have anything close to a relationship until college. And to be honest, I didn't really want one. The thought of having to worry about a relationship along with all of my schoolwork just seemed like too much.

And then I met Dean.

I didn't meet him until my friends and I ran into him at the mall while he was with Charlie one time in freshman year. I knew he was new, because I didn't even see him on the Ducks until that last period of the JV-Varsity showdown. We exchanged social medias and that was about it.

I thought he was cute, but I honestly didn't think that he felt the same. Clearly he did, because otherwise we wouldn't be together. He even flat out told me he thought I was cute later that first night.

Dean is one of the most honest and blunt people I've ever met, and that's something I love about him. He's never afraid to say what he thinks and isn't afraid of who it might hurt. You can always count on him to tell you the one hundred percent truth, no matter what.

When I finally let go of Dean, I give his hand a squeeze and stand on my tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek. "Gotta go. See you later?"

He blows me a kiss and points up finger guns at me, like he always does. "You bet!"

After taking our team picture, we all load back onto the bus for the two hour drive back to campus. As I sit down next to Addison, I notice that she seems a little down. "Everything okay?"

She shrugs and starts to fidget with the zipper of her backpack. "I guess. I just don't know what to do about Luis."

My jaw falls open in shock. "What? Why? I thought he finally asked you out."

"Me too." she responds with a sad sigh. "But apparently not. He doesn't know what he wants, and it's exhausting. It's like one minute he's telling me how much he likes me and how lucky he is to have me, and then the next he's basically ghosting me and pretending like I don't exist. I'm sick and tired of playing his games. I've been playing for a year and I want to stop."

"I'm sorry Addie." I say, wrapping my arm around her and bringing her head to rest on my shoulder. "I really thought he was going to mature after the summer, but I guess not. Boys are stupid anyway, you don't need them."

"Easy for you to say." Addison mumbles. "You have a boyfriend who would literally go to hell and back just to see you smile. I'm lucky if I even get a text asking about my day."

I pull her closer to me and lean my head against hers. "Luis is stupid. If he can't see how great of a person you are, he's not the boy for you. Your time will come, I promise."

She doesn't answer me, so I just close my eyes and hope that I'll fall asleep. I always feel guilty when people compare their relationships to mine, because they make it seem like the standard.

Yes, Dean treats me like a queen. But that doesn't mean we've never had our moments either. I just wish people saw both sides of a relationship before trying to compare. Besides, every relationship is different. It's unfair to judge something based on the expectation that yours will be the same.

Sleeping does the trick, because Addison is shaking me awake as we're pulling into our campus. I stretch and check my phone, smiling instantly when I see a text from Dean saying how proud he is of me. It's the little things like this that make me fall more in love with him every day.

When I'm back in my dorm, I flop face first onto my bed and try to ignore all of the suitcases everywhere. We're moving out of the dorms on Saturday, so the winter season sports can move in. I don't know how I'm supposed to pack everything up in the next day, but I'm going to try my best.

I take a quick shower and throw on some sweats, and it only starts to sink in now that I'm a two-time state champ. The plans for the celebration party are already starting to form, and I think about volunteering my house until I remember why I can't.

My dad's business partner and his family are flying in on Saturday night from New York to spend their annual few months here, and I know my parents wouldn't appreciate the mess that would inevitably be in the backyard. Besides, I'm first coming back home on Saturday morning and I don't want to deal with the mess either.

We finally settle on Aaliyah's house, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Planning these parties are insanely stressful, and the responsibility would mostly be on my friends and I next year if we three-peat.

I text Dean to let him know the plan and so he can pass the message along to the hockey team, but I'm sure some of them already know. Half our team is dating players on the hockey team, so any news about anything always travels quickly between our teams.

Since I don't want to deal with packing tomorrow night before the party, I just start shoving things into my suitcases. I actually manage to get most of it done, which is very good for me. Once mostly everything is packed, I bring the suitcases outside and shove them into my car.

Now that everything is out of the way, I do homework until my eyes are watering from exhaustion. I say goodnight to Sadie, since Ella is already passed out and has been for almost an hour.

Knowing that the Kennedys are coming makes me a little nervous, but I'll handle it like I always do. Besides, Jake is well aware that nothing is ever going to happen between us.