My Buddy Archie [3]

70..

sorry for the delay

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"Oh, Ezra, does run quite fast!"

"Thane is the top scorer on his out of school team. He's just doing school football to warm up for his real practice."

"Alistair just got back from Spanish for winter break! Doesn't seem like he was prepared for this slow pace."

I looked over my shoulder at the three women sitting behind me on the bleacher. Their posh accents and their kid's snobby names were getting on my nerve, and I haven't even been here that long. I thought I'd stay to watch Archie's first practice since it was nice and sunny out, but the women behind me were really ruining my time. They boys weren't even running around yet!

"Oh, hello!" One of them said behind me. I felt a tap on my shoulder and suppressed a cringe as I turned around. "I don't believe I've seen you here before. Are you new?"

I put on a smile, "Yes, I'm Connie."

"Theodora," she said, shooting a megawatt, freshly cleaned toothy smile. Her thumb was pointed to the other two women. "This is Verona and Samantha."

"Nice to meet you."

"Which one is your son?" Samantha asked.

I turned around and pointed at Archie, in yellow t-shirt, black shorts and black socks. They seemed to be setting up a drill. "He's the one dressed as a bumble bee. Archie Horan."

"Oh," Verona mused.

"What position is he?"

"I'm...not sure. He just turned eight last month, so this is his first time on a team." Three sets of eyes widened at me, as if I grew another head. I felt my face heating a little. "Well, he practices with his Dad in the yard. He's pretty good for a rookie from what I've seen."

They all looked at each other before Theodora gave me another fake smile. "That's lovely!"

"Yes, thank you," I gave her an equally fake smile before turning around. Just in time to see Archie trip over a cone.

——

Once the practice was over, Jonas had joined me on the bleachers, though he was too busy texting to pay attention to what was going on. Thankfully, Archie didn't lollygag when the practice ended. He came right over to me, with a huge smile on his face. My insides burst with happiness and pride. The other women's sons didn't give them a happy smile.

"Hello, love," I smiled back, reaching forward to pick some grass off his sock. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, it was fun. I went easy on them."

Laughing a little I said, "There you go. Don't show them all your skills the first practice. Ready to head out?" He nodded and I elbowed Jonas to get his attention before we started towards the car. "Jonas, who are you texting so passionately?"

"The cowgirl, probably Mum."

"She's not a cow!" Archie laughed and ran ahead of us to escape Jonas' whack to the head. "I'm going to ask her to formal, then you guys can see how pretty she is." I smirked at him as I unlocked the car as we all climbed in.

"Jonas, where's your mum this time?" Archie said from the back.

"America—New York. She'll be back in two weeks."

I frowned, "Two weeks?" He nodded. I glanced at him to see a bone chilling lack of emotion in his face. His mother drove me insane. He's supposed to be looking at colleges, doing things with her, to plan out his future. It's one thing to focus on work, but you can't abandon your family. That's heartless. I wouldn't be surprised if Jonas thought she didn't care about him.