Tough Love - Chris Sturniolo

Transfer

Anastasia

Fuck I love winning. I was riding that high when Chris asked me to go to their place, and I was as surprised as him to find I was into it. I think knowing Chris wouldn't keep stupidly hitting on me helped, and I maybe wanted to spend some more time with him. He was okay when he wasn't being annoying.

I met Mark, their roommate, and said hi to Matt before we all started walking across campus to their place. Chris was kind of ridiculous, and it was hard not to laugh and encourage his antics, but I succeeded. He vaulted over low poles along the sidewalk, made jokes about things and people and cars and signs. His brain seemed to always be running, always thinking of something new every few seconds. He reminded me of a puppy going for a walk, when they get distracted by a butterfly, lose their balance jumping to catch it, and then randomly sprinting and forgetting about the butterfly completely. It was incredibly cute and you couldn't help laugh at how goofy it could be. Not that I was laughing.

At one point, Chris and I walked side-by-side and talked for a while.

"So why are you spending time on our campus?" He asked, genuinely curious. I thought on whether or not to tell him the truth, and decided I'd like someone to know. All I told him was I'd gotten another scholarship offer and was considering switching universities, I just left out motivation, which was my ex.

"Two soccer scholarships back to back is crazy," he commented, sounding impressed. "When you switch, you'll have to let me know when your first game is," he offered. I hadn't confirmed whether I'd be switching or not, but his offer caught me off guard.

"You would come watch?" I asked. I looked up at him, his brown hair curled into a pretty hockey flow. When his blue eyes met mine, I sometimes felt like he could hear my thoughts.

"What do you mean 'would I'? I will be there," he laughed lightly. "Like I'm gunna paint your number on my face and make a sign," he stated, as though it wasn't up for discussion and I was a dummy for not already realizing that. And against my better judgement, a laugh bubbled out of me.

"What!?" He pretended to be confused by my laughter with a small smile peaking through. "You think I won't do it?"

"No," I said, growing serious again, "no I'm sure you would."

"Oh I will, just watch," he added. I shook my head and let out a deep sigh. I'd been on my team for two years and Dom never came to watch a single one of my matches.

"When's your next hockey game?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Why? You wanna paint my number on your face and make a sign too?" He teased. I gave him a look.

"No flirting," I chastised.

"That wasn't flirting," he denied, holding his hands up like he was innocent, "I was just asking a question."

"It was flirting, and no I don't wanna make you a sign. I was just being polite," I denied back.

"Hm, so we're already lying to each other," he joked. "This is a bad start for us, Stasia."

I buried my face in my hands to hide my smile more than anything. He was good at fighting my grumpy inner monologue and as much as I hated him for it, part of me felt incredibly light when I was around him. I hadn't felt playful since high school, maybe even before then, and it was freeing.

"Shut up, Chris," I said on a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, alright," he conceded. "No more flirting."

For a moment, I almost felt regret.

----

When we finally got to their place, I'd learned a little more about the boys, which was good because I hadn't vetted Matt at all yet, and he was dating my best friend. But he seemed like a stand up guy and a good boyfriend. To be fair, they were all decent guys, and after spending so much time around awful ones, they often said and did things that surprised me. Like genuinely good guy things. I'd think about that more deeply later, but in the meantime, I was starving. We were greeted by the smell of pizza as we filed in.

Ella was standing in the kitchen, setting the table with Nick, and looked up in search of Matt. When she saw me first, her face lit up with a smile. She came towards me immediately and pulled me in for a hug.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to see you, how did this happen?!" She asked us, letting me go and heading for Matt.

"We were all practicing at the same field and Chris invited me over," I explained in a flat tone. Ella gazed at me with a look in her eye, one that said how interesting before turning to Matt. He had this crooked smile when he looked at her, and it made my heart swell. They really were cute. He pulled her over by the hands, put them around his waist, and wrapped his own arms around her neck.

"Hey," he said, looking at her like she was pure gold.

"Hey," she smiled back, before pecking him on the lips, and then they floated apart. Everything about them seemed to come naturally.

"Come on, let's eat," Nick announced, opening the first box and grabbing some for himself.

Everyone gravitated into their spots, so I grabbed the open seat next to Ella, and after Chris hooked up his phone to the portable speaker, he took the seat facing mine. We looked each other in the eye briefly before digging in.

We sat around, Chris, Matt, Nick, Mark, Ella and I, eating and just vibing for a while. I liked the music and I was into it. The boys knew all the lyrics, and I watched them straight-faced as they sang every word like it was nothing.

"Guess what Anastasia told me today, Ella?" Chris asked as he switched the song. I looked at Chris, quickly filtering through all the things we'd talked about to figure out what he was going to say.

Ella looked at me quickly, and then at him. "I don't know, what?"

"She said she's transferring to our uni," he announced. I sat up in my seat.

"That is not what I said," I interjected, giving him a stern look while Ella snapped her gaze to mine, hope written all over it.

"What did you say then?" she asked. I sighed and gave Chris a dirty look. God, he really pissed me off sometimes.

"What I said was that I was offered a soccer scholarship here, so I came to check it out," I explained. "I'd planned to tell you when I saw you, but he beat me to it..." I said, my eyes flashing up to his and communicating my irritation. "And..." I thought for a moment, "I think I'm going to take it." She immediately smiled.

"I don't care who you told first, that's so fucking exciting, Anastasia!" she replied, taking me in for a hug, and I smiled back. She was truly a good friend. I actually hadn't planned to tell her yet, and I wasn't sure why. I was scared for some reason. When she released me from her arms, I sat back in my chair before looking up at Chris, sitting at the other end of the table scrolling through his music. He looked back at me, smiling as usual like he knew something I didn't.