My Way Back to You

Chapter 8 | Hotel Wonders

Lydia

I revealed the flowers he had given me, "It went amazing." I answer.

"That's it? Just amazing?" Christine questioned, "Tell us more."

I told them all about dinner, and about how hot he looked in those sweatpants. I described how gentlemanly he was.

Jayda's eyes widened, "So are you guys dating?"

"Nope, just loyally complicated." I laughed.

"How are you going to deal with it being long distance?" Christine asked.

"He's willing to make this work, so I'm sure we will figure it out." I shrugged.

When they were satisfied with the girl talk, we went to bed. But I lay awake thinking about him. He was so nice to me. He treated me better than any other man ever has, and I only saw him for 3 hours.

I eventually fell asleep and the next morning I woke up to a text from him. He was inviting me to Thursday's game.

I, of course, happily accepted.

Lydia: What position will you be playing?

Andy: I don't know yet. I'll get back to you on that ;)

I had an afternoon class later that day, earth science. I rolled over on my bed to be met with the flowers he had given me the day before. Christine found a little drinking cup with some water and leaned the bouquet against my window with the cup underneath it.

They smelled so fresh and earthy.

I slept in for the day and eventually made the hike to the science building. I sat down and took my notebook from my backpack. It's burgundy red with tan mushrooms and fungi.

My professor entered the room and revealed our first project of the year. Our project: get a sample of dirt and plants from a forest outside of campus, so we can look at it in class.

Holy shit, I thought, Andy has a forest on his campus, an excuse to spend time together.

After further explaining the project, we were excused from class early to figure out where we wanted to get our sample. Thankfully, I didn't have to think too hard about it.

As I walked to my car the cold October wind burned my nose. I removed my phone from my pocket to text Andy, but he beat me to it.

He was inviting me to next week's game, but it was going to be an away game, meaning I only had to drive 20 minutes rather than an hour.

I was a little bummed I couldn't get my sample for class, but I knew there would be plenty more home games before the project was due.

It was to be hosted at Lakeview University, and according to Andy, the most aggressive team they play. He explained to me it would be an even match, and an exciting game.

When I asked if my roommates could tag along, he accepted. I can hear Jayda's squeals already.

I quickly texted our roommate group chat and then continued to text Andy after I got home. The plan ended up being that we would stay in the same hotel as the team, without bothering them.

Little did I know there would be several interactions and we indeed did not keep our distance as originally planned.

Tuesday took forever to arrive, but the girls and I arrived to the hotel early. We checked into the hotel just as the two buses full of players pulled into the parking lot.

To stay out of the way, we quickly ran up to our room.

"I can't believe we are actually staying in the same hotel as them, it's either gonna smell like sweat or this is gonna be fun," Christine commented.

"This better be a fun night with several more to come," Jayda laughed.

We laid our suitcases out and claimed which bed would be ours. Me and Christine took the two beds, and Jayda took the pullout couch.

The players would leave in 30 minutes to the game. After the match, they would come slee at the hotel. To make it back to the school before classes Wednesday, they would leave at 5am.

I cautiously walked out into the hallway to see if I could see Andy. To my suprise, he was standing in the hall with a curly blonde haired boy.

The blonde saw me and cocked his head to point at me. Andy turned around as we made eye contact.

His eyes lit up, "Holy crap you're actually here. Y'all were so quiet I thought you ditched me."

"Of course! We just didn't want to be in your way," I admitted.

Jayda heard me talking and peaked around the corner of the door. She smiled and shoved me towards him.

"Jayda!" I yelped.

Andy giggled and caught me in his arms. They were warm and oh how I missed him before this moment, "I've missed you," he whispered.

"Me too," I answered back.

He stepped back and introduced me to his blonde friend, "This is my roommate Cody. He plays offense."

"Nice to meet you," I nodded, "Hey about that, what are you playing tonight?"

A smirk painted him, "Forward."

Down the hall we heard the coach yell to get on the bus. Andy shot me a little wave as he joined the others. Cody mocked him by waving with his hand over his head. Andy shoved him into a wall for backlash.

"Save that for the game," another player groaned.

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