Mayhem || B. Bradshaw

Chapter 14

     MAVERICK JOINED THEM after lunch.

     Loud cheering and hyped-up aviators welcomed him to the blue team, and the game continued like it had before lunch.

     Grown-up women and men ran along the seashore, the ocean tickling their toes as their feet dug into the sand, and they threw and kicked the footballs, scoring points after points.

     Lizbeth's grin widened as the ball suddenly was in her possession after a throw from Yale, and she increased her speed, soon having a tail of the other team's defense behind her.

     She was a few feet from the line as someone suddenly crashed into her, and the blow sent her plunging into the wet sand, a defeated laugh escaping her lips as Omaha snatched the ball out of her hands.

     Lizbeth let her head flop against the ground as the remains of a wave trickled into her hair, taking a breath after the surprising impact.

     A shadow slid over her body, and she looked up to see Bradley standing over her, a smirk playing on his lips as he reached out his hand. Lizbeth sighed reluctantly, debating for a few seconds whether or not she should take it, though accepted his hand in the end and was yanked up to her feet.

     "Nice to see that I still have a breathtaking effect on you, Mayo," Bradley's flirtatious voice whispered into her ear while he adjusted her sunglasses, and Lizbeth's stomach took a flip.

     She swallowed, fighting against the giddy feeling inside of her, and instead slowly lifted her eyebrows challengingly.

     Two can play this game.

     She tried her best to pretend like nothing, and let her mouth hover beside his ear with a playful glance, "You tell yourself that, Sunshine."

     Ignoring her somersaulting organs, Lizbeth let her fingers graze his muscular abdomen before she stepped away from him and resumed the game.

     But she couldn't shake the feeling of him calling her Mayo off her. It was one of the first nicknames he'd given her, long before she'd actually gotten her callsign, and hearing him use it again had stirred some unwanted feelings.

     She felt her eyes wandering over to him more often, thankful for the lack of embarrassing moments due to her shielding sunglasses.

     Stop it. He's just messing with you, and you're taking the bait. Ignore him, Mayhem.

     Lizbeth shook her head onto the right thoughts, and kept her eyes on the game, soon enough receiving a throw from Bob.

     "Maverick, catch!" She threw the ball to Maverick, who caught it in a jump before he sped off, intent on making it to the other side. Though, he didn't come further before Payback rammed into him, throwing him to his back.

     A laugh escaped Lizbeth's lips, but it subsided when Bradley helped Maverick up like he had with her, though between them there were no funny comments, no inside jokes. Bradley just walked away again, no emotions on his face.

     Lizbeth sighed, but proceeded the game, helping Harvard in defense against Hangman's racing figure. However, it didn't help, and Hondo's whistle rang over the beach, causing Hangman to get an overboost of confidence after yet another touchdown.

     He threw the ball over his head, and Lizbeth chuckled at his three teammates acting as if it was a bomb when it hit the ground, jumping backwards in all directions.

     Not long after, Maverick scored another touchdown, leading to erupting cheers from the blue team. However, the ovation turned into boos and hollers when Maverick threw his ball to Lizbeth, and walked towards his empty chair.