PlayDate [#wattys2015]

Reality Check

*AVERY*

I had to spit out something about the other night for him to pay attention to me or else I was going to fall into a panic-mode. I gulped facing him, knowing it was going to hurt him a lot more than it was going to hurt me.

There he was, standing by his locker and chatting with his football teammates about their tryouts tomorrow afternoon. That moment of the year was the "most important" for jocks like them. They always huddled up to discuss the positions and plans for each season, and at that time they talked about the revenge plan to defeat the Brooklyn Daredevils.

What was I doing? Standing a few meters away from him and his friends and looking pretty like a showgirl with yellow feathers in her hair.

"Tucker?" I spoke quietly without trying to look stupid. He couldn't hear me, of course. I could have sworn he was deaf on his right ear sometimes.

"Tucker," I called out his name slightly louder. His eyes shifted to my direction, looking generous to see his "sidekick".

"Babe! We were just about to talk about our favorite cheerleader," he implied, meaning me as the co-captain of the M3 Molerats. Don't ask how the team nickname was chosen. I wish I didn't know myself.

I kept repeating my confidence phrase in my thoughts, and thinking about how I wanted the conversation to turn out to conclude since last week.

Can we talk?

I want to talk about us.

Sorry for what?

I forgive you, but I hope that what happened will never happen again.

I wished that was how the conversation occurred. Unfortunately, it was literally a wave of a hand that brought me back to reality.

"Avery. You alive, babe?" my boyfriend, Tucker, asked me while he was chuckling at one of my usual daydream zone flashes. I replied by nodding at him, feeling timid about speaking my next words to him. I didn't want to confront him because I had strong feelings for him, but since that night I felt like everything varied.

We have been in a relationship for over a year, and let's just say lately it was going downhill due to a misbalance like a brass scale falling on one side; he wanted one thing, while I wanted something else. Back then, it used to be as simple as two peas in a pod.

Whenever I invited him to my house to watch a movie together, he would make an excuse saying he 'has to go to football practice'. During the weekend? Whenever I texted him that I love him, his replies no longer included those kissy emojis that caused me to blush my rosy cheeks. The worst part of all, whenever he got to see my little brother, he would avoid a conversation with him. He knew how much Darren enjoyed talking about sports with him since our father was barely around.

"Why do you look anxious to see me? Loosen up a bit," he advised me before I felt a smack on my behind. I always warned him I felt violated when he did that, but he never learned his lesson. That was it.

"Listen, Tucker. Can we talk about us? It's important," I blurted out, annoyed by his behavior with me.

"Uh- Can we talk about that later? I got to go see the boys about something," Tucker excused himself to avoid the conversation.

"Something? This is exactly what I was afraid of. Are they more significant to have discussions with than your girlfriend?"

"Whoa, since when do you care about me talking to the guys all the time?"

"Since you started acting like a douchebag," I labeled him before seeing his reaction, looking offended by my name-calling. I didn't care.

"What happened to us? We used to not be like this. We used to confess to each other everything. What are you hiding from me?" I sounded suspicious.