commitment

chapter 3

Denis pov

It's the next day and school ended a bit ago. I was at home getting ready for practice and waiting for my mom to take me. We usually picked Alvin up on the way as well, his parents worked until late so my mom didn't want him to have to bike all the way there.

Don't get me wrong, I love practice. But on a Friday afternoon, that's not really ideal. I just wanna be home, relaxing and playing games with Alvin. But at least this is an excuse for me to meet him so I'm fine with this too.

We arrived at Alvin's house and I was scrolling on my phone while we waited for him to finish getting ready. He had messaged me saying he had to take a shower because he had spilled something on himself. Not too sure what he was going on about. After a little while of waiting I saw the front door open and someone walking out of the house. I was astounded to say the least.

Did he always look this good?

He had his normal practice clothes on, untied shoelaces and hair that was still damp from his supposed shower. Before I knew it he was standing right by the car, knocking on the window as if to knock me out of my shocked state.

When I realised I had been staring in silence, Alvin simply shook his head and laughed at me before opening the car door and greeting my mom.

We drove to practice, engaging in smalltalk and before we knew it we had arrived as Alvin and I said our goodbyes.

"Excited?" Alvin said and nudged my side.

"Not really, I'd rather be at home right now but it's whatever." I replied with a shrug.

"Me too." He said and looked at me. I noticed his gaze and looked at him as well.

"Really? I thought you liked practise?" I said, a little confused, but mostly curious.

"I like being with you, but I'd do that at some other place than here. Don't you feel the same? Hm, Denis?" He said and flashed me his cute smile before speeding up and walking ahead of me who was still trying my best not to let him see my face heating up.

Did he do that on purpose? Such a dick.

We gathered with the rest of the team as the coach began his daily pep talk about how we should maintain our health in order to exceed at training and blah blah blah. It's important, I know, but it's getting quite old after hearing it everyday for I don't even know how long.

He informed us about how practice was gonna go and then divided us into four teams. Despite my prayers that I would end up with Alvin, we ended up in different teams. We weren't even playing matches against each other, I guess today wasn't my lucky day.

"Denis, you coming bro?" A guy from my team said as he made me snap out of my thoughts.

"Yeah yeah I'm on my way." I said, slowly turning away from Alvin as he did the same, not before sending me a reassuring smile followed by his signature wink.

As time passed all I could think of was what I would do as soon as I got home. Had playing football always been this boring, or was it perhaps something else that was bothering me?

Before I could even begin to think, I was captivated by a yell coming from behind me. I quickly spun around to see what all the commotion was only to be faced with a large group forming around two people. I couldn't make out who they were so I went closer. The closer I got, the wider my eyes became. In the middle of the circle was Alvin and Gent. They were fighting.

I became panicked as I pushed past all the people who were standing around them, seemingly not doing anything to stop the fight but instead looking slightly amused which just made me even more angry.

As I got to the middle, I grabbed a hold of Alvin who was now on top of Gent, sending countless punches toward his face. I put my arms around his waist and started pulling him away from Gent as he was resisting with all his might. He turned around for a second to look at me and even for just a moment, he seemed to let his guard down a bit. His expression becoming softer as he saw me which made me feel weird.

Why did he look at me like that?

Why did I like that he looked at me like that?

After successfully getting Alvin off of Gent and sending him one or another dirty looks I began to walk both of us away from there and toward our bags.

As we both sat down and Alvin grabbed his water bottle, I couldn't hold in my curiosity anymore.

"What the fuck was that?" I said after a while, my tone laced with a mixture of disbelief and disappointment, but also a slight hint of worry.

"It's nothing, just leave it Denis." He said, not even looking me in the eyes.

"Alvin, look at me. Why did you fight? I just don't understand, this isn't like you at all." I said, desperately trying to reach out to him.

He finally looked back at me, trying his best to avoid my gaze. "It's really nothing, I'm just gonna go home."

"Alvin no, I'm talking to you." I grabbed his wrist gently, stopping him from getting up from his sitting position.

"And with Gent, too? Of all people? Shouldn't you know not to let someone like him get to you?" I said, letting out a frustrated huff.

"Whatever, I'm going home." Alvin said, still not looking me in the eyes.

"You're gonna walk home?" I raised my eyebrow at him, questioning if he was really going to walk all the way home in order to avoid telling me what had just happened.

He grabbed his bag, placing his water bottle in his hand as he walked back to me, crouching down to my level. He looked at me for a second before grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me towards him, resting my face in the crook of his neck.

"Talk to you later, Denis." He replied with a small smile after pulling away from the hug. My heart beating faster by the second.

He then stood up and began walking his way toward our coach, probably explaining that he would be going home.

"The things you do to me, Alvin..." I muttered under my breath before being called back by my coach and continuing practice, my mind still not being able to forget the previous events.