The Soccer Players Made Me Do It

3. Boards and Beers!

"Long enough to know not to go near that bathroom for at least an hour," I quip dryly.

I didn't mean to say that so loudly. Everyone stares at me for a second. It is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop in that room. I can feel the stares of all the men in the room concentrated on my face. A heartbeat passes of utter silence.

Then all hell breaks loose. It starts with a muffled chuckle from Will. Yes, Mr. Grumpyface was the first to laugh. That really took me by surprise. He was joined by Ollie's snort followed by Trevor's bark of a laugh. Feeding fully off of each other, they burst out into hysterics.

Ollie was bent over clutching his knees while emitting a sound only equivalent to a hyena's laughter. Will's grumpy face is completely transformed with his smile and big booming laugh. Trevor hooks his arm around my neck and pulls me into him, rubbing his knuckles into my scalp. OW!

"Who knew such a cute little thing had a sense of humor? Where did you find her, Orsino? I want one," Trevor comments. I struggle to get out of his hold to no avail. All I manage to do is get my face stuck in his armpit.

"Hey! It stinks in here! Let me go!" I exclaim as I beat his shoulder with my fists. It's so muffled though, I am not sure anyone but Trevor heard me.

The next thing I know, I am being pulled out of Trevor's grasp. I look up to see familiar green eyes staring back into mine worriedly. I give Tony a slight nod, letting him know I am alright. I see his shoulders are still tense as he turns to his friend but he doesn't say anything. I put my hand in his to reassure him. I face Trevor and go all feminist on him.

"I am a woman; a human being. NOT an object to be owned or coveted," I state.

"Plus, I'm one of a kind," I throw in with a smirk to show him that there is no real harm done.

"Alright, let's get to it! Boards and Beers?" Will asks the guys.

"BOARDS AND BEERS!" All the boys chorus the shout together.

Sarah and I share a quizzical look.

"What is BOARDS AND BEERS!?" She imitates their shout. She deepens her voice and throws in a slight Texan accent as well. I chuckle to myself. Sarah is horrible at accents. All the men she imitates, be it Jimmy Fallon or the pizza delivery guy, sound the same.

"I'll get the beers!" Ollie shouts running to what I am assuming is the kitchen.

"Already have the boards!" Trevor indicates the board games on the coffee table. He plops down on the floor right next to the table.

The others follow suit, sitting down one after another. I get pulled down by Tony's hand to sit down next to him. Sarah sits to my right and Tony to my left.

Ollie comes in with two six-packs of Dos Equis in his hands and sits across the table from me. As he passes out a bottle to each of us, Will pulls out his phone.

"Alright, let's start with 'Head's UP'. Ollie, Kendyl and I are on team 1. Tony, Trevor and Sarah on Team 2," Will dictates everyone. Well, someone is bossy.

I feel like I have been thrown into the icy ocean and my choices are either to sink or swim. So I swim. Luckily, Sarah and I have this game and absolutely love it. We both know how to play and personally, I think we rock.

Will and I really clicked as partners. It was like we could read what the other was thinking. The guy may be a Grumpy Gus but he can actually be pretty funny when he isn't too busy scowling. He also has the best smile. While Tony smiles at everyone like they are his best friend in the world, Will smiles are hard to come by. You have to work hard for that smile but, it is totally worth it.

Sarah's team had failed by epic proportions. Tony may be amazing at soccer, but he is really bad at playing this guessing game. The word was Jasmine and all he would do was shout, "DISNEY!" at Sarah like she should know which Disney character he was talking about.

Trevor wasn't much better. He just shouted "Princess!" at her. Poor Sarah had to go through every Disney princess until she said Jasmine. Even then, the time had run out and they had not gotten any points.

Overall Will, Ollie and I got 12 points compared to their measly 2. After that, Trevor insisted that they separate me and Will because it was unfair. We played two more rounds and then moved on to a game called "Exploding Kittens." Somehow the game was both simple and complex at the same time, not to mention fun.

About 3 rounds into Exploding Kittens and 2 beers later, I was a little buzzed. The guys were already on beer number 4 and I was laughing at their antics. Ollie was personifying the Dos Equis most interesting man. Badly, I might add. I swivel my attention to Will and ask the question I have wanted to ask since I got here.

"So I thought there was going to be a party? What happened?"

"This is the party," He answers. "Not what you were thinking, right?"

I nod my head, yes. I am confounded that these four hot, popular, athletes aren't throwing a large rager party with tons of people.

"We keep to a strict schedule and diet during playing season. Staying out late, getting drunk and not getting to bed at a decent time is the worst thing we can do for our body. We have to be at 100 percent to play our best. So, we do everything we can to be the best we can be. Plus, Coach would have our asses." He chuckles.

"So, we get together on the days we don't have practice and do a game night with some beer."

"Boards and Beer?" I ask, understanding dawning on me. I figured out what they were talking about earlier.

"Boards and Beer." He smiles and nods at me. "We don't drink enough to get drunk and  we get to bed by midnight. It might not be much, but we like to call it a party to make it sound cooler than it actually is."

"It may not be your kind of cool but it is beyond cool for me," I reassure.

Our attention went back to the others. Tony was now trying to educate Ollie on how to properly impersonate the "Most Interesting Man."

The night was awesome and the reservations I had about it became nonexistent. We continued to play and in Sarah's case, drink. The boys had stopped at four because they wanted to be sober for practice in the morning. I had drawn out my two beers as long as possible and then just stuck to water. Sarah, on the other hand continued to drink after her second beer on to a third and fourth.

When she started singing about exploding kittens, I decided it was time to take her home. She's started skipping around while singing, too. It was a whole dance and song that she had going on. She was skipping and twirling haphazardly around the room. Of course she kicks over my purse in her fervor.

All the contents go spilling out onto the floor. A myriad of pens, a couple boxes of raisins, my wallet, phone, and various pieces of paper splay out on the floor. I'm surprised that's all that came out. I tend to throw things in my purse and forget about them.

Ollie is closest to the purse and was sweet enough to help me out by putting some of the stuff in while I walk over. I am kneeled down and picking up the various pens, when I see exactly what paper Ollie is holding. I freeze. I thought I threw that thing away. How embarrassing. If he reads that –

"What's this?" He asks.

Crap! He's seen it. It is not necessarily embarrassing or bad to have a Bucket List but it is what's on it that is embarrassing.

I can feel the blood drain from my face as he starts to read out loud.

A/N: So? What do you think? Any ideas of what could be on that list? Who knows? Maybe your suggestion could end up on the list. Don't forget to comment or vote!

~K