Perfectly Mismatched

Chapter Fourteen - Meeting The Father

Football season had officially begun. 

Jake couldn't play in the first game due to his knee injury and Layla couldn't cheer due to her back injury. The first game was pre-season and an away game. Layla was in her uniform, Jake was in his jersey and a pair of shorts. 

LAYLA'S POV 

Layla helped the other girls warm up, stretch and waited to help the mascot, Ralph, change into his costume. This is something she'd been doing since football season last year because Ralph just said she was the best at it. Plus, since she spends so much time with him, she was helping him find someone to be the mascot for the next few years, since this was his senior year. Layla stood on the track on the perimeter of the field, helping Ralph warm up his flips. Jake stood by the athlete's bench, with a tripod and a video camera. 

"Hey Layla!" Jake called out, Layla looked up as Jake waved her over. 

As she walked over he said, "I know you want to film the game for me."

She shook her head as she said, "You know, I really don't." 

She and Jake laughed and talked, he was leaning on her a bit, nothing unusual. Suddenly, on her other side, a man with a high-tech camera was standing next to her. He said something to Jake but she didn't think anything of it. Jake was talking about how he wanted to squeeze his four weeks of rest, into two so he could play. 

Layla discouraged him from it saying, "You don't want to do that. Look at me, now I can't even cheer." 

The man standing to her left asked, "What happened?"

Layla turned to him, and told him about how she used to do competitive gymnastics, and three years ago she hurt her back. She told him about how the doctors still don't know what's wrong and they're still trying to figure it out. Then, the man pointed to another man in the stands, telling her who he was, a parent of another football player, and saying she should talk to him. 

The funny thing about this whole conversation was, the man she was talking to already seemed to know her. Their conversation seemed to jog his memory more than actually tell him something about her. She had realized that about half way through their conversation, Jake had left. She would later find that this man was his father. For some time she had Jake on one side talking to her, his father on the other side talking to him, unsure of who to answer. 

The game soon began, Jake's father was taking pictures of the game. Jake was in the stands filming, but the camera kept dying. At one point he walked over to Layla and opened his arms while she walked into his warm embrace. It was nothing unusual, every time he saw her he would hug her, tight. 

As the game went on Layla helped Ralph, and watched Jake out of the corner of her eye. At one point she sat next to him, listening to his comments about the game. She didn't understand his technical talk about the plays, but she loved listening to him talk about it. She loved listening to anyone when they were talking about something they were passionate about. She loved the twinkle in their eyes as they spoke, as if nothing else mattered. 

On the bus ride back to the game, Layla thought about how she had talked to Jake's dad that night. Jake didn't introduce them, he didn't even tell her. She thought about how it seemed like this man already knew her, how he talked as if she was really close to him. She wondered what Jake had told  him about her, if anything. She wondered if he asked Jake about her, she thought. 

She wanted to ask him, "Did your dad ask about me after the game? Did he ask about "the girl you hugged and had your arm around"? Did he notice that you were leaning against me while we talked? If he did, what did you tell him? Did you tell him I was just a friend? Did you tell him you liked me? Did you say I was nobody? Did you ask him how much he saw or heard? Did you talk to him about me, or just let it go? He saw us hug twice. He saw you put your arm around me as we talked. I'm pretty sure he saw you leaning against me. He heard us talking. Fighting like we've been married 80 years. Flirting like a new couple. Protecting each other like brother and sister. Talking like best friends. He saw it all, and I'm pretty sure he's asked about me by now. What did you tell him?"