A Collection of Short Stories

The Obvious versus the Oblivious

"Are we all geared up and ready to go?"
"Yup or at least this half of the group is."
"Oooooh Callie look who it is!"
I mentally face palmed. Not now. "It's Callie's girliefrand!" I was going to throw a shoe at Mary if she didn't shut up, but too late. The rest of the girls in my team did a one eighty to watch my reaction and all cooed silently. "She's staring."
"Callie is whipped aww."
"Miller's a real catch isn't she?"
I was doing my best to ignore the team's comments as I fixed and tied my cleats, subtly watching Miller reach her team. Soon enough it worked, I watched Miller's eyes sparkle as she greeted her teammates and her coach and began to slip her gear on as well, and mentally I noted, good thing we didn't drive here together. The last time both teams almost lost it, noticing the both of us in our different uniforms and coming from most likely the same car. Of course I enjoyed being with her, but we also had our space. That's how we've stayed together long enough. "Aw she's still staring." Lauren awed at me, I realized I'd stopped tying my cleats and just sighed, leaning back to rest against my hands, but my eyes didn't leave Miller, I was already getting used to hearing the team poking at me. Not in a rude way of course, but still, I tended to ignore them on these matters. I just flipped half the team off casually and stuck my tongue out at Lauren who came to sit next to me as I admired the beauty of the girl in her white and blue uniform. Miller was talking to Kelly as they were finishing up with their gear, slipping on her shin guards with a cute smile on her face, then she turned her body slightly to face me and also caught my eye in the process, I felt my heart leap once more when she sent me a breathtaking smile followed by a very charming wink. I smiled even wider, I was so happy to see her. "Gosh you two are cute what the hell." Lauren gagged, I just nudged her. "I worked hard for her, of course I'm going to be happy with her." I shrugged, taking the time to stretch my limbs lazily whilst seeing Miller and her team start to warm up. My team was stretching, then we moved into jogs and passing. Miller's team was practicing shots by the time captains were called. "Lauren and Callie, captains!" Coach called to us, Lauren only smirked knowingly. Coach still wasn't aware of Miller and I. The team cooed obnoxiously once more when we noticed Miller was also captain for her team, wonderful. Lauren had to drag me over with her. "Good morning girls, introduce yourselves before we start." The referees said the usual and the four of us complied, shaking hands. "I'm Callie."
"Cameron, nice to meet you." Miller's teammate beamed, then I turned to my girlfriend. "Hey." I grinned. "You're cute-oh God, Miller sorry." She blushed at that, I swooned mentally. "Callie of course." I smiled. She nodded. "Right, so Inter Atlanta you're away, Georgia soccer is here, you two call the toss." The refs thankfully chose to ignore Miller and I's little moment thankfully and set forward with their duties. Cameron only smirked at me whilst watching the coin toss, I told Lauren to call.
"Tails."
The coin landed on the grass, the ref nodded in surprise after picking it up. "Tails it is." He announced, we called for the far side by the parking lot. "Blue and white have kickoff then." The refs said, we all nodded and left back to our corresponding teams. I saw Miller shoot me a glance over her shoulder of concern, I blinked, what happened?
I decided to go and pass by Georgia's side of the field to make my way towards the concessions and bath area, Miller wasn't far behind me. I was a little worried by her facial expression. Once we were next to the concessions I turned and saw her coming towards me, a gentle smile on her face but a small look of concern was still visible in her eyes. "What's wrong gorgeous?" I asked when she stopped in front of me, leading her over towards an empty picnic table that was out of the way of eavesdropping teammates. She sighed. "Cameron still doesn't realize you know? I've been so obvious about you." She frowned and I pulled her into my arms for a hug. "No wonder, I felt uncomfortable for a second there, but don't worry, hopefully she will get it." I kissed her forehead daringly, smiling because I wasn't scared to show my affection for her in public. "I'm sorry it always gets to me, I'm just having a bit of a row." She sighed and played with my hands. "Hey don't worry please, we're here to play this game right? It'll go well, and I know it sounds mean, but she has no chance." I brushed a stray hair out of her face. She smiled and leant into my hand. "I'm just being stupid babe sorry." She mumbled into my shoulder, I chuckled. "Don't worry beautiful, you're my top priority, always." I smiled softly at her, watching her eyes flicker to my lips and back. She was leaning forwards, but she pulled away at the last minute. "We shouldn't." She sighed in protest, pouting. "I know, but hey, at the same time I could use a little incentive." I drew her a bit closer by her thigh, she pushed on my shoulder but grinned. "Fine fine."
She didn't hesitate to kiss me, her hand on my waist whilst I loosely brushed the hair out of her face. We both smiled against each other's lips, forcing ourselves to break away after a few seconds. "We should get back." I sighed, stretching and rising from the bench with Miller's hand still holding onto mine. "But I want to cuddle more." Miller pouted with those beautiful adorable eyes of hers, I gently tugged at her and chuckled. "I know, but we've got a game to play." I noted, feeling her pull me back for a minute and pecked my lips one last time. "Don't go easy, and good luck beautiful." She smiled at me, I nodded and kissed her temple. "You too." Before jogging back towards the game, Miller walking after me.
I was pumped not only because this was our game, but because fall break was just around the corner and Miller and I were going camping with Lauren, Mary, and Kelly. We were excited, and this game was a step closer once more. I was smiling at this the entire trek back to the field and ignored the subtle catcalls my teammates gave me, however still smacking Mary on the back of the neck whilst we proceeded to check in with the refs. "Everything okay?" Lauren asked after our cleats and shin guard check was complete. "Yeah, Cameron is just giving her a bit of a row. Apparently she doesn't recognize us or doesn't want to." I sighed for a second but looked over towards Miller to see her watching me, a small smile sparked on her face, I returned it before turning to listen to my coach. Lauren whistled in understanding and then did a double take. "Wait-she's not into Miller, damn she's into you!" Lauren puffed with laughter. I only sighed again and turned to walk back towards the benches. "This day is getting better by the minute." I mumbled feeling eyes on me, seeing Cameron also watching me quietly. I gulped and turned away in alarm.
Fuck.
"This is going to be quite the story." Lauren was laughing slightly, trying to maintain her giggles. "I need new friends." I decided out loud, seeing her pout. Soon enough coach was telling us to get on the field, he announced the starting lineup as GSA walked out onto the field. I gulped, as I walked onto the field Lauren and Mary gave me knowing looks. My girlfriend was playing her usual spot of left defense whilst I was in center midfield, just our luck. Then my smile fractured when I realized Cameron was right between us, as a center midfielder too. I mentally face palmed, watching her body practically shield me from my girlfriend. I thought nothing of it at first, when the whistle blew I tried to forget I had to do anything but get the ball. It mostly worked. Inter Atlanta was starting reasonably well, our chemistry was put to use with our passing and the dynamics to go up the field. As I carried the ball at one point, I swerved past Miller as best as I could but then fell back into her teammate Sarah, being tripped by a neighboring defender. I tumbled sideways for a second, still intact and got back up again. Our plays were ranging from offensive to defensive tactics, I tried to do all in my ability to avoid Cameron, carrying the ball towards the far right wings of midfield and left sides towards defense, I passed the midfielders every other play thankfully, falling into Miller's territory. She was watching me carefully, when she saw me coming down the wings she grinned and started forwards to intercept me. I danced around her for a minute with the ball, trying to tiptoe my way around her, she put up quite a fight. Seconds later I felt someone nearly collide straight into my side, going for the ball. I hissed feeling a strain in my leg being bent at an odd angle but kicked back, nutmegging the player and freeing the ball. Cameron. I groaned in frustration, this wasn't going to end very well. Mary was taking a throw in when I once more felt a presence near me, this time I was relieved to turn and see Miller wandering towards the goal-side of my direction. She was eyeing not only the ball, but also Cameron who was standing off not too far away, watching me instead of the ball. When Mary threw the ball back in I let it go over my head in order to make a running start, I poked Miller's side on my way towards her goal. The parents in the small audience were excited but sadly my shot bounced off the horizontal post instead of past the keeper. Shay then shouted some encouragement to me as we jogged to the following throw in. I agreed in my head with her, it would go in eventually.
Soon enough Mary got a hold of the ball as GSA tried to cross it over our heads at an awkward angle. She tore away from the center field and turned the play around, I was in step with her as we ran towards the keeper's sixteen. I could see Cameron out of the corner of my eye again, she was going to try and intercept me when Miller was coming straight towards me as defense, I would not let Cameron make a fool out of my girlfriend. I stopped suddenly, throwing Cameron off and cut back to change Miller's direction. It worked kind of, she sidestepped towards me and narrowly missed the ball which I switched from my right to my left foot, bypassing her. I blinked in surprise but also grinned wildly, seeing a new break for the goal. I'd passed the ball off to Lauren who lobbed it back and I'd successfully put the ball in the back of the net with a good strong left footed kick. I was crowded by my teammates momentarily, Lauren and I tackled each other in a hug and jogged it back to the center field for kickoff. I spotted Miller as the ref blew his whistle again, she cracked a small smile as I winked at her before the ball was in play.
I kept finding the ball, but Cameron somehow still found a way to get near me, it was making me uncomfortable. I fought her at least four times for the ball it was as if she was almost taking over Miller's post as defender, forcing her to spread even wider. Although it did give them an advantage and Miller managed to carry the ball down far enough to hand to Sarah who was in mid and landed a goal in the back of our net. Chelsea, our keeper, just shrugged and tossed the ball back towards the center field whilst the GSA parents were cheering. I chuckled whilst passing Miller before we reset, she was on her way back to her half of the field. "That assist was golden babe." I whispered, she blushed and jogged back to the defensive line, I then did a small take of the field, Cameron was stalking back into midfield looking aggravated. Pissed maybe? That sounded slightly more accurate. I only grinned internally and tried zeroing back in on the new play.
We held our ground up until halftime, neither team was able to score before the whistle sounded. Being lazy as myself, I dragged my limbs to the side of the field and collapsed, breathing in the sweet air and of course, getting the familiar grainy grassy feel in my nose, I sneezed. My teammates only laughed before going back to their chatter as we relaxed.
I swear I drifted off because seemingly seconds later I was waking up and we had to play again. Coach changed the lineup a little bit and told us to communicate before sticking the starters back on the field. I was relieved I didn't have to go back in just yet, having the privilege of seeing my girlfriend playing on the field. She was very headstrong, even sending many plays over into our side of the eighteen. Shay even had a hard time trying to pass her, I was relieved Cameron couldn't see me, she was finally playing in her respective spot, leaving Miller alone. "Callie, you're going to pull Mary out, you're up for next sub, sound good?" He asked. I poked my head out from beneath my curtain of hair shielding me from the sun and nodded. "Good, you're on the line." He hi-fived me on the way to the line, narrowly avoiding a ball Kelly kicked out of bounds and away from GSA's box. I called Mary and grinned, tapping her out and twirled feeling the beautiful fall air blowing through my uniform, it was absolutely refreshing. "Alright girls let's pick up the pace a little huh?" Miller's coach called good-naturedly, the ball came back into play.
"Pressure guys, let's keep this game going." I pulled some words of encouragement for us, the team grinned, weary but still prepared to play. The play began again, Rose, one of our midfielders, carried the ball down the sidelines right as we were going to home in on GSA's six but suddenly a blue uniform knocked the ball straight back into my gut and outside of the field. "White throw!" The ref declared. I waggled my eyebrows at my girlfriend, she only blushed in apology and went to take the throw in, I noticed she looked a bit tired. Then we heard the whistle for subs.
"Miller!"
I turned in surprise, Miller as well, we all saw a GSA girl subbing my girlfriend out for real. I was a little bummed, and when I saw Cameron I became insanely bummed. She was still on the field. Oh wow, just fuck it. I cringed again when I felt Cameron's eyes on me, scanning me subtly. The game continued on, Mary came back in after fifteen minutes of playing keep away with both teams. She scored off a right foot rebound from the top post of the goal by the time we were all getting settled and absolutely tired from playing in the sun. We were up two to one, the game was reasonably intense now. I chatted with a couple of GSA players whilst we waited for plays to resume, taking our time to rest and be ready to run. Cameron tried to get near me again but I kept sliding farther away from her, because honestly, how hard is it to notice that I don't want anything to do with her? I could feel her eyes on me, I only frowned and made sad faces at Miller whilst trying to get the ball. She nodded and frowned silently. But no matter the situation, maybe Cameron was being ignorant, I still enjoyed watching Miller's beauty on the sideline, encouraging her team and cheering them on.
The game ended fifteen minutes later with a score of 2 to 1, and I was limping by the end. After being a good sport and shaking hands with the other players I went to go and sit down on the bench and take a moment to look at my leg. I pulled down my left sock and cringed. Someone had raked their cleats beneath my shin guard, I had a very noticeable ruptured vein in my leg. I pulled off my shin guard as well and settled for taking my shoe off, taking my sock off, and pouring ice cold water over it, making me yelp in surprise.
"Alright girls, good game. I appreciate you all coming out to play, this was a fun game. We had some good communication, I liked that wall passing you had going on there Mary, we had this game in the bag good job girls thank you. Remember, we have practice only this week because fall break is here next weekend so be safe, be smart, and get your rest. Have a nice rest of your day girls, I'll see you Tuesday." Coach declared once we all settled to listen to his post game speech. We all grinned and hi fived each other before slowly starting to trickle out. Mary and I then saw a couple of other girls from GSA coming over. "Hey guys, good game, you guys up for dinner?" Kelly asked. I looked at Mary, Lauren was walking over and went to hug Kelly in excitement. "Kelly! Are we making dinner plans?" She bounced up and down excitedly making us all laugh. I nodded, Mary hopped up. "What do you guys feel like eating?" She asked after pulling up a list of restaurants in the area. "There's yeah burger, maggiano's, uhhh...not chipotle that's too basic-we have blue moon pizza, andddd the Chinese place!" She declared. "How's blue moon sound? It sounds good to me." The blonde next to Kelly suggested. "You know, I haven't eaten there in a while, heck yeah!" Lauren agreed before extending a hand. "Lauren."
"Emily, nice to meet you." The blonde girl smiled. "I'm Callie, this little bean here is Mary." I introduced Mary and myself to the girl. "Ooh I finally get to meet Miller's girl! Haha don't worry, I'm only teasing, but seriously, nice to meet you guys, I wish all of our other teams were like this. Friendly you know?" Emily chuckled. I agreed. "It's nice having friendships with other players, I like having friends from different places and clubs." Lauren added in. "This is going to be fun then!" Mary and Kelly clapped in excitement. "We drove together, so we'll meet you guys there how about? And Callie, Miller wants to ride with you by the way, Mary's coming with me." Kelly threw over her shoulder as we all dispersed once we received directions to the SAME location to avoid what happened the last time. I laughed and nodded, hobbling back to grab my things. When I turned I yelped in surprise to see Cameron stop right in front of me. "Hi."
"H-hello."
"How do you feel?" She asked and pointed to my leg. "It's okay I guess." I shrugged, slipping my bag on my shoulders and grabbing my car keys. "You know I could help you wrap it if you'd like." She suggested, watching me ever so carefully. "N-no that's okay, I think it needs to breath a little bit first, and I'm starving." I shook my head, easily turning down the offer. "You sure?" She looked a bit disappointed. I nodded, starting to leave. "Hey um, wait. Take this." She handed me a paper. I almost squeaked in alarm. "If you need anything." She added. I sighed and looked to see a phone number. "Look, Cameron right?" I asked, she smiled a little and nodded.
"I don't want any trouble, but I won't take this. My girlfr-"
"-Callie!" Miller suddenly came over, bouncing in excitement but skidded to a stop once she reached me and tucked under my arm, noticing Cameron who finally realized and connected the puzzle pieces. "Oh." She said. I shared a small glance with Miller who was just speechless and wide eyed. "S-sorry, I'll see you guys..." She turned and trudged away finally. When she was far enough away, Miller squealed in delight. "Finally! I don't have to deal with this anymore!" She jumped in excitement and attacked me in a hug, laughing. I grinned and twirled her in delight. "We made it!" I declared, setting her back down once my leg started to ache again but ignored the pain, focusing on my happiness. Miller didn't hesitate to pull on my collar and bring me into a well-deserved [and needed] kiss. I hugged her tight and wrapped my arms around her waist to keep her from breaking the kiss right away and smiled, feeling her smile back and kiss me back harder.
"Good game babe." She mumbled into my lips, I kissed her nose, breaking away a little bit. "You played well too love, but I mean, you always do. Thank you for that." I smiled. "I love you." Miller kissed my forehead, leaning up on her tippy toes. "I love you too." I returned, then Miller seemed to remember something and pushed me back down onto the bench, making me yelp in surprise again. "Ow!" I whined, feeling her draw back. "How's your leg baby? I saw you limping, sorry I scared you. I just wanted to check." Miller pouted; I giggled once I realized what was going on. "It'll survive boo, I promise, it's just an internal rupture but nothing serious I'm sure, probably a bad bruise is all." I played with her hands and slipped into my vans before Miller pulled me up once more. "We can twin now, I got one from my game yesterday." She smiled softly. I kissed her forehead protectively. "How rude of them to treat my girl like that, next time I'll run them over." I watched her blushing softly and rest her forehead on my shoulder. "Only when necessary, you know that." I took a long look at her beautiful face and sighed, but nodded because it was a point of truth, only if it was ever necessary. "Let's go eat with Mary and Kelly and them?" I suggested after taking a sweet breath in and inhaling the smell of food and urban life, Miller agreed. "I told Kelly I'd ride with you." She added. "I know." I grinned, we laced our fingers together and turned to walk towards the car, smiling at some of the remaining parents that complemented us about the game. "Let's go eat some pizza!" I declared, starting the car. "Let's. And I really hope Emily doesn't like you too." Miller giggled, I laughed. "Let's hope."