Battle of the Captains

offense

I opened the door for him. With his fidgety hands in front of him and fickle eyes glancing at anything but mine.

"Hi."

"Hey."

Okay, talk about awkward.

"Want to catch that movie?"

So lax and casual like the clothes he was wearing. He was dressed in a navy blue t-shirt and shorts, which made me feel totally stupid about dressing up in the sundress that Liz had lent me for this exact occasion. I seemed too eager. What if he didn't count this as a date?

I pursed my lips. Maybe if I pretended Austin was Jimmy or Max or one of my brothers, this whole date thing wouldn't be so awkward.

"Yeah, just let me go grab my phone."

Which was a mistake because I had left Austin with Kyle, who had rushed to the door as soon as he heard Austin's voice. In the absence of my brothers and the recurring presence of my tutoree, Kyle had found another 'big brother' figure to look up to. It didn't help that Austin didn't mind. I didn't want to be a total kill joy but I didn't like that my family was getting so close to Austin– not when he would be gone soon enough.

Then there was always that tiny voice in my head thinking maybe this wasn't part of the dangerous game of love that we'd subjected ourselves to. We hadn't even spoken about it since I broke up with Blake. Maybe our friendship was real.

I had to run upstairs to grab my phone. I sprinted upwards, two steps at a time so that Kyle never had to find out that I was going on a date with the guy he basically wanted my dad to adopt.

My room was kind of a mess and I knew I threw my phone down around the bed somewhere. When I finally found it under the comforter, I ran downstairs, not bothering to clean after myself.

I was on my way down when I heard Kyle ask, "Want to try my new Xbox fame with me? It's really cool. I beat my sister all the time." To my defense, I only played with him twice and he hadn't explained the commands at all.

"I would," Austin said. "But I'm actually going to catch a movie with your sister."

"Cool," Kyle said, a hint of disappointment coloring his tone. "Can I come too?"

That's when I started running down the stairs so that I could stop Austin before he answered that question. This was a bad idea because I missed a step and slipped halfway down. I tried to catch myself with my hands but that only nearly broke my arm. Good news, I got down alive. Bad news, I finally had an embarrassing story to tell the grandkids. Plus, I had witnesses.

The boys made surprised sounds from the door before they started laughing. I let out a string of curses as I tried to get up. When Austin finallyrealized that I was hurting, he came inside the house and rushed to my side. Forever the copycat, Kyle stopped laughing and followed his hero's example.

"Are you okay?" Austin said, sounding genuinely concerned as he took me by the elbows to help me up. He didn't release me for a while and from some angle, it might've looked like we were embracing. I held on to him as I rolled my ankles one by one to make sure that I hadn't twisted anything or I wouldn't be able to join our upcoming cheer competition. Thank God, I hadn't put on my heels or I'd probably be dead.

"I think so," I answered, blushing furiously. He just saw me tumbling down the stairs. I was surprised that he wasn't pressing me about it. The Austin I knew would never let me live that down.

"Do you want to sit? I can carry you."

"I can walk," I assured him. "And I got my phone so I'm ready to leave now."