Our Story So Far

Chapter 12

"I told you guys football wasn't my thing." I laughed, taking Les' hand.

"No kidding." Roman jumped up from the ground, dusting himself off.

"Ha! Coming from the guy that just got tackled by a girl." Les jabbed his brother in the chest playfully. I let out a laugh and hi-fived Les.

"Oh please. I fell." Even Roman looked like he was about to laugh.

"Nah, I so tackled you." I patted him on the shoulder. What the heck was I doing? A few days ago I wouldn't want to be breathing the same air as Roman Baskley. Now here I am voluntarily touching him. I tore my hand away before it started to get weird.

"Hey Mac, you okay?" Will jogged over to the rest of us.

"Yeah, I'm fine. This guy broke my fall." I smiled sweetly at Roman. He stuck his tongue out at me and I giggled. Will raised his eyebrows at me. I widened my eyes in his direction as if to say, what are you trying to say? He just shook his head at me- a small smirk appearing at the corners of his mouth. "So what's up?" I changed the subject.

"Vince says practice is over now, so we can go get food if you guys want."

"Sure, I'm just gonna change back into my clothes first." I grimaced at the now ratty UCSD t-shirt I was wearing.

"Yeah, same here." Roman tugged at his equally as destroyed t-shirt. "Hey man can I get the keys?" He asked Les. The shiny silver keys flew through the air and into Roman's hand.

"We'll meet you guys up there and then head out." Will nodded at me. I gave Will and Les a quick wave and walked over toward Les' dad.

"Thanks for letting us play, sir. It was nice meeting you." I offered my hand one last time.

"It was my pleasure Mackenzie. And please, call me Seth. Any friend of Les and Roman is someone worth getting to know." He smiled at me.

"I'll see you around Seth, great seeing you." Roman said giving his dad one of those handshake man hugs.

"You too. And you know you're welcome at home any time. Your mother really misses you." Seth smiled. Roman gave a short nod and started to walk away. I waved a quick goodbye and jogged to catch up with Roman.

"What does he mean? You haven't been home?" I said once we were finally walking in step together.

"Uh not recently, no."

"Well where did you go a few weeks ago? Les said you guys all went home last month."

"I crashed with one of my friends from high school." He kicked a pebble with his shoe.

"Why didn't you want to go home?" I asked softly, trying not to pry.

"I just can't stand it." He growled.

"Stand what?"

"I can't stand the fact that Les is in our Christmas card, or that he gets my mom a card on Mother's Day. He's not my brother!" I didn't know what to say, but luckily he kept talking. "I mean it was okay at first- having him around, but after you move in with someone- especially your best friend, it can get awkward. Before our parents got married we used to be best friends. But now our relationship is different, we have all this built up frustration because we tip toe around all our issues."

"You mean because you guys are brothers now you feel like you can't fight like you used to when you were friends?"

"Yeah, that's part of it." He said as we reached the main campus.

"Why are you telling me this?" I found myself saying.

"Um well you kind of asked the questions." He gave me a confused look and led me down a cobblestoned path.