What My Best Friend Doesn't Know (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Twelve: Ryan

My phone alarm went off and I groaned. I feel James shift against me and I sigh. It's 8:00 a.m. I have a game at 9:30. I slide my arm out from underneath James, and go to his bathroom to shower. I let the water run over my back for a good 5 minutes before I actually start to shower. When I'm done, I wrap a towel around my waist and go back to James's room. When I get in there, he's laying on his side staring at his phone. 

"Good morning," He mumbles. 

"How are you feeling?" I ask as I start to put my uniform on for my game. 

"Better," He says, "I could go for breakfast though." 

"Me too. Let's go to Mike's and get some coffee and food," I say. 

Once he gets dressed we both walk to my car, and I drive to Mike's Cafe. It's a local place that serves the BEST coffee and donuts. Once we both order, we sit at a little booth in the corner and enjoy the peaceful morning. 

"Do you have aspirin with you?" James asks me breaking the silence. 

I check my soccer bag, and pull our a bottle, "Does your head hurt?" 

He nods. 

"Maybe you shouldn't come. Maybe you should go home and rest," I say. 

"Even if my head explodes I'm going to be there for you," James replies. 

Once we finish, I drive to the school, and walk to the locker room to put my bag away. James walks out to the bleachers. Matthew was glumly sitting on the bench, without his uniform on. 

"Even though you're not playing, you still need to put your uniform on, kid," I say. 

"Shut the fuck up, Andrews," He replies. 

I shrug and wait for coach to yell at him. When coach walks in that's exactly what happens. 

"Matt put your uniform on! What the heck are you doing?!" Matthew sighs and slowly puts his uniform on. Coach rolls his eyes. 

"Okay boys. We are facing Alderville today. This should be an easy win, but they could have gotten better, so give it your all this morning alright? Andrews, be prepared at all times okay? You never know when a ball will come flying." 

I nod. 

"Alright. Get out there and win!" 

We all yell and run out to the field to warm up. I kick the ball around with Tyler and then we do a small line of 5 people to kick soccer balls to me to catch. I caught them all. The game finally starts and I stand in front of the net, and get ready to catch whatever comes at me. 

The first time the ball comes towards me, it's high and to the left of the net, so I have to jump and launch myself over to catch it, but i caught it. Our team scores against them easily on the next time through. It's like their goalie wasn't even watching. 

The end of the first period finally comes and by that time we are a good 20 points ahead of them. We had a score of 20-0. I was exhausted though. Their team might suck at keeping us from scouring but they're keeping me busy. It felt like every five seconds a ball was being launched at me. 

"Andrews I'm going to give you a break, okay? I'm going to put Ty in for a quarter. Then I'll let you finish out the second period okay?" Coach says. 

I nod and take a big swig of water. The 3rd quarter started and ended in what felt like 5 minutes, but I knew it was 20. My arms ached, my legs screamed when I stood up off the bench because of how much I had been jumping, but I ran back out nonetheless. Ty let them score a few points, but we were still winning by 12 points. When i got back out there, It felt like they were shooting the ball as much as they could to tire me out. I missed a few, but I caught most of them. I jumped, and launched myself at the ball so many times that my shoulders hurt from hitting the ground so often, but I didn't complain. There was 30 seconds left, and in just 30 seconds I had to save the ball from hitting the net 3 times. When time ran out, the score was 32-22. We won. 

I put my hands on my knees and after we did the normal stuff we do after games, I go to the locker room to change. James walks in after coach gave us his "good job but we can do better" speech. I was in the middle of putting sweatpants on, and he leans against my locker. 

"You did great," He says, "Your mom had to leave after first period but she told me to tell you that you did good." 

I peel off my sweaty jersey and replace it with a t-shirt, "Thanks," I reply. 

He hands me a Gatorade, and we both head back to my house. I sit at the table while James orders us some sandwiches from a sandwich place called "Jerry's Good Eats."

"My whole body is screaming at me," I tell James. 

He laughs, and places a glass of water down in front of me. "Your mom said she'd be out for a while. Want to watch a movie?" He asks. 

"Let me shower. Then sure," I reply. 

I quickly shower, and put on some fresh clothes and go downstairs to see if the food was here yet. James was paying the guy is I entered the living room. He hands me my sandwich and we both sit on the couch to watch "It." I rest my head on his shoulder after I'm done eating, and sigh. I'm so tired. he rests his head against mine, and lays his hand on mine, which was on my knee. We contently sat like that until the movie ended, but as the credits were rolling, we heard a car door slam outside, and we jerked away from each other. My mom walked in and smiled. 

"Hey boys. Who won?" She asked. 

"We did," I reply. 

"Oh that's great! James, honey I'm making beans and cornbread for dinner if you want to stay," she says. 

"Sweet, sure I'll stay," James says. 

James and I look at each other and we each let out a breath that we didn't realize we were both holding. What's happening to us?