Steeling Her [Published]

Night Kids! Stay Safe and Wear Protection

NICK

Hearing the guys grunt as they make impact with the padding held by the coaching staff. Coach starts to yell at us to be more energetic. Seeing people making their way to their seats in the stands. I can't see my sister yet. She'll be here, she always is for my games. My parents are usually here, but my dad is away on business and my mom didn't want to come without him.

I pull on my jersey and bite onto the collar. I see TJ running the lines as fast as he can. It gets him pumped for the game. If he doesn't do his running, he won't play well. Once he's finished he'll make his way over to me. We'll have a team talk in the locker room and then make our way back out onto the field.

I'm throwing the ball to a staff member warming up my arm. But I keep looking into the stands to see if I can see my sister. But also another girl. In the back of my mind, I have a feeling she won't come tonight. But I still want to know for definite. She's never seen me play. And I want her to. Haley said she might come to the party tonight. Here's hoping.

TJ has done nothing but tease me the entire week about her. I felt bad for what I said to her, I want to see her to apologise. But she couldn't have ran away from me quick enough. Even when she was walking back to her dorm, she briefly looked up at TJ and I and kept walking with her head down. That's when I knew we effected her a little more than we originally thought. Then I saw her talking to Ryan and I immediately stared at them both. I know what he was trying to do. But he told TJ she said no to a date.

I relaxed instantly to him telling me that. He even knew because he was smirking so hard at me. So I started to wrestle with him about it. Denying anything what he said about her.

"Jackson! Focus!" Bulldog shouts over the field at me catching my attention. Bulldog is on our coaching staff, he's called bulldog for a reason. Short stumpy man, but you wouldn't cross him because he will own you in two seconds flat. You do as your told with him. No questions asked. One of the best in college football too.

I catch the ball he throws back at me and side step pretending I have people running at me. I throw it back and nail the spiral heading towards him. "Nice ball Jackson!" He compliments me when he catches it with ease. We continue to do this for another ten or so minutes while we wait for the time to count down for kick off. I'm done with my warm up and I see TJ jogging over to me with a beaming smile.

"Haley's here and Danielle" he doesn't mention her so I look down and check the back of my studs. I look over my shoulder to see Haley sitting in the second row with Danielle so we wave over to them. They wave back to us with grins on there faces.

"Cheer up man! There are other girls here to watch you" his head bobs back into the stands and I see Maya sitting with her friends down the line from my sister. She starts to wave at me sucking on a lollipop. I send her a head bob in acknowledgement. I face TJ and he's smirking at me again.

"Fuck off TJ" I grit out and we all walk inside with him laughing beside me. He always winds me up. Successfully does too. He's knows what buttons to push to piss me off. Once we get to the locker room I sit where my training bag is and wait for the rest to follow suit. We all have to listen to coaches speech. I hear my phone buzz in the bottom of my bag and I fish it out with my free hand while the other holds a bottle of Gatorade.

Maya: Good luck tonight babe! I'll be cheering for you 😉😘xx

I ignore it and put it back inside my bag with force. The game is my main focus for tonight. I have to pump myself up for tonight.

Focus on the game Nick.

After coaches speech we all run back out through the tunnel and we get a cheer from our crowd. I look around the see Haley and Danielle standing and clapping for us. I smile at them and place my helmet on my head and ready myself for what's about to come. Auburn. It's Friday night and we're playing a solid team. We beat them last year, but only by a three point lead. It was a tough game, with tough players. I remember there cheerleaders mainly. I remember me and the guys staring at them while they did there routine for their team. Then watching our cheerleaders.