Forever (Tobin/You)

13

Ashlyn comes over with her jacket and hands it to me, so I offer her a grateful smile as I put it on and zip it up high enough to hide the mark left by my fiancée the other day.

"So what part of my uniform am I missing besides literally everything?" I ask and Ashlyn pulls out the armband.

"Your armband, Captain."

"No, guys. I don't deserve it." I say and Tom shakes his head.

"Out of everyone on this team, it's you who deserves the band. I've never met an athlete as dedicated as you are. You came back from Portland to help us out when you needed us and have played such a big role in our success by just offering your presence on the field." Tom says and I sigh. "Plus the team voted, so you're getting the captains band no matter what you say." He says and I groan as my best friend wraps the blue and white band around my arm.

-

At the stadium, in the locker room, we all get dressed listening to the music that plays from my phone.

"I didn't think you liked Little Mix." Alex says and I sigh.

"I know. I still have mixed feelings about having their song on my phone." I say and she shakes her head, taking the band from me as I take it out of my bag.

"I got it." She says and I sigh to myself, letting her wrap it around my sleeved arm.

"Thank you." I say as she nods to me as The Drum by The Seige comes on. It's an old song, yeah, but I don't care. Most of these songs are a few years old. But the 'pregame' songs these days suck. As Tom comes in to get us, I'm just getting my gloves on, so I follow everyone out as I wrap the strap around my wrist before jogging over to the goal, turning and waving to Ashlyn and Hope, who had my child in her lap, who waved back ecstatically, that's all I needed. I turn back to Khano with a big smile on my face and he chuckles.

"You never let them sit behind the goal." He says and I scoff.

"Do you blame me? There's no net to keep the balls out of the crowd. No ball is hitting my baby."

"And that's why they sit in the box?"

"No, that's just Ashlyn working her Harris charm."

"Let's warm up." He says and I groan jokingly as I get started with my warmups. Near the end of warmups, captains are called, so I go The the center line and shake hands with Christen. You'd think she'd be tired of Chicago by now. It's literally just her and a bunch of college kids. JJ transferred to Seattle to play close to Zach, since he was sold to the Seahawks, Alyssa was sold to Manchester, it was just her with more than college ball under her belt. We call sides of the coin as it's in the air and it lands on heads, I get to pick, so I choose to start corresponding to our benches, like a normal person, and shake hands with Christen once more before heading into the locker room with the teams.

"We're starting in front of our benches." I tell the team and they nod. It doesn't really matter anyway, most captains choose to start the game that way anyway, at least, I know Chris prefers to start that way. As do I, and Tobin did, and pretty much every other league team captain from the national team. "It's cloudy out guys. We all heard the thunder. We're gonna get the shower we all would prefer to have in a bathroom, but we play in Orlando. Fucking Orlando. Most of our games are rainy games anyway. We know how to deal. We've got this. Know it, but don't let that be the only thought you have about this game. Christen. Is. Dangerous. Don't let her touch the damn ball."

"But it's just college kids." One is the rookies that managed to slip Chicago's grasp speaks up and I raise a brow.

"You're a college kid, too."