My Heart Beats Faster

Chapter 8 - Practice A Bit

We were at practice and Alexandra did what I never expected her to do. I mean I know Alexandra's full of surprises, for I don't know her that well yet, but this was just so unexpected.

“Hey guys, I'll just practice a bit more, k?” she asked all of us as we packed up from practice.

“I'll stay with you,” I offered.

“You don't have to do that.”

“I need to practice control a bit anyways.”

She bit her bottom lip. She did that a lot more nowadays. As if everything worries her. “Okay,” she answered me.

When she said she need to practice a bit, I think she meant a lot. Because I spent five hours with her. Five hours doing whatever to improve. But I could tell that it was more than that. I knew that everything from the past few days stressed her out too much, and she needed some sort of outlet. Somewhere she could let it out. Lucky for her, we had the same outlet.

“If this is practicing a bit more, I would love to see you practice a lot more,” I said as we really packed up. She laughed a little. She didn't laugh as much anymore. That worried me too.

“You know you didn't have to stay the entire time, right?” she said.

“Nah, it's fine. I've been waiting to play this much every since we got on the same team.”

“Really?”

“Totally.”

“Why?”

“Well, I love soccer and-” I couldn't finish because she cut me off.

“Don't lie. You can't love soccer enough to play for six and a half hours.”

“You really want me to tell you.”

“Yes.”

“I want to be with you.” Crap. My big mouth again.

“Okay.” Whew. There wasn't even a surprised expression attached.

“Why are you playing soccer for six and a half hours, then?”

“Can I be full out honest with you?”

“You can tell me anything. I'm your captain remember?” There was a soft laugh after that.

“When I play soccer, it's like the rest of the world fades out. There's no more crying, not really any emotion at all. And the past few days have been a bit stressful.”

“I know exactly what your talking about.”

“Truthfully? This isn't just some effort to cheer me up?”

“Truthfully.” Then she hugged me and started to cry.

“Is there something wrong?” I ask.

“There are so many things wrong, Devin. But you seem to be the only person who seems to understand them.”

“Only person? Not even, Violet?”

“Violet has no idea.”

“Nathan?”

“Not at all.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you seem to be the only person who understands what's happening right now. That Kyle is just gonna break Violet's heart, and that Brittany never really cared for Nathan. He was just some toy. And I don't know if you know about Scarlett, but she's just become so distant.”