Falling for the Goalie and Other Dangerous Sports

Chapter 18 - Maddy

yeah! >300 reads from 5,000!!! WOOP WOOP! again, thank you all soooooo much for reading! :D

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Sunday's game wasn't much different from Saturday's. We lost, again, but by a smaller margin. 4-2. Which is okay, I guess. I kept my mind focused on the game and not the sidelines, the forwards and not the goalie.

But my plan wasn't working out.

He just kept talking to me, whenever and wherever. After practice, before practice, a message on Facebook, and about anything. It wasn't always soccer. Sometimes it was football, or school, or summer, or really just anything. It was something new, to talk to someone and never get tired of them, to not have to try and keep the conversation going, but rather to try and end it. I feel like the team was getting along a little bit more than usual, too. The girls weren't specimens to be examined, and the boys weren't pigs to be held up in a pen.

There was a mutual understanding among everyone that we all had one thing in common, and it was a love of the game. That's why we're all here. To play and get better. Not to go get a boyfriend, or "accidentally" nail someone with the ball, or whatever you might of expected at the beginning of the season, whatever I expected. In some retrospects, it was an extremely complicated thing to understand, the friendship between teenage guys and girls. How there's such a subtle difference between talking and flirting, how it's fun to be able to talk about sports and video games for once, not just fashion and rumors. The diversity. And everyone just got along; there was no reason to be mad at each other. People always say you fall for a friend eventually, and that teenagers are just tornadoes of hormones, but it wasn't like that. I just don't know how else to explain it.

That was what went on for a week. Talking, communicating, the team finally coming together. Knowing when to pass to who, and where. Predicting the run someone's going to make. Moving to where the ball is most likely to be cleared. For example, you can always assume that Oliver's going to almost always switch the ball to the other side of the field when he gets it. And Heather will take the ball as far as she can go until she has to pass. Little things you pick up about how each player plays the game.

And then there was what we referred to as Derek's turnaround. It didn't matter if it was an offensive drill or just shooting around, he never lets up. Ever. It was like all the effort he put into building a wall around his emotions was transferred to the field. He pushed himself continuously and was ultimately at the top of his game, every practice, every shot.

For once, the team was a team.

"Hey," Derek dribbled up beside me as I waited for a ball. Mark, Sam, Heather, Derek, and I were the only ones at practice, probably because it was an early morning one (7:30-9:00). Most people were going to be late.

"Hey is for horses," I replied, watching Sam stick his foot out to stop a ball. It bounced off his shoe and into the side of the goal.

I turned back to Derek, who was still watching the goal. "Exactly." He turned his head towards me a fraction, green eyes glowing. "Hey."

It took me a moment, but I finally got the jab. I quickly stole the ball off him, dribbling and taking a quick shot, watching it rocket into the corner. Sam had made no attempt to save it, and I smirked triumphantly.

Everyone was starting to arrive now, the early morning mist fading away, but the dark clouds staying. It was muggy and humid out, and us four girls had subconciously all worn cutoffs. I'm glad I took the dive to wear one, because I would be boiling in this humid August heat.

Practice began, running, dribbling, shooting, kicking, passing, drills, drills, drills. Everyone started to wake up and come alive, feeding of one another's energy. The practice was a fairly hard one, with so many sprinting penalties if we didn't do something right, but it was a good workout. By the last 10 minutes, it had started to rain and everyone was soaked in a disgusting mix of sweat and rainwater. The boys ran around and tried to push each other into mud, while the girls sort of stayed back and laughed. Some guys like Nate and Carter willingly belly flopped into the mud pits, and by then the coaches were laughing along and ended practice. The last ten minutes were ours to do whatever, because we had worked hard in the past week. And all hell broke loose as the boys tore off their soaked t-shirts and set off with a ball towards the goal, which was practically a mud pit.

Us four girls looked about each other awkwardly, coming together in a circle. We had all gotten really close in the past week, despite how different we were. Heather was a super smart math geek, Aimee was the bubbly one, Dakota was the popular girl, and I was the down-to-earth normal one, according to them. "Maybe we should just head up to the pavilion." I suggested. Aimee and Dakota had their eyes glued behind me, where I could hear shouts and laughs and splashes and smacks. Heather kept glancing over. "Hello?" I waved my hand in their faces.

"Whoa, what, sorry, sorry..." Dakota stated, quickly focusing on what was going on behind me again. "Damn."

"Hello there..."

"Wait, check out-"

"HEY!" I yelled finally catching their attention. They turned towards me, pouting. "I think we should get some shelter instead of stand out in the rain all day. Agree?" I crossed my arms, willing myself not to look back. In realtiy, it had slowed to a light drizzle, but I wasn't comfortable with where we were now.

"Yeah, let's just.."

"How bout in a minute or two, we..."

"HA! Hell no! I'm not missing the eleven hottest guys running around shirtless." Dakota said. Typical her, always says what's on her mind. She wasn't exactly a slut, just...a little flirty. "You haven't even looked, Maddy."

"I'd rather not."

"C'mon."

"You know who...well, yeah," Aimee said.

"Wait, Maddy has a you know who?" Heather asked.

"Not a you know who, thee you know who." Aimee stated.

"You mean the-" started Dakota.

"Yeah, and that you know who-"

"Is completely into this you know who?"

"SHUT. UP."

"No joke."

"Pssh, I saw that one a long time ago."

"Yeah, me too."

"I sort of saw it."

"Really? It's pretty obvious-"

"Hey!" Someone shouted from behind us as I saw the ball roll by my feet. I bent to go grab it and toss it back to them, but I was a bit shell shocked at the scene in front of me. And then I realized, that there was not one guy on this team who wouldn't be a bad Hollister model.

"Maddy, here." Derek's soft voice drifted over to me, where he was leaning on the goal post, breathing heavy and brown hair a mess. He blowed a strand out of his face, patiently waiting. The other guys had their chests puffed out, trying to look buff, but Derek looked awkward and uncomfortable, in some sort of attempt to be humble. His tall and lean figure, broad shoulders and slightly tanned skin still obviously stuck out from the rest. I used to think my favorite thing about Derek were his green eyes, but...holy shit.

I thankfully was able to snap out of it and carefully toss the ball back, focused on making it go straight. Derek caught the ball and threw it back out, where the game resumed. We all were victims now, just standing and staring in disbelief, but I knew they were catching on, giving us either weird looks or smirks. "Let's go drink water and act like we're talking."

The girls agreed and we slowly made our way back to where the water was, still watching the game, adding commentary here and there. Aimee and Dakota were really into the girl talk, while Heather and I sort of just nodded and watched.

I felt awkward. I felt despicable. I felt like this was against some code somewhere, that we were breaking rules, or they were breaking rules, but it was the car crash you couldn't stop looking at. It was definitely the wrong thing to do, and I felt a little bit like a whore. But...I don't know. I seriously don't know. Well, I do know. I do know that all eleven of them were insanely hot shirtless.

I tried to keep my eyes off Derek; I really did. I tried to focus on the other guys, on Kendall, who we rated as the best six pack, on Sam, who had the tannest skin, on Jarod, who just looked plain sexy, but no use. Derek was muddy, gross, sweating and soaking, but it all just added up. The messy hair he shook out of his face. The smear of mud up his arm and legs. The olive skin. The strong shoulders.

"See Maddy? You've been checking out Derek for the past 5 minutes."

I quickly turned face Dakota, who was picking grass out of her cleats. My face heated up. "Have not!"

The stampede of muddy cleats was heard as the boys walked over, joking and laughing. They reached for their bags and took their shirts or hoodies, slipping them casually over their heads, laughing and arguing.

"I would've had that goal, you know."

"No you wouldn't of, you dipshit."

"We'll settle this next practice then."

"Sure."

"So, the ladies enjoy the show?" Wyatt said, looking directly at Aimee.

Aimee spoke up, cheerfully. "No. We were talking."

"Yeah, you guys were trying to show off nothing."

"Oh. I don't know about you, but I did." Dakota said, picking up her things. The guys laughed, a couple heading off to the cars, and a couple stunned by her bluntness. Obviously still not used to her. The rest stayed and talked.

"Shoot, hey any of you guys have clean shirt or hoodie or something? My mom isn't going to let me come near her with this." Derek held up a completely brown-t shirt with grass and leaves stuck to it. I could smell it from where I was standing. He wrung it out as a bunch of gross mud water drained out. Again, laughter, but everyone shook their head.

"Wait, maybe I do." Aimee said, digging through her bag. "Ah, oh wait a minute..."

I spotted a roll of lace prewrap in the bag she was digging through. "Hey, that's my bag."

"I know, but you have this." Aimee held up a black hoodie, unrolling it with a flourish. 30, Weaver. Screwed.

My face flushed, as guys laughed at me, me looking in shock at Aimee. How could she do this? Why would she even do that? How insanely, incredibly embarrassing! Why can't I just dig a hole and die, right here, right now. Strike me with lightning, anything to get me out of here. Oh god. I'm so dead. Dead, dead, dead.

"Well, would you look at that. Toss it here, Aimee." Derek said nonchalantly, holding out his hand. She threw to him as he caught it and slipped it over his head, pulling the hood down, completely unfazed. Please don't embarrass me, for the love of god. I'm mentally begging you.

"Would you care to explain, Derek?" Mark said, laughter beginning to die down.

"What?" Derek replied innocently.

"Why Maddy has your hoodie?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to get suspicious about you two..." Kendall added. More laughs.

"Oh, we're only friends. She just borrowed it and didn't give it back." Derek said as he flung an arm around me. "Right?" He turned and smiled, and I could see it in his eyes. Putting on a show.

"Right." I smiled back, and it was something more again. Than just chatting, than just "friends". Than just a teammate, than just a brown-haired boy that I was playing soccer with. Than the "show" Derek was trying to put on for his friends. He eventually let go of me.

"Well, I've got to head off. See you. Thanks for giving this back, Maddy."

"Uh yeah. Sure thing. Well, Aimee is more of the one who gave it back..."

"So you were going to steal it from me?" Derek pouted.

"No, I-"

"Yes, she would've. Bye Derek!" Aimee said, interrupting and covering my mouth with her hand. He smirked and waved back, going out of sight. I tore Aimee's hand from my mouth, disregarding Wyatt, Kendall, Sam, and Carter. The others had walked off behind Derek.

"What the hell?"

"C'mon! That turned out perfectly!"

"No! You completely embarrassed me in front of everyone!"

"Oh, shut up!"

"NO!"

Aimee and I argued back and forth ferociously, yelling random phrases at each other, trying to get the last word. We were getting close to screaming when Wyatt loudly cleared his throat. We turned towards the four boys who were staring at us, intrigued. "Sorry."

"No, you're fine." There was an awkward pause as I picked up my bag and threw it onto my shoulder.

"You know how there's no secrets, right?" Sam said to me, picking up his things.

I heaved my bag higher. "Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Well, it's alright to say that you like him."

"Yeah, we won't care..."

"Er, who?"

"Derek, Maddy. Derek Weaver for god's sake. You know that." Aimee said, punching me in the shoulder jokingly. I took a step back and picked up my water bottle.

"Derek? No, no, no. I don't have a crush on him." I said, trying to sound believable. "Nah, that's too...weird. He's just a friend, like all of you guys."

"He's a pretty close friend, then." Kendall said, grabbing his belongings. Wyatt, Carter, and Sam followed him.

"No, I promise there's nothing between us. Really." I reasoned. This conversation was going downhill, fast. I started off towards the cars. "See you guys tomorrow."

The boys and Aimee gave their goodbyes as I walked off towards Dad's car, the sun finally coming out. It was still around 9:00 a.m. I'd usually be asleep now, not mortally embarrassed in front of the whole soccer team. Just a lovely beginning to my Friday. Just. Fucking. Fantastic.

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Hopefully I tied up some loose ends. I could feel Maddy's embarrassment, and I was thinking the whole time, "no allie! that's too embarrassing to happen!" But, what's done is done. hopefully you liked it, i tried to make it not seem really weird when the guys went shirtless. lawl. XD weeeeell, comment...vote...subscribe...wait, that's youtube. oh well.

Allie