Falling for the Bad Boy

Chapter 14- Game Day

Zen walked out without his shirt on. He had a gorgeous six pack and strong, muscular arms. He brushed back his, making his muscles show even more. He opened the cupboard and reached for a mug, making his back muscles flex. He then poured himself some coffee, looked at me and laughed. "Like what you see?" he asked with a grin. I snapped my head, realizing I was staring. I nodded "Yea, that coffee is super sexy," I said walking over and poured myself another glass. He laughed and walked into his bedroom. He came back in a football jersey and a football. "Hey guys, I am going to go practice. I have a big game tonight. Feel free to come." Zen said walking out the door. Alyssa and I looked at each other, sprinted to our room and changed into some athletic clothes. I threw on a light blue long sleeve shirt and a pair of my Lulu Lemon shorts. Alyssa had on a t-shirt and some leggings. Our families are CRAZY about football, especially our dads. Alyssa and her family would always come over every Sunday to watch games. The das would watch the game, the moms would cook and talk, and the girls would go out and mess around. Ash, Alyssa and I had always loved playing football, though we didn't know much about it. We always made up our own rules and goofed off. We ran out and caught up to Zen who was walking toward the park. He smiled and looked at us "The first one to the park wins!" he said sprinting off. We laughed an ran after him. We got to the park and started to throw the ball around. Zens friend, Tanner showed up. We decided to play 2 on 2. Zen and Tanner started with the ball. Tanner started running and Zen was ready to throw the ball when I flew and jumped on his back. He laughed and threw the ball, missing Tanner by a mile. He held me over his shoulder and spun me around. I laughed yelling "Put me down!" Zen finally set me down and looked down at me. "You aren't very good at this sport are you?" he asked smiling. I looked him in the eyes "No I am, I was just being playful. I will go hard on you now I guess." I said and smirked. He nodded and handed me the ball. "Set hike," I yelled. Alyssa ran 40 yards out and cut in. I took a couple of steps back and then threw a perfect spiral to her. She juked out Tanner and ran to the endzone with ease. We ran to each other and did our handshake, then ended in a chest bump. "Better step up your game for tonight Zen," I said smiling and then walked home to get ready.

I took a quick cold shower and blowed dried my hair. Alyssa and I sat in my room doing our makeup. I decided to wear white ripped jeans with a red tube top and a white jean jacket to cover it. I straightened my hair and did my makeup the way Ash taught me. I smiled at myself in the mirror and did a little twirl. Alyssa came out and frowned. I laughed. She was wearing one of Blake's old jerseys. She had tied it up and put white ripped jeans on. Her hair was up in a high ponytail. I smiled and took some pictures with her. We walked out to see Ash and James ready to go. We all loaded up into the car and headed down to the school. We sang all the way to the school.

We walked into the football field. This was my second football game and it was overwhelming. Fellow students were screaming with excitement. I saw Kate, Nicole, Kanna, and AJ waving to us. We climbed the bleachers and sat down next to them. We were in the front row, right in the middle. James sat down next to Nicole and wrapped his arm around her. The girls talked until the music started playing. We all got to our feet and started clap. Music started to play, blasting through the speakers. The cheerleaders held up the Eagles banner, then the announcer yelled: "Welcome to the field your Eastside Eagles!" Right on queue, Zen ran through the Eagles banner, the rest of the team following behind him. Zen started to wave his arms, motioning to the crowd to get loud. The crowd got the motion and started to whoop. Me and Zen's eyes meet and he smiled, holding up a heart. I held up a heart back and blew him a kiss before he ran onto the field. We ended up receiving the ball first. Zach, the kick returner, caught the ball with ease and ran all the way to the 50-yard line. I jumped up and down, Alyssa looked at me and laughed. "Enthusiastic much?" she yelled over the loud crowd. I nodded and smiled. Zen trotted onto the field and gathered the other 10 players into a huddle. They broke and next thing I knew Zen had passed the ball to Blake who was running. Blake made it to the 60-yard line before being tackled. Zen then tried to throw it but someone tackled him and the ball went flying out of bounds. I stood up making sure he was ok. He got up and I sighed a sigh of relief. The next play Zen threw a perfect throw to Blake who ran it to the endzone scoring a touchdown. The crowd went wild, screaming and jumping up and down. The game was back and forth until the opposing team, scored a touchdown. Zen had thrown the ball to Shane but the defensive team had swooped in and caught it, running down to the endzone. The next time they had the ball they managed to kick a field goal making the score 7-10. My head snapped to the clock. It was the fourth quarter with only 4 minutes left. I looked at Zen who had his hands over his head in frustration. Zach again received the ball and managed to get to the 40 before getting tackled. Blake ran the ball the next play gaining 5 yards. Zen was about to throw the ball but was sacked again. Blake tried to run the ball again but didn't make it far enough to get the first down, so now it was fourth down. I sighed and looked at the clock seeing there were only 8 seconds left in the game. Zen saw it too, his shoulders slumped. I took whatever voice I had left and screamed his name. Finally, after the millionth time, I caught his attention. He looked up with worried eyes. I smiled and mouth You got this. Breathe. He took a deep breathe nodded and ran to the field. I held Alyssa hand, "Damn Paige, you have a death grip going right now." she said laughing. I looked down to see my knuckles were white. "Sorry, I am just really stressed." She laughed and we focused on the game. The center snapped the ball to Zen, he threw the ball long and high. Everyone's eyes were following the ball to see it land right in Blake's arms who took 3 steps to score the touchdown. I jumped up and down hugging Alyssa and then Ash. Zen ran to Blake and the did a chest bump the team tackled Zen. He smiled and managed to push his way through the crowd. He ran up to me jumped on the fence. I cupped his face and said, "I am so proud of you." He smiled and kissed me. He then got down and ran to shake the other team's hands. I looked over to see Jessica frowning at me. I shrugged and smiled, turning back to my friends who were still going nuts.

After the game, I ran to Zen who picked me up and spun me around. He kissed my head as I leaned into his shoulder. "You guys down for pizza?" he asked. We all nodded. We took two cars to the pizza place. We sat in a booth laughing over soda and pizza. We all laughed and joked around. I then got up saying I needed to get my charger from the car. I got up and went outside, looked both ways and started to cross. A car came flying down the street. I turned with my eyes opened wide. I tried to get out of the way but it was too late.