What Could've Happened, Honestly

Can't Catch

ImanolxDaeja

MiddleSchool!OneShot

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Daeja's POV

It was the seventh period of the day, P.E. It was also Friday, and for once our class was able to have a "free day", which was basically not having to run the mile and play around instead.

Perla and I managed to snag a football out of the ball cart before some boys took it. We started throwing and catching it, Perla sucking at both.

"You need to keep your arm straight when you throw it," I yelled. "It's gotta have that spiral effect when you throw it so it'll fly straight!" I ran over to show her how to hold the football correctly, just as my dad had taught me.

As I was trying to position her fingers over the ball correctly, our other two period buddies walked up to us. "Hey guys, y'all playing catch?," Imanol asked as he watched Perla's and my hands cover the ball. "Yeah, just trying to show Perla how to hold and throw the ball properly. Actually, can you go over there so she can try to throw the ball right?" Imanol nodded as he said yeah and jogged across the courts with our other buddy Anthony.

"OK Perla, now hold it just like that and keep your arm straight as possible when you go to throw it," I said as I stepped back some steps to give her some space and to observe. Ball in hand, she cocked her arm all the way back, and slung the football as hard as she could across the courts. It flew through the air, spiraling perfectly towards the boys who were looking up to catch it. As it flew downwards, Imanol put his hands right above his head to catch it, looking at it approach him. Then, instead of catching it with his hands, it went into his eye.

"Ooohh shit!," Perla said as she covered her mouth and turned to look at me. "Jesus, Imanol are you okay?!?," I yelled across at him. He was shuffling around, holding his eye as Anthony stood there just as shocked as us.

I ran over to them, placing my hand onto Imanol's shoulder to turn him towards me. He kept squirming around with a grimace on his face muttering curses under his breath. "Imanol, let me see it," I grabbed both his shoulders this time to have him face me. He obliged, his head facing down at our feet while his right hand still covered his eye. Slowly, I grasped his wrist and gently pulled it away from his face. At first he was a little hesitant, but let me do it anyway and dropped his hand to his side.

Despite him looking down, he had a good amount of height on him over me so I could still see the majority  of his face. Despite that, I took the opportunity to put my fingers underneath his chin and lift his head up slightly. We were eye-to-eye now, and I could fully see his right eye that was slightly closed due to the pain most likely. As much as I would've liked to just stand there and gaze at his face at that proximity, I would've liked to know he was fine more.

So, I started prodding around his eye, having him look every which way to see if there was anything in there. No popped blood vessels, no signs of swelling, no dirt in there, just one highly irate eye. During all this, I failed to fully notice his eyes watching me when he wasn't being told to look somewhere else. They had a warm to them, a fondness that matched well with the small smile that graced his features.

Satisfied, I let go of his face and slightly stepped back, "Nothing serious, you'll be fine." He just nodded with this goofy smile plastered on his face. His face was still red, probably from the pain, I thought. Eventually, he spoke up to say, "Thank you. I, uh, really appreciate it." I smiled brightly as I replied, "It's no problem really, just wanted to make sure you were ok and Perla didn't blind you-" "Hey! I didn't mean to throw it into his eye! Not my fault he can't catch. 😤" I laughed, "Yeah, well you still threw it so.." We all laughed and I looked back towards Imanol; he was still smiling a lot and red.