SUNSHINE

eighteen

[ Wooo another after midnight chapter. Enjoy! ]

Casey and Jackson just lay in his bed, both still in their formal clothes from the day. They just wanted to be in one another's company before she left for a week. They had been lying there for the past hour, unmoving and fairly quiet, just wanting to have some sort of physical contact with one another. It was already four in the evening, and she did not want to get back to the hotel late.

"What time do you have to leave?" He asked as if he was reading her mind. She sighed and turned over to lay on top of him.

"I should probably leave soon, it's about a two hour drive and I don't want to get back too late." She responded, and he groaned, sitting up and flipping over so he was now on top of her, using his arms to hoist himself up over her.

"Well let's say we've got an hour until you have to leave? My parents aren't home..." His voice trailed as his lips pressed against hers. She gave in to his touch, moving with his body as he lowered himself closer to her body. She smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck, her hands finding his hair and ruffling it with her fingers.

"Then let's use that hour to our advantage." She hummed against his lips, and he chuckled.

An hour later she was wearing a pair of his shorts and t-shirt along with a sweatshirt in her hand to take with her and keep as she travelled across the United States. She had her dress and heels in one hand and her sweatshirt, keys, and phone in the other. She was exhausted, but a good exhausted from throughout the day. She could not wait to be in the hotel room in bed.

But she could not wait for tomorrow.

She arrived at the hotel at almost nine that evening, and she had never been so happy to be at a hotel. She left her cap and gown as well as her heels and dress in her back seat, but grabbed the sweatshirt and her phone before locking the Jeep and heading toward the lobby. She was ready for bed, and luckily she was not stopped on her way to her room. Her alarm was already set, so when she shut the door behind her, she kicked off her Birkenstocks, plugged her phone in, and climbed into bed, awaiting the next day for her to finally participate in her first game for the United States senior team, and it was something she could not wait for.

She woke up to her alarm blaring, and it was finally game day. It had been a long time coming, a week of ambitious, exhausting work finally going to be put into play. Jill had told her that she would at least play forty-five minutes in the next three games, which excited her. She got up out of bed and went and hopped in the shower to start her day. Typically she would go for a run, but she did not want to tire herself too much before the game, in case she played today.

She let her hair air dry and she changed to go down to join the team for breakfast, and when she arrived, everyone was buzzing. She set her stuff down at the table she had been sitting at all week and joined the line to grab breakfast. They were eating light that morning so their food would not sit in their stomachs throughout the game. She was antsy and did not feel like eating, but she knew she had to eat to keep her energy going throughout the day. They were heading to the stadium around noon for their three o'clock game, and she was ready to go.

"Ready for your first game not sitting in the stands?" Alex asked as she joined them sitting down at the table.

"Very, my mom and dad are coming and so are all my friends and teammates and coaches for both school and club." She responded eagerly as she picked at her food.

"Only your mom and dad?" Kelley asked curiously.

"Yeah, we moved to Florida when I was really little, and they all live up in North Carolina so I don't get to see them that often."  Casey explained to them with a shrug. She had not seen her grandparents or aunts and uncles or cousins on either side of the family in over ten years, and although is saddened her, she did not know many of them well enough to hang her head over it.