Desperado

For the LOVE of football

She now had more reasons to be lost in his thoughts - his deep voice and those numbered words. It's been not even a whole day since she saw him and she already started imagining starting a family with him. But this happen to her all the time, given her state of life she barely let's her concentration drift from studies. But here she was thinking about a guy all day. She wanted to know more about him, so she took her phone to stalk him in all the apps possible.
After hours of scrolling, all that she could find about him was his name - Ashish, which was a fairly common name that would've required only a few guesses. She was amazed to find out that he wasn't on any social media except Facebook which too had nothing more than his name and few tagged pictures of him with his football team. This made her curios to know more about him.

After days of digging information and stalking, she decided to join the girls football team along with Anusha, to know him well and become friends with. After all, he was so mysterious that only he could tell more about himself.
'Right here, a week ago you said you hate football and now you're here joining the football team. Is he that good?' asked Anusha.
'I never said I hate football, I just said I didn't know anything about it.'
'Why the hell are you dragging me into this,' said Anusha as they were all set in their shorts, for their first practice session.
'Cmon let's get embarrassed together,' said Tarsha doing squats.

The practice wasn't as easy as they thought but she endured it all. Anusha couldn't bare it anyway and quit just after a week. Tarsha had completed a month of football now. Surprisingly, her game improved a lot but nothing really improved with Ashish. There were occasional eye contacts, intentionally kicking the ball to the boys side and running t fetch it and multiple failed attempts at trying to say "Hello". She was almost certain that by now he would've definitely forgotten their bus stop meet. But she definitely didn't want all her hard work to go in vain. So, one day she gathered all the courage that she had and went to talk to him. Ashish was having a cup of tea at the canteen. Thankfully, he was alone that day and surrounded by his friends. She got a cup of tea for herself and stood across him in his table. He smiled at her and she smiled back. This alone was enough for the day and she felt as if all her hard work had been rewarded with the best possible gift. So, she just kept sipping her tea. 'How's practice going?' he asked. Tarsha almost choked. She couldn't quite believe her ears. 'Good,' she said. And, they smiled at each once again. 'Umm..Do you..' again before she could complete he finished his tea and left the table. But, this time he turned back and asked, 'Did you say something?' 'Yeah. Do you remember the time we met in bus stop?' He didn't react. She quickly added to make him remember, 'I congratulated you and..' 'I am sorry, I don't remember. I just know you cause I see you in practice every day,' he said. 'Of course. Anyway, I am Tarsha,' she said finally after months of rehearsing that very same line. 'I'm Ashish. Umm..I gotta go catch you later,' he said and went off. After following him for so long, she was certain about some aspects of his character like he wasn't the flirty type. Infact, he wouldn't interact much with his guy mates and one more thing was that he was the most mysterious person in the whole wide world. So, Ashish initiating the conversation itself was a huge victory for her.