Name of the Game

Chapter 7: One Step Closer

My eyes were closed, very tightly, all I could see was black. I couldn't see or feel anything but I knew I was spinning, fast. My head was spinning around like a bobble head doll till the spinning stopped. I started to lunge forward and....
My eyes shot open and I was sitting up in my bed, just staring forward. Shit. Why did I have a nightmare when I had such a good day yesterday? How am I ever going to get over this? While all these questions, with no answer, where going through my head my alarm decided to go off. I stretched to turn it off and then crawled out of bed. Here we go again.

I had just parked the truck at the school and went to the field, right when I was about to put my bag on the bleachers Niall appeared out of no where and slid right where I was about to place my bag.
"Haha too slow," he said laughing out of breath.
"Hey don't talk about yourself like that, you have to love yourself, even if you are slow," I replied, chuckling.
"Heyyyy!!" We were both now laughing.
I than sat down next to him and placed my bag on the other side of me and we both put our cleats on. We then stood up and started doing stretches till the coaches arrived.

Practice went.... better today. There was a little more teamwork, thanks to Niall, but still some resistance. Just like normal I went to my truck to change after practice and then headed inside and made my way to Cynthia's locker to meet up with everyone.
"Heyyyyyy", I said approaching the girls.
"Heyyyyyy", the four of them said in unison.
"How was practice today?" Beth asked.
"Better," I said. "Niall is starting to like me which is good."
"Oooooooo", all the girls said except for Beth.
"Not like that," I laughed. "I mean I think he's starting to like me as a friend, and that he's excepting me as a football player."
"Well that's good," Beth replied with a... relieved look on her face.
"Yeah, I'm makin some progress," I said letting out a little chuckle.
The rest of the girls started to chuckle too when Zayn came around the corner. He was on his phone so his head was facing down but his eyes were facing up. They were looking at Cynthia, and hers were looking right back at his. Her face started to turn pink from all the blushing and I saw a small smirk creep up on Zayn's face. He then made eye contact with me, but only for a second, but for that second he looked at me and a kind, small, full mouth smile appeared on his face before he broke the eye contact and kept on walking. That was... strange.
"Oooooo Cynth did you seeeee that?!!" Andrea said nudging Cynthia with her elbow.
"See what?" Cynthia asked all innocent, blushing again.
"The way he looked at you and then smirked because of your blushinggggggg," Andrea replies nudging her again.
"I-I didn't see anythin-" Cynthia started but then the bell rang. You could see relief on her face. "Well time to get to class, see you guys later." She said rushing off.
"Wait Cyn we have class together," I said speed walking after her.
She didn't slow down till right before we were about to enter the classroom for yoga, she actually didn't slow down, she stopped, so I ran right into her. And she just faced forward, not turning to look at me.
"Hey is everything ok-"
"Does he ever talk about me?" Cynthia suddenly asked quickly turning around to face me.
"Who?"
"Zayn."
"Oh... no."
"Oh...... ok," she said sadly looking down at the ground.
"Hey hey hey," I said making her look back up at me. "He doesn't like me, so he doesn't talk to me, and whenever I walk around any of the boys, except Niall, all conversations stop. So he could talk about you, I just wouldn't know."
"Yeah I guess that makes sense. It's just, he always looks at me like that. And it's like he's got a carrot on a stick and I'm the bunny, I feel like he's just playing with me. I really hope he's not but I feel like he is and I don't wanna try my chances with him and get hurt, ya know?
"Yeah I get it, I'll try to find some stuff out from Niall because they're close and I'll let you know, but I feel like he's that person who looks like a player but is actually a romantic."
"Thanks Em, you're the best." She said hugging me. We then headed into class and took our seats right before the bell rang.

My first four classes had gone by pretty fast. And soon lunch had arrived... and it was nacho day!! I put like everything on my nachos (I like everything and I loveeee fooood). The rest of the girls were already there eating and laughing when I got there.
"Took you long enough," Andrea said chuckling. "Did you leave anything for anyone else?" Beth asked.
"Heyyyy. I. Like. Food." I said stuffing my face with nachos giving a big, mouth stuffed, smile.
I finished chewing and swallowing my big bite and then cleaned up my face and took a nice drink of my fruit punch, when Niall approached.
"Shouldn't you watch how much you eat so you stay fit so you can be on the team? If you keep eating like that you'll be sweating cheese," Niall said laughing.
"Heyyyy you're not any better. You have just as much food as me."
"Yeah but I'm a big burly man that needs lots and lots of calories," Niall said flexing his guns on his arm that he's not holding his tray with.
"Yeah but I'm a strong smart woman who needs to eat to keep getting A's," I said tapping the side of my head.
"You calling me dumb?"
"Noooooo neverrrrr," I replied sarcastically. "You calling me weak?"
"Me? Neverrrrrrr," he replied with just as much sarcasm.
We were both laughing when Niall's name was called.
"Niall! Get your ass over here!" Harry called to Niall.
"Sorry Em, I gotta go. See you next period," he said giving me a small punch on the shoulder before walking off.
"You guys have a cute banter thing going on," Mitchie whispered once Niall was far enough away.
"There's no cute banter thing. We're just friends, which I'm really happy about."
"Well that's good," Beth replied.