Match

58: Invite

"Camping?"

"Yeah, dude! With some of us, and some from Thunder."

As soon as Cole made it to practice, he got shoulder-bumped by Nathan and asked to join a camping trip by Graham. Confusion hits him in an instant.

"When? Where? And who else is coming?"

Graham grabs his attention. "Lotta questions there hah," he nods over to the coaches talking to each other. "It was our coach's idea and then John got word of it and followed along. It'll be at the big campground that's north of town."

"As far as we know," Nathan chimes in, "for our team me, Graham, Ashton, Ace, Jordan and Jay are coming."

"Oh."

"It's not gonna be a long stretch. We're thinking like a couple days of camping sometime next week."

He glances at the other field which, even after the mystery's been solved, is still shut down to the public to regrow the grass. Then at the other players present on the shared field. He frowns, knowing another teammate is still missing other than Kacey.

"What about Joel?"

"Joel?" Graham scratches at the stubble on his chin. "He hasn't come to our games or practices 'cause he's sick. I just got informed by the dude taking care of him."

'Dude'? he thinks. What dude?

"Yeah," Graham says. "Hopefully he can make it to our last game. And the camping trip!"

Nathan pumps a fist in the air. "I'm stoked for fishing man!"

"Same here."

More thoughts swirl around Cole's head. He'll have to let his boss know about the camping trip. And he knows gossip will spread with some co-workers, about their envy that 'somebody has vacation time', whilst taking a whole week off to go to the coast in their 'fancy cottage'. Eat the rich, he thinks with a laugh.

"Oh, Cole."

Graham's voice snaps him out of it. "Huh?"

"Are you gonna join us? I didn't hear your answer."

"Oh, uh. Yeah, I just gotta text my boss."

Nathan gives the thumbs-up. "Sweet."

Coach Ryan calls the team in to talk about the plan for practice tonight. Then it's practice for an hour. To both team's luck, tonight is a cooler overcast rather than a muggy sauna. Cole recalls Graham mentioning there's another heat wave starting on Saturday. He "prays" the "weather gods" will go against the prediction, as he dreads the thought of the final game with desert heat that might flow well into next week. While half-listening to the coach, his eyes catch something.

Jonah's busy practicing his kicking with Ben. His eyes glue to the scene. He can't help himself but study his form from afar, his perfect body line when he kicks the soccer ball into the net. He breaks away from the awkward staring when he feels a nudge on his shoulder. Looks like he's going to be the first in line to shoot.

Don't scoop it like a shovel.

Don't scoop it like a shovel.

———————————

Toss the ball up in the air like a basketball, then catch it again. Rinse and repeat. Cole makes an attempt to maybe tap the ceiling above in the room, until he realizes it might backfire and hit his noggin. What should I do? He takes a glimpse at his phone, in hopes that Jonah maybe responded.

Cole:

are u coming with us 2 the camp trip

No response yet. He's been bored out of his mind ever since he got back from practice. It's too early for him to sleep, not that he feels tired anyway. He suddenly hears the front door squeak open, to which he knows it's Hayden coming back from wherever he was.

"Just your roommate!" Hayden says while shutting the door.

Cole stops throwing the ball. He shuffles it under his bed and sits up. Hayden strolls in, smiling. He squints.

He notices Hayden acting more giddier than usual. He is, as Cole describes it, the "ball of energy that never stops". But there was a skip in his step, a sparkle in his smile, a twinkle in his eye.

"How was your night?" He asks to start off.

Hayden plops on the bed, stretching out, then relaxes his hands behind his head. "Good, really good."

"Oh? What were you up to?"

He shrugs. "Not much."

"Not much?"

"How's things with your boyfriend?"

"Huh?"

He shoots a crafty smirk. "Jonah, right? Did you go see him?"

"Uh," he shuffles up against the headboard, hugging a pillow, "he's doing good. I had practice tonight, so I didn't get to see him that much."

"Ah, practice." He pauses for a moment. "Wait, but don't you guys practice on like, the same field you said?"

He hugs the pillow tighter. "I do, but," for a moment he remembers watching him kick the ball, "I was busy uh, practicing with my team."

"Ahhh, gotcha."

"I see you're dodging my other question."

Hayden tilts his head a little. "What question?"

"You said not much, and I asked what do you mean by 'not much'?"

Hayden presses his lips together with furrowed brows. He stares at the wall across, then after a few seconds, the sparkling smile comes back.

"Well, Natalie..."

Cole leans further forward, like he's about to hear the best gossip.

"...introduced me to an anime club at the mall!"

Cue the glass-shattering sound.

"Yeah! They do weekly meet ups, and we get to talk about our favourite anime, upcoming anime, favourite characters, all that good stuff!"

"Huh, that's... nice."

He nods with a confident grin. "Yup! Speaking of, do you wanna come to it next week? I know you're not a super big anime fan like moi over here, but I think you'll really enjoy it!"

Cole leans back to a straight seated posture. "Can't. I'm going camping with my team next week."

"Camping? Lucky you," he says with a sigh. "I haven't gone camping in like, years."

"Well, why don't you?"

He shrugs. "I'm a big planner. So I'll need to plan what I need to pack. Sleeping bags, hot dogs, a small portable barbecue, oh and a fishing rod if the spot is by a large body of water..."

His voice trails off to white noise for Cole as he's alerted to his phone screen lighting up. He pretends to listen to Hayden's trailing story while checking the notification.

Jonah<3:

Idk if I can go to the camping trip :(