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I put the plate down on the table in front of him and sat down in my seat, "No Vin, I'm just saying. If we win against the Douglas team, then we're set for state."
I rolled my eyes as they continued to talk about football and nothing else. Just football and I'm so sick of it! I grabbed my plate and got out of my seat. I put my water bottle in my hoodie pocket and started to walk away. "Where you going?" Vinnie asked. "To my room, this is annoying."
I walked upstairs and placed the plate of food I had on my desk. I wasn't even hungry and them constantly talking about football and future careers made me lose my appetite. I walked over to my bed and laid down, I turned on some music since the door was closed and felt my heart beat to the rhythm and maybe that's cliché, but all I was focusing on was the small sounds that I didn't really listen to before. I closed my eyes and soon fell asleep accidently. The dark I was seeing made me peaceful, but when I was the most relaxed, I felt someone tugging on my shirt. I felt another tug at my cheek and then felt someone move my chin.
I didn't want to wake up, I just wanted to be in that small peace forever, but I knew I wasn't going to get it back. I opened my eyes slowly and saw Vinnie right in front of me. His thumb and pointer finger were holding onto my chin as he looked at me. I felt my cheeks become warm and when he continued to look at me and say nothing, I just stayed quiet also. I wanted to close my eyes again, but at the same time I didn't understand what he was doing. Vinnie had never showed anything to me, in a way of romance there was none. And he was making me think too much, I mean this was my best friend Vinnie, not Tayton or some guy that made me feel different. No, it's Vinnie Hacker and that was breaking our pact. "What?" I asked as I turned my head away from him. His hand slipped away from my face and when I wouldn't look at him, he decided to get closer and prop himself up on his elbow.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm just laying here."
"No you're not, you're doing something else and I can't explain it." I turned to look at him and I saw his smile kind of fade a little. "You did this to me the night of the party, but you claim you were drunk. You're not drunk now Vin, so stop."
"Why is it so bad if I look at you."
"Not in that way."
"It's not like it's going to kill you." He paused and then laid back down on his back, "Would it be that bad if I looked at you a certain way, and it's not even about the look. It's about us."
Confusion filled my head as he went on and I didn't know what to think, "Us." I repeated.
"Yeah, us. Let me just ask you this, you've never thought of me as more than a friend?"
"C'mon Vin don't-"
"Answer the question Romo, it's not hard."
I laid on my back too and sighed, "No I really haven't because we made a pact, a promise that we would never do that to each other. Because when Christian felt that way, he didn't get to me. I didn't date him because I didn't see him that way and he understood."
"That's all you had to say." He turned his head looked at me, "Romo."
I turned my head too to look at him, "What?"
"Didn't you question it when I said I wanted to marry my first love?"
"No."
"I wish you had, because y-you're Romo and I wouldn't choose anyone else but you. And I don't think I can just give up like Christian did." He paused again and looked at me. He pointed to himself and continued, "I'm Vinnie, your Vinnie, and I don't want to forget about this. Will you?" We continued to look at each other, he was there waiting for a response that I didn't know and I felt everything feel different.
Vinnie was growing up, while Christian and I were still stuck in the past. He was pushing us to change and we didn't know how to feel about it.
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I sat on the bench, again. Coach hasn't told me when I'll be back or anything related to that. He probably liked it this way, a team full of boys and one person who he could say whatever he wanted to. He smiled more with the boys only team and when I saw how much he was enjoying this dreadful time for me, I just didn't know if I could take it anymore.
"How are we both benched and not Vinnie?" Christian sat beside me, with the incident of the party it seemed like we were both being replaced. Evan took mine and a new kid from Northpoint took his for the time being. "I'm this close to just going to a different school." He pinched his fingers together indicating how impatient he was getting, but on the other hand I was thinking that that wasn't so bad of an idea.
"What if we did move?" He looked at me instantly and waved his hands around.
"That was a joke Romo."
"No but seriously we aren't even appreciated here. Coach doesn't even give a shit about me and he just replaced you and put you on bench. We could go to Samson High and we'd be the best players there, just imagine."
"Yeah imagine is the key word of that sentence. We aren't going anywhere." He laid his face in his hands as he hair brushed against his skin.
"Suit yourself, but I'm done." I got up and started walking over, but soon enough he tugged my arm back.
"What are you doing? You don't know for sure that you can just do that, what if the other team already has their set players, you can't just go in there thinking you're going to go in there and replace someone on the spot." He was right, but I was stubborn. "And this is our senior year, you're really going to leave because of the football team?"
"Look Christian, you don't have to but this is my choice. I don't even have a dad anymore because of this football team. He had favoritism for the ones he wanted most and I wasn't a part of that picture, so it's my time to move to a team who cares and will notice everything that I can do for them." I pushed past him and walked toward the crowd of boys who were going over one of the plays. Coach stood there proud and I knew I was going to ruin his mood. "Coach."
He turned around and huffed, "We are in the middle of practice, we'll talk later."
"No. We're talking now." The boys in front of him looked at me with a concerned face, maybe this would cost them burpees or more running. After this I would feel bad, but I wasn't really thinking at the moment.
I threw the helmet on the ground and slowly started to take off my pads "I'm done." I threw them all down and it left me with my undershirt on and the lower part of the uniform. I couldn't take that off or it would create the biggest scene. "I'm done with this team, with the favoritism, the bullshit."
"Shut up (Y/l/n) and go sit on the bench." He turned back around.
"I said I quit. Q-U-I-T. I guess I have to spell it out for you." He turned around, his face turning a bit red as he was becoming angry with me.
"Don't push it, or you're off the team for good."
"I quit! This is the third time I'm saying it to you." I kicked the equipment towards him, "I'm done." He opened his mouth to say something, but then was interrupted.
"I QUIT TOO!" I turned around and saw Christian standing there with a bit of fear in his eyes.
We both looked back at Coach and the other players as he stood by me, "We're done and we're being serious" I said calmly.
Coach walked away and there stood the rest of our players looking at us, but it didn't matter what they were thinking because Vinnie Hacker was looking at us. And his serious expression and stare were enough to understand that our best friend was not happy with our decision.
He was standing there, his arms crossed, and when he finally came near us to talk. He didn't, he just walked right in between us hitting both of our shoulders, and heading straight to the locker room.
