Offside (29 page)

“Fucking A!” they both yelled at once.

“Frankie, if you get one more offside call against you, I will personally kick your ass after the game. Don’t give away the motherfucking ball, you hear me? Stay onside the defenders.”

“Whatever you say, captain.” He gave me a strange little smile, but I ignored him.

“Tony.” I looked down at the freshman who was on the floor near the door to the showers, lacing up his cleats.

“Yeah?” he said. He looked a little concerned.

“You’re starting tonight. Center. Get me a fucking goal.”

His eyes widened, and he smiled.

“Fucking A,” he replied.

I dropped down on the bench and started pulling my stuff out of my bag with one hand while I opened my locker with the other. I lined everything up on the bench—shin guards first, then socks, then my cleats. I put them on, right side first, then the left, laced up the cleats, tucked down the laces, and stood up to stretch.

Shut out game.

For my Rumple.

Mine.

I couldn’t stop smiling.

“You’re in a good mood,” Jeremy said as he plopped down beside me with his cleats still untied.

“We’re gonna kick ass tonight,” I said with a maniacal grin.

“I’m a little surprised,” he said in a softer voice. Some of the other guys started walking toward the locker room doors, ready to head to the field. I could hear the band start to play outside. “I didn’t think things were going so well there a while ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…you and Nicole…in the hall.”

“Oh, you saw that?”

“Yeah, but even if I hadn’t, it’s all anyone was talking about at lunch.”

“Shit, she won’t like that,” I mumbled.

“Since when do you care?” he said, his voice even quieter.

I looked at him, thought about making a smart-ass remark in return but just couldn’t bring myself to do so.

“Since she’s my girl,” I replied with a shrug.

He laughed and clapped his hand on my back.

“I never would have thought it,” he said with a grin. He bent over to tie his laces as he continued to chuckle. “Malone thinking about someone other than himself.”

“Fuck you,” I said, but I was still smiling.

“Let’s go kick some ass.” Jeremy jumped up and offered me a hand. I took it, and he nearly pulled my arm out of my socket.

“Ow!”

“Pussy.”

“Suck my cock.”

“I’ve seen bigger fingers!”

I took a swing at him, but he ducked, laughed, and ran. I chased after him, and the rest of the team followed.

It was going to be a fucking awesome game.

Shakespeare might have told me that playing soccer was “meat and drinke to me.” Somehow, it was days like this that made me completely agree.

Now to kick some motherfucking ass.

The rain started falling just as the whistle blew for the second half.

So far, so good. No score on either side.

I wasn’t sure if Tony was nervous because he started or not, but I was regretting telling the coach to put him in. He’s fucked up about six times, two of which should have been goals. I never looked over to the stands if I could avoid it, but I knew Nicole was up there watching me. It made my heart beat a little faster and my skin tingle.

I wiped rain or sweat or whatever it was off my forehead with my sleeve and crouched down as the other team’s striker made it past the midline. He weaved left and then right, making it past Paul and heading off to the side. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see their left wing crossing over to the right side.

“Jeremy! Right!” I screamed. I wasn’t sure if he couldn’t hear me as the rain picked up or if he just wasn’t sure which way right was, but he ended up going the wrong way and leaving the wing wide open.

The striker neatly tipped the ball to the wing just behind Paul and well onside. Jeremy moved into center as the striker made it to the top of the box. Paul wasn’t moving as fast as their wingman, and I could see he was going to position near the corner. I jumped sideways and watched the center striker as the ball crossed over the box at perfect head height.

The striker nailed the ball perfectly, and I watched it as it angled toward the net, jumped, and tipped it with my fingers just over the top bar of the goal. I could hear the crowd screaming as it soared out of bounds behind me. Corner kick for the other team, but not a goal.

“Left, Martin!” I yelled at Jeremy. I waved my hand and he moved into position. Paul set himself up right at the post as their center striker moved to the corner of the field. The crowd screamed at him while I yelled at the players on my team to get into position.

The striker’s kick was good—sailing right into the box. I looked left and right, taking in the scene around me and calculating the greatest risk as the ball soared into the area above my head. Jeremy got a head on it, but it wasn’t enough, and the ball dropped right at the top of the box where one of the midfielders was in perfect position for a goal.

It was low and to my right. I dived as the rain poured down, snatched the ball before it hit a puddle, and pulled it close to my chest. As I lay covered in mud with the ball tightly held to my body, I could hear the crowd screaming my name.

I lived for this shit.

Four minutes left in the game.

I brought the ball to the top of the box and punted it nearly to the other goalie. Tony didn’t make it in time to get foot to ball, but as the defender on the other team knocked it away, Jeremy was there to put it back on their side.

Clint trapped the ball and ran it up the right side then crossed it over to Klosav. Klosav managed to knock it right at the top of the box, where Tony was waiting. He dodged left then right, and the defender lost his footing. Tony straightened his leg and nailed the ball in the upper right corner, and the crowd went insane.

Two minutes later, as I picked up the ball after a lame kick from our opponent’s offense, the whistle blew, and the game was over.

One-nothing.

Shutout.

Just for my Rumple.

For the first time since the game started, I dared to look over to where I knew she was sitting with Maria and Rachel. As I high-fived the other players, I walked toward the tunnel and saw her smiling down at me.

I leapt over the fence near the edge of the field, pulled Nicole into my arms, and planted a big-ass kiss on her. Somehow, I just didn’t care who might have seen us—I wanted everyone to know she was my girl. What could possibly be wrong with that?

“Shutout game,” I said. I reached out and tried to tap her nose with a mud-covered, gloved finger. She turned at the last second and the mud ended up on her cheek instead. “Just for you, baby.”

“Ugh! Thomas!” Nicole squealed with a laugh. She pushed at my chest, which only served to get more mud on her hands. “You are a mess!”

After pulling off my gloves and dropping them on the ground, I held her up with one arm. I reached over to brush a bit of mud off her face with the opposite hand but only managed to smear it around. I still told her it was better.

“Nice save there at the end,” she said. “I thought the last one was going to go over your head.”

“No way,” I said. “I just wouldn’t allow that.”

Nicole snorted and shook her head as I dropped her back to her feet.

“Nice game, son,” I heard from behind me. I dropped my hands from Nicole’s waist and turned to see Dad in the business suit he usually wore when he was traveling. He walked up to us and reached over to pat me on the back.

“Thanks, Dad,” I replied as my heart started to beat a little faster, and my throat tightened. “You remember Nicole, right?”

“Yes, I do,” he said as he turned his smile to her. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Miss Skye.”

“Thank you,” Nicole said. She glanced at me and bit down on her lip. Nicole’s eyes stayed on mine as she leaned against me slightly. I put my arm around her, and as I glanced over her head at my dad, our eyes met, and his narrowed just a little.

Shit.

He didn’t like something.

He knew I was seeing Nicole—we’d talked about her doing my homework and shit for me. This display shouldn’t have shocked him too much, so why the look?

I felt Nicole’s fingers trail up my side.

“How is your side today?” she asked, just a little too loudly.

Oh fuck, no! Rumple—you aren’t going there.

I tightened my arm around her and I held her close to me.

“Nothing wrong with me, baby,” I said. I kept my eyes on Dad, who was looking at Nicole with a small smile. “It’s all good.”

“Thomas,” Dad said, “I’ve got a flight to catch early in the morning, so I’m heading to Seattle now. Walk to the car with me.”

“Sure,” I said as I tried to hold a smile. “I’ll be back in a bit, okay, Nicole?”

She glanced from me to my father and then nodded before releasing my arm.

“You want to explain that?” Dad said softly as we started across the parking lot. The sun had mostly gone down, and the tall security lights cast weird shadows all over the place.

“Explain what?” I asked. I had a pretty good idea but didn’t want to make it that obvious.

“I thought you were just holding out for homework,” Dad said. “You act like you are fucking dating her or something.”

“She’s pretty bright, Dad,” I told him. This was a conversation I figured was going to happen, so I had already worked out most of it in my head. “She wouldn’t fall for the usual shit. It actually works out great because the other girls aren’t bugging me; Nicole’s doing the extra work I have for school, and I still have someone to suck me off. It’s perfect, really. Kind of like one-stop-shopping.”

I laughed and then held my breath, hoping he was going to buy it. He glanced at me sideways for a second, and the long shadow he cast under the bright lamps covered me.

“She looks clingy,” he said. “Fuck her and get rid of her. I want to be able to throw that shit in her father’s face.”

“It’s working out well, though,” I said again, hoping he’d drop it even though I knew he wouldn’t.

“Fuck her and dump her,” he repeated. “Or just dump her if she won’t spread her legs. I don’t want you distracted. The Messini will be here for the next home game. Get her out of the way before then.”

“Okay,” I said with a nod, “but it’s going to be hard finding someone else who can do all the homework.”

“Drop those fucking AP classes, then,” he replied.

“I’ll figure something out,” I said quietly.

I watched him drive off and then turned around and headed back to the field, trying to figure out what the hell I was going to say to Nicole. I probably could have told her the truth—she already knew a little—but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want her to know what Dad had said about her.

I shook my head, sending droplets of rain from my hair to the ground.

One thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to dump her tonight. I had an entire week before Dad returned home. If I had to end things with Rumple before then, I was going to make the most of the next seven days.

My phone meowed, and a message from Jeremy asked where I had gone. I quickly typed a response and jogged the rest of the way back to the stands.

When I got back to Nicole, I wasn’t in the mood for heading out with the rest of the team. She definitely noticed my change in demeanor even though I tried to cover it up as much as I could. Every time I looked at her, my Dad’s words were in my head:
Fuck her and dump her.

I couldn’t do that—not to Rumple.

“Is everything all right?” she asked quietly as kids started climbing into cars and heading for a little late night party on the beach.

“I’m okay,” I told her. “It’s just too fucking cold for a beach party tonight.”

She eyed me, obviously not falling for my line of bullshit.

“What do you want to do?”

“I might just head home—I have to train in the morning.”

“You train every morning,” Nicole said.