Page 12 of Dangerous Play

“Must have slipped my mind, sorry.”

“You know… my dad…”

“Hey, Cap!” Maddox hugged my neck from behind. “Hey, Thalia.”

“Hi,” she mumbled, not sparing him a look. “We were in a middle of a conversation.”

“Sorry, this is urgent.” He winked at her and stepped backward while holding me in a lock.

“I wasn’t finished,” she shouted after us.

I wanted to turn away and say something comforting, but Maddox held me strong.

“Don’t even fucking think about it,” he muttered, his smile dropping and his strides becoming longer and quicker. “You should never be alone with her.”

“I can’t just ignore her. But I should have handled it better.”

“Yeah, I heard her start using her dad as an excuse,” Maddox bit through clenched teeth. “If you want a career in soccer, create some distance.”

I groaned, shaking his arm off me. “Thanks for the save.”

“Any time, bro. But let’s not make a habit of this. Stick to avoiding her and I don’t know… maybe take up that chick on her offer? Fake girlfriend or not… that would stop Thalia’s attack.”

I sighed, not wanting to think of Ivy at the moment.

“You should have never fucked her.” Maddox shook his head, reminding me of my drunken mistake freshman year, as he cut across the courtyard.

“In my defense… he was not the National Team’s coach back then.” I sighed as I kicked the door of the athletic building open.

I needed to be on the team to put myself in front of the eyes of the world. And I knew that pissing off Thalia could easily cost me that position.

Coming off from a win always meant that practice was more brutal. I warmed up the team as we went through the strategy, making sure every player on the field knew where they needed to be at any point of the game.

“Great work,” Coach Parker called to me as the team moved in unison, holding their position as we played against each other. “I think we need to make sure Derek is positioned always to have an opening.”

Dex was our forward and he loved being the center of attention and scoring all the goals. He fit into that role well, while Maddox and I worked the ball all the way from the middle up to him. The three of us made the game what it was.

“That’s what we are working on,” I explained, pointing at the defenders who were posing as the opposing team.

“He moves too much into the goal line,” Coach Parker explained, as we approached the rest of the players. “Stallman, don’t go too in, if you get the goal pass you might end up being offside losing the goal.”

Dex nodded, looking around him to see where he was positioned, before taking two steps toward the middle of the field. “Got it.”

“Last year, there were a lot of offsides. We can’t make the same mistake this year,” Coach went on.

“And a lot of over the goal shots,” Marco, our forward, muttered.

Dex groaned quietly, hating when Marco criticized him, but it was true. We made many mistakes last season and we needed to correct them. This year, there was no room for error.

Coach Parker went on, grilling Dex and the defenders, and I zoned out, my mind still spinning around Thalia and the potential of a World Cup waiting for me. I couldn’t mess it up with her or upset her when there was a FIFA World Cup taking place next year. And with Sky McCarthy retiring, there was a midfielder spot open for me. Coach McCarthy was my favorite. As assistant coach, he always gave me good advices.

“Aarons, you and Linden also need to take more chances.” Coach turned toward me, dragging me out of my daydreaming. “Whenever you take a risk and score, it turns out to be good for us, but you always wait till the last minute. You need to step up more.”

Could I have taken more risks? Definitely. Both on and off the field.

Maybe dating Ivy would be good for me. Maybe a fake girlfriend would get Thalia off my back, keep my potential World Cup position, and help me focus on my soccer.

“Dude, you are not here.” Maddox elbowed me in the ribs, as Coach blew his whistle, dismissing us. “What’s gotten into you?”

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