He scrunched his nose before nodding. I moved back to the other end, knowing that gesture meant he was embarrassed. He scratched his head and patted his face with both hands, trying to focus.
“I’m going to aim for you,” I told him.
He took a deep breath and leaned on his knees. I rolled my shoulders back and saw his eyes rise to follow the movement. I stopped and smiled at him, bewildered.
“Noah,” I called out.
His eyes moved to my face, widening a bit. I pointed down at the ball.
“Sorry,” he muttered, running his hands through his hair repeatedly, leaving it tousled. He shook his head and leaned again. “I’m ready, go.”
I tried not to smile and served again. His eyes focused on my face, and he missed again. He cursed under his breath. It wasn’t my serve throwing him off; it was me. I stood there, looking at him. He paced for a bit and then refocused.
“Again.” He bent his knees.
I called Hank over. “I don’t think it’s my serve. Can you try? Aim for his left? That’s where he misses,” I suggested. I stepped away, seeing Noah’s confused face.
“Ready?” Hank asked.
Noah focused on him. I watched as Hank aimed and Noah calculated before stepping quickly to his left, bending down to catch it easily. They both turned towards me, and I tried not to smile.
“I don’t think I can help.” I scratched my nose self-consciously and kept my voice down.
“What is it?” Hank asked.
I glanced at Noah. He glanced away, shaking his head. I shrugged.
“I can’t help,” I repeated.
Realizing this didn’t help, I started getting anxious around Noah again. Being aware of myself felt odd, because I knew he was looking at me. I couldn’t shake the feeling off. Even though I could concentrate on training much better than he could, I started looking back at him without intending to. I was much better at schooling my face and not giving it away as easily as before, but I could tell Ezra knew something was up.
Whenever something broke Noah’s focus and I noticed, I bit back a smile, only to catch Ezra looking at me closely. This became the new normal. We had a practice match with a local team after a few increasingly tense afternoons. The game wasn’t very challenging, and we played well together, despite Noah’s distraction. Then, the coach called for a timeout, and we huddled.
I grabbed my water bottle, listening to Colin and Ezra absently. I unscrewed it and took a drink. Looking back down, I noticed Noah’s eyes on me before he quickly turned away. Colin asked me something, and I closed the bottle. I tried not to look at him. I went for another drink, but I must not have closed it properly, and halfway through, the bottle opened and spilled water all over me.
“Shit.” The cold water soaked my shirt.
“What the hell was that?” Colin asked with a laugh.
“It didn’t close right.” I shook my shirt and tried to remove the excess water.
“Do you have a spare?” Ezra asked.
“Yeah, it’s in my bag,” I replied.
He strode over to get it.
“A towel too,” Colin called out, laughing at the puddle on the floor.
“Shut up,” I told him.
Ezra handed me the shirt and towel, and I bent down to clean the floor before handing the towel back to him. I shoved my wet shirt off, and I heard a sputter, followed by a cough. I turned towards the noise, seeing David patting Noah’s back as he coughed, holding up a hand. David guffawed, glancing back at me before leaning closer to Noah and saying something that made Noah shove him back. I pressed my lips together, trying not to smile. I watched Noah again as he said something to David, which made him laugh. Noah gave a brief shake of his head and turned towards me, flustered. This time, I couldn’t help it. A smile grew on my face before I looked away. I cleared my throat and tried to school my features again. Ezra gave me a puzzled look but I didn’t respond.
Hank called us and we went back to the court. I took my place in front of the net and glanced to my left at Noah. He gave me a curious look, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He moved a step closer.