The Games We Play

Jonathan couldn’t keep his eyes off of Lacey the entire game. He almost had a heart attack when Kaner announced that their team would be skins and when Lacey started peeling off her shirt. She had the body of an athlete, a flat stomach with toned abs and arms with a fair sized chest and long, muscular legs. She looked like some sort of goddess, dressed completely in white.

Jonathan found himself constantly stealing glances at her, but kept his mouth shut for the majority of the time because had no idea what to say. He heard Derek assign him the position of forward to see how he would do. Jonathan gulped, but not noticeably. He saw that Lacey was standing in the position of center defense, and that by being a forward, he would most likely have to come face to face with her at some point.

After losing the coin toss, Derek dropped back to midfield and let Lacey’s team get the first kick. Since the game was just for fun, no one was taking themselves too seriously. The object of the scrimmage was to unwind, not to injure.

So when Jonathan got possession of the ball and suddenly felt himself fall and roll a few times on the ground, he was confused. He was flat on his back and let out a groan. The sun was in his eyes from where he was, but then after a few seconds, a shadow loomed over him.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry,” Lacey gasped, holding out her hand for him to take. He grabbed onto it, feeling her skin tingle against his. “I shouldn’t have slide tackled you. I am so, so sorry. You’re not hurt, are you? Because I don’t want to be the one who hurt the team’s captain so close to the playoffs.”

“It’s okay,” he finally said, stopping her incessant slew of words. “I’m fine, I promise.”

She let out a sigh of relief and gave him a pat on the arm. “You’re a trooper,” she smiled before walking off. Patrick rushed over to Jonathan’s side as his eyes followed her as she kept on walking.

“Dude,” Patrick grinned, biting his lip. “She’s hot.”

Jonathan nodded blankly.

“Did you like how I got her to take her shirt off? I didn’t think she’d actually go for it.”

Another nod.

“Hey, are you okay, man?” Patrick waved a hand in front of Jon’s face. “Did you hit your head when you fell?”

Jonathan shook his head. “No, sorry. I’m just...uh, distracted I guess.”

“You and every single man on the team,” Pat smirked. “I wonder if she’s dating that Derek guy. They look mighty friendly with one another.

Jonathan observed Lacey and Derek as she pretended to be angry and shoved him with both her hands. He was a good five inches taller than her and so it didn’t really do much. He tugged her headband off and held it high over her head so she couldn’t reach, her blond bangs falling in front of her eyes. Jonathan felt his cheeks redden.

Before anyone could blink twice, their time was up. Jonathan watched as Lacey pulled her shirt back over her head, followed by her Loyola sweater. She had since put her headband in her pocket and her bangs were blowing in the light Chicago breeze.

“Don’t worry,” Sharpie grinned, nudging Jonathan with his elbow. “Coach says we’ll be back at least once a week.”

The guys were starting to pack their things away. Lacey was sitting on the bench taking off her soccer shoes and replacing them with more comfortable sneakers when Jonathan approached her.

“Hey,” he said, hopefully not sounding as nervous as he felt.

She looked up at him, her clear blue eyes glistening in the afternoon sun. “Hey. Jonathan, right?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, feeling his heart doing a flip inside his chest. “Um...I just wanted to say on behalf of the team...uh, thanks.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. You guys actually did really well for hockey players. I was surprised.”

“Yeah, I guess we’re full of surprises,” he said lamely. He mentally kicked himself. Lacey chuckled though, rising to her feet.

“So I guess I’ll be seeing you next week?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “For sure.”

“Okay then,” she grinned, taking a sip from her nearly empty water bottle. “I guess I’ll see you then.”

Jonathan mumbled a goodbye as she turned around and went to go help Derek put things away. He watched them as Derek tried to put all the soccer balls back in the giant bag, but Lacey playfully kicked them out of his hands. He chased after her as she took long strides with the ball, maneuvering past him as he yelled obscenities at her.

Jonathan felt his stomach drop. Surely the two of them were already an item and he needed to accept that. He had only known Lacey for one day, only had the courage to speak to her a few times, and didn’t really know anything about her other than the fact that she played soccer and evidently wasn’t shy about her body.

The guys were loading their stuff into their cars when Joel approached Jonathan.

“So, good practice?” he asked, his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker.

Jonathan nodded. “Yeah. They were really good. I haven’t played that much soccer since I was a little kid.”

“Diversity in sports helps every aspect of the game,” Joel reminded him before walking off. “See you at the United Centre tomorrow.”

Jonathan nodded and slowly got into his car. Then he spotted a girl wearing all white running towards him. Lacey rushed to his car and gently knocked on the driver’s side window.

He rolled it down and gave her a quizzical look.

“You forgot your water bottle,” she informed him, holding up a green plastic Gatorade bottle with the name Toews #19 written on it in black permanent marker. He smiled slightly and took the bottle from her hands.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” she waved, turning to head back to the campus.

Out of nowhere, Jonathan called out her name. “Hey, Lacey?”

She turned back. “Yes?”

“Do you think...maybe...I could get your number?” he asked boldly. Then he quickly added, “You know, in case we need to schedule more of these practices around both of our respective games and all that.”

Lacey bit the inside of her lip coyly, looking around. “Okay,” she agreed. “Got a pen?”

Jonathan fished a pen out from his glove box and handed it to her. He was about to search for a piece of scrap paper, but she took his hand and started writing her cell phone number down on his skin instead.

“There,” she said, finishing the last digit and handing the pen back to him. “I’ll be seeing you.”

“Yeah,” he smiled with a nod as she walked off. He rolled up the window and started the engine, glancing down at his hand every few seconds. He felt his heart flutter.