One of the Boys

For what De labeled as a dysfunctional relationship it was going immensely well. The infatuation phase was going strong into the third week, which for me was a pretty big deal. As far as the team went we were heading into the second round of playoffs today, which for our school was a pretty big deal. And as for Chris, we had barley spoken since that day, which for some reason was a big deal for De. All in all it had been a good three weeks.

I was at lunch with the usual people and Tyler sat down next to me, "Tell everyone," he said loudly as he handed me a flyer. I read over the words and then crumpled it up and tossed it behind me. "Really Rae," he looked at me, "I thought you'd be down."

I smiled, "you know I'm always down for a party." And then I shook my head, "but your flyers suck," then I looked over at De, "let me guess you made them?"

Her face was blank as she nodded, "but I was rushed, or else they'd look awesome." I nodded my head sarcastically agreeing and she let out another defensive, "they so would be."

"Well," I ignored her, "I think it'll be the perfect way to celebrate our victory tonight." Both Tyler and De immediately knocked on the lunch table, ignoring the fact that its not wood.

Tyler looked at me, "don't get too cocky. Tanner."

"Its not cocky when you're good," I smiled.

Buzz, we can fast forward to the game. I stepped out onto the field, like any other Friday night, but the further we went the larger our crowd seemed to get. I had a good section with my cousin, who was home this weekend, De and of course my boyfriend. Tyler had suggested that I force him to sit with the football girlfriends and make him wear my jacket. For irony's sake of course, but he didn't want to. At least he was there to support me.

The first half was kind of uneventful, in that we were so evenly matched that the score was only off by a minor two points placing us at the losing end, but we still had another half. After the half time talk I grabbed a drink and then went up the bleachers for a second. "Doing great," De put her thumbs up.

I looked at her, "yeah if only our defense could do a little something."

"Maybe if you tried a little harder to get open," my cousin snorted.

I hit his shoulder and let out a defensive, "I'm doing my best, it didn't take long for them to catch onto our game plan." Then he stuck his tongue out at me and I stuck mine back at him. I looked over at Brayden, "kiss for good luck?

He smiled at my wide eyed begging expression and did as I asked. "Tanner," I heard an impatient teammate yell. I rolled my eyes and ran back down to the field. I ran over to join the huddle. "Tanner," Mills looked at me, "nice of you to join us, you're head in the game."

I shot his unsure look back at him, "isn't it always?"

He ignored my response quite blatantly and went on with whatever he was saying. We got the play from our coach and we set up as usual. I understood why he was throwing to Tyler at first, I wasn't open and Tyler is the only secondary option on our team. But after they started laying off me, it was different. Two interceptions later and I was a little frustrated. And after the next play I could tell our coach was too. "Time out," he yelled tomato faced. We all ran over obediently and he immediately targeted Chris, as he should have. "What are you doing," he asked, but without giving time to respond threw out another question, "are you trying to get another interception, I think two's enough."

"Tanner's not getting open," he pointed at me.

I huffed, "I've been open for your past two screw ups."

"Tanner," coach gave me a stern look, "shut it." He then turned back to Chris. "You throw the ball to the open person, if Tanner is open, throw to her," he pointed, "and if somehow Tyler's open the next play by all means throw to him, but another interception and you're out."

We yelled like men do after a huddle and then we ran out onto the field. I ran ahead of the tedious back trail and stopped him, "what's wrong, Mills?" He shrugged and tried to get by me, "why do you all a sudden have a problem with me?"

He looked past me and then back at me with his eyebrow raised, "maybe I'm just having problems trusting you." He ran past me and I just turned around confused before I followed him onto the field.

I ignored it and set up for the next play. I ran, got open and searched for the ball coming my direction. When I found the ball in the air, it was headed nowhere near me. It was once again headed for a completely covered Tyler and the third interception. I shook my head as he got pulled out of the game, and we followed as our defense took the field for damage control.

I walked over to Tyler looking at Mills pout on the bench as I walked by. I shook my head and whispered, "he'd rather get taken out of a game than pass the ball to me."

"Says a lot," Tyler looked at me, "besides an injury freshman year, he hasn't sat a single game." He let out a small laugh, "what the hell did you do, Tanner?"

"Its not funny," I said, "we might actually lose this game." He shrugged, I guess it was something he was used to, but I wasn't. "And Mills and I haven't spoken a word to each other for about three weeks," I looked over and then back, "everything was fine and all of a sudden he doesn't trust me." I made fun of what he had told me. I looked at Tyler seriously, "if there's one thing you can trust me to do, it is catch a football." Tyler just laughed at me and then the fourth interception of the game, finally one in our favor. "Look,"I turned Tyler around, it was Hayden running for the goal. "Damn," I said, "look at that boy run."

"I know," Tyler said shocked, "last time he ran that fast it was for the last piece of cake." We laughed and sat back to watch defense again since he had just scored. I couldn't wait to get back out there, but I was hesitant since I had never really played with Colton as quarterback. He was a sophomore and substantially worse due to lack of experience.

We barely skated by in that game, it came down to a two point play to get the upper hand. And the hero of the game today, for the first time, Colton. And naturally we all headed to Tyler's house in celebration.