Two Way Street

Winning rock, paper, scissors against Liam was the most exhilarating thing ever. He shot scissors and I shot rock. I got to pick teams.

I glanced around the pitch, scoping out who looked to be the best football player. I knew Lou was great but I thought I’d try and make nice with the other boys. Niall rolled his foot on top of the ball in back and forth motions. He looked like he could manage well on my team. “Wait, so how does this work? I pick, Liam picks, I pick, and then Liam picks, end of story?”

Louis shrugged, “That seems to be the best plan of action.”

I nodded. Good. Liam wasn’t going to be on my team which meant I could whoop his ass without actually using words. Perfect. Harry watched me carefully and I knew he was a good player just by his confident stance. Zayn on the other hand, he seemed to be the wild card. He looked strong and like he could manage pretty well. I had my first teammate chosen already.

“First pick, Mr. Horan. Come here, hon.” I motioned for him to come over. He kicked the ball into the air and caught it expertly. He as beaming with happiness.

Liam frowned, “Damn. Lou.”

Louis grinned and high-fived Liam. “You’re going down babe. You’re going to lose.”

I shook my head, “Hate to break it to you, kid, but you’re going down. With a good old fashioned ass kicking.”

He looked hurt, “Empty threats.”

I turned to Niall and lowered my voice, “Styles or Malik?”

“Positions?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the two leftover boys.

I frowned, “I’m thinking you as goalie, me as forward, and one of them as fullback. Strategy in progress.”

“Styles’ good with fullback and forward. He’s got loads of stamina and he can sprint like hell. He’s great at blocking and sneak attacks. Malik’s a bit of a wild card. It all depends on his mood,” Niall looked deep in thought as he considered positions.

I nodded, “Thought as much about Malik. Who do you think?”

“How good are you at forward?” he asked, looking worried.

I sighed and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, sweetheart. I played forward at mine and Louis’ school from when I was five all the way to beginning of University. I took down those girls and made most of them cry.”

He nodded, “Okay. Liam will probably be fullback or forward, he’s always iffy on positions. Lou will be goalie for sure so you won’t have to worry about him getting at you. I say...”

“TIME’S A WASTING, BABE!” Louis shouted as Niall and I continued contemplating positions.

“Fuck off, Tomlinson. We’re playing strategy, so shove off.” I threw him the finger and turned back to Niall. “Honestly, I’m consider Malik for his secret weapon-ness.”

Niall shook his head, “If you only want him because he’s unpredictable, then no. Grab Styles. You two can work together and attack from both sides. Liam will probably guard Harry and Zayn will probably guard you since Liam doesn’t like you all that well.”

I sighed, “So, we’re going for Styles?”

“Yeah.”

“Styles, over here, sweetheart.”

Harry grinned, “Aye aye, captain.”

“Zayn, you’re with Liam. Sorry, hon.” I said. We huddled together. “Here’s the deal, Styles. Niall’s taking goalie, I’ve got forward. You can either team with me on forward or you can play fullback. Either way, it’ll be an interesting match.”

Harry nodded, “We can both take forward and go at them from both ends. They won’t know what hit them.”

Grinning, I pinched his cheek, “Exactly what I was thinking, Styles.”

“Only problem,” Niall started, “who’s going to defend me?”

I bit my lip, “Styles, both?”

“My pleasure,” Harry grinned and pinched my cheek in response.

I glanced at Niall and then at Harry, “BREAK!”

We all got into our positions, Niall and Louis both set up the orange cones as goal posts. Niall paced the distance a few times, jumping and down, rubbing his hands together.

Harry retied his cleats and rolled up the sleeves of his under armor. His face was read and I could tell he was amped for the match. I stood next to him stretching my arms and legs, doing a few jumps and some laps as warm up. Lou stood still, his eyes closed. He was regulating his breath before the game like he always did. I knew his game. I knew how he’d play. He always feinted left and right when you came at him. His face always turned hard and stern with concentration.

Zayn scratched the back of his neck, looking sleep and uninterested. He’d be an easy defeat. Liam looked furious though. His brown eyes were cold and angry. I jogged my way over to Harry, stretching my arms in front of myself. “What’s eating Payne?”

He shrugged when he bent down to retie his cleats for the second time. “Two possibilities. First, he’s either pissed he’s not on your team, or second, he’s pissed because he’s not on your team.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Why would he be angry about being on my team?”

Harry stood up and brushed the grass off his knees. “Liam reads people really well. He knows emotions and understands people better than Lou does. He can’t do that with you. He cant’t understand your emotions and he sure as hell doesn’t understand you. I think he knows you’re competitive so he wanted to be on your time to avoid the inevitable defeat.”

I frowned, “Oh.”

Niall clapped his hands, “Can we get this started?”

I grinned, “Of course! Let’s commence with the ass whooping, boys!”

Louis shook his head from the goal box. “Like I said earlier, you’re going down babe!”

I gave him the finger again and took my position center field. Harry jogged over to me. “Change of plans, love. We’re going to both play forward and shift to fullback whenever we need to. Got it?”

I nodded, “Glad you’re on my team, Styles.”

He grinned and stood next to me as Liam and Zayn sauntered over to me. Zayn wore a sexy, half smirk on his face but when he stopped walking and stood in front of Harry, my heart sped up. That meant Liam was guarding me.

Shit.

Liam stood in front of me, jumping up and down and rolling his ankles. He looked vicious. I threw a panicked glance at Harry who was casually chatting with Zayn. “Styles, emergency meeting.”

Harry looked over at me, stilling grinning from his conversation with Zayn. “Sup, love?”

“Big, tall and scary at three o’clock. Why the hell is he guarding me?” I asked, my voice frantic and high pitched.

Harry shrugged, “Maybe because that’s their strategy? Here’s what we’ll do. After the game starts, I’ll ran the ball straight to Tomlinson and try to shoot. If that fails, which it might, you need to go straight to fullback and guard Horan with your life, got it? We can’t afford to lose this game. I’ve got too much riding on this game.”

“You’ve got too much riding on this game? Excuse me?” I asked, my tone reaching full fledged panic. “I have never lost a game in my entire football career. If I lose this game, all those years of practice will be completely out the window and everything I practiced and trained for will be for nothing.”

Harry’s lips made a small ‘o,’ “I see. Well, best not lose then.”

I trotted over to Liam, smiling as nicely as I could. “Ready to play, then?”
 He shrugged with ease, “Yeah.”

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Niall rubbing his hands together as he pulled on his gloves, strapping the velcro tightly around his wrist. He palmed the pall and spun it a few times before drop kicking it high into the air.

We stood in our places until the ball landed near Liam and I and then we sprinted. Liam was fast, but he wasn’t as nimble as I. I jumped over bumps int the ground and hopped over the ball, spinning and kicking it across the field to Harry who was sprinting bast Zayn who looked utterly lost.

Liam was shouting orders to Zayn who nodded and started to run at Harry.

Catching the ball under his feet, he kicked it while running toward the goal. Louis hopped from foot to foot, anticipating Harry’s moves. My eyes widened, “STYLES! NO!”

He shot for the ball before he could process my words. Louis caught the ball and threw it at Zayn’s feet who had already started running full speed at Niall.

Fuck, I thought. We’d already lost. First point of the game always means inevitable failure.

That’s when I realized why Liam said, ‘damn’ when I had chosen Niall for my team. Liam knew that Niall was the beast goal keeper of the bunch and if he was on my time, there was no way they were going to be victorious. I grinned to myself when my hypothesis proved correct. Niall mimicked Louis’ movements almost exactly but the ball came to me instead of Harry who was guarding Zayn perfectly.

I shoved away from Liam who’s back pressed against mine as he towered over me. A common, yet unsuccessful, form of intimidation. I crouched under him and sprinted, ducking the entire way to gain my speed. Louis’ eyes widened and he knew what was coming. Luckily, I knew his evasive maneuvers better than he did and when he feinted right instead of left like I knew he wood, I feinted left and kicked the ball into the goal, sliding on my bum.

I heart Niall hollering from the other side of the pitch, clapping and giving my a thumbs up. Louis sighed dejectedly and helped me up, brushing the grass off my back. “I should have feinted left. Damn.”

“I know your game, Tomlinson. This isn’t the first game we’ve played together,” I patted his shoulder and jogged over to Harry who was swiping his hair to the side. He held up his hand for a high-five and I followed suit.

* * *

Half time rolled around and the score was in our favor. Three to one. The one was on their part and it was a sneak shot that Zayn took when he and Liam were volleying to each other back and forth. Poor Niall looked so confused and it just killed me. Harry and I were sprinting towards them but we were too slow.

Liam and Zayn were pretty much smothering Niall and before he could get the ball away from Liam, Zayn kicked it through the orange goal posts.

We all sat in the grass, Niall leaning against my arm and Harry sitting behind me, braiding my hair. He told me he knew how because of his little sister, Gemma. I had no quarrels with it. We were pretty much sitting in silence, drinking our water and eating the fresh fruit that Niall brought. Strawberries and apples. Green apples too. I was starting to love the boy.

Louis smiled at me, “So those three shots you and Hazza got, they were mostly luck, yeah?”

“Not even, Tomlinson,” I smirked, finishing off the strawberry in my hand.

Harry nodded in agreement, “Just talent, mate. Talent that we’re full of.”

“You know what else you’re full of?” Louis’ eyes twinkled.

“Say it and you’re going down.”

“Shit,” Louis said, his voice daring and brave.

I grit my teeth and launched myself at him, using my folded legs as a springboard. I pinned Louis down, my hair falling out of its loose braid. Louis spit it out of my mouth.

“What the fuck!” I heard an angry growl coming from behind me. I sat up on Louis knees and looked around. I saw Liam pressing his hand against his lip. “The fuck was that for?”

“What?” I asked, horrified. I saw a small amount of blood seep from in between his fingers. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Liam stood up and stomped away, cursing.

I looked at the other boys, “What happened?”

“Well, when you used Harry as a springboard, you fisted your hands and you accidentally punched Liam in the face. It was a total accident though. You didn’t mean it,” Zayn said calmly, cracking open another water bottle.

I sighed and stood up, “I’ll go talk to him...”