'You were so great up there,' I greeted her as she emerged from the dressing room. As expected, she won the pageant and I couldn't be any more proud of her. She smiled at me, while her friends were behind her. I took her bouquet and judging from its weight, I wondered how she was able to carry it while taking all those photos. Nevertheless, my Hannah was all smiles and I knew she was really over the moon on her win.
But all of a sudden, a man came along and went directly in front of me. He went to introduce himself to her, which made me cringe for a moment.
'Hi, congratulations. Christian, by the way,' he said. He was one of the judges earlier in the pageant, and from the looks of it he was more like two years older than us. I could have been thankful for him, but then what he is doing now just made me think of something else.
However, I kept my cool and thought he may only be talking to all of the candidates earlier.
'Thank you,' I heard my girl reply. They went on to talk for a few minutes until I heard him say something else.
'Can I have some snacks with you and your friends?'
Right away, I wanted to appear out of nowhere and give him a good talking.
'Oh, I'm sorry. I have to go and be with that guy behind you. He happens to be my boyfriend,' she replied coolly. Somehow I felt my heart leaping inside my rib cage before I saw Christian turn to look at me. He then gave me a curt nod before turning back to Hannah.
'Oh okay. That's alright. Congratulations once again,' he said before he went his way. I bent my head forward to the ground and smiled a little, restraining myself from laughing at what just happened.
'Dude, seems like he was supposed to hit on her,' Bernie said as he nudged me. I looked at him and smirked. I must admit, I liked how it felt when she said who I was in her life. Then, I glanced up to see where she was. Seeing her smiling with her friends, I felt like I was also on top of the world.
The campus crush just confirmed to the world that she owned the soccer midfielder's heart.
The following day, we were set to play in an exhibition game versus the soccer team from a rival school. Before the game, she and her friends came to us and wished us good luck. I smiled at her and gave her a wink. Then they went on to the bleachers to watch the game. As the referees called the players, we went on to the field right away then I noticed someone who was too familiar. Midfielders were called for a coin toss, and as the representative I went in. Looking at the opposing midfielder, I realized it was Christian. The guy who tried to hit on Hannah after the pageant yesterday.
My heart felt like there was a race coming on, and it actually helped the adrenaline pumping into my system. As the coin flipped, I locked horns with the other guy, who gave me his smirk. He was a lanky guy, but I know he plays well judging from how he looked and how cool he was. I tried to keep mine, as I didn't want to mix my personal issues through this game. The coin landed, revealing heads. We got to throw the ball first.
Christian then stretched out his hand for me to shake, and I gave it a little tap, trying to tell him I am ready to play this game with them. We walked back to our respective positions and the game started. Immediately, he went on to guard me, preventing me from making possible attacks. While he was too busy guarding, I found an opening and lost him in the process. I was able to make a play and pass it to my teammate. I ran near the goal and received the ball once more, before I put it in. We scored and we felt the whole school roar into a cheer.
It kept our spirits high and as the game progressed, I saw that it just made the other team a bit furious. I couldn't do anything, and we knew that we were winning. Besides, we were in our turf so we better win this.
Just as I was about to take an opening, Christian jumped on to me causing the referee to call a foul. A stumble is normal in a soccer game but I felt my head spin for a moment there. I took the chance to bench out so I could rest. From where I was, I saw Hannah's face, somehow worried looking at me. I waved the bottle of water, in the hopes she would get the message that I am fine and just resting up.
The other team caught up in the last three minutes of the game, and I decided to step up. Scoring at 1-1, I went back in the game with us putting the ball into play. The whole field then became silent as I held the ball, then threw it to Bernie, who must put it into goal. As I ran along trying to block the defense, Christian apparently wanted a brawl and intentionally pushed me quite too hard. Although I wanted to call out a foul, I thought of the time and instead disregarded it, hoping that the referees would do so. But as I stood up and ran once more closer to the goal, Bernie threw the ball at me and caught it with my head. Then I felt a body slam which sent me falling to the ground and hitting the field quite too strongly. I felt my head spin once more, until everything came into a total blur.