"Let's give it up for our Bulldogs!!!"
The crowd goes wild, screams and horns going off every where.
Blair cheers with them as Kyla and I stand silent. Blake's jacket now disregarded in my hand.
We get dismissed back to class, walking out of the gym and into the misty air. My hands clutching my arms to get any more warmth.
"Hey." Someone grabs my arm, like this morning. Tingles shooting through where they touched.
I turn around and meet Blake's eyes. Confusion and worry in them.
"Why did you take it off?" He nods to the jacket in my hand.
"I wasn't cold anymore." I shrug, half lying.
It wasn't that I didn't need it because I was warm, entirely. It was because of what I saw. And realized I'm in no position to wear it.
"I wanted you to wear it for the game tonight." He puts his hands in his pockets.
"I don't know if I'm going-"
"You have to go. We had a deal, remember?"
"Yeah, But-"
"Just go, okay? I promise it'll be fun. And I know you're cold, you don't hide things very well." He puts his hand on my arm and lightly squeezes. His face barely smiling. He walks away, leaving me to my contradicting thoughts.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Mom, it's just a few hours. That's all. And I have money to pay for my ticket."
"Who's going to take you? I don't feel well enough to drive."
"I'll walk, it's not that far."
"You're not walking this late at night."
"Fine, I'll drive then." I cross my arms over my chest.
"You can't even drive."
"Yes, I can. And I'm going to."
"Danny-"
"I love you, I'll be back later tonight." I grab the keys to my Mom's van and walk out of the door, no further protests from her.
I get in the vehicle, turning it on and driving towards the town's stadium.
I decided to go early, knowing there would be too many cars on the road and less parking if I didn't. I called Blair and Kyla, both of them together and promising to make an arrival soon.
In the mean time, I'm sitting alone in the empty bleachers. The boys still practicing for their game tonight. All of them wearing helmets and big shoulder pads. One stands out the most, staring at me from the field.
I feel a slight flutter in my chest, some unknown feeling bubbling up inside me. I ignore it, averting my eyes to somewhere else.
More people slowly fill in the empty spaces on the bleachers. I still wait for my friends as I mess with the hem of Blake's hoodie. A subconscious smile growing on my face.
"Danny!"
I snap my head up, my gaze falling on my two friends walking towards me. I place a smile on my face as the both of them make their way to me. Blair bouncing with every step and Kyla dragging her feet.
"Hey girl." Blair greets, eyeing the jacket before turning her attention back to me.
"Hey."
"How'd you get here?" Kyla asks.
"I drove." I say, like they're dumb.
They both look at each other before looking back at me.
Laughing.
"T-that...that's hilarious." Blair wipes an imaginary tear from her eye as they both settle their laughter.
"I'm serious." I deadpan.
They both look at me with shock, their mouths hanging open.
"How?" Kyla furrows her brows.
"I can drive, you guys." I cross my arms over my chest while rolling my eye.
"We never said you couldn't." Blair says.
"I just meant that you don't have a car." Kyla shrugs.
Oh.
"I took my Mom's van."
"Without telling her? Wow, you're a rebel Danny." Blair laughs.
"No, not without telling her. She didn't want to drive me and argued with me about it so I drove here."
"That's amazing." Ky, looks at me in awe.
"Yeah, Danny. You never want to drive for anything. Yet...you drove here." She gestures around the stadium, her hand really landing on a particular person on the field. Her thin eyebrow raised.
"I just wanted to watch the game." I look at both of them, their expressions telling me that they don't believe a word I'm saying.
"That's not all you wanted to watch." Ky interjects.
I nudge her in the side with my elbow, receiving a yelp from her.
We all get get hungry while sitting and waiting. Still a half hour until the game, we needed food. My friends being them, made me go and get food for all of us since I'm the reason they're here.
Sighing, I make my way to the concession stand. Money in my hands, I squint at the large menu before telling the people my order.
Three slices of pizza, two cokes and a water.
They hand me everything, leaving me to figure out how to carry it all with two hands.
I balance the three plates on top of each other while clutching the cokes and water to my chest with the other hand. Instead of paying attention to where I'm going, I focus on not dropping the food.
A big wall comes out of no where and almost knocks me off balance. The food and drinks tilting out of my hands.
"Shit...I'm sorry." A deep voice apologizes before hands shoot out to help me.
I look up, meeting the eyes of Ryder Matthews. His blonde hair sticking to his forehead from what I'm guessing was sweat. His bulky shoulder pads making him look twice as big.
"It's fine." I look down to where his hands are touching mine.
"Sorry. Here." He helps me get my hold back on the plates of food and drinks.
"Thanks." I try to walk around him until his hand reaches out to stop me.
"Hold on a sec. I never got your name...damsel in distress." He smirks.
"Danny." I simply state, some annoyance flowing out of me.
"Cool, I'm Ryder."
"Yeah, I know." I try not to roll my eyes.
"Then you must know that I'm the quarterback of the team." He quirks an eyebrow while smiling down at me.
"Oh, really? That explains the many losses over the years." I let out a fake girly giggle, smiling a big toothy grin.
His face falls before I walk away.
I look towards the field, Blake's eyes staring at me then back at Ryder. I keep my eyes locked on Blake, his shoot back to me.
I give him a small reassuring smile and walk back to my friends. Settling into the cold metal bench and readying myself for one horrible game.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Are you ready?!" The announcer's voice rings throughout the stadium as everyone cheers and screams.
"Here comes THE BULLDOGS!!!"
All of the players run through the paper banner that was held by the cheerleaders and onto the field. All of them running around in a straight line, following one another to where their coach stands.
Except for one.
One of the players runs up to the edge of the bleachers and climbs up.
Kyla, Blair, and I sit at the edge of the stands, closest to the same railing that the guy is scaling right now.
Once he's up close enough, I can make out his number.
"Blake?" I stand up, taking a step towards the railing as he takes off his helmet and smiles at me.
"Hey, Danielle." His smile grows as I hold one of my own.
"What are you doing?" I laugh.
"You're supposed to be down there with your team."
"They can wait." He waves it off.
"Come here."
I walk towards him, looking back at my friends' smiling faces. I turn back around and find us half a foot apart. His eyes glowing bright under the stadium lights. His hair sticking out in every possible direction because of his helmet.
"Hey." He softly says, his dimple showing from his smile.
"Hi." My breath hitches in my throat from our close distance.
"I'm really glad you came."
"Me too."
"I was right about my jackets looking better on you." His cheeks turn a light shade of pink as do mine. Butterflies exploding in my stomach.
"And I was right about your team sucking. They're putting Ryder in." I roll my eyes as I eye his team from the side.
"Is that what you told him?" He laughs, shaking his head.
"He was pretty pissed off after you talked to him."
"Oh, yeah. That was nothing." I wave it off, laughing.
He just smiles at me, his eyes lighting up with a spark in them. His dimple carving into his cheek.
"Play good, okay?"
He nods his head and I smile.
"I will, knowing that you're here." He smirks.
His leans his face closer to mine as his lips softly graze my cheek. His soft touch leaving warmth on my skin. He moves away, his smilie brightening up the night sky.
"Tell Marcus that Kyla and I said good luck."
"Will do." He looks at me one more time before jumping off the railing and running to his huddled team.
I turn back, walking to my seat. When I look at my friends, they have cheeky grins on their lips.
"What?"
But not just them, everyone was looking.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The game was going...well, it was going alright.
The score tipped to the opponent team's side. Ryder's throws and runs were faltering like usual.
After halftime, the coach replaced him with Marcus. The team coming back quickly.
Every pass Marcus would throw, Blake would always catch. A few more points down until they are in the lead.
The time on the clock counts down to the last few seconds, a few more points to go.
The line gets down, Marcus yelling out the play. The ball is hiked, Marcus looking around to throw the ball. He fakes a pass, twirling with the ball in his hand and running up. Blake sprints on the outside before Marcus chucks it across the field, the ball spiraling in the air. It flies through the sky, hurdling to the ground.
Everyone holds their breaths as we all watch Blake pick up his speed to get to the ball. His hands shooting out in front of him.
Then, he jumps, the ball landing perfectly in his hands right when he crashes down in the end zone.
"TOUCH DOWN!!"
The clock buzzes and everyone in the stadium flips out. Our score lands just two points more than the other team. The band loudly playing the school song as all of the football players run and lift Blake high up in the air. The opposing team dragging their feet and hanging their heads low.
"Yeah!! MARCUS!!" Kyla yells out, cheering his name loudly as Blair and I look at her weirdly.
"What?" She asks, smiling at the field.
I jump up with my friends as we cheer loudly, laughing together as we all sing along to our school song.
They won. Their first win in the past two years.
And my mind can only think of one name...
Blake.