The Perfect Touchdown

“Ugh, my head,” I groaned. Last night's decisions were a huge mistake, I never should have drunk that much or moved around so much without a drop of water. I blinked my eyes open and was met with the familiar ceiling of Aiden’s room and looked around at the familiar décor.

“How did I end up here?” I muttered.

I looked around for my phone and spotted the bottle of Advil and a glass of water on the nightstand. A smile spread on my face as I thought of Aiden and how he must have been the one to bring me up here and even made sure I drank something and had painkillers for my hangover.

‘Why does he make it so hard to not like him?’

I took this opportunity to steal more of Aiden’s clothes and searched for a pair of jogging pants to change out of my leggings that had been soaked with sweat after sleeping in clothes all night. Once changed I headed downstairs where Aiden was once again cooking breakfast and Avery was passed out on the couch.

“I’m starting to enjoy these weekend morning routines,” I joked.

“Did you sleep well?” Aiden asked and placed a plate of food before me.

“It would’ve been a lot better if I didn’t wake up drenched in sweat, I could really use a shower so the sooner I get home,” I hinted.

Aiden pointed upstairs. “Just take a shower in my room. You’re already borrowing my clothes, so you have a fresh change.” He smiled teasingly.

“Who said anything about borrowing? I’m not giving these back.” I was mostly joking but I waited to see his reaction.

He shrugged and laughed. “Be my guest, you can take a shirt to change into if you need one.”

My heart hammered once again in my chest. It’s moments like this that gave me the confusion that I’ve carried for years. I’ve convinced myself that Aiden has no feelings toward me but then he goes and makes me doubt myself with shit like this.

‘Now he wants me to take a shower, using his shampoo and soap so I’ll smell like him all day. Is he trying to torment me?’

My phone went off in my pocket and I took it out to see a message from Jake. A small smile stretched across my face as I read his good morning text.

I felt Aiden’s eyes on me but thankfully he said nothing and continued eating in silence. Once I was done I ran upstairs to take a shower and made sure to use a hefty amount of shampoo before I got out and grabbed another shirt from his drawer.

“Ready to go?” Aiden asked as I bounced down the stairs.

In the truck, I got another text from Jake that asked if I was busy over the weekend and if dinner and a movie were a good date idea. Although I’ve dated people in the past, none of them ever took me on an actual date like this, so anything was better than nothing.

I couldn’t keep myself from smiling the entire time we texted back and forth. I haven’t felt this way about anyone since I first realized I had developed a crush on Aiden, and it grew from there. Maybe this was my chance to finally get over him by trying with someone else.

“I don’t know what you see in that guy. Everyone I’ve met from that school is trash,” Aiden muttered.

“I don’t know why you care so much. You’ve never cared this much about anyone I’ve dated before, and I’ve already talked to Avery about it. He doesn’t like it, but he agreed to shut up about it, you should do the same.”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s because your brother will do anything you say, and you know it.”

“Whatever, this is finally my time to be free and experience things I never got to in high school because I was too busy making sure I had perfect grades. I have a lot of things I want to check off my bucket list this year.”

Aiden frowned and looked like he wanted to continue lecturing me, so I quickly unbuckled myself and hopped out.

“Thanks for the ride, I’ll see you later!” I called over my shoulder and ran into the dorms.

Isabelle all but threw herself at me once I walked through the door.

“Has he texted you yet?” she asked.

“Who are you talking about?”

She rolled her eyes and hit my arm. “Jake Porter, who else? Have you guys set a day for your date yet?”

“He wants to take me out for dinner and a movie this weekend, and we have another home game this Wednesday with them and it will be my first time cheering on the field, so I’ll get to see him then, too.”

“Which also means we have to make sure you are looking your best on that field,” Isabelle clapped, and I could already imagine what she had planned.

~*~

It’s Wednesday evening just before the game and Isabelle has gone above and beyond to make me look as amazing as possible, even did my hair and make-up in a similar way to the rest of the cheer squad but still different enough to stand out. My usual straight blonde hair was done up in beach-style curls that made my face look a lot less round.

“Oh, wow. You’ve almost changed me into a different person,” I said in awe as I gazed in the mirror.

“It is my finest work yet, I must say. Now, let’s go show you off and get some concession stand popcorn!”

“I hope you enjoy that, save some for me.” I grabbed my gym bag and headed off to the field to get ready.

While everyone was warming up on the side of the field, I kept my eyes open for Jake and his teammates, hoping he would be able to notice me before the game began and the sweat stripped my makeup.

Instead, it was Aiden who spotted me.

“What’s with all the makeup? I barely recognized you,” he said. His tone suggested he wasn’t impressed with it, and that was a dagger to the heart despite how much I tried to tell myself I didn’t care what he thought.

But, of course, I still do.

“Shut up, you’re just jealous that I’m hitting on the other team.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

His lip twitched and he narrowed his eyes but walked off the sidelines without another word. “Honestly Ry, why can’t you just date someone from our team, or at least our school?”

“Why the hell does it matter to you so much? You seriously need to stop meddling with my business, it’s getting really annoying.” I stomped back toward the sidelines before he could lecture me further. Aiden glared at me, and I glared right back until he turned around and ran back onto the field.

‘Seriously, what is his problem?’

I wasn’t able to see Jake before the game began but I looked out for his number and made sure to give my best energy I could for our first cheer routine. I had caught him waving to me briefly as they ran back onto the field near the end of our cheer routine, and I couldn’t help the huge grin on my face.

“Oh, my god. Rylee, are you dating someone from the other team? Who is he?”

“Yeah, what’s his name? Is he cute?” I was instantly bombarded by the Coleman twins, Kendra and Kinsley, the number one gossip queens of our team.

“It’s nothing serious, we met before starting school and reunited at a frat party recently.”

“Awh,” they said together. “That is so cute,” Kendra said.

“Really cute,” Kinsley chimed in. I could see how this would get annoying.

“Who is number 24 on our team?” Leah walked up and asked. “Whoever he is, he has a serious vendetta against number 16 on the other team.”

‘Number 24…that’s Aiden!’

I turned to look at the field just in time to see Aiden rush Jake and tackled him hard to the ground. I looked for the person with the ball and noticed he was halfway across the field – nowhere near Jake.

“What in the hell is he doing?” I muttered.

Jake got up and ripped his helmet off his head to scream at Aiden, but he ignored him and walked back to position, acting like he had done nothing wrong. I could see Avery was giving him a look, but I couldn’t see his expression, though even I knew he was wondering the same.

I watched again as Avery received the ball and pitched it to the other forward opposite of him. Jake was center defence and was guarding another player when Aiden once again rushed him and tackled him so hard to the ground, that Jake’s helmet flew off this time.

“Reed, what the fuck are you doing? Get over here!” the coach yelled from the side.

Aiden slowly stood up and jogged over to the coach, who ripped his helmet off and angrily tossed it to the ground to scream in his face. It wasn’t long before Aiden was walking off the field looking pissed right off.

Since our cheer routine was over, I ran over to him before he reached the building and called out to him.

“What is going on with you? You attacked Jake for no reason!”

“Are you here to just yell at me too? If so, save it.” He tried to walk away from me, but I grabbed his arm and spun him around.

“Aiden, what the hell? Why are you acting like this?”

He shrugged my arm off of him. “It’s not my fault your boyfriend can’t keep up.”