𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

C H A R L O T T E

Sweat drips down my face in rivulets as I sprint across the field. Since half-time finished and the second period of the game started, our opponents have managed to turn everything around with their second wind and have been running us ragged trying to keep the one-goal lead that I can feel slipping away with every adjustment on the countdown clock.

I can see it the second it happens, a break in our defense that leaves only Reed in goal to protect the ball, but she's worked as hard as any of us even without running the field, and there's no one that can blame her when the ball hits her fingertips and is caught by the white net behind her.

Bending over, I brace my hands on my knees and breathe heavily, glancing up and sending an apologetic smile at Reed, though she knows I never could have gotten there in time to help. I exhale quickly, standing up to my full height and clapping my hands together loudly just after the whistle is blown. "Alright let's hustle hard and get this over with before we go into overtime!" I yell to my team and get nods from everyone as we get into our positions and catch our breath.

Maddison and I take our places for the kickoff and I pass to her, taunting the other team by spinning around a player when she passes it back to me. We work fast, but when I pass the ball to her for the last time, her shot hits the crossbar and the goalie is right there to catch it. I mouth the words "next time" to her and we get back as fast as we can.

We end up scoring a buzzer-beater with a direct assist from Reed in an effort to prevent us from going into overtime and I sink to my knees in relief. It was too risky to take our starting line-up off the field, and we all silently agreed to push through until we couldn't anymore. Overtime wouldn't have ended well.

I'm embraced by my teammates and I hug them back, my eyes glancing up at the stands for a brief moment, but long enough to catch on to something that has my eyes lighting up. Reed sees me and follows my eyes to where my little brother sits in the stands, somewhere that I haven't seen him in a long time.

Waiting impatiently until we're done our 'good games', I seem to have just enough energy to burst off of the field and make my way up towards the section of the bleachers where I spotted his golden hair that we inherited from our mother.

"Hey, you! Didn't think to send me a text?" I shout when I'm close enough and stop in my tracks when not only my brother's but also Alexander's, head snaps up in recognition of my voice. Steeling my nerves and suffocating the butterflies in my stomach by holding my breath, I continue walking in their direction.

"Good game," Alexander says with a smile so handsome that when my eyes meet his I forget about my brother for a second, unable to tear mine away.

"Thought it would be a nice surprise. Although if you hadn't spotted me, I might have missed you altogether." He smiles and wraps his arms around me despite how sweaty I must be.

"Where have you been? When's your next performance?" I ask, planting my chin on his chest and looking up at him. "Oh look at that, you do have unflattering angles," I say with a laugh as he squeezes me tighter than is comfortable, and then let's go. I turn to Alexander. "I make jokes to feel better about the fact that my baby brother is prettier than me," I whisper loudly and get pinched on the arm.

Alexander presses his lips together to hide a grin and I realize what I must look like right now and turn to face my brother more, using the hem of my jersey to wipe the sweat off of my face and neck. When I drop it, Alexander's eyes dart up and meet mine before looking at my brother quickly, but I caught him. The corners of my mouth stretch up unbidden and I look between the two.

"Since when are you two mates?"

"Since the beginning of the game. Found your number one fan right here and thought he looked familiar." Aaron says, and I see a faint blush coat Alexander's cheeks, giving me a wicked rush of confidence.