youngblood | a.i.

sixty seven || desperado

Wednesday, November 11th- 6:57 p.m.

| Desperado |
a piece that is going to be captured anyway so it can "sacrifice" itself at the highest cost

He broke away first, turning completely and walking away from me as he paced the asphalt behind his car. His hand fell to his pocket again, his other rubbing his neck as he showed every anxiety response he could. "We should probably go back in. It's supposed to start soon.

I took a deep breath as I slowly realized what I'd done.

"Yeah."

I grabbed my jersey, hopping out of the back of his car, and walking back towards the venue. I wanted to stop and continue talking to him- I'd missed the way we just talked- but instead, my mind was filled with questions about what I'd just done.

I brought my hand to cover my mouth, stopping the confused cry I let out. I walked myself back in alone, pushing everything to the back of my mind as I stepped through the doors.

I found my seat at the table with the team as everyone filed to sit down. I saw the spot with the #16 decoration in front of it, sitting down as I laid my freshly fixed jersey across the back of the chair.

I sat silently as my hands fell to my hair in confusion, trying to push back the thoughts as I saw the team around me. I watched as Calum sat down beside me, #17 in front of his seat.

"Hey," he tried, smiling guiltily to me as he spoke.

I just gave a half-smile and nodded back, not wanting to try to understand how I felt about him- on top of everyone else- right now. I didn't have time to try to understand if I should trust him again or not in this situation, so instead, I just ignored him to the best of my ability.

I turned again as the chair on the other side of me moved, #15 finding his spot right beside me, in order of jersey number.

Ash smiled at me as he sat, trying to calm the nerves running through both of us now as we each tried to understand what that kiss had meant. He didn't get a chance to say much though as the clock ticked to 7 p.m. and Coach introduced himself up on stage.

All of our focus switched to him, the whole team listening in to what he was saying to everyone. He introduced the team, going through his usual talk about the end of season that I had heard so many times when I'd attended Luke's end-of-year banquets.

It stayed pretty normal until he started naming off each individual player and some of their accomplishments or memories from coaching them. They were all normal stories until he reached Ashton and me.

"Now, Ashton Irwin was my team captain this year alongside Luke Hemmings. He was my star forward, one of my most dedicated players, but at the start of this season, someone gave him a run for his money," Coach spoke into the microphone, looking directly at Ashton and me. "Now, when Anastasia Hemmings showed up to try-outs, I think just about every person on that field doubted her. We hadn't had a girl play on this team since... since before I started coaching it. But Hemmings was a little firecracker... Didn't she almost start a fight at try-outs too? I would have never expected that from her when I first met her, but she was one of the best players I'd seen play their first time in a long time. That day of try-outs, Irwin told me that there was so much to that girl that I didn't know. I had no clue what that meant initially, but after a whole season with her, I know exactly what he's talking about. He didn't want her on the team. I don't think any of the team wanted to let a girl in, but eventually, they accepted her like any other guy. I watched them all from afar, and I noticed when and why each one of them grew that soft spot for her. The best to watch though had to be Irwin finally growing that spot for her. I paired them for a weekend bonding thing, knowing how much he didn't like her originally, but I knew she could fend for herself."