Firsts & Lasts

First Loss.

TW: mentions of domestic abuse
Novalee

"I'm so nervous," Peyton says, leg tapping against the concrete. What she's nervous about? The football game. It's currently halftime and we're losing 20-32 against UCLA. Maddy predicted this a week ago, that we'd lose. Luckily, there was still a whole half to get some points back on the board. "I thought Xander was supposed to catch the balls, not drop them." Peyton groans. We both aren't that familiar with football.

Xan hasn't been playing very well. Rhys on the other hand has two touchdowns. "He is," Maddy says through clenched teeth. Here we go. "He obviously doesn't deserve to be on that fucking field when he keeps playing like complete shit." Ouch. There it is.

Maddy despises Xander. Now, she doesn't like a lot of people for various reasons and sometimes no reason at all, but there is a deep resentment that she has for Xander.

It happened a couple of weeks ago when we went to a party and the boys were there. Maddy had been telling me about one of her dates and was complaining how the guy was a complete asshole to her. He called her a bitch various times according to her and she even went as far as throwing her drink on him because of it. Obviously, I thought it was very wrong of him to call her that, so I agreed with the drink-throwing.

Turns out Xander had been listening in the whole time and decided to give Maddy his input on the situation. Long story short, he took the guy's side and agreed with the fact that Maddy was a bitch. I'm sure she knows this herself, but when people call her a bitch, especially men, it doesn't sit well with her. Ever since then, she and Xander can't stop bickering every time they see each other.

I rarely see Maddy letting people get to her, but Xander knows exactly what buttons to push when it comes to my best friend. We try to keep them away from each other as much as possible, but sometimes we can't so we have to endure the bickering. "I agree," Peyton says.

I stay out of it. He buys me pretzels.

The teams both come back from their respective locker rooms and the game starts again.

+
Christian

We fucking lost. We lost. 45-32.

To think that I actually had a good feeling about this game. I guess it was doomed from the start since Cgc threw an interception. On the first play. After that, we couldn't exactly find our rhythm again. The offense scored some points obviously, but the defense wasn't doing its job. The whole game I called plays, told the guys to watch for certain players and it's like they weren't listening to me.

Don't get me wrong, our defense coach is good, but sometimes he calls mediocre plays that won't get the job done. I take it upon myself to tell the guys to do something different. It gets me in trouble, but it fucking works. Only this time, it didn't. Coaches plays or mine, UCLA's offense was just doing too good.

I'm going to mourn what could've been an undefeated season for about a day. We still have seven more regular-season games to play and I'm not going to lose another one. There's still a chance to get to the National Title, one loss now is nothing.

After a quick shower, I slip on some jeans and my black Under Armour shirt. Despite the loss, the locker room is not that quiet. Rhys lifts his t-shirt and rubs his abdomen. He flinches slightly, "I think a bruise might be brewing here." Cgc looks at him. "Cute abs," Rhys smirks, pulling his shirt back down. "Don't make me blush."

Xander shakes his head and laughs. "That's our thing." I frown, looking at my best friend. Xanders pulls his shirt over his head. "I know, they wanna be like us." He says. My other two roommates roll their eyes playfully. We wait on Xan as the rest of us are ready to go. I don't even want to go out tonight like the boys might despite the loss. I just want to sleep, I haven't been getting much of it.