Buzzed Hearts

31: sideline conversations

JUST AS THEY ARRANGED, Camila's sitting on the bleachers next to Elle and Roma as they watch the soccer match. She doesn't know the rules per se—although she does know what offside is...technically. Roma's sitting next to her and she's explaining halfway and Camila feels guilty that she's paying more attention to Laurent.

"Oh..." Elle comments, "there he goes."

And the referee blows on his whistle and sends Jeremy to the bencher. Elle laughs because she can tell he's suppressing his urge to flip his middle finger at the opposing team.

"How will we ever do without him?" Elle says sarcastically.

The team's behind by a couple of points but Camila knows that they can pull through, especially with Laurent as forward. At least that's what she thinks his position his but his jersey has his last name KING and his number, ONE, which does say a lot about his value.

But, Elle theorizes, he probably scrambled his way to that jersey when the coach tossed the team and told them to sort it out.

Even though there's a lull in the match, Camila stands up and cheers for them, Roma joining her later. Elle smiles at them but soon covers her face when people start to wonder why they're doing that.

It's an overcast day, not a ray of light exists but she's feeling lighter and warmer than ever, with all her friends surrounding her.

"Hey, when can I cheer you on?" Elle asks Roma.

"I don't know..." she replies coyly. "How about now?"

Camila tunes them out because they're conversation seems incredibly intimate and she focuses on Laurent instead—still hearing snippets of their talk because she can't resist it.

"You can see me play anytime," Roma whispers, though not as discreet.

"Okay but aren't tennis matches super quiet sometimes?"

"Perfect, isn't it?"

"Hey, you know what else I wanna do?" Elle says and this is where Camila shuts their conversation out for good. Although she knows Elle, she knows Elle enough to know exactly what Elle would say at a soccer match.

With her eyes trained on Laurent, her fingers tighten around her cardigan as he closes in on the goal.

He scores.

It's evident from the way the bleachers erupt with celebration, joyed that the team's closing in the point gap. Laurent grins and is tackled by his teammates, Jeremy standing up to clap as well. Even though it's quite far from where she is, Camila swears he winked at her before he's once again piled under by the rest of the team.

"Ah, boys. They just love to touch each others' balls," Elle says.