Scoring The Coach ✔️

chapter six

Chapter Six

It was only fitting that my eighteenth birthday rolled around on a day that both of my parents were working and our away game required two hours in the car. It wasn't that the drive itself bothered me; Risa picked me up around seven and brought an extra slice of pie for breakfast. We listened to music off her phone and jammed out the entire way there.

It seemed weird, knowing that I was a legal adult. I was officially an eighteen-year-old. I feel like in another life I would be more ecstatic about it, but it was just another day for me. A day closer to my future, to Brown.

My knee was bouncing up and down from the nerves as Risa pulled into the lot outside the soccer complex. We were going against Newberry High: our rivals who we had yet to lose a game against. The excited energy was ever-present, as it always was before a game.

"Ready, star goalie?" Risa asked as we got out of the car.

"Star goalie?" I echoed. "Isn't that a little bit of an exaggeration?"

"Of course not," she said. "You've kept up our winning record this season. We have yet to lose a game because of you."

"It's a team effort," I protested, knowing she wasn't really listening. I didn't want her to sell herself short. She'd scored her fair share of goals this season, which is how we often had a lead for me to protect in the first place.

She rounded back to the trunk where our bags were, yanking her t-shirt over her head to change into her jersey. I was already wearing my uniform, but Risa had a thing about getting dressed when she was close to the field, like a pregame tradition she could never let go of. It started when we were kids, usually because her parents were running late when they dropped her off for games, and never stopped.

I lifted my soccer bag and looked over at her, admittedly a little distracted by my own worries. "Hey, R?"

She shut the trunk, shouldering her bag. She turned to face me. "Yeah?"

"Can I tell you about something?"

She glanced down at her shock-proof watch and nodded. "Yeah, we've got time. What's up, my grown-up bestie?"

I felt my spirits lifting a little at the sentiment before returning to seriousness. "I met Jared—I mean Coach Harper—before this season. I was at the park practicing by myself and he was there playing too. We played a one on one game and got to talking and maybe flirted a little."

I tried to gauge her reaction. She wasn't judging, just listening, so I went on.

"We traded numbers and stuff. He was great. I really thought that maybe when I was single again, we could've gone somewhere. Or at least we could've been friends." I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, my face hot.

She nodded her head in understanding. "I get it. You two were acting a bit strange before. I couldn't tell what was up."

"I really wanted to know him," I admitted, knowing it was painfully obvious. "And so when we found out about this situation, it was pretty clear we had to shut it down. But it's hard because..."

I struggled to find the words, but she got it like she always did. "Because you like him. And you know he likes you."

I ran a hand through my hair. "Exactly."

She considered this for a second, looking at me with a sincere expression. She was normally joking, normally playing around with me, but now was one of those times when that wasn't the case. "You know it's legal right?"

My head perked up, eyebrows instantly raised. "I'm sorry?"

"While it's a little bit in the grey area in terms of morality, you guys are legal," she reminded me. "You like him. Maybe at the end of the year, you can revisit it."