Page 24 of Campus Heat

“Wow, that’s impressive. So why are you not doing it now? I’m sure you could’ve done that and cheerleading.”

“I guess I kinda outgrew it. During my last couple of years in high school, I lost touch with the love I once had for it. I decided to join the cheer team and enjoyed it. So the gymnastics just disappeared into the background.”

Ethan leaned back and closed his eyes. His hand fell to the side, and it rested against my leg. Tiny tingles moved from his fingers and into my skin, setting my body alight. The sensation was so strong that I lost my trail of thought completely.

“So what do you call Malik then? Since you guys are so close.”

“His nickname is Tiny because, you know… he’s huge,” I said, earning a chuckle. “He isn’t the only one with a nickname.”

“Yeah, I noticed that you called me Decoy. What’s up with that?”

“Have you seen what you look like on the field? You’re like the resident crash test dummy. And when you aren’t being slammed into the ground, you’re the one everyone is trying to get to.”

He laughed out loud and I couldn’t stop myself from giggling. I hoped to get that kind of reaction but I wasn’t sure if the truth about the nickname would go down all too well. Instead of freaking out, Ethan moved his finger over my thigh. A wave of heat washed over me, and I bit down on my lip to stop myself from reacting.

“How do you feel about the game?” I asked, trying to avoid what he was doing.

“It was absolutely terrible,” he said, finally facing me. “It wasn’t as embarrassing as the last one, but it was really close.”

“Maybe my granola bars aren’t as lucky as I hoped,” I joked, but he didn’t laugh.

He pinned me with his heated gaze. “It has nothing to do with the granola bars. It’s this team. The coach. Our inability to get the simplest of things right.”

I was stunned into silence. Ethan had never had a serious discussion with me before. And then all of a sudden it was like he was wearing his disappointment on his sleeve. I didn’t know how to react or what to expect next.

“Did you know that Harris isn’t a real football coach?” he continued. “He’s a basketball coach. And that would’ve been okay if he was actually interested in learning the sport, but he doesn’t seem to care. He just keeps coming up with these insane game plays that never work out because they have nothing to do with football.”

“Wow,” was all I could get out.

“I know, right? And to make matters worse his ideas keep costing us points. We could’ve done so much better today if we had just stuck to the game we started with. It’s plain old original football strategies that got us those points. And it’s his insane ideas that ended up costing us the win.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh on him?” I asked as I slipped my hand into his. “Like, don’t get me wrong. I’m not supporting his decisions, but you guys have been getting better so he must at least be trying.”

Suddenly the bus screeched, and we were thrown forward. Before my body could slam into the seat in front of me, Ethan shot out his hand. He pressed his palm into my chest and pushed back with all his might, keeping me in place while his shoulder slammed into the metal frame. What he didn’t realize was that his hand landed on my breast. Not that I was complaining or anything. I was grateful for the save.

“It’s not just him, though,” Ethan continued as he pulled his hand away. “It’s the whole damn team. We aren’t a team. At this stage, we’re just a bunch of confused guys who are trying to figure out what our coach wants. And we’re trying to do it all on our own. Did you see the other teams? They move like a unit. They operate like a well-oiled engine. Each part has its jobs but none of them can achieve anything on their own. We aren’t like that. We’re more like this, but dazed and confused.”

Ethan let out a breath that he seemed to have been holding in for ages. And I could tell that there was a lot about this team that had been bugging him. This went deeper than just a lost game. The foundations were wobbly, and it bothered him. The game wasn’t a team failure for him. It was personal. He was carrying the weight of all they were on his shoulders.

“Just look at us,” he said, squeezing my hand. “We’re riding a bus that should’ve been cremated twenty years ago. Our sports field doesn’t even belong to our sport. We don’t even have proper uniforms. This is just what we pulled together from our old gear. We’re the laughingstock of the state, if not the entire country.”

I ran my hand up and down his thigh, hoping to offer him some comfort. It was only when he looked at it that I realized I was doing so much more than just that. He didn’t say anything, so I just kept going with the hope that he wouldn’t spend too much time looking into it.

“Why did you come here?” I asked, hoping he’d lead me in the right direction.

“I was asked to transfer to help start the team. It seemed like a good deal at the time because I didn’t know I’d end up in this situation. Did you know that most of these guys have no idea what they’re doing? They’re good at following orders, but without a good lead they’re worthless.”

“Doesn’t it make sense that you were brought in to be that lead? You come with a strong history. They needed you because someone has to pull these guys together and the coach isn’t up to the task. So why don’t you step into that role and give them what they need?”

“Because I shouldn’t have to. My job is to play and score points. It’s Harris’s job to come up with the game plans and to develop strategies. It’s his responsibility to get us a bus and uniforms. We shouldn’t have to demean ourselves by washing cars because he can’t convince the department heads to give us what we need.”

He was right. He was just a player, not the solution to all their problems but the team wouldn’t be able to get anywhere if they didn’t have his knowledge and support. He needed to pull some of his own weight. To guide the coach in the right direction and to bring the guys together. They wouldn’t get anywhere if he kept excluding himself from the actual team.

“I came here hoping I’d finally have a chance to be seen so I could make my family proud.” He looked down and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “Do you know how unlikely it is to be scouted from the bleachers overlooking Havenport’s soccer slash lacrosse field?”

I was pretty sure he was joking, but he was very pessimistic, and I wasn’t going to let him drag me into the vicious cycle he had gotten himself caught up in. I had been patient and I had been kind but perhaps that wasn’t what he needed. Maybe he needed someone to call him out.

“I think you should swallow your pride and man up a bit more,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t take it the wrong way. “No team starts off with a winning dynamic and no team starts off perfectly. It takes time and effort. You need to understand that and be patient. Otherwise you might as well still be sitting on a bench in Stamford. It’s not like you’ll get scouted there either.”