“Uh, Lilly?” She questions her own name.
“And I’m Evan, this losers twin.” Evan grins, extending his hand toward them too.
“Thing one, thing two,” Coach scolds them. “Leave the girls alone.”
“We’re just introducing ourselves!” They say at the same time.
“And we totally don’t mind,” Lakelyn grins in Coach’s direction. “Afterall, how else will we get to know the players?”
Coach grunts, looking down at his clipboard. “Right, I’m gonna leave you all to introduce yourselves to the girls,” he says, sliding the lid onto his pen. “Then I want you showered and out of here, got it?”
“Yes, Coach.” We say in unison.
“Great,” he huffs out before turning to face the girls. “It was a pleasure meeting you both, and I look forward to having you around for the rest of the semester.”
“Thank you, Coach Gillingham.” Lilly smiles at him.
“See you in a few days, girls.” He nods before walking away.
Hanging back with Hunter, Theo, and Chase, the other guys start introducing themselves to the girls while the four of us talk among ourselves. And when Theo brings up our away game in November, my mood increases again. I know he’s not intentionally bringing it up, after all, we’re going to be near his hometown. But I just want to forget about it, at least for now.
There’s a high chance that I won’t even see Sebastian, he’s got several other hotels he owns now, but on the off chance that I do see him, what would I do?
A throat clears beside me, shaking my head, I glance at where it came from to see Lilly smiling up at me. Looking around, I see my teammates all making their way toward the locker room. Theo looks back at me smirking, and I scowl at him.
“Hey.” Lilly smiles.
“Hi.” I give a nod.
“I watched your game on Saturday.” She says.
I knew this though, Hunter hadn’t stopped going on about inviting Nina to the game and how buzzed he was that she was coming. I swear I’ve never seen him so invested in a girl before, and it’s weird to witness the change in him.
“And how did you find it?” I find myself asking out of curiosity.
“I think you need to work on protecting the goal more,” she responds. “A few of those shots seemed like they could have been stopped.”
I blink and then blink again. Straightening up, I try to keep my cool. “You think so, huh?” I reply, my voice sharper than I intended it to be.
“Yeah, I do,” she nods. “From watching your previous game plays and then comparing them to Saturday…I know you’re capable of better,” she pulls on her sleeves. “Thought I’d just let you know.”
Clenching my jaw, I take a deep breath to keep me from snapping at her. “Look, Lilly,” I begin, pausing to try and find the right words to say. “I appreciate your input, but it’s not as easy as it looks,” I’d love to see her defending the goal, see if she still thinks I’m capable of better. “Maybe stick to the writing, and leave the coaching to coach, yeah?”
I see a flicker of guilt in her eyes, and I mentally scold myself. Fucks sake. It’s not my intention to be rude to her, but she just happened tocatch me on a shitty day—not that it’s an excuse—but now I feel guilty for snapping at her.
She takes a step back. “I didn’t mean to offend you,” her voice shakes slightly. “I just…I wanted you and the—you know what, never mind.”
I sigh, the tension in my shoulders easing a little. “I get it, just…maybe next time, keep it to yourself.”
She nods, stepping back again. “Got it.” And then she turns, her ponytail swaying as she walks away.
I try to call her back to apologize, I really do. But the words just don’t escape my lips. As I watch her walk out of the door and slam it shut behind her, I couldn’t help but feel a mix of anger and embarrassment.
I knew she meant well, but her words still stung slightly. She’s right, I could’ve done better at our first game, but I didn’t. And now because I’m pissed about potentially bumping into my sperm donor next month, I’m taking that out on everyone around me.
Perfect, Greyson. Well done.
Chapter 5
