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“My dad is probably throwing together a search party for his boy. He couldn’t imagine me running off.”
“Would you even want to?” she asked, looking up at him. She was still in his lap, and much to her dislike, she found herself oddly comforted by his touch.
“Sometimes I want to run from the expectations.”
“Expectations?”
“Being a star football player is not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“It’s not?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Don’t sound so shocked.”
“Is this where you tell me how deep and meaningful everything is, from your life to your experience?”
“Don’t laugh.”
“Sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t laugh.” There were a million reasons why she shouldn’t be laughing, their current predicament being one of them. “Okay, tell me, hotshot, what’s it really like?”
“You really want to know?”
“I’ve got no place to be. I’m all yours.” For the foreseeable future. She didn’t want to be so negative for him and kept the last part to herself.
“I have to win.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of football?”
“Exactly. I’m the captain. The one in charge. The guys look to me to win. To do something about it, to make a change. When I first started, there was none of this responsibility. It was just me, the team, and the ball. Nothing else.”
“And now it’s not even that.”
“No. It’s all about the winning. I lose a game, I’m the one the coach comes to about what went wrong.”
“You’re a team.”
“I’m the captain. It all comes down to me. If my game is off, the entire team is off.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t believe that.”
“What’s so hard to believe?”
“You’re just one guy. The whole point of playing is being part of a team. You shouldn’t have all that on your shoulders. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the last person you should listen to seeing as I don’t do anything about sports, but you’re a team, and there’s no ‘I’ in team.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy, Noah. You’re not every single player on that team. You don’t pass to just yourself, or chase after the ball.”
“You’ve never been to a single game, have you?”
“None,” she said, laughing.
“You know, in my world that makes you a crazy person.”
“In my world your obsession with football says you need to go and get your head examined.” She reached out, ruffling his head. “You need to start using that brain for good, not for running.”
“You’re funny, Skye.”
“Always.”
