Chapter 15

ON SUNDAY MORNING, teams in all different colors flooded the outdoor sports complex made up of three different turf fields and divided into six shorter fields. As far as sports complexes go, it was pretty fancy. Hailey’s team was entered in a co-ed soccer tournament that was also a fundraiser for cancer, so it was a no-brainer for them.

And Hailey was so thankful she got an entire day to recover from Bridget’s bach party Friday night.

Playing outside was a whole different monster compared to indoors. First, there were no walls, of course. Second, they were allowed to wear cleats and slide tackle, something Hailey and Elena were ecstatic about.

As Hailey approached the field that would hold their first game, she looked for other red shirts. It was a chilly morning though so people might have had it covered up. That was when she saw Cole juggling a ball behind one of the nets with a couple of other members of the team around him. Riley and Josh were wrestling on the ground near them, which was a pretty normal thing for those two.

Their first two games would decide their seeding and then the rest of the tournament would be a bracket elimination. They were guaranteed at least three games and if they won they would keep going. It was the best when the prize for winning a soccer game was more soccer, so the team was pumped.

When Hailey reached her teammates, she used an announcer-like voice to shout, “Let’s get ready to rumbllllllllle!”

Her friends turned to her with bright smiles and threw in their own lines.

“Let’s kick some ass!”

“Heyoooo!”

“Gonna make these teams my bitch!”

Hailey balked at that last one from Cole and decided to make it weird, something she did best.

“What will you do with all these teams when they’re your bitch? Does that mean you’ll put them all on leashes? Keep them in a dungeon? Work them as sex slaves? There are so many people here Cole, I don’t think you need that many bitches. I mean, you’ll have to support them all. Bitches gotta eat.”

“Shut the fuck up, Hailey,” Cole laughed.

“I will not, but thank you for the advice! I’ll take it into consideration for the future.”

She then exchanged what others would consider normal hellos with her teammates and grabbed a seat on the ground next to Abby, Elena, Josh, Riley and Avery while Cole continued his juggling. Josh and Riley stopped wrestling at her arrival but they were still shoving each other a bit with big smiles on their faces. Silly thirty-year-old kids.

They had a few extra people join them today since they’d have eight people on the field instead of six like in indoor. Josh, Riley and Cole recruited some guys from their gym to join them.

When she locked eyes with Avery, he grinned, it was then when Hailey remembered some texting from Friday night that may or may not have been embarrassing.

“Hey, Avery, sorry I bothered you Friday night. I was a bit … tipsy.”

He laughed, “That’s you tipsy? I’d love to see … I mean, you weren’t bothering me. I was actually with family and bored out of my mind when you texted. So thanks for improving my night.”

Was it just Hailey, or was Avery blushing a bit? Must be because it’s chilly out.

“Anytime! I’ll send you dick pics more often!”

That’s when everyone else’s heads snapped up to look at her.

Abby regained the ability to speak first, “How did you … what?”

“Relax, you guys. It was pictures of penis-shaped paraphernalia from my friend’s bachelorette party.” She took a breath before looking off into the distance at nothing. “There were penises everywhere, as far as the eye could see. But somehow I survived to tell the tale.”

“You dork, ha!” said Abby.

Hailey decided it was time for a subject change. “Abby, did you figure out where you’re traveling yet?” Abby brightened and launched into a top ten list of the places she was thinking of traveling. Apparently narrowing down that list was proving to be quite a task for her.

She had originally gone to school for writing and editing but was finding the job market a bit soul-crushing at the moment and was stuck in a customer service job she hated. Who would have thought when they were in college they would have to fight against artificial intelligence for jobs. It was like no one learned their lesson from the “Terminator” movies.

Abby figured taking a break from it all and leaving the country to discover a new culture would clear her headspace a little before she came back to the dumpster fire of reality, as Hailey loved to call it.

“It’s so cool you’re going by yourself. I definitely don’t have the courage to do that,” Avery told Abby. She beamed back at him.

“Right? I mean, no one really has the time to go with me anywhere, unless one of you changes your mind! I’m really excited about it. I’ll probably do one of those organized tour things so I don’t have to plan as much, but I’ll definitely take a lot of time to myself.”

“Oh my goodness, you should totally write about your adventures!” Hailey brightened at her own idea. “You could blog about it!”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll definitely think about that one! Gonna try to decide on a locale in the next month or two.”

Hailey started clapping and bouncing where she sat. “I can’t wait to live vicariously through you! And maybe sneak into your luggage!”

She spent the rest of her time stretching trying to figure out if she could swing a vacation and keep Abby company. Maybe if she picked up a few busy weekend shifts at the restaurant to pay for a flight. Ugh, all the inventions in this world and why hasn’t anyone invented teleportation yet? Or at least an automatic laundry folder?

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The first two games were easy wins for the team and they got a decent seed in the bracket. They were facing the gray team, the Knights, in the first elimination round.

While they were regrouping at the next field, a few of them changed out some of their layers. The chill of the morning was gone and it was starting to get warm.

Hailey tried really hard to not look when Avery took off his shirt. She definitely didn’t notice his lean torso with abs for days and that crazy “V” thing men had. Didn’t notice at all.

Shaking off the distraction, she ripped off her sweated-through long-sleeve shirt and was left standing in a sports bra that somehow made her tits look fantastic and also supported them. She didn’t have much going for her, but at least she had a decent rack. She tried on so many damn bras to find this one. Almost as annoying as trying on bathing suits.

Once she got her new shirt over her head, she snuck a glance at Avery and noticed he was already watching her, and he certainly wasn’t looking at her eyes. He turned back to the field once her shirt was on. Turnabout was fair play, she guessed.

The bracket showed that the gray Knights lost their first two matches, and Hailey’s team made it three wins in a row. They were steam rolling through the first two elimination rounds and they just had one more to get to the championship.

Avery managed to knock two goals into the back of the net in the semifinals and they were sailing into the championship round.

Ugh. The green team, the Goblins. Taking a look at them, they resembled monsters. Definitely bigger than them, but the Cherry Stems were probably quicker. Like a version of “Space Jam,” but without the cartoons or Michael Jordan. The Goblins also had this douchecanoe on their team that always played a little too rough. Even Cole took games against them more seriously.

The game was divided into two twenty-minute halves and the first half went by without any goals for either team. Cole was getting too much action in the net and they needed to shut green down in the second half.

Cole’s halftime pep talk was one of the most inspirational and motivating things Hailey had ever heard.

He took a deep breath, looked at all of them and said, “Do better.” Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best pep talk, but it was really all they needed to hear.

In the first few minutes of the second half, Hailey made a run up the sideline after receiving one of Cole’s punts from the goal. She got a little bit lucky when the guy marking her tripped, but she took advantage of it. She made it down to almost the corner and then noticed Abby was wide open twenty yards in front of the other team’s net.

Hailey sent her a pass on the ground that Abby was able to one-time into the corner of the net. They all ran in to give Abby hugs and high fives. They could actually do this! Hailey didn’t expect to win today, she was just excited to get out of the house and do one of the few things that made her happy these days. It was even better now that she got to play three more rounds than a bunch of teams.

The lead was short-lived when the Goblins’ goalie launched a ball into their half and the other team’s striker got a breakaway, faked out Cole in the net, and tapped the ball past him for a goal.

It was a tied game with ten minutes left. Hailey did not want to go into overtime against this team because the neon green monsters were scrappy and she didn’t want anyone getting hurt.

Avery had a few shots on net but the Goblins’ goalie made some sick saves and it was still tied with one minute left. They made some give-and-go passes to get up the field and Josh was able to cross the ball right in front of the Goblins’ net. The green jerseys got to it first and knocked it out behind the net. Out of bounds on them meant a corner kick for the Cherry Stems, a big scoring opportunity.

Elena set up the free kick by the flag on the corner of the field while the team set up to crash the net on her kick. There had to be barely any time left.

She made the kick and the ball soared across the field to right in front of the far post, exactly where Hailey was making her run.

She saw the ball streaking toward her through the air and knew if she could time it just right…

Soaring over everyone else, Hailey met the ball about five yards in front of the net. She tensed up and let the ball smash off her head.

Time seemed to slow as everyone watched the ball. And they watched it go right behind the goalie into the back of the net. Right after, the ref blew her whistle to mark the end of the game.

It took Hailey just a second until it hit her: she scored. They won.

The next thing she knew, she turned to find her teammates surrounding her with hugs and high-fives. When Avery got to her he picked her up into a giant bear hug, lifting her off the ground with such ease she felt like a feather in his arms.

Was time still going in slow motion? It certainly felt that way to Hailey. It all went too fast and too slow at the same time. After another moment, the rest of their team crashed back into Hailey and Avery, hugging and jumping like they just won the Super Bowl.

For a bunch of twenty-nine- and thirty-year-olds who all stopped playing for competitive teams in high school or college, it kind of was their Super Bowl. Reliving their glory days, they all made their way to the center of the field where they received little medals with the tournament name on them. They posed for a few pictures and then started making their way back to the bench to grab all their stuff.

On the way, Cole shouted, “Celebration drinks at Hero’s!”

It was met with hell yeses all around. A few of them changed their shirts again so they wouldn’t head into a restaurant smelling like feet. Hailey caught Avery looking her way again and she tried to hide a smile until she realized they just won a championship so she had a damn good excuse to smile and she could blame the blushing on all the running and the excitement of the win.

A championship and drinks with friends? Might be better than therapy. Considering she hadn’t heard from her boyfriend all weekend, the promise of quality time with Avery didn’t hurt either.