Chapter 33

"You act like it's cocaine not a fucking lacrosse stick." Sam said while pulling his helmet off and tossing in into his open duffle. "Why are we even doing this?"





Friday's events were in the back of my mind. Instead I was focused on Finn's suggestion from months ago to fool around with girls sticks after practice. I was glad to be acting normal with my friends again.



"Because it'll be fun. You're just upset you can't stand in the goal and pretend to be working hard while we run laps." Finn retorted and pulled his chest pad over his head.



"I should have been a goalie." Chris muttered to me.



"Same dude." I replied. "I say we do a midfielder on each team. Sam and I aren't exactly known for our running skills."



"Speak for yourself." Sam said cockily and crossed his arms.



"You're worse at running then I am." I pointed out and shot him a look.



"I call Sylvia." Chris said in a millisecond. I smirked and gave him a high five.



"Is this what it's like to be the last one picked in gym? Damn this sucks." Sam muttered. Finn grabbed a blue stick and tossed it at Sam. He barely turned his head in time to catch it and he sent Finn a glare. "Thanks for almost taking your teammates' head off."



"No problem. No let's do this thing. We have asses to kick." Finn responded while smirking at Chris and I. I grabbed the black and gold Crux 10 degree stick. Unbenounced to those fools, this stick was by far the best. It's not like those other three were beginners sticks, but this was a nice one. I tossed a purple Propel stick to Chris. That one wasn't bad either. It was a nice attack stick.



"Shall we go over the rules?" I asked. They nodded and I smiled cruelly. "We're playing full girls rules. No shoving, tackling, crossbody checking, tomahawks, raking, stepping on sticks, tripping, dangerous propelling, or shooting space. You can't-"



"What the fuck is shooting space?" Finn interrupted. This is why I had a cruel smile. These little innocent boys didn't know what they got themselves into.



"You can't just jump in front of someone. You have to go in on an angle when guarding them." All their faces changed to one of disbelief. "They say girls is harder for a reason. You can't just body slam people whenever you want. Anyway, you can't detain with your stick, block with your body so the other person runs into you, cover, empty stick check, or hold a stick down with your stick."



"Then what the fuck are we doing?" Chris asked.



"Figure it out." I laughed mercilessly. For once I was the one with all the experience and knowledge and they were the idiot newbies. "So who wants to do the face off first? Chris and Finn? Let's go."I paraded them to the middle of the field with a smile on my face. These idiots are going to suck ass at this. When we reached the center of the field, they started to get down to the ground when I stopped them. "Have neither of you seen a girls game? On your feet."



"Why would I watch a sport with no violence?" Finn asked and faked a horrified shiver. "That's like voluntarily watching baseball or golf."



Chris snorted out a laugh as I put the ball in the back of Finn's stick and laid the back of Chris's stick over it. "When I flip it to the side, you have to push the two sticks together to hold the ball. On three you flick it up over your heads and then it's a free for all. Got it?" I instructed.



They nodded and I backed away. "One...two....three!" I counted down. Their sticks flicked the ball up but neither of them had much control because it went flying to their left where neither Sam nor I stood.



That didn't stop Sam and I from charging at it will all our might, though. I watched as Sam's stick tried to scoop the ball but it flew right up and out of his stick. I took the opportunity to swipe it out of the air and take off running down the field. I got to the restraining line when I saw a stick coming into view and a body coming with it.



Finn came in front of me on an angle on my left. I switched hands but he got in front of my body, forcing me to do a roll. That would have been fine but he did a small yet harsh check to my stick before the ball rolled out of the crosse. I went to scoop it but Finn beat me to it.



He didn't get the ball, though. Since none of the boys could scoop in a girls stick very well, it was easy for me to flick the ball always from him and to Chris, who was down field. Chris successfully retrieved the ball and ran down the field, scoring with Sam on his tail.



"Nice one, Chris!" I shouted down the field at him as he got the ball out from the overturned goal. "Told you it would be an easy game!"



"Indeed you did!" He replied before we all returned to the center. He handed me the ball and I looked at Sam. "You and I are up, pretty boy."



Sam rolled his eyes but held the back of his stick to the side so I could put my stick against his. Sam applied pressure and I pushed back. He was putting a little more strength into this face off than he needed, but it didn't matter.



"Count us down." I commanded to either Chris or Finn. Whichever one would listen. Finn took the command and counted to three. Both of our sticks flicked the ball up and I snatched it out of the air.



I might have been a men's lacrosse player but those summers at girls lacrosse camps taught me a thing or two about face offs. They say girls lacrosse is harder and I'll agree; it takes more agility and skill but, boys lacrosse defiantly required a different type of athleticism.



I brought the head down from the air to cradle the ball when Sam checked my stick a little too hard but I let it slide. The ball fell from the stick and he scoped it successfully this time. He turned to launch the ball to Finn but when the yellow orb left his stick, I knew he had just thrown that way to hard.



It seems that everyone did because we all stopped and watched the ball fly up like a pop fly and soar over the metal high rise bleachers that lined the field. The bright yellow streaked across the dusk sky and my eye seemed to watch in slow motion as it fell from the sky like a missile. The ball crashed through a glass dashboard of a nice little Porsche in the parking lot that had to belong to Coach or the Principle.



I pursued my lips and turned to Sam with wide blinking eyes. His eyes were just as wide.



"This is why we don't give the fucking goalie a girls stick!" Chris called out while Finn and him walked towards us. Sam was still wide mouthed.



"Yeah, man." Finn laughed and patted Sam on the back roughly. "It's not 'see how far I can chuck the ball'; it's a pass." He joked mockingly.



"Okay in my defense," Sam started out but I snorted caused everyone to look at me.



"What?" I shrugged. "There isn't much of a defense.



Sam flared at me with his razor sharp eyes. "As I was saying; do you know how much force it takes to launch a ball across field in a goalies stick? Then you give me a flat board to throw a ball on? You should have seen this coming." He crossed his arms like a pouty child.



My eyes trailed back to the Porsche with a shattered windshield. My eyes darted to the school to make sure no one was coming out before I looked back at the guys. "I think this would be a good time to leave."



"Before the fuzz show up? I can agree with that." Chris's muttered.



My eyes locked with Finn's forest ones. They had a special glint in them and I knew what that meant. Our closeness had brought me to realize that our brains were incredibly alike and that we could almost read each others minds.I saw the twitch of a smile and I made subtle face back at the green eyes boy before mouthing 'now'. We both took off sprinting to the bench. My feet pounded against the turf. When I reached the bags I grabbed my shit and someone else's shit and ran to my car with Finn beside me. He also had two bags and was laughing evilly with me.



I opened the drivers door and threw my body into the car while shoving the bags over the console and into the passengers seat. I locked the doors just as Sam made his way to my car and started tapping the window, yelling at me to give him his keys.



I laughed at Sam's taught eyebrows and annoyed face. My cell phone rang in my duffle bag and I dug though it before producing the the sleek IPhone X from my bag. Finn's name appeared as the caller ID next to a picture I had snapped of him looking at the beach. I loved that photo. We had so much fun that day, messing around on the shore line. Finn and I had gone for ice cream after and gone back to the beach to see the sunset. I enjoyed hanging out with Finn. He calmed me more than anyone and made me forget about everything negative. Finn is just the kind of friend I needed in my life. He had the ability to make you feel like the only person in the world and that's what was so dangerous about him. His looks and his charm could get him anywhere he wanted but that was beside the point. The way Finn was with me was unlike any of my other friends. He always knew what to say to make me laugh or to comfort me. It was like he could read my mind.



My thumb pressed the green button on the screen and I held the phone to my ear. Finn's strong voice rang over Sam's yelling and presumably Chris's in the background. "So the real question is, do we give them the keys back?" Finn's voice was filled with laughter and it was infectious to my already smiling face. I couldn't help but laugh with him. "I vote that we don't."



"Well, if we want to be responsible, Sam only lives like a mile away. That seems adequate to walk." I laughed back while watching Sam through my window. He had given up, seeing as I wouldn't unlock the door. Now he just stood there with his arms crossed and a pouty look on his face. It wasn't helping his case, but it was definitely entertaining me.



"Deal. Talk to you tomorrow, partner." Finn chuckled and hung up. A smile was plastered on my face as we both pulled our large vehicles out of the parking lot while laughing at the annoyed looking Chris and Sam.



This was definitely a beautiful friendship.