Pacing anxiously around the locker room, I bent down and quickly undid my laces before tying them back up again, tighter than before. It was a stupid ritual I always seemed to do before every soccer match.

I was normally never nervous. In fact, I normally had a reputation for being an arrogant overly confident asshole when it came to winning(Lucas's words, not mine). But this time it was different. This time Mia was going to be watching.

Never in all our long years of knowing each other had she ever officially watched me play. It definitely wasn't for a lack of trying on my part to get her there. I'd tried embarrassing and sly tactics over the years to try and get her to come but she'd never did.

So, now that she was officially coming, it made me more determined than ever to win. And if not, oh well, at least I was going home with a hot girlfriend.

I could hear the screams and chants from outside as the cheerleaders likely performed, further driving forward my anticipation.

"Yo, Ethan come here real quick," Nick called out with a laugh.

I turned with a furrowed brow and slowly made my way around the corner to see what he wanted. It was only as I made my way around, did I realize how weird it was that I was the only one on my side of the locker room.

The moment I got round the corner, there was immediately a sharp burst of colour and noise and suddenly I was being blasted in the face with confetti. I blinked and found myself staring back into the eyes of my hooting and hollering teammates who were standing in front of a whiteboard with the words, 'Holy shit, six fucking years!" sprawled in aggressively bright colours in marker across the surface.

I smiled uncomfortably. "Erm...it's not my birthday!"

"Yeah, we fucking know, honey. This is your we can't believe you're finally dating Mia, party," Lucas announced bluntly.

A smile escaped my lips, and I rolled my eyes as I took in their over-the-top decoration. "Fuck you guys, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise."

"Says the guy who took six years to get a girl to like him," Roman snorted. "No offense, dude, but it's a surprise,"

"Dickhead," I snapped as I kicked a balloon on the floor and sent it flying towards his face.

Roman just caught it to my disappointment with a cackle.

"Here's to never having to hear, Ethan pine after Mia again, woo!" Simon one of my particularly piss-taking friends called out, as he raised what I think was a bottle of vodka in the air. "Don't worry, I'm not drinking it until after the game, Mr goody two shoes," he sighed when he noticed the particularly concerned way, I was eyeing the bottle.

The guys soon crowded around me and presented me with a card, that turned out to be a betting chart on when everyone on the team thought I'd eventually ask Mia out and how.

Embarrassingly most people had predicted dates from years ago and even more embarrassingly most people had successfully predicted I'd 'stupidly confess I loved her by slipping on my words like an idiot.' That's genuinely the way the fuckers had written it.

As everyone eased back, I took notice of Henry who was standing awkwardly in the corner in his soccer jersey, and stiffened the second we locked eyes. I instantly felt guilty remembering I might have taken things slightly too far when he'd attempted to come on to Mia.

With an awkward cough, I slowly trailed my way closer to him. Henry's eyes immediately widened, and he immediately pushed himself off the wall, clearly getting ready to run away from me.

"Wait, please don't go," I said quickly.

Henry slowly stopped, but continued to look at me with incredibly cautionate eyes.

I cleared my throat once more. "Look, I just wanted to say that I was out of order for the way I acted the other day. It was wrong," I mumbled, forcing the words out through my throat.

Henry gave me a soft smile. "Honestly don't worry, we expected you to react that way."

I immediately paused, my brows furrowing. "We, what do you mean we?" I said immediately, my eyes narrowing.

"Oh," Henry said, letting out a nervous laugh as he anxiously started rubbing at the back of his neck. "Well, I'm not exactly supposed to tell you this, but erm... Lucas kind of paid me to ask Mia out...,"

"What?" I snapped immediately.

Henry immediately held his hand out before himself. "Hey, just to be clear it was Lucas's idea, not mine but he basically paid me to come on to Mia, to try and make you jealous."

I blinked once then twice. "So, just to be clear, you never liked Mia, and how pissed off I got that afternoon was all because of Lucas...," I clarified slowly.

"I mean, Mia's a stunning girl, real pretty, I won't lie, but –" he instantly caught the death eye I was giving him, and immediately stopped talking. He cleared his throat "But I did only ask her to study with me because of Lucas."

At that precise moment, Lucas who was conveniently walking right past me at that very moment, immediately paused and locked eyes with me.

That fucker was dead....

"Sorry, got to go, the game's about to start," Lucas stammered out immediately. Then the fucker, zipped right past me before I had the chance to throttle him.

"Come on boys, get out onto the field," the coach yelled out from the door, annoyingly proving Lucas right.

Myself and the rest of the team made our way to the door and started jogging our way up the field. The crowd cheered in excitement, and I couldn't help but smile as I took in the crowds.

I let out a light laugh as I took in Lucas screaming out chants as he tried to hype up the crowd while pumping his fists up in the air like a fool.

That man could easily be a cheerleader.

Before heading into position, I stopped and did a slow scan of the crowds searching for Mia. I knew for a fact she had to be here, I drove her here and everything.

Soon enough, my eyes landed on her in the crowds, and my lips spread out into a wide smile, noticing she was already looking at me.

I took her in, and smiled arrogantly, noticing instantly she was wearing my spare jersey that had Blythe in big bold letters across the back. I'd given her it to wear this morning, wanting a cheap excuse to have my last name plastered across her back for the entire day. What could I say it was hard to be anything but a possessive asshole with a girlfriend like her.

Mia's mouth spread out into a grin as I waved at her. Then her smile grew as she mouthed 'Don't fuck up', at me, slowly and clearly with a pointed look.

I immediately laughed, loving how Mia hadn't even mildly changed from all the years I'd known her. I mouthed back that 'I won't,' in confidence.

An hour and a half later, we and the opposition were neck in neck with only a minute left of game time. I was panting, and exhausted and the fuckers had been much better than I thought. Much too arrogant to lose, I stepped back and made myself free for Lucas who was jogging after one of the pricks who had possession of the ball. 

I smiled as he skilfully tackled the ball free from him before turning to me, and booting it towards me. I smirked as though I had already won, before turning and firing the ball sharply towards the goal.

The speed was too fast for the goalie to stop and it curved past him and headed straight into the goal.

The crowd rushed to their feet and screamed in celebration at our school's win. Smiling my head off, I barely had time to process a thing before I noticed Lucas running towards me whopping like a fool.

I laughed in surprise as he full-on jumped on me, causing both of us to topple to the ground.

I soon got up with a laugh, then turned to the crowds, searching for Mia. Spotting her, I waved frantically at her, indicating for her to come down.

She playfully rolled her eyes at me before getting up alongside her friends and starting to climb her way down the bleachers.

Once they were on the field, May ran ahead and cutely jumped into Lucas's arms to congratulate him.

I turned back to Mia, expecting her to do the same.

But Mia being Mia, she locked eyes with me and then smirked before sauntering her way over to me at the most ridiculous pace known to man. 

I arched up a half-amused, half-impatient brow as I watched her approach, half tempted to haul her towards me by her waistband so I could teach her a lesson with my lips about why she shouldn't make me wait that long. She was the queen of winding me up, and she knew it.

Finally, by some stroke of a miracle, she came to a stop right in front of me.

I looked her up and down, slowly taking in the perfect fit of those fucking leggings of hers, my eyes spinning dangerously up and down her legs before finally making my way back to her eyes. With how good she looked; it only made me more frustrated by how long it took her to get here.

"Only took you seven bloody years to get here," I snapped, my eyes dancing between hers playfully.

Her lips quirked up, making it that much harder not to kiss her. "What can I say, I don't run," she said flatly, with a simple shrug of her shoulders.

I chuckled lowly, once again letting my eyes roam up and down her body. "Loving the jersey. It definitely suits you," I said with no doubt a mischievous glint in my eyes.

She cocked up an amused brow. "Really? Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with the fact it says, Blythe in big bold white letters across the back," she snorted.

"That obvious?" I questioned with a laugh as I stepped even closer to her, not seeing a point in denying it.

"Painfully obvious," she said as she shook her head at me in mock pity.

Taking another step closer to her, I stopped when our faces when our faces were only a perfectly small distance away. Mia sucked in a breath, and I held back a smile as I saw her eyes fall down to my lips.

"So, Chubs, is there anything you'd like to say or do to me?" I said as I tilted my head at her with a no doubt cocky smile.

She smirked up at me, not moving an inch. "Nah, I'm good," she said with a simple smile.

I gave her a deadened look.

"Okay, fine," she said with a laugh. "You were amazing, Ethan. Totally swoon-worthy. Best guy on the team," she exclaimed with an overly dramatic voice. "How was that?" she teased.

I chuckled lowly, and wrapped an arm around her waist, and tugged her to me. "Much better," I whispered as I leaned in for a kiss.

"Congrats, Ethan," a high-pitched voice screeched just as Mia was grabbing a hold of the back of my neck, to get ready to kiss me.

For fucks sake. I just helped win the damn game, why couldn't people just leave me alone to kiss my fucking girlfriend in peace.

To my irritation, we both pulled apart and found April standing before us with an overly enthusiastic smile on her face.

Connor was also standing beside her and was looking at Mia with a disgusting smile that made me want to strap a bomb to his chest.

I turned away from him quickly, deciding to just focus on April before I did something I regretted.

"Oh, hey didn't you see there," I said with an awkward cough. "And thanks, I appreciate it," I said, forcing a smile.

"Yeah, Ethan, it was a good game," Connor said icily as he took his eyes briefly away from Mia, to finally look at me.

My body immediately stiffened. "What the fuck are you doing here? You want to play supportive cousin now, do you?" I snapped.

"Yeah, thought we could turn over a new leaf. Let bygones be bygones," Connor said as he observed me with a still gaze.

Rage instantly flashed through me, remembering the shit he'd said to me the other day about my family. "Fuck you, I won't let bygones do shit," I snapped in anger.

April cleared her throat, bringing the attention back to her.

"Anyway, I came over to tell you the after-party is at mine tonight. Don't be late," she said with a flirty wink.

Then she turned on her heel and walked away while swaying her hips in an odd manner as Connor followed behind her.

"Why the fuck is she walking like that?" I couldn't help but mumble out in a laugh as I watched her leave. It was the oddest walk I'd ever seen in my life.

Mia turned to me and looked at me weirdly. "You didn't find that walk attractive at all?" she asked, seeming genuinely surprised.

"Erm...no," I snorted, turning to her like she was crazy. "No offense to her or anything, but I've seen Lucas give a more alluring walk than that," I laughed. And I genuinely wasn't joking, that boy could walk.

Mia immediately started laughing, clearly starting to imagine a vivid image of Lucas walking in a seductive manner in her mind.

I looked down at her with a smile, relieved we could turn those two's obnoxious behaviour into a joke.

 As amusing and hot as Mia's jealousy could be sometimes, I never wanted her to ever feel inferior to any woman. I was only hers – always had been, always would be. 

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