"You're actually dating him?" Val asks for the third time.

"Yes!"

"And no one else knows?"

"Except Max."

"How do you plan on telling Alex?"

"The normal way," I shrug as if i'm not extremely nervous about him finding out. "I'm sensible. It's not like i'll get pregnant and engaged. I don't plan on doing that 'til i'm at least thirty."

Val thinks for a moment. "But you're actually dating him?"

I pick up a pillow from the couch and hit him in the face with it. My phone then buzzes so I pick it up from the couch armrest. Mom let me have it back after we had a deep talk about how i'm gonna stop drinking and how i'm gonna be a better daughter and blah blah blah. She realised things would have been a lot worse with Drake and why I need my phone, so my baby's back.

Jace  come to the game tomorrow night.

I have to think about this for a moment. Being with Wes has distracted me from any feelings I have for Jace, so I think I can see him play soccer and not fall head over heels.

"Jace wants me to come to the game," I tell Val.

"You should. It's gon' be good 'cause the other team are a bunch of morons that we're always scrappin' with after the game."

"You? In a fight?"

"Well, I mostly watch. It's real funny."

"Hmm, I do love drama."

+++

"So since when do you come to these things? I thought you hated soccer," Wes says as we walk through the parking lot full of lightly buzzed teenagers, using a soccer game as an excuse to drink. If circumstances were different, that would be me.

"I love soccer. I guess I just never thought of actually coming here."

"You expect me to believe that? Val's on the team and you love soccer, but you never thought of coming?"

"Look, there's Brooke," I change the subject, pointing to where Brooke, Tyler and Max are standing at Ty's car and laughing.

"There's the star couple," Brooke greets.

"Can't believe you scored Yasmin, man," Tyler holds up his hand to high five and Wes annoyingly does it.

"Do you mind?" Max says and Brooke pats his head.

"She's still crazy about me though, aren't ya babe?" Tyler slips his arm around my back and his hand grabs my ass. I widen my eyes and grab his wrist, twisting it in a painful way.

Wes shoves Ty and takes my hand. "Right, we're going."

"We're coming," Brooke states and they all follow us into the football field. We find spaces on the second row on the stands and sit there, making us in the perfect spot for Val's starting position as forward.

Brooke sits beside me and starts telling me how great it is that i'm coming to these again, except it's not as good now i'm dating Wes 'cause we can't drool over the hot guys. She stops talking when our team comes out and cheers instead. Everyone stands up and cheers and eventually I do too.

Cheerleaders do their cheer thing and the first thing I see is Val watching them as he walks, the slut. My eyes find Jace after that and freeze when I see him looking at me. He smiles slightly and I smile back and mouth the words 'good luck'.

"I caught that," Brooke says into my ear.

"Hm?"

"That little thing with you and Jace Daniels."

"I only said good luck," I defend look back at the field.

The other team is walking on with great enthusiasm, trying to win over the crowd. Girls from our school start to cheer them when the centre midfielder lifts his shirt and shows his abs.

"What a douche," I comment.

"WE DON'T WANNA SEE YOUR RIBCAGE," someone shouts. I look to the next set of stands, seeing Montana in the front row and realising she was the culprit as Sam and the rest of her friends laugh.

The guy drops his shirt and gives her a strange look as he stands in his position, facing Jace. They look at each other tensely as if they know each other and not in a good way.

The game goes on and neither team scores any goals, which looks like it's really frustrating Jace. At half time he wipes sweat off of his forehead while walking to where the rest of the team is. I offer him a supportive smile when he looks up to the stands. 

"I can see why they hate each other now."

"It's that and the fact that those guys are assholes," Wes tells me and we both look at the stomach flasher who's watching Val talk to Montana at the stands as steam comes out of his nostrils. "She's not gonna be in his good books," he mumbles.

"Derek is a total ass," Brooke states.

"You know his name?"

"Why don't you? Your Val's sister and you don't even know their soccer rivals."

"Maybe she doesn't care," Wes suggests.

"Yasmin not caring about drama? That's new."

"Val is so getting his ass kicked," Max says, drawing our attention back to the pitch. Val is walking over to where the rest of the guys on our team are while Derek and a few guys he's with watch him.

"If they touch my brother it'll be the last thing they do," I mumble.

The game kicks off again and Wes puts his arm around me to keep me warm. It's weird being like this with someone in public – when i'm not drunk or at a party.

Val scores the first goal of the game, making the coach finally look like he's not about to kill them all. Watching him out there and seeing how good he is makes me proud. I really should have been coming to see him more.

"So I was thinking," Wes says into my ear. "You should come over after this." Something in his tone tells me he has something planned.

"To do what?" I tease, turning my head to look at him.

"I don't know, maybe we could study together." He smiles and leans in and kisses my lips. "Study buddies," he says between kisses.

"What kind of kinky fantasy is that?"

He laughs and kisses me again. I pull away quickly when people start cheering at one of the teams having scored a goal.

"What the hell was that? He strolled past you with the ball!" Coach shouts and I follow the guys's eyes to find them all looking at Jace.

Jace wipes sweat from his forehead with his arm for the millionth time. Coach continues to yell at him while Jace looks up into the stands. At me.

His face is pained and angry. Is he angry at me? How can it be my fault he messed up and let Westview score. But he'd find a way to blame me.

Val then looks over here until he spots me, then he shakes his head and makes a kissy face then holds his finger up and moves it as if to say no. I think he's telling me to stop kissing Wes. But why?

"Isn't he just the cutest?" Brooke says with a sigh.

There is another mishap when someone manages to get the ball off of Jace easily. Then another time when a dude on our team is trying to pass the ball to Jace but someone is defending and blocking Jace. It builds up to the point that Jace gets so angry he pushes guy so hard that he falls onto the ground.

The referee blows his whistle and runs to the boy who's pretending he actually got hurt. They both end up getting benched which pisses off everyone as Jace is one of the best players on the team.

Val says something to Jace then looks up at me and holds his middle finger up, making everyone turn around and look at us.

"What's his problem?" I ask, flipping Val off back.

"Damn," Brooke reacts. "This game is ugly."

When the game ends, Westview have won by 2-1 and people start walking down from the stands with disappointment faces.

"I'll get you back at your car? I just need to talk to Val," I say to Wes and he nods and goes with Max and Tyler.

Brooke stays and follows me when I head to Val. I don't even ask as I know she just wants to see him.

Valentino is in my sights just as Derek passes him and hits his shoulder while mumbling something to him. 

Val turns around fast. "The fuck did you just say?" He snaps.

"Are you using that tone with me?" Derek says and pushes Val.

"Hey!" I stand beside Val. Montana reaches us, capturing Derek's attention.

"There's the little freak who can't keep her mouth shut." He reaches out and touches Mon's lips, holding them together.

Val hits Derek's hand away and gets up in his face. "You shouldn't have done that."

I'm shocked for a moment about the way Val is behaving. He's not a violent person at all

"Yo! Fight!" Someone shouts in the background and you can basically hear the people's footsteps as they rush over.

"Val, just walk away," I say and put my hand on his chest to push him backwards. He yanks my hand off of him, making me flinch. I know not to touch him there but in times like these it's hard to remember. 

While Val is momentarily distracted by me touching him, Derek pulls his arm back and hits Val in the face. 

Noice erupts from the action and Montana grabs Val's arm to stop him doing anything while I go for Derek, pushing him away. My anger makes me stronger and Derek actually can't resist my strength as he walks backwards. Eventually he has enough and shoves me to the side. I would have fallen if I didn't fall straight into-

Jace.

I look up at him and forget everything that's going on as I see the anger in his eyes. I'm glad it's not pointed towards me though – he's glaring at Derek.

It happens so fast. One minute Jace is beside me and the next Derek is lying on the ground.

Westview's coach and the referee go to Derek and our coach pulls Jace back while already yelling at him.

"Holy shit," Montana says. Her and Val whom's nose is running with blood stare at Derek. "He knocked him out."

"He had it coming," Val says. 

"He needs kicked off your pathetic team!" The other coach shouts. "One of my players is unconscious!"

"Thanks, Captain obvious," Val says.

"No kidding," Montana says.

Jace breaks away from the coach and starts walking to the school. Coach follows him while shouting about how he can't just walk away.

I turn around to face Brooke and notice how big the crowd is around us. "Can you tell Wes to leave? I'll get a ride home with Val."

She nods and I run after Jace and coach McGrath.

"Hey! I'm talkin' to you." Coach says and I follow him into the guys locker room, hoping no ones naked in there.

Four other guys are there but are fully clothed luckily, but they still overreact when they see me. Jace grabs stuff and shoves it into his sports bag.

"What are you doing? No girls in the damn guys locker room," Coach yells at me. "Get out along with you four."

The other guys leave but I stay put.

"Are you a boy?"

"Well I'd hope not." I go to Jace who now just sits down on the bench and stares at his swollen hand. "Why are you so angry-"

"Get out, Yasmin. I don't want to look at you."

Ouch. I almost put my hand to my chest because it hurts so much. I hate being sensitive.

"What have I done? I know you're just angry-"

"I just said get out so why are you still here?"

Being the bitch that I am, I grab the bottle of water beside him and squirt it in his face. He quickly slaps it out of my hands and stands up, towering over me. I try not to show i'm intimidated but accidentally take a step back.

"I don't need to see this. Jace, we need to talk about what just happened. You're probably getting kicked off of the team. Do you know that?" Coach questions but Jace doesn't drop his glare on me. "Why did you hit him? You're not the one with the bloody nose."

The longer that Jace looks at me, the softer his features get and the anger fades away. "He doesn't know how to treat a lady."

"So I should knock you unconscious because of the way you're actin' to her? This is Val's sister, isn't it?"

Gosh, even the coach is referring to me as the sister.

Jace takes a step back from me and sits down. His eyes go down with him, looking down my body until he looks down at the floor.

"I know you have personal issues but that's no excuse for screwing up the game and punching people."

"It's loco out there," Val says when he comes in.

"Take your sister out of here, will you?" Coach tells him.

"You think I have any power over her?" He picks up his bag and puts it over his shoulder. "Montana's takin' us home right now. Unless Jace is-"

"No. Go, Yasmin," Jace demands.

I nod and look at him and at his hand then follow Val out. I don't know why I even want to stay with someone who doesn't want me.

Montana starts her car while Val lights a cigarette and hands it to her. I silently die in the backseat while they smoke and the second hand smoke infects my not so perfect lungs.

"Smoking kills," I finally say with a cough.

"We're all gonna die anyway," Montana states.

"Can't believe we lost that game," Val shakes his head. "It's Yasmin's fault."

"How the hell is it my fault?"

"Jace was distracted by you and Wes doing soft porn."

"We weren't-" I groan frustratedly, "That wouldn't make him fuck up the whole game and knock a guy out."

"Imagine having a guy that's that crazy about you," Montana says as if she cant wrap her head around what happened.

"Don't think such a guy exists."

"Jace needs to move on. He's acting like a little pussy," Val says.

"Right," Montana agrees. "If my man did that in front of everyone, I wouldn't be seen dead with him."

"Harsh," I comment. "Everyone has a bad day."

"Oh yeah, I go around knocking people out too when I don't have coffee in the morning," Val says sarcastically.

Montana looks at him, amused and even manages to make Val smile in response. I decide just to stay quiet and think about everything that happened.

If it was me and Wes that made Jace screw up, why? He can't like me that much. Maybe he just doesn't want me to be happy with someone else 'cause guys are difficult like that.

+++