Page 77 of Spring Awakening

“Mal,” Frankie starts, handing her a whistle. “You can be my touch judge. Carl needs to go.”

“Score,” she replies. She jumps up on her tiptoes, kisses Zach on the cheek, and goes back to the side.

They run the play again. It’s pretty decent. Kai takes out Toby, Zach hits the ground. There’s just one issue.

“Offside.” Mali blows her whistle, and Zach glares at her.

He gets up, walking towards her with his shoulders wide. She really might have a shoulder fetish, and it’s all his fault. The thoughts about him never stop. How he’d be as a father; if he wants to stay with the Titans forever; if he knows how badly she wants him with her.

“What was that, baby?” he asks, his low and smooth voice sending shockwaves to her core. He’s close, his chest brushing against her with every laboured breath he takes. He looks down at her, and she knows he’s supposed to look scary. She just thinks he looks adorable.

“It was offside. Wanna run it again?”

Zach’s frown turns into a smile, and he picks her up in a sort of hug, sort of spinning her around, and she feels like she’s in a romance movie. Like if it started raining right now, it would make all her dreams come true.

“You’re a brat,” he whispers, placing her down. She really might fuck him tonight. What would be the worst thing that could happen if she told him how she feels? He seems like he might feel it back. Like he feels as completely churned up inside about her as she does about him. Like he wonders if they’ll live in the same house forever. Like he thinks about whether they’ll move to another part of the country if a different rugby team calls. Like he might love her back.

“And it was offside, honey.”

Zach smiles, kissing her on the forehead, then the nose. Then he turns, and she’s horny and reckless and slaps him on the arse. He turns back to wink at her, then shouts, “Run it again!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Ready!” Mali calls. She’snot ready. Everything from her posture to the ridiculous shorts she has on to how she keeps flipping her hair over her shoulder tells him she’s not ready. But he throws the ball (lightly) anyway.

She does a small jump that’s unnecessary because it went straight at her, but she does catch it in both hands. Then, before he can tell her, she’s spun the ball onto one palm, her hand tight against it, and starts running. She’s dodging, spinning, and tricking her way through players that don’t exist, but if they did, she’d probably make it to the ten-metre line before she got tackled to the ground. Zach forgets to give her tips because he’s distracted by the muscles in her legs, and by the way her arse moves as she runs. He’s probably going to try and kiss her later.

Even as her hair wraps around her face, she keeps running. Zach’s not sure where she’s going, but as she makes a beeline for the goal, he should have known. They started halfway down the pitch, and he knows she hates running, and that’s only from the laboured breathing she has when she runs up stairs. The distance doesn’t deter her, though. She keeps running. Heshould wait here, watch her score, and wait for her to return. And yet, he can’t help himself. He runs after her.

There’s no attempt to catch her (even if he thought he could) but he is closer to her when she realises she’s made it over the line. Her excitement is contagious, though, and he finds himself smiling as she touches the ball to the ground and immediately jumps into the air. He hears the players cheering for her too. Kai is coming back on to show her how to do a scrum, but Zach’s not sure she’s going to be able to reach. Maybe he’ll let her climb on his back.

“I did it!” she shouts, then deepens her voice like a commentator. “Number one goal scorer Mali Okeye has overtaken Zachariah Azan!” She picks the ball up again, and Zach can only assume she’s about to do the same on the other end of the pitch. He wonders if he’ll let her win, even as he makes no attempt to chase her.

And then he watches Toby move. Everything in Zach wants to believe it’s friendly. That he’s just going to pretend to tackle her, maybe even make a play for the ball. But Zach knows better than that. Mali would know too, but she hasn’t seen him coming.

“Mali!” he screams. His voice is almost inhuman. Fear travels through him with every stride he takes to get to her, to protect her, but it’s too late. She spins, and before she can scream, Toby’s shoulder hits her ribs, and she flies. The world stops spinning. Everything stands still. He can see Frankie’s face, open and scared. He can see Ezra already running across the pitch, but it’s too late.

Her body hits the ground, her head bouncing off the floor, and Zach barely keeps running through his shaky knees.

“What the fuck?” he heaves out, dragging Toby off her. Her eyes are wide, and he wishes she got knocked out. Now, she’s going to have trouble breathing, she’s going to be scared, she’s going to be in pain, she’ll be awake for it all, and all he can do ispunch Toby in the face. It’s feral, the way he keeps pulling back, and back, and back. A bone crunches under his knuckles, and he’s covered in blood. There are hands on him, trying to get him away, but he’s too lost in it.

“Zach,” Mali whispers. He drops the front of Toby’s T-shirt and stumbles over, pushing people out of the way. “Stop… being…” Her breathing is too shallow, and it near kills him. “…a Neanderthal.”

“What hurts?” he asks, pushing her hair out of her face. She’s got blood running from her nose, but it doesn’t look broken. They haven’t moved her, so Frankie must be worried about a break at best, a punctured lung at worst.

“I’m… fine,” she wheezes.

“Don’t lie to me,” he says, reaching for her hand. She grips it tight. “Tell me, baby, please.”

She blinks a few times. “My chest, maybe… maybe my ribs… and my back. I think my face is broken.”

“It’s not broken, baby. You’re beautiful. Uhm, okay. Okay. Can you feel this?” he presses down on her thigh with his hand. She nods her head, and he does it until he reaches her feet.

“Ye—yeah, yes. I can feel it all.”

“Okay, that’s good. That’s really good. I don’t want you to move, okay?”

“Can you stay with me?” she asks, her face panicked.

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