Page 16 of Brat on the Ball

The whistle blew, and I jumped. I’d been so focused on the man himself that I hadn’t even realised that he’d taken his place at the head of the pack, closest to the centre of the pitch. He kicked backward to another pretty attractive guy, and the team seemed to move as one into enemy territory with Ollie at the front.

The team played with ease and scored a goal within minutes of the game starting. As his teammates jumped on him in celebration, the collar of Ollie’s shirt was pulled down to reveal the slowly yellowing love bites that peppered his lower neck and collarbone.

“Jesus Christ mate, he looks worse than you did on Sunday…” Finn tailed off into silence as he took in my expression. “Wait.”

“Don’t.” I whispered out the side of my mouth.

“But you…and…”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”

“Fine,” muttered Finn. When he reached over to steal a chip, this time I didn’t stop him.

With the knowledge of the grilling I was going to get in the car on the way home, the whole match passed incredibly slowly. I hardly watched the ball as it got passed between the players. Unless it was Ollie who had it. I kept my eyes glued on him throughout the match. Of course I did. There was no way I was looking away. I didn’t know if I could. Half-time took an age, and I refused to speak to Finn and Nathan the whole time except for a couple of grunts in the negative or affirmative to whatever they’d asked me. The second half of the football was just as exciting as the first, or so I was told later on.

All I saw were Ollie’s shots toward the goal. Two on target that got deflected by the goalkeeper, then one that hit the back of the net. The game finished three-nil, with Ollie responsible for two of those goals, and assisting with the third.

I stood at the same time as everyone else, and we made our way through cramped stadium corridors and out to the car park. Finn was practically bouncing as he clicked his car keys and the lights flashed.

I opened the back door, but Nathan ducked under my arm and jumped into the backseat, then pulled the door shut behind him.

“Front seat, boyo,” said Finn, and I rolled my eyes before heading round to the passenger side front seat. “Good lad.”

“Don’t be a twat, or I won’t tell you anything,” I muttered.

“Just spill the beans.” Finn reversed without looking and the car’s brakes automatically engaged to stop him hitting the car pulling out behind him. They beeped the horn, and he threw a casual middle finger their way. Once they’d gone, he reversed the whole way out and carried on as if nothing had happened. My knuckles were white where I had been gripping on to the door.

“So…there’s nothing really to spill,” I said.

“Lies,” said Nathan.

“Boring,” offered Finn.

“No. Seriously. Nothing at all to tell. I’ve been going to Wings on a Saturday for a while to pick up men…”

“Ooh, kinky. I know it,” said Finn.

“If you could stop interrupting. Anyway, one night a couple of weeks back, I ran into him. And we did…stuff. Normally that’s enough for me. Move on to the next guy. But the week after, I went back and…well, I realised I was waiting for him. I don’t know why. It felt stupid, but then…he was there.”

“And you proposed? And now you’re in a secret romance?” asked Nathan. “Wait, no, youwerein love, and then found out you were actually brothers. And it’s icky now, but something keeps pulling you both together…”

“You’ve been watching too muchStar Warsagain,” said Finn. “Or wait, is thatThrones of Blood?”

“What else am I meant to do now you’re working full time? Packing customer orders is boring by myself. Anyway, George. Tell us. What happened next?”

“And then I saw him tonight,” I said. My heart thumped irregularly. “I…I didn’t even know his name until tonight. I didn’t know who he was…”

“Oh, fuck man. He has no idea who you are either, does he?” asked Finn.

“Nope.”

“And this complicates things.”

“Yup.” I ground my teeth together. “I wanted to pretend he was just another shag, I did. But I just can’t fucking stop thinking about him.”

“Well, you marked him up good. If there was any doubt, I bet you’ll see those love bites all over the gossip pages tomorrow. People will be wondering who his freaky girlfriend is.”

“Not helping,” I growled. “What the fuck do I do?”

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