Is this paced well? Victor glanced out across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concrete under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side.

“So tired of all this,” he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough.

Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles.

“Yo, Vic, you’ve been benching, eh?” one male voice called out to him from across the field.

“She ain’t gonna call you back, but I will!” another jibed in good humour.

“As if I’d have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about—” Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark hair, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a rush of intoxication as he smiled back, enamoured .

“Yeah, that’s what we don’t have time for , Vic “ he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a polarising eclipse as he ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head. Her pristine white teeth, full lips and the echoes of her laughter interweaved through the blaring whistle of his coach. His legs screamed with lactic acid from running drills , and he found relief in the cooling breeze that brushed against his perspiration. In the quiet reprieve of the emptying arena, his thoughts flashed to his profoundly emptier shoe-box apartment. His hand, running along a faded imprint across his back, sent him chills . It was when his time was idle , his fingers would explore all the old wounds and he stopped himself; steeling his grip on his forearm. The impending evening promised him a decent meal , a sound night of sleep and insurmountable volumes of pay-per-view. Yet he felt exhausted as his mind flirted with the prospect of abandon. A night of rampant corruption, of revelry, and flames of his inexhaustible youth. That’s when he felt a presence at his shoulder , and he lift his gaze. “Lara? How long have you been standing there?” he asked, broken from his distraction. “Not long, you look stressed out, is everything okay?” Her soft lilt fell on his ears , rendering him speechless .


“Oh yeah. Just , life of a quarterback, y’know how hard it is being in demand right?”

“Cheerleading coach and head cheerleader in an institution like this, yeah I think I might have a slight idea.”

Her laugh washed over him as his mind was soothed by its smoothness. “I have to get back out there , but I just wanted to say hey.” Leaning forward, she pressed an open palm against his shoulder, leaving a slip of paper fluttering into his lap as she walked away.

“Hey , to you too” he called out , in disorientation, fishing the scrap of paper from his lap. His fingers toyed with edge of the paper, and he slipped it into his pocket with resignation

There was no answer as she disappeared into the haze of twilight that shimmered across the field .

“What have we got ourselves into , huh?” . He grinned ruefully at the setting sun , with her number under his fingers as they returned to the crumpled paper and traced the digits with temptation . He sighed into the unfolding night as he rose from the bleachers and made his way toward the parking lot.

After a long few hours spent in traffic , Victor curtailed the escalating effect of gridlock on his nerves by fiddling with the radio. Song after song, he surfed the channels , sifting through droning ballads and unrelated classics that remanded him vaguely of childhood. Unresolved, he switched the station off entirely, strumming a fabricated tune on his jeans , and humming in agitation.

“C’mon” he willed the stagnant vehicles with an offset jaw, scratching at his shoulder blade and realigning his neck . As the faint honking of horns replaced the old classics that had been playing , he found himself trapped.
His mind was transported to an afternoon from years back, one he never recalled often , and its vivid presence made him flinch.

The sun had been a waning backdrop as he’d stood crying on a green lawn, plastic spade in hand. A sandpit laid under his bare feet, and a familiar voice thundered through him, grinding him to a halt . Tears streamed down his face , each one a grave mistake. “You have until the count of three to stop crying-“ Looming above him, his fate was closing in as the authorising voice descended upon him. “ One…I’m not playing around , Victor …Two-“ .

Suddenly the blare of a horn sent sobering reality coursing through him as his eyes flew open and he slammed the accelerator, his memory entrenching itself in the dark corners of his subconscious as he drove in silence.The shadows of the highway painted themselves across his features in a haunting reflection of his solitude.


Eventually he swung the leather wheel into its neutral position, unjamming the keys from the ignition . His long journey was over , but only just beginning as he encountered the stairs to his second floor apartment, , lethargy mocking him every step he endured. He fell onto his couch it misery, not paying the idiot box one iota of attention. Flashes of his friends, his studies , and lukewarm food, passed through his thoughts. And the occasional splice of Lara’s embodiment of perfection made his void stomach flip. He then fell in an encompassing sleep, his entire psyche drowned in the salvation of dreamless peace .


Sun came streaming into the claustrophobic living room, stirring Victor from his unconscious haven. His eyes , opening and closing again as he groaned, radiated the early morning and forced him awake. His hands drifted absent minded , to the intricate patterns just above the small of his back. His clenching teeth ground tighter and he fingered the imprint with disdain. Already unsure of how it had been inflicted , it was all a part of the blueprint that he covered day in , day out. Like a roadmap only he had the itinerary to. But as he folded deep creases into the map and buried it into his mind , it was safe in the shallows of his mind for another day . Retrieving the slip of paper from his jeans , her number jarred at his mind . He punched the string of digits into his phone , and glared at the screen, before locking it and prying himself off the couch . After showering, and shovelling a dry , milk-laced bowl of cereal down into his wrenching stomach, he stopped at his door. “Well , here goes nothin’” he muttered as he thumbed his phone’s screen and his index finger touched upon “Lara” As her voice answered , it numbed the frayed edges of his mind for a second .” Hey, it’s Victor. I found something in a rather compromising place yesterday, and I had to chase it up … Yeah your number found its way to my lap. Oh it that so , huh? Sure . I think I can do that. How about that new fusion bar that just opened on the strip? Great, I’ll swing by around eight. Looking forward to it.“ when he was sure the call was disconnected, he sighed cooly. “No idea what we’re in for here “ . 

He shrugged and hit the pavement for his morning jog, shaking the past night’s worries from his physique as he belted the asphalt with momentum. Then it started as usual, Logan sprinted by, yelling in jest. “Victor , see you on the field later, hot stuff!” 

“Will do, you’re ass had better be in shape , not going’ easy on ya, buddy “

Victor , beaming in relief at the normalcy , stunted his pace as she walked across her front yard, stopping at the bottle green - fence to join her friends , and his pulse elevated with her passing. He then found his gait slowing as his peripheral vision drank in Lara’s figure, her curves contrasted against the angular wood panels. His tongue ran over his teeth as he contemplated approaching , his eyes instead gleaming in the fleeting sunlight that hit them. Shielding his gaze from the glare he maintained his jog ,and his mind carried to thoughts of the oncoming evening. 

Victor , twirling his fork through a saturated noodle, suppressed his urge to tackle the mouthful, his eyes resting on her lips . It was distracting enough , as she chewed with a delicacy and yet a hunger he admired somehow. “I guess things just got tough when I found myself living out of Ethan’s car because I had nowhere else to go -“ .

Lara swallowed and swiped her napkin across her glossed lips, nodding in empathy. “Yeah, I can’t imagine what you went through , Victor , to flee home and get an apartment off campus, I imagine it’s difficult. But it’s one thing I admire about you.”

“Yeah? Really… I …Guess I’d never thought of it that way. I just did what I had to do to stay afloat. “ Victor nudged the sesame sauce pooling around the pieces of chicken on his plate, her compliment harder to digest than his food.

“Sure Victor , you’ve held yourself together better than anyone would . We all know about the homecoming game What happened to Ethan and what you did -“

“Yeah” Victor met Lara’s gaze , holding her green eyes in his view , almost mesmerising , inviting him to slip into their comforting focus. “When Ethan stopped breathing for three solid, those were the longest minutes of my life, it terrified me. For a long time I just wanted to escape the roar of the crowd. I just longed for some peace and quiet I suppose. I can’t hear my own thoughts sometimes.” 

Lara held his gaze , her eyes filled with empathy . “It’s ok to need quiet , Victor . It’s human . It’s what makes you so much more than the star quarterback. You’re a genuine type of guy, and I respect that, sure everyone looks up to you , but from where I sit, there’s so much more , and I want to be the one lucky enough to share it. “ 

Her words made his breath come a little faster as he finally found interest in his food , out of better avenue for escape , he dug in.

“Well, from where I sit , I just feel lucky to be seen by someone so beautiful , and you know I don’t talk for my health.” Victor held her gaze with intense meaning, the light of the bar playing on his irises . She laughed, reaching out to hold his elbow for a brief moment, and he glanced at her hand , his breath slowing.

“ How about we get some air? A walk around campus ? “ he offered , returning his gaze to her softened smile.

As they crossed the quad , peppered with students passing here and there , he savoured the crisp air in his lungs. Her constant stream of harmonious chatter conveyed her nervousness, again tugging at his pulse. It was a pleasant sound against his own trepidation, and he wasn’t about to interrupt her, it was too arresting for him to do so. Instead, his hands slid casually into his jeans as her lilt charmed the edges of his racing thoughts, slowing them into a calm pause. Before he noticed , they had circled the campus, and were already at her dorm , where he’d met with her earlier. It was instinctive as he leaned in and his mouth found her bottom lip, savouring its fullness as he pulled away again, the moment fleeting but more than enough.

“Thanks for tonight” he whispered , his voice rough against her ear as she tucked away a strand of dark hair and stared into his gaze. “I’ll see you after practice, tomorrow, quarterback” she whispered back as he left her to wander past her fence , and disappear through her door