Chapter 421 - Throw

Chapter 421: Chapter 421 - Throw

This time Zac started simple.

His first throw traveled only a short distance and was caught easily. Nothing exciting happened, but Roxie couldn’t help cheering anyway because at least the ball ended up where it was supposed to. A few plays later he completed another short throw, and little by little the stiffness she had noticed earlier started disappearing. He still glanced toward the coaches more than Roxie ever remembered him doing at Briarwick, but he wasn’t standing there looking lost anymore.

Then Dylan moved farther away from him.

Zac looked toward him. Dylan looked back.

The exchange lasted barely a second, but Roxie knew it immediately because she had watched them do it hundreds of times. The play started, Dylan ran and Zac threw before he had even fully turned around. Roxie held her breath until Dylan looked back at exactly the right moment and caught the ball against his chest.

"Yes!"

Dylan got up and pointed toward Zac, who pointed right back.

Roxie laughed. "They did it."

For a few seconds, it looked like Briarwick again.

Then Tennessee reminded Zac very quickly that this wasn’t Briarwick.

A few plays later, Zac kept the ball longer while everyone moved around him, his eyes searching down the field like he was waiting for the perfect chance to throw. Roxie saw the huge player coming from the side before Zac seemed to notice him. He was bigger than Zac, moving straight toward him with enough speed that Roxie stood from her seat.

"Move!"

Zac’s attention was still ahead. There was open space in front of him, and for a moment Roxie thought he was going to run. Two of his teammates were farther down waiting for a possible throw, but Zac hesitated between taking the space himself and trying to get the ball to one of them.

That hesitation cost him.

The other player slammed into him before Zac could decide.

Both of them went down hard and skidded across the grass.

Roxie’s breath caught as she gripped the seat in front of her. "Come on, Zac."

For a few seconds all she could see were bodies moving around them. Then Zac pushed himself up and got back to his feet.

Roxie released the breath she’d been holding.

The other player stood too, but instead of walking away, he stepped right in front of Zac and started shouting into his face.

Zac immediately shouted back.

Roxie’s eyebrows rose.

There he was.

At Briarwick, that usually ended with somebody eventually backing off because Zac could argue until everybody around him got tired. This guy looked completely unimpressed. He was bigger, older and apparently had no interest in letting the freshman quarterback win just because he could yell louder.

Zac stepped toward him again, but one of the older quarterbacks reached them first. He moved between the two, pressed a hand firmly against Zac’s chest and started talking while pointing back toward the field.

Zac stared at him.

Roxie waited.

She knew that face.

The argument was sitting right there behind his mouth.

Then Zac glanced toward the field, looked back at the older quarterback and nodded.

Roxie’s mouth fell open slightly.

"Wow."

The woman beside her laughed. "What?"

"He actually shut up."

That made the woman laugh too.

The next time somebody came charging toward Zac, he reacted much faster. Instead of standing there trying to save the play, he threw the ball safely away before the other player could reach him. Coach Avery clapped from the side, while the older quarterback who had just corrected Zac gave him a nod.

Roxie was beginning to understand why Zac had been so nervous about today.

This was more than football being harder.

Everything he’d gotten away with in high school was being exposed here. At Briarwick, Zac could wait longer because he trusted his arm to save him. He could take stupid chances because half the time he was talented enough to make them work. He could yell at somebody when things went wrong because everyone already knew he was the star and usually let him get away with being an asshole.

Here, everybody had been a star somewhere.

Being talented only got Zac onto the field.

It didn’t make him right.

The game continued, and Roxie watched him slowly adjust. His throws stayed safer for a while, but they started landing where they were supposed to. He stopped hesitating as long. When older players spoke to him, he listened instead of immediately arguing, and when that same senior quarterback clapped after one of his better throws, Roxie caught the small change in Zac’s posture afterward.

That tiny bit of approval probably meant more to him right now than an entire Briarwick crowd screaming his name.

Then Dylan ran out again.

Zac threw toward him, but the ball went higher than it should have. Dylan jumped, caught it anyway and got hit almost immediately by another player. Roxie stood until she saw him keep hold of it.

When Dylan got up, he carried the ball straight toward Zac and shoved it against his chest while saying something.

Zac answered.

Dylan pointed upward.

Zac laughed.

Roxie laughed too because she didn’t need to hear them to understand.

The throw sucked.

Dylan caught it anyway.

They were definitely arguing about it.

That part felt familiar.

As the game went on, Zac’s side slowly moved closer to the end of the field. Roxie could feel herself getting nervous again because every time he looked more comfortable, some bigger and faster player seemed ready to remind him exactly where he was.

The next play started badly almost immediately. Two players came toward Zac, forcing him to move before he could throw. Somehow he slipped away from both of them and suddenly there was nothing but open grass in front of him.

Roxie stood again.

"Go!"

Zac started running.

For a few steps, she thought he was finally going to take the easy yards instead of trying to prove something.

Then his head turned.

Dylan was already far down the field.

Still running.

Roxie’s stomach tightened.

"Zac."

He slowed.

For a horrible second, Roxie wanted him to keep running because she’d already watched him make enough bad decisions today.

Instead, Zac stopped and threw.

The ball went higher and farther than anything he’d attempted all afternoon.

Roxie couldn’t sit down even if she wanted to.

Dylan looked back while running, another player staying almost directly beside him. Roxie watched the ball come down and immediately thought Zac had gotten cocky again. There was somebody right there. Dylan wasn’t alone. This could go wrong in about five different ways.

Then Dylan suddenly moved faster.

The other player fell half a step behind.

The ball dropped directly over Dylan’s shoulder.

He caught it without stopping.

The side of the field exploded.

Roxie screamed with everybody around her as Dylan kept running and crossed the line at the end with the ball still in his hands.

Touchdown.

Zac stood farther back watching him.

Then Roxie saw the grin spread across his face.

There he was.

Dylan came running back and slammed straight into him. Zac grabbed the front of Dylan’s shoulder pads while both of them shouted something at each other, and within seconds several other players had surrounded them, hitting their helmets and shoulders while Zac laughed in the middle of it.

Roxie laughed so hard her eyes watered.

She had watched Zac throw touchdowns before. Everybody cheered.

But these older players were celebrating because the freshman had just shown them he could do something they hadn’t seen from him before.

When Zac returned to the side, the same senior quarterback met him and grabbed the top of his helmet, shaking him once while saying something that made Zac laugh. Then almost immediately the older player pointed toward the field and started talking again.

Zac’s grin faded.

He listened.

Even after doing something great, somebody was still showing him what he could have done better.

Roxie slowly sat back down.

She had always known Zac wanted the NFL.

He talked about it like it was already waiting somewhere in his future.

When I get drafted.

When I make the league.

When I get paid.

Never if.

Roxie had heard it so many times that eventually it had become another thing about Zac she barely questioned, like how he hated losing or how he could somehow finish an entire plate of food and immediately start looking for hers.

Watching him today made those words feel different.

He was nowhere near the NFL yet. Roxie could see that after watching him struggle, miss throws, get confused, get flattened into the grass and stand there while older players explained what he’d done wrong.

But she could also see something else now.

He had walked onto a field filled with players bigger, older and more experienced than him. For a while he had looked completely out of his depth.

Then he learned.

He adjusted.

And eventually he made everybody on that sideline pay attention.

For the first time, Roxie could actually imagine that ridiculous future Zac had been talking about since high school.

Maybe someday there really would be thousands of people wearing his number.

Maybe someday she’d hear his name coming from a television while strangers argued over one of his throws.

Maybe someday when I get drafted would become something that actually happened.

Roxie looked down at him standing beside Dylan again. The two of them were going over the touchdown with another player, Dylan moving his hands while Zac argued about something before all three eventually started laughing.

Everything with Dylan looked normal.

That old crush Karen had told her about seemed smaller after watching them today. They looked exactly like what they had always looked like to her.

Best friends.

A quarterback and a receiver who had played together long enough that Dylan sometimes seemed to know where Zac was going to throw before the ball even left his hand.

What bothered Roxie now had nothing to do with Dylan.

Back at Briarwick, she had always been down there with Zac. Their lives happened on the same field. He could look toward the cheer team and find her, and Roxie could watch him without needing a giant screen or guessing what somebody had said to him.

Here, Zac couldn’t even see her.

Roxie looked at the distance between her seat and the field and curled her hand into a fist against her thigh. All afternoon she had been shouting his name knowing there was almost no chance he could actually hear her.

She hated that.

She wanted to be down there again.

Close enough to see his face when he made a stupid throw. Close enough to know what the older quarterback had said when Zac looked nervous. Close enough that when he finally made that touchdown, he could look toward the side of the field and know exactly where she was.

Her eyes moved toward the Tennessee cheerleaders.

The thought came so quickly she almost laughed at herself.

Getting onto that team would be insane.

Roxie knew enough about college cheer to know her national championship from high school wasn’t going to magically hand her a place. These girls were stronger, cleaner and doing skills that made some of the things Roxie had been proud of back home suddenly look basic. Tennessee cheer was another level entirely.

Maybe that was exactly why the idea wouldn’t leave her alone.

For the first time since leaving Briarwick, Roxie missed cheer badly enough that it hurt.

She missed being on the ground.

She missed having something that belonged to her while still putting her beside Zac on nights like this.

If she could somehow make that team, she wouldn’t have to sit up here feeling like she was watching his new life from the outside.

She could have something here too.

Something difficult.

Something she would have to earn.

Roxie looked back toward number seven on the field.

Maybe Zac wasn’t the only one who needed to prove himself again.

Maybe this was what she needed.