The Hardest Fall

We were supposed to take the same bus to the airport as the team, but both Miriam and the guy who was coming with us for the interviews, Cash, had been late. Instead of braving it and getting on the bus on my own, I’d opted to take an Uber to the airport with them.

As Cash and Miriam chatted away during the ride over, I was worrying about how my sudden appearance would go over. Neither Mark nor Dylan knew I was joining them for the game. I could’ve and should’ve told Dylan, but after the week he’d had with what had happened to his friend, I’d barely seen him after the night I’d found him sitting in the dark. Even when I did, he usually went to his room to crash as soon as he walked through the door.

That evening had been the second time we’d held hands for what seemed like hours and didn’t even acknowledge it afterward. I wasn’t sure if he saw it as a normal thing, but if you asked my heart and the butterflies that seemed to make a home in my stomach, it was very far from a normal occurrence. It didn’t help that I could still feel the impression of his hand around mine. If I made a fist, I could almost mimic the exact same pressure I’d felt when his hand had squeezed tight around mine.

Miriam’s bag bumped my shin as she wheeled her carry-on bag toward the escalator.

“Shit.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Zoe.” She stopped next to me and released a big sigh. “It’s lunchtime and I didn’t even have breakfast yet. Do you think they’ll give out snacks?”

“It’s not a commercial flight, so I doubt that.”

“You’re right, I guess. I’m hoping there is good food at—”

“What are you doing standing around? They’re waiting for us. Hurry up,” Cash yelled as he passed us in a slow jog. He was wearing a short trench coat even though it was still warm, and he had a wrapped burrito in one hand while he hugged his laptop to his chest, a duffel bag in the other. He was a complete mess.

“I call dibs,” Miriam said quietly, leaning toward me.

“What?”

“Cash—I call dibs on him,” she repeated before following the guy in question up the stairs.

She could have him, all right.

I took my sweet time getting up those steps, so it was no wonder I was the very last person to board the plane. I hated that the anticipation of Mark’s reaction was affecting me to the point that I was on the verge of dragging my feet like a six-year-old.

The plane was filled with chatter and guys…so many guys. Some were standing up, pushing their bags into the overhead bins, some were laughing, some singing.

When I saw that Cash and Miriam were still lingering where the rows of seats started, I considered hiding behind them for a brief moment. If I ducked my head, there was a strong possibility that Mark wouldn’t see me, but then Miriam and Cash moved. If I didn’t want to run the last few steps that separated us—and I did not—I was doomed to make the walk down the aisle with my head held up high. He’d see me at the hotel anyway, and trying to hide made me feel stupid.

Feeling like I was getting ready to step in front of the firing squad, I squared my shoulders and started following my companions.

I spotted Mark before he could spot me. He was sitting right at the front in a window seat, and he was talking to another guy who I guessed was one of the other coaches. I was just walking past him when Miriam stopped in front of me. In my haste to escape, I bumped into her back, and she gave me a curious look over her shoulder. I mouthed an apology and made sure I had my back to Mark at all times.

My eyes slid to an older guy who had risen up from his aisle seat and put his hand on Cash’s shoulder.

“Boys!” he shouted. When the chatter didn’t quiet down, he tried again. “Hey!”

All eyes turned to us. The plane went silent, but there was definitely a roar in my ears. I didn’t know how many players traveled with the team, but to me, it looked and felt like there were hundreds of eyes on us. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat.

Out of the corner of my eye, I looked at Mark and saw that he was still deep in conversation with his seatmate.

“I want you to meet Cash. He is with the school’s paper and will be interviewing some of you.” He stopped yelling, turned to Miriam, and in a lower voice, asked her name. After her, it was my turn. I practically leaned all the way over Miriam to give him my name so Mark wouldn’t hear me, which was stupid since it was about to be shouted in a matter of seconds.

“And this is Miriam and Zoe. They’ll be taking photographs of you. Be nice to them—and when I say nice, I mean respectful. I don’t want to hear a single complaint.”

My mouth had gone dry, not only because I could feel Mark’s eyes boring into the side of my head as he realized I was on the plane, but also because this was my worst nightmare. Walking through rows and rows of seats where every single eyeball was on you? Yeah, I could already feel the heat on my cheeks.

When we finally started to walk, the chatter on the plane picked up again. On the way to our seats, which were at the very back of the plane, we got a few quiet whistles, a few casual greetings, and a few quiet murmurings about posing nude; as a reaction to the latter, I stepped on Miriam’s heels—twice.

We must’ve been only halfway to our seats when I heard his voice, and something melted in me.

“Zoe?”

I lifted my eyes up for the first time and met Dylan’s confused gaze. He was sitting in the middle seat when he called my name, and I watched him slowly take off his black headphones and stand up. Somehow seeing him centered something inside me. An unexpected warmth spread through my body and I was able to release a long breath.

“Hi,” I mumbled with a small wave, and when I realized Miriam and Cash were getting farther away from me, I pulled my carry-on behind me and started a jog to catch up. Looking over my shoulder, I made sure to send another quick wave Dylan’s way. I felt like a little baby duckling being left behind in the middle of nowhere, so it was important to catch up.

When we finally reached our seats, I was ready to shout hallelujah. After Cash helped us with our bags, he took the window seat. Miriam gave me a pointed look and followed him. I took the aisle seat.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re acting weird,” she whispered into my ear.

I clutched my bag to my stomach and gave her a small shrug. When I lifted my gaze over the seat in front of me, I realized Dylan was still standing up, his back to me. I watched him lean down and say something to his friend. Was it Chris sitting next to him? I hadn’t even noticed. In my panicked state, Dylan had been all I could see.

A moment later, he stepped into the aisle and started moving toward the back of the plane…toward me. It took him some time to reach us because he stopped to talk to his friends every now and then on his way.

Eventually, he stopped right next to my seat and I smiled up at him.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“What’s going on?”

My smile shifted from small to big. “Nothing.”

He laughed and shook his head. Holding on to my armrest, he crouched on his heels.

“You’re coming with the team? To photograph us?”

Forgetting all about Miriam and Cash, I turned my body to face him. He was pulling on me like a magnet, it seemed. I went to put my hands next to his, but they were in the way so I kept mine to myself. “Yeah. It’s for something the school paper is working on, I think. My photography professor asked us if we could go, so here we are.”