The Championship

The bus ride was grueling. School buses were shitty enough when you were being shuttled from home to school. They were unbearable when you had to take a two-hour drive. Tension on the bus made it worse. The pressure could have squeezed coal to diamond.

I did my best to take Kaylee’s mind of the coming game, entertaining her with stories and whatever random stuff I could come up with. She was polite about it, but I don’t think she was fully there. Completely understandable considering what she was about to go up again. They were going into the final game undefeated. A perfect final season was on all the senior’s minds. Even Zoe was unusually focused.

When we finally got to the championship location, we all unloaded and headed inside. I walked Kaylee as far as the locker room.

“You know you can come inside, right?” she said, tugging at my arm.

I glanced over to the other girls as they walked past. My gaze happened to catch Ellie’s and she gave me a wink.

“No thanks. I need to claim a good seat.” She pouted, holding my hand. “Besides, seeing all you hot girls changing might give me ideas…”

Like always, her reaction was not what I was going for. “Really?” Her eyes were practically sparkling with joy.

“No,” I said with a laugh. Leaning in, I gave her a quick peck. She had other ideas. Arms wrapping around my neck, she pressed herself against me as we shared a deep kiss. I was nearly breathless when she finally released me. “Good luck,” I whispered. Before she could pull away, my hand fell to give her ass a quick squeeze.

“Stop flirting in the hall, Webb. Hoffman, save it for after the game, please. I need my point guard focused.”

“Sorry, Coach!” Kaylee said as she snapped to attention. She shot me a smile before hustling after the rest of her teammates. The older woman chased me off before heading into the locker room.

With nothing better to do, I went to get a seat and killed time playing on my phone.

“Scott!” I looked up at my name to find a familiar pair of faces approaching. The place had gotten busy since I’d last paid attention.

“Toby! Lisa,” I said feeling the anxiety spike I always got around Kaylee’s mom. It didn’t help knowing how she had dug around my past. Considering how long I’d known Kaylee in the first place…

The first thing Lisa did was give me a dressing down with her eyes. Whatever she was searching for, she seemed to find it. “It’s been a while, Scott.” I moved over to let the two sit. She immediately moved to put herself between Toby and I. Damn. I was hoping to sit by Toby so we could talk about the new Powerman trailer that dropped the other day.

The three of us made small talk to kill time until the game started. I couldn’t shake the awkwardness sitting next to Lisa. Her perfume was close enough to Kaylee’s that it was triggering some sort of Pavlov’s reaction in me and I swear she was making excuses to press against me and set up situations where I had a perfect view of her sizable cleavage. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was hitting on me.

Shit. Maybe she was hitting on me.

“Going to hit the bathroom before the game starts,” Toby said as he stood up. “Probably hit concessions too. Want anything?”

“Popcorn,” Lisa said with a sweet smile. I shook my head, resisting the urge to beg him to stay. And like that, my protective shield was gone as I was left with the increasingly physical woman.

A jolt went up my back as I felt a hand rest on my leg in that morally grey area of acceptability.

“I want to thank you, Scott. Kaylee has been thriving these past few months and from what I hear, most of that is your doing. I’ve been noticing changes, but this past week things have been really apparent. She has that wonderful glow of a maiden in love.” I shifted uncomfortably as her hand moved into that red zone. Her voice lowered slightly so it was barely understandable over the growing roar of the crowd. “You have thoroughly exceeded my expectations. I look forward to future developments.”

Steeling myself, I reached over and plucked her hand from my leg and gently moved it away. “Thank you, Mrs. Webb. I’m happy to hear that. Kaylee is special to me and I want to do everything I can to make her as happy as she makes me.”

The smile she gave me was normal enough, but it was her eyes that set me on guard. I felt like a prey animal who had attracted the attention of an expert hunter. It wasn’t the sense of imminent danger, rather it was the sensation that whatever had picked up the trail was doing it for the thrill of the hunt rather than the result of it.

Toby was gone maybe ten minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. I wouldn’t have been surprised if a third of my hair had gone grey in that brief time he was gone. Once he returned, the overwhelming pressure I felt faded into something more tolerable. I could relax more when the teams took the court and started their warm-ups. The crowd was getting fired up and before long, the game was on.

For a championship game, I had to admit it was fairly boring stakes-wise. There was plenty of action in the game itself, but the result seemed a forgone conclusion right from the start. By the end of the first quarter, Kaylee’s team was up fifteen. By half-time, they had eighteen points on the opposing team. The gap closed a bit in the third, but by the final buzzer, the girls won their championship with a solid eleven-point lead.

While the girls celebrated their victory with cheers and tears, I walked with Toby and Lisa to the entrance to say goodbye. Only when the two had left could I take my first full breath in the past few hours. My shoulders were already hurting. It was crazy how I always needed to stay on guard around Lisa. I never knew if she was just messing with me, or she was actively looking to fuck me.

I waited for Kaylee and the others outside the locker room. I could hear them shouting and cheering from inside as they celebrated their win. Unlike last time, I didn’t have to wait long. It was a long trip home and everyone was excited to get back and properly celebrate.

Seeing Kaylee exiting the locker room, I took a page out of Sean’s book and rushed over to her. She barely managed a look of surprise as I swept her up in a short spin before kissing her. Congratulations and praise aside, I took her bag and escorted her to the bus.