Essos looks like he could fall over with relief.
“Good! I mean, notgood, but I’m glad you didn’t leave someone behind. I know Tiffany has been struggling with losing Steve.” Essos reaches out to touch my arm, but other girls start to arrive, and his fingers barely graze me before he turns his attention to them. The look on his face makes me feel like my disappointment over their arrival is mutual.
Zara runs to him and leaps into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. I am grateful when her long black hair acts as a curtain and blocks my view of what I can only assume is her kissing him. My relief is short-lived when she pulls back and shifts her hair over her other shoulder before kissing him again. I could swear I caught her glancing at me before doing it to make sure I saw.
Cat walks over and hip checks me before following my line of sight. She immediately steps between us, breaking the spell. “Look at you down here all early and shit,” she teases me as she tightens her high ponytail.
I look at her and frown. “I’m not always late.”
Cat’s eyebrows shoot into her hairline.
“Literally every meal and every class, even when we were alive,” Zara says, having managed to disentangle herself from Essos. I swallow the urge to trip her. She knows this about me only because of Cat’s constant teasing about having to run on Daphne time.
“Ladies, thank you all for joining me today for this group date,” Essos begins. “You can see there will be some yoga later, but first we will do stress relief in the form of flag football. I understand that your sorority participated in something called Greek Week, where you would compete with other fraternities and sororities. Today is about blowing off some steam, and then yes, there will be yoga to help you relax afterward.”
“What about flag football makes a queen?” Cat murmurs to me. I know she’s not quiet enough, based on the look Essos gives us, but it’s one of mirth and not admonishment.
“How to lose with grace?”
“How to make an enemy a friend?”
“How to play dirty but look fair?”
“How to shut up?” Zara hisses at us, leaving us to dissolve into giggles. With each little task Sybil has given us, each crumb of knowledge, we’ve tried to understand how it matters. Like when we learned about the introduction of sliced bread. Cat and I continue to ask questions about Solarem and the gods that we’re going to have to interact with, but we’re told only that we’ll learn in due time.
There are general murmurs of excitement at his announcement, and Sybil provides a list to Essos, which he reads off.
“We have two team captains. Catalina is going to lead one team and Daphne the other. I have your teams here.” Essos reads off the list, while I motion to Cat that I’m watching her and she crosses her arms, sticking her tongue out at me. I’m not paying attention to the names until he mentions Zara will be on my team. Zara looks like she tasted something sour, but quickly covers it up. Cat looks understandably concerned. I would be more concerned if Zara was on Cat’s team—at least she has to have my back.
I don’t expect Essos to know what’s going on, but I’m positive that Sybil sees all. When I glance at where they’re watching from the deck, they meet my eye with a mischievous glint. Sybil knew exactly what they were doing when the teams were created.
After reading the names, Essos says he will be a wild card, flipping between the two teams.
The first round is fun. Cat is the first to run off with the ball, and she heads toward our end zone. There isn’t supposed to be any touching, but I playfully tackle her anyway, and she laughs. Madison, who is on my team, grabs the ball and runs in the wrong direction, reducing Cat and me to tears of laughter. We manage to stand only to collapse in another fit as she celebrates her non-touchdown.
“Two points for Cat’s team.” Essos declares with a laugh after Madison jumps in his arms.
“Wait, what?” Madison asks, confused and disappointed. Essos explains the rule as we all reset, and Madison pouts and apologizes. I laugh it off, knowing this is all in good fun, but Zara looks furious.
We continue playing, earning points back and forth, and Cat’s team has the lead when the ball slips out of her hands. I watch the fumble and dive for it at the same time Zara does, and I wind up with a mouthful of sand and an elbow in my face. I barely have time to react before Zara takes off with the ball and scores a touchdown.
I lay there for a moment, more stunned than injured, before spitting out the sand. I feel a gentle hand on my back.
“Are you all right? It looked like you hit the ground hard,” Essos says.
I look up at him, wiping my mouth. He offers me his hand, and I take it gladly, watching the muscles in his arms tense as he hoists me to my feet.
“I’m fine,” I say, absently touching what I’m sure is going to be another bruise on my cheekbone.
Essos gently grasps my chin with his thumb and index finger, tilting my face to the side to get a better look.“I’m not sure; you may need to lose the whole face,” he teases.
“You mean, I could get that nose job I’ve always wanted?” I ask, feigning excitement.
He surprises us both when he taps my nose. “I would have to object. I like your nose.” I smile at his compliment as he drags the backs of his fingers along my jawline before cupping my face. I think for a moment that he’s going to kiss me. The entire world feels distant as I search his eyes for any clue that I’m right. I get lost thinking about how it’s felt to kiss him in my dreams, and how I wonder if that’s what kissing him would feel like in real life. His gaze dips to my lips, and I know I must be right. The lean has started, like it’s finally going to happen.
I've lost track of the events around us until Zara leaps onto Essos’s back, celebrating her touchdown. Essos almost crashes into me, but he manages to catch himself, never breaking eye contact. We finally look away from one another and get back to the game, the chance of the kiss lost to time.
The elbow to the eye is not the last time that Zara and I collide. More than once, as we run side by side, I wind up on the ground as she feigns innocence over having lost her footing in the sand. I could have forgiven it the first few times, but after one more incident of her “accidentally” shoulder-checking me, I get in her face.