“You ready?”

                I jumped in surprise and turned to face Tommy. He was leaning in my doorway, hungrily drinking in my topless appearance.

                I rolled my eyes and pulled a shirt on, nearly laughing at the disappointment on Tommy’s face. “Almost. Grab my black socks while I get my shin guards,” I said, turning away from him and digging around my closet.

                Tommy tossed me my socks and I shoved them in my bag along with my shin guards. I grabbed my soccer ball and stood up after putting it in my bag. I walked over to Tommy and took his hand in mine.

                The two of us went downstairs and into my kitchen. My dad looked up and smiled at me, tossing me a cold water bottle.

                “Good luck boys,” he said with a wink.

                We went out to my car and got in. I drove us to the soccer field and we made our way around to the back of the school.

                The whole team was there, talking and getting ready. I glanced nervously at Kory, who was sitting with Trace’s arm around him lovingly.

                “Tommy, you can do it,” I said quietly. “You’re a good player. You can make the team.”

                Tommy rolled his eyes. “Duh I can make the team. Now let’s put our shin guards on before coach shows up.”

                We sat down and pulled our shin guards and socks on before jumping up. I drank a little bit of water and made sure my cleats were tied on comfortably.

                Tommy came over and I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him deeply. “I love you Tommy. Kick some ass,” I said with a small smile.

                “Oh I will,” he assured and kissed me. “And after tryouts, let’s go swimming at my house.”

                I nodded as Coach came over and grinned at all of us. I took Tommy’s hand in mine and kissed him one more time. This was about to get intense.

                “Well, Trace, Zeke, lead the warm-ups and then we’ll get started,” Coach said, waving at us.

                Trace and I led everyone to the field and they circled around us. We instructed everyone what stretches to do, making sure we were as stretched as possible before looking at Coach for what to do next.

                “Mile run. You’re going to lap the field eight times,” Coach said, pulling his phone out to time us. We all got ready and waited until he blew the whistle before taking off.

                My mind was trying to focus on Tommy, but I knew he wouldn’t want me to wait up for him. I had always been faster than Tommy. Right now, Trace and I were keeping even and steady pace with each other, slightly ahead of the others.

                As we turned the first corner, I took the opportunity to glance at the others. Tommy was, surprisingly after his ankle injury, keeping up only a few people behind me and Trace. Kory was behind Tommy.

                That made me feel a ton better. Kory wasn’t good at running fast, unless it was short distance. He could run long distance, but he couldn’t do it quickly. Tommy was pretty speedy long distance.

                We ran the eight laps before stopping. Trace and I had kept pace with each other the entire time, remaining slightly ahead of the others. I smiled to myself when I saw Tommy finish before Kory.

                Tommy came over to me, taking deep breaths. We each drank a little water before folding our hands behind our heads to catch our breaths.

                “So far, so good,” I told him with a wink. He grinned and pecked my lips before heading back over to Coach. I followed him.

                “Kaleb, Mikey, go defend. Trace, get in goal,” Coach commanded.

                We spent the next half hour or so shooting and showing Coach how well we could perform our moves and get around defenders.

                Then Coach started up the drill I was extremely nervous about. The one-on-one drill. If Tommy’s ankle caused him any problems at all, he was screwed right here.

                “Two lines! You should all know this drill by now. You’ll play one-on-one. If you score, you can go to the back of the line and the other person stays out. You stay out until you score,” Coach said before blowing the whistle and kicking me the ball.

                I dribbled out onto the little bit of field we had to play on. Oh lucky me. Greg was my opponent. I quickly dribbled by him, fending him off with my shoulder. I feinted to the right and kicked the ball to the left, sprinting around Greg and scoring.

                I went to the end of the line and watched as everyone dribbled against each other. I mentally groaned when Tommy came out to face off against Davey. Oh god this wasn’t going to go over well.

                Tommy dribbled at Davey, and I instantly knew something bad was about to happen. Davey ran up to Tommy and threw his shoulder against Tommy.

                Tommy staggered back a little before claiming the ball again and trying to dribble around Davey. Coach was watching both of them carefully in case they tried dirty tricks.

                Davey turned so that he back was facing Coach. A saw a slight smirk spread on his face as he tangled his leg with Tommy and yanked. Tommy stumbled off balance and Davey knocked his shoulder into Tommy’s face.

                Tommy crashed to the ground. He put his hand against his mouth and pulled it away to see blood. He pushed himself to his feet and spit blood on the ground, glaring at Davey as Davey scored and casually strode to the back of the line.

                Coach eventually stopped the drill and threw pinnies at us, telling us we were scrimmaging for a little now. I looked at Tommy hopefully and relaxed. We were on the same team.

                He came over to me and I hugged him and kissed his cheek. “How’s your mouth?” I asked in concern, feeling my anger starting to boil.

                “Calm down. I bit my tongue when he elbowed me,” Tommy said and rolled his eyes. “I’ll be fine. Don’t get angry Zeke. You need to focus and so do I.”

                Coach blew the whistle for us to start, and we did. I smiled to myself, glad we had Trace as our goalie in this scrimmage.

                I passed to Tommy and sprinted ahead to the 18 yard box. Tommy went to pass back up to me, but Davey caught him from behind.

                Tommy stumbled forward, nearly tripping over the ball. He glared and spun around, him and Davey now fighting for possession of the ball.

                I watched carefully to see what Tommy would do. Tommy grabbed a handful of Davey’s jersey and yanked him back, doing it so fast so that I barely saw. He jumped in front of Davey and backed up against him when Davey tried to advance. Tommy moved to pass to me again, but Davey slammed into him as he lifted his foot.

                Tommy crashed to the ground. He coughed and choked for air, rolling onto his side and clutching his stomach, his eyes squeezed shut tightly.

                Coach blew his whistle and rushed to Tommy. I followed him as he helped Tommy sit up and pat him on the back.

                “Tommy, are you okay?” I asked frantically.

                Tommy nodded and staggered to his feet. I put a hand on his shoulder to steady him and he coughed again.

                “Davey, ease up!” Coach snapped. “We don’t need injuries before the season even starts!”

                “Sorry Coach,” Davey said with a shrug, a smug look in his eyes.

                We went back to scrimmaging for a while. Coach put us through some more drills before releasing us for the day.

                “Everybody come back tomorrow and I’ll let you know if you made the team or not,” Coach said as we began to file off the field.

                “You did great Tommy,” I said with a smile, kissing him deeply.

                “I’ll make the team,” he said confidently. I chuckled and waved to Trace and Kory as we got in the car.

                “Back to your house for some swimming?” I said and Tommy grinned and nodded.

                I drove us to my house and dropped my stuff off, grabbing my swim trunks. We went back to Tommy’s house and changed into our swim trunks before heading out into his backyard and jumping into the pool.

                Sammy and Mikey came out and joined us a few minutes later. We swam around together, enjoying the cool water.

                We eventually got out of the pool and went inside. “Spend the night,” Tommy said, kissing me as we went to the bathroom to change.

                “Okay,” I said with a wink, taking my trunks off and pulling my boxers and jeans. Tommy grinned and changed as well.

                We made our way downstairs and ate dinner before heading back up to Tommy’s room. I felt exhausted from all of the running around today at tryouts.

                We cuddled up together on Tommy’s bed. I held him in my arms lovingly, kissing him. He rested his head on my chest and shut his eyes.

                “Goodnight Tommy. I love you,” I said before nodding off.

                                                                                                ***

                “Shut up all of you!” Coach said, grinning as he came over with a list in his hands. “I have the results of yesterday’s tryouts.”

                He looked at the list and began to read out names. I squeezed Tommy’s hand as Coach read off Kory’s name. Tommy had done amazing yesterday. Surely he must have made it.

                Coach finished and put the list in his pocket, smiling. “Congratulations to all of you who made it,” he said as the guys began to cheer and slap high fives. I saw Kory and Trace kissing each other happily.

                Coach came over to me and Tommy. Tommy had a neutral expression on his face as he looked at Coach. I hadn’t heard Tommy’s name.

                “Tommy, I’m so sorry. You didn’t make the varsity team. But I talked to the junior varsity coach and he said he’d love to have you as a captain,” he said, looking truly apologetic. He sighed and turned away, going over to talk to someone else.

                I looked at Tommy and my heart broke. I had never seen him look so defeated and crushed. So god damn hurt. His spirit was destroyed by this. His confidence. He looked betrayed.

                “Tommy…” I started.

                “Whatever,” he whispered, turning and walking away with slumped shoulders. I watched him walk away, wishing there was something I could do to make him feel better and knowing there was nothing.