Sydney

She knew that attending the lacrosse game tonight meant she was going to run into Jaycen, and her brain understood that heading into the locker rooms meant that probability was nearly 100%. It wasn't until he stood right in front of her that she fully grasped it and mentally scowled herself for being naive.

Now it was thrown right in her face and she felt her unpreparedness.

"Hello," he said looking down at Sydney.

The close proximity of Jay made her nervous, but she knew avoiding or ignoring him would make for a terribly awkward trip for them tomorrow morning. That was if they were still even going on the trip that is. He was dressed in his tight red capris, his jersey was untucked and he wasn't wearing his shoulder pads or any protective gear yet underneath.

'I want to investigate what's underneath.'

Sydney swallowed away the provocative thoughts of her wolf.

"Hey there stranger," Sydney cringed at the words leaving her lips. "I'm filling in for the journalism team tonight to get some coverage on your team."

Jay nodded at her, "Alright."

They both bobbled their head in a small nod as if to agree or maybe persuade the other to continue.

"Well," A click of Terrence's tongue broke the silence. "This is awkward."

Jay's eyes cut to his beta annoyedly.

Terrence laughed, "Looks like I'll be leaving you guys be. See you two later." His bulky form slipped under Jaycen's extended arm which was holding the locker room propped open.

They continued to stand in each other's presence before they both broke at the same time.

"So, for the-"

"I wanted-"

Sydney felt her eyes go wide as they both abruptly stopped talking. A wry and embarrassed smile tugged at his lips and she felt the same reflect on her own.

"You go first," She prompted.

Hesitation drifted over his visage, "I wanted to confirm we were still heading out tomorrow to talk to the Enclave?"

Sydney nodded too vigorously for her taste. She'd blame it on her wolf jumping at the chance to be with her mate. "Of course, I mean if you're still alright with that."

"Yeah, it's all good with me."

Another blanket of silence surrounded them.

The shuffling of players deeper within the locker room spurred Sydney back towards her original quest. Pointing into the room behind him with her pen, she explained, "Ugh, actually I need to get in there to do some interviews if you don't mind."

The curve of his eyebrows and the flash in his eyes seemed to indicate that he was going to agree, but a dark shadow passed over his eyes, "Actually, I'm not sure the guys are all dressed."

Despite the mixture of her nerves and subtle attraction to him swirling inside, Sydney wasn't about to let Jay deter her from her goal over what she could only read as mild jealousy. All of these times she stepped in coupled with all her culmination of previous academic work were hopefully building to the acceptance into a great school and leading to an even better career.

With a slight tint in her eyes, she tried to convey that through her facial expression. When Jay still didn't move she finally spoke, "Well if you could go in and check that would be great because I need to get these interviews knocked out for my teacher and for us to have a well-composed story about the team. You did tell the guys that I was helping put together a really good spread on you all, so wouldn't want to disappoint now would I?"

Sydney knew it was a little bit of a low blow but nevertheless knew that it would get her inside the doors to do her job. It seemed to further deepen Jay's annoyance but he complied with a nod and vanished inside the locker room, the bulky wood door swooping close.

A quick, grateful rush of air pushed out of her nose. To prevent looking insane for staring at the door, Sydney turned and rested against the semi-glossy white brick of the school wall.

Whispers brushed her ears, and the handful of girls littering the hallway were now watching her like a hawk, or something a little less glorious and more so curious disgust.

Heat washed over her, and Sydney tried explaining it away with the layers she was still wearing from the chill outdoors.

Thankfully, before anyone approached Sydney with skeptical questions about what Jay and her interaction was about, Jay swept back into the door and welcomed her in. Well, not so much welcome to let her in.

A whispered 'thank you' made under her breath as she passed by a Jay.

The scent of Jay as she brushed by him swirled into her nostrils, and she felt them flare. Warm sandalwood and the combination of his body products would have been a candle she would buy on repeat.

Get over yourself. Sydney mentally kicked herself.

To her displeasure, it was overtaken by the overwhelming smell of cheap body spray, deodorant, and shoe powder. Jovial laughs consumed the space. Walking down a small hall to the lockers, the sight of shirtless guys knocking each other around and huskily laughing while others were solemn in their silence diligently preparing for the game ahead came into view.

Not wanting to be trapped into another conversation with Jay, Sydney decided her aim would be one of the more quiet boys that were alone instead of trying to interrupt a pair.

A long-haired guy tugging on his jersey over her athletic wear alone seemed a safe bet.

"Hey," Sydney waved trying to make her presence known to the man she was approaching. He looked up and was shocked to see a girl in the locker room but smiled hesitantly like he was being spoofed by the other guys possible.

Did other girls often make visits to the guy's locker? Has Jay had visitors? She mentally shook her head at the thoughts, Nope. Not going there.

"Heyyy," he drew out in a very long way. "You do know this is the guy's locker room right?" He ended confusedly.

Sydney flashed her kindest, soft smile that she summoned during her usual journalistic times when she was getting ready to pose an interview to people. Nodding her head, she felt the slightly staticy sting in her blonde hair from the layers she's been wearing out in the cold.

"I actually work for the Red Mountain High Journalism team and I wanted to get some interviews for your guy's first game. Would you mind sparing me a moment of your time so I got some questions? Unless you're too busy preparing?" Sydney was really hopeful that he would give her that so she could move onto two or three other students before their game started.

He agreed very politely and Sydney proceeded on asking a series of questions about the team, what year he was, how he got involved with the team, what he was most looking forward to, and how he thought the team's training had prepared them for their first game.

A baritone voice filtered through Sydney's ears in response to the question. She was trying to be present but the drifting presence of Jay either behind her or the two sweeping times in front of her kept taking precedent. She knew he was trying to not be obvious about it but a small part of her grinned at the guy.

She let that slowly drift into a fantasy that they were just a normal boyfriend and girlfriend couple. She was the nerdy little journalist who was there to support her boyfriend and pursue her own dreams while he did his own as well.

Sydney supposed that would actually make for a cute storyline out in the world of YA romance, but as her interviewee fell silent she was pulled back to reality. Before she could really talk to Jay about anything else she felt she needed to talk to Mat first.

"Thanks, that's all I need for now. Good luck with the game!" Sydney said, genuinely grateful for the guy's time.

"Sure, no problem!" He said with a flash of handsomely lined teeth before proceeding to lace up his cleats.

Penciling in a few additional details or words she noticed she skipped, she prepared to find her next target.

"You who!" A guy childishly called.

She scowled at herself when she realized she'd let her guard down with their first interviewee and forgot that high school guys were sometimes idiots. Because instead of more gracious and well-spoken guys filling the locker room, not that there weren't more, the moment she turned to scout out her next target a pair of guys were trying to call her over will mockingly blowing kisses and shimming their tones bare chest in her direction.

Sydney wanted to roll her eyes but nonetheless thought that it would probably be hard to get another interview done without these guys trying to annoy her and pull her attention over.

Mind as well get this over with, Sydney thought to herself annoyedly, a tick surely in her eyebrow.

"Hello," Sydney again tried to put on a nice smile but this time she definitely knew it was forced. She wondered if the guys could tell too, but with their quiet mocking hello, more to each other as though she was not there, Sydney knew they didn't.

"Hey, you're the girl that captain was hanging out with a day right?" One of the duo quizzed.

With a small grimace and wide eyes, Sydney nodded, "Yep that's me."

They clearly didn't seem to remember anything more about her so she pressed forward to get this over with. "Are you guys interested in giving me an interview for the yearbook?"

"Girl, do I want to give you something," the other guy said with a very suggestive eyebrow cocked..

Her wolf scoffed this, deeming these boys were completely beneath them. It ruffled Sydney's feminist feathers too. "That's really inappropriate," Sydney said very firmly.

The pair shared a look at each other and were trying to not melt into a puddle of laughter. Sydney readied herself to reiterate that they were in the 21st-century now and that was inappropriate to be saying towards anyone. But in a shadow overcast her from behind and she turned and wasn't really shocked to see Jay standing there.

While she wasn't one to not fight her own battles, she was almost gleeful when Jay spared a questioning looking down at her asking for permission before intervening.

A small nod was all he needed from her.

"Aye, McKenlee and Hunt, are you being disrespectful to Ms. Watkins when she's trying to do us a solid?"

The two guys, McKenlee and Hunt, straightened up quickly.

"Oh hey Captain, we weren't trying to be rude, it was just a misunderstanding."

Jay's muscularly toned arms folded across his chest. Sydney admired the shadows and length of his taut biceps and forearm muscles.

'Yesterday we were all wrapped in those arms.'

The memory of his lips brushing against hers assaulted Sydney and her senses.

It had been far too long since she had been kissed, let alone kissed like that.

"-s that good with you Ms. Watkins?"

"Hmm," Sydney looked wide-eyed to Jay.

He looked at her curiously.

Did he know?

"If you just get me the questions you have for the guys I'll have these two write up a lengthy and detailed response to all of the questions. Is that alright with you?"

"Yep, yeah, that works for me. Thanks."

McKenlee and Hunt mumbled sures and yeps before they tamely started preparing their gear.

Sydney turned towards Jay, "Thank you, but you know you didn't need to do that right. I'm a big girl and can take care of that myself."

The look on his face was a cross between amused and questioning. "I'm sure."

This grated her nerves, "What's that mean?"

'Why are you being so defensive. Our mate isn't doubting us.'

'Well, he seems to be questioning us.'

'Maybe is that guilt of letting this get out of hand with the Omega.'

Sydney ignored the jab from her wolf.

He looked amused at this, "Simply what I said, I'm sure you are."

Fists now balled and planted on her hips, "Well good."

"Great," he nodded.

Sydney's eyes narrowed on him, was he teasing her? She couldn't tell, but she didn't want to make a bigger fool of herself if he wasn't, "Now, if you don't mind I need to move onto my next interviewee."

Something twinkled in his eyes as he blocked her from moving on, "Is there a problem with interviewing me?"

"Yes." The word came flying out without thinking.

Welp, there you go making a fool out of yourself.

His thick brow arched up. "Yes, there is a problem?"

"Well, I was trying to get the voices from just the average players, not so much the team captains," Jay looked unconvinced at this, so she tacked on, "but that wouldn't be very inclusive of me, so yes I can interview you if you'd like."

He flashed her that knee-shaking smile, but she tried steeling herself against it. "Why Ms. Journalist I was wondering when you'd ask."

"Alright then Mr. Ward-"

He held up a hand interrupted her mockingly, "Please, just Jay, no need for formalities."

Sydney rolled her eyes at his faux richly gouache impression.

"Well then Jay," amusement twinkled in his eyes and Sydney felt it growing in her own. "What made you join the team? And not even join it but become the captain?"

There was still a smile on his lips, but his eyes increased in depth.

"It was always sort of assumed I'd join the football team, my dad was the captain of the football team so," he shrugged, like saying to fill in the blank. "And while I love my dad, I don't want to follow every single one of his footsteps, so I take any sort of freedom in choice whenever I see the opportunity. I saw how poorly the lacrosse team was doing here despite a few older friends," packmates, "being on the team. Either way, I wanted to join something I could learn from and give back to. It might just be a part of the," he looked around to see who was listening, "alpha complex, but it makes me feel strong and proud. That and it keeps me in good shape." A handsome wink capped his sentence.

Everything he just said sounded like Jay wrapped up in a bow. Resilient, challenge-seeker, humble...ish, a leader that knew when to listen, and loyal.

It all tugged at her heart.
Both caught in her enamored thoughts and jotting down some of his words, Jay seemed to become self-conscious.

"Was that all...er...okay?"

"That was perfect, Mr. Shy Guy," Sydney lightly poked, but Jay softened at her words. It made her tingle with pleasure.

'Yes!'

A look of pleasure and longing for one and other crossed between her and Jay. How easy it would be to rise on her toes and lay a soft kiss on his wonderful lips. Blush flooded her cheeks realizing how long they had spent staring into one and other's eyes.

Use now to be clear and apologize.

A harsh swallow was all she needed to prompt herself, "Jay, about yesterday, I just wanted to apologize. It was overwhelming but I should've handled it a lot better-"

Waves of black shook on his head, "No Syd-"

It was her time to hold her hand up in interruption, "No please, I need to finish what I'm saying while I can." Jay granted this with a small frown bowing his lips. "I like you, like really like you, but before anything happens between us...that is, if you even want anything to happen, I need to talk with Mat first. He's my best friend and deserves to understand, I want things to work between us, between all of us, and I just need everything to be out in the open."

The ruffle of players grew loud, drawing their attention away.

Great you missed your chance, now you're going to end on a cliffhanger and your stomach is going to be a ball of nerves all night!

"Alrighty boys," it was Terrence announcing this. "Let's head to the field to start warmups. It's gonna be a cold one tonight!"

The players loudly eased out of the locker room and slowly the voices and shouting lessened leaving her and Jay in silence.

"You coming Jay?" Terrence called waiting for everyone to vacate the room.

"Yeah be there in just a second, you go on ahead." Foam-green eyes cut back down to her.

"Aye aye, Captain. See you Little Ms!" Terrence called out cutting 'rudeness' off from her nickname.

Neither of them replied.

Embarrassment was hot in her blood, "I'm sure you should get out there, mean I need to be getting situated too, so we can just talk more tomorrow."

And forget what I just said.

He looked like he wanted to say more but he nodded, "Of course, we can talk more tomorrow. See you on the field, Sydney."

"Yep, I'll be there," the impression of Tony the Tiger in her voice made her cringe. "Good luck out there."

That leg melting smile came out, "Will do Star," He backpedaled and snapped his helmet off a bench, but before he left completely his attention fell back on her. "And just so you know, I completely understand. Either way, I'll be waiting for you."

Sydney tried biting back a smile but realized she couldn't stop the warmth blooming in her heart.

His smile grew too as he offered a little two-finger salute and jogged off to catch up to his team.