Soccer ~★ bxb romance novel ★~

Chapter 5 ~ Rivalry

James

The first training session with the blue team – now we were officially the red team and blue team at the conjoint training – began steadily. My best friends Asher and Reece and I managed to win all the relays and sprint drills. Then there were one-on-one practice matches. And no doubt, Coach Andrews paired us up with the blue team based on our field positions.

"Milten, Kendrick, go find a set of goals." Coach announced. Asher and Reece both sent me amused expressions, while others on the team cheered. The same reaction seemed to occur for Milten, and that's when I knew all of us, except for maybe Coach, was aware of the competition between me and Max.

We made our way out to a space and my nerves kicked in. Remembering my dream last week cast a weird feeling over being around him.

We only had about 10 minutes together, but in mentioning that, none of our interactions had ever exceeded five.

Max dribbled the ball over to our section, adding a few impressive tricks here and there. I was getting really worked up over being in his presence, I could feel my shoulders tense. I decided to distract myself with the source of my stress; magnificent Maximillian.

I snatched the soccer ball from under Milten's foot and fondled it close to his goal. I was going easy on him.

"What was with you last week? You almost kissed me then ran off, barely said goodbye. Shit like that hurts." I was already speaking through my smirk.

I looked back and I could see his eyes searching for something to say.

I put on a show for people constantly. I enjoyed being the centre of attention like it was a passtime. Being the focus, the person stirring Max's emotions was thrilling in a way I couldn't describe. And it came in handy when I needed to know something. Max Milten had seen how I was, how vulgar and playful I could be with my words. I could pass off anything with a smirk; people who weren't close to me expected it.

Milten's breath was blowing on my back, and the sunlight was like a thick blanket of heat over my body.

"Wait what? I did not almost kiss you!" He whisper-shouted, then scored a goal.

"Sure. Deny it. Anyways, I needed to clarify something about our agreement. We're allowed to be competitive during training right?"

"Yeah," Milten replied dryly.

"Some friendly competition between our teams keeps them motivated." I justified. After a short pause I took the opportunity to score my winning goal. Whooping for myself, I sent my signature smirk to Max, which he replied to with a cold stare.

After practice, I found Max chatting casually to Asher and Reece. They raised their eyebrows at me as I stumbled next to them, ignoring Max's presence entirely.

"Look who it is, the infamous arch-enemies, perhaps becoming friends!?"

Reece narrated dramatically. Asher laughed while Milten and I glared at each other.

"Anyways, Max, you said you go to Rosehaven with a sports scholarship? That's amazing, man. I've heard it's a great school." Asher continued his conversation with Milten about Rosehaven, while two guys on his team, Sammy and Ken rocked up next to me.

"Isn't this like some weird fever dream? Like all three of us are constantly head to head, and now we're training together. Aside from the enemyship barrier, you guys are actually pretty cool to work with." Sammy said to me.

"You're right, it is weird. Quite a few of my teammates have been giving me good feedback about it, though. I don't know if I can say the same about your captain... but the hatred is mutual." I said.

Sammy and Ken laughed.

My eyes traced over Ken's face, he was an Asian guy with a killer jawline, shorter than Sammy but still broad and lean. He was a beast on the field and I often found my eyes glancing at him during matches.

Ken caught my eyes as I licked my lips and dragged my teeth across them. He watched me closely and raked a hand through his shiny hair. Sammy had gone over to walk with Milten and Reece.

"And how are you finding training with my team?" I asked but allowed my voice to drop a tone lower.

"It's been insightful so far, seeing how you guys play and what we can learn. The only downside is that I've been getting quite distracted with all the guys around."

"Distracted?"

Was he flirting with me?
"Don't pretend you don't know what I mean, James." His voice dropped an octave lower. Holy shit. This guy was a master and I was defeated. We were almost at the changerooms as he spoke again, locking his eyes with mine.

"I'm sure you'll find your rhythm with Max soon enough, you'll go from enemies to lovers in no time."