The Other Type of Football, a Romance fanfic

Time To Talk

"Anything for you." Is what you told me,
The day I sat there with you.
So I know nothing lasts forever,
When will we realize it's gone?

"Anything for you." Is what you told me,
The day I sat there with you.
Do we understand that words were not enough?
You said to me that this would last forever...

Why did we rely on the time when I, the time when I say I cant live without you?
It's all over now-
Why you?
You walked away-
Why you?

You said that I-
You said that I don't want to work it out,
You know that I tried.
I feel like sometimes we're just wasting time.

Why did we rely on the time when I- I-
The time when I said I can't live without you?

You say to me that things have changed,
I look in your eyes and I know that things will remain the same.
You said that I, I...that I follow you here-
When we, we've lost it all again.

-Open Hand

Hali’s POV

I walked slowly back to my bed, yet I couldn’t stop thinking one thing. Who is the girl? Was she someone I knew or just someone he met over the summer? My mind was racing. Could it be Meagan? They’ve always been friends. I settled back down onto my bed and fell into yet another deep sleep.

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Seth’s POV

“Well, you better ask soon. I think Luke likes her and not that I don’t like him but, I don’t think I can trust him with my sister. It’d be weird to have you two dating but I could handle that because I know you won’t hurt her,” this stopped me in mid-step. Jaeden never once told me that he wouldn’t care if I dated his sister. He’d always said I could because he trusts me but never has he said that he could handle it.

“Are you serious? You mean you’d be fine with me dating Hals?” I was in disbelief.

“Yeah, I would be, yeah, I’d be fine with that. Although if you hurt her in anyway I’d have to kill you, you do know that don’t you?” I just nodded my head, unable to come up with the words I wanted to say. At that he turned and went into his room. I stood there, for about 10 minutes, just processing what he said for several minutes. I still couldn’t believe that Jaeden actually admitted that he wouldn’t mind if I was to date Hali.

Quickly I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. That’s when I remembered that I was bringing Hali’s suitcases up to her room. I reached down and picked her suitcases up from where I had set them on the floor before walking down the hall to her room. Hal’s bedroom was the last on the left as you head towards the garage. I stopped at her door and set one of the suitcases down in order to free a hand. Very lightly I knocked on her door. I waited patiently for a few seconds before I opened the door. Picking up her other suitcase I walked into the room. My eyes glanced around; her room had a few colors in it. The walls were a chloroplast green. Yet she had a lilac colored rug and purple and white furniture. I walked over to her closet and placed her suitcases in front of the doors. As I turned around I saw her sleeping form wrapped up in the covers on her bed. Not being able to stop myself I walked over, stooped down and kissed her forehead before leaving the room.

Hali’s POV

“Well, I’m not paralyzed. But, I seem to be struck by you. I want to make you move. Because you’re standing still, if your body matches what your eyes can do, you’ll probably move right through, me on my way to you.”

“Oomph,” I had rolled over to grab my cell phone only to land on the floor. I quickly reached up and got my phone off my nightstand. Opening the phone I said, “Hali Kole.”

“Hali! You’re back! Are you going to be going to Mel’s tonight?” I laughed, only Izzi could say something like that.

“Yes, Iz, I’m going. Are you, Megan, and Sam coming over here to get ready?”

“That was the plan. How does Chinese sound for food? I can pick some up on our way over?”

“As long as you get me those crunchy noodles I’ll be happy. Can you also grab something for the guys; it’s just Jae and Seth, they’ll eat whatever?” Sadly it’s the truth too. I once made cookies and brunt them to a crisp and those two idiots still eat every last cookie that there was.

“Sounds good. See you in, like, an hour!” I faintly heard the phone click as she hung up. Glancing at the clock I realized she was right, I had slept the afternoon away, it was now four.

“Hmmm……I should take a shower,” as I turned to go get my bags I saw them by my closet, “Jae must’ve brought them up for me,” I thought to myself. I dug through my bag and finally got out my shower stuff. Walking into the bathroom across the hall I shut the door behind me. I turned on the water waiting a minute or so for it to get to the temperature I wanted. Once it was perfect I stepped in, my body instantly relaxed to the warmth of the water. After finishing washing myself, my hair, and my face I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. Reaching for my towel I just felt wall.

“Crap!” I’d forgotten a towel. Tip-toeing over to the door I opened it just enough to stick my head out before yelling, “Jaeden! I forgot my towel! Can you bring me one?!”

“Yeah, give me a minute,” I heard come up the stairs in a muffled voice. I closed the door and went and sat on the side of the bathtub, waiting for my towel. Finally, I heard a knock on the door.

“God, that took long enough,” I said as I walked to the door. Opening it I screamed and slammed it shut. “Shit!!” it wasn’t Jae on the other side, it was Seth. Yes, Seth, who had just seen me completely nude.

“Hali? Hali, can you hear me? I’m pretty sure you can. You have no idea how sorry I am. I didn’t realize that you’d open the door that much. Can you please open it a little bit so that I can hand you the towel?” Creeping over to the door, I opened it so that there was a crack of room between the wall and the door. I then proceeded to stick my hand out the door while staying firmly behind the door.

“It’s ok, I guess. I just want my towel,” I told Seth as I felt him place the towel in my hand.

“There you go!”

“Thank you. Now, go away!” I snapped while pulling my hand and towel back through the door. After I closed the door I wrapped myself up in the towel. As I turned around I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I stopped and stared; just taking in my appearance. I looked a lot like my mother. My hair was a very light blonde, very thick, and slightly curly. I stood at 5’9”, the tallness coming from my dad. Looking at my eyes they were the same shocking bright light blue that both my mother and brother had. My body was slim with long legs; no wonder soccer was my good sport. As I looked in the mirror I noted how similar in appearance Jae and I were. We both have that thick blonde hair from our mom’s side, although Jae’s was a nice honey blonde. Our eyes were the same amazing blue. We even had the same shape face, an oblong heart, with the same smiles. Anyone who looked at us would need to be crazy to not know that we were siblings. As I tore my eyes away from the mirror I glanced at the time on my cell. I gasped and quickly ran to the door. Sticking my head out to make sure that the hallway was empty, once I was positive it was empty I darted across and into my room where I slammed the door shut.

Finally I had slowed my thinking down. I decided to find something to wear. I knew that the girls would want to pick out my clothes for the party so I figured to pick something comfortable to wear for now. I turned to my suitcases and rummaged through them. I picked a yellow lacey cami and a pair of navy blue soccer shorts. It was a comfortable yet presentable outfit. The girls would approve.

“Hali! Get your ass down here right now! Izzi came with food,” Jaeden yelled up the stairs to me. I put my hair up into a messy bun and ran down the stairs. Once I was at the bottom I slowed my pace down and quietly walked to the kitchen.

“Hals! You’re finally back! HALI!” those were the three things I heard before I was flat on my back on the floor with three of my best friends on top of me.

“Hi, Sam! Yes, Meg, I’m finally back. And hello to you too, Iz, again,” I managed to laugh out while they were starting to get off me. Once they were off me I just stayed on the floor until Meg and Sam offered me a hand and pulled me up.

“Okay, now that you’ve all said hello to each other are you going to come eat. Or can Jae and I finish this all on our own? ‘Cause it smells pretty good,” I heard someone say from the farther in the kitchen.

I turned and glared at Seth, “No, you can’t eat everything. You are allowed what Iz brought for you and any leftovers are left when we’re done,” I started to turn back to my friends when I stopped, “Oh, can you take some plates out and put them on the table? Great, thanks!”

“You are way to mean to him,” Sammie whispered in my ear. That caused me to laugh, no way in hell was I too mean to Seth. If anything I was too mice, and should be much meaner. She just looked at me taking note of my expression, “fine, I guess you disagree, now come on he’s put the plates out.” I sighed and walked over. Carefully I looked around the table. On one side Megan and Izzi were sitting next to each other, to their left was Jae. Seth sat to the left of Jae. As I glanced over the table again I saw Samantha sitting to the right of Megan and Izzi, leaving the only open place in between Seth and Sam. Sam just looked at me with a smirk on her face she fully realized what she caused and had even planned it. After standing there for a while I finally stomped my foot and glared at her while I went to sit down.

“Glad you finally joined us, Hal,” Seth teased, “I thought you weren’t sitting because you were ashamed to have to sit next to me.” Me retaliation; oh, my hand just so innocently slipped and whacked him on the back of the head. He quickly handed me my chicken lo mien before he started to eat again.

“So, Jaeden, are you ready for football to start up?” Megan asked. You could tell she was trying to make Seth and I forget about arguing with each other.

“I guess you could say that I am. I really haven’t touched a ball in a while though. As you could imagine Hali had me running with her everyday, for the entire summer,” that last bit was directed at me, “so, I guess I’ll be able to catch every ball Seth throws,” he chuckled. They continued to talk sports while I sat quietly and ate. Iz and Sam were talking about clothes and school, as usual. While Seth was sitting next to me eating, and being abnormally quiet.

“Okay! I’m done! Are you guys done?” I exclaimed as I pushed away from the table and stood up.

“They all looked at each other before Meg said, “Yeah, we are. Come on we’ll go pick out your clothes.”

“Oo, oo, oo……..Hal! You should wear what you were wearing earlier. You looked really good,” as Seth said this, my eyes grew as wide as soccer balls and my face turned bright red. I opened my mouth to yell at him but nothing came out. So, I just settled for a shriek, turned on my heel, and fled upstairs to my bedroom.

As I reached the top of the stairs I heard a set of footsteps behind me. Not stopping I kept walking until I reached my bedroom where I flopped onto my bed and buried my face in my pillow. It was a matter of minutes before I felt the bed shift as someone sat down.

“Hali, what happened? Do you want to tell me what went on between you and Seth earlier?” Megan asked softly. Very slowly I turned to face her. I slide myself up on my bed grabbing my pillow into my lap and leaning my back against the headboard. “Hals, please, tell me.”

“Okay. This afternoon, right after you called, I decided to take a shower, so I took a shower but when I finished I realized I didn’t have a towel. That’s when I called out the door to Jae to have him bring me a towel. When he knocked on the door I opened it not staying all the way behind the door only to be shocked to find that it was Seth instead of Jaeden at the door with my towel. So, to sum it up he was referring to me being nude when he was saying I should wear what I was wearing earlier,” I sighed. It was finally out; someone else knew what happened earlier. I glanced over at Megan and saw that Sam and Izzi had also filtered into the room. This caused me to shriek and I buried my head back into my pillow.

“Oh, so that’s why you were so uncomfortable around him at dinner!” Izzi said when she sat down on my computer chair.

“Hal……….don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine, he was just trying to get a reaction out of you,” Samantha told me as she moved towards my closet. She opened their doors before turning to Izzi, “Can you figure out what we’re doing with her hair?” From that point on it turned into a makeover Hali adventure, complete with music and all. My hair ended up being left down and curled even more so it now hung in spiral ringlets. The outfit that Samantha had picked for me was very not me. It was, as she called them, my party clothes; they were the cheaper everyday like clothes that fit in with more of the kids at school. The brands ranged from Delia’s to PacSun to Abercrombie, Express, and Guess. Sam decided on a black halter top, with rows going up and down of little silver flowers and wide silver edging (that was cut quite low). To go with it was a pair of very short dark denim jean shorts. And if they weren’t already trying to make me feel out of place they almost forced me to wear heels! Luckily I convinced them into allowing me to wear a pair of matching flip flops. Oh don’t forget that they also made me wear a bikini underneath it all. Yes, you heard that right, a bikini, it was a simple black bikini embroidered with silver eagles on it. After what seemed like days Megan finally did my makeup (never did I ever think I would have that thought). She went for what she called a smoky effect. All I know is that it required my eyes being stabbed with black pencil stuff (just kidding I know it was eyeliner), mascara, and black and grey eye shadow. Not fun, so not fun. Throughout the entire process they never once let me look at the mirror; they were too afraid that I’d have a fit and mess everything up. Since I had been done before the others I took in everything they were wearing. They all were doing the same thing as me, wearing the cheaper clothes the ones that you can easily get replaced without a parent noticing or not being able to find it. Izzi had her hair down and straightened. She wore a black crew neck halter that had red, blue, and purple circles on it like confetti, she expertly paired it with black shorts and black wedges. Samantha had her up in a messy bun with a thick cobalt blue headband. She wore a blue tank top, at the top it was a cobalt blue and worked its way down to a sea blue and the straps were the different colored fabrics twisted together. The top was paired with black leggings that stopped mid-calf and black flip flops. And then there was Megan, she wore a smocked pink terry cloth dress (it had a ruffle hem and everything) with a green bikini underneath and green ballet flats to match the bikini. She had her hair up in a ponytail with her natural curls. They all looked nice.

“Um………what time are we supposed to leave?” I hesitantly asked.

“In about fifteen minutes from now. I told Mel that we’d be there by nine so she wouldn’t be left alone with the guys for too long,” that had been Megan that answered me.

“Okay, just checking. And who exactly is going to be there?”

“Hal, you know, the usual crowd, so that’s Seth, Jaeden, Greg, Caleb, Gus, Tyler, Daryl, Camryn, and Luke. Plus pretty much the rest of the school,” Samantha told me as she put the finishing touches on her already perfect makeup. After looking each of us over carefully she said, “ Are you ready? The guys should be waiting downstairs for us.” With that she grabbed her cell and walked out of my room, and presumably headed downstairs. I assumed we should follow so I grabbed my sunglasses shoved them on my face and walked out of my room and then started down the stairs. Once I reached the bottom I headed into the kitchen to grab my phone. I made sure that it was securely placed in the pocket of my shorts before I walked towards the front door. When I reached the hallway I could hear everyone talking in the sitting room.

I reached the archway and said, “ Are you guys ready to head out.” I was answered with a bunch of giggles. I just looked around. Very quickly the cause for the laughter was found, it was in the shape of Jaeden and Seth. Both of the idiots were standing with their jaws wide open just staring at me. Slowly I shifted my weight to one foot as I proceeded to cross my arms over my chest, “ I know this isn’t what I normally wear,” I pointed my finger the other three girls in the room, “you can blame them for that. I’m sure I look different, but here’s the thing, it’s still the same Hali you know. That and we’re going to be late, so blink away that face, clear your heads (yes Jae I know you don’t like this outfit), and go pick what cars we’re taking so we can leave.” They just stood there, slowly creeping back to reality, “you have two minutes, so go,” I yelled at them. At this they practically sprinted from the room.

“Okay, Hali, you are riding with me in the Porsche. Izzi, you have you guys and Seth in your Volvo. I need to talk to Hali, park on the upper level so that we can tell if the other is already there,” Jae calmly explained while I frowned at him.

“That works. Hal, we’ll meet you there,” and with that her, the girls and Seth climbed into her car as Jae and I climbed into his car of choice for the night.

“So Jae, what’s so important that we needed to talk alone?”

“Hali, I know that we’re the same age so I can’t really pull the overprotective older brother bit but I can pull the protective brother card. And well, I know that girls our age wear clothes like you are. It’s just that most of the guys at this party haven’t seen you wearing clothes the typical girl clothes. They might try to do stuff with you, that you may not want to……….”

I cut him off, “Jaaaeeee……,” I whined, “I know this, I’ll be fine, I’m positive I can protect myself.”

“I know Hal, I just…. I….I don’t want anything to happen to you. You’re my sister, I really do love you. And I’m positive I’d go out of my mind if something bad happened to you while I was the same place you were but wasn’t protecting you like I should,” we had pulled up to the end of Melinda and Greg’s driveway.

“Oh. Jae, I’ll be fine. I promise to stay around one of the guys or with the Five. You know I hate to say this, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll even stay near…..” I cringed, “Seth. It’ll be people you know and like, deal?” He nodded. We had just pulled into the Ackerey’s garage. Mel and Greg’s parents often had big, fancy dinner parties and did not like their guests to see the helps vehicles so they made their garage like a parking garage. There were six parking spaces on the ground level and 10 on the underground level. Mel and Greg each kept one car on the top level while their parents kept the other four cars on the lower level. It was always like this. Whenever they had a party the closest friends of Melinda and Greg (i.e. Me, Jae, Seth, Camryn, Izzi……etc) got to park their cars in the garage where once everyone who was parking there had arrived was locked. This was so that everything was kept safe and sound. Jae had already parked the car and was getting out as I snapped out of my trance. Not seconds later I followed his lead and got out of the car. I walked around to the front of the car and stood next to Jae. From the looks of the cars visible Izzi had already arrived along with Jae’s football friends. Slowly I looked over at the door to the house before I turned to look at Jae. He was already looking at me (damn that twin thing!). I took in his face, it was easy to see that he was excited for the party, but when I looked at his eyes I could see the concern that was there especially for me. He turned to totally face me and opened his arms. I didn’t need any other enticing. I stepped into his hug and hugged him back. This was what he needed just that reassurance from me that I’d be fine. Faintly I heard the door to the house opening.

“God, Hal! Are you trying to steal my boyfriend? ‘Cause to tell you I think that’s incest,” I looked up from my brother’s shirt and saw none other than my best friend, Melinda Ackerey, who happened to be Jae’s girlfriend of three years.

“No, Mel, they’re just having one of those weird twin moments that you and Greg occasionally have.” I knew that voice. I looked over her shoulder to see none other than Wes. Seth’s older brother that was like another brother to me. That was all I needed I ran out of Jae’s arms and leapt at Wes.

“WES!! Whatareyoudoinghere?Ithoughtyouweresupposedtobeatschool?IsZoeyhere?Howisshe?Areyoubacktostay?” This all came out in one breath, while I was still held in the air by Wes.

“Halington, calm down and breath. In and out. Got it?” I nodded, eager to find out my answers, “I’m here to keep an eye on Seth because Mom and Dad are out of town. Plus it gives me an excuse to see you. No, I’m not supposed to be at school it’s Labor Day Weekend so I got Thursday through Monday off. No, Zoey is not here. But, she is good. Her and her sorority sisters are doing rush parties this weekend. No, I’m not back to stay, give me two more years, got it squirt,” I nodded my head and hugged him even more. He was my emotional pillow. When Mom died he was the one that finally got me to talk to someone other than Jae. He was my best guy friend, “Okay, let’s go party!” With that we headed inside.

AN:

Sorry that took so long to get up. It ended up not wanting to end. You guys have finally kind of met a bunch of the characters (well, have heard their names). I think before the next chapter I’m going to put in a journal entry from Hali. It’ll be a way for me to give you a sense of whom each of them are. Seeing how I have many characters that have yet to show up in the story. Just saying it again anyone who would like to preview and edit my chapters before I post them would be appreciated. I have a friend here at home that can do it for me I just thought if one of my readers wanted to they may. Just send me a personal message if interested.

And in this chapter you even got a brother/sister moment between Jaeden and Hali!

Goal for having next chapter out: February 14 or 15

Kati