Page 28 of Offside

My situation didn’t give me breathing room for a boyfriend–it definitely didn’t leave me room for a long-distance one.

A knock at my door kicked me back to life, mumbling that I would be right back to Metal. I opened my door and happily accepted the food from the delivery guy, kicking my door shut with a soft thud before going back to my phone.

“My food’s here,” I hummed, setting it on the coffee table and opening it up excitedly. “Given this is a date now, I won't actually eat until you have yours.”

“How chivalrous,” he groaned playfully. “I actually heard mine being left at the door now, so you won't have to wait long.”

“You don’t actually answer the door for delivery people?” I asked curiously.

“Not if I can help it,” he sighed. “Tip in the app, ask them to leave it at the door, and watch through my doorbell camera to make sure they're gone. Are you surprised I avoid unnecessary social interaction?”

“Not even in the slightest, babe,” I chuckled, turning on my TV casually to cue up our movie. “Part of what makes me so hot for you–”

“Yeah, I’m sure that lack of social skills really gets you going–”

“Enough that I’m just as excited for after this movie as I am to actually watch it,” I joked. “I heard you loud and clear, Metal. You want to be wined, dined, entertained, and then sent to bed about two ounces lighter.”

Metal chuckled to himself, the sound of food rustling while he got settled. I was mostly joking, but at the same time, he was the one who woke up looking forward to doing it all again.

And maybe I could convince him not to hang up the phone when we did it.

“I think I, uh… I think I liked the pet names more than Metal…but I also liked Metal, so I don’t really know.”

“You just worry about making sure our timestamps line up, babe.”

Chapter 12

Landon

“Shit–sorry,” Sam grumbled, bumping into me again.

We’d been running drills all morning, trying to sync up more for games, and it had been working. I noticed Sam was a little more off-kilter this morning than the past couple of days, but bumping into me again?

That was a huge step back.

“You’re good,” I said calmly, brushing myself off. “What’s wrong? You seem a little off this morning–I thought we were doing pretty well before.”

“We were,” Sam said quickly, his eyes going wide with fear. “We are… It's just been a weird morning.”

It had been a weird morning.

I mean, I didn’t know about Sam’s morning, but mine sure was weird.

My days had been going the same for the last two months–since I’d met Metal. I woke up to a text from him, usually telling me good morning and a brief rundown of his day–whether or not I'd be able to talk to him much during the day. Maybe he’d throw in his own version of a flirty comment, which was normally just a compliment.

My personal favorite was his one about liking my nerdy Star Wars tattoos on my legs and how he was dying to feel the force of them.

Yes, they were all that bad, and yes, I still loved every single one.

But this morning I had no message from him.

Sometimes I woke up before him and had to send one first, but he’d neglected to even read my message this morning. I was trying not to be irritated by it all morning, but every break I took and had no new message from him was one more drop in the irritable bucket for me.

And to think I made him cum twice last night–this was the thanks I got?

“You wanna talk about it?” I tried, gesturing for Sam to follow me to get some water. “I know we’re not like buddies or whatever, but we should try to be.”

“I guess,” he mumbled, pulling out his tooth guard to chew on the side of it–a common nervous tick around here. “My parents called me at like two in the morning because my brother–”