“It’s alright. I’ve never known anything different though. Even when we take trips down to México to see family, they all live on the coast around the Tamaulipas and Veracruz border. I think my first time farther than a few hours from the water was for our game against El Paso a few weeks ago.”
“Got salt water in your blood.”
“Salt water and football. That’s me,” I say back with a smile, looking at the waves coming in, lit up by the streetlights behind us. “I’m sure one day life will take me away from here, but hopefully wherever I end up still has a beach.”
“From the looks of how the school’s got your face on a huge banner right now when you walk into the University Center, I’m sure when you go pro, you’ll have your pick of ocean views.”
I let out a short, breathy laugh. The kind where I don’t even open my mouth for it. “We’ll see. And I don’t know who the school or my coach has on retainer, but we took those photos literally a week ago and now they’re getting put up everywhere. I actually saw one heading to your cousins’ thrift store downtown and almost swerved into that Jesus statue in front of the church off Shoreline. It’s like a jump scare every time I see them, as good as I look in them.”
“And he’s humble,” Vale teases through a chuckle, shaking his head.
“I also said they’re scary,” I push back, nudging his side. “It’s like, every time I see them I know it means I’m being seen, and the work I’m putting in is being seen, and they’re a sort of promise of a payoff at the end. But it also means that I can’t mess up. They’re a reminder of how high I’ve set the bar for myself, for a team that’s always been at the high fifties, low sixties in the rankings. I don’t want to let anyone down not being able to meet it consistently.”
“I’m sure that can feel overwhelming at times.”
“Yeah. I’ve always been pretty bad about putting too much pressure on myself, being my own worst critic or whatever. And that was before all this. It’s so different from high school, and I don’t think I really figured that out until I was three games in and seeing myself on the internet and big signs in the University Center.”
“That just means you’re good, right? That everyone is in agreement, you could do this for the rest of your life if you want.”
I smile, letting that point sink in. As much as it also sits in my gut. “That’s where it gets scary. There’s lots of people I can’t let down. I’m trying not to let it freak me out; to focus more on the excitement and love of it all, you know? Remembering that, in the end, it’s a game. It’s fun.”
“And when you’re playing at a World Cup, it’ll all be worth it.”
“Exactly. You’re going to be wearing my future México kit, right?”
“Obviously,” Vale answers, pushing his weight into me. “As long as you sign a ball for my dad.Él es el mayor fanático del fútbol.”
“¿Verdad?”
“Sí.” Vale shakes his head as he lets out a laugh. “Obsessed. It’s like I can’t escape futbolistas.”
He takes the rest of the plastic off the top of his cup, leaning it up to his mouth and letting some ice and leftover tapioca balls fall in. And then he hands it to me so I can do the same. The crunchy cold, the sound of waves rushing onto the beach, the feeling of body weight on me, as much as I know Vale’s trying to be careful not to fully lean on me, the quiet; it’s relaxing. Exactly what I needed today. Just when I thought Philosophy was going to completely ruin my day, in comes this guy.
“Is it weird that we were making out yesterday and now we’re here?”
“Does that make you uncomfortable?” he asks back, his eyes showing some concern that maybe he’s walking over a line I never invited him to cross, and he starts pulling himself away from me. “I—”
“No,” I say, my hand not even waiting for my brain to make a decision before going around his back, to his waist, and bringing him back, holding him to me. “Nah. Don’t worry. I’m good, I just … it’s unexpected. If someone had told me this is how I make my first non-athlete friend in college, I would’ve said they’ve got a funny imagination.”
“Honestly, if you weren’t straight and hooking up with my best friend, it’d feel right out of some super cheesy Netflix series that gets cancelled after two seasons.”
“Sorry to disa—Hold up. Leana told you about us?”
“She told me she was hooking up with ‘a guy on the soccer team,’ ” Vale says, his head turning to the water. “When you walked into the store and I saw her face, it didn’t take a whole lot of reason and logic to figure out who you were to her.”
“She tell you anything else about me?”
His head turns back to me with a smile and eyes that are sayingoh yeah, even though he only tells me, “Maybe so.”
“Hmm,” I chuckle. “Alright. I see how it is. Keep your secrets.”
“But I’m not disappointed. Promise. Nothing to be disappointed in. I could use another friend.”
I focus on the feeling of his skin on my fingertips. On how not disappointed I am too. “Sit by me tomorrow, yeah?”
“I was hoping you’d ask,” Vale says. “Nothing against who I’m sitting next to now, but he chews gum so loudly I nearly screamed in the middle of you and Coolidge’s discussion last week. And if you need some help, I could be available as, like, a private philosophy tutor-slash-study-buddy for the struggling futbolista.”
Oh, shit. I remember now. It wasn’t a librarian in that video I’ve still got open on a tab in my phone. It was a tutor. That’s right. A solid twenty-two minutes.
