Two (Almost) Grown Men Fangirl Over a Quarterback

Bam! A safety threw his body at me, digging his shoulder into my stomach. Urk. So this is how it’s gonna be, huh? My momentum had stopped, but I was still standing, so I pushed him off of me with my right arm and went for a few more yards before two more guys took out my legs. As I got up, I threw the ball to the center so we could line up for the next play. This was the normal drill- run the play, either get the ball passed to me or block for the receiver, end the play, repeat. Oftentimes, though, it would end up going more like, “Run the play, QB misses the target by a mile.”

Apparently, our starting QB, 5-star prospect Ian Mosslark, was out for a little bit nursing a foot injury, so our not-so top prospect, who I only knew by the number 4, was stepping in for the time being. “Number 4” was actually one of our top corners, but without Mosslark we needed someone who had a decent throwing arm to step in. At least, I thought? I wasn’t entirely sure- I had picked all of this up via player gossip… and Kevin.

“I swear I’m not hyping him up, Cat-sume,” he said. “Mosslark’s one of, if not the best high school QB in America.”

“If he injured his foot he probably won’t come back as strong,” I retorted, untying my cleat shoelaces. The practice had finished a few minutes ago and we were preparing to leave.

“Oh, no. Ian’s better than a foot injury. Even if he’s slowed down- I bet he won’t be- he still has a god-tier arm. You’ll experience it yourself soon enough.”

“Ah, there’s a hole in my sock,” I muttered, still listening to Kevin. I should’ve bought some socks at the sports store while I was there. “Yeah, how do I know if he’ll pass to me, though?”

“You don’t. He throws to the best option for the play. It might not be you, even on a screen pass where you’re supposed to get it. He sees, he takes, and that’s what makes him so good. The only reason we didn’t have a winning record last year is because our defense was ass- we scored a lot.” Huh. If he’s trying to indoctrinate me into the Mosslark hype, it’s working.

“Theoretically, though, since I’m kind of tall, couldn’t I just put my hands up in the air and be open? No one could reach it,” I thought out loud. Kevin took a second before replying.

“I… I don’t think that counts, though. Maybe. We’ll see. We heading out?”

“Yeah.” He grabbed his backpack and waited as I put on mine. We walked out of the front door to leave, but immediately Kevin dropped his stuff in awe.

“That’s him! That’s Mosslark!” He said, jumping up and down like a little puppy. Are you in love with him? A man on the field turned around and waved- for all the hype, I wasn’t expecting the ‘team savior’ to be 5’ 6”. He wore a reflective visor on his helmet, and his jersey was tucked underneath his pads at the bottom, revealing a solid eight-pack of rippling muscle. The rest of his body was equally shredded, and I started to understand Kevin’s hype a little- this dude looked like the main character of a sports novel.

“Hey! Are you Mosslark? The one Kevin is fantasizing over?” I yelled, only half-teasing Kevin.

“Shut up!” Kevin whispered. “He’ll think I’m weird!” The man nodded, confirming Kevin’s beliefs.

“Do you mind if we run some routes and you pass to us?” He shrugged, as if to say go ahead.

“Now you’ll get to see the magic!” Kevin exclaimed, almost bursting with anticipation. While I’m a bit excited myself, I would think it’s kind of weird to drool over your own QB. I lined up on the goal line, signaling a seven route to Mosslark. With a scratchy sounding ‘hut!’ he started the play, and I took off. Kevin, being one of the running backs who didn’t run routes, tried to run a fade but tripped on his own foot and tumbled on the turf. I took my cut and looked over my shoulder to find a perfectly placed ball sailing right into my grasp. I easily caught it and slowed to a halt.

“Kevin! You were right!” I shouted, getting Kevin’s attention as he laid on the ground playing dead. “That pass was unreal! Nice throw, Mosslark!” I had to admit I was fanboying a little- at least I wasn’t as bad as Kevin, though. And he doesn’t even run routes. He’s never experienced a pass, period, much less something like that!

“You’re pretty good yourself,” Mosslark said, his voice sounding like he hadn’t drunk water in the past year. “Keep it up.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled sheepishly as I quite literally dragged Kevin off the field. Mosslark continued to practice rolling out of the pocket on his own, most likely to get used to his healed foot. Kevin finally stood up, complaining that there were turf pebbles in his ass, and we actually walked home.

“Damn,” Kevin said, staring at his TV as I played Minecraft on it. “Stop being such a nerd. This can’t be good for you.”

“Shut it,” I chuckled. “This is your TV and your copy of Minecraft. And I’m the one who’s such a nerd? There’s literally Pokémon cards on your wall.”

“No, no, I get that. Imagine knowing how to actually play survival. I just go into creative mode and blow shit up.” To be fair, that’s how most people do it.

“…where’s Mia, anyway? You said she’d be here yesterday.”

“Oh, she got caught up with schoolwork. She said she couldn’t come. I mean, I know advanced courses are hard, but that much work on the second Monday of the year? That’s wrong.”

“Huh. Okay,” I said, not saying that we didn’t have any homework that day. I don’t know what it is, but it’s best not to chance it with girls.

“Have you seen the football schedule? Absolutely brutal. We kick off the season against Burton, who was really good last year, and then we’ve got Balboa, then Tam, then-”

“I have lived here for a week and a half, Kevin. I don’t know these schools!” The only two schools I knew at the time were Ten-M and Galileo.

“Well, that’s a good thing. It’s better you don’t know how good or bad a team was last year, in a way.”

“Yeah, but the way you say that makes me think they’re all gonna kill us.”

“Eh.” He paused, considering his next move. “They might. Hey, but where do you think Mosslark’s gonna commit? He already has offers from 6 SEC teams.”

“I don’t watch football much, but I bet Alabama, if he gets the offer. He only threw one pass to me, but it was damn good.”

“Yeah, probably. Actually, I have some old college games recorded on this TV. Wanna see the 2019 Natty?”

“I’m down.” And there, we sat, lounging our asses off watching the 2019 National Championship.

Huh. I… got used to Kevin.