chapter 23
(didn't go to plan)

it was the day before the big lacrosse game and chris was absolutely shitting himself. he had never been more scared in his life. luckily dejah had been helping him along the way, and he's got his support from his team and his family and friends but he can't just shake away the thought of jude winning. he hated the thought. he knew he would never live it down if jude actually won.

sometimes on a night time he would watch jude's instagram highlights on his performances so he could try and find ways to out skill him. it was putting way too much pressure on him and he was beginning to get bad anxiety from it all. he tried to act like he didn't care, but secretly he did. he also didn't want to talk about his worries to people as he knew they all had stuff going on in their life that is probably worse than what he's going through and he didn't want to scare people. especially matt, the one person he would usually go to for this kind of thing he felt as though he couldn't. he knew he had a lot going on with abbie and jude so talking about such a sensitive topic to him probably wouldn't be the best thing to do. so ideally he just bottled up all his emotions.

it was another one of those nights where he was up late watching jude through this phone. he decides that he is going to call bryce, not really expecting him to answer as it's late but to his surprise he picks up, "how's it going man?" he says in a groggy voice.

chris hears his tone of voice and grows guilty, "sorry, did i wake you up?" he asks, not getting a reply straight away.

bryce starts to chuckle slightly, "nah, i just haven't slept for a few days. just worrying about the game. it's my first ever proper game in front of a shit ton of people. i guess i'm just nervous." he replies. chris begins to feel a wave of guilt as he's put so much pressure on his back.

"it's gonna be fine man trust me. you're an amazing player and you're going to bring our team to victory. i know i push you to the max and you probably hate me most of the time, but it's because i know you're an awesome player and i want you to do well. i'll let you get off, i was just calling to make sure you were okay. try get some sleep." whispers chris, hearing bryce say his goodbyes before he ended the phone. he sat there in silence for a minute, thinking about all the bad things that could happen. it honestly made his anxiety worse if he was being completely honest.

the morning of the game came by especially fast and chris and matt were eating their breakfast in the kitchen while nick was recording their first half of the vlog in the other room. matt seemed fine and in way he seemed ready and excited, chris on the other hand was stressing about everything. jude just really messed with his head and he had to beat him as if his life depended on it. maybe all this built up stress was going to be good as he can use his anger towards the game and hopefully play good, "do you want the rest of my toast, i'm full as shit." asks matt, sliding the plate over to chris.

chris takes one look at the toast and slides it back, "no, i don't want your fucking toast." he claps back. matt is a little taken a back but soon understands.

"sorry." he quietly says, putting the rest of his toast in the trash. he knew it was best to leave chris alone in a time like this and he doesn't want to anger him, "cmon, we best get going or we'll be late."

when they enter the locker room, that's when chris begins to get even more nervous. as he's getting changed, he can only think of one thing. beat.jude.

"show me your tickets please?" asks the bouncer, stopping liv, dejah, nick and nate at the entrance to the VIP section.

nick pulls out everyone's tickets using his trembly hand and shows it to him. he scans his eyes over their tickets and opens the door for them. as soon as they walk in they are all immediately met with the smell of champagne and many classy looking people with dresses and suits. "woah. this is some serious shit. i feel an idiot not wearing a suit like everyone else." whispers nick, nudging liv "i mean, atleast i'm not wearing her outfit" he whispers, nodding his head over to a lady wearing a horrendous outfit.

liv immediately burst out with laughter making everyone look at her with disgust. dejah and nate are walking away quickly, pretending they don't know them. "i don't know her." laughs nick, walking away in the same direction as dejah and nate.

liv looks around the room and starts laughing even more at the fact that everyone's staring st her, "sorry everyone." she manages to say through her laughter as she also makes her way to the rest of her friends.

"oh my god, that was so fucking embarrassing." laughs dejah, taking a sip from her pepsi.

nick begins to laugh, "funny as fuck though, wish i got that on camera." he giggles to himself, turning the camera on to explain what had happened.

dejah looks out of the window to see chris and matts team walking out, "look, they're coming!" she says, pointing to the whole team of people. she spots matt but she can't see chris anywhere, "where's chris? he should be there."

"what?" asks nate, scanning all the players on both sides to try and spot chris, "jude's not there either. i swear i remember chris mentioning he was going against him?"

"yeah they're both supposed to be there." says nick with confusion, "let me call hi-"

"i'll call him." explains dejah, "one sec" she says, heading for the door. she bursts through the door and immediately makes her way to the locker rooms. she knew it wasn't just a coincidence that the two biggest enemies weren't there for no reason. something was going on and dejah was going to find out.

"hey! little girl. where are you going?" shouts the bouncer, following dejah through the halls.

"stop fucking following me."

"no, get your ass back in there or you're getting kicked out."

dejah abruptly turns around, "what are you gonna do? are you gonna fucking hit me? throw me out?" she stares at him, getting no reply, "yeah, that's what i fucking thought. now leave me alone." she says before flipping him off.

"that son of a bitch" the bouncer whisperes to himself before signalling the security, "we've got a girl doing a runner, can we get someone to find her and kick her out, thanks."

dejah runs through the halls trying to find any clues on where she is headed as she has zero idea on where the locker rooms are and none of the damn signs are helping. she turns the corner to see a security guard, "whatcha doing in this restricted area little girl?" he asks. dejah rolls her eyes why is everyone calling me a little girl.

she ignores his question and begins to run in the opposite direction, throwing things to slow him down in catching up with her, "we've got eyes on the girl, can we get two more people out here to search for her."

dejah is now panicking as she runs around this huge building complex trying to find the locker rooms when she finally sees some hope. it was a big sign telling her which direction the locker rooms were in. she starts running down the hall, leading her to the locker rooms. she swallows hard before pressing her ear against the door and as she had suspected she heard chris' voice.

"just do your best, okay! now cmon we're late. we were supposed to be coming onto the pitch like 5 minutes ago." he speaks. dejah quickly ran back through the halls to try and find her way back to the vip section as soon as she heard footsteps coming closer. she did all of this just to hear a little pep talk in the locker rooms. she was expecting there to be a fight or something between him and jude, perhaps jude couldn't make it or something, anyways that's irrelevant. she had to somehow sneak back into vip without the bouncer noticing.

she turned all the familiar corners when she finally saw the bouncer stood outside the door. she began to slowly approach him, "excuse me." she speaks in a soft tone. the bouncer takes one look at her and he immediately lunges for his pocket to take out his walkie-talkie, "NO! don't. i'll make it worth your while." she says in a seductive tone.

the bouncer slowly takes his hand out of his pocket and winks at her, "i'm a minor you prick. now let me back in and tell the security that i've been caught and dealt with and nobody has to know." she says, seeing the fear in the bouncers eyes as he opens the door for him. she never felt more accomplished in her life then she did right now. she made her way over to her original seat and as she looks out the window she can see chris and jude both stood there.

chris gets into position and his hands are gripping onto the stick with his clammy hands. the nervousness yet excitement was rushing through his whole body all at once. once he heard the bell ring to confirm the game starting, he was off. the first half of the game was pretty good for their team, they were already 3 points ahead. matt was also doing very good despite his anxiety about the game. i guess all the built up anger and stress went into his gameplay which was proving to be quite helpful.

chris hated how every score against them was scored by jude. and every time he would do this stupid face with his stupid celebration and how all of his stupid teammates would praise him and how the stupid crowd would go wild every time. he wanted that to be him, not jude. he wanted to crown to cheer at him, he wanted his teammates to praise him, he wanted all the goals to be scored by him. so he tried his absolute best. not only did he need to try, he needed to impress dejah as it's her first time seeing him play. chris finally scored a goal and his celebration was making a 'D' sign with his hand while looking at dejah through the window.

"okay.. is that 'D' for you?" asks nick, looking at dejah who is grinning an awful lot, "hey? i'm talking to you. look away from your boyfriend for one second and answer me"

dejah blinks hard and looks at nick, "wait what?"

liv and nick look at eachother and roll their eyes, "bro, you two are actually in love for real. you have been this whole time! i don't know how you've only just seen it."

a big gasp escaped from the whole VIP room and people are rushing over to get a closer look, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" shouts nate, pointing at the window.

dejah whips her head around and looks down at the pitch. to her complete surprise she can see two players fighting on the pitch. she can't quite see the numbers on their backs to make out who it is but she has a terrible feeling it's chris and jude. everyone watches as the security guards tear the two ruthless boys apart from eachother and taking them off the pitch.

"we are having some technical difficulties, if we can just all sit down and relax while we sort out the problem that has occurred on the pitch that would be great. the game will resume after the problem has been sorted, thank you." the announcer states through the huge speakers that echoed throughout the stadium.

"you guys don't think that.." quivers nate, looking at his phone which is getting a call from matt, "matt's calling me! it was definitely chris and jude. what the fuck even happened." he says, answering the call.

dejah's heart sinks when those words leave his mouth. she felt so incredibly bad for chris as he is probably going to get kicked off the team depending on the circumstances and this is going to be posted everywhere and people are going to hate him on social media. she feels helpless just sitting around but there was nothing else she could do. "okay, we're on our way now, bye" speaks nate, ending the phone.

"cmon. we're going to meet matt out front" explains nate, getting up from his seat to meet matt at the front. the whole group doing the same.

when they see matt, they all immediately run towards him flooding him with questions. "guys! let me explain everything in the car." he says, opening the car door. everyone piles in and waits for answers. "chris and jude obviously had a fight on the pitch. chris just got angry at jude because he nudged him after he scored and supposedly whispered something to him so he just straight up punched him." he says, blowing air out of his mouth, "he's an absolute fucking idiot who has ruined this game for everyone and not to mention the fact that he's going to be kicked off the team and probably won't be able to join another one for a while."

"what a dick, why does he let stupid things like that affect him so much? he just needs to grow up sometimes and just ignore what people have to say about him. he's got some serious anger issues." sighs dejah, looking out of the window to see chris approaching the car with an angry expression on his face, "oh fuck. here he comes.."

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maisie
💌

next chapter is.. erm kinda cray cray!!

anyways chris kinda ate but then again now he's made things worse for himself soo..

ALSO IM SO EXCITED TO WATCH "IT ENDS WITH US" BC IVE READ THE BOOK AND IT WAS GENUINELY SO AMAZING SO IM SO EXCITED TO WATCH IT AHH!!