Sbu’s soccer practice was going brilliantly. In the beginning, he’d felt anxious about K8 watching him play. He couldn’t help wondering what she wanted to talk to him about. But then he got in the zone and nothing mattered except the ball skipping across the grass and the men moving around him trying to intercept it. 

Airtime kept up the commentary. “And now Sbu’s got the ball, he’s coming down the left, he crosses it in! Oh it’s a shot! But it flies way over! Ball’s back in play with keeper. He passes it down the middle. Abaeze is onto it! Uh-oh, Sbu nutmegs him! Beats one man! Then another! Just the keeper to beat. Sbu shoots Laduuuuuuuuuuuma!”

Airtime threw up his arms in victory, pulled his shirt over his head and ran across the field. Then he tripped over a clod of dirt and ploughed into the ground, face-first. 

Laughing, Sbu helped pick him up. “Great commentating,” he said. 

“Inspired by your great playing,” Airtime replied, brushing the dirt and the grass off his shirt.

“Not bad,” Abaeze said, “not bad at all. Same time, same place, next week?”

“Fo sho! ” Sbu said. 

K8 came over. “You know it’s the players who are supposed to do the victory run, right, Airtime?”

Airtime looked a little sheepish. “I’ve always wanted to do that. Why should the players have all the fun?”

“You got grass stains all over your shirt,” Sbu pointed out. 

Airtime looked down at his ruined shirt. “Aw man, my mom is gonna kill me. ‘Scuse me a mo, I’m going to go see if I can wash these out.” 

Airtime headed off to the bathrooms and Abaeze and his friends packed up their gear. 

K8 squeezed Sbu’s arm. “Airtime was right about one thing. You were amazing.” 

Sbu blushed fiercely. It was weird. He had no trouble standing up to bullies or thugs, but when it came to K8, his legs went weak. Even weirder because they’d been friends so long. 

“Er, thanks. You’re pretty cool too.”

“Coolest girl you’ve ever met,” K8 teased. 

Sbu grinned and shrugged. “It’s true, what can I say? But also the craziest girl I ever met. So what did you want to talk to me about?” 

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” K8 said. “And I think it’s time that we”

K8 looked down, frowning, like she was struggling with the words.

Sbu’s stomach did a flip-flop suddenly. She sounded so serious. What if she wanted to break up? 

And then she looked up at him with such a wicked sparkle in her eyes that his heart stopped beating for a second. “You know.”

“Uh,” Sbu said, getting it. She wasn’t talking about breaking up, she was talking about His heart kicked back into gear with a thud. 

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Sbu said. He felt like his whole body was on fire. It’s not like he was completely inexperienced. He’d fooled around with a few girls before. But he’d never taken it further. 

“Yep,” K8 said, grinning shyly.

“When?” Sbu tried to sound confident, but it came out in a squeak.

“How about right now?” K8 said. 

Image: Katie@!, CC-BY-SA

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Do you think Sbu and K8 are ready for sex?