Loki knew an unfortunate amount about football considering everything he knew about it he'd learned against his will. He knew enough to know his brother was doing amazing, as usual, but the defensive line meant to protect the quarterback was off tonight. Thor had even been sacked, leading to a field goal that possession instead of a touchdown; meaning their team, the Thunderbolts, was down 28-24, with only forty-five seconds left on the clock. If the Thunderbolts lost this game, they were out of the running for the state championship, and Thor's senior year would be the first without winning that title.
The air was tense with nervous energy from the crowd. This was the first Thunderbolts game in a long time that wasn't an absolute blow out, and things were looking grim. The home team started their possession at the opposite ten yard line, they had to make a 90 yard drive in only forty-five playing seconds.
Loki could not have cared less. Oh no, his perfect brother might actually fail at something that wasn't a math test for once in his life? How horrible. Honestly, if the Thunderbolts lost it might have been Loki's perfect night. Despite earlier forecasts, the temperature had dropped sharply as the game went on, causing Sylvie to snuggle closer against him for warmth, wrapping herself tighter in the blanket. He put his arm around her to 'help keep her warm', and they'd been snuggling like that for almost the entire second half of the game. He'd caught Wanda smirking at him several times, and would have flipped her off if he could have without alerting Sylvie. Instead, he was forced to settle for the juvenile act of sticking his tongue out at her.
He glanced down at Sylvie for the millionth time that night, her eyes still glued to the field. "I love football," she muttered, clearly enjoying the excitement and tension in the air.
"Me too," Loki lied automatically, and was rewarded with her briefly smiling up at him.
"I hope we win, I'd love to do this with you again next week," she told him.
Loki turned his head back towards the field, where his brother was getting in position before the play. "COME ON, THOR!" Loki cheered, despite the tense quiet of the rest of the crowd.
Thor seemed to hear him, as he looked up to find Loki in the crowd and grinned brightly at his brother. If Loki didn't know better, he'd almost claim he saw relief on his brother's face. Then Thor got back to business and called for the play to start. Everything moved so fast, each one of the players scrambling to do their job on the field, whether that was protecting Thor or taking off running in an unpredictable pattern.
It wasn't until Thor threw the ball 65 yards down the field that Loki even saw the player waiting to catch it. So far out no one was even bothering to cover him, because how could a high school quarterback make a throw that far? But Thor had always been special, and threw the ball that distance with a perfect spiral. The crowd jumped to their feet, including Loki who was dragged up by Sylvie's inertia, and cheered at the top of their lungs. This was it! The Thunderbolts were about to get the winning touchdown and–and it didn't happen. The player was tackled at the 10 yard line.
The Thunderbolts moved quickly down the field and got back into their starting positions, the clock was ticking and they had no time to waste. Talk about a nail biter.
In no time, the ball was in Thor's hands again and he was looking to his receivers, calculating who had the best chance of catching the ball, but before he made the decision, a player on the other team broke through the defenders and into the pocket, coming at Thor for what would have been a heartbreaking sack (if it meant Loki wouldn't get to do this with Sylvie again).
However, in a play worthy of Patrick Mahomes, Thor managed to spin around, dodging the other player, and then take off. Running the ball into the in zone himself for a legendary game winning touchdown!
Loki stood up and cheered with the rest of the crowd, not just because Sylvie was doing the same thing. So maybe he could get swept up by the emotions of the crowd sometimes too. Especially when it meant getting what he wanted, and in that moment, he wanted his brother to be the hero so he could hold Sylvie at the next game.
He saw Thor cheering and hugging the teammates that ran up to him to celebrate, then looking up to the stands, right to Loki, and waving excitedly. Like…like he wanted to share this moment with Loki too. Loki felt a weird pride, warm in his chest at that, and waved back with a proud smile. His brother really was amazing at football.
But that was the moment his bubble burst, and the warm pride and excitement turned to ice water. Because just then a cheerleader ran up and kissed Thor. It was Val.
Loki could feel Sylvie freeze beside him, her shock and hurt palpable so close to him. Loki wanted to put his arms back around her and comfort her, but she was gone before he could, moving through the celebrating crowd like a shark slipping seamlessly through water.
Sylvie knew she was being absolutely ridiculous. Val wasn't her girlfriend, never had been. Never even shown any real interest! But Sylvie still felt like she'd just been cheated on. That same devastating heartbreak she imagined walking in on your wife sleeping with another man would shoot into your soul.
Val wanted Thor. Not her. Why would she?
Sylvie crossed her arms tighter as the wind cut through the fabric of her sweater, hurrying to her car as fast as she could. The sound of gravel under her feet was becoming easier to hear as she moved away from the celebrating stadium. It was the second time that night she'd stormed up this path, trying to get away from something, but she hoped this time Loki wouldn't follow. She didn't want to be around him, or Vis, or Wanda, or Nat, or anyone for that matter. She wanted to get into her car, drive home without paying attention to the speed limit, and hide under her covers as fast as humanly possible.
Thankfully, the universe didn't seem to completely hate her, because she made it to her car without anyone catching up, and back home without being pulled over. As usual, the house was empty when she came inside and ran upstairs. Instead of going straight for her bed as she'd planned, she decided to take a long, hot shower first. Maybe because she was still shivering from the cold, or maybe because she wanted to be able to deny her tears even to herself. "I'm not crying over some stupid girl," she muttered, jaw tight, as she went into the bathroom.
The water was hot enough to turn her skin pink, just how she liked it. Especially after a chilly evening, the contrasting heat was heavenly. A wonderful distraction from the emotions tumbling around inside of her, at least for the first few moments.
Sylvie knew she had no right to feel this way, feel so angry at Val. Val hadn't betrayed her, hadn't done anything wrong. All she did was kiss a boy she apparently liked. It just so happened to be that said boy was not Sylvie, and Sylvie felt like that was a problem because she desperately wanted to be the person Val liked. The anger seemed to simmer and swirl in her stomach, but Sylvie fed it instead of fought it. Anger was safe, the sadness underneath was terrifying, but that sadness was also growing and growing out of control. Soon it won out over the anger Sylvie desperately tried to hold onto, and a strange amount of water from the shower streamed down her face.
"Stop being so stupid," she muttered to herself again, but it didn't change a damn thing. The tears still fell, and she still just wanted to go to sleep so today would be over.
Without once touching soap or shampoo, Sylvie turned off the shower and dried off. Going to her room, she picked out the comfiest, fluffiest pj's she owned and slipped them on before snuggling down in her bed, putting the cover over her head so she could completely hide from the world.
Unfortunately, her stupid phone didn't seem to get the memo because it wouldn't stop buzzing. It hadn't stopped since she'd run out of the stadium. She threw the cover back in frustration and reached out to grab it from the dirty pile of laundry she'd thrown her jeans into. Usually she would have been careful and taken it out of her pocket and plugged it in before going to bed, but she hadn't exactly been in the mood for that this time.
She had a ridiculous number of messages from both Loki and Wanda, several from Vis, and even a couple from Nat asking where she was. Sylvie sent the same message to Loki, Wanda, and Vis, saying she was home safe, but just wanted to be left alone. She told Nat that her stomach had been upset and she'd left right after the game ended, sorry! And then she turned her phone off, and went back to her hiding place under the covers.