THERE WAS A TOTAL of twelve people, so it was six to a team. they let jt pick the captains, so it ended up being michael and matteo. they did rock, paper, scissor and matteo ended up picking first. as the other ten people stood in a line matteo pointed to his first teammate which happened to be michael's brother, todd.

"sebastian." michael chose.

"chase." the boy smiled, high-fiving his brother as he stood next to him.

"joey."

"amara."

"tom."

"kyle."

"tyler."

"alec."

"ben."

once the two teams were separated they went over the rules and set up in their positions. it was tackle football, but amara made sure to let the boys know not to be an ass about it and tackle her if they had to. she always fit in with the guys and hated it when they treated her like a princess. she would much rather roll around in the dirt and lounge in gross clothes than go to the spa and wear hundred dollar outfits. she also happened to be pretty good at tackle football.

"down, set, hike!" alec shouted and matteo handed the ball off to him. alec made it a small distance down the field before getting tackled by ben and sebastian. lacey, pippa, and jt all cheered loudly, clapping on the sidelines.

as the game went on michael's team was up by two points. "pass the ball to chase and everyone needs to block him from getting tackled." alec stated. "he's fast and i'm sure he can get pass them if we all block."

chase nodded, "i got this." they put their hands in and did a small team cheer before getting into position. matteo hiked the ball off to alec and alec handed it off to amara, who secretly handed it off to chase and the blond made it way down the field. it took a few seconds for everyone to realize that amara didn't have to ball and they all ran after chase.

before chase could even think he was tackled to the ground and his eyes got wide at the sight of tom on top of him. the older boy laughed, "gotcha." chase swallowed the lump in his throat, unable to respond.

"shit, tom! did not expect that from you!" alec laughed, causing tom to stand up and extend his hand for chase to grab. he helped the younger boy up off the ground and their chests bumped together.

amara rushed over, prying the ball from chase's hand. "you may be fast, but i think tom's faster." she stated, jokingly. she tossed the ball to alec and turned back to see the two boys still staring at each other. "okay, chaser, let's go. it's fourth down." she grabbed his arm and pulled him away from tom. "what the hell was that about?"

chase shook his head, wincing at the newfound pain in his back. "i don't know." he licked his dry lips and glanced back at tom who was back with his team. "i need a break." he rubbed his lower back. "that fall hurt."

"do you want us to call a timeout?" matteo questioned.

"no," chase shook his head. "you guys can play without me. good luck." he walked off to the sidelines and sat next to jt.

"you okay?" the blond asked and chase simply nodded. "tom tackled you pretty hard."

chase shrugged his shoulders. "it wasn't meant to be hard. it's okay; i'm fine."

"do you need ice?" pippa asked. "there's some in the cooler."

"i'm fine." chase repeated, his eyes focused on tom. tom wore a frown on his face as he set up in his position. he kept glancing over at chase and the blue eyed boy just gave him a reassuring smile.

michael's team ended up winning the game and chase ended up not going back in. "you okay?" chase looked up to see tom. everyone else had gathered to get drinks from the cooler while chase made his way towards the parking lot. tom had a water bottle in his hand and sweat was dripping from his forehead. it was disgusting and attractive at the same time.

"yeah," chase nodded. "it was a good tackle," he chuckled, "just hurt a bit."

"still?" tom frowned and chase gave him a smile.

"it's okay. it's just sore now. i'm not used to getting tackled."

"sorry." the brunet apologized and chase laughed lightly.

"it's okay. it really is."

"want me to drive home?" alec asked, joining the two. "is your back still hurting?"

"kind of." he nodded. "i'll be in the car."

"it's getting dark." tom stated. "we should head out."

"you're staying over again, right?" alec asked. "i can sleep on the couch so chase can have his room and you can sleep in mine."

chase shook his head. "no, it's fine. i can sleep in the living room again."

"okay," alec smiled at his little brother. "i'll go get the rest of the gang.

chase gave tom one more small smile before walking over the the driver's seat of his car. tom ran a hand through his sweaty hair and made his way over to the driver's seat of his own car. chase leaned against the seat and closed his eyes, patiently waiting for everyone else to get into the two cars.

by the time they got home all bathrooms had been called for first up. amara's mom was on her way to pick up the girl, so she said she would shower at home, leaving everyone else to a bathroom except chase. he didn't mind waiting for shower because he wanted to ice his back. he waited for amara to leave before grabbing an ice pack from the freezer. he made his way into his room and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes. he carefully pulled his shirt over his head and left it on the ground as he put the ice back in its place on his back.

the bathroom door attached to his room opened and matteo walked in fully dressed with a towel around his neck. "ouch," he hissed. "you mustve landed on a rock or something because you've got a nasty bruise forming."

"yeah," chase mumbled. "it's starting to hurt like hell now."

"you gonna shower?" he questioned.

"probably not." chase sighed. "i didn't play too long and i'm not super sweaty so i might just shower tomorrow."

"you should let mom look at your back though. just to make sure it's okay, you know?" matteo suggested.

the blue eyed boy gave a small nod and headed down the hall to his parent's room. he knocked on the door twice before pushing it open. both his parents were laying in bed watching tv. he explained what had happened and his mom examined his back, stating that a part of his lower back was becoming black and blue. she told him to keep ice on it for awhile and she'd check it again in the morning, so he said goodnight and made his way out to the living room. he laid down on the couch, on his stomach and kept the ice on his back as he send a text to the group chat informing them about what had happened.

he was also surprised to see a text from wes, telling him he wanted to see him again. he ignored the message and turned to see tom standing in front of the fridge.

"hey," he spoke up and tom turned to look at him.

"oh hey, i didn't see you."

"yeah," chase chuckled, "i'm not hard to miss."

tom playfully rolled his eyes and made his way over to the couch. "how's your back?"

"it would be a lot better if everyone stopped asking about it." he stated and tom pursed his lips, nodding. "it just gets annoying having to repeat myself a million times."

"yeah," tom nodded, "i get it."

"it's bruising." chase said and tom's frown deepened. "it's okay though."

"i feel horrible." he said and the younger boy shook his head.

"don't."

"how can i make it up to you? do you need more ice? a drink? snack? i can grab you something."

chase pursed his lips. "actually," he slowly sat up, letting the ice fall off his back. he patted the couch next to him and tom rose an eyebrow as he sat down next to the boy. "i want to know why you—" he paused. "did what you did last night."

tom clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. "i didn't think you were gonna bring that up."

"you fucking kissed me. why the hell would i not bring that up?" he laughed.

tom opened his mouth to speak, but closed it just as fast. he rose from the couch and shook his head. "i'm going to bed. we'll talk about this later."

"come on," chase stood up, hissing at the pain from his back. "please, just tell me why. i need to know."

the dark brown eyed boy didn't break eye contact with the blue eyed one as he answered. "i just wanted to see how it would feel for me to kiss you. i mean, because you had kissed me the first time."

chase's hands clenched in nervous fists. "and how did you feel?"

"tired." he responded quickly. "goodnight, chase." he spun on his heels and headed off to the boy's room, leaving chase alone in the living room.

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this wasn't how i had originally planned at all, but whatever i don't feel like changing it