My Heart's in Alabama

5 - Kiersten

Matt chows down on more chips and then licks his fingers. He tilts the bag towards me, offering me some. I take a peek in the bag and realize there are only two left. I do want them, but I hesitate.

"You sure you want to give me your last chips?"

"Of course," he says without a doubt. "They're all yours."

I shrug and pop the last two in my mouth. That's the thing about Matt. He'll be all smirky and know-it-all-y and then he'll do something sweet that makes you forget how annoying he can be.

Once I finish chewing, Matt folds up the bag in a little square, making sure to press out the creases so they're perfectly flat, and tucks it into his back pocket. See what I mean? Total anal-retentive weirdo.

"Wanna go to the field?" Matt asks.

"The football field? Don't you have tryouts tonight?"

He shrugs.

"I wanna get my nerves out."

"Okay."

I stand up and so does Matt. He begins walking. He walks straight past his garage, where he keeps all his football gear.

"Don't you want to get a ball or something?" I ask, stopping for a second.

Matt just keeps walking.

"Nah."

I shrug and jog to catch up. When we get to the field, the gate to get in is locked, so we have to hop the fence. Matt runs up to it, puts one hand on the top of it, and effortlessly swings his legs over, all in one fluid motion. I struggle and kick my way up. I have to take a break and sit on the top of the fence. Then I ungracefully fall to the other side. I just barely stay on my feet.

"You good?" Matt asks me as I brush off my hands that are filled with dirt after I used them to catch myself from falling.

"Yeah."

My hands are a little scratched, but hey, that's life.

"Then come on."

Matt jogs out to the middle of the field. I don't want to run, but if I don't Matt's going to make me, so I just do it anyway. He stops abruptly and lays on his back. He stretches his arms at his sides and looks up at the sky. I lay so that my head is next to his, but my feet are extended in the opposite direction. The sun shines as brightly as ever, not a cloud in sight.

Matt takes a deep breath.

"You think I'll be okay?"

I turn my head to look at him, but he doesn't look back. He just stares up at the sky.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

I shrug and look back up to the sky myself. He's got to be talking about football. He hasn't stopped talking about football since the end of last season. This is the first year Matt gets to try out for varsity. I honestly think he was good enough to make it last year as a freshman, but his dad didn't want him playing varsity until he was 16 for safety reasons. Matt's only 15 now, but he'll be 16 in December so he managed to convince his dad to bend the rule a little.

"Honestly?"

"No. Lie to me will ya?"

"Well, in that case, I think you're gonna be awful."

"Kiersten," he says and sits up quickly. Slowly, I get up myself, and finally, he looks at me. "I don't think I wanna do good."

"Well."