36| Winning and Wonders

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Tony sat in the bleachers in complete and utter silence. He stared ahead at the football field, but wasn't watching any of the plays. Whenever everyone cheered he made a half ass attempt to cheer as well. Then he gave up and just sat in silence.

Clint would make jokes or comments on the football players but Tony never heard any of it. Natasha was standing half the time, super into the game, but Tony just sat beside her.

He felt numb. Nothing felt real. He didn't feel real. He hated this feeling.

The same feeling from when he found out his mother died. When his father hit him for the first time. When he sat in the pouring rain after seeing James and Bella making out. When he sat in his bed, after finding out Justin's true intentions, before he went to Casey's party. It was an awful feeling.

He knew not even his phone could help distract him right now. Not that it matters anyway; his phone was dead. What luck.

Bruce tried asking him what happened when Tony first walked over to him about thirty minutes before the game started. He instantly knew it couldn't have been good, the way Tony was dragging his feet and avoiding his eyes.

Tony didn't respond. He just sat down where he is seated now. He's been silent the entire time. Bruce felt both heartbroken and extremely worried for his friend.

Natasha gave Bruce a questioning look, trying to figure out what was wrong with Tony. Hell, even Clint realized right away that something was wrong. Bruce just gave her the same heartbroken look. She didn't understand, but she knew not to ask about it.

Tony didn't want to be here. The last thing he wanted was to have to watch Steve flawlessly play. To watch Sharon cheer him on with the rest of the cheer team.

To think, all this time, Tony was worried about the wrong blonde cheerleader.

Tony tried to squeeze his eyes shut and push the bad thoughts away.

Maddie, Sharon. They were both blondes. Both long haired blondes with beautiful faces. Both blonde girls. How could Tony think Steve could ever actually like him?

But he did! He must have. Steve had done things none of his other friends had ever done. They had very intimate moments together. Steve tried to be there for Tony through it all. That had to have meant something, right?

Tony didn't know what was worse. If Steve never actually liked him. Or if he did, and Tony was too late.

-

One hour earlier

Steve was sitting under the bleachers, trying to catch his breath. He was extremely worried about this game. All week, his teammates kept bragging about their inevitable win.

AIM was a super easy school. They had never lost to them before. This game would be a landslide.

That freaked Steve out. He hasn't been on his best game and no matter how much he tried, how much he pushed himself, he was still so exhausted. Every move was tiring.

Steve had spent hours on hours each week at the gym for the past few weeks. It was a way for him to blow off steam. Even if he had to go at midnight on a school night after getting off work, he would.

But he was so tired everyday. No matter what, his entire body would hurt and the average football play would tire him out. So he pushed himself harder, went harder at the gym, ran extra during lunch. Still, his stamina wasn't increasing, only getting worse. It was infuriating. And it was embarrassing. He didn't want to come off as weak.

So here he was, sitting in the dirt underneath the farthest bleachers. He had continued to push himself extra hard at warm-ups. While everyone ran the track four times, he made himself run six in the same amount of time. He doubled all of the cardio exercises. He threw him arm forward faster, more aggressively than he normally did on practice plays. And now he sat, coughing and chugging water. He wasn't good enough.

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