A Little Excerpt

September 7, 2018

It was Saturday afternoon, and Levi Cranston (The Magic Video Game) and his friends, Kevin Maggliardi, Jack Andrews, Jing Hao, Asad Prejesh, and Mike Wong decided to play a friendly game of soccer. Mackenzie Burbanks, Levi's girlfriend, and Shanti Lee, Kevin's friend and love interest, were sitting on the grass watching the boys play soccer. It was a pretty intense game so far.

"So how long have you and Kevin known each other?" Mackenzie asked Shanti.
"Since we were four," Shanti replied.
"So have you ever dated since then?"
"Casually, yes. But we never really went steady. We thought about it, but he went to school here in Boston, and I was in LA."
"What did you study in LA?" Mackenzie asked.
"I studied to be a hair stylist," Shanti replied.
"Very cool."
"What do you do?"
"I'm a graphic designer, and Levi is a systems engineer, so he's the IT nut."
"As is Kevin."

The girls were still watching the intense game. It was Kevin, Mike, and Jing versus Levi, Asad, and Jack. Not that it really mattered, because they were doing this for fun. Of course, Kevin and Levi were the more competitive and active in the game. Jack wanted to be the goalie for his team, so he wouldn't run as much. Jing felt the same way for his team.

When the boys took a breather, Kevin ran over to where Shanti and Mackenzie were sitting, and fell to the ground on his back. Shanti noticed that his hands were underneath his head, while he was trying to catch his breath. Kevin was not wearing a shirt, so Shanti could see the ends of his rib cage every time he took a breath. While his right hand was still underneath his head, he let his left hand rest comfortably on his chest. Shanti thought that she could see her friend's heart pumping violently against his hand, and she thought it was kinda cute.

"Put your arm down, Kevin," Shanti said to her incredibly sweaty friend.
"This feels so good, though," Kevin replied.
"But you're so sweaty."
"That's what soccer will do to you."
"Are you alright?" Shanti asked, noticing that Kevin was still breathing hard.
"Yup. Couldn't be better," Kevin stated, drawing in a deep breath and pressing his left hand firmly against his chest. He then heard his stomach gurgle loudly, and his face turned a little red.

A few minutes later, Kevin recovered and got back up. With him being all sweaty, he had picked up some grass on his back. Shanti wiped off what grass she could get with the back of her hand and realized how sweaty he really was. Kevin ran back to the field to play some more soccer with everyone else.

The game got even more intense, even brutal to some extent. A few of the boys tripped on nothing and fell on top of each other. The soccer ball hit one of the boys hard enough in the chest, causing him to lose his breath for a few seconds. All of the boys were extremely sweaty after an hour and a half of soccer in this weather.

Once they all decided to call yet another breather, Kevin noticed that his nose was starting to run. He wiped his nose with his left arm and noticed that he was having a nosebleed. With that in mind, he slowly walked over to the side and knelt down facing the grass and pinched his nose to stop the bleeding. He already had blood on his face, which dripped down to his chest and stomach. The only way that he could have had such a nosebleed would have been from breathing in too hard and potentially causing a lot of pressure in his nose.

"Good game, everyone!" Jack shouted as he clapped humorously. He then noticed Kevin pinching his nose, and he still had some grass on his back.
"I hope Kevin's okay," Levi remarked.
"You alright, Kevin?"
"Yeah, had a nosebleed," Kevin replied. "A shower would be nice."
"Yeah, I think we are done anyway," Jack stated.
"Good."
"Once we all shower and whatnot, I'm thinking sushi in downtown tongiht."
​"Hell yeah we should."