The Night I Woke Up Beside You

[SEASON 1] Chapter 19: You Can Never Be Just Okay

She almost left her seat.

As their eyes met, she could clearly feel the weight of his instability. He must have felt shocked about what had happened. He was out of control, but it seemed like he never really meant any harm. However, the damage had been done and the injured player was being carried back out of the field to be treated. Regina looked down from where she sat in the middle of the audience, her brows formed into a frown as Charles slowly looked away with a pained expression on his face.

"Is he going to be okay?"

Daisy, who was sitting beside Regina at that time, glanced at her with uncertainty while she tried to read Regina's face. Regina did not say anything back for a few seconds. They heard some rude comments from some people behind them trying to defend Charles' actions and Regina winced quietly from her seat. Daisy offered some comfort by patting Regina gently on her shoulder. She glanced towards the benches where Charles was sitting with the rest of his teammates. He looked beaten. He had his head hanging low between his knees.

"Regina?"

Regina heard Daisy's worried call. But she did not make any indication to acknowledge. Instead, she took her time to take a deep breath. She scanned the field, the game continued right away as soon as the injured player had been brought to the side. She looked at the disappointed stance of the coach with his arms crossed over his chest while he stood near Charles. Regina bit the inside of her cheek.

"He'll be fine," she suddenly muttered out loud. Daisy heard her as she stared at Regina with a curious frown.

"He will be back in the game again," Regina added reassuringly though she was actually saying it more to herself. She felt that same burden that Charles must be feeling at the moment. She knew how he would beat himself to it realizing that he had failed.

But she wanted to believe in him. Still. She kept her eyes on him the whole time, never even bothering to watch the game anymore. She just wanted to see how Charles was doing while everything went on. It took a few more minutes before she saw him finally moving his head as he looked up and ran a hand through his hair. He hesitated to move at first but he slowly turned his head to look behind him. And as if sensing that she was looking, his eyes zeroed on her. They stared briefly at each other for a few moments.

She did not break their gaze. But her face was still unreadable. He took it as a sign that she was trying to comfort him. From afar, he seemed like smiling at her. He let out a heavy sigh before finally looking away and facing forward. Regina swallowed the lump that had formed inside her throat, she felt flushed but in a good way.

She was no longer sure how to make Charles feel better but at least, she had tried to send her intentions across. She kept watching as Charles stood from the bench and started to approach his coach who had his back on him. Regina braced herself as she played a silent prayer in her mind. As her attention intensified on what was going on down the courtside, the crowd suddenly screamed altogether. A point was made by their team. Regina's eyes quickly moved towards the huge digital scoreboard, there was still hope.

She looked at where Charles was and saw him talking to the coach. She could not see Charles's face but she could read the deadpanned look on the coach's expression. And just when she was about to figure how their conversation would go, a tap on her shoulder jolted her from her seat. Daisy, who was now quite too attentive to the game, got befuddled as she looked at the person who was standing on the aisle beside Regina.

It was Ryan.

"Hey..." Regina was not sure what to say at first as she was still shocked to see him there in the first place. She did not really think he would come and watch though. And she blinked at him, looking quite confused and even amused.

Ryan fidgeted for a moment and he paused as he noticed the same surprised look on Daisy's face who was sitting next to Regina. He felt a little awkward now, getting Regina's attention but he can't take back his actions, however. He cleared his throat and shifted his weight.

"Can we... talk?" he was a little bit nervous asking that out of the blue. In fact, he had already sworn himself not to interact with her that much unless it was necessary--like during their club activities. But this was urgent and he had nobody else to run to. She was the only person that came into his mind to help him with it. But as he waited for her to answer, her lack of response started to make him feel uneasy and embarrassed. He must have come at the wrong time. He glanced at the game down the field. His lips thinned when he caught the glimpse of Charles talking to their old coach near the benches. 

He had not really watched the game yet and he just got there as well. He was slightly confused to find Charles not playing at the time. But just when he thought Regina was never going to answer him back, he started backing away.

"Okay..." he said to her, raising both of his hands with a sheepish smile, "You probably don't want to get distracted... So I guess, it's a no, huh?"

He was already sure she was going to reject him. She still had that bemused look on her face and he could not tell if she was about to laugh or about to brush him off. He chose to expect the worst so he started stepping away from them one at a time. But before he could turn around, Regina reached for his arm, stopping him and surprising him at the same time.

Fortunately, none of the people in the crowd around them seemed to notice their interaction yet. He gently pulled his arm off of her hold and stood his ground. Regina let out a soft sigh as she looked at her friend beside her first for a moment before she turned to face Ryan again.

"I'll go," was all that she told him. She suddenly stood right after saying that and ignored Daisy who softly called for her. She had no idea why he was suddenly wanting to talk to her this time but she thought this would be a better escape for a while.

"Really?" Ryan, who seemed to be in disbelief, looked at her with widened eyes as she left her seat and stood beside him.

"I still need to watch the rest of the game, but we can talk. It won't take that long anyway, right?" Regina confirmed back. She shrugged her shoulders at him and still ignored Daisy's attempt to pull her back to her seat.

And thinking that this was better than being rejected, Ryan nodded. The two left. Daisy watched them in utter agony. She did not like how this was turning out. She glanced down the benches and hitch a breath after seeing what was there.

Charles had been watching them that moment. And he just saw Regina leave with Ryan.