The entire practice, it was like there was a silent alarm on her. Every time I looked her way, it would trip, and security guard Tyler would be on me like a hound of hell. I couldn't say how many times he slammed into my shoulder, pushed me, or tackled me down (a few illegal plays, might I add). By the end of practice, I was fuming with anger only to see him wrap his arm around her as she leaned into him.
Did she choose him over me?
The hurt that swam through my chest was a new feeling to me, and I didn't like it one bit.
"Man, you look like you're ready to kill," Jones said with a laugh as he slapped his hand down on my shoulder pad and turned me so that I wasn't staring at my girl…correction, his girl anymore. Any man would be stupid to not fight for her. I could see why he would be so protective. If she had given me a chance, I wouldn't have let her go either.
"It's whatever, man. I just want this day to end." It was obvious to me
It was a long week. Longer than any that I had ever lived through before. Monday, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a train from my intense cardio session on Sunday. Each day after, it progressively got worse until I decided to just skip my Thursday classes and take a recovery day. Instead of school, I spent the day standing in the dorm showers, under the hot water, until my muscles felt like they had melted. They tightened back up after I cooled off again. For a couple of hours though, it didn't feel like they were made of concrete. For a while, I debated telling my dad who it was. Then I watched the team scrimmage, and I saw how much Caleb loved the game. It was a reminder of how good he was at it, and my mouth snapped shut. The worst part about the past four days was Diana. During the scrimmage the afternoon before, the cheerleaders were out to cheer them on. Her smug face, as she watched me run suicides along the sidelines, had me ready to gear up and tack
The walk took longer than I had hoped. Even though I was trying to move quickly to warm my body up (and get out of the cold), my muscles were still protesting the movement, which slowed me down. When I saw that his office was empty, I felt my guts twist inside me with anxiety. It was like there was a voice in the back of my head telling me that it was time to put my big girl panties on and make my way to the practice field. Trust me when I say that the sight before me was as horrible as I had thought it would be. My dad was setting up the speed sled with several weight plates on it to increase the resistance. I knew it was there for me to pull it, but I secretly hoped that he had set it up for someone else. "If you are busy, I can come back later," I said with sarcasm as he dropped the final plate onto the stack of weights. The glare I received in return made me bite my tongue and push down another sarcastic remark. "Dad, we need to talk about this." "If you
The sun was brutal for early winter as it beat down on the field. My shoulder's toasted under the intense rays of hell, and I was positive I would leave with a darker sunburn than I already had from earlier in the week. I could taste the salt of my sweat as it poured down my face. My eyes burned from it, and I found myself squinting as my blurred vision worsened from the additional and unwelcomed liquid. My thighs ached as I pulled the weighted object behind me up and down the field. I wasn't sure if it had been ten minutes or an hour as my legs shook. Each labored breath got harder and harder to suck in until I felt like there wasn't enough air left in the world for me to fill my lungs. I was determined to win, and prove my father wrong. Prove to him that I could take it. I was not a quitter. The way he watched me instead of focusing on his team reaffirmed his concern for my well-being. As a father, it was only natural for him to be concerned even if he was the one
According to my phone, I had only been pulling the sled for about 40 minutes. The terrifying thought was that meant Caleb had about 50 minutes left to go before practice would be over. That, of course, was assuming that Coach would let him leave on time when the team got done. When I ended my call, I found that my eyes had remained glued to the graceful man who continued to pull the sled up and down the grass with ease. He was no longer running but maintained an impressively steady pull. Every movement made his muscles flex and ripple beneath his skin. It was mesmerizing. Every lap, I found myself standing in his path with the bottle of water I had refilled. He would meet my gaze as he took a few sips before he looked over the rest of my body and then continued pulling the sled. Not a single word was shared between us after he had taken over my punishment, but I could see all I needed to hear in his expressions. From the determination on his face, I knew that
I woke up the next day after sleeping through my alarm, unable to move my legs without my body screaming in agony. My phone lit up with a text from Chloe asking me to meet her for coffee since I had already missed my class, and I reluctantly pulled myself out of the safety of my blanket to get dressed. As much as I didn't want to leave my room, I was desperate to talk to her about everything that went down with Caleb. I didn't really care about the fighting with my dad and Selena after. My thoughts were consumed by the memory of him kissing my forehead in front of the team, and how he took over my punishment. It made my heart stumble out of rhythm. As sore as I was, I couldn't help but admire the way that winter was approaching as I walked to FIX. The campus landscape crew had cleaned up all of the fallen leaves. The ones that remained on the trees were a beautiful array of browns, yellows, and oranges as they ruffled in the chilled breeze. The quad was busy
It didn't take very long for my excitement at seeing Chloe to diminish. Jones was trailing behind me like a lost puppy, and I really wanted to be alone with my best friend. I needed time with Chloe to talk through my thoughts about Caleb and make some sense of them. Having Caleb's friend hovering over me really limited what I could say openly. As I stood in line to order my drink, Chloe went back to the table that she had claimed so we wouldn't lose it. Unfortunately, Jones stayed with me. "That was crazy awesome! Man, I wish Caleb was there to see that!" He laughed, and I rolled my eyes as I continued to face away from him, in the same direction of the line. I tried to shake off the bad mood that Diana had put me in, but it hung around like a storm cloud over my head. "I always hated her, but you're pretty cool." A sense of pride filled me that was quickly pushed down at the realization that I was being compared to Diana. It was the same thing everyone in th
My feet pulled me quickly across campus from The Row where all of the sorority and fraternity houses were located. I had been in bed playing Wildlands PvP with my mind lost in thought of the last time I had played the addictive video game. There had been the most beautiful girl sitting in my bed next to me as we talked, laughed, touched… That was all pushed to the back of my mind when my phone buzzed. I couldn't help but feel anxious. The text that Jones had sent me only a few minutes ago caused my stomach to tighten. Jones: Head to the quad before your girls kill each other. My girls. Plural. That was an aggravating sight. I only wanted one girl. As my eyes scanned the quad, there was no sign of a fight or anything that could resemble the start of one. Surely, if there had been, a crowd would have formed by now. It seemed that this school had nothing better to do than to get involved in drama. Whether they spread the gossip or start
As a kid, I loved Diana with everything in me. I would have done anything for her, and both of our parents knew it. It wasn't until we started dating at the end of my junior year in high school that I started to see things differently. Sure it was what I had dreamed about since I was a boy, and our parents couldn't have been happier. The problem was that while it was nice, it wasn't what I thought it would be. As soon as we became more, I felt like our friendship had ended. At that point, we were just two people who were taking comfort in each other. It was nice to be together, but there hadn't been any overwhelming feelings of love or happiness. We were just content. I had talked to my mom about it after a few months, but she was so sure that the feeling would pass. She told me that it would take time to adjust to the change in our relationship and not to give up on Diana because we were meant to be together. I regretted that conversation immediately