It's been four days since Alex and Lauren's incident. It's Tuesday. No one has talked to Alex since. This makes his feeling of isolation worst. Lauren keeps covering her bruise. It's dark and gnarly. It's spread across her cheek with broken blood vessels around it. He hit her with the force of a punch with his open hand. Lauren clearly hasn't said anything about it. She just can't bring herself to do it. Who can blame her? She still has love for him.
As the day goes on, people chatter about what's happening that afternoon. It's the first football game. That's one thing Alex is looking forward to. It'll get his mind off of things. For the rest of the group, they feel as though Alex doesn't deserve his spot on the team. It may seem as though they are harsh on Alex, but their over his shit. This is not the first time that he's done something reckless. Reckless things happen as a teenager but you have to fix them and suffer the consequences. He doesn't do that. Since the first time that the group came together, Alex has been reckless. That's what brought them together. When he broke into the abandon building. He never got caught and didn't have any repercussions. One person is truly over him and his shit. Aaron. Aaron has bailed him out of every. single. situation. He sacrificed a lot for Alex and has had a lot of stressful nights over him. The thanks he gets is Alex doing it again. He just can't deal with that anymore. Like Lear said, it's Aaron's time and that's what Aaron is going to stick by.
Alex is nervous about his first game back. He's been preparing for this for awhile. He wants any scholarship that he can get. This could be his only shot. He has to make up for what he had done. It's no way to fix the past, so he has I fix the present. He figures the way to do this is scholarship. He had to insure that he has a future in college. It would be another disappointment if he can't go to college. Another disappointment is the last thing that he wants to be. He sees disappointment in everyone eyes as he looks at them. For the first time, he sees how tired Aaron is. Aaron never wears his heart on his sleeve. He hates people reading his emotions. Alex looks at him and sees hurt. He knows it's from him. He hasn't even talked to Alex since he found out. His mistakes have clearly hurt the people around him more than himself and he's aware of that now.
The day comes to an end. The first game is a home game but the athletes go home. They change into their uniforms. Alex slips into his. His padding is all there. Lear took off work just to see him play. This is one Lear's highlights as a dad that he's been waiting for. He wants to see the kids in happy moments like these. He wants to see them strive. Alex has had some bad moments but he can't wait to see the good. He's going to drive him to the game, being that he doesn't have driving privileges. Alex hurried knowing that Lear is going to leave soon. He has one important thing that he can't forget. As he scrambling to find it, Lear calls him. He finally finds it and slips it into his bag pocket. He's running out the door. The item is small so he doesn't hear as it falls to the floor. This is the most detrimental mistake he could ever make.
This game is going to be a tough one for Lauren, but it's not anything that she can't handle. Being so close to Alex on the field used to be one of her favorites hinge as a cheerleader, now it haunts her. She makes sure to pack on the powder and setting spray so that she won't sweat off her makeup. She can't get caught, especially after all this effort that she's has put into hiding it at this point. It would be a waste. Besides, she's not ready to face those demons yet. We all have demons we don't want to face, and this one of hers. Little does she know, she's going to have to face it pretty soon. Not by choice but it's coming.
Aaron gets home the same time as Alex, but he doesn't have to go to the game as early as Alex. He's not playing in it. Until the time for the game, he finishes up done homework. He's been fully immersed in homework and getting back to his basketball game. So far neither have been a problem. Unlike Alex, he works for both elements of his scholarship. His unattainable goal of college demons very attainable now. He checks the time and sees that it's nearing game time. He and Kian are supposed to be picking up the twins separately. That's only because that drive to school is the only free time they get with each other right now, so they're going to make it work. Aaron heads upstairs to get his wallet for concessions. He goes ahead and charges his laptop while he's away. When he gets home it should be fully charged for the rest of his homework. He's looking for his charger and can't seem to find it.
"I bet Alex borrowed it" he says to himself. He goes into Alex's room to look. Before he can even make it to the outlet, he feels his shoe step on something. Aaron Ignores it thinking it's just something for Alex's messy room. When he steps on the second thing, it sound like it cracked a little. He bends down and picks it up. The first thing he stepped on was a syringe attached with a needle. The next is a smile glass vile with the word STEROIDS in big bold print written across it.
