If It Doesn't Hurt, It's Not Abuse

(3) Enough For Now

He knew he was over reacting.

They didn't do anything wrong. It was just his stupid brain jumping to conclusions, and his stupid legs for walking away.

Toma Shinjo stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked past the river. Nevermind that.

His eyes were stuck to the ground while his mind was stuck in his thoughts. The occasional car passing by him was the only noise he could hear, the birds were probably flying somewhere else, to do who knows what.

Time seemed to fast forward and soon he was home. Toma unlocked the front door and entered, taking his shoes off in the process.

The house was quiet and empty, just as he liked it.

Tossing his school bag to the corner, he quickly runs up the stairs to his room. He closed the door behind him, then collapsed onto his bed. Toma closed his eyes and sighed, "Why am I here? I should be in practice."

Shinjo rolled onto his back to looked up at the ceiling. A deep breath was used to calm his breathing as he reached for his phone. The overwhelming silence caused him to unlock the screen and send a small message to his team.

Toma Shinjo
I apologize for skipping practice, I wasn't feeling well. I'll see you tomorrow.

~~

He couldn't deal with any distractions right now.

Toma closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hands.

It was too early to fall asleep.

It was too late to go back.

-With The Soft Tennis Team-

Maki was happy (for the first time in his life). Whether from Shinjo basically forcing him to open this door in his life, or perhaps how greatly the team was improving. There were less flying balls and more receives.

He was...kind of proud.

He could never say that in front of them, though. They'd get big heads and become even more annoying in possible.

Maki noticed some changes in not just the team, but the team captain, Shinjo. He seemed to be quieter around everyone, he also seemed to skip practice more.

Wait, where was he?

Maki looked around his team, it was break time do everyone was doing their own thing.

After doing a short head count multiple times, he came up with the same result every single count.

Toma Shinjo wasn't here.

He could have sworn he was in the club/locker room. Why was he skipping again? Maki thought Shinjo was the most dedicated to the sport than anyone here. Was he okay? He noticed Toma didn't didn't smile as much, which made sense since the latter didn't usually smile on a good day.

His phone buzzed with a message.

Toma Shinjo
I apologize for skipping practice, I wasn't feeling well. I'll see you tomorrow.

Maki slowly put his phone down and sighed, "He seemed fine this morning." He sat down onto a bench then leaned back onto his hands to think.

Maki came to the conclusion to try to contact him after practice. If Toma didn't want to be here, then Katsugiri wouldn't force him to talk.

He would just have to wait.

~+~

Yu frowned from their spot near the water station. They couldn't drag their thoughts away from Toma. The phone call was a bit strange along with Toma's reaction to it. He didn't come to practice ether.