The Ten-Year Game Plan

Chapter 13- Donovan

The whistle reverberated so loudly I could feel it in my teeth. The whole offensive line took off toward the end line, sprinting hard enough that nobody was capable of thinking.

Coach was pissed at something or another and was running us into the ground for it. We had three days before our game on Saturday and, by the looks of things, we'd barely have a team that could stand on the sidelines. Most of the men, me included, had shucked our shirts and were sweating bullets the size of our body weight.

Winston and Darius looked pissed as we hit the line and jogged back. On any normal day, my expression would match theirs.

Repeats were satan's way of shitting on football players. Each repeat was a full field sprint in under 25 seconds and then a jog back to the other end line for the remaining minute. When the minute was up, you repeated it. Nobody said the name was clever.

Today, I welcomed the burn. The burn in my throat, in my legs. When I was burning, my thoughts could focus on how much it sucked and nothing else came in. It was just what I needed after the week I had.

A retching sound came from somewhere down the line and I glanced to my side. Hayden was throwing up somewhere behind the goal post and missed the deadline for the next sprint.

Okay, so I lied. I could also think some other smug thoughts while I ran. But even those were dangerous because they inevitably led to thoughts I didn't want.

Finally, after 18 repeats, coach relented and blew the whistle that signaled the end of practice. My legs were on fire and sweat dripped into my eyes, but my chest didn't feel as tight as it had before practice.

Winston glanced at me as we made our way back to the locker rooms, both of us still drenched in sweat. I hit my fist against his and he shifted his gaze away from me. Anxiety rolled off of him in waves and I frowned.

"You good?"

My best friend shrugged. "I kind of forgot to tell you something, but I'm not sure... well, I was gonna tell you after practice but it's kind of fucked up to tell you right after we got our asses handed to us. But I also think that at least this way you can't chase after me and beat me."

At that, I laughed. His rambling made little to no sense to me now, but I was used to it. Around everybody else Winston was always contained and quiet. I, however, expected that he was quiet around other people because he saved all of his random thoughts and shit for me.

"Spit it out."

"So, the other day while you went to talk to coach, someone came by the room to talk to you. But you weren't there so I said you weren't there—"

He was starting to ramble again and I contemplated cutting him off, but I didn't need to. Both of us stopped walking as we spotted the girl standing a few feet from the locker room door. In a sea of tall, sweaty, and shirtless guys it was kind of hard not to notice her.

And, if I was honest, it was always hard for me not to notice her.

Even when she pissed me off.

"Can we talk?" she asked, her sea colored eyes were wide as she looked up at me.

For a moment, her eyes flickered down. I was sweaty, I was shirtless, and I'd been playing football since I could walk, so I assumed the blush on her cheeks had nothing to do with the slight breeze in the air. Call me arrogant, but I didn't mind if she wanted to look.

A few of the guys glanced over as they walked past us. I imagine they were wondering how someone not on the team managed to get into the practice stadium while we were having a closed practice. Coach typically locked the gates and I couldn't picture little miss perfect climbing the fences. Though, it wasn't a bad picture.