Life At Green Havens II

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CLINTON’S POV

“ETHAN?!”
      Cassy had her hands over her mouth in shock, she didn’t expect to see us and the other guy, which I now recognize to be that annoying bum from class that thinks he’s slick. He had this stupid grin of victory on his face and boy was I tempted to knock his teeth down his throat.
But this was not my fight, I’ll get my chance some other time.

Ethan wanted to move storm towards them but I had to grab and clamp down on his shoulder before he could do something he would regret and make himself look like a fool.
He turned to me and I could see the rage burning in his eyes and also the pain within. If I had not stopped him, he would’ve done something crazy. I shook my head signaling that it would be a bad idea and my had on my chest, telling him to calm down.

Cassy, over the shock of our appearance was about to drop her hands to speak but I was not about to let her say something that would spiral this situation of control.
“Oh, Hey guys, didn’t see you there. It seems like you guys were in the middle of something, don’t let us ruin your special moment. Sorry for interrupting, we’ll be leaving.”
Leaving them with no chance to reply to that, I pull Ethan to walk away from them with me while heading back the same way we arrived.

We were already at a distance and almost out of the vicinity of the court before we could hear them talking again but we were unable to make out the content of their conversation.
Ethan has been silent since I gave the signal and now I feel like the bad guy. I mean, he had to hear and see it for himself but probably not this early. I could not think of any way that could’ve worked better than this. Oh well, he’ll deal with it.

We already had the field in our sights and I could see that the coach had already rounded up the boys and was having a team talk., probably to officially  let them know about the change in schedule.
“Oh no, coach is going to kill me, Quick let’s run back” I already started pulling Ethan into a sprint before I finished the sentence.
“Toughen up soldier, we’ll talk after class” I added with a few back taps before running towards the team in full speed.

I looked back to see that He was slow to pick up the pace, he was still absentmindedly jogging. I’ll just give him space to adjust.
I tried sneaking into the middle of the group to get to my guys but I was caught before I could even start because the coach already had his eyes on me the moment I go close. Thankfully, his gaze only lingered for a second before it was back to the group gathered before him.

I sighed in relief before getting to the gang, I had to hid behind Ali and Christian. “What did I miss?” I whispered.
“Coach agreed to give us Friday and Saturday off. Said something about not overworking our bodies” Mustafa answered with a smile as bright as his shining head, not trying to keep his voice down. I wonder if he shaves his head as a morning routine or hair just refused to grow on that area.
The coach looked in our direction, obviously distracted by the only voice he could hear coming from the boys gathered before him. Jonah had to elbow Mustafa before he became self aware of the looks and attention he was attracting. He shyly moved behind Jonah to hide from the coach’s gaze.

Coach Johnson gave us a hard stare for a while and proceeded to make us his primary focus until he was done making the announcement.
“Now Boys, See you next week.” He said and quickly made his way out of the field and towards the parking lot, not forgetting to pick up his bag from the school guard. “YESS COACHHH” ,We replied.
That was the first time I saw the coach rushing to leave after training, he probably had an emergency to attend to. Might also probably be the reason why he gave us Friday off with the Saturday we had agreed on beforehand.

The boys all stormed towards the locker room, most gathering in groups, cliques. The gang had already gathered with me as we walked towards the locker room. “Anyone seen Ethan?” I asked, realizing that I didn’t see him while I stood through coach’s announcement.
“I think I saw him walking towards the locker room while you were walking towards us” Jonah answered, wiping the sweat off of his face with his top.
“Okay guys I have something to say; Jonah, Ali, Christian, Mustafa…” I had to each of them out one by one before I could get their full attention. “Something happened earlier with Ethan so nobody should antagonize or annoy him in any way. He's in a very vulnerable and volatile state right now. Got it?” I didn’t wait for their reply and I didn’t get any so I just assumed that they all nodded in agreement as we walked into the locker room.

I got to my locker, had to check Ethan’s locker to see if he was still in the locker room and I found it locked, which means he had already left. We walked into the bathroom, washed up, had our clothes back with our kit. Since we were having two days off, it’ll give us enough time to run maintenance on our boots and another other thing that need replacing or fixing.

We we’re taking the path that lead towards the school’s gates, through the garden when we saw Ethan just sitting there with airpods in his ears, reclining on the bench with his eyes closed. We all stopped when the we got to the bench.
I think he noticed the lack of light getting to his face and he opened his eyes to see us surrounding him.

“Hey guys, What’s up?” He asked as he sat up and took the airpods out of his ears. Christian and Jonah flanked him on the bench. We were all silently looking at him for a while until it unnerved him. “What?!” He asked, annoyed that we hadn’t said anything for a while now.

Jonah put his hands on his shoulder, he turned to look at Jonah. “Clint said something happened with you earlier..” He didn’t let Jonah finish and he already stood up to glare at me.
I had my hands up in mock surrender “ Woah, calm down, I didn’t say anything.”
Jonah stood up and pulled him back to sit. “ He didn’t say anything that’s why we’re here to ask you. You didn’t even let me finish. Well, he was right about you being in a volatile emotional state.”

We all wryly smiled.