Growing Pains

Chapter 21 - The sun wasn't the only star in the universe

J A C O B

I needed to win the game tonight. The bleachers were packed with people, some of them college scouts, most of them family and friends of the players, the cheerleaders, and the school band that would be performing at some point. I thought it was the school band. I didn't care.

They were in the bleachers too, the three of them sitting together, very straight, their eyes on me and only me. The lights were blinding. We had been playing for half an hour. We were winning. I was winning. And they were here to see it. Finally.

They almost never were. Derek usually wasn't even in the country, and my mother had bills to pass, and my father had taxes to avoid, probably some shell companies on the other end of the world to manage too. High school football wasn't exactly something worth a slot in their agendas.

I ran as fast as I could, the ball clutched in my hands as I moved away from everyone's reach. My heartbeat fast in my chest, my breathing louder than the cheers coming from the crowd. Someone was running my way. Fast. Really fast. I didn't think I could move away from his tackle. I had to pass the ball.

I looked around. The new kid was free. He was running and looking at me, waiting for the ball to fall in his hands, just like that. I hadn't just run all those yards, untouched, for him to get to score instead of me.

This would be my touchdown and no one else's, especially not some adrenaline junkie who thought he could make football his new drug of choice. I had been playing for years. He had started only days ago.

I jumped over one of their linemen but another one came and sent me off my feet. I fell on my back, got the air knocked out of me, the ball too. It was gone. I had lost it.

"Fuck!!" I shouted. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Coach Sargent agreed with my take when we stopped for a time-out.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked me. I had been pouring water down my head, so I didn't answer right away. He kept going, "Isaac was free! Why didn't you pass him the ball?!"

I threw the bottle on the bench where the water boy was struggling to refill everything on time. I didn't think he would manage.

I turned to Coach Sargent, "I thought I had it."

"Well, don't think!" he spat out with a kick at the air in front of him.

"Coach," Edward said. He had shown up to help the water boy, but he was looking at us. "It's fine. We're still winning."

"They're catching up," Coach said, and he was right. We couldn't afford any more mistakes.

"I'm sorry, Coach. It won't happen again." I meant next time I wouldn't let go of the ball, no matter what I did, not until I reached the end zone. Probably he thought I meant I would just pass it to Isaac. No fucking way, I wouldn't.

"Damn right it won't, or I'll bench you," he promised me. "Don't think I won't."

Coach had benched me before. Last year, after a fistfight with Jason halfway through a game. I couldn't remember what the fight had been about, but I didn't care. Jason probably had it coming. My fist last year. A vending machine last week.

Edward gave up on the water boy to throw his arm around my shoulders.

"Come on, be a team player."

"Fuck you."

"You're doing great," he said. "I'm sure they agree."

He was looking at the bleachers, the seats where my parents and Derek looked busy on their phones. I didn't even want to think about what they would say if I got benched.