Crave You -N.H-

Chapter Two: By now [EDITED]

Chapter Two

 

Bradley stalked down the street with me on the cloudy Saturday morning, his voice echoing in my head. I had been lost in my own thoughts for weeks now, practice today would be the last chance to show any scouts my talent. I had choked last year and couldn’t--wouldn’t do it again. I needed this.

 

“Hey,” Brad stops me, placing his hand on my shoulder. He looks at me for a second and I know exactly what’s coming next. “Clear your head bug, worrying about everything is only going to make it worse.”

“This is is Brad, my last chance.” I stop “everything has come to this, if i don’t make this team this year then…” I drift off unable to even think about the rest of the sentence.

 

“Then you try out for a damn league team, work your way out of this shitty little place. You don’t just give up.” He says he shakes my shoulders and goes from serious to goofy in a second flat.

“You sound like my dad,” I let a small laugh go but it was nothing but empty.

 

“Your dad was a smart man, come on.” He tugs at my shirt and pulls me in the direction of the closest pizza shop. “Lunch my treat, ya?”

 

I nodded and followed him from the spot we stood. Brad’s father had worked with mine for years, practically our entire lives. We had grown up together and when dad started his treatment Roger and Brad were the first to know. Bradley would sit with me for hours playing board games with us. He was always there when I needed him.

His dad--Roger was the chief now and Brad was likely to follow in his footsteps. Even though his own dream was to leave, travel. He would never break his fathers heart though, all in all he was a giant teddy bear. He was always working to please everyone else and always ignoring his potential to be great.

“Have you spoken to your dad about doing the training in London?” I ask him as he pulls the door to the restaurant open for me.

“You know he would never go for that Bug,” Brad shakes his head “being away from him and mum. He would hate me for even suggesting the idea.”

I look at Bradley’s tan complexion, the way his dirty brown hair falls around his face and I think about how badly he needs a hair cut. He had always had such soft features but it was rounded out by a strong jaw giving him the face of a young man. He was incredibly handsome, it made me wonder why he hadn’t gotten himself a girlfriend.

“If I can get out, so can you.” He looks at me as he sits in a booth across him me and gives me a smirk. “I’ll be in London if I make the team, maybe if they know that it’ll make it easier on them?”

“My dad doesn’t even want you going. He’s tried to talk to your mum more than once, says there’s nothing to do but get in trouble in London.”

The waitress takes our order and I don’t say anything to him about what he mentions but we eat in silence for awhile. “I’ll never convince him Sarah, plus being a cop did both our dads good. It’s a good job.” he says.

“Job?” I say setting down my water on the ugly yellow tabletop, “don’t you want to do something you love Brad?” I ask him but he ignores me and shoves more pizza in his face.

----

The sun was so warm on my cool cheeks as I sit in the back yard, sunshine in May was short and definitely a privilege. The normally casted long weeks of nothing but grey and cold winds. I smile to myself, wiggling my toes in the grass. I watch as Jean runs around the yard, her unusually long legs pushing the football just inches in front of her feet.