Pacific Bell High

> XV <

Justin took off his helmet and wiped the sweat away from his eyes. He looked around at his team, who was getting ready for their fourth down.

They were losing, 39-35. It was a very good game—Kingston had a very good offense. They would slip past Pacific Bell's line of defense like butter and were down the line by the time the ball was released.

Justin was on his game, but he still felt out of it. With not being at practice, school, or work for the past four days, he was lost.

And with Ciara now added to his list of worries, everything was slowly starting to tilt of in a new direction.

A direction he's never seen before.

"You ready man?" Kyle had asked him, the ball in his hand. "I know we got a little time left and we're forty yards away, but I'm sure we can do this."

Justin nodded as he placed his helmet back on his head. The referee blew the whistle and Justin looked over at his opponent's team.

They were tight, but if Justin could manage to squeeze one of his wide receivers through, they can do it.

"Q 42! Q 42! Squeeze through, hut hut, hike!"

Kyle snapped the ball to Justin and held back the defensive tackle that tried to go around him.

Justin looked over at Martin, but he was blocked by two players, he quickly looked over at Leroy, who was out of the line of defense and had somebody not too close to him.

He threw the ball towards Leroy, who was in the right position — but didn't see one of Kingston's players run towards Leroy and intercept the ball.

The ref blew the whistle, signaling the end of the game and Kingston's side of the bleachers roared with life.

Justin shook his head and sat down on the floor. He just blew the game. And, it wouldn't really matter to him on any other day, because Justin knew that sometimes you had to lose some games to learn from them. . . But this game was different.

He wasn't there for practice, he was cut off from any interaction with football. And now, him coming back and blowing this off? He felt as if he let his teammates down with that.

"Hey, come on man. Get up." Kyle said as he held out his hand. Justin accepted it and was brought up.

"It happens man. You told me 'You win some, you lose some.' Right?" Kyle asked as he took off his helmet.

Justin also took off his helmet and shrugged his shoulders. "You know, I understand that, Kyle. But, I wasn't here to—"

He was cut off when a shove to his chest pushed him back.

"You cost us the fucking game!" Martin let out harshly. His eyes glared deeply into Justin's.

"I know." Justin responded in an emotionless tone.

"I don't even know why the fuck Coach puts you to play today." Martin said as he started to walk closer to Justin. "I were to be him, I'd kick you out when you stepped foot on the field."