never will you ever ⇒cashton s.s. [completed]

two

ashton rubbed his hair with his towel, drying it off. he kept his eyes trained on his locker, not wanting to make his teammates feel uncomfortable even though he was sure he'd never look at any of them that way. he sat down on the bench and began tying his shoes, slinging his towel over his locker door.

"guys?" a voice called through the locker room. ashton and a few others looked up to see calum standing by the locker room door with an envelope in his hand. "i've been thinking," he said, and someone interrupted him by muttering "that's new." calum rolled his eyes—god, ashton had never noticed how pretty his eyes were—and continued. "i've been thinking about the team and our bonding and spirit and...well a leader inspires spirit, so i thought, maybe as a morale booster, we could all go see sydney fc at their next home game?" he reached into the envelope and withdrew a few tickets.

well played, ashton thought. everybody liked sydney fc. and of course, it was just like calum to throw his father's money around like that.

coach avery poked his head in the locker room. "nice gifts, hood," he said. "but i want the rest of the team focused. i won't allow you to skip practice to go to the game. stay focused, calum." coach avery looked around the locker room. "like ashton. he gave it his all out on the field today, and it was a damn good first practice."

a few of the team members clapped politely or cheered quietly.

"now leave!" coach avery commanded.

there was a mass exodus towards the exit and then calum and ashton were the only ones left in the room. ashton finished tying his shoes, shut his locker, and grabbed his bag. he walked over to calum, who looked completely defeated. "hey calum," he said awkwardly. "i just wanted to—"

but calum turned away from ashton and stalked out of the room.

•••

(one week later)

ashton pulled on his adidas soccer pants, zipping the bottoms closed. he stretched his arms out. they were crazy sore; practice had been all about conditioning yesterday and he certainly felt it today. he reached for his shirt only to find it not hanging over his locker door where he'd left it. instead, it was wrapped around a tattooed pair of hands. ashton looked up to see the hands were attached to tattooed arms and a face with a condescending smirk.

"cute," calum said of the green day shirt he held.

ashton grabbed it away from him and slipped it on. "thanks," he said shortly.

"mmm. congrats on another excellent practice today," calum said, his voice as condescending as his smirk. "you're even better than when you left. seems...suspicious. we might have to test your for doping." he leaned casually against the locker next to ashton's.

"what are you saying, calum?" ashton looked around. how was it that he'd ended up alone in the locker room with calum again? ashton had made a point of leaving as quickly as he could to avoid this; calum usually lingered to talk to other teammates.

"you'll have to do more than have good practices and games if you want to become team captain again." calum's voice was lower and more threatening now.

"who said i wanted to become team captain?" ashton asked, bewildered.

calum laughed dryly. "come on, ashton. you left barely a month into the season and now you come back, acting like you never left? kicking it with the guys like nothing's changed? of course you're aiming for captain."

"i'm not aiming for anything," ashton snapped. he was tired of calum's behavior towards him in the past week. he bent down to retrieve his slides.

"good," calum sneered, "because being too into kickin' it with the guys could really end up hurting you."

ashton straightened up. "what does that mean?"

"it means we all know what team you really play for."

"really, calum? you need to suck it up." ashton inserted as much meaning into the words 'suck it up' as he could. he stepped closer, glaring at calum even though ashton himself was a full two inches shorter. "you want to beat me? work harder."

ashton grabbed his bag and left the locker room, his heart thumping unevenly in his chest.

•••

do people like sydney fc? idk.