My Best Friend's Boyfriend | BxB

23. Losing It

Three Weeks Later.

"Anderson! See me in my office immediately!"

The boys looked at Coach, startled at his outburst, then, rather simultaneously, they all turned to stare at their captain.

Gale was standing at his locker, stuffing his dirty sportswear into his gym bag. He was moments away from banging his fists into the locker door, or screaming.

Yes, screaming would be a brilliant idea. Maybe it would let out all the pent up frustration he was harbouring inside, something that had cost the team a deserved win.

Someone placed a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to find Evan beside him. "I'll see you at Kellan's right?"

Kellan was having his birthday party that night, and maybe that would serve to take the boys' minds off the one nil defeat they had just suffered. It would definitely serve to take Gale's mind off his own miseries, so he was sure to be there.

Evan's intention was clear. He didn't just want Gale there to party. He had noticed Gale's lack of focus during the game, and if his mood the entire week was anything to go by, he was sure something was not right. Gale knew with certainty that Evan meant to grill him.

"Cool," he said, nodding.

"Good luck with coach," Evan said, then followed the last group of boys out of the room.

Left alone, Gale let his anger shine through and slammed his locker shut, the noise echoing all over.

"Do you know why we lost today, Anderson?" Coach asked, voice low, but he could as well as have been foaming at the corners of his mouth. Before Gale could think of an answer, he continued. "Do you know why we lost a home game? Home, and against the Panthers! That is the weakest team in the entire league, Anderson. And Tigers have never, never lost against them, ever! Do you want us to slip back to high school tournaments?"

Gale's head hung low, he muttered reply. "No Coach."

"We lost because you couldn't keep your head in the game, or am I wrong?"

"No Coach."

Coach leaned over the table and glared at him through a pair of glasses now perched on the bridge of his nose. "If I got a thousand bucks for every time you missed a carefully calculated pass from Scott, or Trevor, I wouldn't be stuck here in a dingy high school in the middle of nowhere."

Eden High wasn't exactly dingy, but Coach's point was well made...

"Those were passes that were meant to be assists, converted to goals. If Spencer had been available, you wouldn't have lasted a quarter of the first half on that pitch, do you get me?"

Gale nodded, then answered "Yes," careful not to infuriate the man further.

"There's no excuse for this, but still, do you have anything to say for yourself to explain why you provided the most lacklustre performance I've ever seen in my entire career? Like, maybe, you have lost the desire to be on my team?"

I have a major crush on a guy who at this moment in time is probably sat at a candle lit table in a nice restaurant, across my best friend. A crush, I think, is putting it mildly, it could as well pass off as an obsession. He is all I think about, I'm always looking to catch a glimpse of him, he's always in my dreams at night. And going into that game merely an hour after helping my best friend choose an outfit for her first date ever, with this same guy, I admit I wasn't in the best frame of mind to play.

But, of course, he said none of that.

"I shall not repeat it again, sir. I regret costing the team a win, I'm sorry."

Coach grunted in displeasure. "Is that so. Well then, you have to suffer the consequences, so that next time you'll remember your place on the field."

And that, was a promise Gale was a hundred percent sure Coach had no intention of breaking.

After he left the Coach's office, he walked through the empty quiet hallways of the school, feeling even more terrible than he had when he had lost the ball and the Panthers had launched a counter attack that had ended in the solo goal of the match. He had not only failed to score several times, he had also basically provided an assist to their rivals. He couldn't think of another day he had been that pathetic on the field.

A good player didn't let his personal issues burden him on field, and that was exactly what he had done. Instead of channelling his frustration into energy and going after the ball with all he could muster, he had let it do the opposite.

Maybe he needed a plan, that did not include pining after Matt like a little kid who couldn't get his favourite candy.

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Let's see just how far Gale goes with his ‘plan’.