Testing My Feelings

Chapter 4

*PHEWWWWWW!!!!!!!! PHEW!!! PHEWWW, PHEWWWWWW!!!!!*

The referee aggressively blew his whistle, running over while reaching to his pocket.

And there it was....a red card, held high in the air by the referee.

"Oh my god..." I cried out.

"I had heard that our opponent played dirty but...I didn't think they'd resort to something like that..." Connor said, shocked.

Medics ran out on to the field, where Josh's body lie quivering on the turf field. His ankle, looked as if it was bent sideways. The medics, carried him off the field, out of sight.

"Where will they take him?! I have to see him!" I demanded from him.

"The first aid room, most likely, but..." he answered.

"Bring me to there! Please!"

"Alright. Alright!" Connor reluctantly agreed.

We got up and left our seat and Connor brought me over to the first aid room. It was a pretty far walk as it was basically on the other side of the stadium from where we were.

"Alright Andrew, here we are." Connor told me, as we stood in the threshold of the doorway to the first aid room.

"You sure this is the right..." I began to ask him.

"Hey Connor," a voice from the room called out. "Over here, behind the curtain...I know you're there. I can see you in the mirror."

"Um, Andrew, what should we do?" frightened, Connor whispered to me.

"We?? I'm pretty sure the voice called you."

"Oh wow, thanks a lot for the support."

"Oh no problem. Let's just go over and see who it is," I suggested.

Connor and I walked over to the curtain. I slowly pulled the curtain back to reveal the person hiding behind it. There, we found Joshua, lying on a cot. His dark brunette hair was all ruffled up. He seemed surprised to see us at first.

"Hey Connor," Joshua said. "And...is that you Andrew?" Joshua said to me with a confused look on his face.

"Yea, it's me. We're in a couple of the same classes together, like English." I responded.

"I know, but I didn't know you were on the school's soccer team."

"Well...I'm not actually on the school's team. I only do rec soccer with the local club."

"Then why are you wearing that uniform?" he questioned me.

"That's not important right now. What is important is you. Are you okay?"

"Yea. We saw what happened on the stadium's TV system. That was a pretty dirty tackle," added Connor.

"Well, my ankle hurts quite a bit, but I'm fine," he answered.

"I don't suppose you can walk?" I asked.

"Um...Well...No, not really...I can't..." Josh answered.

"Ha ha. Then I don't think you can say that you're fine." I jokingly told him.

"Yea, you're right. They told me that I'll probably be out for the rest of the Fall season."

"Ohh, that sucks. If you ever need or want anything, just let me know."

"Okay. Sure I will," Josh responded.

"Josh, you seemed surprised to see us before. Why?" asked Connor.

"Well, I didn't expect anyone to come and visit me until at least the game was over." answered Josh.

"Oh, Andrew insisted that we check on you."

"Well, that's thoughtful of you two."

"Hey Joshua, you want to hang out on Saturday?" I asked.

"Sure," he responded.

"Okay, what's your number? I'll text you tomorrow to find out what you want to do on Saturday."

"848-588-9234. That's my number," he told me.

"Alright. I have a soccer game on Saturday but we can hang out and do something after my game." I explained to Joshua.

"Sounds good to me, Andrew."

I had finally had the opportunity and courage to ask josh to hang out with me. I've been trying to do it for weeks now. Although I really just did it impulsively with out thinking about what I was doing.  I suppose that made asking him much easier.

*PHEW!!! PHEWWW, PHEWWWWWW!!!!!*

We heard the final whistle blow and the three of us turned and looked to the stadium TV in the room. Belden lost six to four. It seemed like losing Joshua really affected the team.

"Gosh. That sucks," I said with a look of disappointment on my face.

"I guess their dirty little plan to win worked and destabilized our team by taking out the star player and captain, me. Not to sound full of myself or anything, but it's true," Josh had added.

"Yea, you're right," agreed Connor.

*BZZZT!*

 My phone went off. "Connor, we better get going. My mom is waiting in the parking lot for us."

"Alright," Connor answered.

"I guess we'll see you tomorrow Josh," I said to Josh with uncertainty.

"I don't think I'll be there tomorrow," Josh confessed.

"Well that's certainly understandable," I assured him.

"See you guys later! Thanks for coming to check in on me!" he shouted as Connor and I were leaving.

"So Connor, I guess you should go get your stuff from the locker room. I'll wait for you in the parking lot." I suggested.

"Alright."

I headed down to the parking lot while Connor went and got his belongings from the locker room.