Nathan Northwood is simply living the perfect life every teenage boy dreams of. He is rich, handsome, captain and star player of the basketball team, could have any girl he wants and is basically the king of EverGreen High. However, Nathan wears a c...
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NATHAN
The day of practice went by quickly and it was already Saturday, the day of the game. Anxiety had wrecked my nerves completely when I was still in the locker room with the guys. The guys, on the other hand, were fired up and ready to take down the school we were up against this evening.
Like before every game, I locked myself in the bathroom, gripped the edge of the sink and clenched my jaw as my teeth scraped against each other. When my vision swam, I counted my breaths. Slowly when my vision cleared up, I stared at myself in the mirror.
I absolutely despised looking in the mirror.
"Puny, unwanted, weak and not good enough," the demon whispered, its words echoing in my darkened mind as my bottom lip trembled.
I had to play better than last time. I had to be better than the last time. I was going to make dad proud for once. I had to be better. I just had too.
I used to love basketball. I loved being a leader, a part of a team. It created this common community where we all were champions. Basketball filled my life with meaning, but now when my feet touched the basketball ground, anxiety bubbled up inside of me, trashing my nerves bit by bit. A knot twisted in my stomach and my throat felt dry, fingertips slightly twitching. And suddenly, being the star basketball player of the town didn't fill my life with much meaning anymore. It was just emptiness and it weighed more than rocks.
However, today in particular when I saw Hope jump up from the bleachers and hold up a huge white poster with the words Go, Goldie! written in golden letters the moment the boys and I jogged through the doors and out to the school gym, I felt this sudden reassurance followed by motivation settle inside of me.
Plus, the poop emoji she had horribly drawn at the end was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen.
"That's fucking cute, dude," Cody jogged next to me with a huge grin on his face. "I mean, I totally know that girls and boys can be friends, but that chick is so into you, you don't even you know."
Bree jogged up to my other side in her white and green cheerleader uniform, wiggling her eyebrows so wildly I almost thought they'd fly off her forehead. "So poop emoji flirting is in now. I wanna try that."
"Fuck off and keep your head in the game, you two," I said as we approached our coach while the cheering and applause from the audience filled the gym.
Cody laughed and slapped me on the back while Bree couldn't stop squealing with her pom-poms as we met up with the coach. I glanced at Hope one more time and she had the biggest smile on her face that I genuinely thought her face would shatter.
