One For The Money [REWORKED]

TWENTYTHREE {Deep In The Night}

"Makes It That More Marvelous"

{Blake's P.O.V}

My legs burned and my arms ached.

I drew the ball up, and relisted it. I envisioned the arch, the swoosh, and how it would fall back down to the ground. But when it left my hands, it went straight to the rim and made a harsh bounce back to the other side of the gym.

I eternally groaned. I was exhausted. I wanted to be done, but I couldn't get myself to leave the practice facility no matter how long I pushed myself to exhaustion.

The season had just started up, and we were nowhere near where we needed to be. It was 11:32 pm, and everyone had gone home, except for me. I didn't know what else to be doing with my time other than to be here. What would I do at home? Sleep? Waste my time?

I slowly treaded to the back of the gym where my ball was, forcing my legs to move every step of the way because they wouldn't do it all by themselves. There was a small rough spot of pain in my knee, it had made its self at home recently, and slowing things down just a bit.

I was no stranger to injuries, and this wasn't even on the scale of bad. I've had issues with my knee for years, I was used to a slight discomfort from time to time. I had talked to our trainers and therapist at the arena about it, and it wasn't a concern that they thought we needed to dwell on for too long.

I was only just a step away from the orange rubber ball at the other side of the gym until I heard a: "Mr. Griffin!"

The voice almost startled me, as I thought it was just me and a janitor or two left in the building. But I was wrong. It was Tom.

I grab the ball and turn around, he stood in the doorway smiling with his arms crossed as he leaned on the door frame.

"It's a little late to still be practicing, don't you think?" He asks.