Page 42 of Breaking Free

After practice is over, Coach calls me to the side.

“How you doin’ Hernandez?”

“Everything’s good, Coach.”

“Your mom?”

“Better, I think.”

“And you?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re making friends easily, I see. The guys seem to like you.”

“Mostly,” I answer with a grin. “I’m doin’ good, Coach.”

He pats me on the shoulder as he walks off. “Good.”

Inside, as I’m about to step into my shower, Trevor walks past me. “Did Coach tell you you were starting on Friday, or what?”

My brows furrow. “What’re you talking about?”

“I’m assuming it’ll be you and Deshawn on the field Friday night.”

“Assume what you want, Campbell,” I say, hanging my towel on the hook.

“You get in here because you’re friends with the coach? Does your family have connections? I heard him ask about your mom.”

“Why don’t you just shut the fuck up about my mom. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He jerks back at my anger, but his face settles into a scowl soon after. “You wanted to talk shit about me being rich and having a house, but you have people getting you into better colleges because of a game of whose parents know who.”

I turn and face him. “If that was the case, why wouldn’t I have come here in the first place? Just stop, Campbell. It’s embarrassing at this point.”

“Fuck you.”

I laugh before stepping out of my underwear and walking into the shower stall. “You wish.”

19

I don’t talkto Trevor the rest of the week. He does his best to ignore me, but I think Jay’s starting to become suspicious, because he tries talking to us both, but the tension is obvious. He asked if we got into a fight, but I shrugged and told him I didn’t know him well enough to fight with him.

He guessed it might have to do with who will be starting, and I let him believe that. And on Thursday, Coach informed me I’d be starting with Deshawn. Usually, only one running back is in during a play, but sometimes there’s two. He may switch us out, but unless one of us gets hurt, Trevor likely won’t play in our first game.

On Friday evening, before we hit the field for the game, Jay runs up to me. “Hey, Matthew is in the stands tonight. Who knows where, but he said he was coming. Guess he wants to try out those positions.” He laughs, hitting my arm before he puts his helmet on.

“Good. Hopefully I have something to celebrate.”

“For real,” Jay says before running ahead.

A few seconds later, Trevor passes me up, meaning he was probably within earshot the whole time.

“Campbell,” I call out.

He keeps walking, and I don’t have it in me to fight with him, so I let him go.

* * *

---