Page 39 of Oar Than Friends

Normally, Will Norris, in what was a total contradiction to his fiery red hair, was one of the most affable guys I knew. Always cracking a joke, never in a bad mood, the perfect crewmate on my British squad; we shared a lot of laughs, along with our highly competitive spirit. But right now he was sporting an expression I’d never seen before – even when we’d lost to the Americans and had to take silver at the World Championships in a photo finish, he hadn’t looked as angry as he did currently.

Through the glass of his office, I could see Coach pacing up and down, phone to his ear and, from the colour of his face, doing his best impression of a volcano about to erupt at any moment.

I was on the verge of asking who he was talking to when the yelling started up again, but seven loud voices all shouting over each other made it almost impossible to decipher exactly what they were saying. Frank lowered his head, only for the bleeding to start up again, thick scarlet globs dropping onto the concrete floor. A broken chair, which looked like it had been snapped in two, had been kicked to the side.

‘Jesus,’ muttered Joshi.

Seven large strides and I was between Brooks and Norris, who were now glaring at each other.

‘Norris, what the fuck, mate? What happened?’ I placed my hand on his rigid shoulder.

He was about to answer when a voice by his feet snarled, ‘It was an accident.’

‘Bullshit, you saw me, you did it on purpose.’

‘No, I didn’t, you French prick! Butyouhitmeon purpose!’

‘And I’ll fucking do it again,’ Frank spat back.

‘ENOUGH!’ Coach yelled, his voice once more cutting through the noise like nails down a chalkboard, making everyone wince. It didn’t matter that every guy in the room was over six feet three inches, and two hundred pounds, when Coach spoke you listened.

I stepped back to join the boys I’d walked in with, and leaned into Drake. ‘What’s Coach even doing here?’

‘Dunno,’ he muttered.

‘You’re a bunch of goddamn children!’ he snapped. ‘God knows what would have happened if I hadn’t been passing! All the fucking lights on and I walk in to find you two behaving like you’re in a boxing ring and the rest about to join in. You could have been seriously hurt! You’re lucky you’re not concussed.’

He jabbed a thick finger at Frank and Brett Rogers; the latter I’m certain shrank back slightly. ‘You’re athletes, professional athletes. Start fucking acting like it. Both of you represent your countries, and more importantly your universities. We let you continue this heist in the spirit of competition, but it’s getting out of hand.’

Coach looked slowly around the room, his narrowed eyes pinning each of us for a second longer than necessary. I heard Charlie mutter something under his breath, but I wasn’t about to ask him to repeat it. He finally landed back on Norris.

‘That was your coach. We’ve agreed we will report this incident to the rowing federation. They came up with the rules, they can decide what to do when they’re broken.’

I saw several of the guys try to mask their horrified expressions, but no one argued otherwise.

‘Norris, take your men back to Cambridge.’

‘Yes, sir, and on behalf of the crew, I apologize for disturbing your evening.’

A couple of the Cambridge guys walked over and helped Brett Rogers stand up, supporting him as he hobbled out to the beat of Coach’s head shaking slowly at them in disgust. Will Norris nodded a goodbye to me, his mouth set in a hard line as he followed.

We barely heard the main doors shut before Brooks and Frank started up again, their voices loud in protest, only to be silenced again by Coach raising his hands.

‘Quiet. Jesus. One at a goddamn time, please! What the fuck happened?’ He looked at Frank who was still attempting to stem the blood flow from his nose, something made impossible by the fact he kept removing the shirt so he could protest his innocence. ‘One of you hold Frank’s head back, will you? I don’t need him collapsing from blood loss too.’

Joshi stepped in to assume the role, and Brooks began explaining.

‘We thought they’d try to take the mascots tonight, so Frank and I came down to catch them in the act … you know, because of rule one.’ Coach rolled his eyes but said nothing. ‘We heard them come in. I was in here, Frank was in the break room, and when we turned the lights on Brett Rogers was standing over there,’ Brooks pointed to the door. ‘Frank startled him, said something along the lines of, “You’ve been caught,” but then Rogers said, ‘Not if I knock you out, we haven’t,’ and punched him in the face. Frank rightly retaliated, and you walked in a minute later.’

Frank started mumbling loudly underneath the shirt,but couldn’t do anything because Joshi was holding his head, nor could any of us understand what he was saying in the first place.

‘It really wasn’t us, Coach.’

Coach folded his arms across his chest. His cheeks had gone from bright red to a slightly more approachable shade of pink, but from the way his jaw was clenching it was obvious this situation was far from over.

‘Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have been in here in the first place. You’re all as bad as each other,’ he growled. ‘Where are the mascots?’

Brooks winced, ‘They’re in your office, Coach. We put them on top of the bookshelves.’

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