Page 20 of Count On Me

Then a thought screeches into my head: she didn't want to see me. She was too busy for me. Doing what? Or who? Nope, she was working, she told me so.

Coach’s whistle blows sharply as I stumble and lose my footing, face planting on the turf. With no energy to move, I lay face down in the grass. I feel Coach's presence looming above me before I hear him.

“You’re in a sorry state, Brady. You’re wasting an opportunity that millions of kids your age would give anything for. You’re talented, you’re fast and strong, but your attitude stinks. Sort it out or you’ll never get a regular spot. And you’re too talented to be a benchwarmer your entire career. Tidy this shit up. I’m going home.”

I lay in the same spot, trying to catch my breath, feeling completely depleted. How the fuck did I get here? And why the fuck was Edie too busy to see me?

Laying on the sofa, my muscles aching after the tortuous training session, I scroll through video after video on social media. When a redheaded bombshell appears in front of me, I gasp and drop the damn phone on my face. Cursing loudly, and thanking my lucky stars Mama isn’t here to hear me, I rub the bridge of my nose.

Sitting up straight and ignoring my moaning muscles, I stare at Edie’s frozen figure on my screen. She wasn’t working last night. She was out dancing on bars and living her best life, without a care in the world for me.

And who can blame her? I’ve done it enough times to her. But, fuck, I don’t like this.

I hit the play button, mesmerised by the sway of her hips to the beat of the music. Her lips mouth the words to the song with such passion, and when Angie pans around the bar, I can see every guy’s hungry eyes on her.

Red hot anger pulses through my veins. I can’t stop watching even though the throb in my jaw from clenching my teeth together is aching. I run my hand through my hair and tug the strands a little. I need to do something, and I know she won’t answer yet. She’ll be upset by those stupid pictures even if she pretends she’s not. So I call the other people in the world who can make me smile at a time like this and won’t rip me a new one like my brothers. Mama and Pops.

“Hi, Mama. You okay?” I say to my laptop screen as my mom’s face appears in front of me. I offer a small smile, but thelook of concern etched on her brow makes me look sheepishly down at the keyboard instead.

“Oh, you better lower your head, boy. Why the hell was I woken up in the middle of the night by an alert of you making headlines with some little skank draped all over you? You’re never gonna get a first team place if you don’t fix your image. Coach’ll bench you just to make a point. You know this. What’s going on with you? Why aren’t you with Edie, Son?”

I heave out a sigh and bring my head up to face the screen, repeating the lie I’ve been clinging to for as long as I can remember. “Eddie and I are just friends, Mama. She went out and had fun of her own.” She raises her brow at me and purses her lips together. Her arms fold over her chest and she just gives me that Mom look. No words needed. “Come on, Mama. We are. Don’t look at me like that.” After maintaining her stare for a few extra moments, she suddenly flips the camera and walks over to the tree in our yard. Before flipping the camera back to her face, she walks around the base and shows me the heart I carved in the trunk when I was sixteen. ‘Jaxy + Eddie 4Eva.’

I blow out a breath in frustration and try to explain I wrote that because she’ll be my friend forever, but even I know that’s a weak-ass lame excuse. I wrote that because even then I loved her. And knowing she was leaving Syracuse to go back to the UK was breaking my heart. I needed something of her there with me. Even if it was just her damn name.

Thankfully Pops appears next to Mama and nudges her arm, breaking her eye contact with me and saving me from having to explain myself. I offer him a smile in thanks.

“Don’t you smile at me, boy. I ain’t happy with you either. You’re ruining that career of yours you were so eager to run away toandscrewing any chance you’ve got with our Edie. How long is it going to take for you to get it through your thick skull? Agood woman makes your dick hard, not your damn life. And all these hookups are doing is making everything else hard for you.”

“I mean it goes both ways though, Jaxson.” Mama’s voice takes my shocked and slightly horrified gaze away from Pops and brings it to her, hoping for some wise words of wisdom. But instead I get, “A good man smears your lipstick not your mascara. And while I don’t want to think of you and Edie like that, you should be smearing her lipstick more…”

I groan loudly and miss the rest of what my mom is saying. “Please, I’m begging you, both of you, stop. Where did you even get those phrases from? I need to bleach my darn ears out.”

“TikTok,” Pops says through his grin. “Sometimes you find a hidden gem like that baby, but most of the time it’s a crock of shit. Been waiting a while to use that one though.”

“Remind me to block that app from your phones the next time I see you. Or even better, I’ll get Jenson to mess your algorithms up so you only see knitting and fishing videos instead of ones that make me need to bleach my ears out?”

Actually, Jenson would probably send worse links and I’d be the one getting unsolicited advice from them. He’s only a year older than me and thinks it’s his job to keep Mama and Pops up to date with technology. He also thinks its fucking hilarious to show Mama how to put notifications on her phone for every time I pop up online.

Jensen’s the golden boy of pro ball in our home town of Syracuse. Jameson’s the more reserved out of the three of us. You have to get him drunk before he really lets loose. And he rarely drinks, except for a beer here and there when all three of us are together. Then we’re enough to cause a headache to the nice people of Syracuse.

And that’s when Penny doesn’t join us. Our neighbour/sister from another mister. She comes across as a sensible girl,someone who’ll keep us all in check, and while she does do that, she also knows how to let her inner ‘Brady’ out as well.

Mama and Pops moved to Upstate New York after getting married, mainly for the smaller schools, and have stayed ever since. Penny and her dad Hank were an added bonus they weren’t expecting, but any way to grow our family and they’re all for it. I used to wonder if they’d move away when we all grew up, but I doubt they ever will now.

Shit, I miss them. I haven’t physically seen Mama, Pops, Jameson or Penny for a couple years now. Jenson came out to London a year ago to play a game over here. It was amazing. They played at Heath Hampstead’s stadium and I not only got to spend time with my brother, I got to share the home of my game with his.

He was always the most supportive of me when I wanted to play soccer instead of football. Probably because he didn’t want me as competition, but still. It’s been too long since I’ve spent any real time with my family. Gramps’s watch catches my eye, telling me I still have time, and a small smile plays on my lips. He always gave the best advice.

“Hello… where’d you go? We lost you there, Son,” Pops bellows into the screen and I realise I zoned out on them.

“Sorry guys, I spaced out. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. And training was a bitch.” I wince as soon as the words are out of my mouth and I’m hit with a scowl from Mama. “Sorry,” I mumble but she's already barking more questions so I doubt she hears it.

“I wonder whose fault that is! Have you spoken to Edie today?”

“No, Mama. I texted her yesterday. She’s busy working.” I hope that’s all it is. That she needed some time away from me and isn’t gonna go AWOL on me again. The last time she didwas a nightmare. I couldn’t function properly and was out all the damn time.

I’ve changed since then. Yeah, I still go out, but it’s not all the time. I'd rather sit in with her and Angie, watching old films and eating ice cream. And I don’t pick up women now.

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