Page 6 of Fair Catch
“That’s even worse!” I hissed.
“Don’t worry,” he said on a laugh. “I shut it down. The last thing I need is any of these college hotties thinking I’m tied down by the likes of you.”
His eyes crawled over me then, and the curl of his lips ignited my rage. I wound up to punch him in the arm, but he caught my fist easily, lowering his voice and stepping closer.
“This isn’t Hollis High anymore, Novo,” he said, calling me by my last name like he and the rest of our previous team did. “This is college ball. You’re going to need a friend.”
His voice was so low, his eyes so sincere that for a split second I saw the boy I grew up with. I saw summer days in our backyard and winter nights around our fireplace. I saw the boy who protected me at all odds, just like Gavin, who went from just my brother’s friend to my friend and then… to something else.
But one blink, and I saw my brother in that hospital bed, Zeke’s head hanging low as he told me everything that had happened on the night he gambled with my twin’s life.
“You’re not my friend,” I spat. “You’re my brother’s friend — and why you’re even still that is beyond me.”
He swallowed, and I didn’t miss the flinch from my words, but I also didn’t care if they hurt.
I meant them.
Ripping my arm from his grasp, I picked up my helmet. “Stay out of my way unless you’re catching the ball I’m kicking,” I warned.
Then I jogged across the field to where Coach had just blown the whistle.
Zeke
Every inhale filled me with another rush of adrenaline, the buzz of it intoxicating as we all took a knee on the field, Coach in the center of the group, his sunglasses firmly in place and jaw set. One by one, players jogged down from the other side of the field or out from the locker room and joined the group, one hundred and five of them, to be exact.
And only eighty-five would remain at the end.
In my mind, there was no scenario in which I wasn’t one of them. I’d prepared my entire life for this moment — and truthfully, I didn’t even see it as that big of a deal. Sure, it was a change. There was more talent in that team than I’d played with or against my entire career as a player. But since my parents thrust a football into my hands at the age of three and put me on a peewee team, I knew I’d be here.
And I also knew it was only a steppingstone to the National Football League.
Still, I was alive with the promise that the familiar fall scent brought me, the promise that soon, I’d be jogging out onto the field in pads and playing the game that fueled my soul.
Football wasn’t just a part of my life.
It was my life.
And fall camp at North Boston University was the beginning of my next chapter in the game.
“Welcome to camp,” Coach Sanders said simply, sniffing and tucking his tablet under his arm as he addressed the team. “I’ll slash your expectations now and tell you that I don’t have some grand speech planned to inspire you today. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you’re inspired. Today, and for the next month, you’re here to prove to me that you understand your job, and that you can get it done.”
A smile curved on my lips, excitement thundering in my chest.
“I want to be clear about one thing: I will show no mercy in these coming weeks. New policies may prevent me from having you for two-a-days like I’d prefer, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be utilizing every second of every day. Practice, weights, speed, tape, meetings,” he said, counting each item on a new fingertip. “You’ll be lucky to have enough time to eat and shit before you’re expected to be somewhere else.”
A few of my potential teammates laughed, but I knew Coach was dead ass serious. I was still friends with the guys who graduated ahead of me, the guys who played college ball now. They weren’t shy with their sentiment of how tough camp was, and they weren’t even at D-1 schools like NBU.
Their stories of how grueling camp could be should have scared me, but it was what I was most excited for.
For the next month, it didn’t matter that I had a learning disorder, that reading and comprehending was difficult for me on most days and impossible on others. I wasn’t expected to be in class or doing homework or doing anything other than eating, sleeping, and breathing football.
It was my time to shine.
On the other side of Coach, my eyes caught on Riley as she tightened her ponytail, her eyes focused, lips in a taut line. She held her shoulders back, chest puffed, determination etched in every feature.
