Page 43 of Punt

He grinned. "I'm ordinary. I'm just a guy who plays football, but I can't go anywhere without being stared at." His smile faded to a grimace.

"Sucks to be us," I said with a sigh. We had everything we ever wanted, but sometimes it wasn't what I thought it would be. The football side of it was. That and more. I never expected my personal life to be such a mess. Sometimes I wondered what life would be like if I worked in a shop, selling tires or something.

Without football, Ollie would still get stared at wherever he went. With any luck, he'd appreciate what he had before he lost his hair and put on weight, or whatever.

On the other hand, it was his face. He could feel about it whatever he wanted to.

"Sometimes I think it sucks to be us," Bam said as he jogged past. "Then I check my bank account and think, hell yeah. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else."

"Do you have any other skills?" I teased.

He slowed to a walk. "I can change a tyre," he said. "I can rock the catwalk, according to Ashley."

"She said that?" Ollie asked. He looked sceptical.

"Well, not those exact words, but that was what she meant," Bam said, undeterred.

"Sure." Ollie drew out the word. "What did she really say?"

Bam gave him a sidelong look. "She said 'well done.' What's it to ya?"

"She said that to all of us," Ollie said.

"Yeah," Bam puffed out his chest. "But when she said it to me, she meant it."

"Keep telling yourself that," Ollie said. "She told me I should model professionally when I was done playing ball."

Bam sagged slightly. "She didn't say that to me." He brightened up a little. "I'm sure she was thinking it."

"Can we stop talking about Ashley?" I growled.

"You two broke up already?" Bam turned his face to frown at me. "That's a record, even for you."

"They weren't together," Ollie said, before I could respond. "Not really."

Bam's eyebrows shot up.

I explained in as few words as I could.

"So she got what she wanted and I'm officially done with women," I said. "If I even look at one, poke out my eyes or something."

"Naw. You need your eyes to catch the ball," Bam said. "Keep 'em in until you retire. Then you can do what you want."

"Thank you, that's very generous of you," I said sarcastically. I picked up my water bottle and took a sip before I realised Bam was staring at me.

A bitter taste hit my mouth. I twisted around and spat out the mouthful on the grass. "What the hell?"

Bam burst out laughing. "I figured you could use a little lemon juice to cleanse your insides. Hawk says it's good for you." He nodded toward the quarterback who was on the other side of the field.

I doubted he'd said anything like that, but from the grin I could make out from here, Hawk was in on the joke too.

"Assholes," I muttered. I tipped the rest out on the grass and picked up an unopened bottled water.

"That's us," Bam said proudly. "Don't you forget it."

"How could I?" I asked. "You remind me every chance you get." I cocked my head at Ollie, who sniffed his own drink bottle.

"You too, huh?"

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