Playing Rough

Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII ─ An Unexpected Visitor

[ M I C H A E L   G R I F F I N ]

I wiped the sweat off of my forehead as I strode into the locker room after practice, helmet clutched in my right hand.

Football practice had been unusually rough today, anger and frustration were prominently blazing on the field, the coaches weren't happy, the players weren't happy. Nobody was happy today.

I didn't know whether or not everyone in East and West Aredale started hating Tuesdays all of a sudden, but it sure seemed that way. I was pleasantly surprised that a fight didn't break out between the two teams, and while we still had time for that, it seemed unlikely.

I was a dirty and sweaty mess after practice, some West player crashed into me with such force, I thought I'd for sure have a broken limb, fortunately, I was only left with a couple of bruises, nothing too serious and nothing out of the ordinary when it came to playing football. It's exactly the reason why we had such intricate gear on the field.

The last four days have been a little dicey for me, my mind kept involuntarily drifting back to Bryan, I couldn't get him out of my head. Every time his name echoed in my head I started to feel nervous, I hadn't heard from him since that Friday afternoon - not that I expected to, we don't even talk - but I was dying to know whether or not he was holding up well.

With less than a week left before our football camp, I wondered whether or not Bryan would come with us, I hoped he did. He hasn't been to practise two days in a row, but it felt as if nobody but I noticed.

I walked up to my locker and opened it, immediately rummaging through the mess, hoping to find my phone. When I found it, I pressed the lock button and examined the lock screen, I had a couple of Twitter moment notifications, a random suggestion for YouTube and one text from Ash. Naturally, that was the one I focused on.

Hey, wanna go out for lunch after your practice? Received, 4:13 PM.

I smiled at her message, I thought I would have nothing to do for the day, but Ash yet again solved that problem for me.

I was about to type up a response, but I stopped when I heard Coach Kyle calling my name. "Is Michael in the locker room?" He asked a few guys and they immediately pointed to me.

I raised an eyebrow at Kyle as I closed my locker, patiently waiting for him to approach, my phone comfortably resting in my hand. "Need anything, coach?" I pondered when Kyle was close enough. I had resorted to calling Kyle coach, even if he wasn't my true team coach.