“You planning on going out after?”Jax asked, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
“Not sure.” I peeled off my gloves and threw them on the bench. Frustration was still simmering under my skin after getting grilled during that press conference and nearly coming to blows with Brunner, one of our defensive linemen. He was built like a brick house with a mouth loud enough to match. We sparred during every practice, each of us turning it into a contest of who would piss whom off first.
“What’s your holdup?” he asked, closing his locker hard enough to make it rattle.
“We have an early morning practice.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “Dude, that’s at ten.”
“It’s still early,” I said, pulling my shirt over my head. The locker room smelled like sweat, and I couldn’t wait to shower and get the hell out of here.
He tossed a towel into a bin a few feet down. “You don’t need to be Mr. Responsible all the time. All you do is go home, watch film, sleep, and repeat.”
Spoken from the guy who treated life like one big tailgate party. Jax had this annoying ability to cruise through life, never taking anything too seriously.
“I just don’t feel like going out tonight.”
Truth was, I wasn’t just worried about the drinks. This wasn’t just another season for me. I had a lot to prove and too much pressure from management and the fans not to fuck up.
Jax took a sip of his water bottle and pointed it at me. “You turn down every invite. You never go out anymore. Like ever.”
“He’s right,” Ryder called out from a few lockers down. He was already dressed in jeans and a hoodie. “Besides, I need someone there tonight who won’t let me make any bad decisions.”
I shook my head. “That’s not my job.”
“Technically, it is,” Jax cut in. “You are the team captain. It’s your job to keep everyone in line.”
“Tell that to Coach,” I muttered, and sat down on the bench, bracing my elbows on my knees. I needed a minute to let the post-practice adrenaline simmer down. Training camp wasn’t for the weak; that was for damn sure.
“Speaking of Coach, you guys were going at it again today,” Jax said, leaning against the wall. “What is all that about?”
“Nothing.”
“Didn’t look like nothing.” Ryder came over and plopped down next to me on the bench. “You looked two seconds away from strangling him with his whistle.”
“He was just trying to light that fire in me. You know how it is.”
That wasn’t exactly a lie. What they didn’t know was how he got in my grill, telling me that my footwork looked like shit, that I was hesitating too long, and that my ball release point was off. I was quiet and took it all in, never giving him the satisfaction of letting him know he was grinding my gears. Some people wouldchalk it up to another practice, where I knew it was another opportunity to prove to him that I could do the job. Or keep pissing him off, depending on how you looked at it.
“Just come out. Even for one drink.” Ryder bumped his shoulder against mine. “You don’t have to stay all night and close the place down.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Jax rolled his eyes and pointed to Ryder. “Well, that sounds like a big fat no.”
“You guys are being dramatic.”
I should have known saying no would turn into a full-blown intervention.
“Actually,” Jax put his hands on his hips, “it’s facts. You never showed up at Ari’s barbecue last weekend.”
I scoffed. “Ari lives in an apartment.”
He stuffed his water bottle into his gym bag. “So, it’s a nice apartment, and he had it catered.”
I exhaled. “I can’t afford to be seen out partying right now. The last thing I need is for the fans to think that I’m not locked in.”
People were always watching. So, I couldn’t let them drag me into some dumb plan, just because it sounded fun to them.
