AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What if I was? What’d be so funny about that? What’s so funny about having a boyfriend?” Ellis took another step in his direction, putting them nose to nose. Howser didn’t step back, but you could tell he wanted to. “Nothing. You’re just a real unfunny guy.”
“What the fuck’s your problem? I wasn’t even talking to you.”
“Yeah, you were. You talk to anybody on this team, you’re talking to me. I don’t like it, I‘m gonna come for you. That goes for all of you,” he said, looking around. “Fucking believe it.”
“Hey! What’s going on in here?” Coach T shouted, coming out a minute too late to catch anything.
“Nothing, Coach,” Ellis said, stepping back. “Just reminding Howser teams stick together, they don’t turn on each other for laughs.”
“You done?” Coach asked him.
“Yeah, I’m done.”
“Good. Because everybody listen the fuck up. Not sure I’ve ever said this before, but Ellis is right. This is ateam.Not a bunch of individuals who just happen to show up to the same game. You all know the difference between talking trash and being a trash person, and I want you to remember it. You wanna call somebody slow or sloppy or stupid on the field, that’s one thing. But you don’t go after each other. You don’t make it personal. Nobody needs your fucking commentary. When one of us is having it rough, we’re all having it rough, so we stick the fuck together and we bring each other up, we don’t tear each other down. We have each other’s backs. Period. We all clear on that?”
He looked around at all of us, landing on me a minute, and it seemed like maybe some of that speech was directed my way. Maybe it was an apology, or as close as I’d ever get to one from a teacher, and I didn’t need it, didn’t really care, but I guess I’d just keep taking whatever fell in my lap tonight.
“Yes, Coach,” we all barked out, slapping our helmets to get pumped up, and he nodded.
“Okay. Then let’s pull ourselves togetheras a fucking teamand send those Ollie motherfuckers home in a body bag!”
* * *
Body bag was a little ambitious, it turned out.
Walker and Ellis were wobbling hard, looking like two guys who’d just met. Ones that could be a great match one day but didn’t quite have it yet. We knew it, the crowd knew it, and the guys diving headfirst into Ellis’s ribs definitely knew it.
He’d scored one more time, catching a deep pass, way too deep, that he’d made a killer dive for, showed us the nasty turf burn all up his side, muddy and bleeding and amping him up. But Maxie missing the extra point and Ollie answering back with a bomb and a cherry of their own put us down by one at the sixty, with the ball and twelve seconds left.
Walker was sweating buckets and Ellis was hobbling, and nobody was feeling good about anything when we burned our last time out just to scream at each other.
I looked over to the sidelines where Caleb had moved from his original spot in the bleachers, to a closer spot, then up to the fence, and had finally ended up in the open gate where no one was supposed to stand, but the booster parents did, especially when the score was tight. He was taller than all of them, and he looked tense, I thought, even though I was sure he wasn’t following much but the scoreboard.
Jesus, I wanted to win. For Walker and for Ellis and for me, but really for him. I wanted him to see that score flip and know it was at least partly because of him. At least partlyforhim. I wanted to head out to the parking lot beat up and exhausted fromwinninggoddamnit. After all this we fuckingdeservedit.
“Give me the ball,” Howser yelled over the noise. “Give me the fucking ball, you guys don’t have it, they all know it, you’re not fooling anybody.”
“Fuck you, Howser.” Ellis leaned over and spit on the ground, looking beat. “Think you’re fooling anybody? We all know what happens when you get out there. Catch and freeze. You’re a fucking cold. How’s that—”
“He’s right,” Coach said. “You two are on shaky ground, Ollie knows it and they’re gonna bury you, we can’t keep doing this, we gotta work around it, no choice. Howser, go deep.”
Ellis got all his energy back in one burst of rage. “But, Coach—”
“We’re going Candy Crush,” Coach said, swirling his finger in the air as he barked out the play, and I laughed out loud.
“Fuckno,” Howser said, and I legit thought he was gonna walk off the field. “Hellno.”
“You been yelling all game you want the ball. You want it? You wanna be a team player, here’s your play, smart ass, take it or get the fuck out,” Coach told him, turning to look at Walker, who nodded. “Drain the clock, we do this and we go home. Ellis?”
“Oh yeah. I’m ready. I amready,” Ellis said, smashing his helmet back on, his readiness fucking bursting out of him. “Play’s made for you, Howser. Don’t drop my ball, now.”
* * *
I was pretty sure Ollie’s line thoughtthey were taking Walker out. That they could drive him back, sack him, head home without ever letting him make another pass.
Wasn’t happening.
I bent low, waiting for the snap, and when Evergreen’s three-hundred-pound body came for Walker, fast and heavy and dead on, I slammed my shoulder hard into his thigh, didn’t just push him back, but took him out, and took another Ollie with us, tripping him up, landing in a heap that knocked the wind out of me hard, ripped a line of fire up the back of one calf when I got bent and tangled in the mess.
