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I nod, then give her a hug, wishing her all the best before heading in the opposite direction to my house.
I can’t believe this is happening. It’s just my fucking luck. But I don’t have time to let panic set in. I have to come up with a gameplan, and fast.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had to pivot and come up with a new plan, and it most likely won’t be the last. Unfortunately, I don’t have any money to fall back on this time, but I won’t let that derail me. I’m so close to having my dreams come true and I’ll do anything to make that happen. I’ve never let anything keep me down and I sure as hell won’t let this stop me. I’m a fighter and will handle anything the universe throws at me. I just kind of wish I didn’t have to keep fighting all the time.
CHAPTER TWO
RIO
My eyes are trained on the ball as I race toward my opponent, who is currently dribbling it down the pitch toward our net. With a swift kick, I steal the ball and then immediately pass it to BooBoo with a precision I’ve become known for over the last four years of playing for the Green Spring Koala’s soccer team. When I send a ball, it always goes exactly where I want it to. Unless someone intercepts it, of course. I’ve trained extremely hard to home in my aiming skills and become as good as I am. I very rarely am off these days, which makes everyone on the team happy.
BooBoo dribbles the ball across the field before passing it to Whiley, who scores us another goal seconds before the timer runs out.
“That’s how it’s done!” Whiley shouts as our entire team rushes toward him to celebrate the win.
We cheer, high-five, and bro hug before heading off the field for a briefing with our coach.
“Great job, boys,” Coach starts his speech when we are all gathered. “But we need to keep up the hard work. The season has only just begun, and I love the drive everyone already has, but we have a long road ahead of us. As much as we need you to continue to hone your skills and keep your bodies in peak condition, you also have to make sure your grades are up. The last thing we need as a team is to be dropping players because your priorities aren’t straight. I want all of you to have balanced lives, but if you want to bring home the championship win, your focus needs to be almost solely on school and soccer for the next three-ish months.”
I nod along to Coach’s words. Soccer has been my life since I was a child. Even when I was six years old, I gave it everything I had. Maybe that’s because the coaches on my team actually paid attention to me, unlike my parents.
I know how to prioritize my life to make sure I give my all to the sport. I haven’t been able to bring home a championship win since I started at Green Spring University, and this is my last year to do it. I’ve been so close so many times I could almost taste it. I don’t want it to fall through my fingers once again.
After coach gives us the go-ahead, we rush to the showers to get ourselves clean and changed so we can go home and study. Such is the life of a college athlete.
Some athletes have dreams of going pro, and while I thought that was the road I wanted to take when I first got to GSU, I’ve since changed my mind. To be honest, I’m not the best athlete out there, and my chances of going pro aren’t as good as some. I’m a good college soccer player, but there’s a difference between playing for a college team and going pro. But I had no idea what I wanted to do outside of soccer. When I started classes, I was still uncertain about what major I would take until I met with an advisor and found my love for teaching. It was like an ah-ha moment for me, and everything fell into place. When I graduate in the summer, I’m hoping to get a job at a high school as a gym teacher. I’ll be able to stay active but also guide young minds. Maybe I’ll even have the opportunity to coach a soccer team, which would make me beyond happy. I’d get to pass on all the knowledge I’ve learned over my years of playing.
I should start figuring out where I’m going to live when I graduate, but I don’t want to think about that right now. Maybe I’ll put more thought into it after the soccer season is over. I guess I could go home, but I don’t really want to do that. All that’s waiting for me there are parents who couldn’t give a shit about me and people I’d rather not see again. Which means I’m kind of a free agent and can go where my heart takes me. I just don’t have the slightest clue as to where that is at this moment.
Once I’m changed, I say goodbye to my teammates and make the short drive home to the apartment I share with my friends.
The radio is tuned to an oldies station playing a familiar tune as I travel down the road. I tap my fingers on the steering wheel and hum along to the song. The traffic isn’t bad tonight, but I honestly never mind if it takes me a bit longer to get home. I enjoy the time alone, jamming to some music, and forgetting everything else. Ever since I got my driver’s license at sixteen, I’ve always loved going for long drives to clear my mind. I’m pretty sure I got that love from my grandfather. He was the type of person to randomly go on a road trip just because.
A sense of longing fills my chest as my thoughts drift to my granddad. The summer he took me on a month-long road trip pops into my head, and a soft smile spreads across my lips. So many things went wrong on that vacation, but there wasn’t a day that I was sad. He taught me to take the lemons life gives you and turn them into lemonade. My grandad was more of a parent than my actual parents. I spent any free time I had with him. He would come to all of my soccer games, and he was my biggest supporter. Even when I told him that I thought I liked boys and girls he didn’t bat an eye. He simply told me love is love and it didn’t matter who I was attracted to as long as they treated me well.
He was the best man I ever met, and when he passed away when I was twelve, it hit me harder than I thought it would. After he died, I felt more alone than I ever had. My parents weren’t abusive, but they didn’t care, and that didn’t change after his passing. So, to say I was excited to leave that shit town and move to Green Spring, Michigan, would be an understatement.
I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment before slowly blowing it out. “I love you, PopPop,” I whisper, hoping that wherever he is, he can hear me.
“There’s the MVP,” Monster says when I open the door to our apartment.
I shake my head but that doesn’t stop a smile from spreading across my face. I love that my friends were free to come to my game tonight and witness our team kill it. I’ll do the same for Monster when baseball season starts. I would also do the same for our other roommate, Bronny, when his wrestling season begins, but he’s got a superstition about his friends watching him, so we respect that and don’t attend any of his matches.
I head straight to my room to drop my bag off and grab my textbook before joining my roommates in the living room, plopping onto the couch when I arrive.
“How’s studying?” I ask as I situate the pillows and get more comfortable.
Both Monster and Bronny are in the large comfortable recliners that are on either side of the living room. Monster has a pencil behind his ear, which pushes back some of his shaggy brown hair that is covering his forehead and poking into his eyes a little, but it doesn’t seem to bother him.
Bronny has a book in his lap and shrugs. “About as good as it normally goes,” he responds, groaning a little bit.
I chuckle. “Yeah, a part of me is excited to be finished with all the studying when I graduate.”
“But the other part is scared shitless that you’re going to be thrown into the real world and have to get a job?” Monster checks, making me laugh.
“That about sums it up.”
“Hopefully, I’ll get signed by the MLB and won’t have to worry too much,” he has this dreamy look on his face that he always gets when he starts thinking about playing professionally.
