Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Chase
I stepped into the locker room and grinned. The floor was covered in tiny, styrofoam balls. They floated across the floor every time anyone moved, or opened and closed a locker.
"Chase, you're an asshole," Bam growled. The biggest pile of styrofoam was right in front of his locker. Some of it was still in there. Okay, a lot of it.
"What makes you think I did it?" I asked innocently.
"The look on your ugly face when you stepped in the room." Bam pointed at me, eyes narrowed.
"Hawk was smiling too." I jerked a thumb at the quarterback.
Hawk raised his hands to either side. "Leave me out of this," he said. He stepped around a pile, to his locker. He swung it open and swore as another heap of the balls fell out at him.
I almost doubled over laughing at the look on his face.
"Bam is right." Hawk glanced in my direction. "You're an asshole." He shook his head but smiled before he pulled out a pair of socks and shook the balls off them. "If the coach sees this, you're dead meat."
"Only if he can prove it was me," I said.
One of the team staff was already vacuuming up the balls from the floor, a pissed off expression on her face.
Oops.
I opened my locker and stepped back, in case something jumped out at me, but nothing did.
Yet.
The locker room was usually quiet before a game, but I found a good laugh early on helped to relieve some of the tension. Now that was out of the way, we could focus on the task at hand—beating the Adelaide Emus.
A tough side, we'd beaten them before, and they'd beaten us.
It would come down to the better team on the day.
An easy win was great, but I loved it when the crowd was on the edge of their seats in suspense.
It was fun to play and better to watch. Way better than being creamed by a mile.
And by creamed, I mean… Yeah, you get it.
Not the good kind. Why did that make me think of Ashley?
Shit, now I was wondering how she'd taste.
This isn't real, I told my cock. The thought of her made him spring to attention. Think unsexy thoughts, like naked Bam. There, that did it.
"I was gonna tell you that Kyle is free," Bam said. "But then you pulled this little stunt."
I pulled a towel out of my locker. I liked to have a shower before the game, to loosen up my muscles.
"Were you really?" I asked, one eyebrow raised.
"No." Bam grinned. "I booked one in for me and one for Hawk, because he's my friend. Right, Hawk?"
Hawk grinned. "Yep."
"That's not nice, Bam," I said with a smile. We wouldn't be us unless we teased each other mercilessly.
"Leavin' your balls in my locker ain't nice," Bam said.
We all laughed.
"So, what's this about a new girlfriend?" Hawk asked.
Bam looked surprised. "New girlfriend? You over Brandi already?"
I shrugged with one shoulder and headed toward the showers. "A guy has to move on, sooner or later."
"True, but that's pretty soon," Bam said to my back.
"I'm taking lessons from you," I said over my shoulder. "Wham, Bam, thank you ma'am."
"That's not where the nickname comes from," he said before I closed the shower door and dumped my towel on the shelf beside it.
I turned the water on nice and hot and stripped off my sweats and t-shirt. While I luxuriated under the hot flow, I wondered how many other guys had stood right here over the years.
Hundreds, most likely. Each with the same thoughts in their head—the game. Whether they were about to play, or already had, it would be uppermost in their minds. I'd already pushed everything else to the corners to focus on what mattered.
Coach Quinn, and Coach Frank before him, always said that was the difference between high school football and playing in the pros. You had to want it more than anything. It had to be the most important thing in the world. Family, friends, daily life, that all comes later, after the game.
In the meantime, there was just here and now.
The water went cold.
I shouted out in surprise and leapt out. My foot slipped on the floor. I threw out my hand and slammed it against the wall to keep from falling. I barely managed to stay on my feet.
Someone laughed.
"Asshole," I called out, but my cool and calm was gone.
I muttered under my breath, turned off the water and dried myself. The cold had woken me up all right, but it would take time to get my headspace back.
Maybe Coach Quinn was right. Save the pranks for home, or out with the guys.
I wrapped the towel around my waist and headed out of the shower.
I glanced around, eyes narrowed, but no one looked my way. If anyone was waiting to see my reaction, I couldn't tell. Maybe there was just a problem with the water. The stadium was a big place. Things like that could go wrong.
I stepped back to my locker and started to dress. I had a routine for this. Underpants, pants, socks, padding, wraps, then my number eight jersey. My boots went on last.
I wasn't usually superstitious, but in this I very much was. Once in a while, I wondered if we'd play even better if I dressed in a different order, but I wasn't going to try it, just in case it backfired.
I didn't want to be the reason we lost, either through a prank or through a routine.
Coach Quinn stepped into the locker room.
He glanced my way, but soon turned his back and moved on.
For some reason, I had the impression he didn't like Hawk, Bam and I.
Maybe because we were all younger and better looking than he was.
And maybe because he didn't really like anyone.
Either way, we'd stopped trying to be friendly.
We stuck to professionalism after that; doing what he said and being polite, but nothing more.
At least he didn't bust my ass over the ball prank.
Yet.
"Warm up," Coach shouted. He nodded to Walker Lincoln, Ben 'Stringer ' Davis, Damon 'Fridge ' Wozniak and Henry 'Pinky' Innocenti.
Those four were as thick as me, Hawk and Bam.
Coach seemed to like them better than us, as much as he liked anyone.
Who said high school ended when we grew up?
Cliques happened everywhere, even here. Whatever, as long as they did their jobs.
"Time to cream us some Emus," Hawk said.
His words, together with the determined look on his face, was all the pep talk I needed.
I nodded once and followed him out onto the field.
The stadium was mostly full already. Cheers followed us as we trotted around, testing out the feel of the field and absorbing the atmosphere. It was electric as always. If the fans in the seats thought being here made their blood pump, it was nothing to being on the field itself.
Everything I did in my life led to this. Everything else stepped aside, forgotten until the game was over. At the end of the day, I left all of myself on the turf.
"So about this girlfriend." Bam caught up to me and we trotted side by side.
"Whatever you want to know," I said, "I don't have any answers right now."
"Right," he said slowly.
Hawk appeared on the other side of me, and Ollie Tucker, one of the Rapid's centres, on the other side of him.
"Bec will find out all the details, if you don't tell us," Hawk said.
"I didn't take her for a gossiper." I glanced at him, then back to the grass.
"It's not gossip, it's vital information," Bam said. "A couple of days ago, you were mooning over one girl. Now you're hookin' up with another. Even I don't move that fast."
"Yes, you do," I replied.
He paused for a beat. "Fine, I do, but you don't."
"Well, now I do." I trotted a little faster. If they knew what was really going on, they'd be rolling on the field laughing their asses off. They'd think I was an idiot at best and an ass at worst. Ashley and I were playing games, but it was a means to an end.
If Brandi and Kris realised we were worth their time, then no harm done.
Plus I liked spending time with Ashley. She was cute, smart and sexy as hell. And wanted to ride my bike with me. On the outside, she seemed quiet, reserved. I had a feeling under that, she was more like her grandmother than she knew.
Maybe I could work on her to get her own bike and we could go riding together.
Only— Brandi wouldn't like me spending that much time with another woman.
That might be something else I needed to work on.
Guys and girls could be friends, right? I might need to stop thinking about me being between her legs if I wanted that.
Down boy, I told my cock. Fortunately my guard covered any sign of my response to thinking about her naked, fingers rubbing over her own nipples.
Fuck.
I turned my face to the crowd and scanned the excited faces that looked back at me.
They were the reason I did all of this. Okay, it paid well too, but the kids who jumped up and down, the parents who smiled back and waved, even the people who came to support the Emus made the game what it was.
Without them, we'd have no one to beat. Nothing to fight for.
"The big question here," Hawk said as he caught up to me, "is how you got those balls in the lockers."
"The bigger question," Bam said, "is how we're going to get him back."
"You guys will get into trouble," Ollie warned.
"Only if we get caught," Bam replied. "Wanna help?"
Ollie grinned. "Sure. What's the plan?"
"We're not going to talk about it in front of Chase," Hawk said.
"Go ahead," I said. "I'm not listening." I wasn't stupid enough to think they would actually plan my downfall—not literally, with any luck—in front of me.
"Great, then you won't hear us plotting to talk to this, what's her name?" Bam asked.
"Ashley," Hawk supplied.
"Ah, Ashley." Bam nodded. "She'll spill all your secrets."
I snorted. She hardly knew me, much less all my secrets.
"We could tell her a few," Hawk said. "Remember the time we went for a run in the park and he slipped on dog crap? She'd love to hear about that. Especially the way he landed right in it."
Bam grinned.
"You tripped me," I retorted.
"Lies," Bam said with a chuckle. "You fell over your own feet. I don't know how you stay upright on the field."
Neither did I, to be honest. Once in a while I'd avoided a heavy tackle by losing my balance at the right moment, but I was usually graceful out here. Well, as graceful as a tall, heavy guy can be. I was no ballet dancer. Except that one time and that was for charity.
The things I did for a good cause.
"Luckily there's no dog crap here," I said. At least, there better not be. If there was, it would have been thrown from the crowd. Hopefully no one watching would do something so gross.
I scanned the stadium again and this time my eyes went to the box reserved for friends and family of the team. Many opted to sit in the regular seats and absorb the atmosphere with the rest of the crowd, but I knew Ashley and Bec watched from the box.
Hawk lifted his arm and waved in that direction. After a moment, I did the same.
We got a pair of waves in return.
I looked toward Hawk and took in the silly grin on his face. Oh yeah, he had it hard for Bec. That was great, she was good for him. I'd never seen him look so happy before. Good for him, he deserved it.
Most of the time.
A whistle sounded and we headed back to the locker room.
"It's time to kick some Emus all the way back to South Australia," Bam said. He put a hand on the cross tattooed on his neck and his lips moved.
I wasn't much into religious stuff, but for all I know, someone listened and let us win because he reached out and asked.
The Emus themselves headed back to their own locker room. I hadn't noticed them coming out onto the field. I really needed to focus better, because clearly I didn't have my mind on right, just now. Not noticing the other team, that wasn't like me at all.
I also didn't notice that as we walked off the field, I had the same silly grin on my face as Hawk.