The Final Score

Prologue

Jack

I learned how to smile when you feel like crying when I was twelve years old.

There’s an ache in your cheeks that forms when you hold a smile for too long when it isn’t meant to be there, and for most of my life, I’ve come to know that ache intimately. That ache means that the world can’t see that I’m hurting, means that I’m being strong for the people who need me to be.

That ache means I’m still pushing through, even when I don’t want to sometimes.

Kind of like how I feel right now.

“What do you mean I ‘might not be able to play anymore’?”

My fingers brush against my throbbing arm, an ache there that is not unlike the one I feel from smiling when I feel like crying.

But I’m not smiling now.