Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Fuck conditioning training
Ryker
Fuck conditioning training. Seriously. We had a game tomorrow. If Coach was purposely trying to exhaust our bodies, he was going the right way about it.
I pulled my tee over my head, using it to wipe the sweat off the back of my neck, but it was so drenched it was like drying myself off with a soaking towel.
I was on my last exercise in a cardio-fucked circuit. I think this was lap six. Or was it seven? I’d lost track after round four. Worryingly, Coach hadn’t confirmed how many laps were left.
As the timer signified go-time, I wrapped my hands around the handles of the air bike and got to work. Last round I’d managed nineteen calories during the interval. I doubt I’d be able to beat it, but I had to at least match it.
The gym reeked – myself included. The entire active roster was here, so there were close to one hundred combinations of sweat and odour mixing. If fatigue didn’t get me, death by BO would.
With heavy limbs, I raised my gaze to the clock. Fifteen seconds left, and six calories to go. Summoning energy from God knows where, I digged deeper.
Five calories.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
The timer went off, signalling a rest period.
Climbing off the bike with tired legs, I stared down my next exercise. Box jump burpees. The fucking worst.
Usually the day before a game our schedule was reserved for running scrimmages or classroom sessions. I had no clue what Coach was playing at with this cardio.
Just as the timer restarted, he killed the music. “That’s all for the day,” he called out. “Shower up then meet me in the media room.”
Thank fuck.
Generally the team was always chatty after a workout, but today they were deafeningly silent as we tracked to the locker room.
I made fast work of showering before redressing in my casual athletic gear. With this many guys, the showers filled up quickly.
My wardrobe at Phil-U was predominantly branded merch nowadays. We were expected to wear it to and from training and games – always repping the team – and with report days stretching across the week, there was barely a day I wasn’t in it.
Some head coaches made their players wear suits to games, but thankfully mine wasn’t one of them. I was a comfy clothes kind of guy.
“I’m making a protein smoothie,” Evan said as he pulled on his sneakers. “You want one?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
We had our own kitchen in the football facilities, which was always stocked with different types of protein. Powders. Bars. Yoghurts. You name it.
“Don’t fill up,” Brady warned him. “Tori booked a table at Gucci’s Steakhouse for six p.m.”
I rested a hand on my protesting stomach. There was no way I was making it until then.
Pat snickered. “Tori has your balls in her palm, Brady.”
My cousin merely shrugged. “So what? Those balls constantly get blown by her, so if it means I don’t eat after practice so I can make the dinner she booked, I’ll fucking do it.”
You couldn’t argue with that logic.
Tori was at our house every second day, and Brady spent the opposite nights at her sorority home. They basically lived together without officially living together.
“Speaking of being blown,” Kyler chimed in. “Did anyone see Gretchen Huntington in the gym? I’d let her squeeze my fucking balls.”
Gretchen was a popular Phil-U cheerleader.
Her clique of girls were always at the biggest parties, so she was a face many of the guys knew well.
Not to mention she was poster-girl hot, and the booty shorts and crops she always wore in the athlete’s gym certainly encouraged many of my teammates’ imaginations.
“Get Murray to give you an introduction,” I mentioned. “Last I saw, he was hooking up with Summer Spritz.”
Summer was the captain of the cheerleading squad, and she also happened to be the bane of my existence at the moment.
Long story short, at the beginning of the semester I’d struck a deal with the hockey captain, Levi Holloway, about who could hook up with the exchange student in our statistics group first.
The bet had backfired massively when both Levi and I realised how cool Grace was. Unfortunately, Holloway got to her first and they’d started dating. But that was all up in the air now.
When my friends had questioned why I was interested in Grace, I’d filled them in on the bet, and after a drunken night with the team – not me, but basically every other guy – the bet had somehow spread.
Murray, my running back, had let it slip to Summer when they started hooking up.
Because Summer still harboured a crush on Holloway ever since sleeping with him, she’d told Grace about the bet to meddle.
Of course it had all exploded in Holloway’s face – and mine too. When Levi came to my house to talk it through this week, I’d been expecting him to murder me. Somehow I’d convinced him to drink it off instead.
Last I heard, Grace was still gone and he was sulking around campus like a heartbroken zombie.
I felt like an ass. Truly. Grace was nice, and sure as hell didn’t deserve to be some kind of wager. Even at the time, I knew the bet was shady. But I’d been desperate to stop my guys from getting into arguments with the hockey team.
That’s why Holloway and I had made the dumb bet to begin with. It’d been our immature way of separating the hockey and football teams by having one move out of the athlete’s gym.
Despite Levi having clearly won, he’d never forced my boys to clear out. So long as they kept their noses out of the hockey team’s business, it could stay that way.
“Summer Spritz is a puck bunny,” Pat chimed in. “She’d drop Murray quicker than her panties if Holloway gave her attention.”
A puck bunny was a not so polite term for a girl who actively went after hockey players. It was crass... but it did sum Summer up. She’d tried her hand at me in the past, but I’d always known Holloway was where her sights were set.
“Didn’t Murray’s last girlfriend cheat on him with Ryan Murphy?” Kyler asked.
“Sure did,” I mumbled, thinking back on the night Murray had found his girlfriend on her knees in a locked stall with Ryan – another night Levi and I had needed to diffuse a situation before it escalated.
I’d consider Ryan to be the hockey team’s equivalent of Evan. While Evan was blonde and Ryan had brown hair, they each gave off Ken-doll vibes, and they’d both slept with more girls than I expect either could tally up.
I couldn’t stand Ryan. Just like I’m sure the hockey team had nothing great to say about Evan.
Eventually we slowly filed into the film room. With the screens already loaded up, Coach glared at everyone as they took their seats, like he’d been waiting all day. His fault the showers had taken longer than normal with that sweat sesh.
Taking a spot in the front row, I rested my workbook on my lap. It was full of all the plays I had to memorise. I gave this workbook more attention than I gave all my other schoolwork combined.
People often thought all a quarterback needed to do was know how to throw a ball well. I wish it was that easy.
Every week I was up against a different team, with their own plays, strategies and strengths. Each of them defended differently too. To counteract that, I needed to be prepared for everything.
Even as a young kid, I’d known how important academics were when it came to football. I couldn’t do my job if I didn’t keep my mind sharp.
If I was having an off day, it carried across to the whole team.
Our game depended on me having my shit together.
There wasn’t another player on the field who could pick up my slack.
The only option was getting benched and the backup QB filling in, and that wasn’t something I allowed to happen often.
It was a lot of pressure. Some days I thrived off it, and other days it was heavy. But no matter what, I was grateful for it. I loved this game.
Coach had us trapped inside for almost two hours, going over video by video, time and time again. By the time he called it, my eyes were hazy and I was one more game tape away from a headache.
As I followed my teammates out of the room, I checked my phone and pulled up my last message from Ruby. It was a picture of her dressed in her nursing scrubs and glasses, pulling a sad face.
She’d sent it after I told her my parents couldn’t make it to my Senior Night tomorrow. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it had put a damper on my mood. Most of my friends had family flying in.
Ryker: How was work? Have you got time to FT tonight?
The message quickly changed from delivered to read. Ruby didn’t immediately start typing back though, which was strange for her. She texted faster than she talked – fast as fuck.
As Evan shouldered open the door, an icy breeze hit me. The summer heat was a very distant memory now.
“Who are you texting?” Brady asked.
“Ruby. I was asking if she could–”
“If I could what, Wheels?”
Stumped, I glanced up. I mustn’t have recovered yet from that conditioning practice, because I was certain I’d just heard Ruby. Though sure enough, when a figure pushed off from the railing outside of the Athletes’ Centre, my eyes locked on my best friend.
“Rubz?”
She shoved her hands into her coat pockets, shrugging like it was no big deal. “In the flesh.”
Pushing past my friends, I strode towards her, partly worried she’d vanish if I took too long. She’d told me she couldn’t make my Senior Night. I had no clue what had changed – but I was glad it had.
Reaching her, I lifted her off her feet and spun her around, holding her tight against my chest. She laughed softly, her cold nose pressing into my neck.
I would’ve been in a much better mood during that circuit training if I had known I was only a few hours away from seeing her.
“Are you surprised?” she checked.
“Yes!”
“Good surprised?”
“The best-fucking-surprised,” I said, setting her back down and shaking my head in delight. “You told me you couldn’t come.”
“I made it work. I couldn’t have you going out there without at least one fan in the stands.”
I was forced to step aside so that each of the guys could say hello.
The moment they were done, I pulled Ruby back against me.
She inhaled sharply. “You have one more hug before you’ve used up your quota for this trip, Wheels.”
“Shh, Rubz. I needed this.”
I hadn’t noticed Tori standing on the steps until she excitedly jumped up and down. “I love a reunion!”
When Ruby was the surprise, so did I.