Chapter 3
Chapter Three
MADDOX
Charity Flag Football Game
Icontinued working through my warm-up, backpedaling in a line before spinning around. A short sprint to the sideline. My legs accelerated and so did the pounding in my chest. I reached the line and slowed to a jog.
That stupid banner fluttered and flapped, wind rippling the words "Valentine's Day Charity Game stake my claim. Show her how I felt.
But I couldn’t. Not when she needed time to heal.
Then our coach hit me where I already hurt. He’d made promises that if I “fell in line,” I could have a shot at a pro career. And finally measure up.
Frosty breaths puffed into the air. It’d been a tough year trying to fill Drakes’s shoes on the field after he went to the AFL draft.
Spent most of the season being hated on by his douchebag left-behinds—who also happened to be my offensive line.
The cowards didn't have the guts to fight me man-to-man; they let the opponents' defense do their dirty work in an out-of-bracket game.