Intended for Bristol

Chapter 3 -1

Chapter 3

Jaxon

Morning had arrived and I dreaded the thought of what was to come for our team. I wished the higher-ups knew what a f*****g mistake it was to bring Ryan “the Fuckhead” Delaney to our team. When I strolled into the locker room, I could feel the tension. Half of our team was excited for the new quarterback and the other was pissed; that’s the half where I belonged. Blaine McCarthy snarled at me as I walked past and I flipped him off. He was one of our wide receivers but nowhere near as good as Evan. Being a d**k was how he compensated. Many could say I was the same way, but I was just naturally an a*s. Survival of the fittest was what my father always taught me. He was a survivor until he died of a heart attack two years ago. It was right after he found out my mother had pancreatic cancer.

Derek and Evan were already prepared for practice and were talking to Samson and Aaron Grainger, our punter. Aaron was the only teammate besides Derek that I hung out with on a regular basis. Not only did I train with him every day with our kicking coach, but he was also dating Hayden’s best friend.

“When do you think Delaney will get here?” Samson asked.

Everyone looked at the young quarterback and I almost felt sorry for the guy. “Hopefully, never,” I grumbled.

“Seriously,” Aaron agreed. “I can’t believe anyone would want that arrogant prick on our team. He’ll make us look bad.”

Derek slapped him on the shoulder. “No, he won’t. We’ll just have to take him down a few notches.”

Then, Evan, the voice of all reason, spoke up, but he had his glare on me. “Guys, let’s not do anything stupid. Delaney may be a d**k, but we have to give him a chance. Now come on, we need to get out to the field.” Samson and Aaron followed him out of the locker room while I stayed behind with Derek. He leaned against the lockers with a smirk on his face.

“You noticed he looked straight at me, right?” I laughed.

He shrugged. “He’s just trying to keep the morale up. But I know he’ll go head-to-head with Delaney if he has to; we all will.”

I shoved my bag into my locker and started for the door. “I just want to start winning again. We’re not going to be in the NFL forever. The last thing I want is to go out knowing we were on the worst team in the league.”

Coach Joel nodded at us as we walked past his office and I had no clue if he heard me or not. The same thought had to be on his mind as well. “Dude, that’s not going to happen,” Derek replied. “The team is more than just the quarterback. We’ll make it back to the top.”

Once we were outside, he took off toward the rest of the guys while I ventured over to Aaron and Drake Caulfield, our specialist coach. While Aaron and I had similar positions on the team, they were also quite different. Aaron was a punter, who receives the snapped ball directly from the line of scrimmage and then punts it to the opposing team to limit any field position advantage. I was a field goal kicker. My job was to make sure to get those extra points no matter the circumstances.

“All right, boys, you know the drill,” Drake called out. “After your three miles we’ll get to work.” Coach Joel walked out onto the field and Drake rushed over to him while Aaron and I stretched.

The morning air was humid, which almost made it hard to breathe. So much for yesterday’s cool breeze. I was used to the humidity, though. Being from Tampa, one of the nation’s most humid spots, definitely prepped me for my time in the Carolinas. Once Aaron and I were warmed up and stretched, we took off for the track.

“Think we’ll be ready for the game this Sunday?” he asked.

Sweat dripped down my forehead and I wiped it away. “f**k if I know. I guess we’ll find out.” We quickly finished our three miles and joined Drake by the sidelines. Drake was around forty years old and a former kicker for Pittsburgh. He ran a hand over his shaved head, keeping his gaze on ours.

“Why don’t we switch it up a bit today? Reed, I want you to practice punting, and Grainger, I want you working on field goals. That way if either one of you were to get hurt we’d have a decent backup. We don’t want the clusterfuck of what happened to Cooper.”

Aaron and I glanced at each other, completely in agreement. Drake tossed me a football and we took to the field. “I’ll snap the ball to you so you can punt,” Aaron offered. However, before we could even begin, a figure to my left caught my attention. Walking out onto the field, suited up and dressed, was none other than Ryan f*****g Delaney.

“Here we go,” I hissed low. Coach Joel and Drake hurried over to him, and they talked for a few minutes while everyone stood still.

“Think we should join the team for the introductions?” Aaron suggested.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We walked over to where Derek and Evan and waited silently. Once Joel was done talking to Ryan, they strolled over. “Boys, this is Ryan Delaney, our new quarterback. We have a lot of work to do for our game against Seattle. There will be plenty of time to converse later. Ryan,” Joel said, flourishing his hand to the field, “let’s see what you got.”

“Gladly,” Ryan agreed with an arrogant smirk. “All right, team, get in formation.”

“And I don’t like him already,” Derek mumbled low. Aaron and I moved out of the way to our end of the field and watched the others. Drake kept yelling at us to get to work, but I had to see how the fucker played with our guys. McCarthy made sure to talk to him a lot and that pissed me off more than anything. The last thing we needed was for those two to band together; it would be an all-out war.

“Come on, Reed!” Aaron shouted. He had a bucket of footballs on the ground, ready to go. I got into position and waited for him to snap the ball to me. Being a kicker, I never had to actually catch the ball, but it was second nature to me. I caught it effortlessly and punted the ball across the field to the end zone. In high school, I played two positions, kicker and wide receiver. I liked both, but the NFL felt I was more valuable as a kicker.

“That was good,” Aaron praised.

“Thanks.” I worked through the whole basket of footballs, and now it was my turn to help him with field goals. Aaron was pretty good at it, but his aim was unpredictable. Drake gave us another bucket of footballs and stood back. Usually, when I kicked the field goals, it was Aaron who held the ball in place. Now, it was my turn to do it for him. He’d once kicked my hand, resulting in a broken finger, but luckily, he hadn’t done that in months.

Grabbing a ball, I held it in place and nodded to Aaron. He focused on the field goal and then down at the ball, his chest rising and falling rapidly. It was an adrenaline rush being in the game and knowing the fate of the kick could land the win; it was scary, but exhilarating. Aaron rushed toward the ball and kicked. It went soaring through the air and hit the side of the pole, but in the end, it went through.

“That sucked a*s!” he shouted.

I got to my feet. “You still made it, though. Just keep practicing.”

“Again!” Drake hollered, waving his hand impatiently in the air. Grabbing another ball, I started to kneel down, but then turned my focus to the other side of the field. I couldn’t help but be curious about how the others were faring with douchebag Delaney. The ball snapped to him and he was looking for someone to throw it to, but Evan couldn’t get open. Time stood still as I watched Derek charge toward Delaney and sack him.

Aaron and I chuckled under our breaths, but then something happened that I wasn’t expecting. Blaine McCarthy rushed toward Derek and tackled him from behind. “Motherfucker,” I growled. All hell broke loose.

It was team against team, the tension finally exploding. Aaron and I raced into the fray, but I headed straight for McCarthy. Tackling Derek from behind was a dirty move. Even I wouldn’t have stooped that low. There were fights everywhere and I could see Evan trying to get to Derek, but I was closer. Lunging in the air, I grabbed McCarthy around the waist and hurled him onto the ground. Derek jumped up and ripped off his helmet, but he was too late. McCarthy was mine and I wasn’t going to let him get away with what he did. Jerking McCarthy’s helmet off, I punched him right in the jaw, not just once but twice.

“What the f**k is going on?” Coach Joel shouted. He jerked me away from McCarthy and glared at me. “Why is it that every time there’s a fight you’re right in the middle of it?”

Everyone separated and focused their attention on us. And of course, I was getting the blame, like always. For the first time, it wasn’t for something I’d instigated. Snarling, I pointed a finger at McCarthy. “Maybe if dickface over there wouldn’t have attacked D from behind, I wouldn’t be in this shit.”

He didn’t look like he believed me until Evan spoke up with a venomous glare focused right on Blaine. “He’s right, coach. When D sacked Delaney, McCarthy went after him and attacked him from behind. If Jax hadn’t separated them, it would’ve been me. And frankly, I wouldn’t have stopped at just two punches.” Evan was pissed. One thing I noticed about him was that he was protective of his friends. It was strange, because I’d never felt like that until just recently. I never gave a s**t about anyone or anything but myself.

Joel huffed and glared at all of us. “Get your s**t together, boys.” Then he pointed angrily at Blaine. “If you so much as cause one more problem, your a*s will be on the sidelines.”

McCarthy’s jaw tensed and he winced; I couldn’t help but smile at his pain. He deserved it. Now that everything was over, I finally got a look at Ryan Delaney, his gaze narrowed and staring at me with contempt. I wasn’t going to let him tear our team apart.

*

After practice, Ryan and Blaine left without so much as another word to anyone on the team. The less I had to see them, the better. The room smelled like sweat and dirty socks, but it was expected after the long day we had in the heat. My shirt was stuck to my body and I couldn’t wait to take a shower and grab a nice, cold beer.

“Thanks for helping me out there,” Derek mentioned appreciatively. He held out his fist and I bumped it with mine.

“Anytime.”

He took off his shirt and hissed when he rolled his shoulders. “I swear, that cocksucker better be glad he caught me from behind. If I’d have seen him coming, he wouldn’t be able to walk.”

“You okay, D?” Evan asked, inspecting Derek’s shoulders.

Derek ran a hand through his auburn hair and growled. “I f*****g better be. Once I get some food in my system, I’ll be fine.”

Evan laughed. “When you get to the tavern we’ll get you fixed up.”

Derek glanced at me, his eyebrows lifted. “Want to come? Hayden’s working late again, so it’s just me tonight.”

I looked at Evan and he nodded. “You can come too. Besides, you don’t need my permission.”

“I know, but it’s your place and I don’t want to cause problems.”

He shrugged. “If you do, I’ll just kick your a*s. It’s pretty simple.”

Derek burst out laughing, but I knew Evan was serious. We’d gotten into a fistfight before and it wasn’t pretty. It was the morning after he found out I had Lindsey, his ex and a former Cougars cheerleader, sneak into his bed to f**k him while he was drunk. Now she was in Hollywood trying her luck at an acting career.

After we took our showers and dressed, Derek and I drove to the tavern. Evan was already there, making his rounds to make sure everything was running smoothly. The place was packed but the bar was vacant except for a sexy brunette, who was sipping on a glass of water.

“Want to sit at the bar?” I asked him.

Derek looked around and nodded. “Sure.” But then his phone rang. “Get us a seat and I’ll be right there.”