Page 341 of Playing Dirty

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Deleted it.

Typed again.

Rowan:

Never mind.

Then stopped.

Because my phone buzzed before I could send anything else.

Mason.

Mason:

Yes.

I froze.

Then read it again.

Mason:

It already is.

I sat there for a long moment.

Not replying.

Not because I didn’t want to.

Because I didn’t know what would come next if I did.

And for the first time since all of this started—

that felt like thereal question.

MASON

Coach didn’t stop at saying I was thinking too much.

He made me prove it.

Again.

And again.

And again.

We ran sets until the gym stopped feeling like a place and started feeling like a loop—same plays, same mistakes, same corrections.

Andre finally snapped on a break.

“This isn’t training anymore, it’s punishment.”

Coach didn’t even look at him. “Then stop getting punished.”

Silence dropped again.

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