Page 32 of The Golden Receiver

I also kept thinking about the accusations Evander flung my way. At first, I’d been pissed as hell about them, but I’d come to terms with how he got there before he even sent that apology text. I hadn’t been a team player. Not during practices, and sure as hell not during that game. I might not have sabotaged the team, but I hadn’t played like I wanted us to win. I’d played for myself.

That had been the reason I’d suggested we meet for the run in the morning, because there was no way in hell I was repeating that.

I needed to do better. I needed to be a better team player, and that started with Evander. He was the first person to reach out to me, to try to welcome me onto the team, and I felt like I owed it to him to try to make it right.

It had nothing to do with what had happened between us on that trail Friday night.

It had nothing to do with the fact that replays of the shitty game had been intercut with memories of that night. Memories and some imaginings of what might have happened if the trail was just a bit more private. There were some things that just weren’t worth giving much mind to during the waking hours.

I rolled out of bed and pulled on the first pair of gym clothes I could find. Lucky for me, I kept them all in one place, and I knew they’d be clean. I tied my shoes and headed downstairs to meet up with Evander. He was waiting on one of the benches in front of the dorm, sitting with his legs extended. He looked well-rested. Asshole.

“Where to?” I asked once he looked up and saw me there.

He stood up. “Around the campus?”

I nodded, and we took off. We ran two and a half laps around the campus at a pretty steady pace. For once, we weren’t pushing ourselves to go harder. I had a feeling his reason was the same as mine. My body still ached from being tackled the day before. A nice, easy run was about as close as I came to a rest day.

We slowed down to a walk for the end of the third lap.

“You feeling okay?” Evander asked, his words coming out between pants of breath.

“Yeah. You?”

I could feel Evander looking at me, and I fought the urge to turn to see what expression he was making. “Honestly?” He paused like he was waiting for an answer. When he didn’t get one, he continued. “I’m still kicking myself about yesterday’s game. I was an idiot.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. My lips tugged up a bit. Not into a full smile, but I could feel one trying to form.

I risked a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. He had a full grin on his face, and his light brown eyes were sparkling. “Hey! I wasn’t the only one that was an idiot!”

I gave in to temptation and turned to look at him. I raised a brow. “Oh? Because I wasn’t the one that accused someone of sabotaging the game just because I was having a bad one,” I pointed out to him. His cheeks flushed, and I knew it wasn’t just from the exertion of the run. “You were the idiot. I was just having a shit game.”

Evander didn’t say anything. Maybe I wasn’t too good at this whole team player thing. Maybe I should have left it alone. We made it past two buildings before Evander spoke again. “Maybe I just needed someone to blame,” he finally said. His voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it. “You’re not the only one that worries about his stats.”

“We gotta do better.”

He nodded.

We didn’t say another word on the way back to the dorm, but for once, the silence felt comfortable. It felt like we’d cleared some of the air between us. When we hit the dorm buildings, I confirmed that I’d meet him in the morning at the bench for our next run.

I beat Evander to the bench on Monday morning. I was stretching on the ground when he came outside. He plopped down next to me and started to stretch. He didn’t say anything, and neither did I. Guess he finally figured out that I wasn’t much of a morning person. Maybe we were both trying to meet more in the middle.

We ended up on one of the trails near the dorm for our run that morning. Unlike the day before, we weren’t going slow and steady. I was pushing myself to keep up with him, and I think he was pushing himself to try to make it where I couldn’t. I don’t think I’d ever run so fast in my life. And I was getting better at running on those trails, avoiding the things that could trip me up. I might not have had the same level of night vision that Evander did, but I was good at following in his footsteps.

The run seemed to take less time than it did the last time we did that trail, and before long, we were grabbing our gym bags and walking over to the training center.

I wasn’t going to pretend that I missed the look of shock on Coach Shaw’s face when he saw us walk in together, actually talking. I just hoped he’d see it and realize that meant that we’d got our shit together. We weren’t going to have a repeat of last week’s game. There was no need to make us ride the bench while the second-string players took our spot on the field.

I didn’t know if it worked, but that afternoon at practice, he had us paired up together for drills. He had us running as many things together as he could. We were paired off together on some toss and catch drills, and I focused hard on catching everything he threw my way. I also focused on making sure he got some good catches, even if throwing the ball wasn’t at the top of my strengths list.

I think we made enough of an impression on our coaches in practice, because during our eleven-on-eleven drills, we were both with the first team. When Coach Shaw called one of the same plays that had fucked us over during the Shuford game, I made sure to call out for Evander to get the ball. I blocked one of the defenders who were coming toward him, and he sailed into the end zone, ball clutched securely to his chest.

I only felt a little bitter that I wasn’t the one to get the points.

But if it kept me from riding the bench, then I guess that was just going to be my role on the team. I’d accept it if it meant getting time to play.

I met Evander for runs every morning. On Tuesday, we hit a trail near our dorm. On Wednesday, we ran several miles around the track. It wasn’t the most interesting place we’d gone for our runs, but it was somehow fun. Maybe it was the even surface and the fact that I could try to beat him flat out. We kept trading leads, and by the time we made it to weight training, I was more awake than I’d been in a long time. There was something about competition that just got my blood flowing in all the right ways.

After our runs, we walked back to the training center together. The walk was mostly quiet, though Tuesday we talked about an assignment for our shared class. I didn’t think anything of it until Wednesday when he looked like he was about to come sit next to me. I shot him a look, and it seemed like he thought better of it. I might have been trying to form some friendships on the team outside of that one single rookie, and I might have chosen to start with Evander, but that didn’t mean I wanted to deal with him trying to distract me during class.