Chapter 6, Nathan's Wish
I ran ahead of Thompson after practice, grabbed a towel from my Adidas bag, and wiped down the sweat that was dragging down my body. I had taken off my shirt a while ago and quickly rubbed the back of my neck to remove the sweat. I was breathing hard, my lungs filling up with the familiar burning sensation and all I wanted was to go back to the locker rooms and take a shower. It hurt to breathe.
"Nathan, man what's up with you?" Thompson asked as he came up beside me. He too was equally shirtless and eyeing up the girls who were seated on the bleachers casually observing our practice. It was an old time tradition of Rorington. The hottest girls sat up on the bleachers and watched the hottest guys practice for lacrosse. In the next field over, some of the guys on the soccer team were hosting their practice, but most of them come for the lacrosse practices.
"What do you mean what's up with me?" I asked Thompson confused. I bent over, resting my hands on my knees. My legs were shaking from the exertion of holding up my body. It was no wonder I hadn't collapsed yet. Just a few feet ahead of us, Michael had completely collapsed onto the grass. His eyes were closed and he was panting heavily. A couple of the guys mock-kicked him and he visibly flinched, before he struggled back to his relaxed position.
"You were wound pretty tight. It was like you were frustrated or something. I've never seen you juke out the other guy so fast and score," Thompson responded.
"That's generally a good thing. I don't know why you're complaining. The coach seems fine with it," I said casually. Was my tension that obvious?
Thompson chuckled a laugh and pulled on his shirt. I did the same, just as Coach Langston came over. "Good job, Nathaniel. Way to keep it up on the field. I haven't seen true dedication and foot work on the field like that in a while. If you do a good job, I might just make you captain."
"Captain?" Thompson said incredulously. He draped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a strange one arm squeeze. "Man, you really did it this time."
Captain. Huh. I never thought of becoming captain. I played lacrosse for the fun of it. I played it because....
I looked down across our field onto the third field. I watched the girls momentarily practice. The girl's lacrosse team was good. They were more than good. They won state play-off's even going as far as entering the national competition. They had been on ESPN twice and in every local newspaper for their spectacular season last year. Now, the girls were hoping for more this year.
The girl's coach blew the whistle and I could spot Cameron driving hard down the field with the ball in her lacrosse stick. She tricked one girl out and juked another, as she sprinted as fast as she could towards the goal and scored. A gleam of sweat covered the surface of her skin and her hair was up in that messy bun of hers, her chest heaving up and down from the oddly pleasant burning sensation in the lungs I was familiar with when I ran down the field.
Cameron was a good lacrosse player. Unlike the boy's lacrosse team, they voted for team captain and everyone was putting their bets on Cameron as team captain. She was dedicated and a motivated worker. Who wouldn't vote for Cameron as head captain? She had a single-minded determination to succeed and take her team to the top. She was pretty goal-oriented. Cameron had been part of the reason why I had tried out for the lacrosse team. Freshman year she spoke to me a couple of times and one of those times we struck up a conversation. She talked about how the lacrosse team was pretty decent here and that I should consider trying out.
Out of curiosity, I had tried out. I hadn't expected to get anywhere with it or get very far. It really wasn't my thing, but I had made the team and when Cameron found out she was happy for me. I hadn't told her that I wasn't planning on sticking with it, but was curious as to why she found the sport so stimulating. Ever since then however, I had stuck with it. It was fun and killed time while I was drudging it up in this high school for the stuck up elites.
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I could disgustingly hear my feminist sister point out, "You are one idiot,"
"Dude, are you there?" Thompson asked, as he waved a hand in front of my face, calling me to attention.
"Huh--? What?" I asked confused.
Coach Langston turned his head to follow my line of gaze. He stood there eyeing up the girls in the next field over, smirked and said, "Don't get too distracted." With that, he left as his assistant coach called him away to discuss the schedule for the upcoming matches. Thompson gave me a knowing look, but I dismissed it and focused on throwing all my stuff in my bag.
Luke jogged over to the bleacher benches, where all of our stuff was laid out. He had joined the team a little later, but coach was glad he was back. He played a mean forward. He wiped down the sweat and threw his bag over his shoulder. All day, rumors were flying around about him and Cameron hooking up and already I wasn't liking the guy's return.
Luke glanced at me and gave me a nod. He didn't smile and he was panting heavily. His hair was in disarray and he had worked quite a sweat. He had been going hard on the field and I couldn't blame the guy. The team had given him a hard time since he left and now that he was back, Luke had to prove himself one way or another. He had to show them up once more in order to get some credit as a badass player on the field. He had to show them he hadn't lost his touch. I felt sort of bad for him, but nonetheless that was his battle to fight.
"Hey," Luke said, as he nodded to me and Thompson.
"Hey, man good play out there," Thompson said, as he congratulated Luke a bit tightly. I could tell the strain and reluctance in his voice when he had voiced it. He masked it well, but three years of friendship with Thompson told me despite his good nature he wasn't all that keen on Luke's sudden return to the team as well until he showed what he had.
"Thanks," Luke said, as he sat down. Thompson sat next to him. Luke bent his head down trying to get in as much oxygen as he could into his oxygen-deprived lungs. He bent his head and spread his legs, resting his elbows on his thighs. He looked at the ground and ignored the girls above, giggling and suddenly perking up in attention at the sight of Luke shirtless and bare.
"What've you been up to lately?" Thompson asked good-naturedly. He was always a guy everyone got along with.
"Nothing, just trying to get in shape for lacrosse season. I haven't been on the field in a while," Luke admitted.
"Yeah? Where have you been?" Thompson asked.
"Here and there," Luke answered ambiguously. He stiffened and I narrowed my eyes at that. Luke had disappeared mysteriously and suddenly he comes back without any explanation. I had the foreboding sense that he was hiding something and whatever it was, it wasn't good. I wondered if Thompson knew or picked up on the slight tension in his body language.
"Guess what? Coach is planning on making Nathan captain this year," Thompson said.
"Yeah?" Luke looked up and gave me a boyish grin. "Not surprised. He was dirty on the field. I haven't seen anyone play that hard ever."