The day was going pretty well until last session, Abel and I were talking when Benjamin walked in and Abel got pissed. I nudged Abel softly and he turned back to me and we continued to talk, we were talking in code about the football game tomorrow.
'D5 then A1, it's a good plan.' He said and I looked at him frustrated.
'No, we always start with that, I think we should do B5 and then C8. That way it opens up for either D5A1 or C3D9 even D7A3.' Abel scratched the top of his head and squeezed his eyes shut as he thought about it.
'Well run over the options in practice, but I think if we start safe with D5A1 we'll get ahead-'
'What the hell are they talking about?' Abel stopped as we heard Benjamin lean over and ask Jane. She was nice, bit of a quite girl, but really nice.
'Ah, its this thing they do, they're on the football team, team captain and then Cain is second in charge, they run the team, the letters numbers thing is some code they use when they talk about plays. It's insane to listen to but when they figure out what they're doing it always gets the win, they've only lost one game all season, even with Cain being in the hospital.'
'He was in the hospital? Why?' Abel turned around and Jane looked nervous.
'Mind your own fucking business.' Abel growled before turning back and I smiled at Jane weakly. Class started right after that and Abel was in a pissy mood from there, he was grouchy during training, making everyone uneasy.
'Cain can you talk to him? He's so angry today, some of us are really kind of worried.' Marcus asked and I nodded with a weak smile.
'Abel?' I asked as I walked over, he'd been sitting on his own, sorting things out he liked to call it. 'You okay?' I asked with a whisper as I squatted in front of him.
'Just sorting things out.' He muttered and I managed to get him to look at me.
'Baby.' I whispered and his eyes flared slightly but settled. 'Focus on the football, I'll take care of you when we get home, okay?' He took a deep breath and nodded before we stood up and got back to it.
And so the dreaded Friday night came, I felt ill, I was taping my wrists when Abel sat next to me and started doing it for me.
'Are you alright?' He asked staring down at my wrists.
'I don't feel too good.' I mumbled.
'Don't worry about it, if you get upset just call me and I'll come get you, right now focus on football and the fact we're going to win. If we win I'll take you out to eat Sunday after training.' He said with a stoned face and I nodded. The principal had told us that because we were here Sundays anyway we could still practice, he's such a softy. I helped Abel tape his wrists and then after a quick not so peppy more threaty pep talk from coach we ran out onto the field and started the game. I looked out into the crowd to see Mum and Maze sitting there close by our side, dad was a few rows back watching intently.
'Oi.' Abel said grabbing the back of my head and pushing it back towards the circle. 'Head here, we can deal with that later, focus.' He ordered and I nodded and we got on with it. We managed to rack up the points in the first half and defense was holding okay but Kai wasn't sticking his tackles and Abel was pissed.
'You need to stick your fucking tackles!' He yelled and Kai looked down seeming almost nervous. Abel storming off I walked over.
'Are you okay? What's wrong?' I asked and he looked at me and shrugged. 'Kai, are you okay? If you're hurt or sick you need to tell me so you don't make it worse.'
'I'm not hurt or sick, I just, I can't play properly when he's watching me.' He muttered and I frowned. Who?
'Who are you?' His eyes flicked up and I looked over my shoulder at Aaron who was watching us closely. 'Aaron?' Kai looked nervous. 'Kai, use this game to show off idiot, not fuck around because you're nervous.'
