Feeling the Weight of the World |Virgato|

Chapter 10: February 20, 2019

Joel generally liked the concept of time. He felt that time had been kind to him, maturing him, strengthening him, allowing him to feel young slowly and feel like an adult in a rush. The one thing he didn't like about time, though, is that days passing is inevitable. You go to sleep every night, and wake up, and it's another day closer to whatever you're looking forward to, or what you're not looking forward to.

For Joel, time ran him straight to February 20, 2019. His senior year, and the first meeting of the year between Duke and North Carolina. He wasn't upset to be playing basketball. It was his career; his life. He was pretty upset to be seeing Chris, though. He'd drafted (and subsequently deleted) so many potential texts to the boy that he lost track, and not a single one of them was sent. Instead of spending the summer with Chris, playing HORSE, having eventful shootarounds, and just being close, they remained on seemingly other sides of the world, although they were only ten minutes apart.

When he spotted Chris coming out of the tunnel, he watched him walk all the way out, searching desperately for anything - a side glance, and maybe, by the grace of God, a wave or something. It never came.

And yeah, Joel knew he was being kind of dumb, and definitely naïve, but he didn't really care. He was the number one recruit coming out of high school. He could be dumb every so often.

He went to Coach Williams, trying not to interrupt his conversation, but standing next to the man, indicating his need to talk. When Coach turned around, Joel spoke softly, "Coach, I'm not feeling 100%. Is there a way you could switch mine and De Jesus' assignments? I promise you that I'll lock down Camacho, but if I guard Velez it'll be the opposite."

Coach Williams thought about it, then nodded in approval. "Sure. But I hope you mean what you said."

As the game started, Zabdiel was doing alright guarding Chris, and Joel was, as he'd promised, locking Richard down, and having some fun with it. At the jump ball, when Duke earned first possession, the surprise in Richard's eyes at Joel running towards him was almost comical. Richard soon recovered, however, snarling, "Your boyfriend's over there, queer," before passing the ball to Chris. It probably would have been cooler had Chris actually made the shot, not familiar with Zabdiel's defense.

A few minutes later, as Joel was guarding Richard, he saw Chris initiate a familiar move, one he'd fallen victim to many times. Chris stepped back as if to hit a jumpshot, before suddenly driving to the rim. Joel tried to make his way to the basket, but Richard telegraphed it and Joel ran full into Richard's shoulder, causing Joel to lose his balance and run into the legs of a jumping Chris. Chris let go of the ball and clattered to the ground, his head hitting the wooden court with a sickening thud.

Joel, who was mostly fine, untangled himself from Chris, who hadn't moved. He knew it was painful, and he knew Chris had landed awkward. Joel kneeled over Chris and watched as Chris blinked rapidly, eyes rolling around as if he'd just gotten off a roller coaster. Joel extended his hand to the pale boy, who grabbed it, using all of his strength to sit up, and then stand up. Muttering a "Thanks, Joe," he started to walk to the baseline to inbound, but before he could get there, fell back down to his knees. As Joel began to walk back over to him, Chris threw up all over the floor. Joel backed away and helplessly looked at the Duke bench for assistance.

Trainers finally ran over to Chris, helping him up, as the stadium attendees cleaned up the vomit. Joel watched as Chris, head down, made his way through the tunnel. Joel checked the scoreboard for the time. Twelve minutes remaining in the first half. This meant that Duke was probably toast.

As play was whistled to continue, Christopher's ears rang. His equilibrium was severely impacted, and he could barely put one foot in front of the other. Quietly, he said, "Grade three concussion." The trainer nodded at Chris, which he barely saw. As time passed, he laid down in the trainer's room, the room spun, his heart pounded out of his chest, and his head was hurting more intensely than it ever had before. He mustered up enough energy to say, "I need to go to the hospital. I need an ambulance."