Chasing Euphoria

Chapter Twenty Eight

Landon

Head a mess, I called Adrian for some advice. Had I done wrong? Maybe I should've been a bit nicer about it, then again, was there really no way to reject someone coming onto you. It would always make them feel at least slightly crappy.

He invited me for football practice with Chase, him, and some of the guys. Supposedly it was a good way to clear my head, become less stressed, and focus more. We were playing on the campus playing field, it seemed like forever since I was last there. One day, I promised to take Coco to watch a game and she was surprisingly excited about it.

At first, she didn't seem like the sort of girl to take interest in sports, but she was surprisingly active. A couple of times a week she would go down to the gym to blow off steam and get herself more determined for life. Something about having a growth mindset, it sounded like a bit of bullshit, I thought she just enjoyed going to the gym.

Once again, I could smell her, the perfume she used clung onto my skin. Normally it was calming, but it made me stress even more this time. Over time she started to calm me, but I was beginning to feel antsier than anything.

After finding where the rest of the teams' cars were parked, I pulled in on the end of them and watched on the sidelines until the end of whatever quarter they were on.

Spotting the jersey numbers, I knew who was who. The last names were of course on there too, but I could spot the difference between them all without that. Once the print WOLFE 54 ran to the other end and scored, I followed on the side with one of the bottles from the crate just as the timer went off.

"I almost had you, man!" Logan shouted. He was the most, how would I put it, normal of the team. He had sense and respect, most of the others lacked one or the other, a minority didn't have either.

"Almost just isn't enough," Adrian responded, throwing the ball back to him for them to start the next quarter without us.

We walked to the bleachers and he pulled off his helmet and set it to the side, took a breath then gulped down half of the bottle.

"Wow, thirsty?" I asked, it wasn't the end of the game, he was never usually so exhausted after individual quarters.

He flashed an irritated stare and continued after responding. "Yeah, maybe you forgot how much work it is because you've missed all of the recent games."

"I'll be there for the next one." I persuaded without even knowing when the next one was.

There was always a team list put up whenever the games were organised, I just always failed to cross my name off to say I was going. Being caught up with Coco and police cases just completely took my mind away from it. Football was just a hobby, but it allowed me to let loose and I had forgotten how much it helped me until I saw them all enjoying it so much.

With disbelief, he rolled his eyes and crushed the bottle in his hand. Tough guy.

"So, Cassie's back?" I told him over the phone that she had returned, but there was too much to say, so I didn't mention anything then. "Where is she?"

"I don't even know." She had likely gone back to the dorm. Or to the coffee house. There weren't many other places she could go to by herself. More like she wouldn't.

"She's with Elle." He informed me.

So he knew, but decided to ask me first? How did he even know?

Before I could ask, he explained. "I was going to see her today, but I cancelled and she was about to as well since she's with her."

That was a good thing. Elle would look after her, maybe be able to help her out with whatever went on. I don't think I was much of a help to her, but I didn't know what else to do. It's not like i was prepared for such a sudden appearance, never mind the whole issues coming out. I was planning to do nothing at all. My mind was a blank board.