Saying Goodbye

chapter 37

mikey pov (February 10th, 2023)
"c'mon mikey! you got it! push! give me two more! c'mon man. push!" zeke yells into my ear.

"what do you think he's doing? giving birth?" samila questions.

"it helps him focus." zeke shrugs.

i relax my legs, dropping the weights. i lean my head back in exhaustion.

"good job today mikey." samila says as she pats my shoulder.

"thanks mila." i reply. samila looks at me weird.

"you talked to kiara today?" zeke asks.

"honestly i haven't talked to her since the game wednesday." i say.

"you haven't talked to her in two days?" samila badgers.

"no." i affirmed.

"you're horrible." samila sighs.

"not really. there's nothing wrong with that." zeke chimes in.

"how so?" samila asks.

"he's been busy. he just suffered an injury and is trying to recover from it." zeke explains. i nod my head. "i'm sure kiara will understand that."

"you don't know kiara like i do." samila says.

"how about i call her right now?" i suggest.

"that sounds like an excellent idea, michael. i say go for it." zeke says sarcastically.

"thank you, ezekiel." i smile and grab my phone from beside my water bottle.

i go to my recent calls and scroll until i find kiara's name. i click her name and put it on speaker. kiara answers after a few rings.

"hey mikey." she says.

"hey kiara." i reply.

"what's up?"

"well we haven't talked in a few days and i wanted to know how you were doing." i say.

"i'm doing good. i haven't done much since we last talked. its just been a lot of working out for soccer season." she explains.

"sounds good. how are soccer workouts going?"

"they're good. i think we're finally gonna have a solid varsity team." kiara adds. i can feel her smile on the other end of the phone.

"what about jv?" i question.

"i'll tell you about it later. some of them are here right now." she says.

"did i call you at a bad time? we can talk later if-"

she interrupts me. "no mikey, it's fine. we just ended workouts."

"ok." i smile at samila. she rolls her eyes at me.

"how's your ankle?" kiara asks.