Avoiding The End || ✓ [#1] FIUFAMNEXTGEN

O1

Chapter O1 || Big boots to fill

;if what someone says is not better than silence, then one should keep silent

"He's only pissed because my mom won and got to call me a girls name."

I look over my padded shoulder at my best friend and cousin, Jesse Ashford, who's throwing the ball into the ball bin as we make our way off the field.

"And that's your reasoning for being a man-slag? Because of your dad?" Donovan Ward, my other best friend and greatest wide-receiver FIU has ever seen, drawls, removing his jersey ahead of time. "Somehow I don't think so, man."

Jesse gives him his signature Jesse wink when he replies. "Someone sounds a little jelly." 

Donovan looks at me as if to ask is this guy serious? 

My look is replying you have to ask?

"Don't think I can't see you having a whole conversation without saying a word, or including me." Jesse wags his finger between me and Donny. "I can see it and it's hurtful."

I ignore the hundredth hissy fit my cousins pulled today as I push open the locker room doors, removing my pads as I head towards my nook.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jesse, he's my uncle's son and all that, stellar linebacker too, but he's kind of a bitch at times.

When we first got our acceptance letters into Florida International University, we were so fucking hyped. I mean who wouldn't be, attending the same school your parents got together at, where they were literal royalty and created that legacy status for us to live up to. 

The surnames Simmons and Ashford got us away with a lot of shit, except football. We had to work our asses off to get where we are today. No first string position was given to us on a silver platter, and to me, I preferred it that way, unlike Jesse who thought he was going to get a full ride because his dad, Allias, and my dad, Duke, were the ultimate duo around these parts. I wanted to work, I wanted to earn my spot, I wanted to be one of the greatest, and I'm still working on it.

As much as I love my parents, and I do, I really, really do, they're awesome, but I can't help the wash of resentment that comes with attending where they were literal legends - it means I have big boots to fill, especially when my dad is the greatest QB1 to ever walk on the FIU Panthers field, and to be number one draft pick for the New York Jets - shits intimidating, man.

Not only is it intimidating, it also gave me a huge complex.

"So what we saying tonight? Ballers or Ballers with bats?" Jesse asks, wrapping his towel around his neck.

"I can't tonight, got Jasper so far up my ass, I'm scared I'll choke when he spits." Donovan shrugs, already heading towards the shower.

Jesse hooks one arm over my shoulder, looking at me with an impish twinkle in his blue eyes. "Looks like it's just me and you, cuzzy."