The Love We Found

Chapter 44

Axel's POV: 

"Axel, When everyone's done stretching, start layups." Coach said as he walked by me and Jaxon. 

"Yeah." 

"You okay, Kid? You look a little pale." 

I nodded. "All good." 

"You've got your pod on?" He looked concerned. 

I nodded. "Yeah, had to put it back on my arm." I moved so he could see it. 

"Okay, you let me know if anything changes." 

"Will do." 

He walked away and I sighed. Truth was I hadn't felt great since after first period. I've felt tired and sick but it's the first game of the season and after skipping practice the other day I wouldn't even dare tell coach I didn't feel good and risk letting him and the team down. I finished stretching and grabbed a sip of water. Grant, Jeremy, My parents, Abby, and Grant's parents were sitting in the bleachers. I smiled and waved at them before starting the layup warm ups. 

15 minutes later found all of us shaking hands with the refs and the other team before we all took positions. I was a point guard so I didn't have to do the jump ball to start the game. After warm ups I really wasn't feeling good. I was really starting to break a sweat and I felt shaky and nauseous. Not to the point that I thought I would get sick but enough that my stomach hurt. The ball was thrown into the air and the other team managed to tip it to themselves. I settled myself at the top of the three point like against the ball carrier as the rest of my team quickly found their defensive match. 

7 minutes into the game and we were down by 10 but I could feel my chest getting tight. I called a time out and headed right for coach who held my inhaler out to me. I took it and used it before I took a room temp bottle of water and a towel from Jaxon. I felt even worse then when the game started. 

"Thomas, check in for Axel." Coach said. 

"What?" I looked confused. "I always play the entire first quarter. I usually only sit for the first 4 minutes of the second." 

"You look like you're five seconds away from puking, take a break." 

I clenched my jaw and pushed through the huddle to my seat on the bench. I threw the towel down before taking a seat, I rested my elbows on my knees and watched as the rest of the team broke from our huddle and the five players went back onto the court. I was the only starter not returning. I turned when I was tapped on the back. Grant was sat behind me. 

"You okay?" 

"Apparently I look like I'm going to puke so he benched me." 

"For the game?" 

"I don't think so." I shrugged. 

"Okay... well try drinking some of your Gatorade, you do look a bit pale." 

"Yeah." 

"Keep an eye on your blood sugar. You got your phone?" 

I nodded. "It's in my bag. Hasn't gone off with the alert that its too high so..." I shrugged. 

He looked a bit concerned. "Okay." 

He went back to his seat and I turned back to the game. Over the next 9 minutes I grew increasingly agitated as coach had sat the starters and returned them to the game and I still sat on the bench.  Finally with 6:30 minutes left in the half, he told me to check back in and then he called a time out to get me into the game. Everyone else grabbed a drink while I shook out my arms and legs and tried to warm back up. It was our ball and we were down by 15 points.