Tainted Me

Chapter 27: Here Comes The Boom

"Still nothing from Oz?"

"I'm supposed to hear from him today."

"It's only a matter of time, though."

"Yeah," I breathed out.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired," I admitted. "I just want all this shit to be over already."

Arisa's hand tightened its grip on mine. "Soon."

"God, I hope so."

She cleared her throat, before frowning and wagging a finger at me. "Keep your head in the game, O'neal. I don't want to lose against Yale."

I chuckled, snaking an arm around her neck to pull her to me. I kissed her forehead. "Yes, ma'am."

She grinned. "See you later." She went on her tiptoes and kissed me lightly on the lips.

"Be safe!" I called after her retreating back.

She waved without looking back as she walked away to meet our friends.

Taking a deep breath, I headed to the locker room.

"'Eyo, Nine!"

All eyes landed on me, quickly followed by nods and greetings. Everyone looked pretty much happy to see me. Except for one person.

"You better fucking pull your weight," Mackenzie grumbled, as he put on his gear.

"Damn, Mack. You talking to yourself now?"

He gave me the finger, making me send him a flying kiss. Lame ass wuss.

"It's never really game day without you pissing off Mack right before a game," Holden said, chortling as he warmed up on the bench in front of his locker.

I snorted. "I was barely even trying."

"You ready for your last game?"

"Eh, it's not even an official one."

"It's still against Yale."

"True, gotta bring them hell one way or another."

He groaned when he stretched his arm.

"You okay, man?" I asked.

"Yeah, got sacked at practice pretty hard last week—landed bad."

I made a face. "Ouch."

"Tell me about it."

"You think you're gonna be able to take heavy hits tonight?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it."

"Don't act tough in front of me."

"I'm serious."

I stared at him some more. It reminded me of Mauri. I made the mistake of being careless once. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Nobody else was going to die on my watch.

I was about to scrutinize him some more but Coach walked in and told me to put my gear on.

*****

Fucking hell.

This was like a rewind of my last game—only worse. It was against Yale, too. But they weren't only targeting me this time. Mack was close to losing his shit. Jasper looked defeated already. Holden had gotten sacked way too many times that he didn't look his best right now. He was off. We were all off.

"We're fucking better than this," I spat.

It was the last down before half-time. We needed to goddamn score.