𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭 ✔️

Bonus Chapter - Landon

4 YEARS AGO

"We're losing by seven, you need to get your head out of your asses and focus!" Coach yelled at us while we huddled around his small clipboard.

The opposing team was leading and we needed to win this game if we wanted to head to state finals and win the championship. Some of the plays were going bad due to my lack of focus and coordination, all because I was thinking about Julie.

I took a peek at the stands where people were cheering and yelling in excitement, but all my eyes could do was rake them over the crowd and try to find Julie's dark hair. She was nowhere to be found. I was afraid that her dad had something to do with it and I was afraid that something had happened.

She was acting odd and avoiding me, but most of all my dad was the one who was making me focus more on football and that meant spending less time with her.

"Hills!" Coach yells, snapping me out of my train of thought. I shake my head and the team breaks away.

"Man, focus!" Ryan shakes me as I follow him out back to the field. I slip the helmet back on and stand in my position, ready to tackle the guy in front of me.

Coach said that if I continued to contribute in scoring and winning the actual games, he'd consider me as first string and even move me up the ranks of leading the team. He sees the potential in me, but that's only because dad keeps talking to him about using me for everything.

The opposing team hiked the ball and my job was to block their teammate from tackling our defense line. I had my eyes focused on him and made sure to not let go of him. Once I saw that he was trying to tackle one of my teammates, I ran to him. I tackled him down as a result of one of my teammates tackling down the opposing member with the ball. The crowd cheered and I could hear the coach praising us as we were stopping their momentum.

What felt like an hour was only five minutes and we were able to score a field goal and a touchdown, resulting in us winning by a point. The cheerleaders and the other benchwarmers ran to us on the field and huddled around us, mostly crowding over the quarterback and linebacker. The star seniors that gave us the dub in the first place.

As I moved away from the celebratory crowd, I noticed that the bleachers were half empty now. Usually my parents were always at my game and that's what I found was odd. My dad never missed a game, he was the one to push me into this sport since he couldn't do it when he was younger.

I looked around and felt my brows furrow. Either they didn't bother to come or they left early. Just as I was about to head into the locker room I heard the coach calling out to me.

"Landon! You have to get to the hospital! Something happened," He says with a worried look in his eyes.

My breath catches in my throat and my thoughts go to my mom. Her cancer was coming back and I was afraid that the sickness had done something to her. I found Ryan talking to a cheerleader and I instantly pulled him away.

"What?" Ryan says with an irritated face.

"Can you drive me to the hospital? I think something happened to my mom," I say.

He looks at me seriously and nods.

❀

"We only have the car that was left behind but it was reported as stolen," Howard says as my mom sobs in the hospital chair.

The rest of his words are muffled as the ringing in my ears overtakes my senses. My vision is turning black and I feel like the world is spinning. I smell the alcohol and disinfecting cleaners of the hospital swarm my nose. I can hear voices calling out to me and I feel like I'm going to collapse as I stand walking to the sliding doors of the hospital. When I step out, the autumnal air calms me down. What was supposed to be a great year of my football career and the start of something greater, quickly turned into a nightmare.