Oblivious

10 // Second guess myself

Atychiphobia
(n.) fear of failure; fear of not being good enough

-Elora-

"This is a shitty idea, just so you know." I grin up at Elijah, coming to a stop in front of the changing rooms.

He rolls his eyes, his left index finger tapping his thigh repeatedly.

Elijah stares at the door for a moment before turning around and beginning to walk in the other direction. "I'm not doing this."

Grabbing his arm to stop him, Elijah turns to face me, eyes slightly narrowed at the contact. Sheepishly smiling at him I pull my hand away.
"You said you'd try out."

It's true Elijah agreed to try out for the hockey team last week, after I spent a lot of time convincing him he was good enough.

Atleast I thought I convinced him but now we're here on try outs day and he's backing out.

"I changed my mind." Elijah blinks at me, stuffing his hands into his jogger pockets.

I shrug at him. "Okay."

Starting to walk away from the changing rooms I'm pulled back by Elijah. "That's it?"

I shrug at him again, my eyebrows furrowed. What more does he want me to say? "You don't have to try out if you don't want to Elijah."

Elijah just blinks at me again, his hand still holding my wrist.

"I obviously think you should. But I'm not going to force you if you don't want to." I think Elijah should at-least try, especially now that I know he likes hockey but I understand why he's scared.

Elijah blinks at me , once, twice, three times, before dropping my wrist with a huff, rolling his eyes and walking into the changing room without a glance back.

I grin after his retreating figure. Happy he's at the least trying. Hurrying to the rink so I can watch.

❤︎

I watch, hands in my hoodie pocket as Elijah dodges what I think is a defender.

I haven't watched a game of hockey in my life and have no idea about any of the positions, but if this was football the guy would be called a defender so I'm assuming I'm near enough.

After they see how well they can dodge the 'defenders' they all line up to shoot against the teams goal keeper.

Elijah scores 4 out of 5 shots same as one other guy where as the rest of the people trying out only score 3 out of 5 or less.

From what I saw he did pretty well on the other tests too so I'm assuming he's better then the other guys.

I spot Ajax standing with the rest of the hockey team and wave, he nods back.

I give Elijah a thumbs up too for encouragement. I don't think he notices.

Hopping from my seat when they're finished I rush to the changing rooms to meet Elijah.

Elijah comes out frowning, rushing to his side I second guess my decision to link my arm through his, letting it fall back to my side before making contact.