Gold Rush

01

"Down."

"Set"

"Hike!"

Cayden bolted, trying to shake off his defender as he ran his assigned route. Holding his arm up at Jalen to signal for the ball.

Watching as the ball spun his way, he held his arms up, plucking it from the air and taking off down the sideline and into the end zone.

"Defense! What the hell are we doing?!" Nick Sirianni screamed as Cayden jogged back to where his coach was yelling at their defense.

"If we play like this in a couple weeks, we're going to get crushed. One more time. Let's end on a good one!" Coach said as he walked back to the sideline with the other coaches.

Cayden put his mouth guard back in before jogging to the huddle with the other offensive players.

"Okay. Trips 127 go. Ready?" Jalen Hurts, the Eagles quarterback asked.

"Break"

Cayden lined up against his defender who smirked at him as he shook his head, waiting for Jason to snap the ball.

"Set"

"Hut!"

Cayden took off, running his route, noticing that A.J Brown was taking off as the ball flew in the air to him. Going to block for him as the defense knocked the ball down.

The defense pumped this fists happily since they were finally done scrimmaging.

"There we go boys! Let's take a recovery day and I'll see you back here on Tuesday." They broke away and started walking to the locker room to change.

Cayden took his helmet off as Jalen walked over to him.

"We still on for tonight?" He asked as Cayden smiled and nodded. He was excited, tonight was the night him and his teammates were going to the Eras Tour.

"Yeah man 'course." Jalen smiled, dapping him up and they walked to the locker room.

"Alright cool, it's me, you, Blank and Slay." Cayden said, glancing at his quarterback who nodded and began to slip his pads off.

Cayden grimaced as he started to take his shoulder pads off, they were already unbearable to get off and now that they were drenched with sweat, it made it so much worse.

Once he got them off he sighed, sitting down on the chair in front of his locker as Jalen did the same, grabbing his phone and texting Bry.

Cayden was jealous, almost everyone on his team was dating someone and after practice that was the first person they texted. He tried to get out and meet girls but it never really went well, either they loved his money or liked him for the sex and never really stuck around.

He dated a girl for a while, Cecelia Meadows, a model that worked with Victoria's Secret, but that didn't go well, they both were too focused on their respective careers and it showed when she bashed his name in the media.

He never cheated or emotionally abused her like she accused and the truth did come out when her leaked texts with her ex-publicist came out and showed the entire made up idea.

He was lonely, his brother, Ashton had three kids with his wife, Layla, his younger sister was dating his friend Travis, yes Travis Kelce, and his brother Micah just started dating his girlfriend, Sasha.

The fame was nice, the parties, the games and the super bowl win was nice. But he was alone and it almost felt like his only women in his life was his mom, his sister and his publicist, Naomi.

He remembered the surfaced video of his super bowl loss to the Chiefs like it was yesterday, as him and his teammates walked back to the tunnel, they cried in their wives and girlfriends' arms while he cried into his mothers shoulder and his sister jumped around happily on the field with his opponent. He didn't blame Danielle, he set them up for christ sake but it hurt. A lot.

Anyway, he always did have a little crush on Taylor Swift, but there was no way that was happening. Though he made her a friendship bracelet with his number on it and he had a plan, he was going on the New Heights podcast since Travis and Jason insisted he come on and maybe just maybe, Taylor will see it.

"You ready brother?" Reed Blankenship nudged him as he finished buttoning up his black button up shirt. He smoothed his hands over his pants as Cayden shook his head. Looking up from the floor as he sighed, "I'll meet you guys out there."

"Sounds good," Darius Slay nodded as him and Jalen put their shoes on and left the locker room.

"CV, you good man?" Reed asked as he turned away from the mirror as Cayden pulled his black cargo pants up his legs.

"Yeah, RB, I'm good, just in my head." Cayden sighed, turning away from his friend and pulling his undershirt over his head and throwing in the team laundry bin. Pulling his shirt over his head and grabbing his fitted hat from the shelf in his locker.

"Seriously Cayden, you can talk to me about whatever." Reed sat down next to him as Cayden stopped putting his New Balance 550s on.

"Reed, what the fuck are you talking about?" Cayden shook his head with a grin as he stood up, grabbing a handful of friendship bracelets and started walking out of the locker room.

"Man, I'm talking about how you haven't been yourself since CeCe said all that shit about you—" Reed followed him as Cayden grimaced at her name and Reed winced, "Sorry—sorry, dude, CV— I can set you up with someone, my girl knows lots of people."

"Reed, seriously bro, I'm good. I think I need to be alone for a while." Cayden nodded at Jalen and Darius as the four started walking to the parking lot.

"Are you sure? I know—" Reed started again as Cayden looked at him.

"Yo, I'm good man, just drop it okay?" Cayden shook his head with a laugh as they reached his car, unlocking his Hummer as the guys got in the car.

"Philly Night 1, here we come!" Darius yelled as the boys laughed.

"Woooooo!"