Young Temptations, Part Two: Jealousy and Secret Rendezvous'

Not again

The blaring shrill of the alarm clock emanated throughout Hazel's townhouse as she stared blankly at her ceiling. She thrust her arm toward it, aggressively thrusting it to the floor. She wasn't in the mood to be reminded that she had a long day ahead of her, especially after getting little to no sleep almost every night for the past 6 months. She tried to tell her mind that she needed to move on, and oh was she good at pretending she had. However, deep down she knew it would take much more time...... a lot more time. The cold floor was unforgiving as she made her way to the bathroom to get ready despite wishing to stay in bed all day.
Once collected, she gathered her things and walked quickly to her car. Whilst driving to work, Hazel went through her day in her mind. She would be doing initial season physicals right after the regular morning meeting and then, after going over injury protocols apart of the pre-season checklist, Uncle Tommy would pick her up to head to the community outreach event geared toward promoting the university. At least it would keep her busy, and hopefully tire her out enough to where she could get some decent sleep that coming night.
"Dr. Walker! Good morning." Paul Lockhart stated walking up behind her as she swiped her badge to enter the office building. Hazel smiled politely, ducking in quickly as it began to sprinkle outside. "Good morning Paul, wonderful day out isn't it?" Lame pleasantries and small talk were a specialty of hers but she hated them nonetheless. He chuckled "Not a fan of the rain huh?" No, not at all. They walked together toward the large conference room, taking their usual seats and beginning the meeting. Of course it started off as usual, each team doctor discussed the upcoming physicals and any adjustments to policies that they wished to set in motion. Hazel lazily paid attention to the dribble that filled the room, that was until it was her turn. "Now it's a busy time for all of us, but I'm hoping to see several of you at the community outreach event in the practice gym, our capacity for the event is almost full. Practically every ticket was divvied out, and since its a free event we think not many will no show.... Dr. Walker will be manning the women's basketball booth along with Coach Reynolds."
Hazel didn't mind Georgia Reynolds, the women's basketball couch. She was opinionated but that was to be expected from a coach, especially at this university. She comminuted to her him trail on about booth/group assignments for the even, as she doodles in the upper left corner of her paper.
"We have former basketball and football players for the men's teams coming to the event to get a good turn out as you all know. Here is the list of whom will be with whom and where etc." This she was curious to see who would be placed with her. She sighed relieved that Jeremy Caldwell was assigned to her booth, not that she would have expected a certain somebody to be even invited to the event. Jeremy had signed with the Phoenix Razorbacks and was doing very well for himself. Although, Hazel only heard that from hear say as she tried to avoid anything outside of work that had to do with men's basketball, and for very good reason. Once the meeting ended, Hazel sucked out of there to head to the gym for all the physicals she was needing to get done today. She felt frazzled but confident, Kelly was gone so it was just her. She knew she could it, after everything she been through in the past year she just knew she would make it through in one piece, hopefully......
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'Even if we both break down tonight
And you say you hate me, and we go to bed angry
I know everything will be alright
I'll be here waiting, I promise I'm changing
I just need
A little time to show you I'm worth it'

The lyrics poured through his headphones as Damon ran on the indoor track. The song was number one on his playlist, and as much as he hated it, he just couldn't let it go. He first had heard the song 3 weeks after Hazel had officially cut him out of her life, and it hit hard.
He didn't understand why he couldn't just move on. The NBA season start was just three short months away. He was painfully aware how distracted he had been and it was annoying him immensely. Suddenly his ringtone started playing in his ears, causing him to stop in his tracks to check who it was. He groaned lowly and answered "calling to brag about how you will be making a measles 5k more than me this year again Jer?"
He heard a course chuckle from the other end and a loud deep cough.
"Geez bro what the hell have you got?"
Jeremy Caldwell chuckled again, this time without sounding so congested. "Well I came down with a cold a few days ago, and I have a favor to ask........."
Damon knew Jeremy only really called when he needed something or when he wanted to brag about himself, so it was no surprise.
"Ok bro shoot..."

"Well so I'm supposed to go today to this community outreach thing at Declan, supposed to man a booth you know the charity shit, but I don't think I'm going to make it like this..... I swear I have been doing everything I can to get better but I have a fever now today and just don't think it's a good idea but I don't wanna let coach down..."
Damon sighed heavily pinching the bridge of his nose. "And you want me to step in for ya?" There was a small moment of silence as Jeremy was undoubtedly trying to figure out what to say to convince him.
"Well yeah, I already tried Terrance, he's busy going on some trip with family." Damon nodded to himself, Terrance had taken off recently after the draft to go spend time with family or so he said. They would both me starting with the Minnesota Timberwolves soon, both having been drafted to the same team. They were called the dynamic duo, and the name spread like wildflower this last season.

"Well uh....." he began but was interrupted by Jeremy coughing loudly again. "Uh yeah dude I guess I can help out, I just need to let the staff know here and I'll be on my way."

"Dude thank you so much...... it's at the practice gym at 3pm and hey tell the Doc that I said hey and I'll catch her next time."
Before Damon had a chance to contest or ask questions, the line went dead and he was left standing there feeling the blood drain from his face. "Hazel." He breathed out, feeling as if her name coming from his lips stole the air from his lungs.