Loving the Quarterback

*Bonus Chapter 10*

Will's POV

"Dude"

My muscles strain slightly as I curl the weight up, feeling a burn in my bicep. Sweat drips down my back and forehead, soaking my shirt.

"Dude"

That's the best part about a workout. The sweat. It's a release, one that I can feel happening. I can feel the toxins seeping out of my body, the stress, the pressure, the responsibility. It all leaves my body, just for the moment. It feels good.

"Will!"

I flinch and look over at the phone I have propped against the gym wall. My cousin Koen is on the screen doing his own workout at his gym where he lives.

Koen is my cousin on my moms side, he was born only a few months before I was. He plays baseball as seriously as I play basketball, so on Tuesdays and Thursdays we workout together over the phone. Since he lives in Colorado and they're an hour behind us, he goes to a local gym before his school starts and I just get to school early to workout and shower before my classes start.

It's nice to start the day with him and catch up since we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. But we text and call each other all the time. We got a lot closer when his older brother, my cousin Isaac, left for college around the same time AJ and I started butting heads more seriously and I started taking on more responsibility for my siblings. I guess in a way we're each others escapes. It definitely helps that we're related. I never have to explain anything to him, he just knows.

"My bad" I grunt while putting the weight down. "What were you saying?"

"I was saying that I'm not sure if I'm gonna accept the scholarship from Caltech" he repeats.

"Wait, what? Why?" I ask in confusion.

"You know why" he looks at me like I'm stupid. "Plus I got an offer to play at Stanford too"

"Well yeah but, you have options" I mutter. "Isaac-"

"Just because my brother went to a different school doesn't mean that I can" he snaps. "If anything it means that I can't and I won't be the reason to give Granddad another heart attack. Neither will you or any of your siblings because we're all going to Stanford right?"

Sore subject.

"Yeah" I nod, picking the weight back up and switching it to my other arm. "You know I don't care what school we end up at, where you go I go Koen"

We made that pact when we were twelve.

"I know you don't care Will, but it matters" he sighs while starting up the treadmill. "Granddad already overlooked the fact that I want to go pro in baseball as long as I get a degree in Political Science, and he only agreed to that because I'm good enough to make big bucks in the pros and once I'm retired I'm expected to work for the family business. So I can't go anywhere other than Stanford. Which means we can't go anywhere other than Stanford"

"I know" I say through my teeth as I lift the weight. "I'm just saying if you wanted-"

"I don't want" he lets out a puff of air from jogging at a fast pace. "I don't want anything. I just do what I need to do"

I finish up the rep and set the weight back down. "Then Stanford it is"

He nods his head and I wipe my forehead with the bottom of my shirt. "What's on your mind?" Koen asks through deep breaths.

"What always is" I start prepping the area for bench presses, only putting on three quarters of the amount of weight I can lift since I don't have anyone here to spot me. "My siblings"