It had been no secret why the young teenager had been called up to the England squad. He had quickly risen up the ranks all the way up to class A at Surrey. He was a confident batter who had a great knock and a wicket keeper who had one of the safest pairs of hands in England. If anything it was a surprise why he wasn't called up sooner than he already was. A few of his England teammates were a bit skeptical at first but once they met him, they saw the skill that he had and the mature head that he had on his shoulders, he would make a great addition to the team and what better stage to prove yourself as a young cricketer like the 2023 Ashes?
People around him had said somethings like he is too immature and not skilled enough to face the pressure that comes with facing Australia in the ashes, but that just inspired the young man. He worked harder than he ever has in his young cricketing career, any spare time that he found that he had, he would strap his pads on and ask anyone that he could find to give him a few throw downs in the nets. He was feeling pretty confident, or as confident as a young debutant could be going into the ashes, in himself.
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It was the night before the opening day of the ashes at Headingley, everybody had already finished their team dinner and they were all in the lounge and cinema room watching a film, just chilling or playing some kind of card game or if they are playing with woody, they would be repeating the rules of the card game repeatedly.
Jamie found himself on a sofa, scrolling through his phone beside Brooksy and Joe.
That had proven to be a mistake, scrolling through his phone gave him too much time to himself, and more importantly more time alone with his thoughts. Of course all of his thoughts were on tomorrow and the series as a whole.
The more possibilities that he thought of, the more negative they got, the more on edge he felt about making his debut, the more agitated he became to walk out in front of millions, the more nervous he got to mess up and feel like a complete and utter disappointment and failure and burden to his teammates.
All of a sudden, he felt his breath hitch in the neck and that he couldn't take a deep breath, or a breath at all for that matter. But still the negative thoughts about tomorrow still came. He looked down at his phone seeking some sort of distraction from whatever was going on inside of his head. But he was instead met with the sight of his hands trembling an incredible amount. 'Shit this isn't good' he had thought to himself.
Suddenly he felt something drip of his chest. Since when was he crying. No. This couldn't be happening, not in front of everybody. Not in front of the people that he was going to spend the next couple months with. Then the panic really started to hit. He couldn't breathe, his hands were shaking uncontrollably, he was in floods of tears, he felt like everything around him was blurry - whether that was from the tears or the lack of oxygen.
In pure panic and desperation to get out of wherever he thought he was, Jamie tapped Brooksy on the thigh with his trembling hand.
Brooksy turned and was met with a sight that he had never seen before. A wreck of a friend and teammate that he would never wish anyone to see. Now luckily for the teenager, Brooksy was familiar with a panic attack or two in the past.
Brooksy told Joe, who was thoroughly engrossed in the film that they were watching, to follow him as he held Jamie by the shoulder and practically dragged him to his own room for some privacy.
Jamie really did not want Joe there, if he was going to have a panic attack, he wanted the least amount of people to know but then again Joe was the interim captain so he would have known anyway as Harry would have been required to tell him and the other coaching staff.
"Right, Jamie, it's Harry and Joe and we're in my bedroom and your having a panic attack but we're gonna be fine you are gonna get through this. Okay?" Harry explained in an attempt to reassure his younger teammate.
Jamie nods in response, which was more of a response than Harry though he would have received.
"Okay Jamie I'm going to ask you some questions but you have to try your hardest to copy my breathing." Brooksy went on to dither explain as he exaggerated his breaths by taking ridiculously deep breaths. "Now can you name 5 things that you can see for me?"
"T-the bed, Joe, the carpet, the door and y-you." Jamie managed to splutter out between terrible attempts at deep breaths.
"That was great buddy, now keep concentrating on my breathing and try and name four things that you can feel." Harry asked, sounding more confident in his plan.
"The chair, the rug, Joe r-rubbing my back a-and uhhh my hoodie."Jamie replied - sounding slightly less scared as before and a tad more coherent.
"Nice, I like it, now can you name 3 things that you can hear?" Brooksy asked further.
"The film and people outside, and c-cars outside." Jamie answered.
"Now what about 2 things that you can smell?"
"You and Joe's awful aftershave." Jamie answered with a slight laugh.
"Cheeky." Joey chimed in.
"And finally one thing that you can taste."
"Taste? Curry from dinner."
"Yeah, it was quite nice." Brooksy exclaimed.
"Now how are you feeling kid?" Joe asked
"oh... I feel okay. Tired but okay." Jamie answered.
Harry asked Joe to go and get the poor lad some water.
"So I'm guessing you've never had a panic attack before then?" Harry asked, somehow already knowing the answer.
"No, that was my first one. How do you know what to do?"
"I've had my fair share of panic attacks, one actually on the pitch but that's a story for another day." Harry answered
"Oh..." Jamie replied, not knowing what to say to that.
"So if you ever have one again or if you need anything with your mental health or just anything in particular just call me, I don't care if it's in the middle of the night." Brooksy reassured.
"Cheers mate."
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*Sorry that this was so short, just not sure what to put out, but I knew I wanted to get something out about cricket so if you have any suggestions an cricket or any sports, just comment or message me!
