black tide. | ✓

0.9; reconciliation

a/n - keep in mind whilst reading this i have no clue how american football works !!

last chapter, epilogue to come soon. thank you so much if you've read this book, ily lots. :)

"the worst things in life come free to us." - the a team, ed sheeran. 

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As soon as I woke up in the morning, after only one or two restless hours of terrible sleep, my mind immediately flashed back to the fight that had occurred the night before. To Aiden. 

My initial thought process was to just stay in bed and sleep for the rest of the day, but then I remembered that I had hell - cough - I mean school. I wasn't letting anything with Aiden slip through my fingers again, I was not letting this go. I would not let it get to the same state we were before, where we just ended up never talking for years. I couldn't let him go again. I screwed up, big time, but that didn't mean I could live the rest of my life without knowing what would have happened. And he was graduating in a few months, going off to college - not that I knew which one - who knew when I would see him again after that? 

I still needed to find out why he ignored me 4 years ago. Why he threw away our friendship away like it meant nothing. I needed to find him. 

And I knew exactly where he would be. 

✞ ✞ ✞ 

I arrived outside the boys changing room minutes before the bell went for lunch break - our chemistry teacher was too lazy to give us extra work once we'd finished it all, so simply let us talk for a quarter of the lesson and let us leave 5 minutes early. No wonder so many people failed the test last semester...

I knew for a fact that Tuesday was football practice day, as was Monday.. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It wasn't hard to crack the code of why our high school's team was in the top ten in the country! And I knew Aiden wouldn't miss a practice for his life; he lived and breathed the sport, ever since he could walk and talk. His dad had pretty much forced it on him from a ridiculously young age, and I guess he was manipulated into believing he loved it - and that's what he told everyone. Whether that's what he actually feels, though, or whether that's what he wants to think, is a different matter. 

Soon enough, groups of teenage boys were hoarding into the changing room - that already stunk of sweat and shitty deodorant which failed at masking the smell - as I stood awkwardly outside, clutching my English Lit folder and trying not to make eye contact with anyone. But still looking out for a certain person. 

Suddenly, my eyes locked with his, and it felt as if the privilege of air had been completely taken away from me as I struggled to find my breath. Aiden stared at me for a few seconds, before he continued to walk in next to Luke and Kieran as if he hadn't seen anything at all. 

"Aiden!" I called out to him as I grabbed the sleeve of his plaid shirt in a desperate attempt to get him to listen. "Please, wait. Can we talk?" 

He stood for a second, staring again. Two seconds. Three.  "No."

"Aiden don't be a jerk about this. Just talk to me." I pleaded, getting lost in his hazel orbs... Wow that sounded some cheesy tumblr line.. Fuck, what has love done to me? 

"I've got football practice."

"They don't need you."

"I'm the quarterback."

"You're a jerk." I quickly shot back, not really thinking about the consequences in the heat of the moment. He sighed in exasperation to himself, turning around once again, but I quickly stood in his way, blocking the entrance, and continued talking. "I overhead coach earlier when I walked past his office. He was saying that you guys are just doing drills or something? Not ones that necessarily concern you. He was talking about how he was going to use this practice to work on offense, so get off your fucking high horse, okay?"