Broken {Completed}

Practice

When it was lunch time I went straight to Feo's physics class and walked with her to lunch.

"So what is it that you're dying to know about me?" She asked grabbing an apple from the fruit bar to go with her lunch she brought from home.

We sat down at our table as she removed a salad from her lunch bag. "Are you a vegetarian?" I asked. I could never recall seeing the girl eat a piece of meat.

"No I just prefer fruits and vegetables. They're a lot healthier for you." She removed the lid from her salad to reveal a masterpiece of a salad. It looked absolutely beautiful.

"Why spend so much time making something pretty when you're just going to eat it?"

She shrugged. "I just do." She took a bite and then looked at me. "So all you want to know are my eating habits?"

"Well I said I wanted to get to know you, so that's part of it."

"What about me? What do I get to know about you?" She looked up from taking another bite of her salad.

"There's not much to me really."

"Bullshit. What's the whole thing with you, your mom, and Shannon?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've known Shannon since I was in middle school, and he's never mentioned you. So did they divorce and are getting back together or what?"

"He cheated on my mom before he knew she was pregnant. She was devastated and left him. He didn't know I existed until about a month ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I'm coping."

"Are you? You still seem pretty damaged."

"Smart mouth."

Feo laughed. It was rare I that I ever heard her laugh, but it was beautiful and wished she would do it more often.

"Okay serious talk now." I looked down at my hands to avoid looking at her. I wasn't sure how she'd take this question.

"Sure. Do you want the rest of this?" She pushed her half eaten salad toward me a little.

"No thanks the team is going out to eat after practice, and I normally eat a protein bar right before."

She put the salad away and polished the apple on her sleeve before taking a bite. "What did you want to talk about that's so serious you had to put on your dark and brooding mask?"

I tried to relax a little, but wasn't successful. "Please don't hate me for asking this question, but what made you decide to be a lesbian? If you chose that of course. I don't know if you believe it's a choice or- you know."

She looked at me for a moment. I guess I overstepped the boundaries. "I don't really know. I guess I've always just found women more attractive, and intellectually they're more appealing."

"So you think men are ugly and stupid?"

"Not all of them. I find your dad highly intelligent, and I enjoy talking to him."

I nodded. "Have you ever been with a guy?"

"No. Why?"

"Like I said. Just trying to get to know you." The bell rang, and we went our separate ways. I wasn't sure if she would be open to a relationship or not. Maybe it would be best if I just left it alone and continued to be her friend.

• • • •

I geared up for practice. Adam was surprisingly quiet which kind of scared me, but maybe he finally realized I wasn't going to react the way he wanted to his bullying and gave up.

I walked outside of the locker room and went to join everyone on the bench.

"Alright we have a game tomorrow so we'll be playing two-hand-touch. I'm proud of how far you all have come, and I look forward to kicking some butt tomorrow!"

Everyone cheered as we went out on the field. It was offense vs defense as usual. Something about Adam seemed particularly dangerous, so I went to the side farthest from him.

When the ball was tossed up, my team caught it and tossed it to me. I caught it and started running. The other team pushed me more and more toward Adam which I didn't want. As I neared him, he grabbed me by the shirt and shoved me face down in the turf.

"You son of a bitch! What the hell was that?" I could feel blood running down my cheek, there was a searing pain in my eyebrow.

"Speaking of bitches, how's your mom?" He taunted.

I would have punched him right then, but didn't want to get benched from the game. I picked up the ball, and we went again. This time I avoided Adam, and let my team take care of him. I was able to score a touchdown.

Then I saw Adam and some of his team talking. This couldn't be good. I watched as they spread out into a strange formation. They had the ball, but they threw it right to me. That's when they all began to rush me. The fist guy to reach me elbowed me in the chest, and another came from behind knocking my knees out from under me.

I flipped through the air a few times and when I landed I couldn't breath. There was unbearable pain in my chest and shoulder, and to make matters worse someone's cleats went into my rib cage.

I heard the coach's whistle, but it became a horrible high pitch ring before I blacked out.