Braunson (BoyxBoy)

Ch 8 After The Fall

A/N: If you haven't already, go read chapter 7.5 in Braunson Restricted Chapters. This is chapter 8. It's a little shorter than the others.

The photo is of Scott Livingston (Austin North)

The field-house was empty. In the aftermath of Braunson's humiliating defeat, the team received a lot of heat. Hunter woke up Saturday morning to a yard filled with stakes with white flags of surrender tied around them. It only forced more anger into him. Sunday evening, while Travis was working his shift at Buckey's, a couple of guys from a town over gave him a hard time. He ended up having to leave work early because he almost decked one of them.

Perhaps the most pain stricken about the whole deal was the coach. Jackson walked around his house in a dry mood the entire weekend. When the town newspaper trashed him and his team for giving up, he angrily ripped it up and put a lighter to it. Skylar just gave him his space, and did what he could to make his husband feel better. Truth of the matter, there was nothing that could get rid of the thorn in his side. Choosing to call the game was like a double edged sword. If he didn't forfeit when he did, one of his players could've been really injured. The Knights were playing hard with no mercy. The last thing he wanted was for one of his kids to break something or receive a concussion on the first game of the season. To stay safe, he did what he felt needed to be done.

When Monday rolled around, he knew he was going to have to explain hisself to his players. They would surely be looking for answers and questioning his authority.

The final bell rang and he waited for them to start pouring into the field-house one by one, like always. Usually it would be quiet, but as more of the guys arrived, the silence was exchanged with meaningless talk and chatter.

After several minutes went by and no one came into the prepare for practice, he started to get suspicious. He sent one of his assistant coaches out to see if he could locate anyone on the team. To pass time, he reviewed the game tapes from the game to get an idea of what he needed to pay most of his attention to. With all the mistakes floating around the film, it was hard to see what the boys did worst in.

He watched a particular play where Travis, who was considered the fastest and arguably the best on the team, was handed the ball and ran directly into a mob of players from the opposite team. He was flattened and stayed on the ground to recollect himself before getting up. Jackson watched it and shook his head. After that one, he had seen enough. He paused the television and looked around.

"Now they know damn well they're supposed to be here." He said to one of the other coaches. He was beyond frustrated at that point. They had lost over thirty minutes of practice, which God knew they couldn't afford to lose.

The main field-house door opened, but Chrome only heard one set of footsteps. Coach Santiago ventured around the corner with no one following him.

"I looked everywhere from the weight room to the bus stops, nobody's here. I didn't even see Woodward's truck in the lot." Santiago said.

A football coach couldn't do anything without his team. There was no point in him and the other coaches sticking around if the boys weren't there.

Jackson let out a frustrated sigh, another of many he produced that day. "I guess you guys can head out too then." He said, "I'll lock things up here."

The coaching staff parted ways, leaving Jackson alone. He put the tapes back in one of his filing cabinets and sat down at his desk to contemplate.

His twins still had soccer practice, so he had an hour and a half to kill. That's when he decided he'd try to get an contact with the team. He had their phone numbers on file for the purpose of contacting them in case an emergency practice came up.