Behind Closed Hearts

Chapter 5

Aleks slammed his tray down next to his brother, giving him a little scare, but surprisingly, James gave him a smile that seemed somewhat real. He couldn't tell.

"I haven't seen you all day," Aleks said, feeling a bit lonely. He inspected what James had chosen for lunch. It was the A lunch, same as Aleks actually.

James shrugged, biting into his burger. "My counselor suggested that I have separate classes from you. It's so that I make my own friends or something like that."

"That's bullshit."

"That's what I said!" James exclaimed, waving his burger at Aleks.

Aleks smiled. "Did you get that graphic design class you wanted?"

James shrugged and set the burger onto his tray. "Nah, I decided to take the study hall instead... I would never be as good as Dad anyway."

Not a good sign. James was being negative again and that led to nothing good. "What about soccer?" Aleks asked.

James snorted and turned away. "I haven't done that since..."

"I'm serious here, James! Are you really gonna make me drag you to practice?"

For a moment James just chewed his food, watching Aleks uncertainly. "Only if you join too."

"Oh come on, James! I would never miss this for the world! Together, good sir, we will make champions out of this school!" He took a hearty bite of his own burger just as a group of three approached their table.

"What do you want?" Aleks grumped through a full mouth.

Thankfully, James reverted to the reasonable brother. "Hey guys," James said to Eddie, Jordan, and Seamus as he rolled a fry between his fingers. "You can join us if you want."

"Good. We were going to do that anyway," Eddie said as he sat down at their table with the others. "And sorry about earlier... we didn't want to offend." He looked pointedly at Aleks.

James came to his rescue again. "Whatever it is, I'm sure Aleks got over it by now. Right, Aleks?" James looked at him with such serious eyes, Aleks wanted to laugh.

Instead he smiled and said, "Yeah, sure, what he said."

Jordan leaned forward. "So are you two going for soccer?"

Aleks nodded and nudged his brother. "Yeah, both of us."

Jordan smiled. "Well then, Seamus and I will come and watch the practice."

"If I must," Seamus sighed as he did something on his phone.

--

James walked down the hall after school, feeling absolutely sick to his stomach. The last time he played soccer was a few weeks ago, before Mom and Dad had died. He and Aleks were practicing with some friends and then slept over at Dan's house. The storm had started soon after.

He imagined what it would have been like if he and Aleks had gone home instead of the sleepover. They would all be dead right now. What scared James the most is that sometimes... he wished he had gone.

Sucking in a stuttering breath, James worked his hands against the straps of his backpack, trying to gain his bearings back. There was nothing to be afraid of. He was good at soccer and he could play it again. He could!

He blinked slowly and walked down the hallway to his locker, quickly dialing his new combination. Slowly, he opened the locker and tried to ignore the staring people around him.

Jesus, he was a new student, not a freak show. At their old school, James and Aleks had been only known because of the soccer team. Otherwise they had been utterly invisible. James missed it.

James shoved his bag into his locker and slammed it shut before heading to the gym locker room. He breathed deeply and pushed the door open.

"Finally!" Eddie called, turning away from his locker with a pair of white running shorts in hand.

Beside him, Aleks was already changing into a similar pair. Eddie threw the pair at James which he caught easily. "Those are my extras. You can use them for the day." He threw a spare blue shirt to him too.

James changed quickly. Was it hot in there?

--

James panted, facing Eddie on the opposite team, wearing the red jersey where he wore yellow. His dark hair was plastered down against his brow, covered in sweat, but he had his focus on Eddie ahead of him. He kept running, keeping the ball at his feet, and dodged around Eddie.

In his peripheral, James spotted Aleks and he quickly kicked a pass to his brother. Aleks easily took it and ran ahead towards the goal before passing off to another teammate.

They were ahead in the game but just by three points and only needed this one goal to win the game. The adrenaline was flying through James' veins as he pulsed forward, easily swerving around Eddie to hurtle at the goal.

James ran faster as he saw the ball passed to him. He saw his opening and if he could just angle it right... James caught the ball against his shoe and he ran. Blood pounded to his ears and he could hear the cheering from the sidelines but he funneled his focus at the goalie and the net around him. He aimed and pounded a fierce kick into the ball, sending it flying.

The ball flew, hard and fast, at the goal. The goalie dove, trying to catch it, but it evaded his fingers by centimeters, plunging against the net.

Cheers burst around James as he panted in disbelief at the net. They won! James was pummeled into by his brother who shouted his ear. "That rocked James!" It was almost lost in the voices around him.

James laughed, feeling alive, as his team wrapped around him happily. Aleks took him by the shoulders. A deep happiness was in Aleks' brown eyes that James felt himself. "Now they have to let us on the team!"

"They better!" James hollered back. He was buzzing with energy.

"No one has ever beat Eddie," someone said.

Someone pushed through. It was Eddie and he held out his hand to first Aleks and then James. James shook his hand and Eddie said, "Great game."

"Welcome to the team," the coach said from behind the other students.

James smiled at Aleks. Things could get better, he supposed.

--

Arriving home at 5, James pressed the key into the lock but he was surprised to find the door was already unlocked. He pushed inside and kicked off his shoes at the door before running up the stairs. He swung his bag off just inside his bedroom door before collapsing onto his bed, facedown.

He smiled and rolled over, pulling his ratty old phone from his pocket. He opened up a new text to Aleks.

It's about time something good happens to us.

James pushed send, zipping it off to his brother, before laying back and just looking at his phone.

He knew that Dad would be proud of him if he was still around. Mom would too but she would've said something like, 'Just make sure you aren't slacking on your homework,' or something like that. He missed that stuff that used to make him roll his eyes.

"Where have you been?" a gruff voice asked.

James gasped and sat up fast. Nathen stood in the hallway by James' doorway, fixing him in a low glare. "I-I tried out for soccer," James stumbled to say.

"Did you?"

James swung off his bed and approached the man slowly. "I would have called to let you and Lily know if I had the house number or something," James said, opening his old phone. He hoped the man would just give him the number and leave him alone.

Nathen suddenly yanked the phone out of James' hands and threw it down the banister to the floor below, just next to the stairs. James' heart faltered when he heard a hard crack when it landed.

"Ask Lily about it," Nathen said with a glare. Then he trudged off without an explanation.

When he was gone, James slowly approached the banister in the hallway and peered down at the first floor where his phone had disappeared. Dad's phone was ruined.