Change of Heart

Chapter 34

 

Tristan

 

“Seth,” While he was in the middle of his pre-game routine, I went to him to maybe try to talk to him. “May I have a word?”

Seth, who had both of his ears plugged into his iPod, removed one earphone and raised an eyebrow at me.

“About yesterday…”

I drew in a huge breath of air. I had a talk with Erica just awhile ago and she cleared things up for me. I had wrongly accused Seth and I’ve said some harsh words to him.

I have a question: what do you say when you’ve wronged someone? What do you do when you hurt someone?

The word is sorry and the deed is apologizing. These are the simple answers to my questions, respectively. But it’s very complicated when you apply them in real life. It’s like that lesson in Med Tech 101 about drawing bloods. When the lecturer presented the theoretical background and methodology and even demonstrated how to perform it, he made it look like it was so damn easy. And then when you do it, you realize that it wasn’t as easy as you thought it was.

This is how I feel at this very moment while I’m facing Seth.

I must’ve looked pretty stupid standing in front of him, trying to find a substitute for the word, ‘sorry’. Seth looked at me doubtfully and put back his other earphone on. “Don’t worry. A game is a game. I won’t hold personal grudges.”

When someone shuts you off and you’re both already anxious for your upcoming game, you decided to just deal with this problem later. That’s what I did. I don’t have to forcefully bring the issue back. I don’t want to feel more anxious than I already am and probably caused more strain for both of us.

 

Sigh! Game day. But not just any other game—Championships!

You feel a torrent of unexplainable emotions when you’re finally there. It’s a mixture of excitement and anxiety and the feeling is compounded by the sheer desire for victory. I flexed my arms and flick my fingers to calm my nerves and set my focus on the game alone. When I closed my eyes, I thought of her. She would be my inspiration and my motivation to win.

The coach gathered us for one final briefing before we warm up. He announced the starting line up starting with our team captain Michael Hof #16 center, Brandon Chiu #8 shooting guard, Jerod Guanzon #34 power forward, Seth de Guzman #23 Point guard, and last but not the least, yours truly, Tristan Alcala #21 small forward.

Let me tell you a little about my teammates, so that you’d be a little familiar with them.

First is our team captain Michael Hof. Michael is a fourth year Physical Therapy student. Because he’s half-Dutch, he towers at a height of 6’5”.

 Brandon Chiu is a third year Physical Therapy Student who’s from Chinese descent. He’s lanky, so he’s usually underestimated, but he hits three’s sharper than Hawkeye.