We Come Alive

A Hunting Animal

Wednesday morning, Mateo parked his car in the back parking lot. He climbed out of his car and grabbed his bag from the passenger seat. Mateo walked through the parking lot and to the athletic building. He walked into the locker room and to his office.

Mateo set up his books on his desk and dropped his bag by his chair. He could hear footsteps slowly approach his office. When he looked up he saw Ricky walking into the office with a hoodie covering his face. Mateo watched him quietly walk in and sit down in the chair on the other side of his desk.

Mateo sat down in his chair and looked at the boy he had watched become the biggest part of his team.

"You alright?" Mateo asked, breaking the silence between the two.

Ricky shrugged. "I punched my first love in the face. She won't talk to me, won't answer my text, or return my phone calls. Everywhere I go everyone looks at me like I'm a monster. And I'm starting to hate the feeling of Stephen and Andrew always having to hold me back."

Mateo sighed and looked down at his hands. They were resting on the roster of football players. Next to the roster was the team photo. Mateo looked over all of their faces. The 50 teenagers he cared about like they were his own children. Mateo knew what he had to do and couldn't go back on it.

"Ricky I need to talk to you about something important. That's why I told you to meet me here."

Ricky's hazel green eyes met Mateo's brown ones. "Last time you called me for a meeting before school, you threw me against the desk and yelled in my face. Is it gonna be the same?"

"No." Mateo shook his head. "We need to talk about your PTSD. I understand you go to therapy every single night. I know you're working hard to control it and getting through it, but you have to look at it from my perspective. Twice. You've lost control twice in my care. At the football game, you could've done some serious damage. You were throwing punches and kicks at Andrew with your padding and cleats on. If one of those landed where he wasn't wearing his padding, you could've seriously hurt him."

Ricky looked up at Mateo and gave him a sincere look. "It was an accident. I swear it was an accident."

Mateo rubbed his hand across his face as he thought. When he dropped his hand back down to the desk he sighed heavily. "Ricky, yesterday we ran in when we heard Clover scream. She was begging you to stop and to get off her. When I walked in you were hovering over her with your fist in the air. If Stephen didn't whip you back when he did, you were going to pound her in the face. It took four of your teammates to pin you to the ground and hold you back from attacking her. Whether you knew it was her or not, you physically attacked her. Ricky you're a fighter. You get into fights all the time. I've seen you fight and they can get brutal. I had to rip you off of our old wide receiver when you to got into it. I know you tried to scare Jacob with the old story of the last wide receiver, but if he would've left here and pressed charges, you'd be in jail Ricky. You broke his nose and knocked out three of his teeth."

Mateo felt his heart shatter when he saw Ricky put his hand to his eyes and wipe them. Ricky's shoulder shook subtlety as he begun to cry.

"Ricky, what if we didn't come in on time? What if you hit her?"

"It was an accident." Ricky cried. "I swear I didn't mean it. I'll get better. State is next Friday. I have two weeks to get it together."