We Come Alive 3

Tell The Truth

The following morning, a sunny Wednesday, Mateo had informed all of the players that they didn't need to gear up today. They just needed to go in the locker room, put down their things, and divide the team half and half. Half the football team was going to go to the trainer's office and get re-evaluated by Danny while the other half was going to the conference room and were going to take the concussion test with a nurse.

Jacob closed his locker with his bag inside and used the black lock to lock it. When he turned around, he was face to face with Colby walking up to him.

"Hey, come on. Mateo's telling us to hurry up." Colby said.

Jacob sighed as he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Alright, Alright. He needs to chill out. We're gonna be fine. We got all day to do this."

Right before a word could leave Colby's lips, they heard Mateo coming into the locker room clapping his hands loudly.

"Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" Mateo yelled. "Get to where you need to be! We're on a time schedule! Let's go!"

All the boys groaned before filing out of the locker room. Mateo walked outside the lockers and waited for them all to walk out. He watched them all either head to the trainer's room to sit outside until it was their turn or go to the conference room where the concussion tests were set up. Mateo felt a vibration in his pocket from his phone making him stop in his tracks before he could leave the locker room area.

Mateo pulled his phone out of his pocket and read the message from Sam on the lock screen before locking it back and sliding it into his pocket. Right when he was about to leave, he heard rustling inside the home locker room.

Mateo sighed before walking in to see someone still inside. He stopped in his tracks seeing Ethan standing in front of his locker with a baggie of white pills in his hands. Ethan turned around and sighed heavily knowing he was caught red handed.

"You're gonna go call my drug counselor aren't you?" Ethan wondered, closing the baggie and putting it down on the bench in front of him.

Mateo crossed his arms as he walked across the locker room so he was a couple feet in front of Ethan. Mateo shook his head as he stared at him. "No. I'm not."

Ethan's eyes grew wide hearing Mateo's words. "Your-You're not? Why?"

"You don't want me to. Do you?" Mateo wondered. "Of course you don't. But, what would I gain out of it? What? Knowing you're hooked on pills? I don't gain anything from that. Actually I'm losing from it. So, no I'm not gonna say anything. I'm just gonna let you take those pills and test positive when you go take your next random drug test. I'm guessing you've been getting lucky by not having one for the last couple days. Because guessing from how big that baggie is and how many are missing out of it, I'm taking a wild guess and saying this isn't the first time you've done this."

"I took a drug test yesterday." Ethan spoke. "I tested negative. I'm smart about this. If I keep testing negative, they're gonna be less and less frequent."

"Do you wanna play college ball and be more than the kid who overdosed and lost everything? You want to be something more than the goofy kid on a high school football team or in the back of history class?" Mateo spat.

Ethan sighed as he stepped over the bench and sat down on it. "Yeah, I think so."

"Than why aren't you doing something about it?" Mateo asked. "Why're you running around acting like you're just gonna be perfectly fine with this habit?"