We Come Alive 5

Breathe

Sunday morning, while everyone else in his life was most likely waking up in a nice comfortable bed, Ethan was waking up in an arm chair in the common area of the addiction facility. He slowly blinked his eyes open, but then jumped seeing a familiar face standing over him.

Craig stared down at Ethan and watched him tighten his blanket over his body. "What're you doing?"

"Now I'm having a heart attack." Ethan scoffed. "Why're you standing over me while I'm sleeping, you creep?"

Craig walked around the chair and stood in front of Ethan, ignoring everyone else around them going to use the bathroom or going to shower in the community bathroom. "Better question is why are you sleeping in the common area?"

"I don't know." Ethan shrugged his shoulders, adjusting the blanket over his body.

Craig looked at him confused. "What's wrong with your bed?"

The younger of the two shook his head with very little emotion showing. "Nothing." He assured him.

Craig stared at Ethan for a few seconds in utter confusion. He looked up at Ethan's room to see Zane still sleeping with the door wide open.

"Then why are you-"

"I saw a spider in there!" Ethan shouted, standing up. "I'm scared of spiders."

Craig snickered. "You're...interesting, Smash Williams. Why didn't you just kill it?"

Ethan shrugged. "I didn't think that far." He admitted.

"But you thought far enough to grab your blanket and pillow and come sleep out here?" Craig pointed out. "Come on, I'll kill it for you." He offered, walking into Ethan and Zane's room to find the spider and kill it for him.

~**~

That early afternoon, Mateo came into work to finish up some paper work that he needed to get in tomorrow, but was pleasantly surprised to see Hurst there working on some plays. Since Hurst took Ricky's old office, they just sat in silence for an hour. After that hour, Hurst joined Mateo in talking in his office.

Hurst chuckled listening to Mateo recall his stories of being on football teams his whole life. "So, you were the right man to coach this football team? Cause I have to admit, an undefeated season is pretty damn good."

"And it ain't easy." Mateo scoffed. "You take around fifty strong personalities and try to make them work together. They either get along great, or they damn near murder each other everyday. And trust me, they almost have."

Hurst smirked. "Honest answer. Who was the worst to get along?"

"Ricky Barnes and Ethan Hernandez. Hands down. I literally almost thought Ricky would snap Ethan's neck everyday. But half of it had to be Ricky trying to be tough in front of Clover. And her?" Mateo scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Her and Jose took all of summer conditioning their sophomore year to get along. Either he blamed her for over throwing the ball or she blamed him for not catching it. They're all good kids. Every last one of them are great kids, but they got some big ass egos and big ass attitudes when it comes time to get on that field. They can be laughing and being buddy-buddy in that locker room, second those cleats touch that gridiron, they changed like that." Mateo explained, snapping his fingers.

"Jose and Clover?" Hurst frowned. "I don't believe it. They're like two peas in a pod."

The Mexican man shook his head. "I have to admit, I had so many doubts that Clover was as great of a quarterback and Jose as great a running back, without the other." He shrugged.

His co-worker's jaw dropped at the statement but all Mateo could do was shrug his shoulders. "The Jose Garcia and the Clover Jones? Two of the best players to step on Texas high school football fields?"