Hard To Love (Professor / Student)

The Truth

I get back to campus and put Meg's keys back on her night stand before walking to the gym. The lights are off, but the doors are unlocked. My feet carry me to the locker room and I lay down on one of the benches. Practice starts at 8:00am and the clock on my phone says its almost 6:00am. Two hours of sleep before an important practice. What could go wrong? I close my eyes for what feels like a minute and my alarm goes off. Tiredly, I change into my practice clothes and start stretching before anyone gets on the court.

15 minutes later, Coach walks in and throws his bag on the floor.

"You're early." He says and crosses his arms. I just nod and continue stretching, trying to get Mark out of my head.

The rest of the team funnels in and practice begins. We do some drills and go over some key plays for the game in two days. Friday night. The night, hopefully we win the championship game. Coach blows his whistle to signal the start of our scrimmage. I try to keep my mind focused on practice, but I can't help but let it wander. What would have happened if Mark told me? Why did he wait so long? He said he did it for me. Maybe it was just a stupid mistake? I don't know. It's all in the past, but it just hurts that he kept it from me for so long. Is this what Logan meant when he said Mark was keeping secrets?

Coach's whistle pulls me from my thoughts. Shannon passes me the ball in and I dribble down the court. At least basketball has never lied to me. I know what I can do and can't do on the court.

The scrimmage goes well, and I walk over to the water stand, dripping in sweat.

"You look good out there. Like you never left." Coach says as I take a seat on the bench, soaking up the sweat with a towel handed to me by the someone on the Coaching Staff.

"Thanks. Basketball is the one constant thing in my life right now."
"You alright?"
"Yeah, kind of. Just a lot going through my mind."
He takes a seat and folds his arms across his chest, looking out towards the court as some girls shoot around. "You know there's people you can talk to on campus, right?"
"I know. I'm fine."

"If you don't want to talk to a professional, you can talk to anyone here. Me, Coach Lisa, anyone on the training staff, heck you can even go to Dan or Coach O'Shea."

When he says Mark's name my eyes shoot up to his.

"Uh...yeah. I know Coach, thanks."
He looks at me odd and stands back up. Before he walks away, he turns and looks at back at me.

"Are you sure there's nothing else going on?"
"Nope. I'll be fine. I'll talk to someone, eventually."
"Good. Hit the locker room. And take it easy for the next two days, please" He begs, and I laugh a little.

"I will." The locker room shower brings my mind back to all the thoughts about that night with Logan. He doesn't love you! He's in love with her. You're just a little fling. The thoughts swirl around in my head before I have had enough. I have to talk to Mark, even if that means We aren't a We anymore afterwards. I turn the steaming hot water off and step into a pair of dry clothes before sprinting across campus and hopping on the shuttle that goes downtown.

I throw my hood over my freezing, wet hair and hop off the shuttle at the Diner's stop. Marks apartment is only a short walk from here. My thoughts are racing in my head, what do I say? Do I yell? What is he going to say? Will he lie? Before I can answer any of those unanswerable questions, my fists pounds on Mark's door and he swings it open. His eyes are totally bloodshot, his hair looks like he's been running his hands through it all night and he's still wearing the clothes he went out in last night.

"Ness?" He asks, a little surprised.

"We need to talk." I say, trying to keep my eyes away from his. He steps aside and lets me in to his apartment.