Knight

45

Sam Knight

Nobody in this entire fucking school could keep Mason's name out of their filthy mouths. They were tickled with joy when the news broke and Mason and I, celebrating the fact that I had done one of the only things that would unsettle Nathan Maloney. He was always so focused and poised, the ultimate competitor. But this would bother him down to his core and everyone at my school was elated.

Who cared about the people that were hurt along the way? Who cared about what this had done to Mason Maloney?

No one. No one cared about who got hurt as long as the Knights were to have a competitive advantage in the game on Friday night.

It made me sick, but I had no one to blame but myself. All I had to do was tell everyone that my relationship with Mason was real, not meant as a ploy to mess with Nathan, but I couldn't do it. All I had to do the other night was explain to him when he gave me the chance, but a I just stared at him like an idiot.

Insecurities I didn't even know I had crept upon me, forcing me to stay quiet and complicit while people around me treated me like a God for something I was ashamed of. I was ashamed of myself for not coming clean and trying harder to fight for Mason, but for some reason, I couldn't do it.

I trudged my feet heavily down the hallway, ignoring everyone around me as they cleared a path for me to get through. I suppressed a scoff at their actions. People were actually parting to create a path for me as if I was some powerful creature. It was pathetic and I hated everything about it.

Eventually, I made my way into the locker room where most of my team had already been waiting. I was greeted with pats on the shoulder and overly satisfied grins that I didn't return. Ignoring everyone, I made it to my own locker and pulled the door open roughly. There was an ache in my shoulder, but I pushed the thought of it out of my mind. Jake stood beside me, not saying anything as I retrieved everything I needed for practice.

"Dude," Jake whispered, being sure no one around us could hear. "Could you at least act a little happy? Everyone's excited."

I scowled at him and answered at full volume. I didn't care if everyone heard what I had to say. Maybe they needed to hear it.

"That's your problem and everyone else's," I boomed, gesturing toward the rest of the team. "You're acting like we've already won and we haven't even played yet. With that kind of attitude, maybe we don't even deserve to win."

One thing I hated about this team was that far too many of them had egos the size of Canada. They were arrogant and didn't even try to hide it. That type of attitude would get you nowhere in life. If they thought they were already winners before stepping onto the playing field, we wouldn't stand a chance.

Of course, I wanted to win. I had spoken to a scout from UCF earlier in the day and he told me that he would be attending the game. I wanted to impress because I had something on the line. Most of the guys on the team weren't being scouted for D1 schools, so they had no idea what kind of pressure was on me for Friday night. If they weren't playing to their full potential, there was no way I would be able to play to mine.

"Everyone get out to the field," I demanded, harshly slamming my locker door shut. "We have a lot of work to do if you're all going to be acting like this."

This grabbed the attention of everyone in the locker room. They were giving me confused looks as if they couldn't believe I wasn't as excited as them.

"You think we're going to win just because Nathan Maloney might be a little bothered?" I yelled out with a scowl. "You all need a reality check if that's the case. We need to practice and you need to stop talking about Mason."