Falling

07

TRIGGER WARNING: use of homophobic slur

Carson Hughes

Football games always drew a large crowd at our school. There wasn't much else to do in our small town, so the big Friday night games were what many looked forward to.

I couldn't care less about them, but my friends enjoyed it, so here I was.

It hadn't yet cooled down from the heat earlier in the day and I could feel the warmth of the metal I was sitting on through my jeans. We were crammed on the scorching bleachers, too close with everyone around us for comfort.

Seth Powers was having an incredible game to say the least. He was connecting on all his passes to his best friend and star wide-receiver, Darren Sanderson. On top of that, Seth was running the ball and scoring touchdowns. It was like he was unstoppable, though it was hard to root for the guy because he was a total asshole. He was a talented football player, and knew it, but his arrogance was suffocating and I could feel it from where I sat.

"I'm so bored of this," Logan grumbled from beside me as Seth scored another touchdown, everyone around us standing in cheer.

"Bored of what?" I asked, leaning closer so he could hear me. "Watching football or Seth?"

"Both," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared down at the field once everyone sat down. "Between you and me, I think Hadley has a thing for Seth."

I paused on the thought, stealing a short glance at Hadley who was intently staring down at the field.

"I don't know..." I trailed, turning my gaze back to Logan. "What makes you think that?"

Logan shrugged, turning away from the field to look at me.

"She seems like she's interested in someone," Logan told me. "I can't explain it. But I think it's Seth. It just seems like that."

I didn't know whether to agree with him or not. Seth definitely didn't seem like Hadley's type. She was always into more brainy guys, not meat-headed, asshole, football player types.

"Wanna go with me to get some candy?" Logan asked me after I didn't respond.

I quickly nodded in agreement and the two of us stood up from the bleachers, scooting down the aisle to get to the stairs and then hurrying down them.

Once Logan had gotten his box of candy, the two of us made our way back toward the bleachers, running into Spencer who was busy looking down at his camera.

"Sorry," Spencer mumbled as he slowly looked up.

Logan shrugged. "No big deal. How are you?"

Spencer and I made eye contact before he quickly looked away, his eyes everywhere but on us.

"Doin' alright," he said. "How about you?"

"Good, good," Logan replied.

"You still doing yearbook?" I asked him, motioning toward the camera in his hands.

Spencer briefly looked down at the camera and then back up at me and nodded.

"Yeah," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm in charge of photography this year."

"That's awesome," I told him with a small smile.

"Hey, Spence," Logan started before he could say anything. "My family's having a cookout this weekend if you and Marina wanna come by. For Vin."

Spencer gave him a wary look and even I was wondering what Logan was doing. It was no secret that Vinny had shut everyone out, his two best friends included. Logan's brother wouldn't be happy if his friends showed up.