Inkvite - My Collaborations

Coach Matthews

Note: Originally written on inkvite by 'Fuzzy Gerbil' & 'undormant'.

A young boy stood on the empty football field. Hours earlier, he won the homecoming football game for his high school. It wasn't only him but people gave him all (or most) of the credit. Today was a tribute to his coach, who died the night before.
He found it hard to speak, he had it written on a piece of paper in front of him, but couldn't get the words out. There was a long uncomfortable silence. The audience sympathised of course, one of the other coaches, coach Jones, came up and put his arm around the boy.
"Coach Matthews was a hero. He never ceased to make people laugh. Last night, when I got the text... I lost it. Coach Matthews was amazing. He's probably up there smiling at us right now." The boy, Danny, broke down crying.
Everyone had been so nice, so understanding, even the bullies had given Danny the day off from torment.
Now, he lay in the darkness of his room staring out at the midnight sky from his bed.
He wondered what people would think if they ever knew of his part in it all.
At 1 am, Danny got a text from his second favorite coach: Hey, it's Scaps. You doing okay?"
"Not really," I text back, "feel so guilty."
"None of this is your fault," came the reply, "you don't need to feel bad."
"I should have stopped it."
"He had a heart attack there was nothing you could do."
I didn't reply, there had been something I could have done.
"I stole his heart pills! He always popped them. I'm angry. I didn't know this would happen."
"We should talk tomorrow at school," the coach replied.
I was terrified. It was horrible, selfish, it's not like I hadn't cared about what happened but at that moment all I could think about was what would happen to me, my future.
The next day I went to meet coach Scaps in his office. Scaps was short, about 5 foot 4. His blue eyes were noticeable right away.
"Want to explain what happened?" The man didn't crack a smile, and he was always happy.
"I've been getting bullied a lot," I started, "maybe they were jealous of my success on the field. I told Coach Matthews he told me to grow up and get a grip."
"Go on."
"He was always chewing those damn pills, and I was so annoyed with him, I'd never told anyone before"
Scaps broke down crying and his body shook with sobs. "OH my god. I can't believe it. I'm sorry I'm angry. I just. The man had severe low blood pressure."
"I decided to fight back like he told me, well, I interpreted what he'd said that way anyway. After all, it was clear nobody else was going to help me. He caught me punching out Steve, his precious star, in his anger coach Matthews pulled me to one side and slapped me hard."
"Matthews was insane. He was a good guy though. Haha" he left the conversation at that.
"He told me I'd have to come back that night for detention, running around the field track until he felt I'd learnt my lesson. Steve and the other boys laughed at me as coach shouted. That night I reported for track and hid his pills as we went out to the field."
Scaps nodded. "Coach Jonson could care less! Matt died in pain. I was with him as he died.
"After a few times running around the track my anger grew. I said he should let me go home, he shouted for me to keep running, he was very angry with me. I guess I took it all out on him. I ran into him, tackled him to the ground, we wrestled... that's when it happened."