Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Fifteen

"Seth not here?" Mel asked Cater as he sat down in front of her at lunch. Light concern formed a small crease between her eyebrows, as she bit down on a raw carrot stick.

Carter just shook his head.

"He better make it here soon," Joey spoke to Carter's right, with a mouth full of tuna sandwich. "Coach will freak if he's late for the game warm-up."

Jenna grimaced as a chewed up piece of bread flew out of Joey's mouth and onto her tray, dangerously close to her shiny red apple. "Swallow, before you talk."

Joey took another huge bite. "Sorry," he said as he chewed.

"Do you think we'll win tonight?" Jenna asked, focusing her attention on Carter as she pointedly ignored Joey.

"If Queens shows up, of course," Joey answered instead.

Seth did show up. Riskily close to being late, though. 

Coach didn't say anything as he walked into the locker room and the whole team pretended not to notice as Seth threw his bags into his locker with too much belligerence.

Luckily, it was a home game. If Seth missed the trip to the game, regardless of how comprehensive Coach generally tried to be, he might see himself obligated to bench Seth.

"Bad day?" Carter asked quietly as they left the locker room in full gear for a pre-game practice.

Seth shot him a look out of the corner of his eye, which was all the answer Carter needed. 

Seth held onto the energy from that same look throughout their pre-game routines. Irascible and forceful. Unfocused. No one dared say a word, though. Not even Coach.

Just before they went out to the field, to stand in front of the scrutiny of multiple eyes watching from the bleachers, Carter stood close to Seth.

"You good?" He asked in a low voice.

Seth looked down at him from their one-inch height difference, jaw tightly locked in a cement grip. Carter could practically hear his blood boiling. He knew none of that anger was directed at him, though. It never was.

"Just focus on the game," he muttered. "Blow off that steam on the field."

This time, Seth's lips did tilt a little bit upward at the corner, in a grim sort of smile. 

They stepped onto the field. From the sides, Melanie and Jenna smiled at them in their white and green Miami Whitewater Hurricanes cheer uniform. Carter let his eyes scan the crowd in the stands, spotting Mike's six-feet-three figure almost immediately. Next to him, Carter recognized Bella, Roy O'Brien from his Calculus class, and his girlfriend Lauren.

As he approached the referee with the opposing team's captain though, Carter pushed the audience and everything else to a vacuum sealed box in the back of his mind. From now on, only the game mattered.

The visiting captain called tails and the ref flipped the coin in the air.

Tails. Carter's team started the game on defense.

That appeared to be good on one front. Seth did get to blow off the steam. Carter could hear the people in the stands engage in a collective wince as Seth crashed into the visiting team's quarterback, like a truck running over a walk-byer in the middle of a highway.

Seth got up almost immediately, and although Carter couldn't see his face through the helmet, he could read the tension release in his stance. The other guy wasn't so quick to get up. He moved slowly and carefully, holding onto his wrist as he stood like he had injured himself on the way down. While his teammates came to his aid, Coach called Seth.