Match

23: Gradual

TRIGGER WARNING: DESCRIPTION OF BLOOD

"Jonah?"

"...Jonah?"

"Jonah!!"

"Huh?!"

Carol reaches her hand over and turns off the tap. "You almost overflowed the sink."

"Oh..."

His eyes fall to the faucet, dripping lone droplets into the water. Then he shakes his head and grabs a brush to scrub the plates. Carol watches him, perplexed.

"I need you to stay focused, please," she says. "We still have two more houses to clean after this one."

Jonah gives a half nod. "Okay. My bad."

In the far hallway, Jenny plugs the vacuum cord into a nearby outlet. Charlotte emerges from the bathroom, wiping off a brow of sweat. Carol turns to the other two.

"Don't clean the laundry room, guys!" She hollers. "The woman who lives here said she already cleaned it up for us."

"Okay!!" Charlotte hollers back over the roaring vacuum.

Jonah finishes cleaning the plates, then moves onto the cutlery. He reaches into the lukewarm water, but immediately retracts his hand back. One of his fingers pulse in stinging pain.

"Shit," he mutters.

Scanning his fingers, he sees a small cut on his index change into crimson red. He presses his finger to his lips, sucking at the blood pooling in the cut. Immediately his tastebuds overflow with a vile copper tang. Carol walks into the kitchen, making him flinch. She looks up at him.

"Hm?"

Jonah tries to hide his hand behind his back, but Carol grabs it and lifts it up. The blood trails down to his palm. Her expression is read with motherly worry. She meets his eyes.

"Don't tell me you dunked your hand into soapy water."

He lowers his head like a guilty dog. Carol sighs. She softens, reaching from her tippy toes to pat his head. She makes small 'tsk' sounds.

"There's bandaids in the car," she says, "go grab one. I'll finish cleaning the cutlery, you can do the dusting."

With no other choice, Jonah grabs the keys and makes his way to the car. He takes a spare napkin to dry his hand from the blood. Along the way he thinks back on that day with Ryder and Cole. How Cole was in a hurry, as if to him, Cole didn't want to be with them. As he unlocks the car, he pulls out his phone and checks its screen. No new messages. Last one he got was from Cole.

Cole:

sorry for leaving outta the blue. i completely forgot my roommate was coming home from his trip.

That message was from last night.

———————————

"Alrighty team," Coach John waves a hand then points to the other side of the turf, "start with a warm-up lap around the field."

Everyone takes their pace and begins jogging along the white line. Jonah follows behind the herd. Suddenly, Ben pops out and trots beside him. He flashes a smile, to which Jonah returns it in awkward fashion.

"You seemed lonely," Ben nudges.

"Ah," Jonah huffs, "I just felt like being at the back for tonight."

Ben nods with his chin to Jonah's finger. "What happened there?"

Jonah raises an eyebrow, then looks down at what Ben's pointing at. He completely forgot the neon orange bandaid wrapped around his finger.

"Oh," he says with a slight laugh, "nicked myself at work."

"No Hello Kitty bandages in sight?"

Jonah bumps his shoulder, making Ben let out a breathy 'hey'.

"Anyway, you good for practice with me and Liam Thursday?" 

"Bro, this isn't a gash on my arm," Jonah says.

"I meant in general, dumb dumb," Ben shakes his head.

Jonah averts his eyes, as if telepathically sending an "I know that" message to cover his humiliation. "Yeah sure."

They finish the lap in silence, other than the huffing to catch their breath. Ben grabs his gloves to slip on, while Jonah twists off the cap to his travel mug and downs a couple gulps of water. The immediate cool down his throat is bliss for him. He glances at his phone resting snug under the unzipped flap to his bag. About an hour ago he sent a response to Cole.

Jonah:

Thats cool brah, no worries.

He squints, staring in irritation at the gate separating both fields. 'Brah', he thinks. Really Jonah?

"Yo Jone."

He looks to see Ryder strolling up to him. He's carrying a long stack of neon yellow cones.

"Can you help me set these?"

"Sure."

He holds out his hands for Ryder to deliver him half of the stack.

"What happened to your finger man?"

Jonah feels his mind internally sigh. He really should've swapped bandaids at home.

"Little nick, nothing bad," he says while passing by Ryder.

How many times am I gonna have to say it? While placing the cones, he starts marinating exaggerated stories in his head for the next one that asks him. 'Saved some girl from a group of knife-wielding ninjas', or 'got stung by an intergalactic wasp' are to name a few. And the more he thinks, the wider his smile grows. He finishes setting up the cones, then jogs back to grab a ball.

Unfortunately for him, no one else asked.