Holden Steele's Ruin [Completed]

Chapter 12

HOLDEN'S POV

Cold air hit my face, combing through my hair as I sprinted down the grass field, cradling the ball against my chest as I focused solely on getting it to the end zone. On a normal day, I would have heard the soft thudding behind me and anticipated the offense next move, but I didn't and consequently I was shouldered landing roughly on the ground.

"Steele, where the fuck is your head at!" Coach shouted angrily from the sidelines, frustration seeping from him in waves. Groaning I stood up dusting my shorts while glaring at the scared freshman that had shoved me to the ground.

"Practice is over, your dismissed! Steele stay back!"

This talk was inevitable really, I had tried dodging it multiple times over the past three days but now I was fresh out of excuses. I watched rooted to my spot, my muscles rigid as coach slammed his clipboard on the bench, aggressively making his was across the field.

"What the hell is going on with you lately?" He said exasperatedly, frustration sparked in his eyes as his wrinkled face scrunched up in disappointment. I didn't blame him for being frustrated at me, heck I was too. For the past three days I had been messing up plays, getting distracted and my mood was down right rotten. I knew exactly why, but coach couldn't help me with that.

"Nothing, I'm just tired" it wasn't a complete lie.

"Holden, you can't start messing up just before the game, you know how important it is. The scouts are coming to watch you, don't fucking throw it all away, you've worked too hard" the atmosphere grew tense as the heaviness of the matter settled upon us. I knew how important my next game was, I would never intentionally sabotage my years of hard work. However, my head wasn't cooperating with me, it wasn't one hundred present on the field as it was stuck on a certain green eyed girl.

"Is it Tommy, is he getting worse?"

"No he's fine" coach Carter was like a father to me, he had helped me so much even before I joined this university, God knew I didn't have one of those. However, at the moment all I wanted was the conversation to be over, I didn't need anyone else reminding me of my rapidly deteriorating skills on the field.

"Make sure you sort your shit out by Friday's game" he gave me a stern look before dismissing me.

Gruffly entering the crowded locker room, I trudged towards my locker while completely ignoring my teammates questioning gazes. I grabbed a towel heading straight for the showers. The cold water calmed my over heated body, my shoulders relaxing slightly as the tension left my body.

Thankfully the room was less crowded when I reentered, walking a straight line towards my locker as I felt their eyes at the back of my head. I tugged my jeans on roughly, growing rather annoyed at the attention being thrown my way. What the fuck did they want me to do? Bitch about my problems like a teenage girl or something?

"Hey Steele, heard you got handled by some hot chick Monday!" I had just reached for my shirt when a voice projected from a little further behind me. The room immediately went dead quite, my shoulders becoming rigid as my fists clenched tightly. I breathed deeply willing myself to call down because all I could see was fucking red, I was absolutely furious.

"What the fuck!"

I turned around facing the guy that had spoken, he was a first string sophomore and looked quite shaken really. I grabbed him by the collar of his expensive shirt, shoving him against his locker resonating a loud noise. My fingers twitched to punch him but I had already done so much this week, punching a teammate would just land me on the bench.

"Let him go man" Archer said suddenly appearing from beside me, gripping me shoulder tightly. I huffed roughly shoving him into the locker on more time before loosening my fists around his shirt, albeit hesitantly. He scrambled to grab his things, quickly making his way towards the door, the smug smile he was spotting earlier had been swept clean of his face.