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"What the hell are y'all doing on my field with red eyes and breath smelling like alcohol?!" Coach yelled as he looked at Evan and Christian as other guys stood beside them. We had a surprise practice this morning and no one found out until an hour before.
Coach's face was turning red as he yelled at the boys. He gazed at me multiple times and once he was done, he walked over and checked my eyes as I sat on the bench. "Good, that's what I thought."
"Yet I'm still sitting on the bench." I crossed my arms as I looked at him and waited.
"Don't worry, you're getting out of this hell of a practice today." And he was right. All the guys ran around the field I don't know how many times. After that they did multiple suicides up and down the field with following after with more laps around. Four kids already puked with the first set of running, Vinnie finally finished his laps and sat next to me. He was so out of breath and chugged so much water from our big container that we all shared. After he was done he put his head on my shoulder and breathed in and out heavily. I wasn't uncomfortable with him because last night I just made myself believe he did it because he was drunk. We woke up and both didn't say anything about last night, it wasn't that important since we woke up with a call for practice.
"I'm so tired."
"That'll teach you not to drink."
He looked up at me and sighed, "I know, but I wasn't drunk last night. I barely had anything, only like one or two."
I nodded my head as I looked over at the guys. The in sync movement of their feet distracted me as Vinnie sat next to me and coach's yelling filled the field. He looked in the direction I was looking. Evan was throwing up and Christian was slowing down in his steps. We all knew this was going to happen, but we went to the party anyway. That was our fault.
After everyone was done, they all laid on the turf breathless. "Hacker, Wu, and (Y/l/n). Come here." Coach said sternly as he walked away from the boys. We walked onto the track and stood there waiting for him to speak, "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS ARE?" I jumped as he yelled which surprised all of us. We stood there with our eyes always making eye contact with him, he hated it when we didn't. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO PUT YOUR NEW TEAM PLAYER IN A SETTING WHERE HE CAN GET HIGH?"
"I'm sorry coach." Vin said as he stood there next to me.
"Sorry coach." I said.
"Sorry sir." Christian brushed back his hair and looked at us.
"I'm very disappointed in all of you." He put his cap on and sighed, "Let's practice and if you dare do this again, ALL of you will be on the bench and will run a hundred laps everyday for practice." He started walking away and called Vinnie. Vinnie followed and coach patted him on the back as if nothing happened. "Complete bullshit." Christian said as he saw them walking together.
He threw his helmet down on the track and started to walk back to the locker room, I followed behind and decided to just go home with Christian. We were both pissed off and it didn't help that coach was acting like an asshole.
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"I hate this."
"Me too." Christian said as he took a sip of water. "Don't you think Vin has noticed it, this has been going on for years now and he never talks about it."
"He likes it Christian, Vinnie needed a father figure and my dad was there for him while he was giving up on me and that's why I don't exist anymore to coach. It's all about Vinnie." I raised my hands to the air and looked at them. "I'd rather quit my dream early than sit on the bench most of the season."
"I think I'm going to quit (Y/n)." I looked over at him quickly and he sighed, "I could play baseball and get scholarships from that, football isn't everything." He knew he was wrong, football connected us all even through the hardest times and if he quit all our dreams were going to be broken.
"Let's just not think about that right now."
"Yeah." He paused and then looked over at me again, "So what's going on with you?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Vin is acting weird, did something happen last night?"
"No it's just all complicated." I continued to look at the ceiling and frowned. "All just so complicated."
"Romo, don't stress about it. We're all going to be something one day, maybe for some people it is football and others it's just coaching. Vin could end being a doctor, I could be working at a gas station, and you could be a teacher." I laughed as he said that and looked over at him. His small eyes were even smaller as he smiled. I liked his smile, he was always smiling even though there were times that we all felt kind of sad. He was my best friend and I knew he smiled because he wouldn't allow himself to frown. He hadn't been upset since we were little, I didn't see him cry since we were in freshman year when his parents split. And I never saw him get so angry since last year when Tayton was saying things about my family, and ended up on the floor when we were in the cafeteria and Christian went at him. He had a bruised lip and a messed up shirt after Vin and I pulled him away, but he smiled at me right after as we walked away and tried to clean him up.
He held onto my hand, "We're best friends and I know you better than anyone, you're too good to stress about stupid shit."
"I know, but anywayyys..." I hugged him close to me and pulled away, "How was the party?"
"Ehh it was okay, but I couldn't really remember anything." He ruffled his hair and looked at me, "All I really remember was finding Evan on the floor with a blunt in his hand and white powder under his nose."
"We shouldn't have took him to the party, he wouldn't have known any better."
"Yeah, but he said he had a lot of fun so he's happy." He said as he got up and grabbed his bag, "Well I better go, Bà ba is making dinner and he wants me to be home for that."
"Okay, tell him I said hi. I haven't seen him in a while." He nodded his head, gave me a hug, and left the room while a little while later I heard the front door open and close. He was going home to a silent house, no siblings, no mom, just a workaholic father who's life is committed to making money so that they can live luxuriously. That's why their dinners were so important to him because he hasn't seen him in a week and has been sleeping at my house.
I remember how we met, a small office party for our father's jobs and we were the only kids there, so as I sat down and tried not to fall asleep, Christian was over in a different table playing Cooking Mama on his DS. He sat next to me an hour later and handed me the game, that day we cooked pork chops and I burned them. Christian took the game so seriously that it made him want to actually cook food at home. The first meal he made me at his house was a chocolate cake and it was good, even though I found an eggshell in it. But once his mom left and remarried to an American white guy, he gave up and never liked to cook at home. He began to despise white people, their food, and culture, but when we met Vinnie and bonded, he learned that color didn't matter and it was just the choices people made.
He gave up on one dream, but started a new one with our friendship and football, and I remember him being my cheerleader through it all.
