iris | one tree hill

22. the games that play us

Keith looked at his son.

"Do you see her in your future?" Keith asked.

"All the times I didn't imagine it, they seemed like a nightmare." Ethan said.

Keith pulled his son into a hug and whispered.

"I think you know the answer to your question, son."

[....]

The three Scott boys were walking towards Coach Whitey's house. Nathan was telling about Dan last game with the Ravens, how Dan didn't agree with Whitey's play and refused to play the way Whitey told him to, letting the team lose.

"I couldn't do that to my teammates." Lucas said.

"I don't think any of us would do that." Ethan said.

"Yeah." Nathan agreed. "Although if we lose this game, I'm going back to hating you." Nathan said pointing at Lucas.

"Just me? What about Ethan?" Lucas asked.

"Hey, leave me out of this." Ethan said, pushing Luke lightly.

"Well, I never hated Ethan." Nathan shrugged.

"I knew you loved me, Nate." Ethan said while putting his arm around his cousin's neck and pulling him in, pretending to kiss him on the cheek.

"Well, it's the Scott boys. Together." Coach Whitey said, watching the boys approach the door of his house where the man was standing. "My eyes really must be screwed up."

The boys said hello to the coach.

"We wanted to catch you before you went to the hospital." Nathan said.

"Glad you boys did. How's practice going with Danny?" Whitey asked.

"Like a living hell." Ethan muttered.

"It's the same as with you, it sucks." Nathan said.

The boys' answers made Whitey laugh.

"Coach, the players... We all signed this ball for you." Nathan said, holding out the basketball to Whitey.

"Sort of a get-well card." Lucas explained.

Coach Whitey thanked the boys, and took the opportunity to say how talented they are and that none of them would allow Dan Scott to take that away from them.

As soon as they had said goodbye to Coach Whitey, Ethan said goodbye to his cousins and told them he had to run to Karen's café. When Ethan arrived at Karen's café, he saw Karen and Deb at the counter.

"Thank God, the two women I needed to talk to." Ethan said, sitting down facing Karen.

The two women looked at each other.

"Is everything all right, Ethan?" Karen asked.

"Yeah, I need help from both of you." Ethan said and looked around. "How busy are you two?"