Giving the Footballer a Chance (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Fourteen: Short-Tempered

Miles wasted no time punching Cody straight in the face after hearing what he said. Cody groaned and touched his face where Miles struck him. "What? You gonna sit there and start crying?" Miles teased, "Come on, punch me like a fucking man, Andrews!" Cody returned the favor and socked him right in the nose.

"You know, I said I wouldn't waste my time but I'll gladly punch you back if you hit me first." An anger-fueled grin grew across Miles' face as he leaped towards Cody to hook him in the side of the head, earning the cheers of students around us. Great. And I was in the middle of it all. Can shit like this just not happen? "Miles, get off of him! You're making a scene for no reason!"

Miles was punching the side of his face non-stop as Cody tried to pull his hands away and hit him back. "I'm not letting this asshole underestimate me, are you fucking crazy?" Miles grunted, "It doesn't matter! You're really gonna let whatever Cody says get to you?" He didn't respond to me and instead continued to aim for Cody's jaw, and all I could do was watch them beat each other up.

Students who were watching the fight started scooting aside until out came Blake and Declan. Both of them shared an annoyed expression and immediately grabbed Cody and Miles to pull them apart. My brother tried to shove Declan's hands off of him to have another go at Cody, but Blake stood in between the two with a glaring expression as he helped Cody stand. "What's your fucking problem?" Blake narrowed his eyes at Miles, who scoffed and smirked.

"Know what?" He stepped forward, "You can win a simple football game against my team but you'll never win in a fight against me." Miles said, bloody-faced and bloody-knuckled. Blake reached out offering for Cody to lean on him, but Cody shook his head, and angrily replied, "Oh yeah? Your face says otherwise, bitch." He replied in a low, angry tone.

Cody was breathing heavily from exhaustion, and I saw his eyes flash in my direction. Although my brother looked more messed up, Cody's jersey was stained with blood and dirt, and so was his face. His hair was standing up in all directions, reminding me that this was all my brother's doing. If Miles had some self control, none of this would've happened, but no, of course he had to pick a fight right after a game.

Cody and Blake pushed past me, leaving me with a livid Miles. Declan offered to drive him home and Miles turned him down, saying he had "something to take care of."

—

"Seriously, Eric?!" Miles slammed the steering wheel, "I'm still not over you cheering for Redsen. Are you gonna support that bitch Cody, or me?" Why did it matter what side I was sitting on when he just beat up Cody? It's more of a good reason why I'd rather be on Redsen's side—to not be associated with a short-tempered asshole who's supposed to be my brother.

"Maybe I would be more willing to sit on Harbor's side if you didn't decide to start a fight." I rolled my eyes, leaning on the window. "Oh so you like him now? You wanna be with Andrews even though he doesn't give a shit about you?"

"I made a deal with him, he was telling the truth!" Miles looked taken aback. "Why are you siding with him now? He's a jerk, remember?" I was done arguing with him and he didn't try to listen to me. "You wanna know what the deal was?" I turned to him, but he was still unwilling to listen. "I sat on Cody's side so he'd stop arguing with you and say sorry. You just jumped straight to conclusions, and thought I was sitting there cause I liked him. Where did you even get that idea from?!"

How hasn't he realized that he's the real jerk? He never realizes when he's the problem, and this time, Cody didn't even punch first. He must've been acting out of disappointment because I wasn't there supporting him. I mean, I get that, but I also know that I was doing Miles a favor that he just ruined.

"Do you really think that Cody will apologize to me just cause my little brother sat on his side of the game? You're so fucking stupid." Miles shook his head. "You thought you were helping me, but you know what you were really doing? You agree with Andrews that I'm weak. That I can't handle things myself."

Miles got out of the car and slammed the door when we reached our driveway. "Or maybe your deal was just an excuse to support him instead of me and you're just a fucking liar."

I watched my brother leave me outside and walked straight to the bathroom in anger. He was partially right. Sure, Miles was capable of arguing and has settled fights by himself in the past, but they were never effective. He doesn't know how to handle things without fighting and it's like it's become a habit of his to just lunge at the first guy who doesn't agree with him. At the end of the day though, he's still my brother. 

I saw no point in trying to force him to talk about it and just locked myself in my room. I pulled out my phone and thought about how Cody was doing. Hopefully Miles didn't beat him up too bad. An idea popped into my head so I could find out if he was okay without asking him personally.

I texted Theo a quick 'hi' and asked him if Blake was at his house. Theo told me Blake was there with him and asked why I wanted to know. "How's Cody doing?" I texted, "I'm pretty sure Blake told you what happened and I wanna see if he's alright." I dropped my phone beside me on my bed and looked down at it, waiting for a reply. I was just making sure Cody wasn't bleeding all over his house. The notification sound of my phone got me to grab my phone right away and check what Theo sent me. "Blake says he's fine now. His hands were bandaged and his nose wasn't broken. It just needs to heal."

Reading that made me feel.. relieved. "I don't think Blake told me the whole story," Theo sent, "So tell me everything later." I definitely will. So much happened that night that it was hard to keep it to myself. "Did Cody say anything to Blake," I typed, "possibly about me? Or my brother." I could imagine Theo shaking his head at how suspicious I sounded texting him something like that, but he was my best friend and I knew he would find out for me anyway.

"Cody said Miles started the fight. He said he kinda feels bad because it was his fault Miles got mad at u?" I knew that if I didn't make a stupid deal with him I wouldn't have gotten him in this mess. It was surprising he took the blame for me when my brother jumped him because of me. Even though I could get annoyed at Cody, I believed that if the fight didn't happen, he would've actually apologized to my brother. Not because he wanted to say sorry to Miles, but for me.

"Blake said Cody told him he wanted to see you again." 

Why? That could mean so many things. 

Maybe he wants to talk to me because he thinks I was going to support my brother instead of him? 

Maybe he wants to tell me that he never wants to see me again? 

Or maybe I'm just overthinking everything.

I heard footsteps coming from the bathroom outside my room and remembered that Miles was in the house. What does he see in fighting Cody like that? I guess I'd be mad if someone called me a lowlife, but you gotta admit, it's pretty funny. I wouldn't nearly kill someone over it though— He's crazy risking both of their lives over something that small.

Reminding myself what Theo texted me, I wanted so badly to know why Cody wanted to see me. If Theo asked Blake he'd definitely catch on and probably think I'm going to avenge my brother or something.Besides the fight, I closed my eyes and the first thing that popped into my head was Cody's picture-perfect image.

I remember that feeling when I saw him on the field... I shouldn't have let it affect me so much, but what could I do? I tried to suppress it, and what happened? A weird, new feeling took over me. Why did I just notice, at that moment, so much about his features that I used to ignore because of how much I hated him. Hate. Or not.

I gripped my head in annoyance. C'mon, Eric! Don't confuse your feelings for him. It can't just change after everything he's done. You know what, it's nothing. I'll get over it soon enough.

Miles slammed his bedroom door shut and his music played, muffled, through the wall separating our rooms. I don't understand him. I'm nothing like him even though we're brothers. He's popular, a jock, and he's on the football team while I'm pretty much a nerd, and unpopular. Shocking to think he was never embarrassed to admit that we were related.

I couldn't see him at that moment, but I could tell he was still going to be mad the next day. Can't wait to wake up to see that.