Black And White

Fifty Three

Alex jogged over to his phone, pulling it out of his bag. "Oh shit."

His coach came out of nowhere, leaning over his shoulder. "Something worth interrupting practice?"

"Sir, I just ran over to turn it off, but, uh.. It's my mom. I should take it."

"Go ahead. But I expect two laps when you're done."

"Yeah, sure." Alex quickly answered, so it wouldn't go to voicemail. "Yeah?" He stepped away from his coach for privacy.

"Hey, Alex. Uh... I just wanted to apologize for earlier..." Avi began awkwardly.

"No, no problem at all. I shouldn't have done that, I didn't realize you and I were on a different page."

"No, that's not... Alex, I'm apologizing for kicking you out, as rudely as I did."

"Oh." Alex looked down at his cleats, admiring their green and black color for a second. "Uh.. It's fine."

"Don't you get all awkward with me. I shouldn't have made a big deal out of it, because now you're all weird."

"I'm not being weird, just..." Alex glanced back, to be sure no one was listening to him. "Avi, why did you tell me it was okay? If you didn't want me to, you just had to say no."

"I--I don't know. I was curious I guess."

Alex frowned. "Oh, I get it. Now you know, so. That's why you pushed me away."

"Alex, come on. That's not it. If I was curious about boys, it would have taken me ten seconds to kiss Scott, and he probably wouldn't have given a shit."

"So it was more personal? You wanted to know how I kiss? And now that you know, I'm out. Right?"

"No, Ale--" 

"I gotta go. I should've known better than to let anything take precedence over my athletics. My mistake."

"Alex, please. Don't do this."

"No, it's my fault entirely. I'll see ya." And then he hung up, tossing his phone in the general direction of his bag. 

Alex stalked back over to his team, running a hand through his sweaty hair. 

One of the shorter boys on the team noticed immediately. "Hey, are you okay?"

Alex looked up from the ground, and tried to give him a smile. "Yeah. Thanks."

The coach tapped his arm suddenly. "Thought you owed me some laps?"

"Right. I forgot, I'm sorry." Alex turned to do so, and the shorter player decided to follow him. 

Alex stopped quickly to look at him. "Something wrong?" 

"Just... Figured I could use some more cardio." He ran a little ahead of Alex. "Come on, Cap. Can't let a newbie kick your ass."

Alex smiled a little, and then started again to chase him. 

*

Mitch had rolled his eyes when his mom called, immediately passing his phone to Scott. 

Scott was quick to answer the call. "Hello, this is Scott."

Mitch leaned on his arm a little, continuing to eat his dinner. "Thank you so much for this, Mrs. Kaplan. It's very nice of you to feed us." 

She looked up and smiled. "It's not a problem, sweetheart. Scott's basically part of the family. And anyone that makes him happy is more than welcome here."