Fragile Threads [boyxboy]

Chapter 8

Ethan texted his mother to let her know he would be doing something after school and didn’t know how late he would be. After school, he met up with Brent and Landon outside and they walked to the football field. A track surrounded it, and there were a few people out running.

Ari and Jason were already there, pulling some gear out of a shed. “How are we going to do teams?” Ari asked, tossing down a stack of cones and some footballs.

Brent only shrugged. “Let’s see our numbers first. Set up some cones at the half mark, and the jail squares on either end.” He handed a stack of cones to Jason.

Jason jogged out onto the field and started to set things up as the majority of the football team showed up, as well as some swimmers. Ethan was sure he was the only non-athlete there. Brent picked up on that at least and gave him another one of those reassuring back slaps. “You can be on my team,” Brent said.

Ethan just shrugged and hoped he didn’t get a concussion. Brent set himself up as one team captain, and Landon as the other. Landon picked all the guys off the swim team first, while Brent first called on Ethan and then went for other guys from the football team. Landon got Rhett and Ari, while Brent picked Jason out as well, leaving Ethan to only know two others on his team.

Once teams were set up, someone’s girlfriend offered to be score keeper the first round. “You want to guard?” Brent asked as they strolled out onto their side of the field.

Ethan shrugged and agreed, glancing back to the other side of the field. “Why are they taking off their shirts?” He asked hurriedly.

“Huh? Oh, shirts versus skins,” Brent answered easily. “So if you pull their flags, they go to jail. You drop their flags. Another teammate can come in, grab the flags, and then rescue them from jail. Once they’re leaving jail they get a free walk and you can’t touch ‘em till they cross. Got it?”

“Sure,” Ethan muttered. He didn’t see any of this ending well. He set himself up in front of the football, resting on top of a pointed cone. He couldn’t actually enter the cone designated square directly around the ball.

The girl blew the whistle, and there were a few moments where everyone watched each other across the line. Once the first person ran across though, all hell broke loose.

Ethan watched at least three guys break across their side as they made a run towards him. Two got their flags pulled along the way, and Ethan realized that third was indeed getting closer. He stood his ground until the guy was just close enough for Ethan to try and get his flags. He missed though, and the ball got picked up.

Ethan took a moment to gather himself before he tried to get the flags again—this time pulling them off as the guy was coming around the other side of the cone. He swore and threw the ball down as he retreated to jail. Ethan proudly put the ball back on its cone and faced front.

Brent beamed at him from across the field. The game went on like that for a while—people trying one at a time to get the ball. Ethan sent three people to jail, and the teams began to dwindle as no one was rescuing. Half of Ethan’s team was in jail too from what he could guess.