antisocial

[ 17 ]

"No," Finn said.

He could see the man grinning deviously. "No what?"

"No, I'm not going to bail."

"Good thinking, this isn't all fun and games," said Mister Keery. "Now, why don't you give me a run of two laps for your late income? From there, I'll get your gear."

Finn restrained himself from stabbing the young man with a deadly look, but instead, started to sprint to the corners of the field.

It was going to be a long day.

• • •

Being competitive wasn't as easy Finn thought it was. Just like Mister Keery had said, it was not all fun and games.

Since his team consisted with ten full players, they were split into two different teams with five players on each. Due to the small amount of the pupils, there were two defense and one offense for each while the four others scrambled around.

Finn was paired up with Jack Grazer as for defense. Jack, by far, was the smallest and youngest out of the whole group. He flashed Finn a hazy quirk of his lips and Finn could see the small part of his cheeks were painted over with freckles and also his hazel-brown eyes that glistened.

"Is it true?" the smaller boy panted as he paced around him, tapping the edge of the stick onto the ground.

Finn looked at him, although he couldn't really see his face that was hidden under the heavy-weighted helmet and the vague fog made it twice as difficult.

"Huh, what is?"

The younger boy halted, his chest heaving in and out and taut knees that trembled.

"Um, y'know. The fight between you and Gaten."

Finn felt his head pang and he groaned. "Why do you care?"

Jack just shrugged. "Well, everyone is spreading around that both of you fought because of your girlfriend."

He felt himself stagger. These rumors. These fucking rumors.

"Grazer, are you really this gullible? Or are you just saying what you think happened?"

Jack looked down, humiliated. "No, it's not like that. I just thought-"

"Forget it. I honestly don't give a shit."

With that, Finn walked away, his mind flowing somewhere deep in the sea.

• • •

Practice lasted for another hour, which seemed in Finn's mind, a thousand years.

Once it was over, he headed over to the bleachers to grab his water bottle. His pale face was flushed red with dirt that was speckled to his cheeks to chin. He was definitely going to take a cold and long shower to soothe him.

He turned around to be quite faced with Jack, who's helmet was off. Finn rolled his eyes at the sight, annoyance washing over him.

"Hey look, I'm sorry."

"What for?" he asked wearily as he searched through his bag, although he didn't know exactly what he was looking for.

"For what I said earlier. It was quite fucked up."

"Yeah, yeah it was," Finn interjected as he turned around to really look at him. The younger boy's hair was matted from the heat and he gave an attempted crooked smile.