Bring Me To Life

All In

And I'm all in, nothing left to hide
I've fallen, harder than a landslide
I spent a week away from you last night
And now I'm calling, calling out your name
Even, if I lose the game, I'm all in
I'm all in tonight
Yeah I'm all in, I'm all in for life
----All In, Lifehouse

January 14, 2017

Grayson threw himself down into the seat on the bus with a sigh. They'd lost again. Two in a row now and he felt responsible. It didn't matter that he'd scored 23, the end result wasn't good enough.

Worse still, the boos and the media scrutiny were getting to him.  He was afraid to walk on a basketball court, something he had never felt before. 

Luke sat down beside him with a huff. They were on the way to the airport for the flight home.

Grayson glanced down at his phone, re-reading the text from Cait, the only thing that had made him smile. She praised how well he played and promised a reward when he got home.

Luke glanced over, not bothering to hide the fact that he was looking at Grayson's phone. "Shit," he muttered. "You two are gonna fall out of the goddamn bed again, aren't you?"

Grayson laughed quietly. "That only happened once."

"Unfortunately, I was across the hall," Luke reminded him.

"You should have minded your own business," Grayson told him.

"Hey, Cait is my business. Especially when I hear all that noise and then her telling you that she thought you broke her rib. You're lucky I didn't break down the damn door." Luke shot him a glare.

"No, you're lucky you didn't break down the door. I don't think you would have ever been able to look Cait in the face again if you'd seen what was going on."  Grayson smirked. He loved messing with Luke this way. It was, he figured, just compensation for some of Luke's escapades.

"Then I had to spend the rest of the night listening to Anna complain about how in love you two are and how she wonders why we aren't like that anymore," Luke sighed.

"Cait tried to help you out with that," Grayson reminded him. And she had, telling Anna that she shouldn't compare their relationships.

"Yeah, but Cait also knows too much about me to really sell it," Luke sighed again. "I can't deal with relationship stuff right now anyhow," he said quietly. "We gotta figure out how to win some
games."

"We need better chemistry," Grayson kept his voice low. "But Matt and Milly are at a loss. I don't know what else we can do. It just seems like we aren't meshing."

"We need Coach K back," Luke whispered.

*****
Cait hung up from her post game talk with Miss Sherry.  Grayson's mom had certainly done an about face after learning about Cait's defense of her son and now called and texted her regularly, fussing like Cait was her own child.  Cait was still getting used to the idea of a mother figure, but had decided it was tolerable.  And Grayson was so relieved that his mom had come around.

She reentered the spacious living room that belonged to her godparents and smiled at her father. 

"Was that Grayson on the phone?"  The question came not from Jack, but Mike.

"No, Uncle Mike, it was Miss Sherry.  I doubt I'll hear from Gray until later," Cait said. 

"Tell him he played a good game, but they've got to get Tatum more involved in the offense.  They need -" Mike was cut off by a glare from his wife.