Football Boys

Chapter Six

He slowly looked over at me and shrugged, the whites of his eyes noticeably red with exhaustion.

"Are you okay..."

He shook his head after a few moments, averting his eyes back to the windshield.

Biting my lip, I pulled over to the side of the road and saw him tense in response.

Goggling at him, I waited for him to look at me, but he never did.

"Ellie..."

I touched his arm, causing him to flinch as he timidly looked at me with worried eyes.

"Ellie... what's wrong?"

His eyes darted from left to right as he stared at me contemplatively, his thoughts seeming to frantically run about in his mind.

Tightly closing his eyes, he tiredly sighed.

"Greyson... there isn't anything–"

"Ellie... I don't... want to force you to say anything, but I'm not about to ignore how unusual you're acting... as much as unusual your usual ways are," I briefly smiled. "You haven't screamed once..."

He grinned, silent for a moment, seeming to think.

"It's... family stuff, you wouldn't want to know–"

"I do."

He took in a deep breath, glaring at my hand as I went to hold his.

"I'm listening," I said, reassuring him.

Staring at my fingers as they parted to wrap around his trembling hand, he began to smile, slowly tightening his grip.

"Man this is weird," he chuckled, raising our clasped hands. "But it's helping," he trailed off.

Focusing forward now, Ellie's expression hardened and then softened all at once, almost as if whatever was weighing so heavy on his mind was fighting against his ability to think.

He finally took a breath to speak and hesitated before he met my eyes.

"It's... as complicated as I'm making it seem," he chuckled.

Blinking rapidly, Ellie tried to fight against his tears, taking another breath to speak.

"A few years ago, during freshmen year... my parents died," he said quickly, closing his eyes.

"They didn't die because of natural causes or... anything like a deadly disease. The-they were murdered," he continued slowly, wiping his cheek.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you," he briefly chuckled. "But... man is it hard... trying to get over it by myself ya know?"

I quickly nodded, placing my other hand on top of our clasped grasp.

"I-I live... with my brother, Jordan. He's the one wh-who found them in the kitchen after coming home from work. And it's... crazy. I was hanging out with a girl... a girl that they didn't want me to hang around. They said that she was bad news or something like that, but I didn't listen... I rarely listened. I should've... been there for them. But what could I have done ya know? I probably would've been scared out of my mind," he shook his head.