Chasing Gold

21| redemption

"Don't stress," O'Connor says. "Let them talk."

"I'm not stressing," I reply. "I'm just eager to show up at OHSU, looking forward to what Lawrence has to say."

"You're not the only one, he's been trash-talking all summer over social media, let's see if he has the balls to talk trash to our faces." O'Connor pauses. "Things are easier said when you hide behind a screen."

"He likes the attention, let him enjoy it while it lasts," I say, and my phone buzzes. It was a text message from Inez. I quickly replied before turning back my attention to my best friend.

"You had an eventful last two days," O'Connor says. I knew he was going to bring it up sooner or later. "I never thought I would see the day when you finally decided to settle down. We had a good run though. What are you going to do about Inez?"

"You are making it sound like I'm getting married O'Conner, don't be dramatic. We're just seeing where this goes." I pause. "And nothing is going to happen with Inez, we both agreed that it was something casual. We're done."

"I didn't say otherwise Connery," O'Connor defends himself. "I just feel like you're going to go back to her at the first sign of trouble. Relationships aren't your thing and you can't pretend to be something that you're not."

"I won't," I assure him. "And I'm not pretending, I like Ev. I want to give it a shot, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," O'Connor replies. "She's just a great girl Connery and you will fuck her up if you screw up. She deserves better than that. All I'm telling you is to make sure you're really in for it."

"I am, I wouldn't play her like that." I may be somewhat of what girls call a fuck boy but I would never put Everest through something like that.

"Good," O'Connor says standing up from the couch. "And you told me she wasn't your type, look at you now. That aged well." I laugh at O'Connor's comment.

After making sure we all had everything we headed to the pavilion, the bus was leaving in half an hour so we needed to make sure that we were there on time. With the mood that Coach has been in all this past week, he wouldn't think twice about leaving someone behind. And since Everest was known for being late, I made sure to text and remind her to be on time.

She was working at the firm this morning and she has been under a lot of pressure with the case she has been working on with her boss. I'm not allowed to know, which sucks because from what she has been allowed to tell me it's pretty cool what she does. Ev has made me binge-watch way too many episodes of Suits lately so I've grown to like it and from what I've seen so far it's pretty interesting.

When we got to the pavilion I searched for Ev's car but it was nowhere to be seen. Everyone on the team was already lined up outside the bus. Where could she be? The last time I texted her, she was on her way out.

"Connery, have you seen Everest?" Regan asks as she comes up to me. "Coach said we're leaving in ten, apparently they're doing construction work on one of the roads and we have to leave earlier than what we had planned."

"She said she was on her way, but I'll try her again," I tell Regan and she nods.

As I got on the bus I texted Ev. Where are you? We're leaving in ten. No answer.

Soon enough slowly but surely everyone began to fill up the bus and Ev still wasn't here. The last person to get on the bus was Coach Jennings. "I believe we are all ready to go, is there anyone left that is still not here?"

"Everest is the only one that's missing Coach," Dant says and by the look on Coach's face, you could tell that he was anything but pleased with Dant's response.