❝ Daniel, who am I if I can't carry it all? Who am I if I'm not a football player? Who am I without my family? Who am I without you? Who am I if I don't have everything that makes me, me? ❞
Eric Lauren, EXCERPT
━━━ YOUR HAND IN MINE, BOOK ONE
AN ORIGINAL STORY !
peoplehoods ©
EVERYTHING about you, Cedric Lauren, is too big, kid.
Smile so big it shows all your crooked teeth, glasses so big they slip off the bridge of your freckled nose, clothes so big you only grow into them two years later, words so big they don't fit right in your mouth, ideas so big they still haven't fully formed, heart so big that you still don't know what to do with all the love that came with it. And your first love wasn't a person, no. It was the ratty-old football in the 'FREE' section of the first yard sale you went to, the one you begged your parents to take, the one they only let you get because they were convinced that you wouldn't really like it all that much after playing with it for a couple of hours because sports, and football specifically, wasn't for nice boys like you, like the nice boy they had raised you to be; the football you've been playing with ever since they said that because you so desperately wanted them to be wrong— oh, kid, your first love was a stubborn protest against the boy everyone wanted you to be.
YOU were five when you touched your first football.
The ratty one, from the yard sale. It was worn, and was decorated with scuff marks, and your fingers barely fit over the laces, let alone the whole ball. But it was loved by someone long before you, and you loved that. You've always had a big heart— you could love everything on the Earth, and still have room for more. But you loved this football the most— because it was yours, now. Your parents hated it, and your childhood cat was scared of it, and the neighborhood kids told you soccer was better, and so only you loved it. You threw it at the siding of your house, and you caught it when it bounced off of your bedroom window, and you stole it from the stray dog who tried to take it from you. You loved it more than anyone or anything ever could. First loves are like that. Though, first loves are not often people, no. They are ratty-old footballs from yard sales and grass stains on the knees of denim overalls and Toy Story-themed bandaids over scrapes and carpet burns and old songs that play on the radio in the car, and first loves are often the things that build the first version of yourself. The first version of Cedric Lauren was a too-big boy with missing teeth and muddy fingernails that didn't understand the concept of love unless it was explained through his one-and-only football. And maybe that's the current version of him, too.
CEDRIC Lauren doesn't know anything but these five facts:
Football is his one-and-only, the heart on his sleeve is too big, being stubborn is not a thing people call necessarily good, and he doesn't love like anyone else does, he's pretty sure. Because the fifth fact is that he loves a boy— and these five facts do not make up a nice boy, the one his parents have tried to mold him into, the one he has spent his life protesting against so stubbornly— but there has never been a version of himself that was what others wanted him to be. There has never been a version of himself that hasn't known how to love anyone and anything, because his heart has always been his. Nobody elses.
HE loves as if to save someone's life.
Probably his own. Definitely, definitely his own.
STARRING . . .
CEDRIC "ERIC" LAUREN / ethan cutkosky
WIDE RECEIVER, #5
━━ OUR LOVER !
& the sun
DANIEL HEALY / dylan arnold
TEAM ASSISTANT
━━ OUR LOVED !
& the star
WITH . . .
nicolette lauren / zoe bell
mitchell lauren / ryan reynolds
louisa "lou" lauren / hunter schafer
coach frank healy / chris pang
jarell "junior" rusher / michael b. jordan
manny leahan / michael evans behling
luca reuben-james / darren barnet
zachariah "zero" barlowe / ashton sanders
alejandro "a.j." garcia / diego tinoco
trevor saunders / cody christian
AUTHOR'S NOTE
disclaimers
this book will contain scenes and/or mentions of sensitive topics such as crude language, underage alcohol & drug usage, racism & homophobia, physical violence, and other mature themes. please continue with caution - all future chapters containing any of this material will be marked with trigger warnings.
all plots, storylines, characters, and dialogue featured in this book belong to me and are of my creation. all rights are reserved, and any plagiarism or copyright violation of the sort will not be tolerated.
dedicated to all of my friends and loved ones, including hannah, my dearest supporter - but most importantly dedicated to the magic of being apart of a team, of something. dedicated to those friday night lights that turn on for every high school football team, providing illumination for the kids whose love for the sport is too big for their hearts, and whose love for their team is just as big. dedicated to me, a girl who so often wished she was born a boy so she could experience that exact magic.
THE WORKS
started / 12/25/21
ended / n/a
status / slow updates
© peoplehoods / 2021
your hand in mine