Jackson on centre stage

Saturday rolled around and Jackson was playing in his first football game for the Heathrow Eagles. He was proud to wear the red jersey that Bryce presented to him before the game.

For Mark, he was happy to see his cousin get a gif in the team, he certainly was the type of body they needed in their line-up. But there was also a hint of jealousy, as if Jackson was invading another area of his life on campus. He couldn’t explain it well but there was certainly a lot of mixed emotions.

Not to his surprise, Jackson played extraordinarily well in his first game for the team. The added boost was able to get the Eagles over the line for a rare win.

The two cousins were quick to show some affection after the game. Mark had been in similar spots to Jackson after football matches where he was the hero so he understood the feeling.

“You balled out,” Mark told him, “Way to go.”

“Hey, you were great too,” he added, putting an arm around him, carrying his helmet with the other, “I can’t believe how well you hold your feet out there, you’ve changed so much since you’ve came here.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment,” Mark said with a smile, “Hey, but remember dude, we’ve got to do our part for the group tonight… back in the Eagles Nest.”

“Ah yeah, almost forgot about that… what exactly are we doing?”

“Just got to watch Dixon and who he hangs out around, find out who may else be involved with him, but uhh, we’ll talk about this later,” Mark said, cutting the conversation short as another one of their teammates came over to congratulate Jackson.

***

After the game, Bryce Walker made his way out of the locker rooms, wearing his red varsity football jacket.

He was thrilled to see the team win but he had a hollow feeling inside him. Not being able to play since the car accident was starting to take a toll on the senior jock. There was hope that he would be back for next weekend’s big away match against their local rivals but it was still a big if.

The blonde hair jock walked away from the crowd outside the rooms to get a bit of space to himself. Since the injury, he had been less social, avoiding the Eagle Nest after most games.

He wondered just a little further away but stopped when he saw who was still out on the field.

Alone together was the man of the moment, Jackson, with his unofficial new girlfriend, Miranda. She was looking up into his eyes, smiling, very much into him. They were walking together across the field but had stopped in the middle of the ground.

Bryce gulped as he watched Jackson lean down and kiss the blonde girl.

He hadn’t dated Miranda for quite some time now and he didn’t always think about her but this stung. Bryce couldn’t help but flashback to when he had Miranda out on the field, all to himself after a big win.

The fact that he couldn’t even get out to play while a new freshman could and was attractive enough to steal away his ex-girlfriend, it gave Bryce a real sick stinging feeling in his stomach.

“You happy now Walker?” a voice from behind him said, startling him.

Bryce turned around to see the brown hair boy, Derek Marotta standing there.

“Yeah… yeah dude, good win,” he said, trying to refocus.

“Back next week?” Marotta asked,

Without any certainty, Bryce lied, “Definitely, I’ll be out there for sure.”

“You know it’s pretty bullshit that little punk still gets to play while you don’t, he ruined you car and your fucking leg,” Marotta said, bringing up Mark, “I still don’t get why you didn’t kick him off the team?”

“Because the team needs him,” Bryce said, “If we were going off that logic, he’s not the only person we’d be losing, you know that better than I do.”

Marotta stayed quiet, having a good idea about who he was talking about. He didn’t want to delve any deeper into that conversation so he tried to change subject.

“Well you coming back to the Nest tonight?” he asked Bryce.

He thought about it for a couple of seconds. The plan originally was to go back home to his dorm room and feel sorry for himself but something had just changed his mind. Bryce turned and peered back out onto the field to see Jackson and Miranda still hooking up.

He turned back to face his teammate, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there… We’ve got a hero tonight to get around tonight, can’t miss out on that.”

Marotta smirked and the two fist bumped before he left Bryce to head back towards the locker rooms. He almost instantly looked back out onto the field, seeing the two lovebirds walk hand in hand off the ground. Bryce’s smile dropped again, clenching his fist unintentionally.

When someone single handly won a game, they were always hero of the night, they could get pretty much get anything they wanted.

Tonight, it was Jackson’s turn… and with that in mind, Bryce thought of an idea.