Training for the 100 metre sprint

Something that seemed to have escaped Mark’s mind after a busy yet dramatic weekend was the fact that he had agreed to Tiffany’s request for him to partake in the 100 metre run for East Hall as part of the college hall tournament.

After an afternoon class on Monday was cancelled, Mark took that as an opportunity to train for the big event.

Using the college athletics track, he spent an hour doing run throughs while also working on his core. It had become a regular thing since he had started college to keep his body in good shape. It also would help for his future football matches, building a little more strength for when he was taken down by opposition defenders.

For some reason today though, he just couldn’t quite focus. There was something missing, at least that’s what it felt like for Mark.

Half exhausted, he sat on the fairly empty track, trying to clear his mind. It seemed to be a bigger issue that he would have though, just way too much going on upstairs.

Sexually, he thought about yesterday morning’s sex with Jess. The image of her draining his balls by sucking down his entire load…

Hard to let that brunette tease leave his mind. Not only that, he had a little more serious issue at the top of his mind, the Dixon and Maple drama had only just begun. This wasn’t going to be the end of it, he wanted Dixon out, out of the team, out of the school, straight into jail.

Unfortunately it didn’t seem that easy, especially with Maple afraid to go to the authorities herself

As he sat on the track, he saw a very familiar jock walking his way.

It was Bryce.

He always seemed to pop up at these sorts of times. Mark needed to discuss this whole mess with him, maybe there was something that Bryce could do to solve this.

“Training for this week’s match on your own?” he asked, stopping right next to him.

That million dollar smile flashed, his almost perfect blonde hair moved ever so slightly in the wind. He wore a blue Nike sports single that showed off his impressive figure.

Mark looked up at him, getting off the ground, “Uh guess you could say that, what about you?”

“Well I just got in an extra work out and thought I’d do a few laps of the track before calling it a day,” he said, walking to the side of the track so he could drop his gym bag down.

Mark followed behind him, determined to bring up the situation from Saturday night. He’d seen how Bryce handled these sort of situations before and that’s by sweeping it under the rug.

“Now that you’re here, can I speak to you about something?” he got the courage to ask him.

“Shoot,” Bryce replied, taking out his dark blue water bottle to sip on.

“I don’t know how to really say this but since your captain, I thought you may be able to help. It’s about Dixon, something needs to be done about him,” he started speaking, Mark noticed Bryce’s smile evaporate as he removed the water bottle from his lips.

“What about him?” he asked, sounding blunt.

Mark paused, inhaling before telling him, “He sexually assaulted a girl on Saturday night after the game… and I’m almost 100 percent sure this has happened before,” he told him.

He could notice the light in Bryce’s eyes had gone, he wasn’t smiling anymore. His face had turned sour, Bryce wasn’t even looking Mark in the eyes now, he seemed to be deep in thought.

“The girl is too afraid to go to the cops or anyone and I think that’s partly because she feels Dixon is so protected by us, I mean… us as the football team.”

“Well what do you want me to do about it?” he snapped back, cutting him off abruptly.

Bryce was a lot more intimidating when he was in a poor mood. The way he cut him off made Mark remember the scary side of the jock. He may have had the charm and the nice guy persona on at times but he could switch like the flick of a light.

With almost an extra head of height, it only made Mark more anxious looking up at him as he made his request.

“Couldn’t we send him and everyone else a message that this is so entirely wrong by kicking him off the team,” Mark pleaded to him.

He just shook his head, “I’m not getting involved and I suggest you do the same.”

Re opening his bag, Bryce dropped his water bottle back inside and pulled out a small item. It was his AirPods, he was getting them out, ready to walk away from Mark and do his own running exercise.

“Come on Bryce, please,” Mark said, getting in his way, “You know he’s a terrible person, he can’t be getting away with this garbage.”

“My job as captain isn’t to deal with claims of ****. My job is keeping the brotherhood of this team together, staying strong as one unit,” he told him, “I trust you boys to have my back and i have each and everyone of yours in return so until I see him breaking that trust… we go about our normal daily business.”

Bryce put his AirPods in and started running down the track, beginning his laps. His statements infuriated Mark. Just like he thought, Bryce didn’t want to believe it, he considered it as nothing but a so called claim and that he was more focused on the unity of a college sports team.

His priorities were alarming and it left both Mark and Maple in a real pickle.

Watching Bryce disappear, Mark felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. An instant message from Mary popped up in his notifications.

Mary: 9:30 tonight front of the humanities block, just get there 15 minutes early and send me a text and I’ll lead the way from there.

Mark still had a lot of questions but he knew she’d keep him in the dark for it. All he could do was show up at that time and go from there.

He grabbed his belongings and trudged off the track, feeling like things were way more complicated that he ever would have hoped.