Just us, the guys who have played this sport together since the very beginning.
“Looks like we can ask him ourselves.” Jaxon points toward the door as Coach walks in. He spots our table almost immediately and makes his way over.
“What’s going on, Coach?” Zeke twists over the back of his chair to see him.
“Jere’s going pro, isn’t he?” I ask. “We’re losing our guy next year.”
“He’s been working for this forever. The countless hours of PT have led to this. I think he deserves to ditch us in our senior year if it means having his dreams come true,” Declan adds.
“Easy for you to say; you know you have a contract waiting for you after we finish next season,” Jaxon begins. “Without Jere, who knows if you’ll carry the team to another championship. I’m really banking on that to look good for my free agency.”
Declan flips him off.
“If we let the man talk, we’ll find out what’s happening.” Cam points out, and we all look over to him.
He’s still standing at the end of the table, just staring at all of us. He looks tired, which is a new look for him. Coach has always been the kind of guy who could sleep for thirty minutes and look like he got the most restful night of sleep in his life.
Something is going on.
My eyes leave Coach, and then it hits me.
“Wait, whereisJere?” I glance around Coach toward the front door.
Jeremy’s not the type of person to be late. And with as late as I was getting here, Jeremy’s even later.
Coach’s hand lands on my shoulder.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” he begins.
“I thought we were coming here to celebrate, the texts said—” Brooks is cut off by a single hand raise from Coach.
“It was but…”
His eyes drift away from us. There’s an emptiness in them I’ve never seen before.
“Coach?” Declan stands up, folding his arms across his chest. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Jeremy.”
It’s like the world stops. I can feel the frantic pounding of my heart all the way into my ears. My eyes bounce around the table, waiting for anybody to say something. To ask the one question resting on the tip of all of our tongues. But no one is brave enough to actually ask it. No one’s ready to hear the rest of his sentence. But we don’t have a choice because Coach fills in the blank for us anyway:
“There’s been an accident.”
