The captain put his hands on Vinny’s chest and pushed him back. “I know these drills are new to you. Nobody expects you to get them right away.”
Vinny pressed his lips together and shook his head. “The drills are stupid. Jumping on a bench isn’t gonna make me kick better.”
Finn crossed his arms and refused to break eye contact with Vinny. “The drills are meant to help with agility, not to make you ‘kick better.’ They stay.”
Vinny looked away. His narrowed eyes scanned the players who were watching him intently.
“Look.” Finn took a step toward Vinny. “I’ve already got one jerk on the team that I’ve got to deal with. I need you to keep your cool. They’re just drills.”
Vinny ran a hand over his face and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“Go take a walk around the gym.” Finn’s eyes went to where Silas and Grant were still standing next to each other. “Grant, why don’t you come give this drill a shot?”
The rookie jogged over to Finn and started jumping on the bench as Finn had demonstrated.
Silas should have been more upset about being called out in front of the entire team, but it was difficult to keep the smile off his face. He had Miriam’s phone number in his phone again. It was such a small thing, but it felt like a step in the right direction. He walked over to the side of the room and started texting.
Silas: Hey, just wanted you to know that I’ll be at the meet and greet tomorrow.
A text bubble appeared right away.
Miriam: Great! We can always use extra players. Btw, I’m a little embarrassed that I haven’t saved you into my phone. Who is this?
A thick wave of disappointment settled on his shoulders. Apparently Silas wasn’t the only one deleting numbers. He quickly typed his name and hit send. This time, no text bubble appeared. No response came through. He stared at the screen for a few minutes silently willing something to come up.
He waited for something simple like “okay” or “sure.” Even a flat out no would be better than the silent treatment he was getting because it felt too much like indifference—and Silas wasn’t sure if he could work with that.
When no answer came, he put his phone away and put himself into the drills.
Miriam
Normally,it only took Miriam twenty minutes to get ready.
Today, she’d been standing in front of the mirror for nearly an hour.
Everything was wrong. Her waves wouldn’t fall right. She couldn’t get her eyeliner to look the same on both eyes. And she was breaking out. Seriously, it was like that giant zit on her forehead came out of nowhere. She did her best to cover it before putting on her favorite Storm shirt and fluffing her hair one last time.
Her phone buzzed from its propped up position on her bathroom counter. Allie’s smiling face filled the screen. Her tightly coiled black curls were pulled back by a colorful scarf.
Miriam put her on speaker phone and continued to examine herself in the mirror. “Hey, girl.”
“You doing okay?”
Miriam had filled her best friend in on all the Silas drama, and the two girls had been doing a countdown to the meet and greet that was scheduled for that afternoon. She leaned in close to see if the pimple was visible beneath the concealer. “No, I’m most certainly not doing okay.”
“Wanna skip and enjoy some much needed retail therapy instead?”
Miriam let out a wistful sigh. She would have loved to go shopping with Allie, but her bank account wasn’t nearly what it needed to be to hit all the expensive boutiques that Allie loved to shop at. Not to mention that it was literally her job to show up to these events. She couldn’t bail no matter how badly she wanted to. “Can I get a raincheck?”
“Sure.” There was a long pause before Allie spoke again. “Listen, you know you can always call me if things go bad, right? I’ll be happy to show up at The Sports Emporium and tell Silas what’s up.”
Miriam snorted. She had no doubt that Allie had quite a few things to say to Silas after listening to Miriam cry about the breakup for months after it first happened. “I’ll let you know.”
“Good. And Miriam?”
Miriam let out a non-committal noise as she turned back and forth looking for anything that stood out.
“Stop obsessing over the way you look and get going.”
