Page 53 of Scoring Lessons

…Someone check on Hayes’s well-being. He doesn’t want to go work out!

Donovan

Knock it off, Parker. It’s good he’s taking a break.

Another text pinged, this time from a different chat. My stomach turned queasy when I read my best friend’s contact name.

Anderson

You good?

Me

Yeah. I’m at Mom’s.

Anderson

Tell Mariana I said hi.

Anderson

You’ve been distant again.

Anderson

You sure you’re okay? You practically ran off after practice this morning.

I couldn’t exactly tell him I was avoiding him like the plague after I went on a practice date with his twin sister. Or how she’s been the center of my sexual fantasies as of late.

If there were an award for the worst best friend in the world, I would have won first place by a fucking landslide. And the worst part? I didn’t even feel that bad about it.

Me

I wanted to get here as soon as possible. Everything’s good.

Anderson

You would tell me if something’s wrong, though, right?

Me

Like I said, I’m good. Gotta go.

I muted our conversation and the group chat, because they were still talking about God knew what, then dropped my phone on the dinner table. “Sorry. The guys are going off in the chat.”

“It’s okay, honey. How are they? How’s Henry?” my mom asked as she served all my favorite foods on a plate—barbecue ribs, potato salad, and grilled corn.

“They’re okay. He’s good, too. We don’t hang out as much because he and Kennedy are obsessed with each other.” Technically, I wasn’t lying. He had been pretty distracted, which I loved, because it meant I could be left alone to my own devices and wallow in peace. I grabbed the plate from her. “I’m going to stop you right now. You’re serving me way too much.”

She shot me one of her infamous motherly glares. “You’re too skinny. Have you been eating?”

I groaned. “I’m a professional athlete, Mom. What kind of question is that?”

“Answer my question, Wesley Bennett Hayes.” She used her motherly tone, the one that used to get me to do anything when I was a teenager.

“I’ve been eating okay.” That was an absolute lie, that’s what it was. The stress this season was putting me under was making it difficult to consume my typical calories. I was surviving on shakes and protein bars. And even then, I was forcing them down because if I started losing weight and our conditioning coach caught wind of it, I was never going to hear the end of it.

Even though I wasn’t hungry, I made a point to start eating, because I would never reject my mother’s food. She showed her love through her cooking, and the last thing I wanted to be was disrespectful.