Page 100 (1/2)

Chapter One

Anson

July

All I wanted to do was collapse

It didn’t ue or the shape I was in—which was pretty da camp was brutal My muscles were on fire, an ache that throbbed bone deep After a couple of weeks of hard-core workouts, fitness testing, and multiple offensive line drills and practices per day, it was over Now the real fun began The ga, speed The one place I felt alive God, I fucking loved football It was as vital as the blood in my body, and I knew I could never live without it

I stood under the showerhead, scorching water pelting ia, after all—but heat against my body always helped work some of the pain away

I tookoff the faucet, grabbing a towel, and wrapping it around my waist I padded across the floor to htning—were already dressed, bullshitting with each other or talking on their phones

“Hawkins, you got plans tonight?” Darren asked, rubbing a hand over his shaved head He was our quarterback and my closest friend on the team We’d been drafted the saht end, I was part of the offensive line and helped protect the quarterback as well as receive passes Darren and I had great cheether and had from the start

“Nah, and I want to keep it like that I can hardly et laid” Which I kneas exactly what Darren would want to do It hat he alanted to do But ht the older I got, the et better My teaot uess in some ways it was easier because the pool of people who asked , we’d all been young, and rich for the first time in our lives, and all they’d wanted to do was party, which always included fucking…so I was interested in, just not omen the way they were

“What the hell, o out and relax?”

I grabbed ed the naked in front of aze focused away from him, not because I wanted hi to hiay—I wasn’t sure hoould since I’d never let myself act on it—but if it did, I didn’t want ainst lances” in the locker room