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When the doctor was done, Coach Clayton was in a mood, and Matt was happy when he was dismissed.

Matt shuffled away in a mindless stupor, replaying what had just happened as he made his way to the locker room. His father had played college ball and had warned him about injuries. He’d told Matt to always look out for himself; he’d seen some of his fellow teammates pay the price of coaches forcing them out on the field before it was safe. His father said it was the second injury that was the career-ender.

Matt knew that if he masked the pain, he could possibly practice, but he wasn’t ready to do that in the next couple of days. All he had to do was remember how he felt when his pain pill wore off that morning. Matt felt the doctor might be acting overly cautious, but he would rather get well than have a nagging injury that never healed.

When he reached the locker room, he saw a bunch of guys gathered around, looking at pictures on a phone.

“Matt, you’ve got to see this. We took John out Saturday night and got him drunk,” one of his fellow offensive linemen shared.

Matt had a twinge of guilt because picking on John wasn’t really fair. Matt suspected that he might have a ‘cognitive disability.’ Either that, or his parents should never have been allowed to procreate.

He looked at the picture and choked back a laugh. John had passed out, and his teammates had stripped him down. John was sasquatch hairy. Someone had taken a razor and shaved his body in various places so they could write on him with a permanent marker. Right above his shriveled cock, it said, ‘Take Me To Your Beaver!’

“You guys aren’t right,” Matt said as he shook his head.

While he looked at more pictures, out of the corner of his eye he spotted Bill Callaway, a friend of David’s. When there was a break in the conversation, he went to Bill’s locker. Matt wanted to know if David had been talking about how Matt got hurt and how David had to save him.

He sat down next to Bill, and there was a sudden pain in his side as he did so, causing him to suck in his breath.

“You okay?” Bill asked with concern.

“I cracked some ribs. I’ll be out of action for the next couple of weeks.”

“That sucks. How did it happen?”

“Crystal had her Panhellenic fundraiser Friday with the rest of the sororities. There was a party after at one of the fraternities to celebrate. Crystal and I were talking when a Delta came up and said something rude to her,” Matt shared.

“What did he say?”

“Something along the lines that she’d been acting too much like a guy this year by boning everything in sight. He said that the word was out, and pretty soon, guys would be sticking their dicks in the dishwasher after being with her,” Matt shared.

“Well, damn. I take it Crystal didn’t take that well,” Bill said.

“No. She got in his face and threw her beer. Next thing I knew, I was having to defend her honor by fighting the guy. The Phi Sigs kicked us out and told us we couldn’t fight in their house,” Matt explained.

“I had a girlfriend for like a month who got mouthy every time she got drunk. It sucks when you get pulled into an ass-kicking for no good reason,” Bill said.

“I was more than a bit pissed,” Matt admitted.

“No, I get it. The dude basically called your girl a whore.”

“I did say a few things in response,” Matt admitted.

“That was just your little brain doing all the thinking while your ass was doing all the talking. Been there, done that,” Bill said.

“So anyway, when I got outside, two of his frat brothers jumped me. One of them was this monster who messed up my ribs. I guess I should feel lucky he didn’t hit me in my face. Who knows what damage he could have done?” Matt shared.

Bill looked at his face and saw the swelling and the six stitches Matt had gotten over his eye.

“It looks like the other ones must have done a number on your face. How did it end?”

“By the time it was over, they were all lying on the ground, wishing they hadn’t started it,” Matt said.

’Now I’m a liar. Fantastic,’ he thought and winced again when he moved wrong.

“I need to go and take my pill,” he said.

“Take care of yourself. We need you in the fall. For now, Travis can fill in. Your job’s in no danger of him taking it,” Bill said to assure Matt.

Matt walked away, shocked that David hadn’t spread the story of rescuing him Friday night. Looking back, Matt was ashamed of having left David to fend for himself. But his fear had overridden his good sense when he’d seen another Delta knock David down. Matt had envisioned them pulling him out of the car and finishing what they’d started before David saved him.

He knew he owed David an apology, but as each day passed, he was afraid that the opportunity had already been missed. He had no doubt that David hated him now. What had Matt worried was not knowing why David hadn’t called him on it yet. It was like when he did something wrong when he was younger, and his mom would tell him that he would get his punishment when his dad got home. The anticipation was the worst part.

Matt knew a day of reckoning was coming. When it did, he would face it head-on. He knew David Dawson couldn’t touch him.

Matt took his afternoon pill and started to feel better, so he decided to go to practice to watch. Today was the first one with full pads. Nothing unusual happened until practice was nearly over. Coach Clayton decided to shake things up and run a short scrimmage. He pitted the number one offense against their counterparts on defense. It was gut-check time to see which unit was going to step up.

The team watched as Travis called the first play, a short pass that would go down and out to the wide receiver. It was designed to give them some confidence.

From the snap, the play was doomed. John was lined up against a redshirt freshman defensive lineman, Percy Wilkes. Percy beat John off the snap and gained inside hand position on the offensive tackle. When Percy read the pass, he tossed John to the side and sprinted to the quarterback.

Matt watched in horror as Travis forgot that he had on a red jersey, signifying that Percy couldn’t touch him. Instead of just letting Percy tap his helmet to indicate the sack, Travis juked to escape and ended up outsmarting himself. He juked right in front of the locomotive that was coming at him. Percy acted more surprised than Travis as he plowed over him.

“What the hell was that?!” Coach Clayton screamed. “Jaden, go in for Travis!”

On the next three plays, the passes were overthrown. Matt saw that their junior backup quarterback’s footwork was a mess. Jaden wasn’t setting his feet as he threw, and he was trying to overcompensate with his arm.

Matt saw them rotate in a new defensive team for the next play. He spotted number 11, David Dawson, in at middle linebacker. Matt noticed that they’d reset their defense to a soft zone coverage. It was intended to be used late in games to prevent the long ball. It was designed to give up short passes and hope to run out the clock.

The net effect was that on the next play, Jaden saw his receivers running free. Matt would have torn the defense up. Instead, the ball sailed on Jaden once again. The defense was in position to easily pick it off. When that happened on the three subsequent plays, Coach Clayton called it a day.

As Matt was walking off the field, Coach Clayton stopped him.

“I want you to rest this week, but we need you back as soon as possible. You do whatever the trainers tell you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

All Matt could do was follow the trainers’ instructions. He vowed that he wouldn’t let Coach Clayton bully him back too soon. Coach would just have to understand that this was spring ball, and they weren’t playing any real games until the fall.

Just as Matt got to his car, he got a text from Crystal with an attached link.