I peeled my fingers from the door frame and backed away from the sounds stirring something I couldn’t name.

Slamming the door, I shook off the feelings coursing through me. I grabbed my jacket off the floor and rushed outside.

“What the hell took you so long?” Knox banged on the hood of his car.

“You honked less than twenty seconds ago.”

“That’s twenty seconds of prime drinking time.” He slipped back into his car through the driver’s side window and revved the engine. Knox ‘always ready for a fucking party’ Kane wasn’t known for his subtlety.

“I’m sure you’ll make up for it.” I climbed into the passenger seat.

The car peeled away from the curb a fraction of a second after my foot left the asphalt.

“I sure as shit will.” He thumped his fist against the ceiling and screamed out the window, shaking his head.

I grabbed the steering wheel, straightening us out on the road. “Asshat, can you not kill us before we get there?”

He dropped back into his seat. “An undefeated season. 4-time state champions. We’re gods!” He screamed out the open window.

“Gods who can bruise and bleed.” I slammed my fist into his shoulder. The bruise on my left side would bloom overnight, and the color would darken under my shirt minute by minute like all the others. The adrenaline was still coursing through my body, slowing the pain edging closer to the surface, but in an hour, standing would suck. And practice tomorrow would be brutal.

“Jesus.” He glared and rubbed his shoulder. “We’re not on the field anymore. The season’s over.”

My stomach knotted, twisting into an angry knot. It was over. My chances of getting drafted were getting slimmer and slimmer with each day. What better way to prep for my destitute fade into oblivion than with a blowout party where everyone woke up the next morning praying for death?

At least with the season over, the team didn’t have to drag ourselves to the field for practice and puke twice during the warm ups where coach made us run backward while we chugged pickle juice. No, it would only be me.

Spring football was for the rising seniors, but I’d be right alongside them, grasping for the last of the light at the end of the slowly-darkening tunnel.

He tilted his head and grinned at me.

“You’re fucking insane. Just get us to the party in one piece.”

* * *

Some girl danced in front of me, trying to tempt me off the couch. Her face was vaguely familiar, but it was hard to tell when most of the girls here had gone to the school of duck lips and highlights.

The second she found out I wasn’t playing it cool with my draft prospects and instead had none, she’d find a new guy for private dances. Good thing I wasn’t interested. Blocking her out wasn’t hard. She was mainly a vague shape with flailing limbs, but she was getting a bit too close. I drained the last of my beer, shaking the bottle in front of me.