Chapter Four

11.3K 314 44

I groaned in pain as I shuffled into my room after taking a long soothing hot shower. Practice earlier today had been brutal; to be a cheerleader you did have to be flexible and in shape in order to lift another girl and do the numerous routines, but football practice made me realize my exercises were nothing compared to a football player's exercise routine. I had muscles aching that I didn't even know existed. My headache from earlier was now a dull throbbing pain and my shoulders ached. My thighs felt swollen from the constant running and my ribs screamed in agony from all the hits I took.

"How you feeling?" I heard from the doorway just as I climbed into bed.

I looked up and saw Austin leaning against my door frame with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "Like someone ran me over with a semi." I groaned and shifted in bed.

He chuckled and took a seat on my bed next to me. His blue eyes that matched mine looked at my exhausted body and he sent me a sympathetic smile. "Tomorrow we won't train as much."

"As much?" I asked. "So we're still training?" I groaned.

"Of course, we only have one week until you leave for camp and you still need to learn the positions,  especially mine."

"It would be easier if you just went instead of me." I replied and rubbed my face.

"I know, but I don't want to." he shrugged his shoulders.

"Why not?" I asked him and sat up in my bed so we were eye level. "How come you don't wanna go this year? You've always liked going to camp during the summer."

Austin sighed and stared at a picture of us when we were younger that stood on my side table before answering me. "To be honest, I don't wanna play football for the rest of my life. That's not what I wanna do, I'm just doing it to make dad happy."

I stayed frozen in my spot, still trying to register what Austin just said. He didn't like football anymore? When did this happen? I'm such a bad sister for not noticing Austin's growing disinterest in football, something he was known for around our small town.

"When did you start to not like football anymore?" I gulped, hesitant to hear his answer.

"It's not that I don't like football itself, I'm just starting to get burnt out from playing it. Between coach always yelling at us and dad always pushing me to do better at football I'm just starting to hate it."

"Can't you tell your coach to stop yelling so much?" I asked.

Austin gave me a look like I was stupid and I realized that I was after I thought about what I just asked. "Yeah, cause I'm gonna go up to coach in front of all the guys and kindly ask him to please stop yelling at us." Austin sarcastically answered and proceeded to roll his eyes afterward.

"It was just a suggestion." I said and smacked him with my pillow.

"It was a stupid suggestion." he mocked me and pushed my thigh. I hissed in pain and smacked away his hand. "Sorry." he quickly apologized and put his hands up.

"I'm so sore." I whined and sunk down in my covers.

"It won't be so bad soon. We won't start off with drills in the morning, I'll go over the positions and some of the plays with you." he explained and got up from my bed.

"Okay." I yawned as he stood by the door.

He picked up the picture of us that he was looking at a moment ago and smiled. He put back down the frame and looked at me. "Thanks for doing this for me, Dallas."

"You're welcome." I sleepily answered and started to doze off.

Austin shut off my lamp and shut the door behind him so I could sleep in peace.

She's One of the BoysRead this story for FREE!