Complete Nothing by Kieran Scott

ducked my head as I walked past Coach. He was going over something with one of the assistants, poking at his iPad. I hoped to God he wouldn’t notice me. I couldn’t take a lecture right now. More than anything, I wanted to be home in front of the TV with a Big Mac and a monster soda. Actually, I wanted to be anywhere but here.
    I still couldn’t believe I’d broken up with Claudia. I pictured her crushed expression and my stomach clenched. Just like it had out on the field right before I’d thrown that interception. And right before I’d gotten sacked the first time. And the second. And the third.
    Humiliating. The whole practice had been humiliating.
    “Marrott! Where do you think you’re going?”
    I stopped and my head hung lower.
    “Get your ass over here!”
    I trudged up to him. Gavin, Mitchell, and Lester watched us from the bleachers, drinking their water. Great. An audience. This should be fun.
    “What the hell was with you today?” Coach demanded, spitgathering at the corners of his dry lips. “You looked like a freshman novice out there.”
    “Sorry, Coach,” I said.
    “Sorry? Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Tell me it won’t happen again. Because we have our opening game against our biggest rivals this weekend, and we got scouts coming. Now is not the time to lose it.”
    “I know,” I said quietly.
    I saw Claudia’s face again. My fingers curled tight on my helmet’s grill. But I had to do it, right? I couldn’t take her pushing me away anymore. I couldn’t take the pressure. I couldn’t live my life waiting for the inevitable day when she would dump me and head off into her perfect future. I’d taken control of the situation. I’d done what I had to do.
    “Excuse me?” he shouted.
    “I understand, Coach,” I said more loudly, my chest heaving. I felt like I wanted to punch something, and he was standing so close I actually imagined doing it—punching him square in the jaw. But I didn’t. Of course I didn’t. Instead I said a silent prayer.
    Get me out of here. Please just let me get out of here.
    A stiff breeze rustled the leaves on the trees around the field and cooled off my neck. I took a breath.
    “I swear it won’t happen again,” I said, looking him in the eye.
    “Good,” he said. “Now go shower and screw your head back on. I want to see the QB I know and respect back here tomorrow.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    I turned around and walked as fast as I could toward the school. Gavin, Lester, and Mitchell jogged to catch up with me. My heart pressed against my chest over and over and over again, and each time it felt as if something sharp was pressing right back, puncturing its outer wall.
    “What the hell was that about?” Mitchell asked.
    “What do you think?”
    “So you had one bad practice,” Gavin said. “Why’re you so pissed?”
    “I broke up with Claudia,” I snapped.
    “What?” Gavin stopped in his tracks. The rest of us kept walking, so that he had to run to catch up with us.
    “Dude! That’s awesome!” Mitchell crowed. “We are so gonna to party this weekend!”
    “Shut up, man,” I said, my brain racing. I wanted to call Claudia so bad right then it was killing me. I wanted to tell her how Coach had come down on me. Let her tell me it was no big deal, that tomorrow was another day (her favorite saying). Whatever she wanted to say. Who cared? It was her I wanted to talk to. Always her.
    What had I been thinking, breaking up with her?
    “What? This is great. Now you can take advantage!” Lester threw his arm out toward the girls hanging out behind the gym. The huge pack of freshmen, the JV cheerleaders, the smaller, sexier klatches of juniors. These girls were always, always waiting, like our own personal fan club. Normally, Claudia would have been there too, if Boosters got out early or she didn’t have another club meeting. I scanned their faces, looking for Claudia’s pale skin, her freckles, her thick hair. But of course she wasn’t going to