The Finall Play novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Everything Else

The eggs were rubbery, and Tanner ate every bite.

They sat at the little table by the window, with the bakery's light spilling yellow across the street.

Elliot pushed his own plate away after three forkfuls.

"Okay," Tanner said gently. "Tell me."

Elliot looked at his hands.

"We were up by four at halftime," he said.

"I'd hurt the shoulder in the second quarter, on a sack. I couldn't lift the arm past my chest."

Tanner said nothing.

"The team doctor looked at it in the locker room. He said I should sit. He said it out loud, in front of Coach."

"And Coach said no."

"Coach said he'd handle it."

Elliot's voice stayed even, and that was the worst part.

"The doctor left the room. Ten minutes later he came back with a needle."

"He gave you the shot."

"I let him. I thought if I said no, I'd lose the game, and then I'd lose the draft."

His fingers had curled into fists on his knees.

"For a quarter I felt nothing. I threw a touchdown."

He swallowed.

"Then the numbness wore off in the middle of a drop, and something tore so loud I heard it through my helmet."

Tanner's face had gone grey.

"I woke up in the hospital," Elliot said. "The surgeon said it was gone. The ligament, the labrum, all of it."

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do it."

"I'm sorry anyway."

He said it simply, without any show.

Elliot stared at the table, and a hot tear fell on the wood before he knew he was crying.

"I hated you," he said. "I want you to know that. For two years I hated you."

"Why?"

"Because you got to keep it."

"Keep what?"

"Everything. The field. The cheering. The arm."

Elliot wiped his face angrily.

"I'd lie awake and watch you play on my phone, and I couldn't stop watching."

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