Page 69 of Playing for Keeps

But it seemed someone had screwed up that bit of paper. Maybe even set fire to it.

At halftime we were down 26–6. It had been ugly rugby. After a blasting by Coach, we managed in the second half to at least run in one try, and the score line was looking slightly more acceptable. That was until Luke threw a loose pass in the seventy-fifth minute and their fullback intercepted it. Suddenly they’d run in another try for an absolute ass-whipping.

Coach Clark was more philosophical than I expected after the game.

“Hard night at the office tonight, boys. It happens. Best it happens this game rather than in the semis. We’ll do a full debrief at practice on Tuesday.”

“Would’ve helped if Hunter had managed to locate his head and pull it out of his ass sometime in the game,” Alfie muttered as we got changed.

I whirled around to face him. “You’re seriously blaming Luke for us losing? Pretty sure there were fourteen other players on the field.”

Alfie had a sneer on his face. “You two really are each other’s guard dogs, aren’t you?”

I’d been called far worse things in my life than Luke’s guard dog, so I didn’t even flinch.

Alfie’s gaze flickered over to Luke, then back to me. “Only I can’t work out which of you is the bitch.”

“That’s enough.” Zach was suddenly between Alfie and me, pushing us apart. Which was good, because I’d just been contemplating how much better Alfie’s face would look with an imprint of my fist.

I shrugged off Zach’s hand and retreated to my locker, glancing sideways to where Luke had buried himself in his locker.

His shoulders were tense, which meant he’d heard Alfie’s comments.

Shit. Luke put so much pressure on himself at the best of times. And I knew he’d already be blaming himself for the loss.

What could I do to help?

I got changed slowly, keeping an eye on him. When the changing room cleared out and there was only a handful of us left, I walked over to where he was sitting, tying his shoes. “You ready to go?”

“Sure.”

We were both silent as we left the building and walked toward the car park. The cold wind blasted my face, instantly turning my cheeks numb.

“Alfie was right. I was shit tonight,” Luke said finally.

I gave an exaggerated shudder. “Don’t ever say those words again.”

“What words?”

“‘Alfie was right’. They give me the creeps. It’s, like, against the natural order of the universe.”

Luke gave a dark chuckle.

“And you realize your version of a bad game is still better than most of our good games.”

Luke rummaged up a half smile. “Now we won’t finish top of the table.”

“So what? That only matters if the Greens beat the Cardinals in their semi. And it’s not like half of Christchurch won’t follow us to Auckland if we make the final.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Luke kicked at a stone.

I took a deep breath, preparing to venture into uncharted territory. “So, you wanna tell me what’s been bothering you all week?”

Luke tilted his head back to look at the sky for a few moments before he answered. “Jonathan and I broke up.”

My heart leaped into my throat. “What the hell? I thought you guys were solid.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I thought so too.”