Rayn nods. “I know the feeling.”
“I’m not here to make you feel bad for me. I’m not here to convince you to hang out with me or anything like that. I just want you to know that it’s not like I got to live this picture perfect, family life that you didn’t get. Far from it. I heard my mom crying late into the night, scared of how she was going to pay the bills. You weren’t the only one he left. You were just the first.”
Rayn looks down at the turf for a moment, then throws the ball at me.
“I never wanted to know you,” he says. “I remember the day that my mom found out about you. I was ten. We were in the grocery store. She heard it from a friend of a friend. She was crushed. I still remember her crying on the floor of the cereal aisle like it was yesterday. To me, you took my dad away. And I never wanted to know you because I wanted to hate you forever. If I had to know you, I would have to deal with you. I would maybe have to acknowledge that it wasn’t you at all. That it was always him. And hating you was easier than hating him.”
“I get that,” I tell him.
I throw the football back to him.
I hadn’t expected him to open up to me like that.
I also don’t expect him to stop hating me by the time practice officially starts.
I’d just like to not be having brawls in the locker room.
“Could we at least have a truce?” I ask.
He catches the ball from me. “I can do that.”
“And I will throw you the ball,” I tell him. “Promise.”
“And I won’t punch you again,” he tells me. “Promise.”
I smile. “These seem like fair terms.”
I don’t know if Rayn and I will ever have a relationship.
I don’t even know if I want one.
But I feel relieved that we can move on past the anger and salvage something cordial.
Now, we can actually do what we came here for.
Win some damn football games.
And at the end of the day, there’s Priya.
No matter how bad things get, she’s there for me.
And that’s all I’ve ever needed.
Epilogue
Six months later
Zephyr
Priya sets the bowl of popcorn between us and I take the remote in my hand.
It’s a Saturday night.
I wouldn’t want to spend it anywhere else.
“Are you ready?” I ask her.
“Am I ready for the most adorable Wookie in the galaxy? Yes, obviously. Press play!” she tells me.