Caleb opened his eyes to the sound of his alarm blaring at him. He reached over and hit the top of the clock, stopping the sound. Caleb sat up and looked over at the clock, it read quarter to six. Caleb stood up and stretched his arms long and high. It was time for him to go get Jonathan and head to the gym for a bit of a strength workout like they had done every Sunday for months before practice. Caleb heard his phone vibrate on the table reminding him about the message that Sheena had left for him. He picked up his phone and pressed the one key to go through to his voicemail. He pushed in his access code and put the phone to his ear after hitting the option to listen to the new message.

"Hey Caleb, I just wanted to say I was sorry for freaking out the way I did today," said Sheena's voice. Caleb almost couldn't believe that it was her apologizing, it was the first time he could hear a bit of remorse in her voice. He couldn't help but laugh a little bit at it, she didn't get it, it was over between them. "I wanted to tell you that for now, I am going to keep your secret," the message continued. Caleb suddenly felt a pit in his stomach as he could tell the message would continue as she took another breath. "But there's no way I'm going to keep his. I already told Stephanie. I'm not going to tell the guys, yet. But you and I need to talk." Caleb dropped his arm to his side as he felt his anger in the pit of his stomach. Caleb threw his phone down on the bed and quickly put his clothing on and grabbed his duffel bag then went out to the truck. Caleb stepped outside, the morning air was cold, and he could see a slight remnant of his breath as he exhaled deeply in his anger. He pushed the button on the key chain to unlock the doors as he walked towards the truck. As he got close enough, he threw his duffel bag into the back of the truck and jumped inside. He started the truck and turned on the heat, letting it idle for a few minutes. Caleb worried about Isaiah knowing just how vicious she was about to become, but also knowing how it was just another way she was trying to control him. Caleb started to drive deciding on the way that he wasn't in the mood to deal with Jonathan's attitude. He knew that since he was angry, he would probably not be able to hide it from Jonathan and it would probably be an argument when Jonathan started to pry. He didn't know what to do at this point, he didn't want to be responsible for Isaiah getting hurt but he wasn't about to let Sheena control him anymore.

Jonathan woke up and looked at his clock, it was quarter after six and Caleb would be there soon. He got out of bed and quickly threw on his workout clothing and grabbed his duffel bag. He listened briefly, and the house was totally quiet, his parents were never up this early in the morning giving him more reason to enjoy it. He headed upstairs and went outside right away. He didn't like to eat before a workout because he would feel sick to his stomach or get a cramp. He walked outside still slightly groggy and locked the door behind him. The chilly morning air hit him snapping him out of the tired feeling quickly, giving him goosebumps on his arms. Jonathan stood at his door jumping slightly to keep warm. He wondered where Caleb was as he rubbed his hands up and down his arms using some of the friction to keep warm.

"What the hell's taking him so long?" Jonathan looked at his watch; Caleb was usually there it was six o clock. Jonathan took one last look around and decided to start walking. Caleb would see him either way and he didn't want to stand in the morning air anymore being cold. The walk would help keep him warm. Jonathan walked down off of the patio and trotted to the end of the driveway. He looked up and down the road to check for any signs of Caleb not seeing anything. Jonathan started up the road toward the school. It would take him about an hour to get there if Caleb didn't come to get him and he didn't feel like walking the whole way there. Jonathan grabbed his cell phone out of the side pouch of his duffel bag and called Caleb's cell phone. "Man, there's just no way he would sleep in," said Jonathan. He listened to the phone, it rang seven times and went to the answering machine. "Um, hey C it's Jonathan, just wondering where you are. Pretty cold morning out here, I'm walking up the street right now look for me see you soon … hopefully." Jonathan hung up his phone and tucked it back into the duffel bag. "Man come on, where are you?" Jonathan continued up the street on his way to school.

Isaiah opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around his room, the curtains were closed, and it was still dark. He looked at his alarm clock which was showing the time in green letters as seven o clock. Isaiah didn't usually even wake up until seven thirty as that was what he set his alarm clock for, and practice was at eight o clock every Sunday. He usually dreaded going in at first because it was usually just him and a few of the other guys. The coach didn't get there until eight, but Caleb had a key and would unlock the gym, he went in early every week with Jonathan to do weights. Isaiah was excited to see Caleb again. It had been only a little over twenty-four hours but that was too long as it was. Isaiah wanted to call him all day the night before but didn't want to seem too clingy right off the bat. He had read in some magazines that guys didn't like that. Not that he invested too much thought in what a magazine might say but why risk it? Isaiah crawled out of bed and made sure his alarm clock wouldn't go off then walked over to his closet to get his workout clothing. Isaiah opened the small closet and pulled out his clothing, just a hoody and a pair of tearaway track pants. He slid them on over the underwear he wore to bed the night before and grabbed a change of clothes for after his workout. Isaiah didn't have a separate bag for the gym yet, so he just emptied his backpack onto his bed and stuffed what he would need in it every time he went. Isaiah emptied the backpack and stuffed his clothing into it quickly he walked into the bathroom and picked up his body wash and deodorant and put it on top of his clothing along with his towel. Isaiah walked out into the kitchen where Carla was sitting drinking a coffee and doing a crossword still in her nightgown. She had her morning toast sitting on a small plate beside her crossword book, she looked at the clock and then looked at Isaiah.

"You're up early," she said stating the obvious.

"Yeah, I got a pretty good sleep last night, I couldn't sleep anymore if I wanted to," explained Isaiah. Carla took a bit of her toast and swallowed.

"You didn't want me to take you in now did you?" Carla looked up at him not wanting to leave just yet. Isaiah took the cue from her and decided to get some stretches done before going in, not wanting to disturb her. Carla was used to having the morning to herself, so Isaiah would let her have it. Her job demanded long hours and she did it all for him, so he understood why she enjoyed her downtime so much.

"No, I'm going to get some stretches before I go, just to warm up mind taking me in about a half hour though?"

"Of course, I can." Carla gave Isaiah a warm smile and he smiled back at her as he went into his bedroom. He drew the deep blue, light-filtering curtain and looked outside. He could tell just by the way everything was standing still that it was a cool morning. Isaiah stood in the middle of his small room and started to do the stretches he had researched online when he started his get-in-shape kick.

Caleb had arrived at the gym over an hour ago and had been in the weight room since he got there. The room was slightly chilled from the air conditioning and there was a small radio playing rock music giving him some background noise. It was around seven thirty now and the frustration from the phone message hadn't left him yet. Caleb had been letting his anger out on his body pushing himself as hard as he could in his workout. He had been all over the weight room that morning on about every machine doing as many reps as he could then moving on. He laid back on the bench and began bench pressing as much weight as he was capable of, grunting after each rep. Because of his workout, Caleb had sweated so much that he soaked his shirt completely through. Caleb's mind was heavy with the thought of what was going to happen when Sheena did finally tell people what she saw. He also wondered exactly what she had told Stephanie and Katelyn and whom they had told. He just wished that for once in her life Sheena could care about someone other than herself. He felt bad for putting Isaiah in the middle of this mess, he didn't think Sheena quite realized what this could do to him if it got out. He was definitely going to be discriminated against in some way. The only thing that Caleb was certain about is that he wouldn't stand for it, he would do whatever he had to do to protect Isaiah. At this point, if it meant tearing his life down around him then that didn't matter. The life he was living was only going to go on for somewhere around a month before everything would be done. The two of them would be off to university and he could forget this town and everyone in it if he had to and it probably wouldn't phase him. All of the meaningless, hollow friendships he had made over the year with these people didn't matter to him. Most of them wouldn't even cry if he died tomorrow, let alone miss him if he didn't see them again. Isaiah was really the only person in his life other than his family that he could see anything in. He didn't want to be around Caleb for his money or what he owned, he wanted him for him it wouldn't matter what they did or didn't have, and Caleb was sure of it. Caleb's thoughts made him more and more frustrated as he kept benching the one hundred and sixty pounds he held in his hands. Jonathan walked in and looked around before looking at him.

"Man, what happened this morning?" he asked as he stepped over to the bench next to Caleb. "Thanks for picking me up!" Caleb didn't appreciate the sarcasm and chose to ignore him as he did three more reps having trouble with the last one the weight starting to bare on the muscles in his arms. "Okay, what did I do?" Jonathan stared at him with a confused look on his face waiting for some kind of response, Caleb stayed silent. "Asshole." Jonathan started to do a few arms stretches as he got ready to do some weightlifting of his own. Caleb did two more reps and struggled with the last one, his muscles were ready to give out he felt them getting weak. Grunting loudly Caleb threw the weight to the floor with one last quick burst of strength. With a red hue on his face, he sat up on the bench, breathing heavily as he wiped his face with the towel.

"Whatever, dude. It's not my responsibility to get you here every time we practise," said Caleb unable to contain his frustration as he inhaled and exhaled deeply. Jonathan stopped what he was doing and looked at him.

"Well, sorry for assuming that we were going to do what we've done for the last –you know – six months or so," said Jonathan angrily. "What the hell's your problem?"

"I'm not your mother, and I'm not your goddamn taxi service," Caleb snapped. Jonathan looked at Caleb dumbfounded at the sudden attitude. Caleb had always managed to hold himself together when he was angry and not let anyone see this side of him, but the emotions were too much to contain as he played Sheena's voice message over and over again in the back of his mind. Caleb stood up and walked over to the fountain bending over it to take a sip of the water. He walked over to one of the blue mats on the floor and sat down. Caleb used his nearby towel to wipe the sweat from his face before starting to do some sit-ups.

"Whoa, dude, who the hell pissed in your cornflakes this morning?"

"Well," Caleb stopped and looked at Jonathan for a second, before continuing to think of the cover he would use for his stress, "Sheena and I broke up yesterday." Caleb's frustration was still evident in his voice as he chose the only issue on his mind that he knew Jonathan would understand. "Does that count for anything?" Caleb continued his sit-ups.

"What the hell over, man?" asked Jonathan completely caught off guard. "What did Isaiah tell you the other night?" Jonathan kept with his stretches while not breaking eye contact with Caleb.

"Isaiah?" Caleb did another sit-up and stopped again to look at him. "What does he have to do with anything?" Caleb wanted to draw as much attention away from Isaiah as he could but because they had spent so much time together it would be hard.

"What the hell did you guys talk about the other night?" Jonathan stopped what he was doing and suddenly gained an accusing look on his face. "I saw you guys being all huggy buddies on the deck."

"Yeah, we talked about me and Sheena," said Caleb with a cocky tone in his voice. "He's not why we broke up though." Caleb didn't feel he was lying. Isaiah may have pushed it along, but it was an inevitable truth before long. "We broke up cuz she treats me like garbage and I'm sick of it. I know you've seen it before. Hell, you've even egged me on to break up with her, before!"

"Man." Jonathan's voice got quieter as it always did when he talked about something he was suspicious about. "Why did you let him sleep in your room the other night?"

"Well, I wasn't going to let him sleep on the couch," Caleb explained, "He's a guest and what's it to you? You've slept in my bed with me before." Caleb paused purposely leaving Jonathan in an awkward position knowing that he wouldn't have anything to say. "None of us could take him home and you banged his ride. If you're trying to blame any of this on Isaiah, you can just stop." Caleb was downright sick of Jonathan's attitude toward Isaiah and the way he was treated by his fellow teammates. "I know how you feel about him; how everyone feels about him. You're about as subtle as a guy in the panty aisle with his girlfriend." As Caleb spoke, he tried to sound more like the team captain and less defensive, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Dude, I don't know what happened to you in this last day or so, but I don't like it," explained Jonathan with a certain degree of worry in his voice. "The Caleb I knew would never act like this."