The forty-five minutes in the weight room passed slowly but quietly. The entire team had turned out and those that wanted to moved to the running track to continue but several decided to stay in the weight room. Caleb, Isaiah, Jonathan, Mike and Andrew were passing the last bit of time on the track. Jonathan was still obviously upset about the fight in the weight room and wasn't saying much. Caleb and Andrew were running side by side, the others ran a small distance behind them. Word had spread that Caleb and Sheena weren't together and some were surprised others weren't. Andrew was starting to question Caleb about their situation.

"So, not gonna give Sheena another chance?" asked Andrew as they kept a steady pace. "Dude, you know she wants you, right?" Caleb ran at a pace enough to get a decent workout but slow enough to be able to talk along the way. He was silent for several seconds thinking of what to say.

"Yeah, and what if I don't want her?" The tone in Caleb's voice implied that he had already moved on to someone new. Andrew just gave him a confused look, not catching on.

"What the hell are you talking about?" The look on Andrew's face quickly changed to surprise as he realized what Caleb was talking about. "Oh dude, you got some new pussy already?" Andrew turned to call back to Mike who was only a few steps behind them. "Hey, Mike. Caleb's got a new piece!" Mike picked up the pace to catch up with them and then matched their pace. Isaiah and Jonathan were close behind them.

"So, it's really over with you and Sheena? Man, they're gonna be lining up for her," laughed Mike.

"Yeah well, they can have her," said Caleb with frustration singing in his voice. "She gives great headache." Caleb could hear Isaiah's laugh behind him as he started to pick up the pace to catch them.

"What went wrong?" asked Mike. "You seemed so perfect together." Caleb looked at Mike confused about the statement. He wasn't sure if Mike was trying to patronize him or if he was just that naïve about the situation.

"Perfect for each other?" Isaiah caught up to them running beside Caleb glancing at Mike as they ran. "Define perfect. Didn't you see them fighting at the party?" Jonathan caught up behind them quickly and ran to the other side of Caleb. He hadn't said anything to Caleb or Isaiah since Isaiah first arrived earlier.

"What would you know about it, faggot?" he snapped. Caleb looked at him frustrated.

"Jonathan, dude, we're on the clock here. You can't say that stuff. We've been through this." Caleb paused, and Jonathan continued to show his disgust in his silence. Caleb shook his head and decided to continue with the conversation. "Nah, when it comes down to it guys, Sheena may be hot but that's all she cares about. She's a shallow bitch."

"Kinda harsh," said Mike sounding discouraged about the situation.

"Man, Mike, where have you been?" asked Isaiah surprised at Mike's ignorance of the situation.

"You try dealing with her." Caleb looked around a bit, he had done enough for the day and was starting to feel it. "Okay guys, that's it. I'm hitting the showers." Caleb slowed down and the others kept going, he trotted over to the gym and went into the locker room he walked over to his locker. Coach Adams followed him into the bathroom. Caleb took out a small towel and wiped his face off as he turned to face Coach Adams.

"Caleb, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.

"Sure Coach. What's up?" Caleb continued to wipe the sweat from his arms and neck as he stared at the Coach.

"Sheena brought up a concern to me. I heard you guys broke it off. Are you okay?" The Coach had a concerned look on his face, but Caleb didn't really understand why. Him and Sheena breaking up was hardly something worth worrying over from a coach's standpoint.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"I'm glad you're okay. I can't have my best player being bothered by some girl right," joked Coach Adams. Caleb looked at him, confused.

"Is that what you wanted to ask me?" Caleb dropped his towel on the bench and stood staring at the Coach.

"No," Coach Adams shook his head, "that wasn't it. That was the side topic. Sheena told me that she saw Isaiah kissing a guy at the party," explained Coach Adams, "You hear anything about that?"

"No, nothing." Caleb could feel a rage bursting inside him at the fact that she would have the nerve to call and tell the coach like this. The anger burned inside his stomach, and he knew if he let it shine through then it would probably get the coach concerned. Caleb swallowed hard and pretended to look for something in his bag while he composed himself. "But, if you don't mind my asking, why does it matter?" Caleb sat down and started to take his clothing out of his duffle bag. "Whatever he is, is what he is as long as it's not you, he's trying to kiss, right?" Caleb lifted off his shirt and rolled it up then stuffed it in the bag, trying to make it look like he was in a hurry hoping the Coach would take the hint and leave.

"Well, Caleb, that may be true, but the football field is no place for boys like that. You may be fine with it, but the rest of the guys on the team certainly won't be," explained Coach Adams. Caleb expected to deal with the bigotry on the team, but he didn't expect to get it from a faculty member. His irritation was starting to shine through in his words as he wasn't trying as hard to hold back anymore.

"Well, Coach, as a teacher and authority figure in the school, I guess that would be for you to deal with, right?" Coach Adams looked at Caleb caught off guard by the attitude but decided to let it go.

"You're right, Caleb. I'm just trying to nip this in the bud before it becomes something serious that I might have to deal with." Caleb decided to try and drop the attitude and use the breakup as a shield.

"Coach don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure it's a lie. She's just pissed off at me so she's trying to mess things up for us here and get you on my case because she knows it would stress me out," he explained trying to play on a bit of sympathy.

"Okay kid, I believe you." Coach Adams gave Caleb a final nod before turning to head out of the locker room. Caleb watched him go and took off his shorts and underwear, grabbing a towel out of his duffel bag. He put the towel around himself and grabbed his body wash and walked to one of the private stalls. He hung the towel over the door and turned on the water, which ran cold at first as he stepped into it. Caleb flinched as the icy water touched him having worked up quite a sweat from the morning's workout. The water started to get warm, and he stepped back into it. Caleb squirted some of his body wash into his hand and began to lather up, looking up at the fluorescent light that shone overhead.

"Bitch, I can't believe she'd tell him."

Isaiah continued running outside with Jonathan, Mike and Andrew as they did laps. Isaiah didn't have any issue with running; he would often do an hour and a half on the treadmill during his efforts to get in shape. The sweat he had worked up was pouring from his forehead; his hair was soaked along with different spots on his clothing. Isaiah continued to run in silence, feeling awkward around the others, when Jonathan ran up beside him. Isaiah glanced at him briefly then continued to run, he waited for Jonathan's remark now that Caleb wasn't there to stop him.

"Hey, Casey said that you haven't called her yet. She told me to tell you to, today," said Jonathan, staring straight ahead as he ran.

"Oh yeah, I was tired yesterday," Isaiah lied, he didn't call her because he knew she was going to question him. "I was just gonna call her tonight you can let her know if you see her before I call her."

"Ah okay." Isaiah watched as the others walked off the field and was waiting for the conversation to get more awkward. "So, it didn't take Caleb long to find someone new huh? Any idea who it is?"

"Um, no," said Isaiah, his nervousness shining through. "Maybe someone out of town, I've seen him talking to a few different people after games."

"I wonder why he wouldn't tell me," said Jonathan with a tone of suspicion. Isaiah ran for several long seconds in silence contemplating what Jonathan had said.

"Well Jonathan," said Isaiah bravely, "maybe you're not as good of a friend to Caleb as you thought you were." As Isaiah finished speaking, he stopped and walked off the track to the locker room, leaving Jonathan with what he said. Isaiah walked into the locker room and met Caleb on his way out. "Oh, hey." Isaiah smiled at the sight of Caleb. "What are you doing after practice?" he asked.

"I'm not really sure, I wasn't planning on anything," Caleb smiled back at him as he spoke. Chris walked up behind them and stopped behind Caleb.

"Hey dude you wanna come over and watch the game later on?" he asked. "Starts at two, over at six." Isaiah glanced at Chris then quickly looked at Caleb and walked past him into the locker room. Isaiah didn't want to make anyone suspicious; he walked over to his locker and took out his towel and body wash.

"Um, yeah sure Chris I'll be over around two or so," said Caleb, "Want me to bring any munchies or anything?"

"Nah whatever you wanna bring is fine." Caleb looked back at Isaiah who had just taken off his shirt and walked out of the door. Isaiah looked behind him just in time to see Caleb exit and let out a sigh. Isaiah took off his workout pants and slid his boxers down and wrapped his towel around his waist. He headed into the shower behind some of the other guys and took his usual spot away from them. Isaiah turned on the water and let it run over him, it was already warm from being used earlier. Isaiah could still smell Caleb's body wash as he started to lather up on his own. His skin tingled as the tea tree oil from his body wash soaked into his skin, he kept his eyes closed as he ran his hands over his entire body thinking of what he and Caleb had done. It kind of bothered him that they didn't have the chance to finish what they had started or even to talk about it. He knew that it was just a matter of patience, everything was going to happen. Isaiah stopped thinking about it so he wouldn't get excited and embarrass himself in the shower with the other guys, or even worse. Isaiah opened his eyes as he finished and turned off the water, quickly putting the towel around him. As he walked out of the shower, he met Jonathan who was walking in. Isaiah avoided making eye contact and Jonathan walked right by him. Isaiah walked quickly to his locker and started to get towelled off and dressed, he wanted to get out of there before the others did. He quickly dressed and put his stuff in his pack and walked outside. His cell phone in his pocket let out a beep telling him he had a text message waiting. He dug it out of his backpack and looked at it, Caleb had sent him a text message. "Wanna go for breakfast?" Isaiah smiled as he read it and started to text him back as he exited the school. He had the phone in his hand trying to send a text message. Unlike most of the other people, his age with a cell phone Isaiah hadn't become much of a fan of texting, preferring just to make the phone call. He stood in front of the school struggling to text when he heard an engine rev not too far away. He looked up and saw Caleb's white pickup driving up to him, it stopped in front of him, and Caleb flung open the door.

"Hey, so did you wanna come?" he asked.

"Yeah," Isaiah laughed, "I was just trying to send you a text message."

"Well come on let's go." Isaiah jumped up into the truck and closed the door and Caleb quickly pulled away from the school. "Where'd you wanna go?"

"Anywhere you want is fine I'm kind of low on cash, but I can muster up enough for a bagel or something." Caleb looked over at him with a confused look on his face. Isaiah looked back at him, not sure what he had said but scared that he had offended him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. Isaiah looked at Caleb for a second as Caleb glanced back and forth between him and the road. "You don't think I'm actually going to let you pay, do you? I wouldn't ask you and then make you pay for your own food." Isaiah smiled and looked down at his hands that he rested in his lap.

"Thanks, Caleb." Going out to eat wasn't something Isaiah did often, he simply didn't have the money to go. Usually, the only income he had was from birthdays and other holidays and it was almost always in the form of cheques and cards from relatives he never saw or hardly knew. "So where are we going?" he asked.

"Just a little place my parents frequent quite a bit," Caleb paused, "when they're around. It's out of town though you don't have to be anywhere anytime soon, do you?" Caleb looked over at him with an expecting look on his face.

"No." Isaiah nodded his head excited to see where he was taking him. "I'm just gonna call my mother and let her know I'm not coming home right away though." Caleb nodded as Isaiah took out his cell phone, he dialled his house phone number and pressed the call button on the face of the tiny flip phone. He put the phone to his ear. The phone rang a couple of times and Isaiah started to hope that she hadn't left to get him already. She picked up the phone after six rings. "Hey, Mom."

"Hey honey, I was just about to head down to get you. Are you okay?" asked Carla from the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just wanted to let you know that Caleb is going to drop me off later. We're going to go get something to eat." Caleb smiled at Isaiah as he talked, and he smiled back reflexively. Carla seemed surprised as she was quiet for a few seconds.

"Alright if you need anything call me."

"Okay Mom, you know I will. I will see you when I get home." Carla ended the phone call with their standard goodbyes and hung up the phone. Isaiah closed his phone and shoved it into his pocket.