Chapter 4: Yup, Sports. I Know Those!

Pressing his foot more firmly into the breaks, Hunter slowed and drove into the parking lot. He quickly found a parking spot and made his way into the community center. The place was very familiar to him since he came down here about once a month. When he got to the indoor field, the day started no different from any other.

Hunter caught the eye of one of his friends. They yelled loudly and gained the attention of plenty of strangers around them before giving Hunter a hug.

"It's great to see you, Hunter." He exclaimed, hitting Hunters back harshly as he hugged him. Hunter was reasonably fit for a guy who worked over 70 hours a week and worked out for only one of them. But he was not as fit as his friend who was built like a runner. All the compact muscles seemed to make their appearance at the most inconvenient times for Hunter.

"Hey, Kian. It's great to see you too." Hunter hoarsed out, speaking right after his body lurched forward in response to Kian's intense hits. Kian chuckling, enjoying Hunter's reaction deeply. Hunter didn't understand it, really, since he always had the same one each time they met. Yet Kian continued to hit his back and Hunter never seemed to toughen up against it.

Kian moved back to allow another one of Hunter's long-time friends to greet him. Audrey walked over to Hunter slowly as if she had all the time in the world. It was a funny game she tried to play and Hunter decided to cut it short by "admitting defeat" and closing the space between the two of them. Audrey grinned happily and pulled Hunter into a warm hug.

"Hey, Audrey. How are you?" Audrey pushes her loose hair out of her face at Hunter's question and shrugs. Hunter frowns at the expression on her face. It is a sad smile, only telling him that she was just okay enough to attempt enough but not alright since she couldn't even make it convincing.

"Things could have been better." Audrey sighs, a sad chuckle leaving her lips. Hunter rubs her shoulder comfortingly and when she notices the nice—or in her eyes pitying—gesture, she shrugs Hunter's hand off. She takes a single step back and creates between them that acts as a barrier to stop Hunter from pushing any further. But the barrier is not effective enough to stop him from noticing how she is feeling.

Hunter realizes that trying to push for more info at that moment wouldn't help, but he knew that he would find out sooner or later. He had known Audrey for years, and if she wouldn't tell him, she would at least tell one of their friends, and he would know either way. Aubrey perks up slightly as she comes up with something she can change the subject with.

"You know what? Never mind about me! How have you been?" Audrey asks him with fake energy. "We haven't seen you down here since August!"

Hunter winces of the reminder that he had missed the previous month's meeting. Of course, it was once again because of work, but to a group of people who had dealt with that same excuse for years, it no longer felt like a suitable explanation. Hunter shared a quick look with Sean who stood not far away. He spoke with Sean the most and had told him about the whole lost design fiasco, as well as the incident that had caused him to not show up the other month.

Hunter didn't mention this and gave Audrey a classic answer.

"I got pretty busy last month and couldn't figure out how I would finish in time if I came." Hunter couldn't really remember if that was actually what happened a month ago around this time, but it is all he could really assume. Audrey seemed disappointed that he wasn't telling her anything else, but Hunter simply smiled blankly and gave her a gentle squeeze on her forearm. "I'm sorry Audrey, but I have been great. Thank you."

Audrey nodded in acceptance and gave Hunter another hug before she went to get warmed up.

As Hunter stared at her from across the room, he suddenly had an idea of why she was upset. Late the previous year Audrey broke up with her boyfriend of two years, Todd Riley. It had taken quite a toll on her since she had truly cared about the guy and it was Todd who ended it. There was a good chance that whatever had her upset had to do with him. Audrey did a couple of stretches then started to do her jumps while Sean swooped in.

Sean didn't cause Hunter nearly as much pain as Kian did when he came up and the two enjoy doing their signature handshake and hugging it out at the end. They had been doing this for years and the routine always reminded them of those first days when the only friend they had was the other person. Plus, it was a great party trick, a simple thing to show off.

When Sean began to speak, he spoke quietly to keep the words between him and Hunter.

"Has everything been okay after the whole 'lost design fiasco'?" Sean asked, looking down at Hunter with curious eyes. Hunter nodded quickly, only then remembering that he hadn't mentioned much about how it had been handled other than the fact they had finished it.

"Oh, yeah. Everything went perfectly. The customer thought it had come out perfectly, they had no clue what had happened." Hunter told his friend with a pleased grin. Sean was looking over Hunter curiously, and Hunter wondered what the look was about. "What?"

Sean shook his head, furrowing his brows before rubbing it away with his two fingers pressed against his forehead.

"Nothing, I just . . . " Sean trailed off, blinking at Hunter oddly. "You just seem . . . different."

"A good different?" Hunter asked, suddenly self-conscious and sniffing his armpits to see if he had forgotten deodorant or something. Sean choked on a laugh and shook his head again.

"Yeah, I guess." Sean didn't say more than that and went to get himself some water.

It's really odd, Sean thought to himself with a puzzled frown. There was an air about his friend, something that wasn't normal. He seemed lighter—happier. There was this light in his face or an attitude about him that read unlike anything Sean had seen in Hunter before. Sean has known Hunter for a long time and Hunter wasn't a sad guy just . . . This was new and different. But good. Something had changed, it was just a matter of what.

The last person to give him a hug was Damien. Damien, as always, moved silently and after the short hug gave Hunter one small smirk before leaving to fix up his shoes. Hunter didn't expect any different and smiled as the taller man walked away. The dark quiet Damien seemed either scary or creepy when people first saw him, but Hunter knew how much fun his friend was.

With that done, Hunter ran over to a bench to get his shoes done up. Others that Hunter knew through the group greeted him and they talked about simple topics. Hunter always found it funny how many friends and acquaintances he had made through the casual team.

He had joined nearly two years ago after Audrey had encouraged all of them to join and has loved it ever since. They had a casual flag football teamed and got together to play a game once a month. It was another way for Hunter to remain active with all of his work and an opportunity for him to connect with his friends.

Hunter popped to his feet when he heard the sounding of a whistle, calling the men and women to the field.

"Alright guys, are we ready for some fun?!"