ZACK’S POV
“there’s more to it?” appallingly I asked them. this talk was getting really far and I had no brains left to digest the rest.
“The after effect" Mike told me what it was and yes, I needed to know it too.
“With a lot of efforts, we won the nationals and by God’s grace, I and Jake got the scholarship angering Caroline more. She blamed for snatching Jake from her and finally Jake reacted to her saying he never liked her the way she saw him"
“After that, we left for the university and Jake was the only one I had there. Being a very young athlete to join the university had attracted a lot of bullies to me and Jake was my savior every time. But back in the high school, Caroline had spread around rumors about me and Jake that led to the people believing I snatched her happiness and all. Things went more awry when Jake was blamed for using performance enhancing drugs in one of his races and that spread around to be a big issue. In the whole world only, some people believed in him while the rest saw him with hate eyes including the rumor. And then it happened” Zoe ended it in a depressed note.
“The diving accident?” I asked in a questioning tone when a suspicion of a suicide rose in my mind.
“Hmm. His case was still going on and he was banned from further games till his name cleared. He was really depressed and lonely. Even though we tried our best, he struggled a lot to live among the bullies who had gotten on him too” Mike replied and still my suspicion was not cleared. Why was I feeling it to be a suicide case still?
“One day he was on the pool swimming to keep up his mind but when he took a dive…...” the voice with which Zoe was talking till then had begun to shatter.
The rest, it was as I wondered it to be. In his depressed mind, he took a wrong dive that resulted in downfall that broke his neck and he had an instant death. A very tragic end to the life of a talented athlete. I felt really dead hearing Jake’s story. No athlete could ever live through the moments that Jake had went through. In front of his life, the trauma that I was facing was nothing. I leaned back to my chair and gulped down my despair.
“That accident had a great impact on my life and I decided to take a break from everything. I was year put and then returned back to high-school only to know that Caroline had left the town and what she left for me in the town was hatred” after a moment of silence, Zoe spoke and we were all inert.
All these while what I been facing had already suppressed in front of theirs and I felt like being brought back to realities of life. How was I living in my own dream world of my dreams and my loved ones while the real life was the one lived by people like Jake and Zoe? What was the different between me and Caroline now? We both lived in our own worlds and were not ready to accept the sudden intruders in our life then how could I blame her completely??
I was feeling contempt for myself realizing how a loser I had been acting like. What had I lost? Nothing. All I needed was time and nothing else. The trauma and all were just excusing that my inner mind had found to escape the harsh realities of life.
I looked at them and Zoe was sunk in silence while Mike was sunk in some sort of confusion which I didn’t wanted to know was what.
Now there was nothing remaining to be known of Caroline’s return. Form what all Zoe had just told me, it was easy to predict that Caroline felt threatened when she might have come to know my meeting with the siblings from either Dash or Will. I was sure that she had returned only to quench her ego and not for her true love. I cursed myself again and again for loving a girl like her madly and even felt exploited when I reminisced our night together.
I had enough of mental shits and bunked the remaining classes by going to the treehouse directly from the cafeteria leaving them there alone. They understood I needed time and I was thankful for that understanding.
On the tree house, I sat there for some time and Zoe appeared. I didn’t realize that she had followed me and seeing me depressed, she sat next to me.
“What happened?” She was concerned about my state and I asked her a question instead.
“How can someone bring their life back on tracks after experiencing a sudden backfire of plans they had” my voice cracked as I wanted to cry my heart out or punch on the wall till my hands bleed.
That was to be thought upon. It was not so easy to answer such a question to a person in such a state of helplessness. But I shouldn’t have forgotten that Zoe was different and she always had help for me.
“Do you believe that life happens as we plan of it? If life was that simple no one in the world had to face any kinds of challenges. They could have lived their life as they wished” with a smile, she told me and I looked at her.
There was a point in her reply. We had a deep conversation about life, to which Zoe answered each question I asked with meaningful and worthy understandings. Abruptly, I noticed that she hadn’t worn her compression band and asked her how her leg was. She assured me that she was fine. I felt so relaxed with her and spent most of the time there itself.
The conversation had given me some new lessons and had changed my perspectives in the situation I was facing. It was a boon and curse to feel things deeply and both of us had felt it at that moment. The pain and understanding of her words had hit me deeply. I really wished to know how she could talk so strongly after living that part of her life. He knew she had some story of her own.
No one had ever talked to me so deeply except my dad. She was one of a kind. Her thoughts,her words, her thinking’s, all were different from those of her age. I felt relaxed and happy in her presence. We talked and then went for a walk. In the evening after spending so much time together we came back home.
We didn’t keep a track of time and had returned home only after the sunset. Mom was ready with dinner and I shared my experience of Coach David with her. She was happy to know that David was a coach like Grover but I wanted to ask her something else.
“I have never heard anything about Coach David when dad was alive but coach told me that they used to have contacts. Why didn’t dad want me to meet coach earlier?” I put forth a small chat with mom.
“Because Grover was afraid that if you had met David earlier you would have wanted to know more about this town and knowing about Grover’s story would make you want to win the GYT just like him. He knew you well than anyone and learning about the GYT would have distracted you from your focus on the zonal championship. He didn’t want that to happen so he never shared it with you” Mom was very direct in het answer and I scoffed on myself because my parents were absolutely right!!!
I had a reality check after I felt like I knew my dad only as a coach and never as a father. Perhaps what he did as a father was right. I always wanted to be an athlete like dad and that’s why this obsession of my athletic dream started. Dad was definitely right as if I had known about the GYT, I would have definitely forced dad to let me participate in it. Just then, mom cracked a concern that made me lose my mood.
“Where is Caroline? I haven’t seen her the whole day” she popped up the topic about Caroline and I didn’t know what to answer. So, the best was to say the truth!!
“She just vanished from the morning and I have no idea where she is" I coldly answered her and she wasn’t impressed with it. Mom, I don’t want to deal with you now!!
To change the topic, I enquired her about the financial condition and her job. She warily told me that there were still some expenses that they had to cover and once it is covered most of their problem would be solved. She also told me that as they didn’t have to pay the rent of their house like in the city, they could use it for my training. Nope, not so fast!!
I didn’t want to do it in a hurry so without telling her anything, I went to my room and slept off. It was a very tiring day and who knew the next morning was going to change the course of my life??
As usual, I woke up and got ready for high school and when I opened the door of the house, I was started to find who was waiting for me. It was Caroline, with all her stuffs.
“Hi love. I have a surprise for you. Can you guess?? No worries, I’ll spoil it myself. I have transferred to Beverly hills and I’m going to live with you" she squeaked in euphoria and jumped onto me hugging crazily.
I was bluffed knowing her plan and was about to push her away from me but was surprised much more when I saw Zoe and Mike, who had come to pick me up. I looked at Zoe who had her tiny little eyes filled with worry and a sudden smirk appeared on me making her also smile. Caroline’s entry back into our lives were just an unexpected one but who knew the real havoc was yet to come….