"Henry I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for all of the hard work that you've put in over the past year. I know that you always give one hundred percent, but this year in particular, you've really made my job a lot simpler. You're a fantastic leader, so I want to make sure I understand you correctly: you have absolutely no interest in playing college ball, right? I am sure that I could convince a few scouts to come check you out, and that I could also secure a few favors for you." He offered while staring at me in a perplexed manner.
I gave an appreciative grin but shook my head as I explained that I had no interest in playing professionally, as it had never been one of my goals, and that I lacked the drive and commitment necessary to make this my full-time occupation. My interests leaned more toward the mechanical, and ever since I was a little boy, I've always had a passion for anything robotic or machine-related.
My interests were more focused on the mechanical. When I was younger, Samantha would tease me about the fact that whenever I got a new toy for my birthday, I would instantly disassemble it in order to figure out how it worked rather than really playing with it. I was given the opportunity to pursue an apprenticeship in engineering, which seemed more like a dream job to me, and I was confident that I would look forward to going to work each day. If I didn't have to leave Samantha's na**d in the bed when I got up in the morning, I'm very sure my work would become a pain in the rear end.
"I appreciate it very much, Coach. Because it's enjoyable for me, I don't intend to keep doing this forever." I shrugged.
He looked at Henry with a wistful smile and a slight nod before saying, "I wish I had your talent. It's good for me to be able to educate such an experienced and talented young guy so thank you." He gave my shoulder a light squeeze before pointing toward the door of the changing room. He mocked me by saying, "Go get showered and take your girl home, I know that's the only thing you're thinking about right now." "I know that's the only thing you're thinking about right now."
I had been waiting for practice to end ever since I had put on my practice uniform, which was almost an hour and a half ago. I gave a thankful smile. This weekend Samantha had promised that it would just be the two of us, and I was planning on spending as much time as possible with my wife during those two days.
I had to try to get rid of all these aches and pains before I saw Samantha since she was like some kind of crazy mind reader sometimes and always knew when I was hurt. I stood under the spray of the shower and felt the hot water pound against my shoulders and back. Damn, my whole body hurt.
After rapidly drying off and changing clothes, I headed to the library to meet her there. I tried pushing on the door, but it remained closed. I gave it another try after staring at it perplexed for a moment, but it remained locked. Where did you get that? I peered through the crack in the door, but even the lights were turned off; I don't understand why the library is locked. She never fails to wait in that room for me.
It's possible that she finished up early; Mrs. Sing may have needed to get going early because she had something else to do tonight. I heaved a sigh and turned around to head back towards the playing field; I figured that she must have emerged from the shower while I was there and that somehow we had run into each other. I'm willing to bet that she was either reading or getting a head start on her homework when she was sitting on those bleachers. As soon as I arrived at the stadium, I searched the bleachers for her, but there was no one in either of the sections. Where the devil is she at this hour?
When the coach emerged from the locker room, he gave me a puzzled look and then remarked, with a scowl on his face, "I thought you gone already."
"I have been unable to locate Samantha. Have you seen her return to this location? The library is closed for the day." At this point, I was beginning to feel a modicum of anxiety. She was aware that my anxiety levels would increase in the event that she was not present, thus I doubt that she would have traveled too far without first contacting me in some way.
The coach gave a shake of the head "I haven't seen her, and she hasn't returned to this location. It's likely that she's sitting in the car waiting for you to arrive." he shrugged.
I made an effort to relax, realizing that he was probably correct and that she was probably standing by the car listening to music or whatever else. I nodded, turned around, and dashed out in the direction of the parking lot once more. Even as I was sprinting towards it, I could see that she was not in the car since she wasn't there. Because mom didn't like it when I was anxious, she wouldn't do something like this without a good reason, especially not with the whole Blake situation looming over our heads. I started to feel queasy.
I got her number from my memory and dialed it into my mobile phone, but it went directly to her voice mail. As I went in circles looking for her, I noticed that my heart was beginning to beat a little bit too quickly. I was running towards it when all of a sudden I noticed something off to one side along the side of the school. I started sprinting in that direction, and before I even reached there I realized it was Samantha's school bag. I reached down with shaking hands and picked it up from the floor.
"Samantha!" I yelled as loud as I could, in the vain hope that she had just dropped her purse or something and that this was all a ruse to get me to believe she was fooling me. This was giving me the creeps, and if she was there, there was going to be a massive fight about it because it scared the very daylights out of me. "Samantha!" As I rushed back towards the office to see if anyone had seen her, I yelled once again and grabbed out my mobile phone, attempting to reach her one more before continuing my journey.
When I burst through the door of the office, I spotted Mrs. Sing just going out of the principal's office, and she was smiling as they conversed. I moved up to them swiftly, which caused the conversation that they were having to be interrupted. "Mrs. Sing, can you tell me where Samantha is?" As I pleaded with them, I became aware that the tension in my body had caused my voice to become so hoarse that it didn't even sound like mine.
She glanced at me with a perplexed expression while smiling sweetly and saying, "She went to meet you around three quarters of an hour ago."
I moaned and clenched both of my hands into my hair as I wondered where the devil she could be. I just found her luggage in the parking lot; she didn't come out to the field at all. I almost passed out.
Principal Owens approached me, reached out, and put his hand on my shoulder while frowning. He said, "Have you attempted to contact her by calling her?"
I acknowledged with a nod and said, "Yeah, I just got her voicemail." I spoke in a whisper. I had to go out of this place and have a peek at the outside world once more; I was going crazy being cooped up in this cramped and uninteresting workplace any longer.
What should I do if Blake has arrived at this location? What if he was able to talk to her even while I was training, and nobody noticed? According to Mrs. Sing, she came to locate me 45 minutes ago; if it is him, he might have done anything to her by this point. I could feel the anger rising up inside of me, and I promised myself that if Blake had even touched one hair on her head, I would murder him this time. There was no way I was going to let this one go, not again; he needed to get the f*ck away from my wife because this was completely insane. There was no way I was going to let this one go.