Forty-Two: Trauma

[A U S T I N]

Practice had started like any other day, the locker room was loud and bustling with testosterone, more so than ever since Lenny had returned to the team and was currently boasting in the corner loudly to the other team mates while Austin sat in the corner alone with his back to the other boys, trying to ignore the loud voices and laughter as he wrapped his clenched knuckles.

Darrick wasn't there that day for training, having taken the day off because of personal reasons. Austin knew he was only hanging out with Tess, saw him enter his home every afternoon and go to the down stairs office where Tess's house was set up. He hadn't spoken to Darrick or Tess in so long, weeks maybe. Simply sat up locked away in his room, or even going for runs around the block until Darrick left. Recently as Tess was beginning to join them at the family table again, he felt more and more uncomfortable, didn't know what to say or how to act. He felt guilty, every time he saw Tess he was stricken with a painful reminder that it was all his fault.

"Your so lucky Lenny, as if you got away with doing that" the boys would laugh and snicker, bringing Lenny only more confidence and pride the more attention he received. Only a few of the boys on the team weren't interested, Austin could count four in total, standing off to the side, grimacing at each other, sitting away tying their shoes or dressing their hands to ignore the horrible conversation.

"They believed everything, cops didn't give a shit" Lenny smirked and stretched his arms over his head, austin didn't have to even look to know Lenny was looking over at him. Could feel his gaze like daggers piercing into his shoulder blades, talking louder trying to purposely grab Austin's attention. Austin had to breathe slowly to keep himself calm, closing his eyes to block out Lennys words and not grab the boy by his throat and slam him into the wall.

"I want to kidnap a human now"

"That would be fun~"

"What did you do to it Lenny?" One of the idiots asked, making Austin hunch further over to ignore the conversation.

"Uh what didn't I do~" Lenny sniggered, Austin able to hear Lennys cleats as he walked over to then suddenly feel a tight grip on his shoulder as Lennys hand rested on him making his blood boil beneath his fingers, "why not ask Austin here, he came over to have some fun with it just before it got away" Lenny smirked, turning the locker rooms attention on Austin all of a sudden.

"Fuck off Lenny" Austin growled under his breath, pulling himself out from beneath Lennys grip and swatted his hand aside, quickly standing to move away not wanting any attention, not wanting to get involved and just wanting to get training over and done with. But Lenny didn't give up. Every word stung only fueling the fire that burned inside of him. Every violated phrase was like gasoline to it, his fists began to clench and jaw rooted.

"Come on, tell the team what you did Austin!" Lenny pushed, following Austin about the locker room as he walked away trying to escape. Lenny then grabbed at Austin, trying to drag him back with a sharp pull on his jersey.

Austin didn't know what happened, but the next thing he knew five guys were pulling him off of Lenny, the rats nose was a bloody mess and Austin's hand was clasped in a tight fist in-front of him, throbbing from where he'd smashed it right into Lenny's face. Austin was shocked as he stumbled away, mouth falling open as Lenny clasped at his face

"FUCK!" Lenny shouted in pain as Austin was dragged back, hearing Lenny groaning, seeing the blood for some reason only brought a smile to his face. Austin didn't fight as team members dragged him away, seeming shocked to see Austin, their captain punching another team mate in the face, let alone Lenny! Who he always seemed to stick up for.

Austin leant against a locker, heaving in breaths trying to calm his racing heart. He could see the attention was on him, staring in silence, eyes widened with curious and shocked expressions over Lennys shouts of pain. Austin shook his head, not believing what he'd done he quickly turned to hurry away, moving out of the locker room toward the exiting hallway that lead onto the field. What the hell did he just do, he could loose his position as captain. This could effect his chances at getting into college!

He began massaging his knuckles from clenching his fist too hard, teeth gritted from effort to remain calm as he sped to the field so he wouldn't get in trouble from Lennys shouting. Fuck Lenny, he felt adrenaline throbbing through his body, into his legs and in his veins and he couldn't help but smile at the pain in his knuckles, knowing he'd caused Lenny pain.

~~~

Practice began, the armies of eleven on each team walked onto the green to pitch war. None spoke of what happened in the locker room, leaving coach confused why Lenny was bloodied. Everyone was on edge as they avoided looking toward Lenny who's upper lip had dried blood smeared across onto his cheek. Lenny exuded an animosity that was like acid - burning, slicing, potent. His face was red with suppressed rage, eyes burning across the field where he stood in a defence position with a bat sling over his shoulder. Even when one of the boys set a finger on Lennys shoulder to check if he were okay, he swung around and mentally snapped telling them to "PISS OFF" .

Austin was in the position of attacker, staring darkly down the length of the field, his blood boiling as he bounded side to side on the balls of his feet. He exuded confidence as per usual, knowing he was good at the game, it was why he was captain. His eyes were on the ball, ignoring lenny death staring him while readying to be thrown the ball to run down the field.

The whistle blew and the game began, everyone was like wild beasts, shouting and running after a ball to reach a goal. He kept on the balls of his feet, alert and ready. When he found the ball in his hands he converted emotional pain into his feet. He ran! Swerving and jumping , ducking and weaving.

Sometimes in these moments he would wonder why he was there, actually every time. With this ball in his hands, running through bodies and dogging bats. Yet he simply kept running, each step mattered for his future. College is all that mattered to escape this small town.

Then, before he knew it, he was nearing the goal, ready to press touch down, it was all that was left to do then he'd be able to let his legs crumple and rest as long they wanted to.

But for some reason, he was stopped.

You could hear a pin drop across the field, a shocked silence filling the air after a loud crack of metal against bone followed by Austin collapsing to the ground, unmoving as his body suddenly slumped into the dirt. All he felt was pain, so much unexpected pain. Austin let out an animal like groan, writhing in pain as he gripped at his face where he knew he'd been hit by a bat. Rolling over, he couldn't help but let out a pained cry, pulling back his hand to see blood on his fingers, leaking from who knows where or which hole. Blinking through the pain, he flinched, something similar to the devil was standing above him. He'd probably prefer to see a demon in that moment.

Lenny looked down upon the brunette, his eyes dark as he breathed heavily through his mouth, a smug look across his face. He was like a hunter. Any hunter will go for the weak spot of an animal, and that was the head. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to punch Lenny before practice, Lenny only needed a trigger to open up the primitive drive, activate it as fully as possible, then will come the impulse to cause harm, one that hurts others. Grinning, Lenny stepped over Austin's body with a bat swinging back and forth in hand, owning his actions of malice. Crouching low, Lenny grabbed tightly at Austin's face to make him look up at him with a cold heartlessness behind his eyes which made austin shudder.

"say hello to your little friend for me" Lenny chuckled, squeezing at Austin's face without any compassion or care, Austin's mind blurring in and out of consciousness trying to focus on Lenny with a glare. Standing back over Austin, Lenny wiped at his nose as it had began to bleed again as he walked away, bat slung over his shoulder as he strolled off as if he hadn't just illegally swung a bat into his team mates head. Hits to the head were never allowed, too dangerous of course as the metal bats could cause incredible damage.

"You prick! You can't do that Lenny!" Brad shouted, a boy on the team that usually played as defence with big blue eyes and scruffy blonde curls. Brad shoved at Lenny's chest who simply smirked back at Austin helplessly on the ground, Brad looking as if he wanted to rip the boys head off since the two never usually got along but instead moved over to help Austin, crouching by the boy and resting a hand on his shoulder to check if he was okay.

"It's just a game Austin, brush it off" Lenny shouted with amusement in his voice, stepping aside with a sadistic grin upon his face that made Austin's head and stomach groan. He saw coach running over, blowing his whistle loudly that rung in Austin ears and made him wince in pain.

"You okay Austin?" Brad spoke, but his voice sounded so distant, unable to hear him among the the ringing in his ears and throb of his head. Brushing at the lump that was forming on his skull, he winced in pain and felt as if he were going to vomit.

"Yeah.. y-yeah" Austin spoke slowly, looking dazed as he held his head. His head pounded and the voices of his teammates blurred into thick soup in his ears. Scrunching his nose, he tried pushing past the pain and tried standing on shaky feet. He'd never been hit in the head, this sucked. Using brad and the ground for support, head pounding painfully in his ears he tried standing to sit out. He felt his stomach drop and the corners of his eyes blurred, head pounding heavily and making him groan from the intensity of his injury.

The world rushed by in a blur and the pain comes in a hot flash. It goes by fast, yet slow, almost suspended. Then impact. He didn't know what was happening until he hit the dirt, sending a plume of dry mud skyward. Time seemed to slow down when you're falling. In the seconds it took him to reach the ground he knew it was going to hurt.

The cool of the grass on his cheek didn't soothe the pain in his head. His eyesight blurred, but not because of tears welling up. Everything became fuzzy; then he saw nothing at all. His consciousness was floating through an empty space filled with a thick static. Throughout the inky space his heartbeats pounded loudly, echoing in his ears, alongside fading pleas for help.

Feeling in his body drained away until finally all was black. No more pain.

~~~

"We've run some tests and unfortunately, it's seems Austin has multiple areas of trauma to his brain both fresh and still healing"

"He's not gonna be able to play for the rest of the season it seems, he needs time to heal before this becomes permanent"

"Has he been having headaches often? Any hard tackles and hits could have caused this"

"Its rare to see injuries like this among our kind, the skull is usually pretty thick but he's had too many hard knocks to the head and not enough time to heal"

Austin couldn't believe what he was hearing, it couldn't be real, this had to be a practical joke that everyone was in on except him! He'd never heard of anyone getting head trauma from Backnott, giants didn't get head trauma. It wasn't a thing, especially not a grown man. Children maybe since they weren't fully developed! Austin was grown! Old! He'd been hit harder before and never had trauma! And now he wasn't allowed to play Backnott , the one thing that was going to get him out of town. Get him into college and get a degree, Backnott was his last hope and now it was gone! Torn away from him so quickly he didn't know how to react.He wanted to cry, scream and yell.

"I'm fine I can play" Austin insisted, his voice grumbling lowly as he brought the hospital blanket up to his chin, wanting to hide. He looked to his father who sat by him, having rushed over immediately from work to see if he was okay.

"No your not. Not if you want to hurt yourself more, your brain is precious Austin. An arm can heal quickly but not your brain" his father sat by his side in a bleach white chair, head in his hands and running his finger through his salt and pepper hair.

"I don't care I'm fine. I have to play~ I got to. I'm the captain of the team~" Austin pleaded at that point

"Austin! You can't play! That's final!" Austin flinched as his father yelled, looking up to him like he once did as a kid getting in trouble, fear behind his eyes as Brian raised his voice. Brian huffed, standing quickly with frustration toward his son, his face red and a vein bursting from his forehead "I already have one kid in our family having been kidnapped, I can't let you get hurt too! I'm your father, and I said no! No means no Austin, listen for once in your life" Brian let out a groan of frustration and then pressed his fingers into his temples, massaging in slow circles as if pained with a headache.

Austin swallowed tightly, lifting his hand to lightly graze his fingers against the gauze wrapped around his head where the bat had hit him and broke the skin. Frowning he sunk down into hospital bed, lifting the thin hospital blanket over his head to hide. He wanted to cry, could feel an overwhelming urge to burst into tears from both his head and his father. He swallowed won his cries, instead rubbing at his eyes trying to suck back in the tears that glazed over.

"Whatever.." Austin whispered, sniffling lightly trying to remain silent but only felt his ears burn in embarrassment as he continued sniffling. His father never seen him cry, weren't emotion like that toward each other. When Brian didn't reply, Austin's heart only sank further toward his stomach and he rolled over onto his side, still beneath the blanket. A moment of silence passed over the two, he knew his father was still standing there only because Austin could hear his feet shuffling back and forth.

"Margaret and Tess are here... I'll go get them now" Austin didn't reply to his father, hearing he was waiting for a reply since he stayed standing over him, but didn't pull back the blankets. Didn't want to talk, didn't want to even look at Brian. He didn't move, not until he heard his fathers footsteps retreating away from the curtains of his hospital bed, quickly reaching for the provided tissues to wipe at his eyes and nose, wincing with every movement as pain throbbed in his head.

~~~

UPDATE! Hope you guys liked! Been turning to update as much as possible been having writers block.

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