If I was the artsy fartsy type and I tried to paint a picture of what I saw, it would have been one of those crazy art works with blotches of red all over. There was not a doubt in my mind that this was a critical moment because he was covered in blood.
I can't quite remember, because before I had spoken the last word, I was terrified.Īs I stepped fully around the corner and got a full view of the back yard, I could see Bryan laying there on the ground. I rounded the corner and screamed out something like, "yo yo yo, where you at?" That was a bit odd, because usually he would be gearing to go too, but it was not unheard of, so I jumped off and dropped my bike on the lawn and headed around back. I arrived at Bryan's place in no time, but he wasn't outside. The first match was just two weeks away and I was so excited that I think my legs peddled even faster than ever before. I was heading over to Bryan's place to then go on to practice. I grabbed my bag, headed out the door, jumped on my bike and peddled like a maniac, as I always do. I was just excited to be around him and to count him as my best friend. I have to admit that yes, I probably had feelings for him, but he was as straight as they come and I knew this without a doubt, so I didn't even think about it.
I know what you're thinking, but no, I don't mean that kind of passion. We would literally talk about a match for days afterwards and try to implement things we saw into our own practice and it was just a time filled with passion over all. It was so much fun to watch the games with him because he loved the game just as much as I did. First and foremost, I wanted to hang out with him - my buddy. Oh gosh, that sounds like I was in it for the TV, but that's not what I meant. We had planned this for months and months and I was extremely excited to get a chance to watch the games on his parent's huge TV. This year, his parents were out of town and we had made plans for me to sleep over at his place and we were going all in. Summer was finally here and as two soccer loving dudes, we were excited because the World Cup was on and we couldn't wait to watch every match together. We both laughed at those kind of jokes because it was so natural for us. More than a few times people joked that we seemed to be joined at the hip.
This meant that almost every second we were not with the rest of the team, we were with each other, but even when we were not playing soccer, the two of us hung out all the time. Most of our life in high school was spent doing something related to our love of the game.
We were on the soccer team together and our lives revolved around soccer. My name is Josh and in high school I had a best friend, Bryan.