Rugby Player

At precisely seven forty-five, the team of New Zealand in the U15 unit came down to the lobby, where Asphalt stood waiting. He beamed.
"Good timing. I'm glad my happiness didn't go down because someone was late. Now, boys, follow me," he said. He was in a tux, which made me, and probably everybody else, under dressed. I just had on basketball shorts and my jersey with a pair of Nike's. Everyone else look similar.
We followed the coach out the door to the front of Regal Inn, then piled into two separate vans. To maintain the balance, the forwards went in one van, the backs in the other. Luckily, Augustus was a back, so we were separated. Unluckily, Koda was also a back, so I couldn't stay with my new best bud.
"Where we going?" I asked Asphalt.
"You'll see," he said with a smirk.
"I know where we're going," Gavin whispered to me. "Wanna know?"
"I'd rather it be a surprise," I said. He gave me a face and turned to talk to Joey. A while later, the van stopped, and we piled back out.
"Soon-to-be gentlemen, I present to you: The World Ellis Cup. Or at least a replica of it," Asphalt said. It was dark outside, but the outline of a museum showed. We all went inside with excitement, and there was just one item inside: the replica of the Word Ellis Cup, which is presented to the championship rugby team every four years. It was shone on by a single light on top, in a glass case, which had a sticker confirming it was bullet-proof.
"How cool is this?" Xavier asked with excitement. He ran up to the case and marveled at the trophy. I did the same, and so did everybody but Gavin, who has seen it before already, I'm sure.
"Back off, Black," Augustus snapped. He was pushing me away from the case, but I stayed. He flipped the bird at me.
"Augustus!" Asphalt yelled, making him jump. He put his hand in his pocket.
The trophy was just like on TV: Golden, beautiful, but with no engraving, obviously. Xavier was right. This was pretty cool, and awesome.
"Can we touch it?" I asked. I immediately regretted it. How stupid was I to ask such an obvious question?
"What a moron," I head Augustus whisper. I was ready to punch him in the face.
"That's strike two for you, Gus," Asphalt told him. "I heard you. One more strike and I'm kicking your ass to the curb. You team your teammates with respect. Got it?" Augustus nodded and backed away from the crowd. "To answer your question, Christopher, you would be able to touch it, but the owner of the museum is away in the Middle East right now."
"Oh," I said with disappointment. "Okay. Thanks anyway." he put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it, then backed away.
After everyone had enough of the trophy, we went out back and started playing around with six rugby balls Asphalt brought.
"Do we get a reward every time we win?" Koda asked Asphalt. We were spiraling our ball between the three of us.
"Absolutely. The greater the score is from ours and our opponent, the greater the reward," he replied.
"Wow. We were two points off and we get this. Can't wait 'till the next game," I said. The boss nodded.
"You get an even greater award if you hold the team to zero," he said. Koda raised his eyebrows in the dark and whistled.
"Man, coach! And I thought you were a hard-ass!"
"Watch your mouth, or you'll be picking soap pieces out of your teeth until you're thirty," Asphalt snapped, keeping his rep up. I snickered.
An hour later, we had to go back to the hotel. It was lights out when we got there, but Koda and I stayed up a little later in our room.
"Man. I am so glad I got accepted into this. This is like, the chance of a lifetime. Screw it up here and you can throw your entire rugby career out the window," Koda said. He was laying down in his bed, and I was doing the same in my bed. We were speaking in the darkness of the room.
"Yeah. Wouldn't want that happening anytime soon," I said. I thought of Augustus and his D-BOL, and of my dad and my mom."Hey, Koda?"
"Yeah, bro?"
"Have you ever had to keep a secret that could potentially ruin a person's life?"
"Uh, no. Where the hell did you get that?" he asked. I shook my head, then remembered he couldn't see me.
"Nowhere, just thinking out loud here. But, what if that person's life you could ruin also had something equally bad, possibly worse, against you?"
"Change your name, get plastic surgery, burn your fingertips and move to a remote island,"
"Dude," I said.
"Okay, okay. Um... well, then I guess you both have to keep it up until one of you crack, or unless you find something else worse about them. Like a double homicide, except it's blackmail," he said. I thought about it. If I find something else against Augustus, then I can bring him down even harder.
"Thanks, Koda. Night,"
"Peace out, rugby brother," he said. We then fell asleep.

Our next two games were against two other teams from the Six Nations, Ireland and Scotland. We won both. Our reward for the game against Ireland (score 39-12) was a VIP tour of the field the American rugby team plays on, and the reward against Scotland (score 19-8) was less... 'valuable.' We went to a fancy restaurant with as much food as we wanted, all paid for by a mysterious friend of Asphalt's. I was also getting buffer by the week, but just from practice, not from weights. I came here with 110 pounds, and now I was 129 pounds (from muscle, not fat). Aphrodite and I met up a few times, and we were becoming to be friends. Asphalt grew on us, and we no longer hated practice or his ways. We appreciated them.
After another day of practice, I went to the locker room and headed for the showers, when I saw Augustus leave. He left his duffel in the shower. Gavin and Andy, the fly-half (number 10), were also in the shower with me.
"I'm gonna go take this to Gus," I lied to them. They nodded, and with nothing but a towel around my waist, I left the locker room and to the bathroom, where it was (thankfully) empty. I went inside a stall and teared through his duffel. Cleats, deodorant, cologne, all the necessities. A rugby magazine, a sweaty shirt, a letter from his mom and a razor. A razor? Unless he's suddenly growing a mustache or something, I don't know a guy who'd need a razor. Then, at the very bottom under two pairs of socks, I found his D-BOL. And right beside that was a syringe. So far, it was empty. I shoved everything back in, but left the D-BOL at the top, keeping the syringe. I then returned to the locker room and set his bag back in the shower without Gavin and Andy knowing.

"Christopher," Asphalt came up to me during practice and said. "Come with me please." I followed him inside the hotel and up the elevator to the nineteenth floor. With his master card key, he inserted the card and opened my door.
"What's going on?" I asked. He didn't say anything but led me to my bed.
"Son," he said, picking up my pillow and taking the cover off. "Explain this to me." he held up the syringe. It glistened from the sunlight through the window.
"How the-" I started.
"I do bedroom checks every week. Today was one of those days. I came in, went through the place, and found this hidden in your pillow. Now, I want an answer. What is this syringe doing in your pillowcase?" he looked calm, but I knew on the inside he wanted to strangle me and throw me out the window, then watch me fall to my death.
"It's a needle," I smart-mouthed. He remained 'calm.'
"I'm aware of that, smart-ass. Tell me what it's doing under your pillow." My life is officially over. I had only two options. One was to tell him about Augustus and his self-medicating. Now only will he expose my dad, it'll also show that I'm a snoop. Option number two was to lie, say it was mine, and I'll go to a juvenile detention center and never play rugby again, and never see my family because my father will be so ashamed of me. I thought of which would be worse, but in the end, it was just a tie. I had to think of a lie- and quick.
"I was gonna show it to you tonight, after lights-out. I found it in the hallway, between the bathrooms and the locker rooms downstairs," I said. My heart was beating a zillion miles per hour right now. I wouldn't be surprised if my chest popped open and my heart just came flying out, smacking Asphalt in the face. He'll probably still strangle me after my death, and still throw me out the window. "I was gonna show you yesterday night, but I was scared to in case your threw me to the curb if I woke you up when you were sleeping..." he looked me dead in the eye, not allowing me to break the eye contact. It would show I was lying. We stared at each other for a good ten seconds, then Asphalt backed off.
"I don't appreciate being lied to, Christopher," he said. "When someone lies to me, my trust for them shoots back down to square one. And it won't go back up. Swear on your mama that you are telling me the truth," he said. Well, my mom's already dead. Not like I was really gonna lose anything.
"I swear," I said, making sure not to stutter. He nodded and motioned toward the door. I left the room with him and we went back downstairs t practice. I'm sure the team enjoyed their seven-minute break that to me felt like an eternity.
"What happened?" Koda asked me when I got back on the field.
"Nothing. Let's just do the running drill," I said, waving it off. He nodded and we stepped backwards a few feet, at the first orange cone. The drill was to zig zag flawlessly from cone to cone against an opponent. The only 'prize' you got was bragging rights. The first time I beat Koda. The second time he beat me. And the third time, he beat me again and rubbed it in my face, but I wasn't listening. I would've beat him, but my mind was on other things, like Asphalt. I knew he would be breathing down my back from now on. And I know he doesn't have full trust in me anymore. His face says it all, though his mouth says differently. Like me.
The sun was really shining today. Normally, I'd enjoy the sun. But right now it was just mocking me. All bright and happy, sharing its happiness with everybody else. But while everybody else was free, I was still that one guy stuck in the storm clouds, stuck in the darkness.
And the storm cloud holding me back was Augustus.