Aiden walked around passing out brand new, deep red jackets. On the back, they had “WARNIK” embroidered at the top in an arc of letters and “WARTHOGS” embroidered above the bottom trim. A lacrosse stick was embroidered in between the two. I flipped it over in my hands after he handed it to me and saw our mascot in the top right. My name, Brandon, was under the warthog. Below that was our Aiden’s motto, “WARTHOGS FIRST AND FOREVER.”
I stared at the jacket until Aiden began clapping his hand and trying to get us fired up before the game. Like usual every one began to whoop and holler; however, I stayed silent, stuck in my thoughts. The others began to jog out of the locker room, but I still sat. I felt glued to the seat. I didn’t understand how they could follow Aiden the way he did after—“You coming Brandon?” Aiden spoke, a charming smile on his face. I didn’t respond and his smile dropped. “I did what I had to for the team.”
“You had no right Aiden.” My voice felt shaky with anger.
Walker’s voice echoed into the locker room from the door, “C’mon guys! The game is about to start!”
Aiden and I stared at each other for a minute before he spoke. “I could foul a kid right out on the field and not lose any of the team’s respect and worship. I wouldn’t pick this fight if I were you.”
I felt a cold go through me as he spoke as I remembered why I was so angry in the first place.
—
“Aiden? Where are you, man?” I took a step into the locker room and saw Aiden shuffling through Alex’s bag.
“Oh, Brandon, hey! I was just seeing if he had spare water.”
I brushed off his panicked look and told him to hurry up. Later that night, Alex cried as he put on his shoes; there was a nail put inside his shoe. Alex was Aiden’s only competition for team captain.
—
I stood up without a word and jogged onto the field.
“Mason, you do know Aiden was the one who put the nail in Alex’s shoe right?”
Mason stared at me, I noted the lack of surprise and already knew the response I would get. It would be the same I got from Marco, Brady, Jack and Landon.
“I mean Alex was on his territory, man. He should’ve just stayed where he belonged. I’m not saying he deserved it but you know. Plus he was kind of weird anyway and Aiden would never do something like that to us.”
I scoffed, “How do you know that exactly?”
“He is a good guy. He just does what he has to, wouldn’t you?”
I looked down at my feet and said nothing. I felt a little nauseous knowing that if Aiden decided he didn’t like my behaviour he could do something to me and the only thing my friends would do is mutter about how I had it coming.
For the first time, during the game, I watched the way Aiden played. I watched him subtly make people fall, I watched him step on hands ‘on accident,’ and I even watched him leave the other team’s water cooler on after asking for a quick drink. I couldn’t remember if he had always been like this. If I had always brushed it off as mistakes or lies or something they deserved.
In the last play of the game, I began to run before a blinding white pain flooded my vision accompanied with a crack. I felt warmth drip down my face and a realization dawned on me; my nose had been broken. My vision returned, and I saw Aiden’s face above me laced with faux concern. I could hear my other teammates around me and had one last thought before I passed out. I would never be safe around him because even if I was in the right my teammates saw him as a saint. No matter what he did to who they would follow him blindly. On my lacrosse team, ignorance was bliss.
