Every Kind of Way

02.

As they filed out of their apartment so were other players that lived on the same floor. Everyone wore their morning faces, some with airpods in, some without but no one wanted to be bothered. Dorian and Sanchez climbed in his new 2013 Kia Optima. It was a gift from his father and his very first car. His father had finally paid off his truck and wanted to do something nice for his son. Sanchez loved it because he hated relying on other people to drive him around the city when he couldn't call his dad.

Once at the football facility, five minutes later, Sanchez scanned his finger to get the door open. He wasn't surprised to hear his friend Bahzeek singing loudly as he sat at a table, waiting on the cook to finish his breakfast. Sanchez shook his head with a smile. No one he knew would be happy and energized at 5:45am other than Zeek. It was rare to see the man without a smile on his face.

Sanchez walked past the wall of captains and toward the scales to do his daily weigh-in. He dropped his bag to the floor and kicked off his sneakers before stepping on the scale. He loss two pounds. He wrote the number up on the board beside his name along with the time then traveled to the locker room without putting his shoes back on. He was going to change into his workout attire anyway. He typed his code into the locker, it popped open and he grabbed the dri-fit shirt he kept at the facility to workout in.

Once he was in his whole workout get up he went back out to the cafe to get his breakfast. Every morning they ate eggs but their cooks made sure they were flavorful so Sanchez never got too fed up with the repetition.

"Goodmorning bruh." Sanchez gave Zeek a fist bump. "Do you ever wake up tired man? You always in this bih singing."

Zeek was the team's star cornerback and always hyper; bouncing around on his toes, eager to speak to people, and always in a good mood. Some of the other players got annoyed with his chipper attitude but Sanchez loved him for it. It balanced out his laid back and quiet persona. He'd forgotten how nice it felt to have more than one friend until Zeek transferred last year and he had both Zeek and Dorian. He liked the different personalities even though they were still quite the same. Dorian was just the devil on his shoulder while Zeek was the angel.

"Everyday. But my gospel R&B get me right every time. Do what you love when you wake up and you'll be ready for whatever."

"I barely have the energy to breathe when I wake up."

Bahzeek smacked his teeth with a chuckle, "But you're breathing right? Come on. It's all perspective. I'm tellin' you, find a dope playlist, one that gets you going and everyday will be a good day."

"Heard you." Sanchez pointed. He walked up to the cook and gave her a warm smile, "Good morning ma'am. Can I get bacon, ham, tomatoes, and spinach with salt and pepper. Four eggs."

"You want any cheese?" her gloved hand quickly put his requests in a lightly oiled skillet.

"Yes ma'am. Thank you." he walked away. While she cooked his eggs, he walked over to grab a plate and a cup of grape juice.

He found a table in the corner to be by his lonesome as he waited on the cook to finish up his eggs. It was apart of his daily routine. He was still adjusting to being awake so early and he was sure others were as well, so he found a corner to kick it in. Plus he didn't really want to engage in unnecessary conversation while he ate his breakfast.

The cook was calling his name within a few minutes and he was back at the table eating the hot eggs. His eyes scanned over the room at his teammates. Some were on the phone with girlfriends, watching tiktoks, taking a quick nap, eating or merely staring off into space. But in the next ten to fifteen minutes, they would all be wide awake running up and down the football field. It made him softly chuckle to himself. His phone started to vibrate against his thigh, almost scaring him. He dropped his fork to pull it out and read his dad's name. He answered and put the phone up to his ear.