Don't Let Me Go

After school, James was in his right mind to tell Coach what happened, hop in his car, and head to the hospital.

But when he got there, he saw Jonathan on the field talking to Coach. That irritated him even more.

"Coach!" James yelled.

Jonathan saw James and his eyes narrowed.

"James, why aren't you dressed?" he asked

"Can I talk to you privately?" James asked

"Sure. Jonathan give me a moment,"

They stepped to the side and when they were out of earshot James turned to the Coach.

"Coach, I need to miss practice today," James said

"And why is that?"

"Iris is in the hospital," James said.

Coach raised his eyebrows.

"She's got appendicitis and they had to rush her into surgery. I need to go," James said, "Please," he added as an afterthought.

Coach was a stickler for raising respectable young men at his school and on his football team. So please, thank you, sir, miss, Mrs, ma'am, and more were apart of everyone's vocabulary.

Coach sighed, "Yes, I did hear about that this morning,"

"Yeah, everyone but me," James said.

Coach nodded, "Alright, fine. I want your gym logs this week,"

"You got it. Thank you so much Coach, I owe you one,"

"I'll keep that in mind,"

"Hey, quick question. What's Jonathan doing here?"

"He was updating me on his status with the injury,"

James nodded, "When is he coming back?"

"You don't need to worry about your spot as Captain James. I know who I named the Captain of my team and I'm standing by it,"

James nodded, "Thank you. I appreciate it Coach."

"Alright. Get to the hospital and let me know what's going on,"

"You got it. See you later, Coach,"

James jogged off the field glancing back to see Jonathan staring him down.

Asshole.

Jonathan probably figured something was up since Jordan wasn't here and James was now leaving but James didn't care.

He typed in the address to the hospital once he got in his car and peeled out of the parking lot.

He got to the hospital around 4:00 and nearly ran inside. He hated hospitals. They smelled of antiseptic and he hated the puke green walls or ugly tan that existed inside of them.

Jordan texted him where they were and soon James found them in the waiting room.

"Mrs. Huntington," he said walking over to them.

"Oh, James, I'm so glad you're here," Iris' mom said standing up and giving him a hug.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

He gave James a pound before sitting down.

"She should be out of surgery any minute now," Mrs. Huntington said.

James nodded.

"Mrs. Huntington?" a nurse called.

All three of them stood up at the sound of her name.