Silver's Touchdown

6. Lennon's POV

Lennon laid his head on his father’s shoulder. So long as he was with his father, his hero, he was okay and would bear whatever he was going to face at the hospital. Well that was until his uncle Chase called the only person he was really truly scared of, Liam’s mommy, his aunt Brianna.

“ I’ll call Brianna and tell her that you guys are coming in”, uncle Chase offered.

“ I want to go with them to the hospital daddy, I want to see aunty Bree”, Danny insisted.

“ oh, oh!”, Lennon thought. “ not aunt Bree…”

He hugged his father tightly as the man maneuver through the crowd of reporters waiting at the entrance for the football players. This was not the first time Lennon was seeing reporters and flashes of camera attacking his father, Infact, he had seen it Majorly all his seven years of existence, so he wasn’t shocked again and used to seeing them. This time though, he buried his head in the crook of his father’s neck.

His father smelt like he just came out of the showers, which he just did.

“are you okay?”, his father asked him at the same time one reporter trailed after them. He didn’t get a chance to answer before the reporter spoke next.

“ Mr. Shepherd!, How was the game?, Some persons said that your team practically played a bully game out there this afternoon…”, the reporter said.

His father sighed, stopping in his track and turning around to face the reporter. Lennon shyly hid his face, his leg hurts whenever his father gripped him tighter.

“ If you haven’t noticed like other reporters did, I’m with my son and if you have regards, you’ll walk off…” his father harshly said, holding him a bit tighter.

“ You being with your son doesn’t stop you from answering the questions Jacob…” the reporter responded.

His father snorted, “ wow… someone is going to write a bad article about me tomorrow…” he said.

“ Like how much of an asshole you are right?!” , the reporter said.

Too late, he had heard the insult and curse before his father even covered his ears.

“ asshole!”, someone chirped; Danny. It means uncle Chase was there.

“ Hold Danny and walk away” , Lennon lifted his head as he saw uncle Chase hand over Danny to his father. His father’s jaw was clenched tightly showing how angry he was. Danny quickly jumped over to his father’s left arm, holding his father’s neck tightly.

“ don’t waste too much time…”, his father told uncle Chase who nodded, turning to face the reporter.

“ I’m assuming you don’t have kids because if you did, you’ll know the first rule in parenting, you do not curse in front of the kids!”, Lennon heard uncle Chase say as his father walked away to the parking lot where his range Rover was parked.

“ daddy, who is an asshole?”, Danny asked suddenly.

“ that’s a bad word Danny”, Lennon told him.

His father Chuckled, shaking his head, “ yes honey, that’s a bad word. So you must not use it on others, understand?”, he said.

Danny sighed, resting his head on his father’s other shoulders.

How his father could successfully carry the two of them on both his arms amazed him, it showed him how strong his father was because Danny weighed a ton.

Lennon saw the range Rover parked exactly where they had parked that morning when they came to the stadium.

His father pressed a button on the car key and used his not so free hand to open the door, placing Danny inside the car. Danny scooted over to the other seat as Lennon climbed in, moving to the back seat immediately. His father didn’t allow him to seat in the front seat when he was driving.

The man told him that he would be allowed to sit in the front seat when he is old enough, when he becomes eight, which is just one year to go. He smiled.

“ So the reporter is a bad woman?” , Danny whispered to him.

Lennon rolled his eyes, Danny wouldn’t let this go until he has gotten all the facts. Truthfully, Lennon had heard many curse words before, since he would sometimes hang around after a game in the dressing room. Football players sometimes forgot that a kid was In the room, so they sometimes cursed. But his father would always tell him not to listen to them, that they were bad words.

“ I guess…”, he replied, picking up the iPad at the back seat of the car and turning it on.

Danny gripped his ankle, to obviously get his attention, but that action caused him to cry out in pain, “ ah!”, he shouted in pain.

That was his injured leg and either Danny had forgotten about his sprained ankle or he had held him anyways. It was the latter though, because he could see the scared look on Danny’s face when he shouted.

His father opened the back door, “ what is it?,” he asked quickly, scanning through his body and stopping when he saw Lennon gripping his injured ankle.

Lennon was sure that there were tears in his eyes now, “ it hurts dad…”, he whispered, sniffing.

“ I’m sorry, I forgot he was injured…”, Danny apologized immediately.

His father sighed, sitting beside him and rubbing the injured ankle to ease the pain. His hand went to the back of the car where his bag was in, pulling out an ice pack and placing it on the ankle.

Lennon winced in pain as the cold pierced through his skin. He could feel instant relief but it still hurt a bit. He laid his head on his father’s body, breathing in slowly to ease the pain away.

“ It’s okay… you’re okay…”, his father murmured.

“ stop looking like that Danny, he’s okay…”, his father told Danny who had a look of guilt on his face. He would eat himself up about this if Lennon didn’t say anything.

“ I’m okay buddy, see, no more pain”, Lennon said, showing him the ice pack.

Danny blinked, looking away from him. Len saw uncle Chase approach the car.

“ I’m riding with you Jacob. Enzo and some of the guys are staying back to celebrate…”, uncle Chase said, pausing when he saw his tear stained face.

“ what is it Lennon? , Does the ankle hurts that bad?”, uncle Chase asked him.

He looked at Danny, who was still trying not to cry. He didn’t want the guy feeling bad about what had happened, so he shook his head.

“ a while ago but it’s okay now…”, he replied.

“ Let’s go, you’re driving…I need to rest..”, his father said, handing the car keys to uncle Chase.

If uncle Enzo was staying back in the city to celebrate, uncle Chase probably gave him his car keys so he would drive the car back home.

The drive from Newark in new Jersey  to New York City was barely an hour, and with uncle Chase driving, they were sure to get home on time. It was because the two cities were close, that was why his father had driven instead of book a flight. 

His father sighed as uncle Chase started the car and it hummed to life, he was probably feeling relieved that he wouldn’t get to drive the distance after a game. He was tired, Lennon could see it in his eyes.

“ go join uncle Jacob at the back”, uncle Chase told Danny. It was the same with Danny, he was too young to sit in front. Danny quietly climbed to the back and allowed his father to hold him as uncle Chase drove the car out of the parking lot.

Lennon looked out of the car as they drove past the huge stadium. The game had been an easy win, but that was not the climax of his time there, it was the kid, who seemed to be his age, with the fake silver hair. 

Surprisingly, he had noticed the kid’s features, something he rarely does except he was looking at a competitor. His father being a foot baller, exposed him earlier to the concept of competition. So he would always size up people who had potential to play the game whenever he came across them.

The fake silver hair kid was a rare exception. He could see that the boy had strong arms and long legs, if he was playing football, he would play in the wide receiver end. He had a good grip when he held his arm after standing up.

He sighed, he had disliked the boy immediately, not because they bumped into each other, but because the boy had looked strangely at Danny. He knew that look, he’s had it several times on his own face.

Sometimes Danny would look too beautiful like a girl and it was at moments like that that he had to tell himself that Danny was a special boy and that was why he looked that way, especially when his long hair was down and he was swaying when walking.

He looked at Danny sitting on the other side of his father, the boy was already sleeping. His eye lashes closed against each other.

His father kissed his head, “ sleep Lennon, I’ll wake you when we get to the hospital…”, his father told him.

Lennon sighed, his eyes already felt heavy though, so he closed his eyes and allowed sleep engulf him.