Juice - Eric Walters [13]
“You know I’ll do whatever needs to be done,” I said.
“Injuries are going to be critical for us. We don’t have any depth. Do you think people would be willing to play through pain?”
“No pain, no gain,” I said, echoing his words. “We’ll do what has to be done.”
“You can’t speak for everybody. I’m asking you. Would you play through the pain of an injury?”
“I’d do whatever it takes.”
“Whatever?” he asked.
“Anything.”
Coach didn’t say anything for a while. He just sat there, staring down at the desk. Didn’t he believe me? Finally he spoke.
“You know those protein shakes that you all drink,” he said. “Do you know what’s in them?”
“Tony’s secret recipe. Lots of ice cream and milk, but he won’t tell anybody all of the ingredients.”
“He won’t even tell me, but I know that all of them are bought in nutrition stores, all of them are over-the-counter ingredients. Legal ingredients.”
Legal? I was reassured but disturbed at the same time. I hadn’t even thought that anything in those drinks could be illegal.
“Some of those ingredients are anabolic— that means building muscle tissue. That’s why you and your teammates are getting stronger so fast. I guess you’ve noticed.”
“It would be hard not to notice,” I said. I looked down at my arm. It was bigger.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Moose. I need you to be a leader both off the field and on it. I need you to make up for the limitations of your teammates. When you’re on that field, I need you to be unstoppable. I need you to be a one-man wrecking squad. I need you to be a monster out there. Championships are won on defense, and you need to be the heart of that defense. Can you do that?”
I felt my heart racing. “I’ll try.”
“I need you to do more than try.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Will you? Will you do whatever it takes?”
“Anything.”
He smiled. “You know, my sons are just little guys. I hope that they can grow up to be as fine a young man as you’ve become.”
I felt myself blushing.
“I’m as proud of you as if you were my own.” He paused. “There’s still one more step you could take.”
“What is it?” My mind raced, trying to think of what it could be. Did he want me here more often, working out? What could it be?
He put a hand on my shoulder. “I want you to talk to Tony.”
Chapter Ten
Within fifteen minutes of me talking to Coach Barnes, Tony came up and told me that the two of us should talk— but that that talk would have to be done later on, privately.
Maybe I wasn’t the quickest person in the world, but as I spent the rest of that day thinking, I was pretty sure I knew what we were going to be talking about—steroids. It was the only thing that made sense. What else could make me stronger? What else would he want Tony to talk to me about—especially in private?
We’d learned about steroids in health class. They could help you build bigger muscles and get stronger, but they had side effects. Things like bad skin and baldness—was Tony bald? The way his head was shaved and shiny, who could tell? I also knew there were long-term effects of steroids. Couldn’t they cause kidney problems? Or was it cancer? I should have paid more attention. I could still look it up, but not now. Maybe he was going to talk about something else. Maybe.
A car’s horn startled me out of my thoughts. It was a big black SUV, and as I watched, the darkly tinted driver’s window glided down. It was Tony.
“Get in!” he yelled.
I climbed in.
“Nice wheels,” I said as I settled into my seat.
“Thanks. You want to drive?”
“Me? I don’t have a driver’s license.”
“Do you want to drive anyway?”
“I think it would be better if I didn’t.”
“Suit yourself, but sometimes you have to push those boundaries a bit.”
We started driving. It was strange seeing him someplace other than the weight room. It was almost like he’d been living there, sleeping on the exercise mats. We drove along