Riggins (texasforever) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-07-03 05:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, tim riggins, tyler lockwood |
Who: Tyler Lockwood and Tim Riggins
What: Coach checks up on one of his players
When: Mid June
Where: Tim's dorm
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete
Tim’s roommate was out so he had the dorm room to himself which was nice. Not that he minded having a roommate much. The guy was okay, and Tim was used to living in small spaces with another guy. His eighteen years with Billy was proof of that. Man, he missed Billy. He couldn’t wait till school was out and he could go home for a few weeks before he had to come back and train for the new season.
With the room to himself Tim was just chilling, sitting on his bed drinking a Guinness when there was a knock at the door. Beer still in hand - he didn’t care that he was underage, Tim went to answer the door only to see his favorite football coach. That he wasn’t expecting. “Woods,” he said with a small nod opening the door further to let him in.
“Riggins,” Tyler said, smiling a little in greeting. He tried to like all of his players, though it wasn’t always easy, but he actually did like Riggins. He saw a lot more potential in the kid than Riggins saw in himself, obviously, and while Tyler had never been much one for mentoring, he hoped that he could help get Riggins to realize what he could become. It was one of the reasons Tyler had gone out of his way to meet Tim’s friends and family while he’d been down in Texas.
Tyler didn’t enter the dorm, or even make a move to do so. He wouldn’t be able to explain when he’d walk into the invisible door, so it was easier to just not. “How’s it going?”
“Been awhile,” Tim went on. Not that he saw the guy on a regular basis anymore now that the season was over. Man, he missed playing football. That was the whole reason he was putting up with the whole, being in college and having to go to classes thing in the first place. “Alright. Wish I coulda gone back to Texas.”
His brow furrowed slightly when Tyler just remained in place. “You gonna come in or stand out there all night?” Tim questioned.
Tyler stepped into the dorm room and closed the door behind him, glad, not for the first time, that even vague invitations worked. He’d watched enough vampire movies to know that sometimes it took a more overt invitation to work, and that seemed like it would be downright impossible to get an invitation without asking for one.
“You’ll be back before you know it,” he said, with a bit of a smile. “Actually, I met up with some of your people while I was down there.”
“For a few weeks,” he practically groaned. He had to come back for training before school started back up again. But maybe he’d drag Street back with him at least until classes started again. He needed some semblance of home.
“Yeah, Billy mentioned you saw him,” Tim replied. “Heard Street was there too.”
“A few weeks is better than nothing,” Tyler said. When Tyler had been gone at Duke, he rarely took advantage of those weeks himself, but then, that was mostly because he didn’t want to have to come home and have to face his dad. Tyler hadn’t especially enjoyed Billy’s company, but it was obvious, at least, that Billy cared about his brother in his own way.
“Yeah,” he answered. “They tried giving me some beer to give to you, but I wasn’t about to lose my job by actually following through.”
“Shit,” Tim said with a small frown. He had a feeling what beer it was too and that just made Tim want it all that much more.
“Do you go see all your player’s families? Or just your favorite?” he asked jokingly as he took a seat on his bed, leaving the desk chair open for Tyler. Dorm rooms didn’t exactly leave much room for places to sit.
“Just the ones that come from Texas,” Tyler said, though it wasn’t necessarily true. There were a few players who’d come from the Lone Star State, but Tyler had only checked up on one other of them. The others seemed to be doing alright in their studies, and he had been hoping for some sort of insight to help Tim realize his potential. He sat down at the desk, and swivelled the chair so he was facing Tim.
Well, that, and Tim was one of his favourites. He reminded Tyler a little bit of himself when he was first starting off in college. “By the way, how are your summer classes going?”
Tim was well aware that he wasn’t the only player from Texas. Probably because all the best football was done in Texas. And he had bonded with a few of his team mates over their home state. Though none seemed to miss it quite as much as Tim did. And even with knowing all that, he was still pretty sure he was Tyler’s favorite. Even if the coach wouldn’t admit it. “Yeah?” Tim questioned calling him on it. “How was Thompsn’s family? And Hayes’? What about Baker’s?”
He frowned at Tyler’s next question. The last thing he wanted to talk about was school. And how he was forced to stay back this summer to take a class he had failed during the school year if he wanted to stay on the seem. “They’re shit.”
“Fine,” Tyler said, a little evasively. He assumed they were fine, at least. Most people were fine most of the time.
Tyler sighed. “Yeah, taking classes sucks,” Tyler agreed. He’d always gotten good grades, but that’s because his dad would’ve kicked his ass if he ‘embarrassed’ him with bad grades. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not important. I couldn’t be a football coach if I hadn’t graduated.”
Tim just smirked at Tyler’s response. He knew what that meant. Tyler probably hadn’t gone to see any other families. Just his. It was kind of flattering in a way, if Tim cared about that sort of thing.
“I’m not trying to be a football coach,” Tim shot back smirk on his face. No offense to Tyler or anything. Tim just wasn’t trying to be anything. Just live his life, play football and drink beer.
“Yeah, well, what are you trying to do then?” Tyler asked. Because frankly, he had no idea. Realistically, the chances of Tim going into pro ball were slim. It wasn’t that Tim didn’t have the skills, but so did a lot of other people, and they didn’t show up for practice drunk half the time. If he wanted to keep in the game, then coaching was the way to do it, but Tyler wasn’t sure if Tim even wanted to keep that up. It did seem like football was the only thing he cared about though.
Tim wasn’t trying to play professional football either. That was always supposed to be Street. Not him. Street was supposed to go pro and Tim was going to live off his land. He swallowed, features darkening if only briefly at the thought. He still felt the guilt over Street’s injury. He should have been there to block that tackle.
“I’m just trying to live,” Tim replied. He didn’t think about the future. He’d get by. Even when he eventually wasn’t a football star anymore. Though that would also e a very rude awakening.
Tyler sighed. He wasn’t sure when he’d turned around from someone who had no real dreams and no real plans other than to play as many sports as he could, but girlfriend he’d had before Caroline had helped set him on that path, and Caroline had cemented it for him. It was because of her that he had wanted to be a better person, and it was for her that he’d done everything he could to change.
“Someday you’re going to have to think about the future, Tim,” he said after a moment, not really knowing what else he could say. “It’s better to get ahead of it instead of constantly playing catch up.”
“Well Coach,” Tim said with a shrug. “Someday is not today.”
Tyler sighed, wishing the coaching conference he went to had gone more into how to deal with players like Tim, but unfortunately, by college ball coaches weren’t expected to deal with that kind of problem. “I’ll be at the field tomorrow at 6 am if you wanted to join me,” he said, getting up from his chair. “Just to do some practice runs during the off season.”
The last thing Tim wanted to do was get up at 6 am. No matter how much he missed playing football. Though he knew Tyler wanted a different answer from him. “Yeah,” Tim finally said remaining on his bed. “Maybe.” Which was more a probably not. “See you, Woods.”