continued from here ( @vicedmuses )
"No… I guess not. I was just venting," Cameron admitted quietly. He looked over at Bram, seeing his own exhaustion mirrored in his teammate's eyes. The locker room, usually a place of high-octane adrenaline, now felt hollow, echoing with the finality of another year gone to waste. Eight months. To anyone else, it was a vacation; to Cameron, it was a sentence. He lived for the Sunday ritual, the weight of the franchise on his shoulders, even if that weight was currently silently crushing him. He was sick of the 'what-if' articles and the keyboard warriors dissecting his durability, but the thought of just going home felt like a different kind of defeat. Home was just a place where he'd sit and replay every missed connection, every sack he'd taken, and the part where he went down with an injury in week two, while also simultaneously trying to keep their season alive. He watched Bram, noting the genuine frustration in the other man's voice. They were in the same boat; tied down to a city they loved, but drifting in a sea of losing seasons. When Bram mentioned coaching, Cameron's brow furrowed, his mind momentarily pulling away from his own physical pain. "Coach? Coach what, exactly? Is that even a thing when you're still an active player?"













