Summary:

He answered the phone, pressing it tight against his ear even as he maneuvered his way through the locker room and toward the hallway. “Hey. Is everything all right?”

There was a moment of silence, shaky and stiff that worried Scott more than the five separate calls did. Scott’s frown deepened, pulse beginning to hammer beneath his skin. He threw caution to the wind, unable to think clearly over the nausea beginning to roil in his gut. “Kip? What’s wrong?”

“Is this Scott?” An unfamiliar voice filtered through the speaker and into Scott’s ear, doing nothing to calm the anxiety slowly ratcheting up higher and higher within him.

Scott paused for a moment in the doorway, not caring if his teammates noticed him. “Who is this? What’s going on?”

“This is Kip’s dad.” Scott braced himself against the doorframe, stomach clawing its way up his throat.