A Life To Waste (2 page)

Outside of school they had
different friends, Dave had his running and gym “buddies” and
Trevor had his own friends or “mates” as he called them. It’s not
cool to have friends when you’re 13, you have mates

Outside of school Trevor
couldn’t be more different from Dave, he and his friends weren’t
what you would call
bad kids
, but they were not necessarily
good either. Certainly not the white collared ideal teen that Dave
appeared to be.

Trevor would smoke, he wouldn’t
be able to tell you how many a day he smoked as that all depended
on how many smokes he and his friends could bum or buy from other
people. 20 pence a cig was the going rate. Other than that a few of
his friends has parents who smoked so they would sneak the odd one
out of their boxes. They had to be careful though, they could get
away with the odd one, as that wouldn’t be noticed. If they started
pushing their luck they were sure to be caught. So it total after
all that hard work getting the smokes, Dave and his friends
probably smoked between half and one cigarette a day. That didn’t
matter though, they smoked! They were proud of it, felt cool and
grown up. Some of them even went as far as to give the cliché “I
need to pack in, it’s killing me” to which a few of the others
laughed, “yeah sure, you pack in your half fag a day”.

On top of smoking, Trevor drank
every Friday night. He didn’t care what he drank just as long as it
would get him drunk. His friends all had the same aim. A Friday
night sober was a boring night. They would go through their parents
bottles, taking a little bit out of each, not enough to be noticed
from each bottle. But combined you could maybe fill a Lucozade
bottle with it. Little bit of vodka, little bit of gin, rum,
brandy, whiskey, whatever this green stuff is, whatever this other
stuff is. Put all that together and you have created a “shit mix”.
No two shit mixes tasted the same as they all had completely
different amounts and types of alcohol in them. There was one thing
for sure though, they all tasted equally disgusting! Taste didn’t
matter though, the aim was to get you drunk and that is exactly
what it did.

Once he and his friends had down
their shit mixes, their Friday night adventures could begin. The
would set fire to bins outside shops, egg houses in their area, one
time someone suggested to egg “that running kid’s house” but Trevor
had managed to talk them out of it. He still liked Dave, even if
they were both a little different from each other.

Finally the day was here! Dave
was going to a regional athletics competition to run against people
from other school. He almost skipped to the school bus, then
realised just how ridiculous he look so he tried to calm himself
down. The competition was about fifteen miles away from his school,
not too far but enough to require transport there. They were
competing against seven other school from local areas, all of which
Dave had heard of but he didn’t really know anyone who went to any
of them. As Dave was warming up he watching some of the other
events and looking at some of the kids from the other schools. Some
of these kids were huge! Granted a lot were older than him, the age
range of kids competing that day was 13-16, Dave being 13 obviously
made him in the youngest group. There was one kid though, wow, he
looked like Lou Ferrigno! Seriously, 16 years old and he could give
the Hulk a run for his money. Dave wasn’t worried about him though,
apart from being a few years older than him, he was far too big to
be a sprinter, he was probably doing hammer throw or shot put or
something.

The competition was a full day
event, so there was a lot of waiting round, Dave wasn’t racing
until 2.15. This pleased Dave, it was after lunch so he could make
sure he got some good energy food down him, but it was also long
enough after lunch so that his food would have settled and he
wouldn’t be feeling too full to run. He sat round looking for other
kids that he thought he might be competing against, he couldn’t
guess though. Besides the freakishly big guys most of the kids
looked the same, oh well he thought, we’ll see them at the start
line.

When it was Daves turn to race
he walked toward to track, he looked at the six other kids he was
sprinting against. He was first choice for his school to run the
100 meters, the races were split between first, second and third
choice, so he knew that the people he was running against were
their schools first choice. He looked again at them, they didn’t
look so fast, they certainly didn’t look scary, which for some
reason he was expecting they would, they looked, like him. Just
normal kids.

He walked up to the start line
and stood, waiting, “on your marks” he leaned over touching his
fingers to the ground “get set” he bent his knees and toes in
position getting ready to spring when he heard the “BANG” he was
off! He was running faster than he had ever ran before, he was sure
of it, the wind was blowing against his face, his cheeks and his
mouth seemed to be flapping around his race uncontrollably, he
thought he must look like one of those astronauts in a G-Force
exercise, when he was coming to the finish line he glanced left, he
glanced right, he couldn’t see anyone, he was sure he had won. Just
as he crossed he noticed that second place finished almost at the
same time. Almost. “phew” he sighed catching his breath, no one had
ever come that close to beating him before, he was happy he had won
but he was even more happy at this new feeling he had. He had
finally had some real competition, and he had beaten them as well!
But this was just local schools, the competition would be harder in
other places, he needed to train more.

A few weeks after he had won his
first competitive race he was pulled aside by the teacher that ran
the athletics club. “You really have some talent you know Dave,
with some proper training I think you could go really far”

“I do train, all the time” said
Dave “I train really hard”.

“I don’t doubt that” teacher
said “well in fact it’s evident by your performance the other week.
But when I say proper training, I mean proper athletics training.
There is a local athletics club, trains up good young prospective
like yourself. Well one of the coaches there saw you run at that
school competition. He wants to know if you want to try out for the
club?”

“wow, oh wow, umm hell ye...
sorry I mean, yes I would love too! Where is it”

“well actually its only about
ten minutes drive from the school, hell
you
could probably
run there”

So that’s exactly what Dave did,
he ran there, he ran there that day just so he could double check
exactly where it was. When it came to the day of his tryout he had
asked his dad if he could give him a lift. Of course being so proud
of Dave his Dad didn’t hesitate in saying yes. He drove Dave to the
local college, where the athletics club were allowed to use their
facilities to train, he hung around and watched while Dave ran
different sprints and exercise. “Jesus, son you sure do run fast”
he said to himself “you definitely don’t get that from me or your
mum” then he gave a little chuckle under his breath. Needless to
say, Dave was accepted into the club with no questions asked,
“training will be Tuesday and Thursday nights” he was told “your
coach will be Phil, Phil Davies, don’t be late, he hates it when
people are late.”

The following Tuesday Dave’s dad
agreed to drive him to training again, in fact he agreed to take
him every Tuesday and Thursday, Dave had said he could run there
and back but his dad didn’t want him getting injured. Especially
not now that he realised just how good he was. When Dave arrived at
training, early, he met Coach Davies. Or Phil as he said to call
him. He instantly became Dave’s idol, and Dave’s dad was no longer
his hero anymore, he became, just a dad.

Dave’s mum and dad were a happy
couple, they always seemed to be having a great day, big smiles on
their faces, completely in love with each other, and just to top it
off, they had the perfect son as well. What more could they ask
for? There was one thing more that Dave’s dad would ask for, he
wanted to be his sons idol.

Maybe it sounds a little bit
selfish or self centred, but he didn’t think so. What is so wrong
with wanting his boy to look at him and say “when I grow up Dad, I
want to be just like you.” Dave used to say that when he was
younger, he didn’t say that anymore. Now all he wanted to do was
please the coach. All day every day it seemed to be the only thing
he would talk about. “Phil said I’m coming on really well” or “Phil
said if I can just push a little harder then....”

“Phil said this, meh Phil said
that neh” Dave’s dad said to himself in a childish little tone. He
didn’t mean to be jealous, but he couldn’t help it. After all, you
can’t control your feelings, and jealousy is one of the
strongest.

Dave went to training every
Tuesday and Thursday without fail, he never missed one session, he
always wanted to please Phil. Every day he would push himself more
and more, train harder than the day before. Phil could see the
amount of effort he was putting in and accordingly gave him the
constant praise that he had earned for these efforts. Phil pushed
him to his boundaries and sometimes beyond them in training, when
it came to competitions he tried to pick out the ones he thought
would have tougher opponents. Be more of a challenge for Dave. Dave
still won all the races, but again there were quite a few close
shaves.

By the time Dave turned 15 he
was rumoured across the country to be the next big thing. He was
going to make Team GB without any problems, so everyone said. He
was still undefeated in all his races, which Phil told him, was a
first as far as he had heard. Dave and Phil were more than just
runner and coach now, after the amount of time they spent together
training over the past couple of years, every Tuesday and Thursday,
plus additional one on one sessions Phil did especially for Dave.
They were practically best friends now. Phil really was Dave’s
hero, after every race his first thought would be “Phil will be
proud of me for that run”. Dave wasn’t far off being Phil’s hero
either, Phil had never seen a boy with such dedication and
ambition. He had made him into his own little project, his own
little prodigy. He was sure that Dave was going to be the first
person he would ever train to compete at the Olympics.

Dave’s dad grew tired of hearing
about Phil all the time, Dave seemed to notice this, but he never
said anything to him. His Dad never tired of hearing how well Dave
was racing though. His face still gleamed with pride when he
watched him cross the finish line, or when he would come home and
tell them “first again”. He really couldn’t be any more proud. Plus
Dave was doing well in school, he wasn’t the smartest kid in his
classes, but he certainly wasn’t by any means dumb or falling
behind. His teachers said he was guaranteed to get at least B’s,
but most likely get a few A’s as well. He really was the perfect
son.

While driving home one day from
a competition, Phil and Dave were chatting away. Their usual talk
about “this is what you did well today, but we need to improve
this” and “keep this up and there is no stopping us.” Then they
were discussing maybe going to grab to get something to eat, it was
already past six, Dave had told his mum he would most likely grab
some dinner on the way home with Phil. His mum said that it was
fine, it was quite a common thing for them to do that, sort of a
post race bonding feed or something weird like that.

Phil was looking in his rear
view mirror “I’m sure I saw something a second ago that looked like
a cafe” he said “I haven’t seen an exit yet though? Maybe I missed
it” He turned round to look out of the back window itself, to get a
better view than from the mirror.

“LOOKOUT!” Dave yelled, Phil
quickly turned round to see what was coming, but it was too late.
The drivers side of the bonnet caught the tail end of a lorry
driving in the middle lane. The car spun out of control. His was
hit, hard, by another car that had been driving behind them. The
wreck was awful. The car looked like it had been put through a
giant vice and then ripped through a shredder.

Dave was trying his best to get
out but he was stuck, something was pinning his legs, he shouted
“Phil! Phil I can’t move my legs! They’re pinned by something,
Phil!” but Phil didn’t answer, in fact Phil didn’t even move,
“Phil!” Dave shouted again. Still no response, maybe he was
unconscious, maybe he had banged his head hard and been knocked
out. Dave carried out shouting Phil’s name while trying to free
himself, then just for a second, he stopped. He stopped all the
struggling and wriggling and he looked at Phil. He knew instantly
then by looking at his face. Phil wasn’t knocked out, Phil wasn’t
unconscious. Phil was dead.

He didn’t struggle to free
himself anymore, he lay his head back on the chair and cried.

Chapter 3

Dave gave up running after the
crash and the death of Phil. His coach, his friend. Besides which
he had some pretty extensive muscle damage and a few fractures in
his legs from the crash himself. Even when he fully healed he was
never as fast as he had been. His dreams of running in the Olympics
had died with his coach. He didn’t just give up on running that
day, he gave up on life as well. He stopped all his training, with
no running what would he be training for?

He didn’t put in half as much
effort on any of his school work. By the time his exams came round
he could only just give enough effort to actually turn up to them,
let alone study. He ended up getting mostly D’s, a couple of C’s
and an E. Not terrible results some could say, but he had been told
he would easily get B’s and if he pushed himself, could count on
A’s. He used these bad results just as another excuse. “Well
there’s no point in trying for anything now anyway” or “who is
going to give me a job, I’m useless”. He knew that these were just
excuses and there was no reason he couldn’t go to college or get a
job. But he was happy with using these excuses, he had become lazy,
he had become lazy and happy at the fact that he didn’t have to go
to college or work.