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“No, Hux. You’ll be as good as you can be. You don’t need to compare yourself to either of us. You’re your own player, with your own successes and failures.”

“Yeah, I know,” he mutters sadly.

“You think Ryker is up for talking?” I ask hopefully.

“I can go and see. He’s in his room.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t expect him to be anywhere else after finishing school and practice for the day.

I listen to Huxley’s footsteps as me makes his way across the hall.

He knocks, but there’s no response. Hux doesn’t let that stop him.

“Hey, Coop’s on the phone. Did you want to talk to him?”

My heart aches as nothing but silence fills the room.

“I’ll leave you with him, okay?” I’m not sure which of us Huxley is talking to, but I wait patiently on the other end, hoping that Ryker might feel up to chatting with me.

There’s rustling down the line as the phone is passed over before a door closes and Ryker’s breathing hits my ear.

“Did you want to switch to video?” I ask, aware that he prefers to see me.

The quietest “Yes” fills the line, and I quickly pull my cell from my ear and hit the video button.

Not a few seconds later does my littlest brother’s face fill my screen.

“Hey, man. It’s so good to see you.”

A smile curls at the corner of his mouth, and I relax slightly.

“Did you see the result from last night’s game?” I ask. He nods in agreement, and I begin chatting away about it. I tell him everything I can think of, from the bus ride down until the moment we got back to the arena in the middle of the night.

I tell him about practice today, and how Coach rode our asses until we wanted to cry because the end of the season is almost in our sights and we all want to secure our place at the top of the division.

I never talk this much, but I don’t have a choice when it comes to Ryker. He’s told me in the past how much he loves listening to my stories of games, and the silly things my teammates get up to, and I’m powerless but to give him what he wants.

When I’ve exhausted myself, I hesitantly turn the tables on him.

“Hux said you guys lost your last game. That sucks, man. He also said you got so close to leveling the score in the final minute. Good work with your quick thinking.”

He mutters something under his breath. I can’t make the words out, but it’s still music to my ears to hear his voice.

“What was that?”

“We lost because of me.”

“What? No, that’s crazy. It’s a team game, Ryk. And I can tell you, even from here, that every single player on your team tried their best. That’s all you can do, right?”

He shrugs. Pain skitters through me.

“The best players in the world lose games. It’s how we handle those losses and disappointments that make us the players we really are. It’s unrealistic to think we’ll win everything. No sport is like that. And if it was, how boring would it be? We live for the competition, for the pressure. Use that loss to fuel you. Don’t let it drag you under, no matter what anyone says, okay?”

He nods, his eyes still full of doubt.

I know that Ryker doesn’t think he’s as good a player as Huxley, but that’s just not true. Sure, he’s younger and not quite as strong, but that will come.

They might be brothers, but they’re not in competition. They’re their own unique people and players, and they shouldn’t ever compare themselves to each other, me, or anyone else. I just wish that everyone in their lives taught them that.