“There’s something else I need to tell you: I’m not coming to the Christmas Dance. Neither are the guys I promised you.”
“Dang, the girls will be disappointed. What happened?”
“I told you how the team treated me after the game. None of them stood up for me. I was especially hurt by the way Luke looked at me. I lost a lot of friends on Saturday.”
“David, you need to think about how they felt. You had just fumbled their dreams away,” she said.
I just froze. Tami blamed me for losing the game, too. She was continuing to talk, but I’d quit listening to her. If my best friend thought I’d cost us the game, then everyone did. Tami shoved my shoulder and I looked at her.
“Where did you go?”
I stood up stiffly.
“I need some fresh air.”
As I walked away, I heard her say, “Oh, shit.”
Tami knew better than to push me when I got like this, so she didn’t come after me. I found her mom and told her I was ready to go whenever she was. We agreed to meet at the car after she said goodbye to Tami. Carol and Jennie were in a deep conversation with their uncle and dad, so I told Abigail goodbye.
We were almost halfway home before a word was said.
“She doesn’t think you lost the game,” Mrs. Glade said. “She was trying to show you how they felt, and to help you not lose your friends.”
“It doesn’t matter. Tami knows that I can’t stay mad at her. I just need time to process what she said.”
She pulled off to the side of the road and hugged me. I was okay until then. Her touch broke through the wall that held it all in, and I started to cry. I kept remembering Tami’s words repeated over and over in my mind.
‘You had just fumbled their dreams away.’
I slowly realized what I’d lost. I’d dashed the hopes and dreams of every fan, player and coach. A moment’s distraction of checking the blitzing linebacker and the early snap cost us our season. Because of that, I was willing to discard my friends and run away.
They hadn’t made it easy, but I could work my way back into the good graces of the team. There are moments in your life that help define you. This was one. I decided to stand and fight. I wouldn’t run away and hide at Wesleyan. I got my emotions back under control and thanked Mrs. Glade. I pulled out my phone and called Tami.
“David?”
“Yeah, I want to thank you. Your comment made me look at my situation in a different light. I’m not going to Wesleyan. I’m staying put, even if the football team hates me.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll talk to you later,” I said, and hung up.
The rest of the ride Mrs. Glade and I talked as if it were old times. The only problem was I felt different. I felt the old sadness start to come back. I also felt differently about Tami. Right now, I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I would have to wait and see, but our relationship had changed. I guess my days of blindly trusting Tami were gone. The pedestal I’d placed her on had had a chunk taken out of it. The adult lurking in a corner of my mind knew that the pedestal had to come all the way down before we could be equals in a relationship. This was just the first step on that path.
There was something else I discovered: I wasn’t ready for Peggy. She, too, was a girl I’d put up on a pedestal, and I wanted to leave her there for now. The girl that was no longer out of reach was Tracy. We knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. All I knew was that I missed her. I decided to do something about it, so I called her from the car.
“Hey, Tracy, what are you doing tonight?”
“I’m just studying. Why? What’s up?”
“Want to come over and study at my place?”
There was a pause.
“Does this mean what I think it means?”
“Yes, I think it does. I miss you.”
“I’ve missed you, too. I thought I’d never get another chance.”
“Tracy, can we take it slow? I don’t want to mess up this time.”
I told her when we were supposed to be back. When I got home, Tracy’s car was in the driveway. I went in the back door and through the kitchen to find everyone in the living room, talking to Tracy.
“Look at you, Sexy. I love that suit,” Angie said.
I ignored her.
“I have some news. I sold some of my photos and got another photo shoot lined up.”
Mom was always the one to get to the bottom line.
“How much are we talking?”
“I should clear over $10,000.”
“What photos make that kind of money?” Tracy asked.
“I’m doing some modeling work.”
Tracy always amazed me with how she took everything in stride. She gave a little shrug that said ‘of course he is.’ She grabbed her books and we went up to my apartment. She followed me into my bedroom and watched me change. When I was down to my underwear, she flinched when she saw all my bruises. I found my analgesic cream.
“I can’t reach everywhere. Do you mind helping me out?”
Tracy got a twinkle in her eye.
“I’ve wanted to get my hands on that hot bod of yours for weeks. Of course I’ll help you.”
I raised my eyebrows and she grinned at me like a Cheshire cat. I lay down on my bed and she got a good look at the damage.
“Jesus, David. Have you had this checked?”
“No, I needed to get away from the team after the game, and never got a chance to see the trainers.”
She went and got my tablet and took pictures of my back. Once she had finished applying the cream, I put my shirt back on. I didn’t want to move too fast this time, and knew that if I left my shirt off, Tracy’s would soon follow. Her magnificent body would crumble my willpower.
We went into my living room and actually studied. I was done first, and was still stiff, so I took a hot shower. I put my shorts and t-shirt back on. I didn’t want to go walking around naked with Tracy just yet. She was done when I came back out, so I sat down on the couch next to her.
“Did you want to just be friends, or would you be interested in us being a couple?” she asked.
“I was hoping we could be a couple.”
She’d been biting her lip, and when I answered, she hugged me.
“I just want to be clear,” I continued, “that you’re my girlfriend, and we are together.”
“Yes, yes, yessssss!”
Tracy gave me one of her mind-erasing kisses that I’d missed so much.
We made plans for her to pick me up for school in the morning. We didn’t make out very long because I was still trying to heal from the last game. Tracy went home a happy girl.
Chapter 14 – True Colors
Monday November 25
TRACY PICKED ME UP and we parked in the school lot. I noticed the first hint of trouble as I got out of the car: Luke; the two junior ass-hats; and, to my utter disappointment, Ed, had waited for me. I could tell that they were spoiling for a fight. Luke marched up and almost spit on me with his noxious hate.
“You goddam asshole!” Luke yelled at me. “We’re going kick your ass.”
Dad didn’t raise a dummy. If you’re going to fight, then fight to win and the rules be damned. Most high school fights have a lot of posturing and exchanged insults before a punch was thrown. Luke and the other boys obviously hadn’t been in many fights before; not that I had either, but I had a big brother who sometimes got rough with me.
What these boys obviously forgot was that I was known for two things on the football field: being tougher than anyone my size; and when you got hit by me, you felt it. Luke and the two juniors bunched up to take me head-on. I took a couple of steps back to give myself some room, with my hands raised as if I were trying to surrender.
I also knew that there were security cameras in the parking lot. If I could delay this, then a teacher might be out quickly. What I didn’t expect was Ed to dart forward and take a swing at my nuts. I reacted as if I was on the football field and gave him a stiff-arm that caught him in the nose. I heard it crunch and he bounced off my open palm and crashed into the bumper of the car next to us.