“David, how bad was it? Did you guys even score tonight? You must have been so embarrassed,” Alice said, laying it on thick.
“I threw 58 passes and completed 46 for 585 yards. We had over 800 yards of offense and beat them 72 to 14. One of the long-time reporters said it was one of the best performances he’s seen in his 23 years of covering high school football. He also said I was one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the freshman class.”
“Shut up,” John’s dad said.
His wife smacked him in the back of the head.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Fox Sports has us on as the regional High School Game of the Week. I think they’re replaying it right now.”
Alice jumped up, ran to the TV, and turned it on. Sure enough, the game was being replayed. I saw the men run in and I heard John.
“Oh my god! That’s Alabama’s coach. Good God, did David just forearm-shiver a linebacker and put him down?”
Alice came back shook her head.
“You’re going to give my brother a complex. After he sees this game he’ll be going to Indiana.”
“Not that. Tell your dad if he lets you come to one of my games and spend the weekend I promise not to go to Kentucky.”
I heard her mom laugh and she came into view.
“You make that promise and John will drive her himself.”
She had an evil sparkle in her eye. I now knew where Alice got her sense of humor.
“I heard a rumor that you had Homecoming tonight and two seniors as dates? Any truth to that little tidbit?” Mrs. Phillips asked.
Crud, I was busted, and by the parental unit no less.
“There might be some validity to that rumor.”
“I thought so. David, how are you going to explain Alice when she shows up?”
“Easy, all they’ll have to do is take one look at her and they’ll understand.”
Alice gave me a dirty look.
“Not so fast. I don’t share very well.”
“Are you sure you want to have this conversation right now?” I asked while I raised my eyebrows.
She looked back to see her mom smiling at her. She got a sheepish look.
“No, that would probably be a bad idea.”
It must have been time for a commercial because the men came back in. John looked sick.
“Please tell me you’re not going to Kentucky.”
“Your sister and I were just in discussions to solve that problem for you. I’ll let her work out the details, but I might be persuaded.”
John got a hopeful look, but I heard his mom say somewhere in the background, “Over my dead body. Sorry, John, but David’s going to Kentucky.”
I always felt good after talking to the Phillips family. They were all good sports and gave as well as they took. Alice would tease John for weeks. Our last game of the year was an away game almost two hours away. We would spend the night and come back Saturday. John had a Wednesday-night game, so they would have almost a week and a half before their first playoff game. It was a long drive for the Phillipses, but Alice had convinced her mom and dad to come to our game. John was the only one who wasn’t in the loop. I looked forward to seeing both John and Alice again. We all were becoming good friends.
Chapter 25 – We’re Dead
Saturday October 19
I woke at 9 a.m. to find that Cindy and Suzanne had left sometime during the night. I jumped into the shower and let the hot water loosen my sore muscles. When I got out of the shower, I checked myself in the mirror and didn’t like the view. Being blindsided so many times made me look as if someone had taken a two-by-four and beaten me. I ached all over and was a little hesitant to see what the trainers had in store for me.
I slipped on a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and then put on some sweats on because it was only supposed to get into the high 50s today. I needed to go for a run to get my blood flowing and work out some of the kinks. I fell into an easy pace and dropped into my thinking zone. I missed my runs with Peggy. After football season, I would somehow figure out how we could do that again. She had a cute butt, and it didn’t hurt that I had a crush on her. I knew that she’d also make a great girlfriend. She was a junior, and we could at least have a year and a half to build a relationship. Teenage years were similar to dog years, so that was almost forever.
Cindy and Suzanne were something else that I needed to figure out. I was embarrassed that I’d expected a hot threesome last night. One of the things Greg drilled into me was that you should not expect sex. If it was offered, treat it like a gift. Sex was a two-way street, or three-way, in last night’s case. Be prepared, but don’t force the issue. There was a lesson in there, but that was too much for me to think about right now.
What I couldn’t seem to figure out was why I wasn’t disappointed to find them gone in the morning. I started to get a nagging feeling of doubt in the back of my mind, that little tickle you felt that told you that not everything was as it seemed. Cindy had to know that her ex would be there. He was Homecoming King last year. When I got to the dance, both Cindy and Suzanne were dancing with their exes. Then they played it off as if nothing had happened. If nothing was going on with their exes, why had they both shown such strong emotions?
But what did I know? How would I feel if Tracy had been gone for several months and then showed up for a dance? Could I say I wouldn’t feel anything? It was hard for me to judge because my emotions were still so raw from being dumped so recently.
Cindy said she was my girlfriend, but I started to wonder. Was I just a friend with benefits? Whatever Cindy and I did have didn’t feel like boyfriend/girlfriend. We really needed to sit down and talk about our expectations. I could see being friends with benefits could work out. However, I didn’t think any of the three of us was interested in a full-blown relationship right now. With all of my football commitments, I just couldn’t see anything more working out.
By the time I got to school, I hadn’t solved all of the world’s problems, but I felt better about myself. When I walked into the training room, Becky Grimes and Jill Kim, our two assistant trainers, were there waiting for me. Jill was the one who took care of my strength and conditioning and Becky took care of injuries. They both saw that I was sweating and had a slight limp.
Becky gave me a hard look.
“Shit, I knew we should have checked you out last night. How bad is it?”
I pulled my shirt up.
“We’re dead,” Jill said, as she looked at Becky.
I could tell that they were both nervous.
“David, you have to tell us when you’re hurt.”
They each grabbed an arm and dragged me to the training table. They stripped my sweats and shirt off.
“Do you need to see all the damage?” I asked.
“Yes, drop ’em,” Becky said with no hesitation.
I slid my shorts off and stood with my jock on. My left hip and thigh were black and blue also. Becky had a pained look on her face.
“Jill, set up an ice bath. While you’re doing that, I’ll check to see if he has any other injuries.”
She had me lie on my stomach, and then she started to prod my bruises to see if any of my ribs were broken. Then she moved up to my neck. Once she was satisfied that I wasn’t about to die, she checked my hip. I’m not quite sure when it changed from checking for medical issues to playing with my butt, but when Jill came back in she cleared her throat loudly. Becky jerked her hands off my butt as if she had been shocked.
I couldn’t see Becky’s face, but Jill looked amused. So I figured now was a good time to tease her. Okay, I’m a dumbass. Never, ever tease your trainer. They can do evil things to you, and treatment was much better when they weren’t mad at you.
“Oh, baby, why’d you quit? Please do the other side. It’s feeling left out,” I said, using my sexiest voice.