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Chapter 26 – I and Love and You Thursday December 31
The girls were all gone when I finally made it up. Dad had walked up the beach to get breakfast. I bet Mom planned it that way.
“Was Sandy okay seeing old folks naked?” Mom asked.
“She thought Dad was okay for an old guy.”
“If I had a dime for every time I heard that,” Mom bemoaned. “He was quite a catch when he was younger.”
I was done with this conversation, so I left to make myself some breakfast. When I came back, Mom gave me a tight smile.
“How’re you doing?” she asked.
Last year we’d had a talk at this time. I now knew for sure why Dad had been sent away.
“We haven’t had one of these talks in a while,” I admitted.
“I guess we’re due.”
“How are you and Dad doing?” I asked.
“There are still days when I want to kill him. I might actually kill your granddad if he was still alive,” she said and then sighed. “If they hadn’t covered it up, and I found out, we probably would have gotten a divorce, so it worked out for the best. I still love him, but it’s changed our relationship. I never wanted to doubt your father. The problem is that I’ve invested over half a lifetime in him, and you and Greg are part of this too. I can’t see any other option but to forgive him and move on.”
“You know, it looks easy from the outside to just give up on someone. But I’m sure that given time, you might find that he loves you, too,” I said.
“That’s what makes all of this so hard,” Mom admitted.
“In some ways, I understand. Tracy did horrible things to me, and many people said I was crazy to ever be friends with her again. It’s amazing to me how someone can break your heart, but you still love them with all the little pieces. Tracy and I can never be more than just friends, but when I gave her a third chance, we became good friends. Heck, Dad’s only working on his second,” I said with a smile.
“So, let’s talk about you,” Mom said.
“Football is starting to get crazy,” I admitted. “Caryn has been notified of several awards I’m up for. I was named to the MaxPreps All-American team and several others. Bo Harrington told me that all the major recruiting sites list me as the top incoming senior prospect. Bo has advised me not to go to any camps this year because I can only go down. Frank received a call from ESPN because they want to follow me around next fall.
“The colleges have been going nuts. Would you believe that Michigan plans to do a summer camp at Lincoln High? Caryn said they made offers to Ty, Wolf, Tim, and Johan. They’ve talked to Alan about being a student assistant. I bet Dad could get a job there without a problem. All I can say is they’re one of many that’ll be coming hard for my services.”
“You haven’t said anything about all this.”
“I’ve been busy with the movie stuff,” I explained.
“Caryn told us that Saul is sure he can get you some serious deals. I don’t see how you can ignore them,” Mom said.
“I can’t. That’s what makes this so hard. How can I turn my back on football? I’ve worked so hard for that. This movie gig just seems too easy. Saul told me that if I were to go full time, I could make as much as forty to fifty million a year. I believe him, because for doing the Royal Palm movie, I’ll make four million for a month’s work, and I’m not even the lead.
“Look at Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. He was a football player at the University of Miami who then went into professional wrestling. Saul said he made over sixty million this year. He’s in his mid-40s. If I get the James Bond or Star Wars roles, I’ll be under twenty. I’ll be much younger than he was when he started. And I could be making money in this business much longer than a football career will last,” I said.
“Don’t let Saul fill your head with you being a star. This might just be your fifteen minutes of fame, and then it fades,” Mom said.
“I’m well aware of that. There’re examples all over Hollywood. I’m just telling you what the potential is.”
“Do you like it?” Mom asked.
“That’s just it: I do. There’s so much more to it than I ever realized. I was lucky I modeled first. Spatial awareness and how to present yourself in the best light are important.”
“What about modeling? Are you done with that?” Mom asked.
“Modeling is the one business where women make much more money doing it. My deals with Range Sports, Dakora, and Jade put me towards the top of what a male model can make in a year. I made almost as much doing that one commercial for sunglasses. If I go the acting route, I would cut way back on modeling.”
“Anything else going on?” Mom asked.
“Baseball. My hitting coach plans to recommend me for the Under-18 USA baseball team. From what he says, I have the potential to make a go of it, if I put the time in.”
“You’ve always loved baseball. Do you muddy the waters even more and push for it? It might change how you feel about the game.”
“I know. It was something I did just for fun,” I admitted.
“But …” Mom prodded.
“It has always been the dream.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go for it and see what happens,” I said and sighed. “So much is up in the air right now. In football, I need to decide where to go to school, and with that comes the responsibility for the other guys. Wolf and Tim want to go where I go.”
“I hope you don’t make your decision based on someone else,” Mom said to interrupt me.
“In an ideal world, that would be true, but I’m starting to see that in my situation, finding real friends is going to be hard. I tried to make a new friend here in LA and ended up being hit with a bat for my trouble. Uncle John warned me that I’d need to be careful because my fame would color how new people would perceive me. Many would seek to take advantage of me.
“It’s not just new people, either. Remember how Cal came after me. If I’d been anyone else, that would have been handled differently. Would he have been mad? Hell, yes, but he wouldn’t have tried to ruin me on a bogus rape charge.
“Then there’s Brandon, who worked for me. He goes out and begins to blog about what a terrible guy I am.
“Let’s not forget Mike. All through grade and middle school, he was always the top guy in our class. Freshman year he steps in as the starting freshman quarterback with a clear path to playing varsity, maybe as soon as his sophomore year. At the time we didn’t know Brad Hope would transfer in, so when Magic graduated, Mike was at the very least in the mix. Suddenly he finds me stepping into his shoes. That’s all fine until I rocket up the summer before junior year starts. He’s firmly in my shadow, and the only way he’ll ever play quarterback is if I get hit by a bus. So he lashed out and took advantage of Mona.
“So, if Wolf and Tim want to go to college with me, I’ll try to make it happen,” I said.
“I hate to tell you this, but very few high school friendships survive. People go off to college. They get married and start families or a million other things. One day you wake up and realize that you have a completely new set of friends. When I was your age, I was going to marry Brad Grace. We didn’t even make it to my senior year. The only real friend I still have from those days is Mrs. A,” Mom shared.
I had to chuckle. I started calling her Mrs. A when I was three or four because I couldn’t say Anderson. Now it was her nickname, and everyone called her that, even my mom.
“Personally, I can’t imagine not having my same friends.”
Mom laughed at me.
“You poor ‘stupid boy.’ Take my word for it. High school can be a wonderful time in your life, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s but a moment. Your dad and I worry that you’re growing up too fast. What teenager has to have a talk with his mom about starting a new business? Even fewer would be here, thousands of miles from home, working over their Christmas break. I want you to still be a kid.”