I think Cassidy was surprised when she saw a tear trickle down my cheek. I didn’t want to mess this up, because I really cared for her.
“I’m sure that your dad would object. We both know that, if we wanted to, we could convince him that we could make it work. I think he objects now because he recognizes that if we ever did get together, he could never keep us apart. You’ve gotten into my heart, and we’ve become very good friends in a short amount of time. My biggest problem right now, though, is it would feel disloyal to Jeff,” I said.
“You do realize that Jeff would just want us to be happy. He understood you and I have a special connection. I just wanted to know if you would ever consider us as a couple.”
“Of course I would. I’m just not ready for that, right now,” I said. “Cassidy, if you told me that you needed me right now, I’d set all my personal issues aside and be there for you. I just don’t think that now’s the right time for us.”
She leaned across the center console and kissed me. We both felt it. I think it was good that Cassidy pulled away.
“Like I said, I just wanted to know. I miss him, too,” she said, referring to Jeff.
“Friends?” I asked.
“Friends,” she answered.
◊◊◊ Tuesday September 15
I came out to run and saw our blue jay problem taken care of. The territorial birds had terrorized Duke all summer. One of them made the mistake of trying to run off Precious, Brit’s cat from hell. The blue dive bomber made his pass only to find himself in the jaws of the neighbor’s cat. Precious had to have leaped six feet off the ground to snatch the bird out of the air. I was a little appalled when she brought it to me and put it at my feet.
“Why can’t you give this to Brit? I don’t really want a dead bird,” I said, trying to reason with the feline.
Precious just looked up at me like she expected me to do something with it. Duke made the mistake of being a little too curious about Precious’s kill and got his nose swatted for his troubles. There was the evil cat I had learned to love. I opened the garage, found a rag, and picked up the bird so I could dispose of it. That seemed to satisfy Precious because she and Duke ran into our backyard to roughhouse.
◊◊◊
I came to school to find every guy in a circle around something. It was weird because they were all quiet. If it had been a fight, they would have been yelling encouragement. I walked up and about made a run for it. Standing in the center was Brook Davis, wearing what I would describe as Eurotrash porn garb. She had on bell-bottom sweat pants that were so thin that you could tell she didn’t have any underwear on. They weren’t snug like yoga pants, but every movement of her tight little booty was easy to see. Brook also had on a sports bra that lifted and separated her breasts, with a tank top so snug I don’t know how she got into it. I swear you could make out the outline of her areola, and there was no guessing about her nipples.
I checked her out closer and saw she had dressed to attract attention today. Her makeup was a little heavier than what she usually wore. Lisa Felton had some serious competition for most sexually arousing female at Lincoln High. For some reason, Brook was able to pull off her look without appearing totally trashy. She just had a way of carrying herself that spoke of class, regardless of what she had on.
“I’m trying to find a real man who isn’t afraid to have fun. I went out with Mike, and he came up short—in a lot of ways,” she said as every eye turned toward my nemesis.
I’d heard the rumors that he’d bragged about bagging Brook. It sounded like she’d heard the same rumors. Mike stumbled back as if she’d slapped him. It had been a bad couple of days for him. He’d been kicked off the offense in football, and now his manhood had been called into question. I didn’t blame him when he made a hasty exit.
“If only there were someone who could measure up …” Brook said, laying down her challenge.
The problem with teenage boys is their lack of confidence. If she’d done this on a college campus, guys would have swarmed her. As she scanned the crowd, you could see boys eliminating themselves one at a time. If Mike hadn’t measured up, and he was one of the more attractive guys at Lincoln, then, how could they?
If you’re tall, it has its advantages, but not today. Brook’s eyes locked with mine and she began to walk towards me. I smirked when the crowd parted like the Red Sea, and Brook ended up right in front of me.
“How about it, Dawson, you man enough to have some fun with me tonight?” she asked.
I think every guy had the same idea of “fun” in mind, but I caught the glint in her eye and knew she wasn’t talking about sex. Mr. Happy was 100 percent sure I was wrong and made a play for taking over the body. I had to fight him down, or he’d have gotten me suspended again for sure.
I was on the verge of turning her down when I remembered my commitment to live a life without regrets. I knew I’d kick myself later if I didn’t at least find out what she had in mind.
“Meet me after football practice,” I said.
That caused all the guys to start to talk at once. Out of nowhere, Pam and Tracy appeared and separated Brook and me. Tracy led me into the school while Pam led Brook towards a different entrance.
“I think I’m in trouble,” I confessed.
“Buddy, you’ve no idea,” Tracy warned me.
◊◊◊
At lunchtime, the cheerleaders and my female friends took over our table, and the boys were told to get lost. Brook was among the other cheerleaders; amazingly, she hadn’t been sent home yet. All I could think of was she must have had all male teachers this morning.
I walked over and sat down next to Alan. I wasn’t talking to him yet but didn’t want him to feel ostracized like poor Mike, who sat at a table by himself. I heard Mike had made a date with Piper, one of the JV cheerleaders, but she had publicly told him she’d changed her mind after what Brook had said.
“Are you and Brook going out now?” Yuri asked.
I had a little inner smile when he didn’t spout off some sexist remark. Yuri showed that hanging out with me last year had rubbed off. We’d had several conversations about that very subject.
“No, she just wants to go do something fun tonight.”
“Yeah, right,” Alan snorted.
That got all the guys laughing. Who could blame them? I just let their taunts wash over me and winked at Yuri, who just nodded.
“I bet Brook plans to go do something fun that isn’t just sex,” I added.
“Notice that he didn’t rule it out. I know I’d have some impure thoughts if I was on a playdate with her,” Jim said.
“I like the ‘playdate’ jab,” Ty said. “We all know that David’s a ‘Player.’”
Everyone groaned as I sat up straighter as if claiming the ‘Player’ tag.
“What? I thought that was pretty clever,” Ty complained.
The debate then took a turn I wasn’t happy about. The guys all rated my success and failures with women and whether I deserved the ‘Player’ moniker. I ruined their fun when I turned the tables on them and exposed their own failed attempts with the stronger sex. It occurred to me we needed to up our game, and the best way to do that was by example. It had been a while since I felt like going out and playing.
◊◊◊
Our game this week was against Bloomington, a much larger school. Someone needed to talk to our athletic director about scheduling some cupcakes! I’d looked on the website for upcoming games, and there wasn’t a weak nonconference opponent on the schedule. Our traditional end-of-year travel game now showed TBD (To Be Determined). When I asked Coach Hope about it, he said that we were in negotiations to play a team from out of state. I had a bad feeling about what they had planned for us.