“Why?”
He wouldn’t look me in the eye or answer me.
“Buddy, I love you like a brother, but I think you just learned a lesson the hard way. There’re going to be more consequences than Sammie breaking up with you. I hope you’re ready for it,” I said.
“What should I do? How can I get Sammie back?”
“Tell me what happened,” I said.
“Alan.”
Alan wouldn’t give up. Once he found out, he would tell his girlfriend, Gina. Game over! I felt responsible for this because two of my best friends were the ones who let the cat out of the bag. I was also the one who’d orchestrated this whole mess.
“Right now, we’re just dealing with rumors. I need to go talk to Coach Hope and come clean by taking responsibility. I want you to get everyone together, and tell them I’m taking the fall for this. They’re to keep their mouths shut. I also want you to track down Alan, and explain the facts of life to him. I refused to tell him because he can’t keep anything from Gina. Not that Gina’s a blabbermouth, but I’m sure she told someone.”
Jeff was on his phone sending text messages when I left him to find Coach Hope. I found him in a coaches’ meeting.
“I need to talk to you,” I said sticking my head in the door.
“Can it wait?” Coach Hope asked.
“Actually, I need to talk to all of you.”
“Come in then. What’s up?”
“Last Friday, I had a party in my suite. There were no drugs or alcohol, and we all were in our rooms before curfew. I was the one who talked everyone into it.”
The coaches all looked at me and started to chuckle.
“David, we knew you had people in your room. The pizza boxes gave it away,” Coach Hope said.
I sighed. I knew I needed to give them a heads-up. How to say it, though?
“I’m just going to say it because I don’t want you being blindsided. I had sex, and people know. You’re going to hear rumors. It was me,” I said.
“Shit!” Coach Stevens said.
“Who all was involved?” Coach Hope asked.
I was sure they could figure it out, but I wasn’t talking about who was there.
“Coach, this is on me. I take full responsibility for it. No one else would’ve been involved if I hadn’t started it. And as to who I had sex with, there’s no way I would ever talk about that.”
“Damn it. What am I supposed to do with this? You’re my responsibility when we’re on the road. I could lose my job over a situation like this,” Coach Hope told me. “I want to talk to your parents after practice.”
For the first time today, I was worried.
“Go get ready for practice,” Coach Hope said, and I made a hasty retreat.
THE GUYS ALL CORNERED me as soon as they saw me.
“Don’t any of you say a word, I took full responsibility,” I said.
Jeff looked sick, so I hugged him.
“Get your head out of your butt, and focus on football. That goes for all of you.”
“But you’re not dating the coach’s daughter,” Jim said.
“If we stick together, we’ll be fine. Did you talk to the girls?” I asked.
“They’re circling the wagons. What did you tell coach?” Wolf asked.
“I talked to all of them. I told them it was on me. I told them I had sex, and people knew. The only way this gets worse is if you guys confirm having sex also. I would guess they’ll figure out Tim and Bill were there because you were my roommates. Jeff’ll get tied in. The only way anyone else gets pulled in is if they say anything.”
“What about the girls?” Tim asked.
“I don’t remember who was there, do you?” I asked.
They all nodded. I hoped I’d nipped this in the bud, but I figured it would get worse before it got better. Football players at a sex party ... that was just too good to not be talked about.
COACH HOPE FOLLOWED me home. I told my parents what I’d told him. Mom wasn’t having any of it.
“Tell me what happened, and who was there,” she ordered me.
I looked at her and Dad. I then turned to Coach Hope.
“I need to talk to my parents. I think it’s best if you don’t know any more than you know right now.”
“I think I need the whole story,” Coach told me.
“Let me talk to my parents. If they agree with you, I’ll tell you everything,” I promised.
I told Mom and Dad what happened. I didn’t give them a blow-by-blow account, but I did tell them who all was there. When Cassidy’s name came up, Mom and Dad agreed I shouldn’t tell Coach. They took me back to the kitchen and sat down with Coach.
“For now, we’ll handle this,” Mom said.
“Hand over your car keys,” Dad said. “You can only drive to go to State or the dojo. You’re grounded until further notice. That means no guests, either. I also want your debit card.”
I wasn’t about to complain. I was one step away from losing my apartment privileges.
AFTER I GOT BACK FROM the dojo, I called Peggy.
“Are you talking to me?” I asked.
“Yeah. I talked to Tracy, and she told me you took responsibility for what happened. Do you want to hear something funny? I thought everyone would be talking behind my back and making fun of me. It’s actually made me more popular. I’m dating Lincoln High’s resident bad boy.”
“Well, this ‘bad boy’ just got grounded by his mama. That tells you how ‘bad’ I am.”
“You always were a mama’s boy. That’s one of the reasons I like you.”
“Peggy, in all seriousness, I really am sorry.”
“David, I know you are. If I didn’t think that, I would have dumped you today. Plus, I owe you,” she said.
“Why’s that?”
“For kissing Mitch.”
I wasn’t about to compare her kissing Mitch with what I had done. I just grunted. We talked a while longer, and then I got off the phone.
Saturday November 15
FRIDAY HAD BEEN INTERESTING. The rumor mill went into overdrive. The focus changed, due to the brilliant Miss Tracy Dole. She had the cheerleaders tell a compelling story of a Mr. David Dawson picking up two locals and how he brought them back to his room. Apparently, said Mr. Dawson took them to the roof. From all the noise, he put on quite a show. They had fun with it. The little minxes went into great detail about my skills due to what they heard from downstairs.
It got better when Peggy both chewed me out and told everyone within earshot that I was hers. This was yet another strategy from Tracy. I was starting to understand why she was cheer captain. She understood how to manipulate the masses.
The effect of this little fiction seemed to change the tenor of the rumors from one of scandal, for which something needed to done, to one of confirming I ‘was a Dawson.’ I had Greg’s exploits over the previous four years to help me.
By the end of the day, I had two things bothering me about the whole episode; they both were really the same thing. I was mad at Emma and Piper for orchestrating the drama in the lunchroom—it was obvious that was deliberately done. What pissed me off, even more, was that the twins had continued even after I’d asked them twice to stop.
The other issue that had me upset was Alan and Jeff. They were supposed to be my best friends. I had specifically told Alan to back off on why Jeff was dating Sammie. I realized Alan was just being Alan when he cornered Jeff, but at some point, he needed to grow up. All of this had happened because of his pigheadedness.
I was even madder at Jeff because he knew what Alan was like. He knew that if he told him, Alan would tell Gina. I really should be madder at Alan, but Jeff and I’d grown up knowing what Alan would do. Jeff knew better. I could only put it down to his inexperience. Hell, I had invited Jeff and I was pretty sure he lost his virginity that night. Jeff also knew you didn’t tell anyone what happened after sex. He’d been around my brother and me. If he needed any further proof, all he had to do was think of what happened to Justin.