It’s dead silent as Coach Lowe absorbs the loss of his team. We may have been his team at the end of the season, but he lost us in his pursuit of revenge or job security. I don’t know what’s going to happen this fall, but when we hit the field, it won’t be with Lowe on our minds. We’ll be doing it for each other.
That feels right, no matter how many games he decides to suspend me for.
37
Matty
June
“Coming, Matty?”
“Nah, I think I’ll hang here.”
“Fuck that. She has your balls in your purse now?” Sophomore linebacker Hank Coleman mocks.
I cup myself. “Nope. Still here. You can get on your knees and check it out for yourself if you’re unsure.”
Hammer smacks Coleman on the back of the head. “Go get the cab for us, rook.”
“I’m not a rookie,” Coleman protests.
“First year starter? Sounds like a rookie to me.” He shoves Coleman toward the door. Bishop comes up behind me.
“We’ll watch out for you,” Bish says in low tones. “No pictures. No random jockeys.”
It wasn’t pictures that got me into trouble before, but it’s hard to explain to Bish or even Hammer because they’re still in nail-anything-that-moves mode, which is fine. I totally respect that. I enjoyed that time in my life, but I don’t miss it. Not one bit.
“Nah, I’m good.” Tonight is the first night of summer camp. We’re holed up in some monastery five hours north of the Western campus. The town is small, but there are a few bars. I have zero interest in going out.
Bish tilts his head. “Between you and Masters, I’m wondering if I’m missing something.”
“What can I say?” I spread my hands. “It’s good.”
It’s been better than good. Classes finished up and Luce and I spent a month just hanging around before I had to come back for summer school. She worked, and I met her dad. He likes to play golf in his downtime, which is cool. I’m not much of a golfer, but he was a patient tutor and didn’t give me a hard time for being Luce’s boyfriend.
I even met her mom, who came off as sad more than anything. She asked about Ace’s dad, and Luce and I left shortly after. I took her home to Colorado Springs to meet my parents. We hiked on Pike’s Peak where I gave Luce my second present.
It wasn’t a piece of jewelry this time. It was a twenty-four-hour glucose monitor. The thing was more expensive than a diamond, but the features are amazing. Through a little needle pack stuck to her stomach or arm, it constantly monitors her blood sugar level and feeds the information to an app on her phone. If the numbers are off, she’ll get an alert.
Okay, so maybe the gift was just as much for me as it was for her, but her eyes glowed so bright, I thought she might explode. Safe to say she loved it. Better than a piece of jewelry, in my opinion, although I like seeing my necklace around her collar. Every time I look at it, I think I bought that. She’s mine.
The guys go off in search of town strange, and I wander back into the hotel.
“Come on.” Ahmed pulls me toward a conference room.
“What the fuck is this?” Inside the double doors are a few couches arranged around eight televisions and several game consoles. I see a number of guys there…Jesse shoves me onto one of the cushions and hands me a controller.
“Who do you want to be?”
I check out my options. “Princess Daisy.”
“Alright.” He picks Bowser.
“What is this?” I ask him.
“Mario Kart.” He gives me a you’re an idiot look.
“I know what the game is, but what is this?” I wave the controller around the room. “And how did I not know about it before?”
“You didn’t want to know about it before.”
And it occurs to me that this is why the guys who have serious partners are not out getting photographed with a bunch of girls hanging off of them. I shrug and settle in for a hardcore game of Mario Kart, and I have as much fun at summer camp as I can remember.
* * *
Lucy
“Hey, Ace.” I only open the door a crack when I see him standing on the front porch. Matt’s out back grilling, and I don’t really want my Fourth of July to be ruined by a fight between them. Dad’s working today to get the double-time pay but will be home tonight for fireworks.
“Can we talk?” He reminds me so much of that sad little boy I found on my steps crying because his dad left. All I knew at the time was that my mom made him sad, and I wasn’t going to hurt him like my mom had.
But so much time and so many things have gone on since then, I’m not sure what kind of friendship I can have with him anymore. Still, I can’t close the door in his face.
“Sure.” I step out onto the porch.
“I…I want to apologize for what happened between us.”
A little tension seeps away. “Thank you.”
“I’m not going to be seeing you much.”
“Oh?”
“You heard of MU?”
I shake my head. “No, can’t say that I have.”