She held her hands up. “No recordings here, Drake.” She lay her hands halfway across the table.
I took my chance, and covered them up with mine. She shrank back at first, just briefly, before she got comfortable again with touching me in public. She looked around like she was checking out the rest of the people around us, but no one was paying attention to anything other than themselves.
“Training camp hasn’t gone exactly the way I wanted so far.”
“That sound like the understatement of the week. What’s wrong?”
“I’m just not getting a chance! I can’t show them what I can do like this.”
“How are you getting along with the other players?”
“Eh, I dunno if you know this, but I didn’t exactly come in here with too much fanfare.”
“I’m well aware,” Lily deadpanned.
“Well, when that happens, the other players don’t really take to you. They like to see if you’re gonna stick around before they try and become friends with you.”
“Ah. So you haven’t had much going on in that department.”
“Nope.”
“That must be tough for you. You’ve been the big man on campus, what -“
“-Everywhere I’ve been but here, yeah.” I said, smiling ruefully. “It’s been a little bit of an adjustment, to say the least.”
“What’re you going to do about it?”
“Only thing I can do - make sure I make the team, and then make friends. Can’t do it in the opposite order.”
I felt Lily’s hands turn over under mine, till her palms were touching mine. She closed her fingers, pressing against my hands, and she looked deep into my eyes. “Are you OK, Drake?”
“Yeah, of course I am, it was just one game, I’ll be fine.”
She looked doubtful. “I mean, are you really OK?”
“Yes, Lily, I’m fine. I’m gonna make the team, and then everything will be better.”
She still looked skeptical. “Right now, if they had to make roster cuts tomorrow, would you make the team?”
I didn’t want to answer that.
“Come on, Drake, answer the question.”
“We both know the answer is no.”
She said back, satisfied that I was opening up to her. “OK, then. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…how can I help?”
CHAPTER 17 - LILY
I just wanted to help Drake out and do what I could to help him make the team. Of course for selfish reasons, but because despite not wanting to admit it to myself, I was really starting to like him.
I knew it would be tough, if not impossible for us to have a real relationship even if he made the team, what with the conflict of interest boundaries that we were clearly already way passed crossing, but even so, even if we would never be boyfriend and girlfriend I wanted to see him succeed.
I saw the drive and the motivation in him and my heart went out to him. Sure, he had been a little misguided and a lot too full of himself, but even over the last 10 days I had seen Drake Rollins come crashing down to Earth and I had gotten over my initial pique and curiosity at his fall from football grace.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do to help, really. But thanks for offering. I just need to work harder and make sure my mind is in the right place when I get to the practice field.”
“Is there anything distracting you?”
“Well…Mike Sampson definitely isn’t helping.”
“He strikes me as pretty similar to you, personality-wise.”
“Ouch.” He thought about that for a second, then smiled. “Am I really that bad?”
“No. You’re much, much, worse,” I replied back, smiling too, trying to make this a little more fun for the both of us. “What about Sampson has you all worked up?”
“The way he struts around here, acts like he’s hot shit. Yeah, he and Lance Parker have worked together and they go way back, yeah they got that quarterback-receiver ‘connection’,” Drake made air quotes, before settling his hands back down on top of mine, where I secretly really liked them, “it…it’s a little intimidating.”
I couldn’t keep a straight face anymore. “So you’re saying, and let me get this straight, that the great Drake Rollins, scourge of defensive backs the world over…has been upstaged by…another Drake Rollins?!”
Drake looked at me like I had punched him square in the face, like the possibility that he and Sampson were alike in more ways than one had never even dawned on him. “Y-Yes,” he finally spoke when he had found the words.
“That must be really tough for you.”
“Don’t make fun of me, Lily, I’ve seen how you’ve been acting around Annie Ross these last couple days.”
“Hey,” I said, getting one of my hands out and pointing at Drake, “do not bring me into this. She and I are nothing alike.”
Drake looked like he had clearly hit a nerve, and we both knew in that moment he was right. “Tell me about her,” he said softly. “You don’t get along, I get that, but how come?” His eyes sharpened. “Did she steal your boyfriend one time?”
I laughed. “No, nothing so high school.”