There was a round of squeaks against the glossy hardwood floor, and the point guard pivoted, evading the guy blocking him, and made a two-point shot for Carolina.
Gael eyed the 2009 National Championship flag that hung from the rafters of the Dean Dome. His family had had season tickets that year. Piper was practically a newborn, but they’d still managed to make it to almost every game, Gael in his little-kid jersey, shaking noisemakers like it was his job. They’d even been in the Dean Dome to watch the championship game on the Jumbotron as Carolina squashed Michigan State far away in chilly Detroit. They’d followed the crowd of students to Franklin Street, and Gael got to watch a few college kids jumping around and setting things on fire before his mom had said they really should go. The next day, his dad had pointed out that even the president of the United States was a Carolina fan. They’d gotten five copies of the Daily Tar Heel and framed one in their basement.
None of that would happen for Piper, he thought, because his family wasn’t his family anymore.
Because his dad had turned his family into something awful.
Suddenly, Gael was no longer on the brink of tears. Instead, he seethed with anger.
“Don’t you find it completely ridiculous that they have ‘Carolina’ printed on their butts?” Cara asked, breaking his train of thought.
Gael took a deep breath and tried to focus on acting like a normal human being.
“I don’t exactly make a point of staring at other guys’ butts,” he said, forcing a laugh.
Cara laughed loudly and leaned back farther in her chair. She kicked her feet up, placing her exposed toes dangerously close to the head of the guy in front of them. “You know it doesn’t make you gay just for having eyes,” she said.
Gael sighed as Cara removed her feet from the chair and went back to a normal sitting position. “All right, all right. I have noticed, and it is kind of ridiculous, yes.”
Cara wiggled her eyebrows up and down. “Look at you, checking out other guys’ butts!”
She laughed.
And so did Gael, his anger dissipating the tiniest bit.
(I was torn, to be honest. On the one hand, I ached to give Gael some relief from what he’d seen. But on the other, I worried that tonight would only push him even harder toward Cara, toward escape. She wasn’t right for him, and no matter what was going on in his life, I had to help him understand that.)
“Thanks,” Gael said. The halftime clock buzzed and the crowd burst into cheers. UNC was up by twenty-two.
“For what?” Cara asked.
He shrugged. “For the tickets. For running into me on your bike when I needed a friend.”
Cara gazed at him a touch too long, but then a guy cleared his throat, and she and Gael looked up. The guy was waiting to get past, and she tucked her feet underneath her seat, letting him by.
(Just a little thing, but it was important to break that moment, trust me.)
When the guy was gone, she looked back down at the court, fiddled with her ponytail, wiggled her toes in her Birks. “Should we get some food?”
Gael nodded. “I can get some if you watch my stuff.” He wasn’t sure if he could stomach food right now, but he could at least try. “I always go for the pulled pork sandwiches here. You want one?”
“Sounds perfect,” she said. “You da best.”
I watched with a bittersweet ache as Gael broke into his first real smile of the night.
a peek into gael’s future
You think I’m cruel, don’t you? I know you do.
You’re thinking that Gael has just seen something that would send anyone into crisis mode, and so what if the girl who is helping him through it is not the perfect girl for him?
You’re wondering whether rebounding really is the worst thing on earth, especially during a time of his life so fraught with pain and heartbreak. He’s a kid, after all. So what if this isn’t the real deal? He’ll have plenty of chances after this.
And you’re right . . . partially, at least. Lots of people go after the wrong person. Lots of people get second or third or fourth or fifteenth chances at the real deal.
But it wasn’t as simple as Gael just moving on to the next one, either.
Remember back at the beginning when I told you about the Rules? When I said, and I quote, “Real love makes you better than you ever knew you could be.” I wasn’t just blowing smoke. Here’s the thing—those words could not possibly apply more appropriately to Gael. Because I could peek into the future, and this is what I saw:
I saw Gael’s love of movies working so beautifully with his love of, well, love.
I saw him, years down the road, drawing on his own experience of young, authentic love to make a gorgeous, heartbreaking movie that rocked the festival circuit and put him on the map as a promising new director.
I saw a girl who would encourage him, always, to be his best self, to go after everything that he wanted. Whose own passion inspired him day after day.
I saw a career of him making these sorts of movies, ones that inspired people to believe in love the world over.