Ricky stepped out into the light of the small living room and showed himself, almost as if he was waiting in the shadows for the perfect time to reveal himself to everyone as the bad guy waiting in the wings. The man was a showman. That was about all I could say for him.
“Hey, Chance. You don’t look so hot. You been getting in some extra working out somewhere?”
I smiled and ignored the comment. I looked over at Lucinda. “So, the two of you are in this together? Is that what I’m seeing? That’s so interesting…I never thought you’d waste your time on second string like this guy.”
“Hey, you’d better watch yourself. Second string here is going to take your spot sooner than you think,” Ricky said. “I think it’s time you took a hike.”
I looked back at Lucinda who was eating every bit of this up like it was ice cream. She had the most satisfied look on her face. Wow…this was so strange. I felt like there was something bad about to happen here and I should have probably been heading out to avoid it. Either I was going to hit Ricky, or he was going to hit me. And then things might have gotten out of hand beyond that. That was the last thing I needed right now.
“You know,” Lucinda said in her sweetest, little, mocking voice. “I think that would be best.”
I looked at the both of them and shook my head. They were made for each other. And together they were even way more dangerous. I wondered how much Lucinda had warped Ricky’s mind? Or if he volunteered his services when he somehow found out what she was up to. Hell, for all I knew the whole thing was really a bizarre coincidence that the two of them had gotten together.
“Sure, I’ll go,” I said. “You two crazy kids have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
I loved to egg them on. It really got under Lucinda’s skin. She was such a narcissist that any little teasing could send her over the edge and she might attack you with psychotic fury.
But this time she held it together and bit her tongue. It was Ricky who had to come to her defense.
“Man, just get out of here. You are such a loser.”
I turned and smiled at Ricky. “You will see how she is eventually. She isn’t interested in you. Can’t you see that she is using you to get back at me. I was her chance at having a professional football player as a boyfriend and when I dumped her—yes, I dumped her—she couldn’t handle it. She even switched schools to be near me and try to get me back. When that didn’t work she came up with this psycho plan that you have now become a part of. I’m sorry to see you mixed up in it, man. Hey, I don’t hold any hard feelings against you. But I do feel damn sorry for you.”
I walked out the door and left. A moment later I heard Lucinda yell a loud obscenity aimed at me. I heard it halfway down the hall. It put a smile on my face.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jamie
“This is so exciting!” Rosie yelled.
I took a swig of my soda and then popped a handful of my popcorn into my mouth. I had to agree that this was the most exciting game of the year so far. Maryland was undefeated, as was Indiana and the two teams had a lot of bad blood and animosity towards each other. The intensity between the two teams and the bad blood was obvious from the first snap. The Maryland line was doing everything it could to hurt Chance. They wanted him out of the game. If he left the game Ricky would take over, which would actually help Maryland secure a victory. As cocky and as good as Ricky thought he was, he was no match for Chance and everyone knew it. Except Ricky. He was delusional.
“Come on Chance!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. There was no way he heard me over the roar of the crowd, but it was fun to yell anyway.
“Girl, I can’t believe you get to hit that!” Rosie yelled in my ear before giving me a big kiss on the forehead and then snapping a quick selfie of this event. I could see that she would be lighting up her Instagram later with some catchy caption. That was her life, after all. Rosie had lived so long in the world of fantasy that she no longer remembered how to operate and live in the real world anymore.
But she was the best and I loved her almost as a sister.
I watched as Chance set up the passing pattern and threw the ball to Ricky who grabbed the pass and ran six yards, enough for the first down before he was tackled. I was surprised that so far Ricky had not shirked any of his plays. Of course that would have made him look bad. It was one thing to do that in practice and try to fool their imbecile of a coach that it was Chance’s fault, but to mess it up in a game in front of thousands of people and pro football scouts would have required a level of stupidity that not even Ricky had been afflicted with.
So far Indiana was ahead by three points. The score was thirteen to ten and the clock was winding down to end the first half of the game. This was going to be close, but if Chance could get the ball in the end zone then Indiana would go into the second half with a sizeable lead. This would be a great morale boost to the team and it would deflate the Maryland ego a bit since they had not gone into the second half being down in points all season yet. They considered themselves indestructible.
Chance told me about Lucinda and Ricky being an item now. After the initial shock wore off, the anger took over within me. Chance was being ok about it, or at least he was keeping his feelings bottled inside so as not to bother me as he usually did, but I could tell there was some wicked anger going on under the surface. Ricky was supposed to be his teammate. They’d had their issues, but at the end of the day they were on the same side. This was a total betrayal and it had wounded Chance on another level. The football team was a brotherhood. And Ricky had stepped on that feeling.
Chance snapped the ball and turned to hand it off to the running back Lance Harper. But Lance was suddenly slipping and falling to the ground rolling in the moisture beneath him. It had rained earlier in the day and the field was still ab it slippery.
Chance had to improvise and turn to another option. He was running to his right when he saw Ricky coming towards him. I could see immediately that he was going to do a handoff and fool the defense into following him while Ricky ran behind him and skirted along the outside running towards the opening and the end zone. It would have worked perfectly.
But then Ricky missed the handoff and I could see it happening in slow motion. The memory always plays in slow motion because I could not believe what I was seeing. It was the most shocking and vulgar display of football rule breaking that I have ever witnessed since becoming obsessed with the sport at the age of ten.
Ricky missed the hand off and blatantly stuck his leg out to trip Chance, who went sailing over his leg face down towards the ground. He held onto the ball and tried to scramble to his feet, but just as he did Ricky came behind him as if going for the ball that was obviously not loose and hit him helmet to helmet a blinding hard shot that has always been super illegal in the game of football.
Ricky went down pretending to be hurt, but I knew he wasn’t. Chance went down. He was absolutely hurt. That hit had come out of nowhere and it easily could have been a career ending injury.
“What? I can’t believe that!” Rosie yelled.
I couldn’t speak; I couldn’t breathe. I felt sick all over. My man was lying there on the ground and he wasn’t moving for several seconds. This was a real tragedy. It was my worst nightmare coming true right in front of my eyes. The man I loved was really injured. He was not moving.
Players were gathering around him and Ricky was running over to check on him. I couldn’t tell if he was sorry for the extremity of what he did, or if he never meant for it to be that bad. Sometimes people didn’t think things all the way through. This was real life and sometimes people didn’t always have the best grasp of distinguishing fantasy from reality. Ricky was one of those people. The guy was a joke. I hated his guts.
The crowd was booing and hissing at Ricky. They’d all seen what he’d just done to his own player and there wasn’t a person in the stands who thought he did it on accident.
This was the reality of this situation.
&
nbsp; I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sure if I should rush out of the stands to his side and see if he was ok, or if it would just create a spectacle, which I was sure Chance never would have wanted. And he wouldn’t have wanted me to be scared or worried.
I sat still holding Rosie’s hand as she held onto me and we cried together. “It’s going to be ok. Chance is strong. He will be fine.”
Rosie’s words meant the world to me in that moment. I’d never been that scared before in my entire life. That was how you could always tell that you loved someone more than you loved yourself. If you saw them hurt and you felt totally helpless to do anything for them. That was the most horrifying feeling you could ever have in your life.
But then I saw the most amazing thing…
I couldn’t believe it at first. The part of my mind that was busy convincing myself that my entire world was ending wouldn’t let me think that this was real. It was too good to be true. This was a fantasy that my mind was playing on itself. I was hallucinating.
But after the crowd started to cheer and the rest of the players and the coaches who had come onto the field to gather around Chance started to clap and cheer, I knew that it had to be real. Chance was moving. Not only was he moving, but he was standing to his feet with the help of a few players.
Then a minute later he was being helped off the field. He appeared to be limping, leading me to wonder if he’d actually hurt his ankle more than he’d even hurt his head. If he didn’t have a serious concussion from that collision then it had to be the biggest miracle that I had ever witnessed.
As he approached the bench, Chance waved to the crowd and gave everyone a thumbs up. The crowd roared.
Rosie hugged me tightly. Collette and Sara joined her. They were squeezing the life out of me, but I could tell they were both very excited for Chance. And for me.
I felt the wash of the adrenaline soaring through me and my body was starting to come down from it. I had been so scared and I still was. This was crazy. How had this just happened right in front of me and now everything was fine. I had to talk to Chance and find out how he was. But how? I couldn’t go into the locker room where he was being escorted and I couldn’t text him because he always left his phone in his locker and he rarely ever checked it.
I closed my eyes and counted to five and then I turned my focus back on the game. I knew what Chance would have told me; I had a job to do so I had better get to it.
I pulled out my note pad and quickly jotted down some notes for the article I would be turning in on Monday about the game. This would be great news to throw in the article and I could see a picture of Chance nabbing the headlines.
The game resumed and despite what he had just done Ricky continued to play in the game. And of course he was the new quarterback for the rest of the game. This was going to be something crazy. He hadn’t taken a snap all season. Wow, the momentum suddenly shifted in the football stadium and suddenly no one knew what to think.
Ricky took the snap and he ran around the side looking for an open man to pass to. There was nobody open and he had defenders coming after him. He had no choice but to run the ball in.
He outfaced a few much larger lineman and then twisted away from the safety and the tight end so that he could roll into the end zone with the greatest of ease.
Indiana was ahead by a decent lead now and the crowd was cheering harder than ever. I could almost hear everyone forgive Ricky for taking out their star quarterback with his diabolical plan.
I just hoped he got what was really coming to him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chance
He’d finally done it. Ricky had finally put me out of commission and taken my spot. But the weasel had done it blatantly in front of everybody and they all knew that he was a jerk. The team, the fans, and the coach—they would surely all turn against him. There was no way he could lie out of it, though I was sure he would try his hardest.
I was in the locker room for a few minutes before the half ended. I had twisted my ankle. The team doctor looked me over and gave me quick neurological assessment. He did not see any evidence of a concussion. I was lucky in the way that I was hit. I had hit the ground really hard and knocked the wind out of me, which explained why I almost dozed off a few seconds after it happened. The doc said sometimes that can happen with a sudden loss of oxygen in the body.
When I tried to stand, that was when I noticed the ankle. It was tender and sore. And it was swelling up quite a bit. The doctor told me to ice it and keep it elevated for a day or so. It really just needed rest to heal up.
The team came in a few minutes later. We’d gotten the score and were leading by ten points now. Somehow, Ricky had pulled off some kind of a miracle. I wasn’t sure how that happened, but he thought he was actually proving himself right to everyone. I could tell by the way he walked into the locker room high fiving everyone and trying to be the bigshot on campus. The guy was a total fraud.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I leapt at him, jumping off the bench and ramming my shoulder into his stomach. He was no longer wearing his helmet, so I took advantage of this enough to start beating him senseless.
My fists were connecting hard and fast on his jaw, one right after the other. And oh, it felt good. Yes, it felt amazing. I had dreamt of rearranging Ricky’s face for so long and now I was letting go of the anger and the rage that had been welling up inside of me for so long, so that now, I was finally achieving the revenge that had taken hold inside of me. It was cathartic. With every blow, I felt a bit of myself come back.
“Break it up!” The coach bellowed as several of the teammates came between us and pulled me off Ricky. My ankle was killing me, but I didn’t care. This was more important. I could suffer through the pain of the ankle. I was fine. I would go out there with a broken ankle if I had to. Anything would be better than having Ricky represent this team in any capacity.
Ricky was lying on the floor with a bloody nose and a swelling lip. He was still trying to act tough, but he looked like someone who had just gotten the hell beaten out of them. It made me laugh just to see him that way.
“This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen!” Coach Smith yelled. “You men are on the same damn team! What in the hell is this crap? Ricky, what I saw out there was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever witnessed. You deliberately injured your own teammate in a game. Everybody saw it clear as day, so don’t you even try to lie your way out of it. And Chance, fighting like this is not the way we handle things in the civilized world. Do you get me?”
“Sure,” I said. Ricky was still trying to catch his breath and I thought he might be on the verge of crying. That was glorious.
“Now, Ricky you are benched for the next game. That’s it. Willis will take the snaps the rest of this game.”
I spoke up. “Coach. I can play.”
“I know you probably could, but we don’t want to risk worsening that ankle. It needs to be healed for the next game. We are already ahead. Our defense will have to win the rest of the game.”
I knew he was right, no matter how much I wanted to argue and fight this. That was the way it had to be.
I watched the rest of the game from the bench. By some miracle, our defense really stepped up and prevented Maryland from scoring another point. We were one step closer to having that perfect season and heading into the bowl games.
* * *
“I can’t believe Ricky isn’t just kicked off the team for good,” Jamie said when I told her everything that went down. We were sitting in my car outside the stadium after the crowd had left just talking about a few things. She was easy to confide in. Even things that I didn’t think I could talk about with her, were easy. I treasured that about our relationship, and I hoped she did as well.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t seem fair. That idiot could have permanently injured me with that stupid stunt of his. He deserves to be kicked out of school. He and Lucinda are perfect for each other.”
“Do
you think she put him up to it? Maybe, it was her idea?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? I just wish there was a way I could get her out of my life so I didn’t have to worry about her anymore. I’m so tired of this.”
Jamie thought a moment and then proposed an idea. “Well, maybe I can do a bit more digging into her and see what I can come up with. Maybe there is something that will point to her being directly involved in the stalking, the prowling, and the breaking and entering. Those are real crimes. Those are crimes that she might face some serious time for.”
I nodded. “Well, it is worth a shot. I just don’t want you going and getting yourself in harm’s way. There is nothing so worthwhile that it jeopardizes your safety.”
“Aww, it melts my heart the way you worry about me sometimes,” Jamie said with a flirtatious giggle.
I smiled and a sweet laugh followed. This woman had been able to get me to open up so well since I had met her. She just knew me inside and out from the beginning. If that wasn’t the definition of a soulmate, then I wasn’t sure what was.
I started the car and we headed back to the house. My ankle was killing me and I had a feeling there might have been a few itches that I needed to scratch.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jamie
When we got back to the house, I helped Chance inside and to the couch. I had offered to drive so that Chance could rest his ankle, but he had refused and decided to drive. I could tell by the time we arrived that his ankle was in fact killing him.
I retrieved a pack of ice from the fridge and placed it on his swollen ankle as he elevated it on a pillow on the couch. He leaned back with a sigh and let his head rest against the pillows. I could tell he was wiped out, but for some reason seeing him in his injured state stirred up a lot of desires within me to take care of him. I wanted to make sure that he wasn’t feeling any more pain than he absolutely had to, and I wanted to just make over him and nurture him. I needed to fix my handsome warrior. And I had a few tricks up my sleeve to help me to do just that.
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