I just hoped I could live it down and move past it. It was all I could do. I wished Bobby was there. And I hoped that he would be alright.
Chapter Nineteen
Bobby
“Do I look stupid to you?”
The coach’s words echoed in the locker room. I had been dreading all of this for a while. But we all knew it was coming.
“Do I look stupid to you?”
The coach reiterated the question. It was rhetorical, but he kept stating it as if he wanted an answer… I looked left and right at Jacob and Chance. Wow, this was lame.
“What did you guys do?” Chance asked quietly. He’d been out of town when we went to do this, but I wasn’t sure he would have come anyway. Not because he didn’t want to help, but because he actually had his head screwed on straight. That was a skill the rest of us had yet to master.
I shook my head. “We did what was right. We had everything under control. This isn’t any of coach’s concern.”
As I said the words I realized exactly how absurd all of it sounded. But I had to say something to sort of justify what we’d done without sounding like someone who had gone on a crazy rampage. They didn’t know the whole story, and I didn’t feel like getting into why I was going to do it with or without anyone’s help. I would do it again in the blink of an eye.
The coach was pacing now, his fat stubby legs moving from side to side. He looked like he was ready to squat nails out of his rear.
“I am not stupid,” the coach continued. “Did you really think that all of this wouldn’t get back to me?” He shook his head and clicked his teeth. “Well, of course we can’t prove that you actually did this, and before you all start asking a zillion questions and telling me how you don’t know what I’m talking about—just save it. I’m not going to hear that crap. Several of you took it upon yourselves to go over to Purdue and start a brawl with several of the members of their football team.”
I looked over at some of the other guys who were nodding their heads and wishing they’d been in on the plan. It was better that only a few of us went; no sense in risking getting the whole team in trouble.
The coach continued. “You are so damn lucky you were not apprehended by the cops. All of you would be in jail, your scholarships would be revoked, you would be off the team, and you would probably not have much luck with the pro scouts. They tend to look favorably on players that they don’t have to worry about missing games because they are behind bars. You are all disgusting, degenerates and you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Yeah. We were ashamed of ourselves. It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes.
“I wish you had been caught, in a sense. Because then I would know who I needed to yell at. But the Purdue players are not ratting anyone out. I just want you all to know how lucky you are, and to realize that I’m punishing everyone for this crap since I don’t know directly who was involved and I doubt any of you will volunteer.”
I started to raise my hand and voice that I was the one who started it, but Jacob held my hand down to my side. “No. Don’t. We all talked and the whole team is ok with it.”
“What?”
“We don’t mind sharing this heat. It’s ok.”
I looked around the room and several of the guys nodded. They were all willing to take heat for something I was in charge of, something that was my idea. And I knew that every single one of them would have gone with me to Purdue to avenge Ro. Their brotherhood with me was really touching. We would be brothers forever.
No doubt.
* * *
“That’s the Panthers way, son,” Dad said. “It was like that when I played, too.”
My dad had been driving through town on some business when he decided to call me up to see if I would have dinner with him. An hour later and we were at Rocky’s BBQ, one of the best barbecue restaurants around. I ate there way too much for my own good, but luckily my metabolism had always been crazy fast.
“Really?” I asked. “That’s cool. How come you don’t ever talk much about your playing days?”
“Well, there isn’t a lot to talk about. Our team was not nearly as good as the program the school has built up today. You are lucky to be here and now playing for them. I love to watch your team play son. And I love to watch you. Your mother and I are so proud.”
“Thanks, dad. I’m just sorry that you got hurt. That’s awful. The worst luck, right?”
“Yeah, it was. But it is what it is. I got sidelined by something that wasn’t my fault. This stunt you boys pulled—that was your fault. And it damn near sent your future up in smoke. You are smarter than that.”
“What? Was I supposed to stand back and let someone get away with what they are doing to my girl?”
“No. But there are other ways to handle things. You do live in a civilized world. You need to be smarter than your enemies; not just stronger. That is playing on their turf, by their rules. That puts every advantage in their pocket and takes it out of yours, son. I taught you all of these things. You know better.”
I sighed. “You’re right. I should have done better. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel great and that I wouldn’t do it again.”
My dad laughed and shook his head. “You are far too much like me.”
“I’ll take that compliment. Thanks.”
He patted me on the back. We ordered some food, and the waitress brought us a couple of beers.
“So, this guy you mentioned Jack… I think I might get his hatred of you. It has to do with me a bit.”
“Really? How?”
“Well, his father Ronald and I went to school at the same time. His dad went to Purdue. Now, I met his sister Rose at one of the games and we just hit it off. Well, we dated for a bit and things got serious. She was at a party we were having one night at Indiana. A fire broke out and everybody got out except for Rose. I thought she went outside to smoke a cigar rete, but apparently she stopped by the restroom first and when the fire broke out it happened right outside the bathroom and she was trapped. They found her body later.”
“Wow… that’s awful,” I said.
“Yeah. Of course Ronald always blamed me and Indiana University for his sister’s death. But that is one of the reasons that particular guy might have it out for you.”
“I see. I didn’t know he hated me inordinately until this thing with Ro happened.”
“Yeah, you can see how that might be a trigger for him, though.”
“I do see, yes.”
“I know you really care about this girl, and that makes me very happy. She is a wonderful girl. But you have to be careful. This rivalry is as old as can be and it seems like it has gotten more hateful and more vengeful with each passing year. I would hate to see you get wrapped up in it. So, just try not to stir things up any more than they have to be and graduate in one piece this spring. I know those pro scouts will be knocking on your door soon. You know that.”
“Yeah, I hope.”
“Just have faith; it will happen.”
I finished having dinner with my dad and then I went home. I was giving what he said a lot of thought, but really nothing was affecting how I felt about the decisions I’d made, or the decisions I might make in the future. I loved Ro so much. I was willing to do whatever it took to keep her safe and avenge her.
I called her when I got home to see how she was. She said that the conversation with Dawn went better than expected. It was great, actually.
“Dawn looked like she was about to shit herself,” Ro said with her characteristic giggle.
“Good,” I replied. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. I want to see you soon,” she said.
“As soon as this week is over. Mid-terms. Ugh. Who needs them, right?”
“Right. I’m swamped, too. How are we supposed to get all these research papers done, plus study material for these tests?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that’s why they give us eight weeks to do them in.”
/> We both shared laugh. I loved to hear my babe, to hear her giggle, her breath, her voice when she got excited about something. I loved it all. I loved her. I wanted her with me always.
Soon… I felt that soon this would happen.
Chapter Twenty
Ro
I pressed the brake to stop my car and the pedal went to the floor. There was no resistance at all. No brakes. My car wasn’t going to stop. I couldn’t stop this vehicle. What was going to happen to me now?
I slammed on the pedal over and over again, but it would not hold. I had no brakes. My car wouldn’t stop.
I was coming up quickly on a red light. I was fast approaching a car in front of me that had stopped. I was about to run right into it. I had to make a snap decision. If I swerved around the car, I was going to run right into the middle of the intersection and risk running into several oncoming cars. But they might miss me. If I slammed into the back of the car in front of me, then I would definitely injure the people in the car and probably myself, not to mention wrecking my car and hitting the people behind me.
I chose to swerve.
My car turned quickly around the car in front of me. I felt like the car actually went faster, as if I had trounced my foot down on the accelerator instead of repeatedly on the non-functioning brakes. The car burst through the intersection rapidly just as cars approached coming from the side.
I was screaming at the top of my lungs. There was nowhere I could go and nothing that I could do. This was really happening. It wasn’t a dream. It was not a figment of my imagination or some weird daydream that seemed more real than it should have been; no. This was a real event in my life and it might have ended up being the last event in my life.
I closed my eyes as I screamed and waited for the cars to ram into me. Miraculously they didn’t. I made it through the intersection, just barely missing the last car that was charging through there. But my troubles were far from over.
The car was moving left and right completely out of control. I was doing my best to steer it onto the road to at least go straight, but it seemed as if the steering wheel was locking up on me. I couldn’t control the damn car.
And I was heading off the road. And right into a tree. I was still moving pretty fast, at least forty miles per hour. And the brakes were gone. I was about to hit, about to impact and I didn’t have a clue as to what to expect next.
The pain was severe. My airbag exploded in my face as I held my arms up. I was just a little bit too slow and the bag tagged me on the face. It felt like I was being punched by an invisible person. Then the whiplash happened from behind me as the body of the car came to a sudden, screeching, and grinding halt.
I was not moving anymore. I heard something that sounded like hissing steam, but I couldn’t be sure where it was coming from. My body hurt all over, but I couldn’t tell if I was actually injured or not. I just felt sore. My face hurt the most and then my arms.
My head felt foggy and a little bit confused. Ugh… what in the world had just happened? My brakes went out in my car? I had the thing serviced regularly. I’d just gone a few miles to get some food. And now I was all banged up and my car was wrecked.
A few hours later I was finally home ready to rest. The cops came to the scene of the accident, along with an ambulance just in case. They ran a few tests on me, and then they agreed I was fine with just some cuts and bruises. I had a feeling that I would be way more sore the next day.
Allison picked me up and brought me back home. “Do you think that this wasn’t an accident?”
I looked at her. What was she saying? It took me a moment, but then I put it together. That was absurd. “No. What are you getting at? Are you serious?”
Allison shrugged. “You don’t think Dawn is capable of this?”
“Dawn? No… she wouldn’t do that. I could have died.”
“If you die then she takes your head spot and whatever dirt you have on her dies with you.”
I shook my head. This thought was scaring me to death. Yes, it was quite possible that Dawn had something to do with that. But would she…?
She would. I knew it. The bitch was evil. And there was not a damn way in the world that I would be able to prove it. I wished that Bobby was there with me. I needed him. I wanted his hand in mine, his arms around my chest. I wanted his comforting ways, his warm tone of voice. I just needed him to make the fear go away. I was so scared. How had my life turned out this crazy so fast?
I grabbed the phone and quickly called Bobby. I told him everything and expressed all of my concerns to him.
“Babe… I can’t believe it…” Bobby said. “Stay there. I’m coming to you.”
“Bobby, you don’t have to do that.”
“I’m on my way. End of story.”
Bobby ended the call. I was glad he was coming, but I didn’t expect him to come all that way tonight.
Soon, he was going to be with me. And when he arrived, I actually felt whole again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Bobby
I drove to Ro’s as fast as I could, ignoring every single traffic law that basically exists, and almost wrecking my own car along the way several times. It was practically a miracle that I didn’t get pulled over by the police at one point. They must have been short staffed.
My head was in a mess. I couldn’t fathom how this had happened to the woman I loved. She’d almost been killed. When she told me about the accident, my brain automatically went to the idea that Dawn, Jack, or Keith had something to do with this. I hated that those paranoid thoughts existed in my mind, but they were there and they would often twist reality every which way to make you forget the right way to approach things. They would get you so worked up.
And I felt powerless to stop those thoughts. Just like I felt powerless to control what was happening to my beloved. The moment Ro called me from her apartment and told me what had happened, a lump was in my throat. I felt sick all over and I broke out in a cold sweat. The room around me started to spin as I felt something inside of my head explode and the dizziness kicked up an extra notch.
It took me a few moments to realize that she was ok and she was going to be just fine. She was lucky, so lucky. And on the drive over to her place, every time I thought about how lucky she was not to have been hurt or killed, it sickened me all over again. It was like my mind wouldn’t accept the fact that Ro had lucked out and she was ok. That didn’t happen in the real world. Tragedy happened.
But when I pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and I walked to her door, knocked on it, and she opened it, and she stood there looking as beautiful as ever, but with a few cuts and bruises, I finally felt whole again. Relief washed over my body in a crazy wave and I felt at peace once again. My angel was ok.
I wrapped her in my arms and held her tightly to me, while still trying to make sure not to squeeze too tightly. She melted in my arms. I could hear the relief pouring out of her body as well. She was scared and wanted me, scared for me to be away from her in her time of need. But now I was there. We were together.
“Babe, how are you?” I asked. My voice felt tight as I fought back the tears. I couldn’t help it. Seeing the bruises and scrapes on Ro really brought tears to my eyes.
“I’m ok. Better now that you are here, honey. You didn’t have to come.”
“Of course I did.”
“What if they are watching, just waiting to jump on you?”
I shrugged. “Let them. I don’t care. All that matters is that I’m with you. Where’s Allison?”
“Oh, she went to stay at Rachel’s place since she heard you were coming over, to give us privacy.”
I smiled. “Smart girl.”
Ro laughed. She laid her head on my shoulder and looked up at me lovingly. I would never stop craving that look right there. This was what I lived for now.
We sat down on the couch and snuggled a little bit. We didn’t say much at first. Just being together was more than enough to fill the soun
ds of the space around us. I doubted Ro felt much like talking. From what I could observe on first glance Ro had a bruise on her chin, a scrape on her cheekbone, and a bruise on her forehead. She also had several small bruises on her arms where she had protected herself from the airbag.
“So, do you think this was foul play?” I asked her. She’d kind of mentioned it on the phone, but it was right after it had just happened and during that time the mind can go to all sorts of weird places. I didn’t want to put too much stock in it. But now that she was a little more clear headed, it was time to have that conversation.
Ro sighed. I could tell she really wanted to avoid thinking about this, but it was important. “I… I don’t know. It possibly could have been. I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that someone that I go to school with would be that evil. I could have been killed. So, I’m still holding out hope that it was all just some random bizarre fluke. You know?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I do. But you have to prepare yourself for that. Did the cops come to the scene? Are they doing an investigation?”
“Yeah. They are. They towed my car to a garage and they will try to determine what caused the brakes to suddenly go out. I just had those pads and rotors replaced three months ago. They should have been fine.”
“Right. So, how long did they say it might take to determine?”
She shrugged. “They didn’t really say.”
I nodded. It was always tough to get a definitive answer about things like that so quickly, but in a town this size with a potential murder attempt that just happened, I would have liked to see the cops taking this matter very seriously and getting things done as quickly as possible. But I wasn’t in charge of them and again, I wasn’t a cop. So, I wanted to try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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