Wanted (5 page)

I lo
ok
ed up as I h
eard the door open to Mr.
Deets
’
office.  My father s
tepped out dressed in his
Class A
uniform and carrying his Campaign cover in his hand.
Shit. He
lo
oke
d
even more
pissed
then when he
first
walked in
.

“Mr. Mathe
w
s, if
Gunn…
errr
, um,
Drew gets in one
more fight,
I am afraid w
e are going to have to suspend
him from the football team. That
is the last thing we want to do. We need you Drew
to win State.” Mr
.
Deets
’
said
as he s
ho
ok
my father’s hand and winked at me. My f
a
ther replied with a “humph” and turned to walk away.

My father hates the idea of me
playing football. My grandfather and mother
practically had to beg
him to let me play when I was seven
.
Once I stepped out on the field I knew I found where I belonged.
Football is all I have. I care more about football than I do girls
….or the Army
.

I stood up to leave and sho
ok
Mr.
Deet
s
’
hand before I turned to follow my father out the door. I knew he would remain si
lent until we got to his truck.

Shit! I don’t know why I hit Brad Jennings.
Okay
well I do know why. I saw the fucker behind the school push his girlfriend up against a wall and it lo
ok
ed like he was about to hit her. No fucking way I was going to let some
douche bag asshole hit a girl.

So, I got involved.

T
h
ere really was no use in t
rying to explain it to
him
.
He wouldn’t understand. Even if he did he would still be pissed.
It was the third fight I had been in since school s
tarted two months ago. This latest fight was the last straw with
Mr.
Deet
s
’
saying I might get cut fr
om the team.

Get cut from the team? Football was all I had. I had to get my shit together and get my head on straight.
It was the first time in my life
I ever felt
accepted and needed…..t
he feeling was fucking great.
The only other place I fel
t needed was at Gramps ranch.

Ever since m
y father got transferred to Fort
Sill when I was just entering eighth
grade
, I had come to
depend on football
as my escape from
my drill instructor father
. 
That man
lives to
tell me I need to focus on my grades and go in the Army like he did.
There is no way in hell I was
going i
n the Army.

M
y plan was to take the
f
ootball
scholarship I was offered at the University of Texas and
get back to
my grandfather and the ranch
. Some of my best childhood memories are from his ranch. Man I love that place.
I could p
ractically smell my Grams
’
Chicken and
Dumplins
’.

I told my grandfather that my
dream
was
footba
ll and to get into Architectural
engi
neering. He is, of course, one hundred percent
supportive which I think
pisses my father off even more.

The minute the door shut to his F150 black truck I knew the
shit was about to hit the fan.

“What the
FUCK
do you think you are doing getting into
ANOTHER
fight Drew? Your mother is going to be devastated
by this
!”

Sure, bring my mom into it you as
s
hole. “It’s Gunner, I like to be called
Gunner.” I shot back at him a little to
o
pissed
off. I was mad
that he was trying to bring my mom into this and guilt me
yet again.

“The last time I lo
ok
ed on your birth certificate it clearly stated your name was Drew Garrett Mathe
w
s. Not fucking
Gunner.
Where the fuck did you come up with that name?” My father hissed at me
through
gritted teeth.

“Coach was telling the rest of the team how to play positions right. Said I made it down the field fast and made the most tackles and that I was an example of how to play the gunner position right. It just stuck. He started
to
call me Gunner and so did the guys.”

“Is that so? Think you are a hot shot ‘cause you are some star football
high school
player? Bullshit! You are never going to make anything out of your life playing goddamn
football
!
Nothing! Where could you p
ossible go in your life?
You think football is going to get you anywhere?” My father said with so much hatred I cringed.

I had yet to tell him about my scholarship and made my mother
and grandfather
promise not to
tell him
. I was going to wait until aft
er football season but fuck it.

“Sir, I got accepted in
to
T
he University of Texas. I got my letter this summer. I intend on
going.”

My father let out a laugh that just about made my stomach drop. “How the hell you think you are going to pay for college? I’m not helping I can tell you that right
now. “

“I got a
football
scholarship sir;
and Gramps
said he would help out with a place to stay in Austin.
”
I said with as much strength in my voice as I could muster.
He didn’t need to know Gramps
already said he would cover any other
expenses my scholarship lacked.

“Is that so? Well
,
just to let
you
know. Do not call me when you fail.
Which you will, I guarantee it.
Do not call me when you need help. Do not call me when your little football plan does not work
out
. As of right now, I am done with you.”

4 Years later……

“Dude I cannot believe we only have one more year of college!” My best friend Jeff shouted over Tim McGraw
’s Truck Yeah song. Shit
,
if he played that song one more time I might have to knock the
shit out of him.

“No doubt!
I’m
just gl
ad school is done.
Man this year has been kicking my ass!” I shouted back over the damn song. Just then Jeff’s phone vibrated and lit up.
We were at a stop light
so he picked it up to read it.

“
I’m getting a text from
Ellie
, that’s weird.”
Jeff said as he turned the m
usic down.

Jeff’s little sister
Ellie
was a senior in high school and w
as about to graduate
in two d
ays. I had never personally met her
face to face but sure knew enough about her to feel like she was my little sister as well
.
He was throwing her a graduation party Saturday night. She had turned 18 in November
and he had been putting
off having
her
come to any of our parties
until she was
out of high school.

No one on the team was to meet her
until then and e
ven then
,
she was pretty much off limits.
He was very protective of his little sister.

I was an only child so I didn’t get the
whole tighter than tight
sibling thing. I did know that Jefferson and his sister where pretty damn close though. They grew up with a drunk as a mother and Jeff
pretty much raised his sister.

“
Ahhh
Shit, we need to swing by and pick up my sister
. Something must be wrong
if she
wants
to le
ave school early.” Jeff said
as he made a quick U-turn.

“Holy shit…
….
you
are
actually going to allow me to meet
your
baby sister?! HOLY FUCK….
Let me write this shit down! I get to me meet the ever elusive
baby sister of Jefferson Johnson!” I said as I let out a laugh
.

“Shut
the fuck up douche bag!
”
Jeff said as he punched me on my left arm. “
Hey,
I’m
s
orry
,
I know you wanted to stop by
McBride’s and lo
ok
at that
gun.”

“
I can take a lo
ok
at it later today
or tomorrow. No worries.”
I had my eye on a
Remmington
Model 870 12 gage pump action for a few months now. I could always head over to McBride’s gun shop another time.

Jeff and I were
planning on going
out to my
grandfather’s
ranch
in Mason in a few weeks to catch up with the old man and help out with some things he needed done
around the place
.
Nothing made me
happier
than hanging out wit
h my G
ramps
and helping out on the ranch.
Most of the happy memories from my
childhood are thanks to my grandfather
and grandmother
. There is noth
ing that
I would not do for them.
Nothing.

“What do you think is going on? I mean she never asks you to pick her up early.” I said to Jeff as I lo
ok
ed at my watch. His sister had to
have at least another hour of school le
f
t.

“
Shit I don’t know. I know she was
happy the other day knowing
everything was set for her scholarship to UT. She has worked her ass off in school. The money from our grandmother should help cover the
additional costs that her scholarship won’t.
I had it invested and it has done really well.
” Jeff said as he sped towards
Ellie
’s school.

From what I gathered from hearing Jeff talk about his sister was that she was pretty damn smart.
She was third in her class.
Worked her ass off in high school taking every Pre-AP class she could get
into
and ev
en to
ok
some ACC classes
to get a jump start on her college classes. She already had enough college credits to enter UT as a sophomore. Jeffers
on was pretty damn proud of her and bragged about her all the time.

“Hey man, do
me
a favor….send her a text f
rom my phone giving our ETA of five
minutes will
ya
?” Jeff asked as he sped even fast
er
towards her school. To say that he was over protective of his baby
sister was putting it lightly.

For some reason my hands started to shake when I was punching in his message to
Ellie
. What the hell? I mean, I got a little bit excited at the idea of finally getting to meet
Ellie
face to face bu
t come on? Maybe it was just
my shoulder acting up. I hurt it during spring training and now I carry a bottle of Advil in my pocket everywhere
I go
.

Yeah, surely that was it! I mean come
on
,
it is just
Ellie
, Jeff
’s sister
,
for Christ sake.
She had been over to
our
place a few times but Jeff
always made sure I was never home when she was over.
From what I can remember she lo
oked like she was cute and
I could tell she had a rocking body.
I have seen her from afar plenty of times.
She was really into yoga and even got Jeff ho
ok
ed on it
for a little while. Bastard kept
trying to get me to go to some Yoga place downtown. Fuck that. The Yoga shit coach makes us do is eno
ugh for me thank you very much.