Wishful Thinking (7 page)

Coach’s keys jingled as he walked and his sneakers made skid sounds which echoed all around. He propped a foot up on a bottom bleacher and leaned an elbow against his knee.
 

“I’m sure you’re all aware that Saturday’s game is canceled and I know rumors abound, but I am officially quashing them.” Coach pulled a tissue from his pocket and blew his nose. He crumpled up the tissue and stuffed it back in his sweatpants pocket. He put the clipboard down next to his foot and looked at us.
 

“As you heard a few weeks ago a student at Jefferson High passed out on the field during a game against Middleton. He died last week.”

What?

A few different students asked typical questions. "How?"
 
“Was it related to the game?" “What about the handsie coach?"

Coach Renly raised his hands and patted the air shushing us. "I know there are a lot of questions, but there aren’t a lot of answers yet. The MPA interscholastic division is looking into the matter and until they come up with a ruling the Rugby program is ‘on break,’” Coach used air quotes. “Until further notice practice is suspended consider yourselves benched for a while.”
 

That explained Coach’s frustration yesterday and even why Dean acted so nervous. He was privy to the information before we were and obviously it disappointed and overwhelmed him. With the mystery solved now I wouldn’t have to nag him anymore.

“When will they have a decision?" Caleb asked.

“Don’t know, but they are having a town meeting to discuss options before they make a vote."

“And if they rule to end the program then what?" Tyler asked.

“You’ll be stuck with La Crosse or baseball or something." Coach took some sheets off his clipboard and passed them around. “This is a new physical form that must be returned by all of you, even if the program gets canceled I want those back. You won’t be able to play until I do.”
 

We passed around the sheets and then Coach dismissed us. That was about the perfect ending to a craptastic day.

Summer rested her head against my shoulder rubbing her cheek back and forth exposing her neck. We were hanging out in the loft upstairs in my house. The Dark Knight Rises was playing on a cable station. My attention, however, kept being drawn to Summer’s exposed neck. Her hand rested on my knee kneading it.
 

I invited her over as soon as I got home from school. The announcement Coach made earlier today had me beyond depressed. Rugby was my lifeline. My problems, my stresses, were left in the locker room while I was on that field, usually. All expectations of my future were ignored for those glorious hours spent practicing and running plays. My hang-ups and insecurities didn’t follow me there.
 

Without my stress-reliever I needed Summer. Her being around usually cheered up my fowl moods.
 
“Thanks for coming over,” I said, tilting my head so the unmarked side of my face could rub against the top of her head.
 

“There’s no where else I’d rather be, besides, I said I’d take care of you—” she stopped playing with my knee and lifted her head, “—and I am a woman of my word.”

She stared up at me with those hazel eyes, “You know that black eye kind of makes you hotter, makes you look tough.”

“Yeah,” I said nuzzling her neck.

 
She moved her hand higher up my thigh where her fingers lightly circled along the inside of my thigh. Her brown eyes were looking into mine and she leaned forward and kissed me while her hand simultaneously moved higher, until she had all my attention.
 

I pulled back, “My dad will be—”

“Shh,” she said putting a finger to my lips, while her other hand was still continuing its assault. She licked her lips. “I want to take care of you," she murmured and kissed along my cheek. She moved closer leaving no space between us her hand still garnering my full attention. She kissed me on the lips once more and then said, “Now just relax.”

Famous last words.
 

Her kisses continued down my neck, my chest. “Summer you don’t have—” her kisses went lower silencing me. My eyes closed. My head lolled back. Tension built up in my body and I moaned, “Summer I’m—"

“Junior you up here,” came my dad’s voice from somewhere downstairs.
 

My eyes flew open. My dad was coming and so was I. I managed a garbled, and unclear, “Oh shit.”

“Junior,” dad said again. Thank god, the couch faced away from the hallway so my dad wouldn’t get an eyeful.

“Up here,” I squealed out.
 

Summer sat back up licking her lips and fluffing up her hair. She crossed her legs and leaned back casually beside me twirling a piece of her hair around her finger. She didn’t miss a beat when my dad appeared.

“Junior, there you are.”

“Yep, here, I am,” I said trying to gather my composure, but my voice squeaked.
 

Summer giggled and subtly licked her lips dropping her hand from her hair, letting it fall across her chest before resting on the couch between us. My dad saw none of this. I grabbed a pillow next to me and adjusted it so it was covering my lap
 
since I wasn’t exactly zipped up.

Summer turned away from me to face my dad, “Hi Mister Castle.”

“Summer, didn’t know you were coming over.” He gave Summer a smile before leveling his gaze on me, “Junior you didn’t answer my calls.”
 

My dad couldn’t see but Summer’s hand was on my thigh again creeping under the pillow.
 

I swallowed. “Sorry,” my voice cracked and I tried to clear my nerves by coughing. “I didn’t hear my phone."

My dad crossed his arms, "I thought we had an agreement." My dad was referring to the document he made me sign before agreeing to pay for my cell phone—I had to answer all of his calls. Period. No exceptions. Consider it another drawback to having a lawyer for a father, they knew how to make everything you did legal and binding.
 

“Sorry Mister Castle it’s my fault, I was so concerned about his eye I haven’t let him do anything strenuous.” Again she was smiling.
 

My dad was smiling too. “All right well, don’t let it happen again.”

Oh god, did he know? “Yes, dad.”

“How’s the…” my dad drew a circle around his eye with his finger then pointed to my face, “… eye?”

Seriously? Pantomiming? “Fine,” I said, "Summer is taking excellent care of me." Summer’s hand was sliding over my open fly.

My dad smiled and nodded his head. “I’m sure she is.” He did know didn’t he? Dad clapped his hands together, “Will you two be here for dinner?"

Summer arched a brow her eyes focused on me all while her hand was stroking something else. “Actually, were supposed to meet some friends at Romano’s if that’s okay?" Again my voice sounded all squeaky like I was going through puberty again.
 

“Make sure you’re home by one,” dad said, “Summer give my best to your folks," he added.

“I sure will," Summer said.
 

My dad then disappeared into his room.
 

“Oh my—"

I didn’t even get any words out and Summer lunged at me covering my mouth with hers.

The parking lot to Romano’s Little Italy was full. Pretty standard on a Friday night. I backed out of the lot and parked on a side street. This time, Summer waited for me to open her door and gave me another kiss before taking my hand. Emily was outside the restaurant and waved at us when we walked up. She took a drag off her cigarette before snubbing it out with the heel of her boot.
 

Every time she took a drag her eyes got real squinty and her nose wrinkled up, not attractive at all. Another thing I didn’t miss about Emily, her constant bad breath. I never told Emily this, but I hated kissing her, even the gum she chewed didn’t hide the taste of cigarettes that clung to her mouth whenever she smoked.
 

“What took you so long,” Emily said when we reached her. She ignored me and focused her attention on Summer, “I can’t handle it."
 

Summer gave me a kiss on the cheek and let go of my hand and put her arm through Emily’s, “Don’t worry I’m here."
 

My time of being taken care of was at an end.
 

I opened the door and both girls walked in, keeping ahead of me talking girl stuff and leaving me out of it. We found Nate and Kyle seated at a horseshoe booth towards the back.
 

“We have to go to the bathroom," Emily said.
 

“Yeah,” Summer said, “need to freshen up." She gave me one of her full lip smiles and winked. They headed off towards the restroom whispering and looking over their shoulders. I was quick becoming self-conscious they were talking about me especially when Emily said, “You didn’t," before they ducked inside.
 

I slid in next to Kyle. “Hey,” he said.
 

“You look happy," Nate said smiling.
 

“It’s Friday," I said.
 

“Yes it is, but Fridays don’t bring about smiles like that, if I had to guess—”
 

I cut Nate off with a punch to the gut, “There’s nothing to guess on and let’s leave it at that."

Nate held up both his hands, “Okay, okay, guy can take a hint."

Kyle flicked Nate’s head. "Ow," Nate said rubbing at the spot, “what was that for?"

“Checking to see how thick it is.” Kyle looked at me, “It’s pretty thick,” he said. We were laughing when the girls returned.
 

Summer slid into the booth next to me. “Why didn’t you tell me rugby was canceled?” Emily slid in beside her.
 

“I was busy, and forgot" I said glancing at her lips and the freshly applied gloss. I placed my hand on her leg and squeezed.
 

“Yeah, he was super happy over it being Friday and all.” Nate smiled at Summer. Asshole.

“Is there anything you can do, you know to get it back?" She placed her hand on top of mine.
 

Nate ran his hand through his dark hair and looked at Summer, “We could write to our local senator you wouldn’t happen to know his name would you?"
 

“You’d have a better chance reaching my father than I would.”

“I thought one of you would be bringing Claudia with,” Emily said effectively changing the conversation. The smell of cigarettes and mints overwhelming the small space.
 

“Nah,” Kyle said, “I bow to Nate, I got to talking to her and she feisty, reminds me too much of my momma for my taste.”
 

“He’s saying that because he knows I’m gonna win anyway."

The waiter came by and took our order; two large pizzas and a pitcher of Coke.
 

When the waiter came back with our drinks Nate reached into his jacket and withdrew a flask. He poured a bit into his glass of Coke and offered the rest of it to the table. Kyle and I passed, but Summer grabbed it from his hands and took a whiff.
 

“What is it?" She made a face and offered it to Emily. Emily took a sip and shuddered before handing it back to Summer.

“It’s rum, I have other stuff in the car.” Nate took his flask back from Summer. "My parents are in the Bahamas for their anniversary.” You could hear the eye roll in his voice. Nate was about as spoiled as one could get but not in the way he craved which was attention.
 

Kyle grabbed the flask before Nate could slide it back into his jacket. “You better not drink anymore until you get home.” He dumped the rest of the alcohol in a nearby plant.
 

“What’d you do that for?"
 

Kyle kept Nate in check. His father was police commissioner and since he was the first African-American to have the position in Maine meant Kyle showed tremendous respect for the law and made the rest of us as well. Nate being an only child to one of the wealthiest families on the East coast meant he wasn’t accustomed to not getting his way, no, wasn’t exactly a word in their repertoire. This constantly put Kyle and Nate at odds, but it also seemed to make them best friends.

Laws are partly responsible for Kyle and I becoming friends. After the mess with my mom, and her accidental overdose––she’d mixed up her prescriptions and took the wrong amount of one then had a glass of wine which caused a very bad reaction—I may have been eleven but even I knew it wasn’t an accident.
 

 
My mom had OCD she’d never mixed up anything, especially medication. Truth is she committed suicide. Her depression was obvious to anyone who knew her including me, but I never said anything. One day about four months after my mom’s death Dean and I were playing an Xbox gaming console they had on display at Best Buy.
 

We were playing the latest Madden game and he was kicking my ass. Our rivalry was getting bad and we were elbowing each other and making comments and Dean made a “your momma joke.”
 

It was like this switch went off inside me and I flipped out. Threw my controller on the ground grabbed the television, the console, and the display case containing it all and slammed it to the floor. Then I proceeded to throw all the boxed Xboxes on the shelf to the floor. Dean stood there frozen, mouth agape and once I’d broken every thing I could in the aisle I turned on him and lunged. We fought and I ended up breaking his arm in the process.