“The offense is still on the field.”
As if to emphasize my point, the center hiked the ball, and the entire backfield erupted into chaos. The quarterback tossed the ball to Tarvarius who ran toward the opposite sideline. On the way, he tossed the ball to Danny who ran toward our sideline. Then Danny tossed the ball back to the quarterback who threw it to O’Reilly streaking down the sideline toward the end zone. As designed, the play confused the defense to the point a lumbering end, rather than a speedy cornerback or safety, tried to chase down our tight end who had surprising hustle for such a big man. When he crossed into the end zone for the second time during the game, the rest of the team swarmed him while I helped Zoe clang her cowbell again.
When the Wildcats lined up to kick the point after, she shoved her noisy toy into my middle. “Fine. You take this,” she groused. “I’ll go downstairs and buy one for myself.”
“Sorry, Zoe. Sometimes the cheerleader in me makes a rowdy appearance. Here.” I handed the cowbell back to her. “The defense will be on the field again for a few minutes. I’ll go buy my own.”
Without giving her a chance to respond, I turned and excused myself past the other fans in our row and headed down to the concessions beneath the bleachers. When I returned with my own noise-maker, the offense was back on the field—minus Danny and all the starters. We were up by four touchdowns with a quarter and a half to go. Guess the coaching staff felt comfortable in letting the backups play. But what did it mean that Danny wasn’t with them?
I tamped down the giddy flame of hope that tried to light up inside of me for him. This was only the first game in a long season. Plus, it was against an inferior opponent. D-II schools didn’t draw the same caliber of talent that played for D-I or even D-IA programs. If Danny wanted to move into a starting role on the Wildcats, he’d better look stellar against this D-II team.
In the fourth quarter, he went back out on the field. Without the starters in the game, it became more of a slugfest, but the Wildcats’ backups were holding their own. This time instead of lining up in the slot, he lined up wide, and I couldn’t contain my excitement for him having the chance to show off his skills in his preferred position. The center hiked the ball, the quarterback dropped back, and Danny ran his route, completely faking out the defense. But the quarterback threw the ball short. Though Danny came back for it, he couldn’t get there. Luckily, the cornerback whiffed the interception, and the ball landed without incident on the turf.
Danny jogged back to the huddle, but when they broke, he was back in the slot blocking for the running back. The way he imitated the Hulk after he knocked the defender to the turf cracked me up. He was so into the game—and so was I.
In high school I’d been on the sidelines up close and personal with the action—except all the backups and subs had stood between the cheer squad and the players on the field. Kaitlyn Frost, our cheer captain, held the prime position for seeing who was on the field—offense or defense—so she could call out the right cheers. While several times I’d seen Danny streaking into the end zone after he caught a pass from the Darth Vader of quarterbacks, Derek Watson, I’d never actually seen him play. Watching him from the stands was a whole other experience. No wonder he was so popular with the team. No wonder so many girls swooned over him.
Judging by his play in the season opener, he was headed for that same adulation at Mountain State. The thought took some of the fun out of watching him play. In the end, we won though he didn’t make any touchdowns. Still, he did exactly what he said he’d do: run routes and catch passes. Admittedly, I was biased and not a coach, but from where I was watching, he’d played well. The team definitely benefitted from having him on it.
“What do you say we grab a burger?” Zoe asked as we joined the flow of fans leaving the stadium.
At her suggestion my stomach rumbled—loudly—and she shot me a side-eye. Laughing, I said, “Sounds like a plan.”
Hopping in my car, we waited in line in the parking garage for twenty minutes before we could hit the road at last.
“I swear, we’d have been better off walking to the game,” she sighed.
“If we lived on the south side of town, maybe. On the plus side, most of these people are probably headed to the bars, so we should be able to find a table at Burger Bill’s.”
“I hope so,” she said as I wheeled us into the flow of traffic.
Unfortunately, parking on or near Main was nonexistent. By the time we’d walked the two blocks from my parking spot to the café, we found ourselves on a wait list. Grabbing our beeper from the hostess, we went back outside to sit on one of the benches in front of the place.
“From what I saw today, you didn’t take my advice,” Zoe said as she spun the beeper between her hands.
“What do you mean I didn’t take your advice?”
I knew damn well what she was talking about. From the sardonic expression on her face, she knew I knew too.
“Are you going to the football party that player invited you to?” she asked.
Rearing back as though she’d slapped me, I said, “Not only no, but hell no.” Striving for some semblance of calm. I forced my shoulders away from my ears. “Zo-Zo, those parties are not my scene, which you’re well aware of. But if you want to go, we can swing by the coffee shop after burgers. I’m sure Hailey has all the deets. She might even welcome a wingwoman.”
My friend shook her head. “Stop trying to change the subject. You’ve been hanging out with Dannya lotsince he landed here. From the way you cheered for him this afternoon, it’s junior year of high school all over again.” She patted me on the knee for emphasis.
“I haven’t seen him at all since classes started, so I think it’s safe to say he was only hanging out with me until he met some people.”
Right then my phone vibrated in the pocket of my shorts. As though he sensed we were talking about him, the devil himself sent a text.
Danny: Hey, T. Some of the guys are headed to Stromboli’s to celebrate our win. Wanna join us?
Me: Zoe and I already have a table at Burger Bill’s. Have a good time.
“See?” Zoe said, her tone making it clear what a sap she thought I was.
“I just turned down his invitation to join him and his boys at Stromboli’s.” It took superhuman effort to avoid sticking my out my tongue and adding “so there.”
My phone lit up with another text.
