Saylor: Hanging out at Piper’s tonight.Don’t worry.I’ll be in my usual spot to cheer you on tomorrow.
Me: Don’t make plans for after the game.
After a long minute of floating and disappearing dots, she finally replied.
Saylor: Okay.
I didn’t know what it was about that single-word answer that gave me an ominous feeling, but I couldn’t let it go.Hitting speed dial, I called her.
“Saylor.Talk to me.What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry if I worried you.”She sounded sad and too far away.“I’m not used to not being in control, you know.”A short, mirthless laugh huffed out of her.“Punching my ticket on the Hot Mess Express was not on my bucket list this week.”
“Babe.Seriously.Let me come get you.”
“No, Cash.You need to rest, get all charged up for the game tomorrow.The team needs you at your best.”
“I sleep better next to you.You know that.”
“Well, I’m sort of drunk at the moment, and fixing to get drunker if my friend keeps topping up my glass with her favorite drink.”A feminine giggle followed by some jostling sounds preceded, “Hey!I barely took a drink of that!”Another giggle, this one from Saylor, then, “Sorry.Piper thinks I need to obliterate today from my memory or something.”
“What really happened with the faculty committee?”
A long sigh gusted in my ear.“Barry’s prof, the one in his dad’s pocket, made an impassioned plea for him to remain in the program under Professor Xavier’s direct supervision.What a crock of caca.Barry runs that guy, but I couldn’t say that in the hearing.”The slurping, sipping sound of her taking a drink told me she was maybe buying into Piper’s advice about drowning the day in alcohol.“Anyway, up until Barnard Brown came to campus, Professor Xavier was a respected member of the faculty, so in deference to his tenure, the rest of them are taking his offer under advisement.They’ll decide by the end of the week.”
“What about the sexual harassment and the attempt to sabotage your project?”
“If he stays, he won’t be allowed to take any classes with me and must wait until after I register to set his schedule, so I don’t have to pay for his behavior.He’s not allowed to come within 100 feet of me while we’re on campus, and he’s not allowed to interact with any students who happen to be on any projects I’m working on,” she said as though by rote, setting my teeth on edge at the kid-gloves way the faculty was handling asshole Barry.
“What are the consequences if he breaks the rules?”
“No matter how much Professor Xavier pleads, he’s done with the program.”More sounds of her drinking did nothing for my peace of mind.
“You don’t believe they’ll kick him out.”It wasn’t a question.
“They have all the evidence and reason to kick him out now, but they’re taking his case ‘under advisement.’”She spat those last two words like poison.“What does that sound like to you?”
My girl was never bitter.Pissed off occasionally?Yeah.Never bitter.Bitterness lived right next door to defeat, and Saylor didn’t know defeat.
“I’m coming over.”I slid off my bed and hunted around for the hoodie I’d tossed before I started working on my paper.
“No, Cash, you’re not.”Despite all the conversation about drinking and the drinking sounds I’d heard as we talked, Saylor’s tone was stone-cold sober.“You’re going to sleep well in your own damn bed and play football tomorrow like the pro you aspire to be.Then you’re going out to dinner with your awesome parents to celebrate your win.”
“Wait—”
“Look, in the business I want to pursue, the kind of shit I’m going through now is SOP.I need to figure out how to navigate it so I have tools when I need them later.That’s not your plateful—it’s mine.You have plenty else to worry about.Go to bed so you can wake up awesome.”
I pulled at my hair, frustrated and more than a little pissed off she didn’t think I was up to supporting her when she needed me because of a football game.“You think I’m going to sleep after this conversation?”
“You’d better.Everyone will be counting on you to play your best tomorrow afternoon.”
“Saylor.”
“Cash.”
For a long moment, we remained silent, a weird standoff I didn’t know how to navigate—until I did.
“Tell you what.You promise to meet me in the parking lot of the facility, and I’ll sleep here tonight while you spend the night with your friend.”A thought struck.“Wait a sec.Is Bax there?”
