Crushed (6 page)

Chapter 4

Reece
more or less
had the entire downstairs to himself. His
parents
’ bedroom and his
sisters’ now empty bedrooms
were up on the third level. His mom
and dad spent most of their time on the main level in the living room. Or at least
they did when
his m
om wasn’t in the kitchen and
his d
ad wasn’t in his office, which were also on the main level.

Their
downstairs consisted of a family room that had somehow, over the years, been converted
into more of a game room than anything else.
He
had a dartboard, foosball table and a
huge flat screen connected to his
X-Box.

His
bedroom, the only one down
t
here, took up the whole backside of the house. A set of sliding glass doors led out
of the family room and into the backyard, facing the lake. Those doors were ideal
for sneaking in and out of at night. With
his
parents
’ room so far from his
, they never heard a thing.
Not even his
vehicle starting.
Especially since his
mom couldn’t sleep without her fancy little noise making machine that bopped out
the sound of a babbling brook all night long.

Not that he
’d been sneaking out at all the last few months. In fact,
he’d been home more lately than he
had
been
in a long time
. Since Adam was his
only friend t
hat wasn’t in football either, he
’d been spending more time than usual with him. Practice had started a
month ago for everyone else. Adam
usually
came to Reece’s house to hang out because they
could
always
find something to do.

They
were in the middle of an NHL game
on X-Box when they
heard
Mr. Hildenbrandt
tromping down the stairs.

“Adam” he
said as he appeared in the archway, “don’t you think it’s about time you headed home?”

“Can you giv
e u
s
five
minutes?” Reece asked
his dad
.
The score was four to three, late in the third period and Adam had just pulled his
goalie. Reece was s
ure he could maintain the lead.

They just needed a few more minutes.

He
didn’t bother to keep
the aggravation out of his voice. They
w
ere almost done. Would giving them
a few
minutes kill him?

Apparently so.

“No,” Landon Hildenbrandt
replied without even thinking it over. He flipped off
the TV;
effectively ending
the game
.

“Okay,” Adam said. He shot
Reece
a look and threw his controller onto the couch. H
e was as used to Reece’s dad’s jackass behavior as Reece
was.
And while Adam had to have been as mad as Reece
was about the abrupt ending of the game, he didn’t show it.

Reece
was tempted to follow Adam out
the door. He
knew that if
his dad was asking Adam
to
leave, it was so he could get him alone. So they
could have one of their
chats. The chats never
ended well. At least not for Reece
.

He hoisted himself to his feet. No way was he
going to just sit there with his dad
hovering
over him while he had to crane his neck to look up at him. He
flopped onto
the couch instead. From where he sat, he
could
look through the glass doors. He focused his
attention on the stormy gray waves that were rolling in.

“I talked to coach Murphy tonight. He’d be happy to let you back on the team.”
Landon
got straight to it, as usual.

So, we’re
back to this? Again?
Reece wondered.

“I don’t want to be back on the team. And why would he let me back on? I missed all
of junior year. There’s no way he wants me back. Practice for this year started last
month. First game is this Friday.”
He
didn’t want to be having this conversation. Somehow,
he
thought since practice had already started, that
Landon
had let it go.
He should’ve known he
was wrong.

“Trust me, we talked. He’ll let you back on. You start tomorrow.”
He turned to leave. As if that was all there would be to this conversation. As if
Reece
had
no
say in the matter.

Reece
ripped
his
eyes away from the lake and stared at
his
dad in disbelief. “What did you do? Did you offer to
pay
him?”

“No.”
He stopped and turned back around. He gave
Reece
the look that
he
knew was meant to intimidate.

Reece
clenched
his
jaw in silence.
He
gave him
his own furious
look back.
He
wanted
his dad
to know
that
this tactic wasn’t going to work on
him.

Landon
huffed. “I did offer to make a nice contribution to the athletics department.”

“So you’re basically buying my way back onto the team.
” It wasn’t even a question. I
t was a statement.
Unbelievable
, Reece thought.
Or
maybe not. Maybe ‘typical’
i
s more like it.

“You never should’ve quit.”
Landon
’s tone was shifting into lecture mode.

“No,
you
never should’ve talked to Coach on my behalf. Then again,
offer him
whatever you want. I’m not joining the team. I quit for
a reason
.
”
He said the next words
slowly
. A
s if that might actually help them to finally sink in.
“
I don’t want to play
.”

“Reece,”
Landon
said. His voice
had gone
all hard as it morphed into his I-mean-business tone. “We’re going to talk about
this. I humored you last year but this is senior year. It’s a big year for you.”

“No,”
Reece
said. “You’re not going to bully me into this. I’m not playing.”

“Do you have any idea how much your mother and I do for you? Do you appreciate any
of it?” he began. “All I’m asking is that you play a little football.”

Reece said nothing. His dad was the reason he didn’t want to play. Landon
was one of those parents who sat in the stands, demeaning the other team, shouting
inappropriate things. But more often than not, he got away with it because of the
yearly donations he made.

It was embarrassing and Reece fel
t like he’d put up with it long enough.

No matter how good
he
pla
yed, Landon always had some reason for tearing it apart.
He
’d spend days hearing about what
he
should’ve done differently. How
he
should’ve played better.
He’d
got
ten
sick of it. It took the fun right out of it and beat it to death. Do
wn to noth
ing. But even that, he could have lived with.
A few of his teammates had dads like that, too.
What he
couldn’t stand was being associated with
him
while he
was out there.

He
’d ruined it for Reece
.

He’
d tried to explain that more than once. But Landon had refused to listen. Not willing
to admit that he’d done anything wrong. The way he saw it, he was just supporting
the team. He’d
berated Reece for having a problem with it. Reece had warned Landon that if he couldn’t
keep his mouth under control, he’d be done.

Landon hadn’t listened.

Reece had turned in his uniform
the next day and
had
never regretted it.

Landon
, however, ha
d
yet to recover.

Like it’s a kick in the balls to his masculinity that he has a son
that doesn’t play or something,
Reece thought
.

Landon had refused to come to Reece’s
baseball games
last summer
. Reece
knew damn well it was because he thought of it as a pun
ishment or something.
Like
, if Reece
didn’t play football, he wouldn’t su
pport him
in basebal
l. The truth? It was a relief. He didn’t want him there. He
played a l
ot better when he wasn’t around
. B
ecause Landon brought nothing but stress with him.

And
his m
om never missed a game.

“You either play, or you can hand over your keys.”

Reece
shrugged. This wasn’t the first or probably even the last time he would threaten
him with his vehicle. His parents had
got
ten it for his
sixteenth birthday
. B
ut
they had
made it clear that since they
had purchase
d
it, they weren’
t opposed to taking it away if Reece
ever gave them a reason to do so.
However, Beth Hildenbrandt had an entirely different idea about what qualified as
‘a reason’. But most of the time Reece felt like the only reason his dad had gotten
him the vehicle was so that he could threaten him with it.

“Fine,”
Reece
said. “The keys
are upstairs in my jacket
.”

Looked like he
’d be texting Adam, begging for a ride in the morning. Again.

Landon huffed at him once more
. As if this answer surprised him? It wasn’t the fi
rst time
Reece ha
d give
n up the rights to his
Navigator without a fight.

Besides, he had a hunch his mom
wasn’t clued into this conversation yet.

She
actually got why he
didn’t want to play.

He
bounced off the couch
, heading to his
room.

“Reece,” his d
ad said in a warning tone.

“What? What else are you going to take away? Are you going to ground me
because I don’t want to play?” he asked as he threw his
hands up in frustration.

Landon’s
face was hard. Angry. He had control issues. As in, he thought he needed to be in
control of everything. A
ll the time. It was worse for Reece now that his
sisters were out
of the house. The crazy thing? Reece thought his dad
really did believe it was because he knew what was best for everyone. In his own
warped
way, he was looking out for
his kids
by being this way.

But he was wrong.

And
Reece
was done with it.

“Dad? Remember how you practically stood over me, watchi
ng me fill out the application
to
Northwestern
?”
Reece was quiet a minute. He enjoyed
the questioning, surprised look that settled on his
dad’s face. He could tell his dad
had
no idea where he
was go
ing with this. “You
remember,” Reece
needled
because there was no way he’d forgotten
. “The application
that you personally
mailed
last
month
?”