My Name Is River Blue (34 page)

I was angry
enough to hit him, but I maintained control until Big Bill stepped even closer,
spat in my face, and stabbed my chest with his meaty finger. "What do you
think of that, you little half breed bastard?"

I shot forward,
shifting all my weight into a punch that exploded into Summers' jaw. His head
snapped up and back, his body bouncing off Ant's car before he fell forward
smacking his face on the asphalt. Ant wrapped his arms tightly around me to
prevent me from doing any more damage to Big Bill or me.

I had only a
moment to watch Big Bill's mouth drool blood on the white parking stripe before
Ant opened the passenger door and shoved me into his Chevy. He sprinted to the
other side of his car, hopped behind the wheel, and spun away from our parking
spot and the massive lump that was Big Bill.

My hand throbbed
as if I had hit a brick wall. As we rode towards home, I worked it to check for
any broken bones, and came to the conclusion that there was no serious injury
to it.

I was worried
that I might have hurt Bill Summers much worse than my hand, and I wondered if
we should have stayed and called for help. My other concern was the possibility
of him having me arrested for assault, and I thought the fact that we drove off
and left him would look bad. I was quiet until Ant burst out laughing.

"What's so
funny?" I asked.

"Yo, you
just dropped Big Bill like a bad habit. Can you imagine how many people have
wanted to do that? Geezit, you knocked the total shit out of that cracker. I
bet you broke his fucking jaw, dude."

"Ant, shut
up! I don't need any more to worry about." I could picture the story Bill
Summers would give to the cops. He would not mention his insults, spitting in
my face, the hard poke he gave me in the chest, or blocking me from the car. Big
Bill was an influential man with enough money to buy connections and the favors
that went with them. If the rumors were true, he had local law enforcement and a
few politicians on his unofficial payroll, and I wasn't sure if my status as
QB1 for the Hawks would keep me out of trouble if Big Bill chose to seek
revenge.

"Chill, RB.
The dude blocked you from the car, illegally detained you, and insulted you. Just
spitting in your face is assault. Then he hit you first even though it was just
his fat finger. Who knows what he was going to do after he poked you? I feel
sure I heard him say he was going to beat your ass, and I'm the only witness. I
say you had to defend yourself because you thought your life was in danger. He's
an adult and you're still a minor until December."

"Yeah, I
guess." Ant made it all sound better, but I knew that guys like us lost
against men like Summers.

"Besides, RB,
we have four regular season games left plus the playoffs. We don't have a
prayer of making it to state without you, so no one is going to do nothing to
upset you or the team when we have a chance at a three-peat. No matter how rich
he is, even Big Bill won't get support against you until football season is
over."

"I hope
you're right. I just wish I hadn't lost my temper."

"Well, the
asshole asked for it, but you're right, you need to control your temper. We
both do. We both have to let that kind of shit roll off our backs if we can. It
doesn't do us any good to let some asshole get us in trouble when we have good
futures ahead of us."

"Bill Summers
is right. People think I'm trash, and if I couldn't play football, they would
say it to my face. Football is the only reason I got any votes for homecoming
king, and that's one reason I wouldn't accept it. You know it must have almost
killed Big Bill to give in to Carlee about dating me."

That night in
our room at Tolley House, I stayed awake and waited to hear the cops pounding
on the front door downstairs until someone opened it. After I fell asleep, I
dreamed of the scene. The blue uniforms flashed a warrant at my confused house
parents, and charged upstairs into my room where they dragged me from bed and
cuffed me. I saw them process me at the station before they tossed me into a
cell, where I waited again for a liar with money to screw me over. I was
exhausted when I woke up the next morning.

I waited for
days, cringing every time I heard a car in the Tolley House driveway. One day
in biology class, I began sweating when Mr. Wilson's secretary called me to the
principal's office, only to find out that Mr. Wilson wanted me to autograph a
football for his nephew's birthday. When I returned to class, Max told me that
I looked like I going to hurl when I left the classroom, and he didn't appear
to be convinced when I told him that I was fine. I never told Max or anyone
else that I hit his uncle after the homecoming game, and no one, including Max
or Carlee, ever mentioned it to me.

I was relieved that
after a few weeks had gone by, I had heard nothing about my altercation with
Big Bill. It baffled me that the man had apparently decided to tell no one and do
nothing. Was he too embarrassed to say that he was begging a date for his
daughter? Was he concerned that Carlee would be upset if others knew that he
offered to pay me to date her? There was also the possibility that he would
have been embarrassed for the whole town to know that a high school kid had put
him on his ass. I gradually stopped worrying about Big Bill, but I couldn't
shake my belief that he was the kind of man who would seek revenge when the
time suited him.

Eventually,
Carlee approached me to apologize for her immature behavior. She said that she
respected my wishes and wanted to salvage our friendship, which was our standing
the night of the barn party. She promised that something like the homecoming
mess would never happen again. My feelings for Carlee were confusing. When I look
back to the time of the barn party, I think I loved Carlee, but I was convinced
that we could never overcome our backgrounds and the differences that caused
our arguments.

I was not
willing to accept Carlee's traits that angered me in order to keep the parts of
her I loved. I knew that when I left for college in the fall, I would have
enough pressure with college level courses and learning my new team's offense
well enough to keep my scholarship. The last thing I needed was the stress of
dealing with Carlee's spells of paranoia and jealousy, or those times when she
morphed into her father's daughter. As pretty as Carlee was, she was not attractive
when she turned into a rich, entitled girl, who showed how petty and spiteful she
could be when she didn't have her way.

***

At Papa's barn
party, our dinner of barbeque meat, baked beans, cole slaw, and French fries
was so good that Ant and I ate two plates full, as did most of our teammates. Ant
was passionate about the barbeque meat and the sauce, which was a Long's family
recipe that Papa's relatives had passed down for generations.

The cheerleaders
watched with envy and wished that they could have larger portions of food without
risking the addition of an unwanted pound. Ant teased Tina and Carlee, offering
them bites of his food and telling them that they would only have to run two
miles in the morning to keep their trim figures. I knew from experience that Ant
would be belching the sauce all night, which would not smell nearly as good in
our room as it did in the barn.

Other people passed
by our table and spoke to us, but Carlee and I still had time for conversation
with each other. She was pleasant with everyone. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed
talking with her when she didn't react jealously to other girls who spoke to me.
She displayed only the good Carlee, and I couldn't help feeling suspicious.

The second barn,
where we had the party, only had a half-bathroom. There had always been an
understanding when the players and cheerleaders gathered there, that the girls used
the bathroom, and the boys used the compost pile behind the barn. The only
other option for the boys was to take a long walk to the first barn, which had
two full bathrooms. After dinner, Ant and I walked outside into the cold night air,
which made us shiver on our way to drain the sweet tea we had with our meal.

The area behind
the barn was well lighted and it was easy to see that some of our teammates had
formed a circle around the compost, their hot streams causing steam to rise in
the cold air. I was about to burst when two of the guys shifted over just
enough so that Ant and I could squeeze in between them. The combination of cold
air and a full bladder made me rush to unzip before I wet myself.

Ant quietly mentioned
the change in Carlee.

"RB, you
want to distract her while I check her bag for a gun?" He sounded as if he
were joking, but I thought that he might genuinely be concerned about her
strange behavior that would be normal for most people.

"Maybe she
really changed."

Ant grinned at
me and suggested another possibility. "Maybe Daddy sent her here packing
with a plan. Maybe he was just waiting for the season to end. Now that your
senior season is over, people wouldn't be nearly as upset if he offed you. Payback
for that punch you threw. I doubt a man like him forgets things like
that."

I agreed with
part of what Ant said. "I was half expecting Big Bill to pay a few
rednecks to beat my ass. If he did plan something, I know that Carlee wouldn't
be part of it. With all her annoying faults, she's still a good person."

Ant and I
finished at the compost pile and made room for more of our teammates, who were
desperate to take our spots. Ant joked that he was too numb to tell if he put
his equipment away, and I had to tease him.

"Ant, don't
worry unless people point and laugh."

"Ain't
nobody gonna laugh, RB, but they might be screamin' in terror over the enormity
of the deformity."

No one could
make me laugh as hard as Ant could, and I was still laughing with tears running
from my eyes when we returned to our table in the barn. Carlee and Tina wanted
to know what was so funny, and after Ant told them, they were sorry that they
asked.

Tina and Ant
decided to take a walk. Some cheerleaders took Carlee off to discuss their
schedules for after Christmas at about the same time Gary yelled and motioned
me towards a group of my senior teammates.

The guys called me
over to discuss our college futures. Some of us had given verbal commitments,
but none of us had formally signed to play ball at any school. We all planned
to sign our letters on national signing day, which was more than a month away. There
were seven of us with offers to play college ball, and four of us had offers
from major universities. Papa planned to have a signing ceremony for all of the
seniors at Long's Fitness Center in Harper Springs, and he would make sure that
the media had the details. The major sports television network had informed
Papa that they would have live coverage of my announcement.

I knew which
school's offer that I wanted to accept, but I told my teammates again that Ant
and I had not decided where we would play college ball. We were determined to play
on the same team again, and the only demand we had was to room together. Ant was
leaving the final choice of schools to me, and I intended to tell him that
night that I had decided.

Max Summers was
one of the seniors discussing college prospects, and I was curious when he
tugged on my shirtsleeve and motioned with his head for us to step away from
the group. We found a quiet corner to talk, and I realized that Max had been
unusually quiet all night, and his face wore a serious expression that was odd
for him.

"Something
wrong, Max?"

"Oh, no. I didn't
want the other guys to hear cause I'm a little embarrassed," said Max, as
he shifted his eyes around to see if anyone came close enough to hear.

"About
what?"

"Well,
going to college. I got the same schools talking to me as you and Ant do, but
it freaks me out when I think of going alone. You two are my best friends, and I
want to go where you guys go. My old man is putting pressure on me to decide,
and you know he wants me to go to SC, so if you guys are going to SC, that
would make things easier for me at home. I could get him off my back now instead
of waiting another month until signing day. I swear you can trust me not to
tell."

Max looked
desperate. I knew his father was an ass, and I saw his point. "Ant is
leaving it up to me, and I didn't want to tell the other guys until I spoke to
him tonight. I'm going to tell him that I want to accept SC, so I guess that's
it, but you can't tell anyone. It could ruin the announcement coverage at
Papa's fitness center."

"Are you
sure it's SC?" Max confused me because he didn't look excited.

"Yeah, I'm
sure."

"Thanks,
River. You have my word that it will stay with me. I can tell my father where
I'm going without mentioning you or Ant, and I'll make my commitment the same
day as you guys."

"Max, are
you okay?"

"Oh yeah,
dude. I'm great. It's just a sobering moment, you know. It's like we both just
made one of the most important decisions of our lives."

I was not used
to seeing Max so serious, but he was right. We were making important decisions
that would be life changing. "It's great that you're going to stick with
us, Max."