As for the rest of the paper, Philip explained clearly and succinctly how hard it was to be sidelined after winning his last fifteen games in a row and thirty out of thirty-eight games since he became the Barracudas’ starting quarterback. The tone of the essay wasn’t boastful, though. He expressed disappointment in being unable to lead his team for much of the season. He felt like he was letting them down. More than anything, he hoped they’d keep up the winning momentum without him. He vowed to work hard to stay strong while he recovered, both physically and psychologically. He’d be back.
Sara leaned back on her pillow. She wasn’t easily impressed, but this was really good. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a compelling narrative. It also tugged a little at her heartstrings, and she wasn’t expecting her student’s assignment to evoke any emotion at all.
Shaking off the brief bout of sympathy, she looked back at the essay and made some notes in the comments section. It needed a little help with grammar and sentence structure, but really, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Sara had expected.
A few days later, Philip was in the doctor’s office for a routine post-op visit. It was the second week of November, and the oppressive Florida heat was finally done for the year.
It had been four weeks since the incident and two and a half weeks since his ACL surgery. He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament on his right knee once before, but this was his first surgery for it and the doctors were being extra cautious. They recommended he stay in his wheelchair a little longer before graduating to crutches. That was surprisingly fine by Philip, since putting any weight or pressure on his knee hurt like hell. He barely slept since the injury occurred because he simply couldn’t find a comfortable position, and because of another reason—something he couldn’t share with anyone. He was scared.
He was scared of the way this injury would affect his football play. Right or wrong, he’d staked his whole future on being able to play football. He’d been touted throughout the regional college football conference as the next Aaron Rodgers. No one could throw a running pass like Phil Mason, the local scouts said. It was hard not to buy into the hype.
In the meantime, he read everything he could get his hands on about ACL tears, treatment, and recovery, which is why he chose to stay mum about the pain. If the doctors knew he was in pain, they might want to go in and do some more surgery, further delaying his return to the field. He was already losing so much time and might even be out for the entire season. He couldn’t risk losing the rest of his senior year. If he did, he could kiss his prospects of being drafted by a professional football team goodbye.
“You’re pretty quiet,” his friend Carter observed as he drove Philip back to campus after leaving the doctor’s office.
Philip shrugged and continued to stare out the window, listening to the creaks and squeaks in Carter’s old Mustang.
Carter searched for a conversation starter. “Did you hear Coach Ramsey is retiring? Moving back to St. Louis.”
That got Philip’s attention. He turned to look at his driver. “No, I didn’t know. I guess I’ve been out of the loop.” He turned toward the window again, feeling disconnected. The team was his universe, a sort of elite membership club for talented athletes. Right now, he didn’t feel like he belonged to it anymore. The season was ten weeks old already, and every Saturday that passed without Philip in the game felt like another nail in his coffin. “So what’s Coach Fairchild gonna do? He’ll need a new assistant athletic director.”
Carter shrugged. “I guess. Hey,” Carter said. “Speaking of assistants, how’d your tutoring session go?”
Oh, good. A neutral subject, Philip decided. “Fine I guess.” He rolled down the window a little to let in some fresh air.
“Mary seems like a real bitch,” Carter said.
“Yeah, she’s tough,” Philip replied without emotion.
“Did you get into her pants yet?”
Philip recoiled. “Hell no! I can’t stand her. She’s bossy and controlling and has a chip on her shoulder.” She also has no sense of humor, no softness, and no warmth, he thought. She was like a professor but worse, because he couldn’t sit at the back of a classroom and pretend to pay attention to her lecture. She was in his face, one-on-one, and way too serious about her stupid tutoring job, one she didn’t even get paid to do. Not only that, but she was pretty obnoxious. Seemed like she didn’t like Philip right off the bat when he’d done nothing to cause her to dislike him.
“Like I said, dude, you should do her,” Carter decided. “She gets laid by King Mason, she’s a whole different girl. No more Virgin Mary.”
Philip looked down at his legs and rubbed his thigh. His injury put a crimp in his sex life as well as his sports career. “Well, I don’t know whether she’s a virgin,” Philip said, pretending he was interested in the subject, “but she sure is uptight.”
“So, just screw her, loosen her up.” He glanced at Philip. “What? Why not?”
“Not my type,” he covered.
“She’s a girl, isn’t she? What else do you need?” Carter laughed at his own joke. “Okay, let’s make this interesting.” Keeping his left hand on the steering wheel, Carter reached into his pants pocket for his wallet and held it up with his right hand. “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars you can’t get her laid. How’s that for a challenge?”
Philip pushed the linebacker’s hand away. “Keep your money, Carter. You’d win anyway.”
“Aw, you’re no fun anymore.” He stuffed his wallet back in his pocket.
“First of all, I don’t have a hundred dollars to throw away,” Philip rationalized. “Second, I’m not interested in doing her. Third, she hates me. And fourth, I don’t know why we’re even talking about this, so just drop it, okay?”
“Whatever you say, dude. Hey!” Carter lightly slapped Philip’s arm with the back of his hand as an idea occurred to him. “Listen, why don’t you come watch practice later. Might make you less crabby.”
“I’m not crabby!” Philip snapped at Carter. Besides, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to watch his teammates doing something he might never be able to do again. It would be like pouring salt in his ACL wound.
“Hokay. Whatever you say, dude.”
“Sorry man,” Philip said sadly. He didn’t mean to take his frustration out on one of the few guys left who still came around. His other teammates were all over Philip right after the accident. They couldn’t do enough for him. But as the weeks passed, their interest in their fallen comrade had waned, and they only came around if they smelled a party at Philip’s place.
“Look, it’s okay. I’m sure I’d be a basket case—uh, sorry. Bad choice of words.” Carter backtracked. “I’m sure I’d be a mess if I were in your um.”
Philip raised his brows. “Wheelchair?”
“Anyway, don’t sweat it.” Carter patted Philip’s arm. “You’ll be back. We need you. Tony Ramos throws like a girl. Can’t complete a pass to save his life—unless he’s making a pass at some girl.”
“Tony’s fine,” Philip said of his backup quarterback. “He’s just young and needs to gain confidence, seasoning. But you’re right, Carter. I’ll be back. I will.”
“Hey, I know you will. You have to. We’re down to our third string quarterback.”
Philip instantly turned his head to face Carter. “What do you mean? What happened to Tony?”
“Oh. Um. He’s on temporary suspension,” Carter said hesitantly. “Some girl accused him of date rape.”
Philip’s eyes went wide. “What the hell? When?”
“About a week ago,” Carter replied.
Philip was shocked. He was even more out of the loop than he realized. “Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
“I don’t know. I guess we assumed you heard.”
“Damn it Carter!” Philip punched the inside of the door as he felt his blood pressure rise. “You guys act like I’m not even on the roster anymore. Sheez. Is Tony still on campus?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I want to talk to him. Now!”
When they got back to campus, Philip didn’t stop at his room. Instead, he headed straight over to Tony’s place. From his wheelchair, he pounded on Tony’s dorm room door.
“Okay okay,” an impatient voice yelled from within. Tony opened the door, and it took a minute before he looked downward at Philip. Philip pushed his way past Tony and wheeled into the room.
“Hey, what’s the deal?” Tony stumbled backward but didn’t fall. “You nearly ran over my foot with that effing thing.”
“Sit down,” Philip ordered.
“Say what?”
“Sit the hell down!”
Tony lazily walked to his bed and flopped down, pulling himself up on his pillow.
Philip had no patience for this jackass. Slapping Tony’s leg, Philip shouted, “I said sit down, not lie down.” During his years on the team, Philip had taken on a leadership role. No one asked him to do it, and he didn’t plan it. It just evolved naturally and the guys were usually receptive—but apparently not today.
“Hey, I ain’t your dog. What the eff is eating you?”
Philip took a deep breath and a familiar smell filled his nostrils. “You’re smoking weed? Man, are you kidding me? On top of all the trouble you’re in, you’re violating another school policy?”
Tony sat up, but his eyelids were partially closed. “Whatever that bitch said I did to her, she was lying, man.”
“I don’t care. That’s not the point.” Philip wheeled himself closer to Tony’s bed. “The point is, you should know better than to get yourself into a situation like that.” The team got hammered with cautionary tales of all kinds and warnings of being thrown off the team, out of school, and not only wrecking their chances of going pro, but wrecking their lives. “Don’t tell me. You were stoned the day Coach Ramsey showed the video. Am I right?”
Tony looked in Philip’s direction, but he wasn’t focused on anything. High as he was, it was a wonder he could put a coherent sentence together. “Don’t put this on me, dude. How the hell did I know she was gonna accuse me of rape?”
“Use your head, Ramos!” Philip heard the sound of his own voice reverberating through the room, but right now, shouting might be the only way to get Tony’s attention. “Use the good sense God gave you and make better choices. Don’t hook up with somebody you don’t even know.”
“How do you know that’s what I did?”
Philip rolled his eyes. “I know it because if she was someone you had more than a one-shot deal with, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Although Philip had never been accused of date rape, he could see how it might happen. A couple of poor choices when he was younger, and he might have had firsthand experience.
When he became an overnight sensation in his freshman year, Philip made the same mistake a lot of kids his age make under the same circumstances—believing the hype. Being young and dumb, he used his newfound celebrity to take advantage of people, girls in particular. It was so easy to get laid, especially when the team was playing rival schools in other cities. He could hook up with a girl, no strings attached. He never needed to see her again and he never looked back. He rationalized his actions by saying the girls were using him too, so what’s the difference? He’d already been through the school of hard knocks; he got kicked around and made fun of for years as a kid. That meant he earned the right to sow his wild oats, didn’t it?
Later that year, when his father suspected Philip was headed down the wrong path, he sat his son down and told Philip something he would never forget. “You have a gift son. Don’t use it frivolously,” Joe Mason warned. “Don’t be cavalier, don’t be selfish, and most importantly, don’t take advantage of others. Be a giver, not a taker.” His father’s lecture weighed heavily on Philip’s young soul, and it changed his way of thinking. It caused him to change his behavior.
Tony swayed and appeared to be falling asleep sitting up. Philip reached out and gripped Tony’s shoulder and shouted, “Listen to me fool! This is your life. This is your future. Screw it up now and you’re going nowhere fast.” When Tony didn’t react, Philip released his hold on Tony. Disappointed, he shook his head. “Man oh man you’re a dumbass.”
“Hey,” Tony said, his eyes flashing at Philip, finally showing some recognition. “Ain’t nobody talks to me that way.”
“Well maybe that’s the problem. Maybe someone
should
talk to you like this.” Philip softened a little. He knew Tony’s history and knew he didn’t have much of a family growing up. He didn’t have good role models, and he didn’t have a wise and compassionate father like Joe Mason to set him straight. So Philip took it upon himself to be that role model for Tony and his other teammates.
He would honestly hate to see Tony thrown off the team or out of school. The kid needed to succeed here and now. “Listen to me, Tony. I’m only saying this because I care about what happens to you. You have opportunities right now that almost no one on the planet has. You’re here on a football scholarship. The world is your oyster. Or it could be, unless you keep pulling stunts like this one. You might get a second chance this time, but after this, you won’t be so lucky. You’ll have a reputation and no one, I mean no professional football team is gonna want you on their roster. They have enough players giving the league a black eye. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Tony nodded slowly.
“Good. Then shape up and use your brains. Get rid of the weed and get rid of the troublemakers in your life. You’re better than that, Tony.” Philip rolled his chair away from the bed and spun around to head toward the door.
“Mason, wait,” Tony said, getting up off the bed. Slightly shaky, he extended his hand to Philip. “Thanks man, thanks for caring.” Philip clasped Tony’s hand and nodded. Then Tony opened the door so Philip could wheel himself out.
Philip had another tutoring session scheduled for today. He replied he was ready when Sara texted to say she was on her way over, but that wasn’t exactly true. He really wasn’t in the mood for her negativity. He could be plenty negative all on his own.
Philip wheeled himself to the door and let Sara into his dorm room. He hadn’t seen her since their first tutoring session a week before, and it left a bad taste in his mouth. So today, he decided to try a different tactic and greeted her with a big smile, hoping to offset what seemed to be her permanent scowl.