Maybe It's Not So Bad Ch. 03

?If you have not read the previous chapters in this series, please read them before proceeding with this chapter, as you may find it VERY confusing if you aren't familiar with the setting and characters?

*If you have in fact read the previous chapters, then I hope you enjoy this new chapter!*

*****

Kelly eyeballs me as I walk over to the open spot on the blanket.

I stop halfway. Tiffany is getting ready to turn off the only lamp that's lighting up the room.

"Tiffany, hang on a second, I need to go to the bathroom." I tell her.

"Fine." She says retracting her hand away from the small table lamp.

"But you better hurry." She says, turning towards her spot on the blanket.

I turn around and walk out of the room, and I walk down the hallway and into the bathroom. I shut the door, and walk over to the toilet, and sit down. I didn't need to use the bathroom, I just needed a few minutes to myself. I pull out my phone, and just in time; my dads picture and phone number pop up. He was calling me. I stand up and walk back out the door, down the hallway, then down the wooden stairs and into the main family room.

I hit the green pulsing 'Answer' button on my phone.

"What's up pop?" I ask, no doubt sounding tired, which was definitely not the case considering the past events of tonight, and anything that may happen by the end of the night.

"Ahh, after I dropped you off I stopped at another sports bar." He says sounding triumphant.

"Oh. I thought you were on call?" I ask confused.

"What? I've been drinking. I don't drink on work nights." He says in a mockery.

That makes sense.

"Ok, my bad." I say. "What did you call for?"

"I was just wondering how your back was feeling, and how well you were holding up with all those girls in the house." He says with a chuckle.

"Ah, well, my back is fine. Stings a little, but not much." I respond. "Those girls are a pain in the ass, and Kampbell is no help." I tell him.

"Haha, well that's just what happens. Tell Kampbell I said 'hi.'" He says while changing his tone.

"Ok. Will do." I say, sticking my left hand into my pocket.

"Oh and hey, your mother wanted me to tell you she won't be home until tomorrow evening, and I'll stay at a hotel until about three tomorrow afternoon." He informs me.

"Ok, thanks. Have fun." I say.

"Yeah, and I reckon it'll be hard for you to have fun though." He says sympathetically.

HA

"Yeah right. I'd like to see THAT happen!" I say sarcastically.

"Well ok then. I love you, and I'll see you tomorrow." He says.

"Ok, love you too. Bye."

"Mm-bye." He says, his voice sounding like he was moving the phone as he spoke those last two words.

I took the phone away from my ear and pressed the red 'hang-up' button. I turned my phone off and stuffed it into my shorts pockets.

I look around the room, to tell myself that I'm the man of the house. I turn around and walk back up the stairs. When I reach the top, I see a shadow moving in my room. I walk down the hall into my room. Halie was holding a picture of me in football uniform. She must have picked it up from my desk. She turns around and spots me.

"Hey, I didn't know you play football." She says with a small grin.

"Played, being the operative. I quit." I inform her, remembering the times I had.

"Really? Why?" She asks.

I start to wonder why she was in my room in the first place.

"Well, um, I didn't really like it anymore. After we won the championship I figured I hit my peak, and I didn't want to risk playing again and losing my reputation. But obviously, most people forgot I had even played." I explain everything to her while reminiscing about the other good times I had.

She sits down on my bed, and looks up at me, listening.

"Tell me some things about when you played." She asks, curious.

"Well, I played starting quarterback, and everyone told me I was really good at it. I practiced the old 'tire swing' practice out back, and I got pretty accurate. It came down to the big game night, the championship." I start explaining the championship night to her, in a story-like fashion.

"We were both undefeated, we had the number one offense in High School football, but the other team had the number one defense, so it was an amazing match-up. It was 7-13 and we were losing, we were right on the fifty fuckin' yard line, with three seconds left in the fourth, and I called hail-mary, and I heaved it down field to Chad, our star receiver, and he caught it, tying the game. Our kicker came out there, and kicked it, but one of the safeties clocked him, and we thought we had lost. The guy got a targeting call on him, so we got to kick it again. Unfortunately, the tackle had caused our kicker to tear his ACL, so he couldn't kick, and he was our only kicker, he did all of it; kickoff, PAT's, everything! We all jogged down to the sideline, to figure out just what the hell we planned on doing. I had played field goal kicker in my freshman year, Kartal Escort so coach wanted to put me in to kick the extra game-winning point. I told him it wasn't a good idea, since I hadn't kicked in a few years, but he made me kick it anyway, and thank God, I actually made it. My name is up in the school trophy case as the "First school football player to possess the game winning touchdown, AND the game winning kick." I explain the whole story to her with passion, as it was a great night. One I won't forget.

I look down at her. She has her head cocked back, and is pretending to snore.

She jerks her head down to look at me when she realizes I'm done talking.

"I'm just kidding, I'm not asleep. But that's actually a cool story, and when I get the chance I'm going to look up that championship game, I want to see how good you were." She says springing up from my bed.

"I knew you weren't asleep." I tell her.

I remember what I wanted to ask her.

"Hey, what were you doing looking around in here?" I ask her.

She turns her head to look into my eyes.

"Oh, yeah, um. I was looking for a... cond-"

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" Kelly's voice cuts Halie's off.

"Oh, I'm coming." Halie responds, walking out of the room, and Kelly behind her.

I look around my room, and I can't help but wonder what she was going to say.

"Con. What's a con?" I whisper to myself, asking.

My mind digs around the file cabinets in my brain, but the search returns no results.

I push it to the back of my brain, and tell myself it's nothing.

I walk down the dimly lit hall and turn to walk into the room we were all going to sleep in. Halie is already laying down, watching the ceiling fan spin violently on high.

Kelly is turned on her left side, facing where I'm going to lay. She looks up to the doorway to spot me.

"C'mon. Lay down." She pleads.

I look down at the spot, and begin to walk towards it yet again.

I turn my head to see Tiffany picking herself up from a small space on the couch, and walk over to the small table lamp. I stand on the spot, and I put my hand down to keep me level, then I lay my head on the small white pillow. I put my hands behind my head and interlock my fingers, holding my head with my hands. I relax, and enjoy the cold air from the fan coming down like a heavy sheet of rain onto my bare chest.

"Lights out." Tiffany says clicking the button on the lamp. Everything goes dark. Almost pitch black. Tiffany walks over to the door, and shuts it.

There is only a small amount of tiny light, a blue dot coming from the AT