All characters in this story are over the age of 18 and are consenting young adults.
In the past few days, I felt like I'd matured several years. The problem was, there were only two girls I had any experience with; Sis and Carol. Sis I understood. At least I thought so. I was naΓ―ve. Carol I didn't understand. She didn't appear to be what I thought she was last week. Last week she'd been a known quantity, a bitch, but a known. This week she had confused me, but I wasn't intimidated now.
If you missed the chapters leading up to this point, you should probably go read them.
*****
The locker room was different today. When I entered, I heard chatter, positive chatter.
"Hey Tyler!"
"How you doing?"
"How's the back?"
"You going to practice with us today? Bout time."
This felt strange. Normally I would have been ignored. "The back's good. Not as bad as it looked."
As I removed my shirt, "That's going to leave a mark, buddy. You going to tell us about her?"
Before we got into that discussion, Coach Barker came in, "Tyler, get dressed... quick, and go get checked out at First Aid. If they give you the go ahead, I want you in practice. Make it quick."
"Ok, Coach." A few minutes later I was dressed and trotting over to Ms. T's.
When I got there, "You again. What can we do for you? Anything for the football team," loaded with sarcasm.
I hoped this would be the last time I interrupted their routine, "Sorry, Ma'am. I just need a quick check. It's nothing."
Carol stepped forward, "I got him," and pulled me aside and raised my shirt. She had been right yesterday. It wasn't as bad as it looked.
She whistled, "She did do a number on you. I'd really like to meet the girl that could get a guy to stand still for that. When you going to introduce us?"
That wasn't happening, but I decided to tease her with a little non-information, "You already know her. You've met."
"You're kidding! I've never seen anyone do something like that, and I know some girls that like it rough."
I'd never been a flirt, didn't know how to do it, but this just popped out, "Do you like it rough?" It brought a blush from Carol.
Maybe Sis was right, and I was winning. But this reminded me of one of yesterday's lessons, 'if someone wins and someone loses, you're doing it wrong'. Confusing.
Before she could respond, Ms. T broke in, "Carol, if you're through working on your social calendar, just tell him he's ready to go, and we can get a little work done."
"He's ok, Ms. Talmadge," then she leaned in for a whisper, "You didn't forget my ride, did you?"
I didn't feel as confident as I tried to let on, "No, I didn't forget," and I gave her a smile that said I was looking forward to it.
As I walked back over to practice, it occurred to me that this was the first time I'd ever felt in control of a situation involving a girl. Sis was still in charge, but I didn't object to that. I had something with her that I didn't have with Carol, trust. The scales had tipped in my favor. It was exhilarating.
As I reported in to Coach, "Go line up with the receivers. Let's see if you can catch the ball this year."
In the past, I'd been here for 'exercise and to round out my high school experience' as Mom and Dad had put it. Something was different now.
When my turn came, I concentrated. On balls that were out of reach, I ran hard and extended, even threw my body after them. I didn't catch them all, but I did catch some that hit the ground last year. As I caught a few long ones, the quarterbacks started challenging me, trying to see how hard and far I'd go to make the catch.
After thirty minutes and a lot of sweat, practice devolved into a contest between myself and our star receiver, Riggs. Riggs had been serious for 3 years. He was better than me, but we were caught up in the competition.
The coaches were seeing something they look for in practice; the team having fun. They let us run for a while. The quarterbacks began throwing progressively crazy balls. Some of them we caught.
Riggs and I really put out and soon we were both wet with sweat.
When Coach stopped us for water, Riggs hit me on the shoulder, "Hey. Where'd that come from? You trying to get my job?"
"Your jobs safe."
As it turns out, it wasn't just the team watching. The cheerleaders had stopped to watch us show off too.
As he was getting us started on the last leg of practice, Coach approached Riggs and I, "You guys are looking pretty good. Save some of it for real games and we may do some damage this year!" It was the first time I'd been told I might 'do some damage'. It sounded and felt good.
When practice was over and I had gotten dressed, Carol was waiting for me by the gym, "You haven't forgotten about my ride have you? We need to TALK. See if we can work something out. Mom and Dad are both working today, so we can discuss it at home."
I looked down at Carol, "I haven't forgotten." I confess, I thought about her while getting dressed. Sis was the expert, but it was still hard to believe that Carol set this up to have sex with me. Of course, if her conscience was bothering her, who knows?
"What's this all about, Carol?"
"Well, I was hoping I could set things right between us."
"You've already apologized, and it's not nearly enough. Do you know what you caused me to miss out on?"
Carol whined, "I don't know. It was three years... I don't know. I've worried about this for 3 years. I need to get it off my back."
I took satisfaction seeing Carol squirm. This might be worth it all by itself, but I wanted more, "Well, let's see, 3 years, 52 weeks, that's 156 weeks."