CHAPTER 52
BRADY
It was over.
My high school football jersey had seen its last game.
The smell of the fresh-cut grass, the night air cooling my overheated skin.
Next to me, the guys I’d been playing ball with since I was a kid.
This was it. It’d ended, but it wasn’t like I had always imagined it would.
West and Gunner were at my side, the crowd’s cheering was loud enough to be heard for miles, and the victory we had always planned on was in our hands.
But I wouldn’t be celebrating with my father tonight, or any night.
He wouldn’t be there when I walked off this field. He wouldn’t share in the end of an era. We wouldn’t hug and he wouldn’t slap my back and tell me good game. We wouldn’t rejoice in the three touchdowns that had made us winners tonight.
He wasn’t even here. Because he’d made a choice to rip us apart. He wasn’t the man I’d thought he was. With tonight’s dream coming true, another one was dead.
I didn’t have a father to be proud of. I looked to West at my left and thought about how he felt right now. His dad would be thrilled. I knew he was wishing he could be here now. That he had been able to live to see this night.
Then I turned to Gunner, who had never really had a father. He had lived a life of the wealthy rich kid who no one gave any attention to. All along chasing his own dreams. We were all three fatherless now for different reasons, but through it we had become men.
“We did it,” West said as we watched the rest of the team jump all over one another and pour the Gatorade over Coach’s head in celebration. I always thought it would be the three of us doing that. It was the younger guys, though. The ones who had their own dreams to chase.
“What happens now?” Gunner asked what we were all thinking in some form or another.
“We live life,” I replied.
That was the only answer I had.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this with anyone else. We have memories that can’t be replaced out here.”
I guess all guys go through a form of nostalgia in their life. Ours was happening right there on the field we had snuck out to when we were kids and dreamed about this night. All those plans and dreams had happened, just not the exact way we imagined they would.
“I’m guessing you won’t be marrying Selena Gomez now.” West smirked, looking over at me. That had been one of my dreams after winning State back when I was in middle school and we planned this night.
“Yeah, I’ve moved on from Selena. Not my type.”
Gunner chuckled. “Damn, we’ve changed a lot since then.”
Yes, we had.
“You gonna tell us why Boone wasn’t here and what happened last week?” Gunner asked. I’d expected this question. At least from these two. They’d noticed.
They were my two best friends. I’d been through life with them. We had grown together and watched one another take turns and face tragedy. It was time I told them the truth.
“Caught him with another woman. He told Mom last week after I confronted him, and he moved out this weekend. I don’t want to see him,” I said matter-of-factly. The emotion behind the words was void now. Although the pain still sliced through me.
“Damn,” West muttered.
“Fuck,” Gunner said at the same time.
Both of those replies were correct. “Yeah,” I agreed.
“How’s Coralee holding up?” West asked. He loved my mother like his own.
“It’s been tough” was all I said.
Gunner put his arm around my shoulders. He didn’t say anything. It was his way of letting me know he was there. I wasn’t alone.
“Life sure throws you shit,” West said, as if he still couldn’t believe it.
It did. But it also threw you good things. Like friends, football, and someone to love you and show you the way to heal.
Glancing over to the stands, I saw Riley with Maggie and Willa. They were all watching us and waiting. They weren’t rushing the field like the others. It was our time, and they knew we needed it. This year was halfway over. We would all graduate and move on in a few short months. But we had been lucky enough to find a reason to fight through the bad and come out on the other side.
“Last postgame field party. The night’s not over yet,” West said with a smile.
It was a two-hour drive back, and we’d all be exhausted when we returned, but tonight we had one last memory to make. There would never be another postgame field party for the three of us. The others had more time. It wasn’t ending for them. They weren’t moving on. Next year there would be new seniors. Asa, Ryker, and Nash would be the ones leading this team. They would still have the field party, and their lives would be here in Lawton.
Our era was over, and I once thought I’d be sad when it finally happened. Part of me hated to see it go, but the other part knew I had a world out there waiting on me. More memories to make and more dreams to chase.
Turning my attention back to Riley, I knew that she was in that future. I just had to figure out how to make it work and convince her it would. She was made for me. And now that I had her I wasn’t going to lose her.
“Does next year scare the shit out of you?” Gunner asked.
“Yeah,” both West and I said in unison.
We all laughed and I motioned my head toward the girls. “But we have them. And I don’t know about y’all, but if I can be promised Riley will stay with me through it all, I’m not nearly as scared.”
Gunner stopped walking, “Shit. You’re already in love.”
I held her gaze. “She’s really easy to love.”
West groaned. “Oh God, save me from the mushy shit.”
I slapped the back of his head. “Don’t act like you’ve not been mushy before. And I had to watch it happen with my cousin.”
“He’s got a point,” Gunner agreed.
We walked toward the girls and they entered the gate and met us halfway. This was a much better dream than the one I’d come up with when we were twelve. Much better.