Chapter Nineteen
Dominic
I finally got a chance to speak to my father. He was busy and had a few people waiting to talk to him so I couldn’t talk to him privately, but he did tell me that someone had been hanging around the union offices.
“Who was it?” I asked. “Did you see him?”
My father shook his head. “Not personally, but some of the other guys told me. Apparently he was going around asking some of the guys questions about me. I didn’t take it to heart though because things like this have happened before. Is this something I need to be concerned about?”
I shook my head. “No. It’s not. But let me know if you hear anything more, okay?”
“Sure thing. Sorry about today. It’s so busy around here. Want to meet up soon to catch up?”
“For sure. No problem at all.”
I still wanted to tell my dad about Candice. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him yet about it, and I wanted to do it face to face. I wasn’t sure if he’d be happy or not. I was sure that he felt bad about taking me away from Candice, but he’d told me once before that he had only done it for my own good. Back then, I was still too young to really understand, and I had believed him. I still believed him even though I now thought he should’ve stood up for himself and our family rather than let some big political big shot tell us what we could or couldn’t do. But it had been a long time since those days, and maybe my father wouldn’t mind me hanging around her anymore. He’d always been really level headed, so I was sure he would understand.
I was angry that Derek was now involving my father in the equation. I didn’t care about him coming to threaten me. Hell, I didn’t even care about him spitting at me. But I did not appreciate him getting my father involved. My father had nothing to do with this. I knew that I had to go and talk to Derek again even though it was the last thing I felt like doing.
I had no idea where Derek stayed, but he was pretty well known, so it didn’t take me long to find his dorm room. I knocked on his door, but there was no answer. As I walked away though, someone called out that Derek was at baseball practice.
“Thank you,” I shouted back.
Baseball practice was still going on when I got there, so I sat in the sands and watched him. Even just watching him made me feel annoyed. I wished Candice had never gotten involved with him in the first place, but I was starting to realize now that it had more to do with her father than herself. Her father wanted so badly for her to be with Derek. Derek and his parents fit perfectly into the life that Candice’s father wanted for her. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t in love with him, or that Derek wasn’t even a very nice person. His parents were rich, and they were politically and socially aligned. That was all that mattered.
Practice went on for another half an hour, maybe forty minutes, but I didn’t mind. I was not going to leave until I had talked to Derek. Near the end of practice, I saw he had noticed me, and I was pleased to see that his game had started to falter a little because of it. I hoped that he also had a coach that would complain when he wasn’t as ‘focused’ anymore. Despite seeing me, he took his time coming to me once the practice was over. I watched with growing annoyance as he talked to his teammates and packed up his things. He was being deliberately slow, but I would not let him see how annoyed I was at it. When he finally came over, I was glad to see that nobody else was around. He had a smirk on his face as he looked at me.
“Enjoy the show?” he said. “Very different from football, isn’t it?”
“Very different. And no, I didn’t enjoy it. Baseball has never been my thing.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. Well, it’s sweet of you to come and see me. It’s nice to have your support.”
I laughed. “You’re really something, aren’t you?”
“Why yes, yes I am.”
I groaned. “Derek, I know what you are doing. I’m not stupid. But I’m here to tell you to back the fuck off, and leave me alone. Leave my family alone. Leave Candice alone. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone.”
“I’m not trying to prove myself. Bet you wish you hadn’t got involved with Candice now, don’t you?”
“Oh, I’m very happy I got involved with her. Bet you wished you had treated her better,” I said.
He laughed. “Oh, Dominic, you might have muscles, but you certainly don’t have brains. That’s where I’m one better than you.”
“Oh yeah? And how do you suppose that?”
“Trust me. I know what I’m doing. And I know how to ruin your life. The damage is done. And I don’t feel one ounce of pity for you.”
I stood up. I had been sitting on a step higher than where Derek was standing, and I now towered over him. “You know, Derek, I could push you off this bench right now. I could break your face with one swoop. You tried to punch me once before, and I think I owe it to you to give you one back. Don’t you think?”
I noticed that the color had drained from Derek’s face. He knew that he would be no match for me in a fight. But he didn’t back away. He stood his ground even though he looked nervous.
“Go ahead. Hit me.”
“Really? You do realize that I am going to ruin that pretty face of yours.”
He laughed nervously. “It’s good to hear that you think my face is pretty.”
I leaned forward and saw him flinch. “You really want me to hit you? Because I will. I am mad enough to do it.”
He smiled. “Go ahead. But just remember, if you hit me, you will get kicked off the football team. All that good behavior you have stacked up over the years will be gone. You do realize that, don’t you? Because every action has a consequence.” He tapped the side of his head with the tip of his finger. “You see, you have to think things through carefully before you do them.”
I stared at him. As much as I hated to admit that he was right, he was. I was already in trouble with the coach, and this would only set him off even more. This sort of thing was not permitted in college, and I would be thrown off the team. I couldn’t let that happen. No matter how angry I was and how much I hated Derek, I couldn’t allow him to take my NFL dreams away. That would only allow him to walk away with victory. I glared at him, and then slowly made my way off the stands. I could hear him laughing the whole way, but I refused to turn around and look at him again. If I did, I knew I would end up doing something that I would regret.
With the sound of his laughter still ringing in my ears, I made my way to the gym where I spent the next two hours punching a bag. I’d missed a call from Candice, but I was too angry to even think of speaking to her. I had to calm down and figure out what to do. My knuckles ached as I pounded them against the bag, over and over again, but the more I punched, the clearer things started to become for me. I knew that I had to take a break from Candice while this whole thing settled down. I needed to concentrate on my football and wait for Derek to calm down. It was going to be hard to walk away from a woman that I was already starting to fall for, but I knew that it was better for both of us. I would have to talk to her in the morning. I was dreading it. I knew that the only way I would get any sleep that night was to work myself to exhaustion. So I stayed at the gym until I had run, punched and worked my way to fatigue.