Chapter 11
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
Lay and I had settled into a weekly routine, and I was surprised by how intertwined our lives had become so quickly. We spent so much time together that it was ridiculous. It made me wonder if she and Benedict were over or what. I mean, if we were together practically twenty-four-seven, when did she find the time to go out with him?
But whenever I started thinking like that, something would always happen to keep me at arms’ length. I’d see her get into his car after school or watch her walk into a party on his arm. Not all the time, but enough that it made me hesitant to make a move.
Not enough to keep me away, however.
We saw each other at school every day and talked on the phone almost every night. We bumped into each other over the weekend at football games and parties, we worked together on Monday and Friday nights, and we had a standing date for our Shakespeare thing every Tuesday afternoon.
Shooting a movie turned out to be way more fun than it had any right to be. We spent more time laughing our asses off than we did making headway on our film.
It was cool getting to know not only Layla, but her family during that time. Her brother Bruce would sometimes act as our cameraman, and more often than not, her father would invite me to stay for dinner once filming was through. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time at the Warren house.
We were scheduled to show our film on the day before Thanksgiving. I readily admit that I drove Layla insane with the thing, reshooting scenes we’d already filmed only to obsess over the editing afterward. But I wanted to make sure that all our hard work paid off. We’d spent a lot of time on this project and I didn’t see the harm in wanting it to be perfect.
Layla kept insisting that Mason would be impressed no matter what we did. We were the only ones who’d made a movie for our presentation, so a good grade was practically a given. But it wasn’t the grade I was worried about. I mean, this was it. I poured so much energy and expectation into that movie, and now here it was, time to present it to the world.
That Wednesday, I skipped lunch in order to set everything up. I was too nervous to eat anything anyway. I’d gotten a TV cart from the audio/visual center in the library, and arranged with Mason to let me into her room a period early to plug everything in. I’d already watched the finished product a million times, but I gave it one last viewing, finally deciding that there was nothing I could do at that point anyway and that the thing was as good as it was going to get.
I still had about fifteen minutes before class started, so I spent my time freaking out while watching the clock.
Finally, finally, finally, the bell rang and people started trickling into the room.
I’d been sitting at my desk, working myself into a frenzy, bouncing my knees up and down and chewing on a thumbnail when Layla came in. She took one look at me and asked, “Why do you look like a heroin addict?”
“I know. The real question is, why don’t you?”
“Why don’t I what?”
“Why don’t you look nervous? How can you be so calm about this?”
She shrugged as she took her seat. “I’m not, actually. I mean, I fully expect to be made fun of for my terrible acting, but other than that, I know we’ll get a good grade.”
“Who cares about the grade, Layla? What if everyone thinks it sucks? What if we put ourselves out there and it turns out to be absolute shit? What if—”
“Trip! Chill. It’s not going to suck. You made sure of that. I would have been happy enough just to turn in something passable. You’re the one that treated it like Citizen Kane for godsakes. It’s gonna be great, you’ll see.” Her warm smile put me at ease as she held up her hand for a high five. “Trust me. We’ve got this in the bag.”
“Okay, you’re right. I need to calm the hell down.”
Easier said than done. I tried to concentrate on steadying my breathing as all the kids filed into the room and took their seats. Soon enough, the bell rang, Mason announced us to the front of the classroom, and it was time to press play.
For all my anxiety leading up to that moment, I found myself unexpectedly freaking out for an entirely different reason. I’d seen our film a dozen times leading into today, but that time, for whatever reason, I suddenly noticed something I hadn’t before.
Do you ever feel like you’re outside your body looking down on yourself? That’s what it was for me, watching that movie. Well, I know I was literally watching myself, but it felt more surreal than before.
Because my focus during that viewing was entirely on Layla.
Her face lit up every time we were in the same frame. Her smile brightened at every word of dialogue I spoke to her. The two of us together on that screen... Holy crap. I mean, I always thought there was a chance that she was into me, but man, in that moment, I was struck with the craziest revelation: She might actually really be into me.
Our eyes met for a quick second before we both devolved into a quiet spurt of nervous laughter. I didn’t know if it was purely stage fright or if she was seeing exactly what I was seeing.
Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.
* * *
Because of the half-day of school, I was freed up for a couple hours to hit the arena before work. That afternoon, my ego fueled by my filmmaking expertise, I killed it on the ice. I’d met up with the usual suspects who hung around the rink, guys as restless as me to get our season underway. We’d normally throw a game together, work out a little bit, size each other up as we battled for Top Goon status.
Today that title belonged to me.
As I was stepping off the rink, Coach Bennett was waiting for me in the doorway.
“Hey Coach!”
“Wilmington.” He clapped me on the shoulder as I took a seat on the bench. “Looking good out there. Just don’t hurt yourself. The season starts in less than a week.”
“No, yeah, I know. I’m just pumped up today, I guess.”
I untied my skates as he said, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Why don’t you get yourself cleaned up and then meet me at the snack bar?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said casually. But in reality, I was wondering if everything was alright.
I raced through a shower and got dressed in record time, grabbed my bag and booked to the snack bar. Coach was already there, sitting in a Formica booth with a cup of coffee. I slipped into the bench seat across from him and ran a hand over my wet hair.
“You want anything?” he asked.
My stomach was too tied up in knots to even think about it. “No, no thanks. I’m good.”
“Okay, then. A man who likes to get right down to business. I like that.”
“Thanks,” I chuckled.
He leaned across the table between us. “So. I’ll cut right to the chase. I was wondering if you’d be willing to join the travelling team.”
I’d tried out on a whim. Prior to meeting Coach, I was perfectly content to just hang around the rink, playing the occasional pickup game with any other stragglers that showed up. I figured once the league season started, I’d be happy enough playing for the town.
But now instead, here was Coach, asking me to join up with the best players in the area. The all-stars. The big league. It was flattering that he thought I could be one of them.
I couldn’t stop the cheesy grin that broke across my face. “You serious?”
“Sure am. Think you can make yourself available?”
“Yeah. Yes, of course.”
“Six days a week, you understand.”
“That’s not going to be a problem.” I leaned back in my seat and let out with a huge exhale. “Thank you, Coach. This is...” I couldn’t even find the words.
Coach smirked a knowing smile. “Welcome to the team.”
* * *
We had the rest of the week off of school for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t see Layla until our Friday shift the following night. There weren’t too many customers, so Martin had put me on stockroom duty to organize the shelves before disappearing into his office.
Lay made periodic trips to check on me, saying she felt guilty that she was spending her time watching movies in a nice warm room while I was stuck back there in a refrigerator.
“I know a way to warm up,” I teased, waggling my eyebrows at her. The poor girl turned white until I pulled a miniature bottle of champagne from my jacket pocket.
“What’s that?”
I checked the label. “Apparently, it’s a party favor my parents got from Bebe and Eric’s Wedding Extravaganza.” She put a hand over her mouth to hide a snicker. “Wanna crack it open?”
“Oh, hell yes.”
Lay scrounged up some Dixie cups from the breakroom and checked to make sure Martin was otherwise occupied. “He’s on the phone with his mother. We’re free for at least an hour.”
I pulled a couple of boxes together so we could sit down, and unscrewed the bottle which just threw Layla into an uncontrollable laughing fit. “A screw top?” she asked in between cackles.
“Only the best for you, Miss Warren.”
I filled our cups before Layla held hers out toward me. “Umm, I don’t know what we’re toasting to. What’s the occasion?”
“I just figured we should celebrate the success of our award-winning film.”
“Yeah, Trip? We haven’t won any awards.”
“Yet.”
I laughed before downing my drink in one shot, immediately regretting that decision. “Oof, that’s bad.” I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the awful aftertaste.
And then I poured another cup.
“And,” I added, “I also wanted to give myself a proper sendoff.”
“What do you mean? Where are you going?” she asked, a slight panic in her voice.
I tried to hold back a grin and look properly humble. “Well, I made the team.”
Her eyes went wide as her mouth dipped open. She knew how much it meant to me. I’d been talking her ear off about the travel league pretty much nonstop since I first heard about it. “You made the team! Wow! Congratulations. When did you find out?
“Wednesday afternoon. The coach sat me down after practice and asked me if I was available. Can you believe that? Am I available, like I’m Wayne Gretzky or something and might not be able to fit his team into my busy schedule.”
“Wow. That’s awesome.”
“Yeah, yeah it is. I’m pretty psyched. Although...” and my expression turned shamefaced as I tried to break the next news gently, “Tonight’s my last night working here. I already talked to Martin.”
I tried not to show any joy as she deflated, but it was kinda nice to see that she’d miss me. “Geez, Trip. We’re hardly going to see each other at all anymore. No more Tuesday filming, no more Mondays and Fridays at work... This sucks!”
I couldn’t help but smirk. “We’ll always have English class.”
“Yeah,” she laughed. “I suppose we will. And you’re taking me to the game tomorrow, yes?”
It had become standard practice for me to drive Layla, Pick, and Lisa to the football games on most Saturdays, but tomorrow was homecoming. End of the line. “Last one of the season. Wouldn’t miss it.”