Fair Catch (Love and Sports Series) (25 page)

             
She thought about their conversation they had last night and wondered if there was already a negative light on her because Jake knew something was up. He was short with her on the phone after she turned him down again about meeting up and he barely text her today even though she sent a bunch of messages to him, wishing him luck and telling him how much she missed him. Lexi started to feel sweat trickle down her back as she thought about the strange way Jake was acting. Was Jake going to break up with her? Did she make the wrong decision by not telling Jake about her sordid family?

             
She looked at the camera again, he definitely didn’t look like himself and the fact that he barely talked to her today skated across her nerves.

“Oh no.”
She said out loud. Could she have driven him away from her?

             
She looked back at her text messages from today and the last one he sent said, “Thanks baby.” She wished him luck, hoping that even though he couldn’t take her calls right before the game, her text messages would show how much she cared. Lexi thought it was good that he called her baby in his last text message. That settled her nerves a little, at least for the time being. If he was going to break up with her, he definitely wouldn’t have called her baby.

             
Lexi grabbed a pint of ice cream from her fridge and sat down on the couch to watch the game. Margo and Parker were both busy tonight so she was all by herself which she didn’t mind. Since she had been crowded by her mom for a while she enjoyed the peace and quiet. Margo actually was visiting her parents the past week which was good because that gave Lexi a full bed to herself while her mom had been visiting. Coach gave Margo a little break to go back home and gather herself after the horrible rumors that were spread about her.

             
All hell broke loose when Coach approached the Lacrosse coach about his players’ careless way of treating one of her players. Needless to say the lacrosse guys got their asses handed to them and then the whole athletic department had to sit through a lecture about spreading rumors and bullying. Lexi felt like she was back in middle school but as long as Margo’s name was cleared, Lexi didn’t mind.

             
She talked to Margo on the phone earlier to see how she was doing. It was refreshing because Margo sounded full of energy and ready to come back. Lexi was happy for her friend that she was bouncing back from the hell she was put through. Margo was bouncing back faster than Lexi thought she could if she was ever thrown into Margo’s situation.

             
The Bears returned the ball to the forty yard line after the first kickoff, what a great start she thought. She settled into the couch and watched Jake work his magic. He was so fluid with his movements and bounced around in the pocket as if there weren’t three hundred pound men coming after him. Jake threw the ball to Mason for a gain of twenty. So close to the end zone, Lexi thought. They were going to score a touchdown within the first minute of the game. Lexi sat on pins and needles waiting to jump in celebration.

             
Jake yelled out a play and then the ball was hiked. He fake handed it off to their running back and then looked for Mason in the end zone. All of a sudden it was like someone pressed the slow motion button on the remote. Jake had his back turned and his gaze fixed on his receivers instead of floating around like he usually did in the pocket. Out of the corner of the screen came a huge linebacker and Lexi just sat there and screamed when Jake was pummeled from behind and flattened to the ground. She could feel the impact of the hit as if she was the one eating grass instead of Jake. She sat on the edge of her seat while Jake laid motionless on the ground.

             
Tears formed in her eyes as she shook her head in disbelief. He wasn’t getting up. Why wasn’t he getting up? The trainers went running up to Jake as the ref’s tried to clear the way and get the players out of the area so Jake could be properly tended to.

A phone rang through the silence that was encompassing her apartment,
startling her out of her negative thoughts. She looked down at the caller ID and saw that it was Margo. She picked up instantly knowing Margo would be the only one she would want to talk to at the current moment.

             
“Hello?” She practically said in a whisper.

             
“Are you watching the game?” Margo said in a panic.

             
Lexi brushed away a tear that slid down her face. “Yes, how come he’s not getting up, Margo?”

             
“I don’t know sweetie.”

The
insensitive reporters kept showing the collision in slow motion so Lexi got to continuously watch Jake’s head fly back in an odd way as he got hit from behind over and over again. Lexi thought she was going to throw up from the gruesome replays.

             
“Can they please stop showing how he got hit!” Lexi shouted to nobody in particular.

             
“Lex, he’s going to be ok, he is built like an ox.”

             
“Yea and the guy who hit him is built like a steam train. Oh my God Margo, what if something serious happened to him? I could never forgive myself for how I treated him this past week.”

             
“You can’t think like that.” They both watched in silence when the on-field stretcher and medics came out and started attending to him.

             
The announcers started talking. “Wow, this could be a career ending injury. What do you think Bob?”

             
“Well Mike, I couldn’t agree more, a hit like that when you’re caught off guard isn’t easy to recover from, especially since he hasn’t moved since he landed on the ground. We might have just watched Jake Taylor’s last play on the football field. Let’s take a break, we will be right back.”

             
Lexi was crying as she barely held the phone to her ear. She heard Margo from a far distance talking to her. “Don’t you listen to them Lexi, those guys will say pretty much anything. Jake is going to be just fine.”

             
“I have to go, Margo. I’m going to try to contact him. At least let him know I’m watching and I care about him.”

             
“Good idea. Please let me know if you need anything.”

             
“I will.” Lexi hung up the phone and pulled up her text messages she clicked on a one she recently sent to Jake and started typing frantically.

Lexi: I know you can’t look at your phone right now, but I just want you to know I was watching the game and you are going to be ok, I just know it. Hang in there big guy.

              She knew he wouldn’t get the message for a while but as she sent the message to him it felt like she was silently communicating to him. She sat on her couch and waited for the commercials to end as she rocked back and forth, hoping and praying that Jake was going to be ok. She couldn’t imagine if his career was over, he was so brilliant on the field it would be such a waste.

             
Graphics for the game came back on and the announcers started talking.

             
“If you just missed the last five minutes of the game, here is a replay of what happened.” They showed the clip again and Lexi cringed as Jake once again fell to the ground. “We are getting news from the locker room now that Jake Taylor, is in fact…” The announcer pressed on his ear, probably trying to hear whatever the little guy in his ear was trying to say. “Yes, he is awake now in the locker room and most likely suffering from a concussion. He is moving around…”

             
That was all Lexi needed to hear, he was moving around. She cried into her hands as they held her head up. She was so grateful that he was ok. She tuned out the rest of the game as their backup quarterback took over and threw a handful of interceptions costing the Bears their first loss of the season. Lexi didn’t care though, all she cared about was that Jake was going to be ok.

             
She spent the rest of the night waiting by her phone, waiting to hear something from him, any kind of information that he was doing alright, but she never heard a word. She decided that she was going to meet him in front of the events center when their bus returned from the airport. She wanted to see him more than anything and as soon as possible.

                                                        ***

              Jake rolled his head to the side and cringed, he was sore as hell thanks to the semi-truck that hit him from behind on the field. Not to mention the bus beds weren’t the most comfortable bed he had ever stayed on, thankfully it was a semi-short trip from the airport. Jake replayed the moment he got hit over and over in his head. He had been thinking about Lexi, not about what was going on around him which cost his team the game. He never let his personal life creep into his game before but he did this time and he got burned because of it.

             
He could easily blame Lexi since she had been so evasive the whole week but he didn’t. He was the one who brought his problems on the field and that was ultimately why he got hurt. The doctor in the locker room kept telling him how lucky he was that he walked away with just a concussion. His first ever concussion. He didn’t care for it too much. He didn’t think he was going to get any concussions until he was at least in the pros but now he could add one to his football resume.

             
He swore at himself for losing focus during the game. He would never let that happen again. James, one of his linebackers, felt awful for not defending the steam engine that charged at Jake but Jake knew it wasn’t fully James’ fault. It was a combination of everything, especially a lack of focus. Jake was supposed to relax the rest of the week and do some easy workouts if he wanted to play in next week’s game, which Jake was determined to do. He was livid that the team lost. He was going for a perfect season and that wasn’t going to happen now.

             
Mason came up to Jake’s bed. “You feeling better man?”

             
Jake rubbed his neck. “Yea just a little sore, that’s all.”

             
“Why don’t you get out of that bed we are about five minutes from campus, you should stretch out a bit.”

             
Jake agreed with Mason, gathered his stuff and got out of the bed to head to the front of the bus. The guys gave him the night to recover from the injury but after that they started ribbing him for having a concussion. Jake knew it was all in good fun but he had the hardest time laughing along with his teammates.

             
“What are you doing tonight?” Mason asked.

             
“I don’t know. Hopefully Lexi will want to hang out. I haven’t talked to her since the hit.”

             
“Why not?” Mason said looking worried. “Everything ok between you two?”

             
“I don’t really know. I wanted to talk to her, she was the first person I thought about but I didn’t want her pity. I got a text from her after I got hit saying I was going to be ok but I can’t help but wonder if it was a pity text. She’s been so weird lately. I guess I just wanted to see her reaction when I got back into town. I didn’t want to hear it on the phone. Does that make sense?”

             
“I guess so. Go to her place when we get back and don’t take no for an answer.”

             
“I don’t think that is going to happen.” One of the freshmen piped up from the front of the bus.

             
Jake and Mason both looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “Excuse me?” Jake said.

             
The freshman pointed toward the events center and said, “Looks like Lexi has moved on, man.”

             
Jake and Mason scrambled to the front of the bus to see what the idiot was talking about. When Jake focused in on what he was pointing at, Jake almost fell to the floor. Standing in front of the event’s center was Lexi wrapped up in Parker’s arm and he was kissing her head.

             
“What the fuck?” Jake yelled.

             
Mason put his hand on his shoulder. “Dude, calm down, they’re just friends. You know that.”

             
Jake did know that but with everything that had been going on between them and the way Parker was holding her made Jake think something was going on. His teammates decided to continue the ribbing from earlier and started to push his buttons even further.

             
“Looks like you can’t hold a woman down, Taylor.”

             
“Can’t blame her, I would have dumped his sorry ass after getting scared like that too.”

             
“Parker is the man!”

             
Jake turned to Mason for support but Mason just shrugged his shoulders as if Jake was on his own. Good friend he was. Jake peered out the window again and saw Lexi spot the bus. She shook Parker off quickly and watched him walk away. Nothing was going on Jake’s ass. She was busted and he was going to make sure she knew it. Jake turned to Mason.