Game On (18 page)

Renee smiled. “This is where the girlfriends sit.”

Maya was awestruck by that. “The …?”

Nicole and Renee drew closer to her. Gossip was a sport all its own here. A better sport.

“Are you official?” Nicole asked.

“No,” Maya said. “I don't think so.” She thought harder. “Maybe?” Finally, she was sure. “No. Not that we talked about.” But where Travis sat her certainly tipped to his intentions.

“Would you want to be?” Renee asked.

“Maybe,” she said. But there was no maybe about it.

A yell came from the field. The girls looked over. It'd come from Jake, who'd just successfully mauled another kid.

“Jake seems more wound up and bloodthirsty than usual,” Maya noted.

“How can you even tell?” Renee asked, sliding a pickle from a plastic bag and giving it a munch.

Nicole looked at Renee. “Are you pregnant?”

“It's all I'm eating,” Renee said. “The pickle diet is supposed to totally work.”

“Renee,” Nicole said.

“I'm telling you,” Renee insisted. “It worked for my friend Angela's cousin Georgia's coworker Melissa.”

Before Maya and Nicole could argue, there was another scream from the field. Except this one sounded primal, like a wounded animal. The girls looked over to see the guys all clustered together in chaos. Someone had been hurt. Badly.

Maya overheard one word muttered by a girl nearby, and it froze her:
quarterback.

“Travis,” Maya said under her breath. Before even she knew it, she was up like a flash. She ran to the field, Renee and Nicole following behind.

Maya's eyes searched for Travis, but she couldn't see him anywhere. Finally, she found him. He was totally fine, just one of the many in the cluster. Confused, Maya looked at what they were all huddled around. It was the other quarterback, writhing on the ground. With Jake standing over him. Jake had sacked him so hard that he'd broken the quarterback's arm.

Maya looked back to Travis, who looked at her. She could see it all over his face. This was not good.

.   .   .

Maya sat outside Nails's office yet again—this time with Travis and Jake. The door was closed, and Nails was on the other side of it having a conference with the injured QB's parents. She couldn't hear what was being said, but the intensity coming through the walls was loud and clear. For once, Nails was in the defensive position, and there was nothing he could do about it.

As the parents' voices rose, Maya studied Jake. He didn't seem to be registering any of it. He was bottled up, shut down. Gone.

“You went at him too hard,” Travis told him. “You didn't have to go at him that hard.”

Jake clearly didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything.

But they all snapped to attention when the door opened.

The kid's parents stormed out of the room. They blew past Travis and Maya, but they lingered at Jake. Their disgust at him was absolutely unmistakable. Maya was pretty sure the father wanted to go at him right then and there, but luckily the mother took his arm and walked him out.

Their anger paled in comparison to Nails's. When he walked out of his office and found Jake, he was at a pure boil.

“They're suing the Academy,” Nails said. “They're coming after us, hard. That boy was being scouted by six different teams. You may have ended his career before it's begun.”

“You get injured on the field,” Jake finally said, defending himself. “It's sports, people get hurt. That's the risk you take when you go out there. The Academy can't be sued for that.”

“No”—Nails stepped closer—“not unless there's a history
of unnecessary roughness, which you have. You're a disaster, I knew you were a disaster, and I let you stay out there. I let you stay on that field and now I'm being sued because of it.” Nails was fired up. “I'm tired. Tired of being disappointed by you, tired of your constant screwing up. Why can't you be more like Travis?”

Maya felt like a massive interloper. She wanted to leave, badly. But she was trapped there. Trapped watching Nails take his son apart piece by piece.

“I've been stuck with the thankless job of taking care of you on my own,” Nails said. “Considering your behavior around here, it's no wonder your mother isn't rushing back.”

Just as Nails said this, Jake and Maya found each other's eyes. The pain was almost physical. Certainly worse than anything the kid he injured was feeling.

Travis wasn't intervening. Perhaps this was a scene that had played out so much that Travis was used to it. Or maybe there was no stopping Nails when he was on a roll. Either way, in this moment, Jake was totally alone. And Maya saw that in his eyes, too.

“You're an embarrassment,” Nails said. “I can't even look at you. Go.”

Without a word, Jake stalked off. He slammed the door so hard behind him that it swung back open and took a doorknob-sized chunk out of the wall.

Travis immediately went to his dad's side.

“It doesn't do anyone any good getting worked up like this,” Travis said. “It'll be okay.”

It was tough for Maya to tell if Travis was taking sides or if this was just his role in the Reed family psychodrama.

The more she thought about it, the more she didn't care. She couldn't help but stay on Jake. On the wounded animal she saw behind his eyes.

As Travis continued to soothe his father, Maya found herself slipping out, unnoticed.

Maya had absolutely no idea what she was doing there, but she was standing outside Jake's door. She had just felt compelled to follow him here.

The door was ajar. She knocked lightly. It would be so easy to turn around and leave. So why wasn't she? She knocked again, which only made the door open a little more. She heard Jake inside.

She let herself in.

Jake's place was massive. It was also barren. There were no decorations, no plants, no anything that would imply that someone rich lived there. Or anyone at all. The sole piece of furniture in the entire place was an old leather couch. It's where Jake sat. Crying.

Maya was frozen. She'd never seen Jake weak. Or vulnerable in any way. She knew he was upset back in Nails's office, but she had no idea just how much he was holding in, or how good he was at it.

It was at that very moment when Jake looked over. She tensed. But he was too upset—or defeated—to question her being there.

“Travis is the golden child …,” Jake said, talking at the floor. “He's always been the golden child. Travis is the smart one, the star. And I'm garbage.”

Maya stayed back, like he was a lion that could strike at any moment.

“The only one who never treated me like a mistake was my mom,” he said. It was like his face was using up all the emotion and there was none left for his voice. “But she took off because she couldn't take my father anymore. He's an American hero. He's God's gift to Astroturf. And he cheats on my mother like it's his job.”

The tears kept streaming down his face. He wiped them, but it was useless.

“She knows he cheats on her,” he said. “She acts like she doesn't, but she does. She couldn't take it, so she left. First it was for a week, then a month. It's been half a year. My father drove her away, and now I have no one.”

Maya stepped closer, as if her body was acting independently from her will.

“Only you can know how crappy that feels,” Maya said, empathizing. “But I know how big this place is when you feel like you have no one. And you're treated like a no one.”

He looked at her for the first time.

She continued. “Pretty soon your mind starts tricking you into believing it. But you're not a no one, Jake. You're not a no one.”

Suddenly, Jake cracked. He went from sad … to scared.

“I didn't mean to hurt him,” Jake said desperately. “I swear, I didn't mean to hurt that kid. I don't know what happened.
Sometimes I get so angry I don't see … I can't … I feel so bad. I feel so bad.”

She sat down next to him, though it was more like her legs gave out from under her and she ended up on the couch.

“I know,” Maya said. “I know you do.”

They were close. Nearly touching.

Jake leaned in and kissed her. But this time, it was no mistake. This time it was for real. And it was intense. Maya kissed him back harder. As he pulled her completely onto the couch, she realized. She didn't hate him. She didn't even sort of dislike him. This whole time, all she really wanted was this. And from what she could tell, that's all he'd wanted to do, too.

She kissed him some more. Despite the fact that this was not her normal, despite the fact that she'd never done this with anyone, Maya took off his shirt. And she let him take off hers.

Suddenly, Maya saw what she was doing. She backed off on the couch.

“No,” she said, out of breath. “I don't know … I don't know where this is … going, but if it's where I think you think this is going …”

“I don't think this is going anywhere,” he said, equally flushed.

“I just … I've never gone … there before,” she said. “I'm not ready, I'm …” She suddenly felt like a geek. Or a freak. Or whatever the worse one was. She was with a guy who'd notched so many marks in his bedposts they looked like toothpicks. And here she was, this frigid girl who couldn't give him what she was sure he wanted, what everyone else did.

Jake just smiled.

“This is definitely good enough,” he said.

And, looking in his eyes, she knew he was telling the truth.

Maya smiled. She kissed him. And they got right back to making out. For three hours, it was definitely, definitely good enough.

Even though it was barely 8:00 a.m., it was somehow even steamier than it had been yesterday. Maya stood at the edge of the Academy's Olympic-sized swimming pool watching Renee do laps. She'd promised Renee she'd help get her time up, but since she didn't know much about swimming, that meant she would be on stopwatch duty.

But as she stared at the numbers, all Maya saw was Jake. And Jake's couch. And her on them both.

What did she know about him, really? Jake was as unstable as Travis was reliable. He was as raw as Travis was refined. Jake fought everyone and everything, including and especially himself, while Travis accomplished every goal without breaking a sweat. Getting caught up in your emotions made you vulnerable on the tennis court. Weak. Was she sabotaging herself off the court as well? Had she been fearless and true to herself last night, or self-destructive and reckless?

“There you are,” Nicole said, finding her. “We're going to the beach.”

“We are?” Maya asked. “When?”

“As soon as you can put on a bathing suit,” Nicole said. “It's going to be a thousand degrees out today, and I'm not spending it sucking face with an air conditioner.”

Renee bobbed her head above water just long enough to see Nicole. She started paddling her way over to say hi.

“I have class,” Maya said. “And practice.”

Nicole was less than impressed. “School and practice will be there tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that …”

“Plus, Renee's been desperate to cut her lap time,” Maya told her, reinforcing her case. “And I said I'd be here to work the stopwatch.”

“There's a pace clock right there,” Nicole said. Sure enough, there it was, hanging over the pool. “No sense in you roasting on the sidelines.”

“What's up?” Renee said, finally making her way over.

“Maya wants to go to the beach, but she doesn't want to hurt your feelings,” Nicole said.

“No,” Maya said. “I said I'd be here for moral support and I will be. I want to be.”

“It's okay if you want to go,” Renee said. “I'm going to be here all morning. And you have been a little distracted.”

Maya tensed.

“Distracted by what?” Nicole asked.

“Nothing, I …” Maya didn't know what to say.

Nicole was already over it. “Come on, Maya, let's go.”

Maya had to admit to herself that being there—or anywhere on campus, where Jake was roaming free—was enough to drive her insane. Still, she could tell Renee really wouldn't mind if Maya stayed.

“I'll make it up to you,” Maya said.

“Sure,” Renee said, offering a smile.

With that, Nicole dragged a far-from-unwilling Maya away.

Nicole and Maya worked on their tans. The sound of the ocean beat the sound of chalk on a blackboard any day. Not that much ocean could be heard above the sounds of laughter and everyone's stereos battling for attention. The beach was cracking.

“I'm not sad to be missing class,” Maya said. “I do feel a little guilty about missing practice, though.”

“Practice, schmactice,” Nicole said. “Listen, I was playing the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last year. A hundred degrees out, on-court temperature a hundred thirty. No roof, no third-set tiebreak, after four hours I was straight-up hallucinating. I thought my tennis bag was talking to me. But because I put in the time here getting used to the conditions, I pulled that one out. I lived to fight another day.”

“So what you're saying is, going to the beach is part of a winning training regimen?” Maya asked.

Nicole smiled. “And you were afraid you wouldn't learn anything today. Pass me an
Us Weekly
.”

Maya turned to their stack of magazines. Just in time to see Travis and Jake walking toward them. “What are they doing here?”

“I invited them,” Nicole said. “I hope that was okay.”

“Of course,” Maya said quickly. Maybe too quickly.

“Ladies,” Travis said as they arrived. Before Maya could say a word, Travis kissed her hello. If there was a Guinness World Record for least amount of time it took before things got awkward, she broke it right here.