Authors: Stephanie Perry Moore

Prime Choice (18 page)

BOOK: Prime Choice

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“No, no we're not sure. I remember when she told me she didn't want to. But dang, she was looking all good. I nibbled on that ear, it was on! You know I love me some Briana. I couldn't resist! The temptation was there, man. I think she might be pregnant. Her period was supposed to be here last week, and it ain't here yet. What am I gon' do, Perry?”

Why'd he have to ask me for advice? I wasn't trying to get in none of this. I'd lost a friendship giving Damarius advice in his situation and I wasn't gon' get caught up in somebody else's drama and lose another pal. No way!

“You gotta handle this,” I told him.

“Perry, I just need you to come over to her house with me, man. She said Tori is over there helping her take tests or whatever. I just need you to come over there with me. Please, Perry? You don't know how this feels.”

I was so relieved about that. With Damarius's consequences, it made me happy that I was still abstinent. And Cole had tipped in another reason why my way was the better way.

“I can't drive my car, either. Can you drive my car?”

“All right, man, give me the keys.”

I didn't wanna fuss at him as we drove to his girl's crib. He was already feeling miserable enough, but why did my boys have to be so stupid? I hoped this was a false alarm. I hope he'd learned something.

When we got over Briana's house, we didn't have to ask any questions. Tori was sitting there holding Cole's girl. Both of them were crying. I just looked over at Cole, put my hand on his shoulder and gripped it tight. He needed to keep it together and hold up. He was going to be a daddy. He had to step up and be the best one he knew how.

“What we gon' do?” Briana asked as she rushed into his arms. “I can't be a mom!”

Cole just had this dumb look on his face.

“Why did you do this to me, Cole?”

Then she pounded on his chest. I looked at Tori and could only thank God that I hadn't gotten her into this same trouble. Briana just went crazy. Tori tried to calm her down. Cole tried to calm her down. She was just hysterical. She was sad. She didn't want to be a teen mom.

Cole finally spoke up and said, “I'ma take care of this, Briana. You gon' be okay. We gon' get rid of the baby.”

As if I wasn't feeling bad enough, those words took me to another level. Did my buddy just say that he was going to take a baby's life before it had a chance to live?
How selfish,
I thought. I rushed over to the two of them and said, “No, no, Cole. There are other options. Adoption or something. Y'all can't kill this baby. That ain't God's will.”

“You need to stay up out my business.”

“You brought me over here. I can't let y'all do that.”

“Yeah, right, Perry. You of all people should understand that I can't pass up no scholarships and stuff. I don't want my life to be over 'cause of no baby.”

Tori came over and said, “Yeah, Perry, we gotta let them handle this. I don't agree with that, either, and I wouldn't do it if it was me. That's why I'm not having sex.”

Briana just buried her head into Cole's chest.

“I'm ready to get home,” I blurted out.

Tori looked up at me and said, “I can take you.”

It'd been a while since I talked to her. This wasn't any time to start from where we left off. All I asked God for was peace. And I was getting a little bothered that He couldn't grant me that. I was trying to show my boys how to walk with God, and it bugged me that they wouldn't listen.

Quite frankly, I was tired of being the good boy. Tired of helping everybody out. Tired of putting myself out there when it wasn't benefiting me. I was tired of taking deep risks.

Hoping for Relief

“
S
on, can I talk to you before you get ready to go?” my dad asked seriously as he stood in front of my door.

I really missed him. Not only had he been around the house a lot less, but when he was home, he and I were in different parts of it.

I didn't know what he'd been planning to come in my room and say, but I knew I had to give him the benefit of the doubt and not jump all over him. Though I still I had trouble with some of the things he did, he was my dad and deep down I loved him just as much as I always had. I didn't need to get myself worked up. At least not right before I was about to play the biggest game of my senior year.

I was to play at the Dome in about six hours. I wanted and needed to stay focused. He came in and sat down on the end of my bed. I hadn't remembered him doing that since I was little.

“You know, Perry, I owe you a big apology. This has been a tough year for you. Adding family pressure is more than you needed to handle right now. I've been thinking these last few weeks, and I'm sorry about what you walked in on. Man, I don't have any excuses. It was just sin. I'm trying to deal with that. Not only have I not been a good husband, I haven't been a great father to you, either. I got to choose my own college, you know. My dad basically stepped back and told me that it was time for me to become a big man and make some big decisions. Even though he didn't agree with my choice, he supported it. And he was paying.”

We both shared our first laugh in a while together. It felt good. Just that small moment took so much pressure off us.

“Son, I just came to tell you to choose the school that you wanna go to. I still plan on giving my input, but I will let you make your own decision. I'm glad it don't have to come out my pockets, either. You're earning a scholarship. You really should be able to decide.”

He held out his arms. I just looked at him for a second. Then his eyes got watery. I had never in my life seen my dad cry. Not even at his own father's funeral. I slid over by him and laid my head on his shoulder and gave him a hug. He gave me three pats on the back. It was a hug like I'd never experienced. And it felt meaningful.

“Go get 'em out there today, partner. You the man,” he said to me as we parted.

I'd been to the Dome a couple of times for football games, concerts and conferences. But I'd never gotten the chance to be on the field warming up. Being at the Dome where the Falcons played was a high point in my life, and I didn't know how to contain the feeling.

The whole first quarter I was triple-teamed. When I slid to the right defensive backs were on me. Lance's Seminoles put up 14 points. We had nothing going into halftime. Second half, we got the ball first. They faked it to the running back, and I ran it with full speed. Our leader outran the corner and tipped in on the fake. I caught the ball, and it was over. We had 7. We had a ball game. We had hope. It was a defensive battle in the mix.

Twelve minutes left in the fourth quarter and the score was still 14 to 7.

Coach asked me, “Are you ready for the big play? Can you take this home? Can you at least tie this game, boy?”

Coach gave me the ball, and I shouted. We made it near the sideline. This time our quarterback dropped it. The tight end pitched it back, and they threw it to me. The ball was a little high, but I knew I needed to make it.

I went up and made the grab, but when I came down, a player hit me in my left knee from the right. Another player hit me from the left in that same spot. My leg just buckled on me. It felt like it was completely destroyed. My knee was weak, and I had no stability. I kept trying to move, but I couldn't get comfortable anywhere. I counted and saw the referee come over and blow his whistle to my sideline for help. All I wanted was for my pain to go away. I didn't care about winning this game. I didn't care about the state championship. I didn't care about the scouts being impressed with my performance. Again, I just wanted the pain to stop, but it wasn't stopping.

There was silence in the loud facility. A spirit had dawned on me. Had I shattered my knee? Was my career over? Boy, did I wish this was a nightmare. Paramedics came onto the field and over to me, touching the spot that was causing the excruciating pain. My father came over to hold my hand. Coach was there shaking his head. I knew this wasn't good.

“Lord,”
I prayed silently,
“What are You doing?”

What seemed like moments later I woke up in the hospital. My mother was sitting in a chair crying. My father was pacing the floor yelling, “He's gon' be okay, Pat. He's gon' be okay.”

As I blinked my eyes open, my mom came over to my bed. “Oh, sweetheart!”

My dad stood behind her with his arm around her waist.

“Junior, you gon' be all right, Son. You gon' be just fine.”

“Dad, what's going on? My leg hurts.”

“Just lay still now. I got good and bad news, Son. It's serious, but it's not that serious that you can't hold it together, okay?”

“What's going on, Dad? Just tell me.”

“It's your posterior cruciate ligament. In six to eight weeks, you'll be fine to train in somebody's camp this summer. It's nothing that you can't overcome and nothing that should make these schools less interested. We just want you to relax. You'll get healthy.”

I should've known this was going to happen. With me trying to boost myself up to fit into a school. My intent might have cost me the chance to go to any school at all. A PCL tear was a pretty big deal, being in the back of the leg. Not only did it have to repair itself, but it also had to regain its strength. At least I didn't tear the ACL. Sometimes when you get hit, getting hurt was unavoidable. Thank God this wasn't an injury for surgery.

I was tired of being tough. I was tired of being strong. Balling up my fists, I just hit the hospital bed over and over. I knew that ball was too high, but I went up to try and grab it for my team. Now it might've cost me everything, putting myself out there like that. We didn't even win the game. The only good thing was seeing my parents together telling me it'd be okay.

My mom told me that a lot of my teammates had been up to the hospital, but they weren't allowing any visitors right now. I knew it was just as well. I was brokenhearted.

The next couple of days while I lay in my own bed, my parents were supportive. My mom was my nurse. My dad handled tons of calls from college scouts. I didn't know what they were saying to him about how their schools felt about me. I had a feeling of uneasiness. I wanted my dad to come in my room and tell me what was up so that I could stop speculating. Finally he did.

“Dad, what's going on? You were on the phone almost all day.”

“Everybody's called. Even the teams you weren't going to go with. They were just calling to check on you. Reporters have been ringing the phones like crazy. The number-one player in the state goes down, and they wanna know if he can get back up.”

“Well, I saw in the papers that Lance Shadrach is the number-one player in the state,” I muttered, having a pity party.

“Come on, Son, don't be beating yourself up, okay? Lance is riding off the fact that he won the championship. If you had won that game, it'd be a totally different story.”

“Do I still have as many offers as I had before going into game?” I asked my father, trying to sit up a little.

He came over and helped me slide up on a pillow. “Your mom's got you all hooked up. Cold drink, pillows stacked high. You all comfy?”

“Come on, Dad. It's not that good, huh?”

My dad spoke caringly: “Okay, Son, you wanna hear it? Most of the guys that called were worried about the injury. The offers aren't off the table, but some schools let me know they might have to go to the number-two receiver on their list. A couple of schools I haven't heard from yet, and a few coaches told me that they tried for a while to get through. You know the phones have been ringing off the hook, and I'm sure I haven't talked to everybody. We'll find the right school for you, Son. We just want you to get better first, and then everything else will fall into place.”

All of a sudden, a calm came over my spirit. It was like God was speaking to me at that very moment.

I just blurted out: “Dad, don't be down. This is a good thing. We get to see what teams really want me. You're right. I've done all I could do. I've proven myself to the fullest these last couple of seasons. If colleges wanna back down on me, then that's not where I should've gone, anyway. I really didn't know how I was going to make my decision. Maybe this was supposed to happen to me.”

“Dang, Perry. You're making me see it a better way, and I've been praying all day. Mom's sure worried about you. I think God just spoke through you. I hope your team will step up soon.”

“Ain't no doubt about it, Dad. The pain in my leg is subsiding. I'm trusting God to hear my needs and I'm gonna trust Him to place me in the school that's right for me. I was mad at first, but I'm getting a better perspective. Learning to trust Him with the good and bad and knowing that He can help me with both.”

My dad came over to me, laid his hand on my bed and prayed.

“Lord, thank You for giving me a son who knows You. Keep my boy strong during this. Carry his burden. I'm so proud of him, Lord. And I'm so thankful that You allowed me a second chance with him. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“No, Son, thank you.”

There wasn't really anything else to be said even though there were still uncertainties about many things in my life. I was cool with that because I had given it all to God. If He could make me and my dad start talking again, then I was convinced that God could do anything.

Two weeks had passed, and we were finally out for Christmas break. I hadn't gone too many places, just to school and back. My knee still wasn't that strong but I wasn't letting it keep me down. Justin had been taking me to school and bringing me home. Being in my condition, I wasn't able to drive.

“Where we going? I'm tired, man. Take me home,” I said to Justin after school on Friday.

“I just gotta pick up something at my crib. It ain't gon' take long!” When we got to his house, he insisted I come in. “This might take a minute.”

“Boy, you said it wouldn't take long.”

“You want something to drink? You ain't gotta go to the bathroom?”

“Naw, I'm cool. Hurry.”

“I'm just saying. I don't think it's a good idea for you to stay cramped up in a car all day. You need to stretch it and stuff.”

“All right, all right,” I said, since I figured he wasn't gon' let me chill.

When we stepped into his house a lot of friends popped out from everywhere, yelling, “Surprise, Perry!” or “Get Well!” I was stunned. My boys weren't there but a lot of the football players were, even Marlon. I knew he didn't care 'bout me none, and I didn't know what the catch was until I saw Tori come around the corner.

So many people came up to me asking what they could do to help me feel better. Many asked if I felt okay. I couldn't be annoyed 'cause folks cared. Then the door opened and Damarius and Cole walked in. The three of us just looked at each other. I didn't know how to respond.

Cole walked over to me and said, “You know you still my boy, right?”

Deep down I was hoping they would come. Damarius and I just slapped hands and that was enough. Right now, I knew neither of us was ready to open up. That was the way some guys handled their mess. Everything didn't have to be serious all the time. Some stuff you just had to let go.

“Yeah, we're straight, Cole,” I said, as my boys checked out my leg.

“Yo mama had you all on lockdown and stuff when we called. Said you were sleeping,” Damarius said jokingly.

BOOK: Prime Choice

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