Calley was climbing back up to our seats with her arms full of drinks and snacks, which I’m sure she managed to convince the freshman boys working the concession area to give her for free. I was reaching to grab two of the sodas to help her free her hands when I noticed Tatum was tailing behind her. Catching my breath a little, my hands stuttered just as Calley was letting the cups go, and I reacted by squeezing the two Styrofoam cups together, spilling about half of the contents of each (Dr. Pepper, I was pretty sure) on my lap.
I was not surprised when Tatum started laughing uncontrollably at my clumsiness. “Oh my god! You dumped, like, that entire thing on your shorts!” She’s really good at the obvious, I thought.
Smiling with my lips closed tightly, I shrugged my shoulders and stood up. The soda that hadn’t soaked into my shorts was now slowly dripping down the fronts and insides of my legs. I was now aware of the stickiness. Just as I bent down to hand the still salvageable sodas to Sarah, I heard Tatum giggle to Calley and whisper “pathetic!”
I immediately felt ashamed. I am not sure why. I slid along the front of Calley and Tatum. “I’ll be right back,” I said, looking Calley square in the eyes, half saying “sorry.” She gave me a sympathetic look in return, knowing that I probably heard what Tatum had said in her ear.
“Don’t worry, we’ll hold your seat,” she yelled as I made my way down the bleachers. In some ways, I felt as if she was trying to reassure me that I was still cool in her eyes and that she wasn’t agreeing with whatever beef it was Tatum seemed to have with me.
As I made my way to the restrooms, I looked at the field as the captains were walking out to toss the coin. Since the captains were all seniors, Reed was standing on the sidelines, jumping up and down, psyching himself up for the game. I started to walk quickly hoping no one would realize the dark wet denim that was starting to chafe my legs. The football restrooms were tiny, and there was a line wrapping around the fence. Knowing I would have to wait for several minutes, I just kept walking. I knew I could get in to the gym through a side entrance and make my way to the women’s locker room.
The lights were off when I found my locker. Twisting the combination, I unlocked the door and felt through the piles of T-shirts and socks for my practice shorts. I had only worn them once this week, and while they were plain and cotton, at least they were gray and wouldn’t clash with my shirt. Once dressed, I felt my way around the corner to the sinks where I was truly in the pitch black. I managed to find the paper towels and rip a few feet off to wet and wash the stickiness from my thighs.
I was rounding the corner back out to the field and saw Tatum standing in line at the concession stand. She was talking to another group of girls and pointing to our area. As I got closer I heard her tell them that she was with her friend and a bunch of freshmen, so they’d make room. Great, more of them. I kept my head down as I passed a few people behind her so she wouldn’t notice me. I made my way back up to our seats with only a few minutes left in the first quarter.
“What’d I miss?” I asked Sarah, pointing to the 7 points our team had put on the board.
“Nolan, Reed is uhhhh-maaaazing!” she said, more excited than I had ever seen her at a sporting event.
“Oh yeah? How so?”
“OK, so the other team had the ball first, and they were really close to scoring and then one of the guys on our team, defense, right?” she asked. Sarah’s knowledge of sports was amusing. “Anyway, our guy caught the other quarterback’s pass in the middle of the air and then started to run it back to our side. He was tackled somewhere in the middle. Then Reed came out and threw the ball three times. Three times! That was it, and we scored!” Sarah gushed.
“Wow! I guess there’s something to that Johnson hype, huh?” I said, my inner-self still giggling a bit at my friend’s very colorful game commentary.
We sat silent for a few minutes while the clock counted down. Just as the whistles were blowing to signify the end of the quarter, Sarah turned to me with a bit of a sly smile on her face.
“Whaaaaat are you up to with that look?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said, plainly. “I just… I just get why you’re so into him, that’s all.” And at that, Tatum snapped her head in our direction and stared at me. I turned my head to look down at my shoes and bend down to pretend to fix a shoelace. Tilting my head up a bit at Sarah, I reminded her that we were just good friends.
“Yeah, right. You’re friends. But you totally want more,” she said, leaning into me. I could feel Tatum’s stare burning into my cheeks, but I refused to turn and acknowledge it. I just gave Sarah a half-hearted smile to satiate her and end the conversation. I knew Tatum was claiming Reed as hers, at least romantically. And I, of all people, was not a threat to her.