“Yea, tell me about it!” Alyssa agreed.
Alyssa's hands trembled as she climbed out of the truck. Craig's driveway was full of cars and his yard was covered with people. She hesitated a moment, but Jake gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and Alyssa managed not to turn tail and run.
She clung to Jake as he introduced her to his teammates and other friends. Alyssa recognized a few of them from the night she met them on the field. Craig, the brute who stomped her poor phone hung towards the back, which Alyssa thought was a strange thing to do at his own party.
He was the last person she was introduced to. She could tell that Jake was nervous about this particular introduction.
“Look about that night, it was a crappy thing to do,” Craig said, “I'm sorry about your phone.”
“So am I,” Alyssa giggled nervously, “I liked that one and had to buy a new one because the screen was never the same after that.”
“I was surprised the phone survived at all,” Jake laughed.
“It survived my foot?” Craig asked.
“Yep, it had a great case! The case is still amongst the living, so you just stay away from it,” Alyssa teased.
Once the tension about the past was out of the way, Alyssa felt her shoulders relax. She devoured Craig's dad's delicious barbeque chicken wings and his mother's potato salad.
There was an air of excitement over the whole party, but as time for the game inched ever closer Alyssa could see that Jake and the other guys were nervous. She ran her fingers playfully through Jake's blonde hair trying to distract him from the upcoming game, but soon the guys were gathering into their cars and trucks to leave for the game. They had to be their early to get ready.
Alyssa had been invited to ride with Craig's girlfriend and she gladly accepted. She had to admit she was much nicer than she thought any girl who would date the brute would be.
One hour drive to the next town over she called Mattie to tell her she would be arriving with a different group of people and described Julie's little blue car so that Mattie would be able to find her.
“See I knew you'd be fine,” Mattie laughed into the phone.
“Yep, see you there,” she said ending the conversation before Julie could pick up on how nervous she had been about the party.
Chapter 20: Jake
Jake's stomach felt like it was hiding a flock of birds that were ready to take off. He had to force himself to concentrate on the road as he made his way to the stadium.
He tried to think of anything, but the game. For a moment he focused on how relieved he felt when Craig apologized to Alyssa and how much she had enjoyed herself at the party. She smiled every time he looked at her and it made his heart flutter.
His mind turned to Georgia. He imagined how they would listen to the radio and talk on the long drive down. Jake couldn't help, but to think about how pretty Alyssa looked with her hair flying around her head in the breeze.
Somehow most of the other guys had beat him to the stadium, but he was still early. They sat around the parking lot talking about how important this game was. It would be their last game as a team. After tonight, their lives would float in different directions and at the end of the school year they risked never seeing one another again.
“Nah,” Craig said, “We'll see one another at the reunions,”
“That is unless some of us make it to the pros and forget about the Rattlesnakes,” one of the other guys teased.
Jake could feel all of his teammates looking at him.
“You think we don't know?” Craig laughed, “Why else would you be in the coach's office while we were all practicing?”
“I didn't want..” Jake began to explain.
“Don't worry about it, man,” Craig said, “We're happy for you, aren't we guys?”
There was a murmur of agreement throughout the team. Jake was just about to tell the guys about Alyssa applying to go to Georgia with him when the coach pulled in.
“I hope you guys aren't too full of chicken wings to play tonight,” he teased and motioned for them to follow him.
Once inside the locker room Jake quickly donned his uniform and sat quietly waiting for the coach's pregame pep talk.
“You guys have played hard this year,” the coach said, signaling for the guys to gather closer, “This has been the best seasoned I've ever coached. Hell, maybe the best team I've ever coached. Before I get to the normal pregame talk I just want to thank you guys for that! It's been a rough year, but I've enjoyed it! You kids have more spirit than any team I've ever coached, and that's a fact!”