Game Changer (The Field Party)

I, on the other hand, liked to try something different each time. I had been going down the menu items, and I was almost done with the second page. The menu was thicker than one would expect for a place like this. Another reason it was such a popular place in town. Especially on weekend nights. A Friday night during the summer in Lawton left little to do but come here to eat and go see a movie. No one went to the field anymore. I wondered if they ever would again.

I hadn’t known Hunter, nor had I ever been to a field party, but even I thought the idea of partying there now seemed wrong.

I glanced up, realizing the waitress was waiting on me to order. I’d gotten lost in my thoughts. “Oh, sorry, the applewood bacon smoked chicken wrap with the soup of the day,” I replied. One more visit here and I’d be on page three of the menu.

“Soup today is tomato. You’ve had that before. Sure you want it again?” she asked, and I smiled realizing she had figured out my system of never eating the same thing twice.

“Um, no, then let me try the…” I looked for a side I hadn’t ordered yet.

“There is a walnut apple kale salad on the specials board tonight. It’s new,” she offered.

“Okay, thank you, I’ll take that.”

She nodded and took the menus before leaving us. I watched as she stopped at a cleaning station and sprayed down the menus, then wiped them thoroughly. Glancing at my mask on the table, which I’d worn until seated, I wondered if this was just the new normal.

“Looks like the jock squad is back together again. Haven’t seen them out like this since lockdown ended,” Brett said, drawing my attention to the direction he was looking in.

I knew all of them, but I didn’t know them. I had watched their lives play out from behind a cash register. Nash Lee with Tallulah Liddell, whose mother sent her to buy baking supplies from our store regularly and was really nice; Ryker Lee and Aurora Maclay; West Ashby and Maggie Carleton; Brady Higgens and Riley Young; and then there was Asa with a redhead I didn’t know, but she was stunning.

“Looks like all they’re missing is Gunner and Willa,” Brett drawled as if the sight of them annoyed him. I wondered why. He’d never voiced a dislike for any of them.

I looked back at him. “You don’t like them?” I asked.

He shrugged and glanced back that way before looking at me. “Not really. This town, or state for that matter, acts like football is god and those who play it are gods. It’s a stupid, brutal sport that takes no real talent.” His tone was sour, and I was surprised by his attitude. Brett was always so nice to everyone. An all-around good guy.

“I don’t know much about football, but I think they all seem nice,” I said, feeling like they needed defending.

“You didn’t go to school with them. Tallulah is nice, but she wasn’t always in their group. She had to lose weight to fit in, and that in itself proves how shallow they are.”

I looked back over at them. Asa was laughing at something Brady was saying. Everyone was focused on the former quarterback as he talked. I remembered Riley Young and her daughter coming into the store and how cute she was. Riley was a teenage mom, but she appeared to be a good one. But then I was watching from the other side of the counter. I took her money and bagged her items. What did I know about any of them really?

Riley was looking up at Brady with such a softness in her gaze that it made me ache for whatever she was feeling. She seemed content, complete, happy. I needed to stop staring at them all like a wacko. I fixed my attention back on Brett, determined not to look that way again.

“I heard from my coach at UCLA today,” Brett said. “They’re thinking of postponing classes until October first and offering in-class, remote, and hybrid, which is both. He’s not sure what is happening with the tennis season. They haven’t decided. Nothing is sure yet.”

I still didn’t know what was going to happen with my school either. They’d told us nothing. “That’s not too bad,” I said.

He shrugged. “Better than nothing.”

Our food arrived, and I wasn’t as hungry as I had been when I’d ordered. I wasn’t sure if it was the laughter and talking coming from the table I was trying my best not to look at or the fact it was very possible I wouldn’t be leaving this town in two months like I had fought so hard for. I didn’t want to stay here. I wanted to go live a new life. I was ready for a real college experience, and it was looking more and more like that wasn’t going to happen.