Game Changer (The Field Party)

Asa wasn’t alone. He had his friends. They were his family, and I was thankful he had them. My heart ached for the pain he was going through, but I knew he’d be okay. He didn’t need me anymore. This summer he’d been lost, and I understood that now. I was part of his struggle to find normalcy in a whacked situation.

He had been my first. Every girl has a first, and he’d been the guy I’d always wanted. My first crush, my first kiss, my first drive-in date, my first truck bed, and my first love. Forgetting Asa would be impossible and I didn’t want to. I had needed him. He taught me many things about relationships and guys, but most of all he taught me to choose myself.

I didn’t wait around anxiously for his call or text anymore. I knew if it came that it didn’t change anything. There were no more dates in our future and no more nights in the back of his truck. I stayed with him one last time because he asked me to.

I spun my pen on the kitchen counter and stared at the application in front of me. I had filled out four already today. This was my fifth one. Momma was working the front while I did this, and while I appreciated it, I was tired of this process.

“Do you know where the tape measure is?” Malecon asked as he walked into the room.

“Does a kitchen sound like a place one might keep a tape measure?” I shot back at him.

He smirked as he stopped beside me and looked down at my application. “A little late for college applications, isn’t it?”

“Per usual, not your business,” I told him, jerking my application up and standing to get away from him. The more I was around him, the more he annoyed me. It was as if he went out of his way to get on my nerves.

“So you’re saying you’ve not seen the tape measure,” he said, leaning a hip against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest like he was settling in to stay awhile.

“No,” I said, wishing he’d go and leave me alone.

“Belmont is a good choice. It’s my plan after junior college,” he said as if I asked him or cared.

“Good luck with that. You realize they require at least a twenty-four on the ACT at Belmont,” I informed him, although Belmont did have an 84 percent acceptance rate, which was better than other places I was applying.

His eyes widened as if he was shocked. “Seriously? Do they make you have a high school diploma, too? Oh no, what ever will I do?”

I put my application and pen down on the table and glared at him. “Funny,” I replied sarcastically. Ignoring his presence was going to be the only way to get him to leave. I walked to the fridge and got out a soda.

“I was accepted at Belmont last spring, you know, when those of us who aren’t procrastinators were getting responses to our applications we sent in on time,” he said.

“I bet you did. Then you got that fancy acceptance letter to a local junior college and what a treasure. You jumped on it,” I drawled, then took a sip of my drink before adding, “Don’t you have a tape measure to find?”

He and his damn smirk stopped leaning on the counter, and I hoped he was going to leave now. “You’re right. I did jump on it because they gave me a full scholarship, and I didn’t want four years of college loans to pay off when I could just have two.”

“Scholarship?”

He let out a laugh that didn’t sound amused at all.

“What kind of scholarship?” I asked him, not sure I believed him.

The corner of his lip lifted. “Not your business,” he replied, then turned and walked out.

“Good riddance,” I muttered, and sat down at the table again with my drink and application. Belmont was my momma’s choice. Not mine exactly, but I did like the idea of Nashville. I began filling it out but didn’t get far when there was a scream from the front of the store. I shot up and went running toward the sound with my heart hammering in my chest. My momma was not a screamer and I was sure I’d never actually heard her scream, so I wasn’t sure the scream came from her.

I came barreling through the door as Rosa came running down the stairs, her eyes wide too. “What’s wrong?” she asked me.

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know yet. I was trying to figure that out myself.

Momma appeared calm, but there was a lady standing by the candy bar shelf with her hands covering her mouth and her eyes wide with fear. She was looking at something on the ground.