Page 78 of Ours
“Dude, who cares?” Nic didn’t bother looking up. “Cory can do whatever he wants. He’s a free man.”
“That’s not…” Derek sighed and shook his head. Nic had been distant and aloof since things came to a head in the auditorium.It had become apparent that he was eager to put everything behind him or even pretend none of it had ever happened. It was a struggle to get the guy to talk aboutanything, let alone what happened with Cory. Derek was surprised he was even at lunch right now. “Never mind.”
“Yeah.” Nic rolled his eyes, which were otherwise still glued to his phone screen. “Well, I got better shit to do than sit around and talk about Cory. See ya, man.” Nic pocketed his phone and grabbed his things, waving a goodbye to Derek before heading off.
“Yeah.” Derek sighed again as he watched his other best friend walk away. “See ya.”
Nic sighed as he pulled into his usual spot in front of his house. He had managed to beg off seeing that movie with the singing green witch with Amy, but there was almost always something new and terrible she wanted to see. With everything that had been going on, he really just wanted to go home and not think about anything the rest of the night.
“I’m home!” Nic called out as he closed the front door behind him, hanging up his keys and heading straight to his room.
“Nic,mijo!” His dad called out for him from his office. “Quick, come here! I have some great news!”
Nic stopped in his tracks before he entered the hall to his room and turned toward the open door of his dad’s office. Now what?
“Hey, Dad,” Nic greeted as he entered. “What’s up?”
“You’ll never believe who called earlier today!” his dad exclaimed in excitement but was clearly hoping for an answer.
“Uh… Abuelita?” Nic played dumb.
“St. Helena University!”Fuck. That was his dad’s alma mater. “They called with an offer! They want you to play for them!”
“That’s … great, Dad.” Nic tried to fake a smile. “What did they—”
“They wanna give you a full ride, mijo!” His dad was already turning around to face his desk, pulling up his web browser. “Look! The campus is still just how I remember it.”
Clearly Raphael had been doing some research. Page after page about the school was already pulled up: stuff from the school’s own site, news stories about the football team. It looked like he even tried to find a few old bits of info about himself. It was a lot.
“You’re gonna love it, Nic,” his father barreled forward. “Playing for St. Helena’s were some of the best years of my life.”
“Yeah, Dad, about that…”Of course he’s already made up his mind about where I’m going to go.
“I wonder if the locker rooms are still the same,” Raphael reminisced over his son’s attempt to speak. “Every home game we had this ritual where we… Well, you find out in few months when you start playing!” He laughed at his own joke.
“Dad, wait—”
“They’ve made it into the playoffs the last twenty-three seasons!” Raphael wasn’t even looking at his son anymore. “And with you on the team, they’ll make it all the way to the championships. I can’t wait for your first game. I gotta call all my bud—”
“DAD!” Nic shouted, finally getting his father to clam up.
“Nic, what the hell are you yelling for? I’m just—”
“I don’t wanna play for your fucking school, Dad!”
“Watch your mouth!” Raph snapped. “I was just excited for you. If you don’t wanna play for St. Helena’s, there were other calls from—”
“No, Dad.” Nic decided to just lay all his cards on the table. “I don’t think I want to play football in college at all.”
“What are you talking about?” Raphael guffawed. “You love football. You’ve been playing it since you were—”
“I’mnotlittle anymore, Dad,” Nic cut him off, knowing this was coming. “Playing football doesn’t feel the same for me anymore.”
“So what, you’re just quitting?” Raph stood up from his seat. “After everything your mother and I have done? The way we’ve supported you for years!?”
“Everythingyou’vedone!?” Oh good, now they werebothyelling. “Of course you somehow find a way to make this aboutyou.”
“Well, you’re acting like an idiot! You’re throwing away everything you’ve worked for!”
