Page 80 of Scoreless Nights

“Your agent has been trying to call you, and then tried to barge in here.”

I sent him to voicemail every time because I didn’t want to talk to anyone but Lily. Whatever he had to tell me could wait until I was sure she was going to be okay. But instead of telling Coach that, I just nodded.

“Told him I would tell you myself, but he wasn’t coming in here before a game. Nike heard about what happened with Archer and wants to offer you the same kind of deal. Of course, I think it all depends on how this game goes, but that should be motivation for you to have your head on straight.”

I nodded again, completely in awe. So much riding on the game, and all I could do was think about Lil. It was a huge deal for Nike to want to offer me a contract, and I immediately wanted to call her and tell her. She would be so damn happy, especially since she thought it was her fault I didn’t sign with Archer.

There was only one way to know if she was at the game, and that was to go out there and see if she was in the stands. Even if our parents flanked her, I would go up to the wall and tell her face to face about Nike. That would put a smile on her face no matter what, and I wanted to always put smiles on her face.

Jogging out there, I immediately saw my mom but the three seats next to her were empty. My eyes scanned everywhere as the music hyped the crowd up and the lights flashed around the stadium. When I looked back to my mom, she shrugged and pointed to the empty chairs, letting me know they weren’t there, and she didn’t know why.

My text to her, telling her about Dad and Gloria coming to the game, didn’t include the part where they found me fucking Lil. It didn’t feel like a good time, and I knew Dad wouldn’t come right out and say it while they were in the stands.

“Heads up!” Tripp yelled, making me look up just in time to block one of his warm up strikes. He grabbed the rebound from my hands and went back toward the center of the field while I looked back up for Lil.

The seats next to my mom were now taken, but it wasn’t Lil and our parents, it was her friends Angel and Jackie, along with Deon.

“Hey!” I yelled, getting their attention. Jackie immediately started batting her eye lashing and pushing her tits together, making my mom roll her eyes. Instead of giving Jackie the attention, I locked eyes with Angel and she stood like she knew I was about to ask her something. “Where’s Lily?”

“I haven’t spoken to her,” she said quietly.

“What are you two even doing here?”

“The old fashioned way,” Deon tried to explain. “No one is in these seats though, man.”

“Mom?” I yelled, ignoring Deon. “Text Dad. Ask him if he’s coming.”

She nodded and started tapping on her phone right as I was told to take my position. I walked backward, keeping my eyes on my mom until I was in the goal and the whistle blew. There was no point in me being in the goal, I barely kept my eyes on the ball or even on the field.

We were twelve minutes into the game when someone on Los Angeles’ team seemingly flopped. The referee gave Tripp a yellow card, but when the other guy didn’t get back up, they called someone onto the field to tend to him. That gave me a few minutes to jog to the sideline, pretending I needed a refill on my water.

“Cruz!” I heard my mom yelling and waving her arms. As I got closer, way closer than I should have during a game, I watched as she tried to get her composure.

Deon, Angel, and Jackie were still sitting in the wrong seats, watching me and wondering what was going on. I could tell Deon was stressed out, Angel was looking a little sad, and Jackie looked like I had gone over there just to talk to her. She even shoved Deon a little and leaned down as I focused on my mom.

“Ma,” I yelled, urging her to talk even though she looked sick. Sandy was yelling at me to get back on the field but I couldn’t move a muscle.

Finally, my mom sensed the urgency and blurted out, “She’s at Mount Sinai Medical Center.”

I heard her wrong, because it sounded like she said she was at the Medical Center and there was no reason Lil should have been there unless…

“Was there an accident?” I asked, taking my gloves off as Sandy threatened to fine me. The game was starting again and our goal was empty, but I didn’t care. Nothing else mattered.

“They should have told you,” my mom cried, shaking her head.

Backing away, not understanding what my mom meant, I rushed to the bench and down the hall. Without even changing out of my uniform, I grabbed my phone and keys from my locker and raced toward the exit.

My phone started ringing, my agent’s name popping up. I knew he was probably having a heart attack, knowing the Nike deal wouldn’t go through once I left, but again, none of it mattered.

I dialed my dad’s phone number a million times until he finally answered. “You left!”

“Where is she?” I demanded, ignoring the fact that he must have been watching the game on TV and saw me leave.

Dad sighed but was quiet for so long I thought maybe he had hung up. “Where is she?” I yelled again.

“Room 441,” he finally said. “She’s fine.”

I hung up on him, not interested in him placating me. I was almost to the hospital anyway. When I ran into the emergency room doors, all eyes turned to me. The game was on the TV in the waiting room and several people did a double take as they looked between the TV and me.

---