“What’s going on?” His eyes stop me in my tracks though. His hypnotic blues are playing their old tricks on my body.
“You’ll see,” he nods over my head toward the field and I turn around. Running toward us with his helmet tucked under his arm is the quarterback of the Buffaloes. He looks familiar, but I can’t place him.
“Mack! Hey man, good to see you again,” he walks up to Mack and claps his shoulder.
“You too, Armstrong. Great game out there, man.” Mack shakes the quarterback’s hand.
Armstrong. That name rings a bell, wait, Cameron Armstrong? From our graduating class? Well somebody grew up!
I look over at my sister to give her a look. After all, Cameron Armstrong had once spent an entire afternoon trying to pick her up. Back then, with her being two years older than us and already graduated, it felt like she was practically old enough to be his mother. I remember she enjoyed the attention, but shocked the high school junior when she passed on his rare offer.
If Chelsea remembers any of this, it doesn’t show on her face. In fact, the only thing that does show on her face is lust. She practically looks like a human emoji with large hearts for eyes.
“Hi, Chelsea.” Cameron’s voice cuts through to whatever planet she’s on and she startles back into the moment.
“Hey,” she looks at him, confused. Yeah, she doesn’t remember him. But, obviously the same can’t be said about him. I’ll fill her in later.
“Hi, thanks for coming out today. Did you enjoy the game?” Cameron looks at Chris and I think there’s a very real chance that his head might burst.
“It was awesome! You guys rocked. Oh my God, that last touchdown too, I couldn’t believe it.” Chris rattles on excitedly.
“Yeah, I was hoping we could make that work, but you never know. It’s just as much luck as it is skill sometimes.” Cameron looks at Chris and then over to me. “Hey, do you think it would be ok if I take Mack and, I’m sorry, what’s your name?” He looks back at my son.
“Chris.”
“If I take my old Captain here and Chris for a tour? I mean, if you’d be interested of course,” he looks back at Chris and I can’t guarantee he won’t faint.
“Yes! Can I, Mom? Please?” His voice has a tinge of whininess to it, like a toddler begging for a cookie.
“Your old Captain?” I ask Cameron before answering Chris.
“Yeah, this guy led my platoon over in Afghanistan. Hell of a leader, as you all know,” he looks over at Mack, who gives me a knowing look.
“See, I told you I had my ways to get these tickets,” he puts the puzzle pieces into place for me. I find myself secretly relieved that it wasn’t another one of his fan-girls throwing gifts at him in exchange for God-knows-what.
“Well, thank you both for serving our country,” Chelsea interrupts and Cameron looks over at her. You can almost see the rest of the world disappear from their vision in the look they exchange. Jeez, get a room!
“Mom!” Chris pleads from my side.
“Yes, oh, yeah. Of course you can do a tour. Chelsea and I will meet you guys out in the car, ok?” I look over at Mack and he nods.
That’s all Chris needs, he’s on the field quicker than an Olympic sprinter having a false start during a race. “Awesome!” he cries out, excitement trembling through him.
“Ok, well, I guess I should go then,” Cameron mumbles but his eyes still don’t break contact with Chelsea’s.
“Alright, thanks for doing this for us, man.” Mack claps Cameron on the shoulder, bringing him back from whatever imaginary field of flowers him and my sister seem to be running through in their love struck gaze together.
“Yeah, ok.” Cameron’s eyes come back into focus and he looks over at my son. “Let’s do this. I’ll give you guys the grand tour.”
“Cool!” Chris jumps from foot to foot.
“I’ll, um, see you around.” He looks back at Chelsea again and I want to gag. “I hope.”
“You will,” she assures.
“And, I’ll see you later,” Mack gives my hand a quick squeeze and it takes my breath away like he kissed me.
I watch as my son and his father walk across the field with the gridiron bad boy we went to high school with. It’s amazing how a week can change everything. Last week, life couldn’t look any bleaker than it did. Now, I feel like I have my son back, and possibly Mack back too.
I can’t wait to see what next week will bring.
20
Mack
2014
“And that’s pretty much it,” Cameron walks us back out on the field. It’s not like there’s a lot of behind the scenes besides the locker room and the coach’s office. “What do you think, Chris? You wanna play college ball one day?” Cameron scoops up a football from the abandoned mesh sack of them at the players’ entrance to the field.