Count On Me(69)

He’s right; I don’t need her because I do have him, even if it should be the other way around and be me protecting him.

“So, I’ll just drop the two of you off and head out for coffee then. You can text me when you’re ready to come back.”

There’s sadness in her tone, almost as if she feels left out. Maybe it’s not that at all and she’s just worried about me taking the steps away from her constant supervision. Whatever it is, I don’t like it and the last thing I want to hear from her, especially tonight, is sadness. This is a big moment for all of us, even if she did just spend the last half hour dancing around our house like a crazy person.

“I’ll text you the minute it’s done.” I say smiling brightly at her. “It’s all going to be fine.”

That’s not exactly the truth, but for now it’s going to have to do. I’m going to the school to see Kayden play football for the first time. Kayden, my boyfriend, the one person in the world besides the two people in this room that wouldn’t let anything happen to me. Of course everything would be alright.

He won’t allow it to be any other way.

“When did you get that?” she asks motioning to the arm of the sofa where Kayden’s jacket sits. “Did he give that to you when he was here last night?”

Before I can answer her, Tristan grabs her attention, pointing to the jersey he’s wearing and I can’t help but laugh at his excitement.

“Yeah, he gave it to me last night. He wanted me to wear it tonight. Once he heard how excited Tristan was to go though, he made sure he also got something to wear tonight, as you can see.”

“Are you sure your brother’s not the one dating him?”

“Not sure. With the way he’s jumping all over himself, I’m thinking he might be.”

“Well alright then. Since Tristan has his boyfriend’s jersey and you’ve got his letterman jacket, it looks like we’ve got everything we need. You ready to go?”

I nod and stand up from the sofa, making sure to pull Kayden’s jacket with me. I definitely can’t forget this tonight, especially not after what he said to me before he let me have it.

“Most guys on the team, they give these to their girls to get them off their back. That’s not the way I look at it. I want you to wear this because everyone needs to know who the real star of the team is, and it’s not me.”

He doesn’t realize it, but when he said those words, I knew for sure.

I’m in love with him.



Kayden



Tonight is one of the biggest nights of my life and I’m scared shitless.

It’s not the first time that college scouts have shown up at games, I mean they’ve been doing that since my freshman year, but tonight it’s not only about the scouts. It’s also the first time I’m going to have my girlfriend watching me play.

People can say that my future depends on how I play tonight because in the end it will determine if I get a scholarship to play ball, but that’s not true at all. My future depends on tonight, sure, but it’s not because of the scouts. It’s because of her.

Every single vision I have of the way I am in the future, she’s a part of. I’m not sure exactly when that happened but I like it. I want her there. I’ll play my ass off tonight, talk to some of the scouts and make a road map to my future, but none of it matters at all if she’s not there. I see meeting her after classes next year, going on dates with her, playing football and having her there cheering me on. It’s crystal clear in my mind.

It’s damn near perfect.

I’m not scared of any of that though. I’m scared because this is the first real event I’ve taken her to. Sure, I’ve hung out with her every single day, but we’ve always been alone. I’ve never taken her on a real date and this, tonight, is as real as it gets. The whole damn school already knows how I feel about her, what she means to me, but tonight the entire world or at least the entirety of Wexfield, is gonna know it.

How she’s going to handle that is what scares me. She seems different lately, stronger even and I want to take credit for that, but I can’t. Her keeping the doctor’s appointment from me just proves it. She did all of that on her own and even seemed happy after it, which is a way that I’ve never seen her. Isabelle is different now and it’s got nothing at all to do with me, it’s all her.

A high school football game though, even the strongest person in the world, one that doesn’t struggle with anything the way she does, can break at one of these things. I only hope that it goes off the way I want it to and she enjoys herself. I want her to look back on everything one day and realize that these really were great times, just the way she said in her letter.