Finding Eden(14)
Staying awhile meant Danny and Paul ended up sprawled in cheap plastic chairs sharing one beer after another. As tired as Paul was, those beers shared with Danny were enough to have him resting his head back against the chair. He laid the pole between his legs as his eyes fell closed.
“What’d you do to your arm?”
“Hmm?” Paul asked, his eyes still closed.
His entire body was heavy with the weight of mental and physical exhaustion that threatened to let him sleep all night in the uncomfortable chair.
“Your arm,” Danny said, his hand grazing Paul’s upper arm as he pushed up the sleeve of his t-shirt. “What the fuck—”
Paul didn’t think it was possible to wake up that fast, but he did, a surge of adrenaline pulsing through him so quickly he jerked in shock. He wrenched his arm away from Danny, shoving his sleeve back down.
“It’s nothing,” he growled out of fear. “Don’t touch me.”
Danny stared at him, his dark eyes narrowed and calculating, giving Paul the impression he was looking into his soul. “Defensive much?”
“I just don’t want you to touch me,” Paul said, feeling a sickening wave of dread wash over him because he knew he was acting suspicious, and he floundered for a way to cover up his mistake. “Why the fuck do you care if I hurt myself or not?”
Danny was silent as he rubbed his thumb against his bottom lip, turning to look out to the lake. He appeared to be choosing his words wisely before he finally whispered into the darkness, “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
“You’d think you were looking for a date or something,” Paul said, hoping to God that was the end of it.
“You made your point, asshole.” Danny’s head fell back against the chair as he reached down to grab the beer between them. He took a long drink, speaking against the rim. “You don’t want me to touch you. I got it.”
*
“Yes! YESSSSS!”
Danny jumped out of his seat, his fist raised in victory. He stood suspended in that strange place where everything felt as if it were in slow motion as he watched the football soar through the air. The receiver was wide open. Paul wasn’t the most light-footed quarterback in the world, but he could put a ball where it needed to be. That was a brilliant throw. It would take a complete idiot to miss it.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The roar of the crowd was unanimous, deafening as the ball finished its beautiful arc through the air and the receiver missed it. It took Danny a second to speak against the lump in his throat.
“Motherfucker!” he shouted when he did find the words. His instinct was to rush out of the stands and kick the living shit out of that receiver who had fumbled a truly stunning pass. “You suck, Fulton! You should whore out your mouth, you suck so fucking hard!”
“There are kids here, Danny!”
“It wasn’t even a fumble,” Danny said, turning around in irritation to stare at Denise and Melissa, the sorority girls he came to the game with. “His fingers didn’t touch the goddamn ball. How’d you miss that?”
“That was pathetic,” Melissa said, looking disgusted. “Our team is really getting destroyed this season. So depressing.”
“I hate team sports.” Danny sat back down, putting his face in his hands, feeling completely miserable. Paul’s team getting abused for yet another game was the least of his problems. He was worried about Paul himself.
The incident on the porch last week haunted him day and night, burrowing doubts into his brain he didn’t want to have. He was just using the football as an outlet. “Why couldn’t he be into rodeo or track or anything that didn’t require teamwork? Then he wouldn’t have to worry about other people’s fuck ups. Team sports suck.”
Denise laughed, sounding genuinely amused. “Can you imagine Paul rodeoing? He’s too big to ride a horse.”
“He actually does all right,” Danny said, running his hand through his hair and looking to Denise. “He could rodeo if he wanted to. He can do anything. He’s Paul. Besides, he may be built like a linebacker, but there’s a reason he plays quarterback. He’s light on his feet and more coordinated than you’d expect.”
“Whatever.” Denise shrugged as she tucked a strand of long, dark hair behind her ear. “Are you coming to our party tonight?”
Danny pulled a face as he looked from Denise to Melissa sitting next to her. Though their coloring was different, Denise’s hair a deep mahogany, Melissa’s nearly white-blonde, they matched in the way sorority girls were apt to do. They had the same bleached-white teeth and long, layered hairstyles. Their clothes were always in fashion and each of them drove luxury cars nearly as nice as Danny’s. They both sported the very pretty, pressed look of girls who came from money and enjoyed the novelty of it, but Danny was more inclined to like these two than the others of their breed. He found them charming and adorable most days. It was their friends who were starting to grate on his nerves.