"Because the combine is in seven. You do know what the NFL's National Scouting Combine is, right?"
My heart hardened, and I scowled. Years of hard work on my part meant nothing when compared to a football player's potential career. "This … I can't … I wish I could explain … oh my God … "
"Now there's no need to panic over this. Take it for the opportunity that it is."
"I just thought I'd have more of a say for such a big move. This change can affect my opportunities in the baseball world, Dr. Jeffries."
He sighed. "I think it can only help demonstrate your versatility. Look, my decision is final. I expect you in my office at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, where you'll meet with the lead certified trainer and later on, the two of you will meet with Evan at his dorm or wherever he lives. His address is on file. In the meantime, I want you to prepare by drafting a plan for his treatment and rehab, to demonstrate to the team lead what you're bringing to the table. Remember, it's a grade two strain. Left leg. I'll have more information for you once the remaining results come in from the head physician. See you tomorrow, Samantha."
Then he hung up.
I sat there for a solid minute with the phone to my ear. Just like that, my plans were toast. Everything I had worked toward was going down the tube and I had no say in the matter. I had to temporarily wave my assignment goodbye. The one I had earned was going to fall to someone else.
I dropped my phone to the bed and buried my head in my hands. I was crying by the time Kristy walked in.
"Oh sweetie … what's wrong?" She rushed over to me, putting an arm around my shoulders. "Talk to me. What is it?"
"I h-hate football!" I sobbed.
"Oh, no. I'm sorry. Is it your dad again?"
"No, not this time." I sat up, wiping my cheeks with my hands. I gave her the brief rundown of my conversation with Dr. Jeffries. She clicked her tongue sympathetically, then got up for some tissues and a bottle of water.
"You poor thing. I'm so sorry he's screwing you over like this." She sat beside me on my bed and put her arm over my shoulder. "Is there anything you can do?"
"I tried. I told him I didn't have the time, I reminded him how hard I worked to get this assignment. It didn't matter. He wants me to drop everything to help out this Evan Marshall jerk face." I blew my nose and took a long drink of water, trying to get myself back in order.
"Back up a second. Did you just say you'll be working with Evan Marshall?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Whoa, momma." Kristy fanned herself. I shot her a withering look.
"You're not helping, friend."
"Sorry. Couldn't help myself," she answered and gave me a shrug. Kristy crossed our tiny dorm room to find her phone in her bag. "You could do worse, you know. He's a football God. Six feet four inches tall, gorgeous face, wavy brown hair, dark chocolate brown eyes and a scorching hot body. His ink is so hot I'm sure the ladies line up to lick it. He's sexy as hell with a devilish reputation. Haven't you seen him before?"
"Maybe, but I don't care. I'm tired of having to put everything aside for football! First at home with Dad, and now my career is out the door, just like that. Why do they get everything? More funding, the best therapists, perks up the ass around campus, even the best uniforms."
"We live in the south, honey. It's football country. We are all about football. You know that." She frowned sympathetically. "You know that better than anybody else."
"Don't I, though?" I wanted to scream.
"Hey. I need to tell you something." She sat beside me again with an urgent expression on her face. "You don't make it your business to keep up on the guys on the football team in particular, so I think I should tell you. Watch yourself around him."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean he's a total dog. Half the girls on the campus sororities have slept with him."
"You're exaggerating, aren't you?" My tears were forgotten now. I listened carefully.
She nodded. "Maybe a little, but not with this part. He's into all sorts of kinky stuff, and everyone says he's a control freak. Like one of the girls down the hall was blabbering on that she was with him a few nights ago."
"With him, how?"
"Like up in his room getting screwed out of her mind at some party the frat house threw to welcome students back." Kristy rolled her eyes, pulling her long blonde hair back in a ponytail. To some, she looked the part of the typical sorority member who would adorn those jock's mattresses. She was a member of a sorority, but had vowed never to live in one of their houses on campus after junior year.
Dorm life wasn't that much better, but the pressures of keeping up with the insane fashion and social norms of a Southern sorority was over the top for most sane, grounded women. Kristy was the most grounded of them all, no matter what people thought. That blonde mane, those long legs, big boobs and all the makeup she wore on her already stunning face made people on campus jump to the wrong conclusions. At heart, my best friend was a force to be reckoned with, which was why we got along.
"What did she say?"
"According to her, he pretty much ordered her to go down on him, then he spanked her and they did the nasty. After he was finished he told her to put her clothes on and get back down to the party."
"That's harsh." I put a hand over my mouth, although it did sound pretty hot, getting spanked like that. I kept that part to myself. "Hold on. Are you talking about Tina?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"No one else on this floor would do something like that. There's only four of us up here who are single, for starters. You and I wouldn't give this Evan dude the time of day. So that leaves Tina and Brandy. And everyone knows Brandy is into Tre, but she'd never step inside that frat house or any other ‘den of iniquity', as she likes to call it."
"Well okay. I guess I'm not great at keeping her secret. Just don't tell her I said anything. Anyhow, she said she never saw him again that night, except toward the end of the party when he was making out with another girl in some corner, then took that girl to her room."
"Ew! That's low. He dropped her like that?"
"Like yesterday's news … like a used, no-good snatch." She shook her head. "Yet another reason why I don't live in the sorority house, and don't go to a lot of those parties. That's all it is."
"But to drop her like that? At the same party? You're right. He's a pig."
"I know. Believe me, he's gonna try to work his charm on you, girlfriend. You'd better be careful."
I blushed and looked at my hands. "You know he won't have much luck there." Kristy was one of the less than five people in the world who knew with a hundred percent certainty that I was still a virgin.
"Honey, you've gotta lose it sometime. All I'm saying is, don't lose it to him. He's not worth it. And don't let your prof get you down. He's just another shining example of men thinking they can tell women what to do. They'd never just up and reassign one of the guys like that, not unless they were already chomping at the bit to be assigned to the football team. Bastard."
Kristy was a diehard feminist-another aspect of her personality that most people would never guess in a million years. In her world, everything boiled down to gender, and women were naturally getting the short end of the deal, so she took it upon herself to speak up for all women, whether there was inequity or not.
"I just hope this doesn't screw up my chances of getting hired by a baseball team after I graduate. Who am I kidding? Of course it will. He wants me to work with this Evan guy for six weeks."
"Try a full semester tutoring one of those meatheads. Mind you, he's a cute meathead."
"Wait, what? You're tutoring one of them?"
"Yeah. My teaching gig got fucked up at the last minute because of some union contract negotiations going on at the private high school I was assigned to."
"Awww crap. I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to it."
"I was. Mom and Dad are livid."
"Can't they put in a good word somewhere for you?"
"Not this time. It's too late. So I get to work with Mo Grant … a running back who happens to be on academic probation this semester … and he's a senior, so they're bringing out the big guns to help him graduate. The one good thing he has going for him is he doesn't live in the frat house with the rest of those guys on the football team. He's at home, somewhere off campus. Well, that's not the only good thing … "
"Wait, you're … into him?"
"Uh, that may be jumping the gun, but hell, he's a big blond sexy giant. Six feet seven inches, almost white blond hair, piercing blue eyes, broad shoulders, rippling muscles, ink … I've got my work cut out for me with this assignment."