Matt Barkley was the poster child for what I feared most in football. No matter how good you were, you’re always one injury away from your dreams ending. I’m sure if Matt had it to do over again, he would have come out his junior year. Without his injury, he might have had the same kind of career Andrew Luck had had (three-time Pro-Bowler) when he was the first quarterback taken in that draft.
◊◊◊
Tracy was waiting for me when Fritz dropped me off.
“Change of plans,” I announced as she walked up.
Her expression was priceless.
“Alan has been grounded. He can’t take Leah to Prom. We need a replacement guy.”
“You scared me for a minute. I can have that fixed before lunch.”
“No douchebags,” I warned.
“‘Stupid Boy,’ let me handle it,” Tracy assured me.
I smiled at that. Nobody had called me that in a few days, and I missed it. Not that I’d ever admit that to anyone, even when being tortured, of course.
◊◊◊
At lunch, Tracy told me that Johan had been picked to be Leah Johansen’s date. He might not be my first choice, but Johan was a little shy around girls and had been one of the few guys who didn’t have a date. Not that I didn’t like Johan; I did. It was that with his Mennonite upbringing, I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. With the group that was coming, there was a good chance that there would be drinking and sex. I take that back, there was a dead certainty there would be drinking and sex; Zak would make sure of it.
I wasn’t sure whether Alan was pissed at being grounded, or that we’d found a date for Leah, or both, but he didn’t join us at lunch. I think he expected I would run over and try to make everything right, but he was mistaken. There was only so much backstabbing and snarky remarks I was willing to take from my former best friend.
I was lost in thought when my phone rang. I looked down and saw it was Adrienne.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I have some bad news. We had a model get hurt in a car accident.”
“It wasn’t Kara, was it?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“No, but I sent Kara to take her place. Kara won’t be able to be your date for Prom.”
“She warned me, I guess,” I said dejectedly.
“I feel bad, but you realize business has to come first,” Adrienne reasoned.
Of course I did. What made it bearable was that Kara hadn’t promised to come; she said she would if she could. I know it didn’t help that I would now be going to my prom stag, but it wasn’t like she’d broken her word to me, either. Kara had made a tough choice to go into modeling full time. I respected that she took it seriously.
“No, that’s fine,” I said to let Adrienne off the hook.
“What do you plan to do?” she asked.
“I’ll just go by myself and have fun. I’m sure I can find some girls willing to dance with me.”
Adrienne chuckled. It didn’t sound like she felt too sorry for me.
“I’ll find you someone. Jackie Chan will be there to take photos, and you need someone like Melinda at your side for Prom,” Adrienne said.
That made me feel better. Melinda would be fun to hang out with again, both during and after Prom. I wasn’t letting Adrienne completely off the hook.
“If you think that would be best,” I said with a sigh.
She chuckled again at my dramatics. I thought I was a better actor than that.
“Cheer up. Kara wasn’t happy with me. She said I had to make it right and call you personally,” Adrienne explained.
“I’m all growed up. I’ll put on my big-boy pants and suffer through. Tell Kara good luck on her shoot and that I’ll miss her.”
“As long as you’re being a big boy, I’ll let her know you’re okay,” Adrienne teased.
After we hung up, I started to daydream about alternative dates. Melinda would be a lot of fun, but maybe Adrienne knew Hailey Clauson, the girl who had been the blonde bombshell on the cover of
I’d just finalized my top-25 wish list when Cassidy jabbed me in the ribs.
“Earth to David.”
I scrunched up my eyebrows and gave her a dirty look.
“What?”
“I asked,” Brook announced to get my attention, “why am I not going to Cuba, and Cassidy is?”
“Rumor has it they’re going to Japan with you,” Halle chimed in.
I didn’t need this. Maybe I could leave for Cuba tomorrow. I turned to Zoe and raised an eyebrow. In the past weeks, I’d been practicing facial expressions, and raising just one eyebrow was harder than you might expect.
“I can’t afford to go,” Zoe said.
“I’ll make you all a deal.
“Wow, thanks, man,” Tim said.
