I couldn’t imagine what my former teammate would want. Plus, my left leg was starting to cramp up, so I held out my hand.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I wanted to give you a heads-up. We’re having a Valentine’s party for all the singles. Word is your girl dumped you.”
I shook my head because I couldn’t see how my love life would be of any interest to football players at State. Of course, Magic couldn’t see my reaction.
“I’m in training for baseball, and I don’t need to go to one of your bashes. The last time I did, my date puked her guts up from all the Jell-O shots she had,” I complained.
“I understand, but you have to show up. Luke was talking to some Chi Omegas and mentioned you might be here. They told him that if you showed up, we would be swimmin’ in women. You owe us,” he tried.
“Owe you?”
“Dude, we carried your butt freshman year. If Kevin hadn’t toughened you up, and I hadn’t volunteered to be your seven-on-seven coach, where would you be today?” Magic asked.
“Whatever,” I said to dismiss his attempt to guilt me. “I promised my guys I would go to Wesleyan, where there would be more age-appropriate women. Besides, I’ve recently been told I need to quit banging older girls.”
“I’ll be sure to tell Luke. I think he’s still jealous over all the older trim you snagged when we were in school,” Magic said, and then went in for the kill. “Can you put it out on your social media that you ‘might’ swing by? That should be enough.”
“Can I send some of my teammates to the party?” I asked.
“Absolutely! You’re the man,” Magic said and hung up on me before I had a chance to put any more conditions on my help.
I handed my phone back to Cassidy. Lily had changed my social media passwords again because I had been ‘reckless.’ What she didn’t know was that my buddy Cassidy was the one who’d posted my butt pic from the other night.
“Send out a message that I’m considering going to Magic, Luke, and Kevin’s place at State for their singles Valentine’s party.”
“I thought you were going to Wesleyan?” Cassidy asked.
“That’s why I said ‘considering going.’”
I was getting better at phrasing my statements so I wouldn’t break my word when I gave it. Cassidy wasn’t impressed.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” she asked.
She did have a point; they might get swamped with fans. I shrugged. It would serve them right for trying to draw in sorority girls with my celebrity. Cassidy decided to go ahead and tapped out the message and sent it. Well, we would see what trouble that caused.
Joey was glaring at me. That didn’t bode well.
◊◊◊
When I got home, Uncle John was waiting for me. I wanted to flesh out my plan to help others; hopefully, it would distract me from Brook taking off to be with her parents while they worked out their problems. We stepped into the office, and he handed me a sheet of paper. I looked up at him and shook my head when I started to read it.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Part of making this work is you keeping your own goals up to date.”
I hated to admit he was right. I read through them and saw how they had changed over time, as he had told me they would.
Financial Stability
Physically Fit
Solid Moral Foundation
Healthy Sex Life
No Regrets
Make a Difference
Be a Great Dad
I read through them all, and thought they still applied, so I told my uncle that.
“We haven’t addressed your fame,” he prodded.
“We’ve talked about this. You had me create my circles of trust and talked about watching for how people reacted to me. That was a big help, by the way,” I said to throw him a bone.
Uncle John was as good as my mom at reading me. He rolled his eyes and then ruined my day.
“These are your goals. How has your popularity changed you? Better yet, how do you want to have it affect you?” he asked.
“I believe I’ve handled it pretty well.”
He looked at me with an expression that said, ‘you’re a goofy teenager,’ and told me I was missing the point. Next, he would say that when I got older, I would understand. What sucked was he was usually right.
“Tami already had a talk with me about this,” I said. “She told me I had to realize that I wasn’t special just because I was a football savant or movie star. She made it clear that it would be a bad idea, long-term, for me to do stuff like jump a line just because I could.”
