Streak - 8. Chapter 8

September 13, 2002

Boston

 

Brad

 

I had been standing in the dining room, chatting with Stef about the latest deal we’d been approached with. It wasn’t anything special, and it wasn’t all that exciting, but it looked to be relatively low risk, and it should yield a nice profit within a couple of years. We were basically using some time before dinner to cover some business: no big deal.

And then Will had walked into the room, and Cody was with him. I’d felt my eyes narrow as I glared at him, and had seen how that freaked him out. Before I’d had a chance to say anything, Cody had all but fled, saying that he had to go to the bathroom, and then Will and Grand had laid into Stef and me for being rude. It was irritating that they were right, and even more irritating that if I didn’t fix things, I’d end up having another unpleasant conversation with my mother.

That train of thought was cut short when Cody walked back into the room. He looked nervous, like a cornered animal, and that kicked all of the bullshit reasons why I was pissed at him out the window. I’d treated him like shit, and he’d forgiven me. He’d been a good friend to me. I owed it to him to be just as forgiving as he’d been. I walked up to him, held out my hand like I was just going to shake his hand. He held his hand out to do just that, only I grabbed it and pulled him into a big hug. “It’s my turn to be pissed at you, but I’ll probably forgive you, just like you forgave me,” I told him. I could feel the tension ebb from his body, now that he was welcomed back into the fold.

“Probably,” he joked. He walked up and greeted Stef, bowing down and kissing his hand, and cracking the rest of us up. After that, we pretty much put our issues behind us and focused on the birthday celebrations. It was a long party, both for the kids and for Will. We didn’t get a chance to talk to each other, but we’d exchanged looks throughout the event. At first they’d been just glances, then they’d been glances accompanied by a smile. The smiles had gotten warmer as the evening went on, and as we buried the animosity between us.

When it got close to midnight, the party started breaking up, aided by my reminder to Will and Darius that the plane taking them to California was leaving pretty early. Cody seemed comfortable until Will took my cue to go to bed and vanished. After Will left, Cody seemed to get nervous again. It was a little strange that Cody trusted and relied on Will so much; it said a lot about Will’s determination to do the right thing, and his reputation for being a friend who had your back.

“I should get going,” Cody said, and stood up from his chair in a meaningful way. He gave what looked like a fake yawn, as if to emphasize that it was late.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I’ve got a hotel room not too far from here,” he said, flirting with me.

“Good. I’ll go with you,” I said. His mouth opened, as he got ready to argue with me, but I hurriedly told Stef what I was doing. We walked out the door and I went to flag down a cab when he stopped me.

“It’s just a couple of blocks away,” he said.

“Good exercise,” I said. Plus I’d had a lot to drink at dinner, so this would help sober me up.

“That’s pretty forward of you, inviting yourself back to my room.”

“It’s been explained to me that I’m too much of a control freak to be a pussy around men. I have to be in charge, and go for it,” I said, the sarcasm dripping off my words.

He laughed. “Who told you that?”

“Will, Darius, Matt, and a dude I’ve been seeing here in New York.”

“They were right.”

“Whatever,” I said, sounding like Will. “You want to tell me why you lied to me?”

“Which lie?” he asked sadly.

“Let’s start with the one where you don’t want to sleep with me, so you tell me you can’t because you’re in a committed relationship with Alex Danvers. You know, that one, the one that embarrasses the fuck out of me when I find out you’ll still fuck anyone else but me.” There was no way to hide my bitterness when I said that, so I didn’t even try.

“Brad, come on. You know that you’re an amazing piece of ass,” he said, trying to joke with me. When I didn’t laugh, he sighed. “I didn’t want to tell you I was positive. I knew that I couldn’t sleep with you without telling you, so I didn’t sleep with you.”

“That was a stupid decision,” I said. “I would have thought that sleeping with me would be worth it.” He chuckled, to show he appreciated my attempt at levity.

“Look, I didn’t want to push my own drama on you.”

“I thought that was part of being friends?” I asked acidly. “Does that mean I’m annoying you when I confide in you?”

“That’s not it,” he snapped, being uncharacteristically bitchy. “I was really upset and unhappy after the attacks. I lost a good friend and a fuck buddy when Robbie was killed, and I lost the mother of my daughter.”

I thought about that as we walked. “I called Frank on thinking that he had the corner on pain over losing Robbie. I guess I was doing the same thing to you, just assuming my loss was bigger, and yours didn’t matter. I’m sorry if I did that.”

“I wasn’t upset with you about it; I just didn’t want to whine to you about it. It’s like someone with the flu bitching about their health to a person with cancer.”

“So what happened to you after 9-11?”

He sighed. “I got careless, because I didn’t care. I convinced myself that since I normally topped, barebacking was pretty low risk, and I decided that my life sucked anyway, so why should I give a shit if I got it.”

“So you were doing everyone and their brother, and so was Kevin?” I asked.

“I was pretty much a slut, and I’m pretty sure he was too, but I don’t know the details,” Cody said. “He blames me for giving it to him, and I guess he has a right to be pissed, but I think it was just as likely that I got it from him.”

“Why is he so bitchy to you, then?” I didn’t get that.

“Because I admitted that I was a slut, and he didn’t, so he can pretend it was all my fault that he’s positive.”

“Maybe he was safe?” I asked.

He shook his head. “He and I don’t run in the same world, because he’s in fashion and I’m in entertainment, but the two overlap, and I have friends who know him, and know what he did. He was probably worse than me, he just won’t admit it.”

“I guess at this point it doesn’t matter who got it from whom,” I mused. “Are you alright?”

“I’m healthy, and my viral load is low, so I have to take some drugs, but they’re really not all that bad. At least they haven’t been for me. I have to watch my health a lot more, and I’m slightly paranoid most of the time, but to be honest, life goes on.”

“You make it sound like it isn’t a big deal,” I told him. I was aware that my 1980s attitudes about HIV were pretty outdated.

“Well, other than having to tell someone I’m going to fuck that I have it, it hasn’t really changed my life much, besides helping me eat healthier and exercise even more,” he said.

“You could not tell a guy you were positive, and just be safe,” I suggested. I threw that out there, not because I thought that was a good thing to do, but because I wanted to see his reaction.

“I’ve struggled with that, and I realized that won’t work, as long as I like the person,” he said.

“What do you mean? If you don’t like them, you don’t tell them?”

“That’s what I mean, and since I don’t fuck people I don’t like all that often, that means I have to tell them. Besides, even if I didn’t tell a dude, I’d still be safe,” he said.

“Did you know I was going to sleep with Kevin?”

He looked at me strangely. I couldn’t read what he was thinking, but it almost looked like he was jealous. “I thought you already had.”

“I’m upset with you for not telling me because it makes me think I’m not that good a friend to you,” I said, trying to put it all together. “I thought we were close, and I’m really unhappy that you didn’t think I’d be there for you.”

“I’m sorry about that,” he said sadly.

“And I’m annoyed with you for not telling me, because I fucked Kevin and I didn’t know, and you could have clued me in,” I said, not quite as nicely.

“It’s not my place to tell you who’s positive and who’s not,” he said firmly. “Were you safe with Kevin?”

“Yes,” I said, making it sound like ‘of course’.

“Then why does this bother you?”

“Because he should have told me,” I said. We got to the hotel, so we stopped talking as he led me through the lobby and up to his room. “And because he didn’t, now I can’t trust him.”

“Maybe he didn’t know how you’d react,” Cody suggested. “Maybe he thought you were the kind of guy who would see him as a tainted person, someone who was untouchable.”

“That is really insulting,” I snarled. “If he feels that way, than we have nothing to build a relationship on anyway.”

He put his hand on my bicep to calm me down. “Brad, this thing fucks with your mind, and makes you think and do stupid shit, at least until you deal with it.”

I thought about what he said, and thought about how freaked out I’d been when I’d thought I might be positive, and that made me mellow out a bit. “You’re telling me that I should cut Kevin some slack.”

“I am,” he said firmly.

“You still love him,” I accused, referring to Kevin.

“I love Alex,” he lied. I could read him too well for him to pull that bullshit with me. I didn’t even have to call him on it; he knew I’d seen the truth about Alex.

“So Kevin wouldn’t cut you some slack on this deal?” I concluded.

“No,” he said. Then I looked into his eyes, like he usually tried to look into mine, where he almost went into a trance trying to read my thoughts. This time he let me in, let me see everything, and it was so uncanny, the way it all clicked into place.

“You love Kevin, but you’re with Alex, because you settled,” I summarized.

I saw him get pissed off, and wondered for a minute if he’d try to throw me out of his room, but then he mellowed. He sat on his bed, his head in his hands, even as he nodded.

“You want me to forgive you?” I asked him.

“Obviously,” he said.

“Fuck me,” I ordered.

“What? What are you talking about? I could give it to you,” he objected.

“We’ll be safe. The risk is so low, when it comes to you, it’s meaningless,” I said.

“You sure?” he asked. I started stripping off my clothes, getting a smile from him. Then Cody made love to me, and it was wonderful, and after it was over, I felt like I’d gotten a really good friend back, and I hoped I’d helped him out as much as he’d helped me.

 

September 14, 2002

Concord, CA

 

Zach

Tonight was the first game of the season. We were playing Archbishop Mitty High, from San Jose, and according to our coach, they were good. They weren’t St. Louis good; that’s the team we’d tackle next weekend in Hawaii. They weren’t Long Beach Polytech good; those guys were probably our biggest challenge this season. They weren’t in that league, so this should be a walkover. That’s why it was kind of surprising when the coach got up and gave us our final talk before going out onto the field. Coach Ladouceur, or Coach Lad as we sometimes called him, was worried; his assistant coaches were worried; but the rest of the team wasn’t worried at all, and that worried me. Ladouceur was a smart guy, and if he was worried we could lose, then we could lose.

“Let’s go!” one of the assistant coaches shouted enthusiastically, and led us out to the field so we could do our warm-ups. For me, that meant a lot of stretches, and some running.

This was just the pre-game drill, but we still got rousing applause from the crowd. The die-hard fans were the ones who were already here, mostly parents. I’d hoped Will would be able to make it to this game, and got sad that he wasn’t. Having him around really boosted my energy. I knew it wasn’t fair to expect him to drop everything to be at my games, but I liked having him here. He’d be in Boston with his family, celebrating his birthday. That made total sense, but was it so wrong to want him to be here, celebrating with me?

I sat down on the grass and started some leg stretches. I pretended to focus on my muscles, even while my eyes scanned the stadium. Owens stadium could hold 3500 people in the stands, but they were almost full already. We could pack in another 2500 people if they’d stand just outside the end zones. It could get that big tonight. The crowd was excited, and a lot of them were wearing shirts with a 126 on them. If we won this game, our streak would expand from 125 games to 126. It was cool, but it was a lot of pressure. Our story had attracted nationwide attention, and that had gotten us a lot more fans. I looked around at the field, taking in all of the people who were already there, and smiled. I’d wanted to do this, to play, on a much bigger stage. Claremont had a pretty mundane fan base compared to these people, and Don Bosco’s had been pretty small too.

The first thing I did at games was to scan the audience to find out if I had anyone there just to watch me. In Claremont, that had been my parents and Brent. At Don Bosco, I’d had Will there for most of the season, along with his family, and I’d had the Piehls. Here I had Frank and Isidore, so I looked for them. They were usually pretty easy to spot, because they were older, and because Isidore dressed so well. She hadn’t quite mastered the concept of coming to a game like this casually dressed, wearing jeans and T-shirts like the other moms. For her, dressing down meant slacks and a very nice blouse, along with some really nice jewelry and sleek shoes. In this crowd, she’d look like Ella had when she’d gone back to Claremont High after getting her first big makeover by Stef.

I switched to stretching my other leg and looked higher up in the stands. Frank had told me he might be late today, and that meant he’d have to sit higher up. But I couldn’t spot them there, so I moved my eyes across a row, then lower, then back in the other direction, in a methodical way for each bank of seats. I was surprised to see Frank sitting there in seats that were right behind our bench. I was even more surprised to see who was with him: Isidore, Darius, and Will. I’d expected that Isidore would be here, but not Darius. The only real reason for him to be here was if Will was here. Will must have made them fly him back from Boston early, so he could make this game, while Darius probably just hitched a ride to get back to California that much sooner. Then my eyes focused hard on Will, and I saw him looking back at me, grinning like an idiot. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back at him, even as I connected with him through those beautiful green eyes of his.

I should have ignored them, should have just stayed on the field and stretched, but this was too big of a deal. I jogged over to the sidelines and right up to where they were. “Thanks for coming you guys,” I said to all of them.

“I’m looking forward to your game,” Darius said. “See if you’re as good as everyone says.”

“I am,” I said, being cocky, and then I focused my attention on Will. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”

“Want me to leave?” he asked, fucking with me.

“No fucking way. I’m glad you’re here,” I said, raising my eyebrows a bit. I got a little closer to him so only he could hear me. “I can’t believe you bailed on your party and everyone else in Boston just to come back to watch me play.”

“This is where I wanted to be,” he said sincerely.

“Now I have to get at least one touchdown, just for you.” I subconsciously remembered that we had to be just buds in public, and this interaction was pretty intimate. I backed away from him, and got worried that I’d offended him, but he understood.

“Hayes, what are you doing?” I heard Coach Ladouceur ask, shocking me out of my happy reunion with Will.

“Coach,” I said, thinking quickly as I motioned him over to us. “I want you to meet my cousins. This is Darius Schluter, and Will Schluter.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” he said, and I could tell he was a little annoyed that I’d bugged him to introduce him to two dudes who looked like they weren’t even old enough to buy alcohol, which they weren’t. But since Frank and Isidore were here, he was nice. They were pretty big boosters for our club.

“Their grandfather is Stefan Schluter,” I added, since it didn’t seem like he’d put that together. His reaction to my statement confirmed my suspicion. Stef had stepped in and paid to charter a plane to take us to Hawaii next weekend, and that had been a huge deal for the program. Saved them a fortune in airfare.

The coach smiled and turned on his charm, which was no surprise. “Thank your grandfather for us again,” he said, then focused on Will. “You and your other cousin are riding back with us, right?”

“That’s right,” Will said, “as long as that’s alright with you, sir.”

“That’s fine,” he said, then turned back to focus on the upcoming game. “Go finish your stretches, Hayes.”

“You got it, Coach,” I said, sounding upbeat. It wasn’t just an act: I was upbeat. Having Will here did that to me.

The De La Salle Spartans had uniforms that were green and white. It was one of my favorite combinations, because the green seemed to make the grass stains less obvious. The Mitty Monarchs wore black and gold. We went back to the locker room, the coach talked to us one more time, and then we went out to watch the pre-game show. The band played our song, Notre Dame’s “Victory March”, as they marched out onto the field. Our cheerleaders were with them. Most of the girls came from our sister Catholic girl’s school: Carondelet. Then they announced our team, and we all ran out onto the field to the thunderous cheers of those in the stands. When all of that shit was taken care of, we did the coin toss, which we lost, and kicked off to Mitty.

We were all pretty stunned at Mitty’s initial drive. They managed to get the ball down to our 22^nd yard line, only to screw up their field goal attempt and give us possession on a recovered fumble. That was so like those tools at Mitty. They would blow it when it was clutch time. The offense took over, and I jogged out onto the field and took up my position. I nodded to Gehrlich, my favorite tight end, who usually did a good job of making a hole for me, along with his buddy, Schmidt. I snickered to myself when I thought that in reality, Will was my favorite tight end, and that made me glance briefly over to the stands at him.

Britt Cecil, our quarterback, stood behind the center, getting ready to start his countdown. He looked nervous as fuck, which made sense, since he’d been stuck behind a superstar quarterback who’d just graduated last year. Poor Cecil barely had any experience playing in a real game. I walked over to him. “You’ll do fine.”

“Thanks,” he said, and gave me a small smile, thanking me for being a nice guy. That’s not what I was doing. He could think that if he wanted to, but the bottom line was that if he fucked up, I wouldn’t get the passes and hand-offs I wanted, and he could end up making me look bad. So I pumped him up a bit.

The ball was hiked to Cecil, and he handed it off to me like it was a hot potato. Gehrlich tried to pop open a window, but their defense swarmed him, then me. I’d picked up five yards in my debut play for De La Salle.

I allowed my eyes to flick back over to the stands, where Frank and Will were going apeshit cheering for me, while Isidore and Darius were a little more subdued. Will must have seen my helmet tilt in his direction, because he flailed his arms around more enthusiastically. Most guys would look like idiots if they did that, but Will managed to make it look cool. I put my head back into the game, and Cecil gave me the ball again, only this time I got my hole. I blew past the tackle, wiggled away from their secondary, and sprinted to the end zone, some 56 yards. Everyone was going nuts, cheering, while I just enjoyed the kudos from my team.

The first half churned along, and we’d managed to bring it up to 14-0. The Monarchs hadn’t done anything with the ball, and were about to punt it away. “Hayes, you’re on punt return,” the coach said, as we went to jog back out onto the field.

“Got it,” I said. I practiced in this position, but I rarely got to do it, not that I was complaining. I watched their kicker step up and kick the ball, sending it flying almost right to me. I caught it, and then started running. I was trying to decide whether I needed to do some fancy running, but the offensive line formed a blocking wall as I ran down the field. By the time Mitty had managed to penetrate my blockers, I was completely out of their range. I dodged a lame tackle attempt by the kicker, and then ran it into the end zone for the second time during the game. The cheers from the crowd were almost deafening. I looked out and saw Will being even more enthusiastic, if that were possible.

During the half-time meeting, the other players were all giving me pats on the back, telling me that 126 was all but in the bag, and I was the reason. The coach managed to bust that happy attitude pretty fucking fast. He ripped into the offense, and told them that if it weren’t for me and the wide receiver that had gotten the other touchdown, we’d probably be scoreless. He gave Cecil some kudos for his performance, and then challenged him to do better, a good way to energize the dude.

The third quarter was a bust, except for the field goal we’d managed to score. It was weird, because it was like there was some cloud over our offense that made us sluggish and clumsy. I was really pissed off because I could even feel it affecting me. We started out the fourth quarter with the same score, 24-0. I went in after the first play, where we’d gotten nothing.

Cecil took the hike and we scrambled forward. He saw me, wide open, and tossed me a screen pass. I caught it and started running, and I was doing pretty fucking good until I felt hands grab me from behind. They only had one dude on their team who was as fast as me, so this must be him. I tried to pull away, but he managed to push me down. When we landed, he fell, full force onto my ankle, twisting it at a pretty obscene angle. But my focus was on the ball, and the game, so even as the pain seared up my leg, I made sure I retained possession of it until I was fully on the ground. No way I was giving up a fumble to this guy.

My ankle hurt like a motherfucker. I steeled myself and tried to hop up on it, figuring that if I could just internalize the pain, I could work my way through it, but it was so intense it knocked me on my ass. My ankle gave out and I fell to the ground.

Gehrlich was there in a flash, as was Schmidt. “Dude, are you OK?”

“Fucked up my ankle,” I grimaced. They got on either side of me, and helped me limp to the sidelines, to the massive cheers of the audience. Only unlike the cheers I got when I made a touchdown, these were just annoying, cheering me for walking off the field while I was hurt.

“What happened to you?” Coach Blasquez asked. He was our team trainer.

“I think I broke it,” I mumbled, gesturing at my ankle. I’d sprained it before, but it had never hurt this bad.

“Let’s take a look,” the team doctor said. Blasquez helped me pull off my shoe and my sock, and then the doctor proceeded to poke and bend my leg and foot, as if he were trying to torture me, to see how much pain he could inflict before I’d scream out.

“Hurts,” I finally said, pulling my leg away from him.

“Well tell me that, then,” he said, being all bitchy. So we went through the whole fucking routine again, only this time I told him when it hurt.

“What’s his status?” I heard Coach Lad ask.

“He needs to get this checked out,” the doctor said. Fuck. That meant a trip to the hospital. The ambulance guys arrived with a gurney, but before I let them put me on it, I paused and pretended to say a silent prayer. I’d made a conscious effort to do that, to pray before the game and after good plays, so I figured that it would be even more effective if I did it when I was hurt. These idiots believed me with no problem at all. The ambulance guys hoisted me onto the gurney, and they wanted me to lie down, but I refused. I didn’t want people to see me like that and think I’d let a fucking broken ankle lay me flat on my back. “Who’s going with you?” he asked.

“My uncle or my cousin,” I said. For the first time since this happened, I looked over to see Will, Frank, Isidore, and Darius looking at me with concern, but no one was as concerned as Will, although Frank came close. I motioned for them to follow me, and then the ambulance dudes wheeled me off the field. As soon as we were beyond the field and near the ambulance, the four of them mobbed me.

“Are you alright?” Will asked nervously.

“It’s my ankle,” I said. “It’s probably just a sprain, but they want me to get it checked out.”

“Which hospital are you going to?” Frank asked, assuming that’s where they’d take me.

“Contra Costa Medical Center,” one of the ambulance dudes told him. “It’s in Martinez.”

“So who’s going on a ride to the hospital with me?” I asked.

“I am,” Will said, tossing that out pretty assertively. I smiled at Frank to ask him to let Will go with me. He and I did really well together, and that pleading smile I shot him was usually enough for me to get him to let me do what I wanted.

“You ride with him to the hospital, and we’ll meet you there with the car,” Frank said.

“Sounds good,” I said.

We got into the ambulance and Will sat next to me, while the nurse or whoever the fuck he was, hooked me up to a bunch of monitors. I felt the ambulance accelerate as we left the stadium. “You were amazing tonight,” Will said, and reached up to hold my hand.

“The night’s not over,” I said softly so only he could hear. I winked at him, making him blush. “So what’s with you showing up at my game? Aren’t you supposed to be in Boston?”

He leaned in so he could whisper in my ear. “It’s my birthday, so I figured that I should be able to be wherever I want to be. I want to be with you.”

“Happy birthday,” I said. “You staying for the weekend?”

“I’m staying for the weekend,” he affirmed. “Then on Monday, after school, I’m getting my license.”

“Then you’ll be totally mobile,” I said. I remembered the freedom that came from getting my license. When I thought back about it, it wasn’t really all that much, but it seemed like a lot at the time. After Will bought me the Durango, that’s when it really seemed like a big deal. I could go anywhere and do anything I wanted, more or less.

“I cannot wait,” he said.

“Next week is Hawaii, where we play St. Louis,” I said. “The Crusaders are fucking tough.”

“I know,” he said, trying to calm me down, since I was pretty agitated.

“What if I can’t play? You saw how shitty the offense was. What if they’re like that next week and I can’t play?”

“If they’re a good team, they can win without you,” he said, which was just an idiotic platitude.

“We won game 126. Next week is game 127. One hundred and twenty six straight games we’ve won. I don’t want us to blow the streak,” I said earnestly, wanting him to understand.

“Alright, I get that. So what are you going to do about it?” he asked me logically.

I frowned at him. “There’s not a damn thing I can do about it,” I admitted.

“That’s my point,” he said. We pulled up to the hospital and they wheeled me into a room. I was surprised that they let Will stay with me the entire time. I figured he’d have been ejected by now.

“Someone from X-ray will be down to get you in a bit,” a nurse said, then left us alone.

“Alone at last,” I said to Will, raising my eyebrows in a suggestive way.

He stopped and listened, then looked around like he was an animal trying to find out if there were any predators nearby. He must have decided things were safe, because the next thing I felt were his lips on mine. We connected that way for only a bit, when he pulled away from me. “I’m sorry. I had to do that. I had to take the risk.”

“I’m not complaining,” I joked, laughing at his drama. “It meant a lot to look over in those stands and see you cheering me on.”

“I’m glad I could make it,” he said, and stroked my arm.

Then I felt guilty, like I was demanding that he totally sacrifice his life to be with me during the games. “Dude, I’m glad you were there, but you don’t have to go to all of my games. It was cool, but I’ll still be OK.”

“So you don’t want me there, because I don’t get you fired up enough?” he asked, giving me shit.

“I’ll show you fired up as soon as we get home,” I said, in a really sexually aggressive way, one that made him swallow with lust, and made me snaugh, that combination of a snort and a laugh that seemed to be common among the men in my family.

“Awesome,” he said, then got serious. “If there’s something I have to do, I’ll do it, but if there isn’t, I’ll be in the stands, cheering you on.”

They rolled me off to X-ray before I could respond to his statement, and then after that they brought me back to my temporary room. Darius, Isidore, and Frank came in to check up on me, then Darius and Isidore left to go back home. Frank and Will hung around with me until they discharged me. The best news of all was that my ankle wasn’t broken, it was just sprained. That didn’t mean I would be able to play in Hawaii, but it did mean that I had a chance to, and maybe if I did, I could make the difference, and help us keep our streak going.