Chapter 22: Date With Destiny

Saturday October 29
My eyes blinked open, and I moaned. And not the good type of moan like I made last night, but the moan an old man must utter when every part of him aches. My Vitamin T had worn off, and I hadn’t taken a pain pill before going to bed last night. I decided to get up and cringed when my whole right side decided it might cramp up.

Duke lay at the side of the bed, where he’d slept last night. He gave me a look that said it was too early.

“Hey, Buddy. Go get me a pain pill, and I’ll buy you a bag of tennis balls.”

Duke only sighed as he flopped his head back onto the floor. Perhaps Brook and I shouldn’t have been quite so energetic last night. A tiny smile crept onto my face as I remembered her cries of passion. I’d been on my game last night, and Brook hadn’t been too bad herself.

This morning was an unhappy reminder of what Zander had done to me. Would I ever frickin’ get better?

I managed to get upright and tottered towards the bathroom, using the wall to steady myself. Duke decided he’d better move in case I fell on him. I found my pills on the bathroom vanity and struggled to get the top off. Whoever invented childproof caps should be shot. The sad part was that if I gave the pill bottle to Coby, he would probably have it chewed open by now. I finally got the bottle opened and swallowed a pill.

After my pill, I staggered into my shower and turned the water on as hot as I could stand. The hot water worked its magic on my aching side.

What surprised me how much I really wanted another shot of Vitamin T. It wasn’t solely for the pain relief; I liked how Toradol made me feel invincible, like a better version of myself. Now that I’d experienced what it could do for me, I had no worries about the rest of the games this year.

Doc Grog had assured me that Toradol wasn’t addictive. It came from the same family of drugs as over-the-counter Advil but was more powerful. I’d asked Doc about its addictiveness because I tended to overdo things. Part of why I ran was because I got a ‘runner’s high.’ That refers to the rush of endorphins that running can trigger in the brain, giving the person a sense of euphoria. While I expected the benefits of running far outweighed my addiction to it, I suspected that might not be true of Vitamin T. I realized that if I’d had access to it this morning, I wouldn’t have hesitated to use it.

I told my security I wouldn’t leave the house until tonight’s date with Destiny. That allowed me to slip out in my Demon. I planned to pick up Dare and test out my new drone with him. When I arrived at Dare’s, his mom answered the door and gave me an unreadable look.

“You’d better come in. He’s in his room,” she said and pointed to where I needed to go.

The door hung partially open, so I poked my head in.

“Hey...” I said and then froze.

On the floor, in a million pieces, was my drone. Dare’s head snapped up, and his ears flushed.

“I ... uhm ... I...”

“Weren’t we going to fly this today?” I asked to remind him of why I’d come.

“I sort of couldn’t get what Mr. Jacobs said about improving it out of my head, so I had to take it apart.”

“I sure hope you know how to put it all back together.”

“Uhrm ... I think I can,” he said, and then my new Jedi mind trick seemed to work. “I know I can. If I have to, I’ll get the design layout from the manufacturer.”

Somehow, that didn’t reassure me. I seriously doubted that they would hand over their design documentation just because Dare took it all apart. I also suspected that he might’ve voided the warranty I’d paid extra for.

“What exactly did you think you would accomplish?” I asked.

“I wanted to add small cameras at each corner so I could make it safe for even you to fly.”

The ‘even you’ comment caused the hairs on the back of my neck go up.

“You mean, you wanted to idiot-proof it?” I asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

I rolled my eyes. That was precisely what he’d said.

“I need to buy some stuff,” Dare blurted as he grabbed a piece of paper and shoved it at me.

I took it and read the list.

“What’s a stick PC?” I asked.

“It looks like a thumb drive that you plug into the HDMI connection on the side of a TV or monitor. It’s like a portable PC.”

I’d been thinking about buying a Roku, or something similar, to stream television shows and movies to my TV. I’d seen our latest cable bill, and it was ridiculous when you considered I only watched TV occasionally. One problem with the different non-cable options was they were subscription services and forced you to go through them for most of your programming. That meant that if you wanted to watch a show that wasn’t part of your service, you were out of luck. Another problem was they had figured out they had a captive audience and had started raising their prices to almost equal our cable bill.

I imagined the stick PC might solve most of my issues because I could watch most everything on my PC right now without a problem. The one drawback how to watch live sports. I would have to go home and research this.

“What do you need it for?” I asked.

“I have to have more computing power,” Dare said as if that would make perfect sense to me.

“What about this solar panel?”

“Mr. Jacobs suggested that if I installed one, the drone would fly longer on a single charge.”

Mr. Jacobs had just become a pain in my butt.

Using Dare’s laptop, I bought all the gadgets he wanted to trick out my drone. To be honest, I feared I would run it into something, so idiot-proofing it was fine with me. But I didn’t need him knowing that. After I’d spent more money, Dare focused on the drone and ignored me. The kid had a one-track mind.

I came out of his bedroom and found Dr. Rossetti grading papers.

“When Darius was ten, I came home and found our TV in pieces. I wanted to be mad, but he explained he wanted to understand how it worked,” she said.

“Did he get it back together?” I asked hopefully.

She laughed.

“Nope, I had to buy a new one. I finally tossed all the parts from his failed experiment when we moved here.”

I might have to take something for the migraine I had coming on. Drones weren’t cheap, and I wasn’t about to buy Dare another one.

“Don’t worry, Darius has gotten better at putting things back together. If I were you, I would make him show you whether he ends up with any spare parts when he’s done. I almost burned the house down when I used the microwave one day,” she shared.

“I can see the wisdom in that. I wouldn’t be happy if the drone burst into flames.”

“Like I said. Make Dare show you, because he just assumes it’s okay if he has extras when he’s done.”

Since I now had time on my hands, I sent a text to my girlfriend. She suggested that I take her to lunch. That seemed like a great idea because it gave me a couple of hours to stress-test my car. I would recommend to any teenager who has a lot of cash to buy a muscle car to play with. My Dodge Challenger SRT Demon was a beast. I’d read an article that said that it was faster than the Bugatti Veyron in the quarter mile—the same Bugatti Veyron that sold for $1.6 million.

Mr. Sullivan had told me they only planned to make 3,000 Demons this year. He recommended that once I put about thirty thousand miles on it, I put it in storage and treat it as an investment. I would have to start looking for a new car about the time I came back from New Zealand next fall.

After I’d had my fun, I picked up Brook. She wanted to go to the Chinese place that overlooked the park. She clearly had something on her mind, and after we ordered she finally blurted it out.

“I think you should cancel your date with Destiny tonight.”

I tilted my head to see if Brook was serious or just jerking my chain. Lately, it seemed to be ‘punk David’ season, and I wanted to make sure she wasn’t just giving me a hard time.

“You know how I am about giving my word,” I reminded her.

I wanted to throw back in her face that it had been she who’d arranged this whole fiasco. But I was working on not making anyone wrong, especially my girlfriend. She’d already threatened to dump me once this week; I didn’t want to try for a second go-around.

“I’m of two minds on this. I talked to Tracy, and she said the best revenge would be to have you have sex with Destiny to show her what she’s missing.”

My friend Tracy needed to keep her big mouth shut. No way would I sleep with Destiny. That had disaster written all over it.

“I hope your second idea is better.”

“That was my second idea. My first one was that you stand her up.”

I almost laughed, but I used every ounce of acting talent to keep a straight face.

“How about I take her on a date, fulfill my obligation, and call it a night,” I suggested.

“I don’t trust her,” Brook said, ignoring my reasonable suggestion. “Destiny keeps telling me how she plans to steal you from me.”

“We both know after last night that nothing like that is ever happening,” I said.

“I did have fun,” Brook admitted as she blushed.

“If you’re going to have me show Destiny what she can’t have, I have a list.”

“What do you mean?” Brook asked.

“A list of girls who need to be reminded how good you have it.”

In my defense, Mr. Happy came up with that idea. I hate to admit it, but if push came to shove, every guy could produce a list of ten or twenty women he would like to spend time with. I’m lucky that Brook just ignored me.

“What are you doing on your date?” Brook asked.

“No idea. I told Destiny I would pick her up at five, and she had to plan what we did.”

Destiny had sent me a text to move the start time from six-thirty to five.

“Seriously? When did you last let me plan a date?”

“Hang on. You planned some awesome dates. I think my all-time favorite was when we did motocross.”

I still found it hard to believe that Mom hadn’t grounded me for life when she found out about that one.

“If you stand up Destiny, I’ll make sure you get to do it again.”

“You better tell my mom up front. If I sneak off and do anything like that again, we’ll end up babysitting every Friday and Saturday night until we graduate,” I warned her.

She knew I was right, so she let it go. When our food came, Brook kept silent as she plotted her next move in this little war. It impressed me that Destiny had worked her into this corner. If Destiny could see how stressed my girlfriend was, she would have declared victory.

“Okay, new plan,” Brook said, startling me. “You will flirt with Destiny and lead her on all night, and when she thinks she’s about to lure you to her bed, you shut her down. And I want you to video it so I can see the tears in her eyes.”

I blinked a few times.

“When did you get so mean?” I blurted.

So much for not making her wrong.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Time for damage control.

“This isn’t you. I’ve never seen you get this mad at someone before. Destiny is no threat to you. She’ll never take over as cheer captain, and I will never go out with her. She already knows that I’ll never sleep with her. Why make it worse?” I asked.

“You don’t understand. No, I take that back, you do understand. Tell me what you would want to have happen if Mike asked me out on a date.”

“I would hope you would never go out with him.”

“What if you made the mistake of offering me up as a prize for something?”

I bit my tongue to keep from saying that it would never happen.

“I would hope to be the bigger man...” I began.

“You are so full of it, sometimes.”

“I would want to kick his butt,” I admitted, and that seemed to calm her down some. “I would also trust you would never let anything happen. I’m starting to wonder if you think I can’t control myself.”

That earned me the death stare. Then Brook rocked back into her seat and slumped.

“Something I love about you is that I know you would never lose control with someone like Destiny. Now if it were that Victoria’s Secret model or Kate Upton, I might worry.”

“I’ve been thinking. Remember what you did with Cindy and Halle and forgot to invite me?”

“Would you really want to do something like that?”

Did bears shit in the woods? Was the Pope Catholic? Of course I did. This called for a little finesse.

“Only if you wanted to,” I said solemnly.

“You know, you’re not as good an actor as you think you are,” Brook teased.

I did a little bunny hop in my seat to tease her back. Adding the Duke quiver, when he thought he was about to pounce on Precious, may have been a little over the top.

“I take it back, you can act,” she said and stared at me. “If you’re good on your date with Destiny, I’ll think about it.”

And that is how karma works. She breaks up with you and then promises you a foursome. I loved Brook Davis.

I called my brother and invited him to bring his kids and meet me with mine so we could buy them all Halloween costumes. He thought I was insane until I told him my plan. He’d assumed we were going to be in charge of six little ones by ourselves. Paul would be with me, but he’d proven himself next to worthless when it came to watching them. I’d invited all the grandmas to come help. I’d told Pam, Peggy, Scarlet, and Angie that they had the afternoon off. I wanted the grandmas to have a chance to spend time with the kids doing something fun.

The only awkward moment occurred when Mitch’s mom showed up to help with Little David. Peggy’s mom wasn’t happy about that. But my mom reminded her that even though Mitch was out of Little David’s life, it didn’t mean that his grandma shouldn’t get to know him.

With all the extra help, it gave me a chance to take a ton of pictures. I wanted to remember this day because you could see how happy it made all the grandmas. The kids seemed to pick up on the vibe because we didn’t have a single meltdown, which I considered a miracle.

We planned that Monday night Greg and I would take the rug-rats trick-or-treating with the moms. That meant I would need a costume. I didn’t want anything skimpy because the forecast said the temperature would only be in the low fifties on Halloween. The shop owner suggested that I go as Jon Snow from the HBO show Game of Thrones. She’d had someone order the costume and then disappear. The suit came complete with the leather armor, fur cape, and replica sword. I tried it on, and it fit okay. Whoever had ordered it must have been bigger around the waist and shorter in the legs and arms. She assured me they would fix it by tomorrow. I only lacked the long hair and beard. I decided to just slick my hair back and go as-is instead of trying to duplicate Jon Snow’s look.

Greg wanted to go as a vampire. Mac ran behind me when she saw her dad’s teeth.

“Unca David. Daddy said he eat me.”

I picked her up.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

She nodded.

“We came to a decision, and we decided that we would eat all the little girls since we only want little boys,” I said. Then I put my lips over my teeth and play-bit Mac all over.

She squawked and then giggled as her uncle acted silly. Then she showed me the costume my grandma had helped her pick out. Mac would be going as a fairy princess. I wondered how long the wings would last around all these rowdy boys.

As we got ready to leave, my Grandma Dawson stopped me.

“This was a good idea. It gave us a chance to fuss over them and be a part of it. You’re a good kid, sometimes.”

“Sometimes he’s okay,” Greg offered.

That made me smile. As much as I hate to admit it, my brother’s approval means a lot to me.

Brook’s next ploy was to try to get Cassidy to drive me tonight. Fortunately, Cassidy was the one that put her foot down because she had a date planned for tonight. I didn’t need Brook’s best friend sending her text messages all night to keep her informed as to what Destiny and I were doing.

I ended up calling Tracy to have her include Brook in whatever she and Pam had planned so as to help keep my girlfriend occupied tonight. I worried a little that Brook might actually crash my date if she knew where we were. Tracy assured me that they would find something to do to distract her.

The way she said it made me wonder if they intended to have a threesome without me. Well, that was Mr. Happy again. He had been disappointed with the rest of my body since the accident, and almost everything sounded sexy to him.

Chuck drew the short straw tonight. I talked my mom into letting me use her Cadillac. Even though I wasn’t supposed to have fun tonight, I did appreciate that Destiny worked so hard to help Duke get signatures for his campaign. I planned to have a good time, just not too good.

We pulled up at five on the dot, and I walked to the door. Brook had suggested I just honk, but I think she was trying to sabotage our date. Destiny might have been worried I might not show because she met me at the door. I was glad that she’d sent me a text to wear jeans tonight. Seeing how tight hers were, I had to wonder if Destiny had borrowed a pair from Tracy.

Destiny was an attractive girl, as you would expect of a high school cheerleader. If I’d met her last year, I might have dated her. Who am I kidding? I would have dated her.

“Grab the cooler,” she told me as she strode over to the car and talked to Chuck.

I dragged the cooler to the trunk; fortunately, it was one of those with wheels. I rolled my eyes when Chuck only pushed the key fob to pop the lid. I should have just set the cooler down and let him get it but decided to play nice, even though my right side complained when I picked it up.

“Thanks for your help,” Destiny told Chuck, and then she allowed him to get the door and let her into the back seat.

On our ride to our mystery destination, we did the typical first-date routine and told each other about ourselves. It was good to hear that Destiny’s brother Don was happy they’d moved here for football. He’d started to get recruiting letters from schools like Northern Illinois and Western Kentucky, both excellent football destinations if you weren’t headed to a Power 5 school.

We pulled into the marina at a local lake.

“I rented a pontoon boat. There’s an island where we can have a fire and cook dinner,” Destiny told me.

What a perfect first date.

Chuck drove the boat as Destiny and I sat in the bow and enjoyed the ride. I hadn’t realized how much tension I felt about tonight. I began to relax and enjoy our evening. The island must not have been a big secret because there were other couples there. They’d built a bonfire, and we joined them. Most were in their twenties, with a few older couples mixed in.

Destiny had brought hot dogs, and I found some small branches for us to stick them on so we could heat them up over the fire. After we ate, I suggested we take a walk to enjoy the sunset.

“This is fun. I’m glad you thought of this.”

“I’m not the monster that Brook thinks I am,” Destiny said.

“I suppose not. It’s too bad you two don’t get along.”

“We just got off on the wrong foot. Sometimes I wish we had a way we could reset everything. We’ve both said and done stuff that I wish we hadn’t,” Destiny admitted.

“So, you don’t actually have plans to seduce me tonight?”

“Only if you want me to,” she shot back. “No? I didn’t think so. I would like it if we were friends, though. I understand if we can’t because of how Brook feels.”

“That’s probably true. Why don’t we agree to enjoy tonight, though?” I offered.

“I talked to Tracy, and she suggested that you might put the word out that I’m not completely terrible. I really would like to enjoy my senior year. I think Brook and I can keep from coming to blows from here on out.”

“That would be key to something like that working. If you mean it, I can say something.”

“Thank you.”

We got quiet and watched as the sun began to set. Destiny told me we had to get going so we could enjoy our second part of the date.

“My cousin Jocelyn is in a sorority at State. She told me that the two of you actually met last spring before one of your baseball games and she invited you to a party. When she heard we were going on a date tonight, she insisted that I invite you. I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s better than the time I had to dress up as a cowboy and go to a young girl’s birthday party,” I said.

“I think this group will be more age-appropriate. I bet they would rather see you dress up as an underwear model,” Destiny suggested.

“You really are trying to cause problems for me, aren’t you?”

“I never said I wasn’t interested,” she fired back.

“No, no, you didn’t, but I want to be clear that nothing like that is happening tonight.”

“Fair enough. I had to take my chance, though, or I would’ve regretted it.”

On the ride to State, we settled into discussions about what we planned for Christmas break. Destiny and her brother were going to go visit their grandparents in Florida. I told her about my trip to LA.

Our state university has a long history of fraternities and sororities. Over the years, their alumni had funneled money to build large houses that seemed to be all bunched together on what they called Greek Row. It was easy to spot the one hosting tonight’s party by the stream of people heading toward it. Destiny directed us to park at a different house, a block away.

When we had parked, Destiny sent her cousin a text. Jocelyn responded by coming out of the back door with five other girls. Destiny walked up and gave a hug to a girl who I remembered as the ringleader of the girls wanting us to go to a party last year.

“You do know that I saw him first,” Jocelyn said to torment her cousin.

“From what I’ve heard, he turned you down. At least I got him to go out with me,” Destiny countered.

“The night is still young.”

“He has a girlfriend, so good luck with that.”

Chuck and I stood back and took in them going back and forth. I figured it was harmless fun if they were talking about me with me within hearing distance. I smiled when the other girls checked out Chuck. I might have to protect him before the night was over.

The two cousins put me in between them, and we began our trek to the party. It amused me when they each grabbed a hand. Jocelyn looked down and then up at me.

“How big are your hands?” she asked.

“Ten inches,” I said.

At one of the football camps, they did measure our hands. I couldn’t figure out why they needed that information, so I’d asked. It seems that quarterbacks with bigger hands can grip the ball better.

“Is it true what they say about big hands and feet?” one girl asked.

It took me a moment, but it finally came to me what she’d asked. My face got warm.

“I don’t really know,” I admitted.

“They say that if you take your middle finger and touch your palm,” Jocelyn said, demonstrating by bending hers until it touched her hand. “ ... and then measure from that point to the tip of your middle finger, that’s how long a guy is.”

I bent my finger to find the start of the measurement and then extended it. The girls’ eyes got big. I gave them a confused look.

“I’ve never measured myself. Do you do it from the top or underneath?” I asked.

“We’ve debated that,” one of the other girls said. “The consensus is that you do it from the top.”

“Oh,” I said and continued to walk to the party.

“So, is it?” Jocelyn asked.

“I’ll leave it to your imagination,” I said over my shoulder.

I was sure that before the night ended, Destiny would tell her.

At that point, the conversation turned to which was the cattiest sorority. Happily, I was no longer under the microscope. Not that they would need one, mind you.

The party turned out to be just about what you would expect. The fraternity seemed loaded with a bunch of self-important pricks who thought they had to prove their value in some way. I didn’t blame the girls for getting drunk. That was the only way these guys would seem attractive.

As the night wore on and the partygoers got more drunk, I quickly realized that being sober might not be a good idea. Jocelyn and her friends were fun to dance with at first, but the last few dances I’d had to fend them off. A couple of them appeared determined to find out if my hand size did, in fact, correlate to the size of Mr. Happy. But with my sobriety, there was no chance of him taking over the body. The big brain remembered that we had a girlfriend.

I found Destiny talking to a couple of fraternity boys.

“I want to get going,” I said.

“Don’t worry about her. We’ll take care of her,” the one nearest me said.

Even Destiny caught the hidden meaning in that statement.

“You can’t be serious,” Destiny said as she turned on the guy.

He realized his misstep and beat a hasty retreat. His buddy left with him.

“I’m going to spend the night with Jocelyn.”

“You sure? I have a strong suspicion these guys are going to get more brazen as the night goes on,” I warned her.

“Don’t worry, Jocelyn will keep an eye on me. Go home. I had a good time tonight,” she told me.

I simply shrugged and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“I had a good time, too,” I said and left.

Sunday October 30
About halfway to Chicago, I regretted inviting my little brother to the Cubs game.

“You’re all over the Internet this morning. I bet Coach Hope benches you,” Phil announced.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to cause a stir last night.”

Brook was next to me. She got her phone out and did a search on me. Well, it sucks to be me! Sometimes I forgot that as a celebrity, I should expect to be either photographed or filmed every time I appeared in public. When I hung out with my friends, it wasn’t an issue.

“I looked good in that one,” I said as I pointed at Brook’s phone.

Brook gave me a sideways look, which caused me to keep the rest of my comments to myself. The party pictures showed plenty of drinking, including photos of Destiny doing shots and drinking beer. Those brought a smile to Brook’s face because the cheerleaders had the same rules we did. If her coach saw these, Destiny wouldn’t be on the sidelines when we had our trip to St. Louis.

It irritated me a bit when Brook sent them to her coach.

“That wasn’t nice,” I said, and then shook my head. “What if she tells Coach Hope I was drinking, too?”

“You can talk your way out of it.”

Good to see she was looking out for my best interests.

“Oh, you’re in trouble. Here’s one of David kissing Destiny,” Phil said, turning the phone so Brook could see.

“If she breaks up with me because of your smart comments, I’m going after your girlfriend and dating her,” I warned the little knucklehead.

“I say you do it anyway,” Greg said, adding his two cents worth.

Phil looked at both of us and decided to shut up. I expected he was smart enough to recognize that Jill had a thing for me, or at least enough of a curiosity that she might stray. As much as I hated to tell him, I had little confidence that Jill hadn’t already slept around on him. I’d started believing that when Zoe called her a cheater. Zoe wouldn’t say that unless there was something more than just flirting with me. She wasn’t one to start rumors or repeat stuff she wasn’t sure of.

I looked at Brook.

“Are you breaking up with me?” I asked as I did a little hop in my seat.

This time I left out the ‘Duke quiver,’ as I called it. The judges gave my ‘excited boy’ routine a nine out of ten.

“Did you kiss her?” Brook asked.

“I gave her one on the cheek to say goodbye. She hadn’t crossed any lines, so it was a reward for a pleasant evening,” I explained.

“Phil’s safe today,” Brook pronounced.

The little shit stuck his tongue out at me. I gave him the look my mom gave me when she’d ‘about had enough.’ Even Greg flinched at that one. It had been ingrained into us to realize that when we got that look, we better stop whatever we were doing and become little angels.

“I do have some questions about these.” Brook pointed at a series of pictures later in the night.

“They’d had too much to drink and began to let their hands wander. That’s when I decided I needed to go home,” I explained.

“David was good the whole night,” Chuck said from the front seat.

Chuck just made up for the few times he wasn’t the perfect security. He’d made me face danger on more than one occasion. I still got nervous whenever I saw Brook’s mom with a wooden spoon. Maybe that was Paul.

“What are all these comments about your hands?” Phil asked.

This time I was happy to answer.

“They’re making the correlation between having big hands and being big down there,” I said, pointing to my crotch.

“I call BS. My hands may be smaller than yours, but I’m just as big,” Greg boasted.