Chapter 61

David
David woke to the pale first light of dawn as it poured through his bedroom window, exposing his regret for what he’d done the night before. Yes, Matt Long was a rival and quickly becoming his enemy, but David shouldn’t have resorted to mocking him. Matt and his girlfriend had been having a dorky moment that David just happened to witness. From the look Matt gave him, David had no doubt that he would retaliate in some way. The problem was that he knew neither of them would back down.

David vowed to be on his guard during the final scrimmage later that day. The previous day, practice had gotten a bit chippy, to put it mildly. David had been moved to defensive end and had faced off with John Johnson. On the snap, David had gotten outside leverage on John as he’d been coached to do. His job was to cut off any outside runs and force them to cut inside where the meat of the defense was.

John was what is commonly known in football parlance as a ‘beast.’ Not a very smart one, but if he got into his opponent’s body, he could easily move almost any college defenseman off the ball. John was an inch shorter than David but outweighed him by 60 pounds or more. David was no slouch, though. In high school, his friends had called him ‘the Hulk’ because of his strength. David was also both agile and fast, with lightning-quick reflexes. John was none of those.

All through spring ball, John and David had faced off. At first, John had gotten the better of David as one would expect USC’s starting left tackle to do against a raw freshman. However, that was partly due to Coach Farrow’s wanting David to straight-up bull-rush John early on. He wanted David to get used to the difference in strength and ferocity of college-level ball compared to what David was used to.

Coach Farrow rightly reasoned that at some point, David would have to contend with big linemen and take them head-on. If he couldn’t handle the abuse, then Coach Farrow would have to move him somewhere else on the field. It was a given that an opposing offense would figure it out and simply run the ball right at David if that were the case. If he couldn’t free himself from a head-on block, USC’s defense would soon have serious problems.

Once Coach Farrow was satisfied that David could hold up at the position, he turned him loose to do what he’d put him at that position to do. That was to use his speed and agility to evade blocks altogether.

This was something David was born to do. He would always remember the look on John’s face the first time he didn’t bull-rush him in practice. David instead had taken both his hands and used them to hit John’s outside shoulder to turn him. He’d been past John in a flash and into the USC backfield to break up the play.

From that moment on, John and David had battled, which had led to the previous day’s events. The coaches had announced that they would be practicing third-and-long plays, which were almost always pass plays. Coach Farrow had then moved David from middle linebacker to defensive end. Coach wanted to bookend the defensive line with David and his friend Percy Wilkes, who was destined to play in the NFL one day. Between the two of them, Matt had to run for his life on almost every play.

The coaches were screaming at the offensive line to do their job, but David and Percy continued to beat their men. Out of frustration, John had reached out and grabbed David’s facemask as David slipped past him once again. That would have been fine, but John had taken a swing at David after the whistle. Luckily, David’s helmet hadn’t come off from the grab, or he might have been down for the count.

David had been so stunned that John would punch him that he hadn’t responded, but that didn’t mean that half the defense hadn’t come to his aid. John had soon been on the ground, buried under several players with ill intent. That had kicked off shoving matches all over the field.

The coaches secretly loved it because it got the team fired up. From there, the practice had felt like a real game. The defense stopped holding back, and when one of the receivers was drilled going over the middle, practice was called before someone got hurt.

Some of that bad blood, David had no doubt, would carry over to the current day’s practice. His taunting Matt the night before would just add fuel to the fire.

David was disappointed in himself that he’d gone for the cheap shot. His only excuse was that Matt looked like a total dork acting like Crystal’s disobedient puppy. Not that he had room to talk; more than once, David had been called a dork, and he was proud of it. What had him upset with himself was that he felt he should be better than that. David now had responsibilities to his fans, to the movies he had coming out, to USC, and to his family and friends. His life no longer centered on just him.

On the other hand, David didn’t regret his night with Milena. She’d confessed why she was hesitant to do more than just hook up. Milena was worried about his fame and that she wouldn’t measure up to some of the women she’d seen him with in the tabloids.

David was sure he could overcome her worries but hadn’t pushed it for now. It was always better to be friends first, and David could tell that the time he’d spent with Milena boded well for that. He even liked her quirky friend Taylor. The only hesitation he had was that her roommate was Matt’s girlfriend, Crystal, and David worried that his and Matt’s rivalry would cause trouble for the girls.

The biggest reason he hadn’t pushed Milena was that David honestly didn’t think he wanted a girlfriend right now. He’d asked Fritz to do a background check to make sure she didn’t hate dogs or children. Fritz had reported that Milena had been popular in high school and crowned Homecoming queen. She still hadn’t declared her major in the second semester of her sophomore year; she’d have to do that soon.

Milena had two younger sisters. One was a high school senior and planned to go to Arizona for college. The youngest was still in middle school. Her parents were both software engineers who worked for the same company in Mountain View, California, in the middle of the Silicon Valley. Her mother had worked her way up to become a vice president, and her father was in middle management, running several project teams.

David recognized that Milena was finding her way right now. She’d been the top girl in high school, but when she joined Alpha Mu, she’d become one of many top girls. David felt that Milena was okay with that for now. But he also sensed that once she had a chance to grow up, she’d find an inner strength that had a lot of potential.