Chapter 72

David
David jolted awake to a loud booming noise so intense that it actually made the window vibrate. His first thought was thunder, but that was a rarity in LA. Then he heard the first raindrops splatter on the windowpane, which made him think it might have been thunder after all.

David rolled over and immediately regretted it. His body felt like he’d been beaten, he was nauseous, and his head ... decapitation might be necessary. And perhaps preferable.

He tried to sit upright, intending to ease himself out of bed. When the world tilted with him, David put his palm against his forehead and moaned.

’Where the heck am I?’ he wondered.

His stomach woke up and roiled as he fought a wave of sickness that he feared might cause him to puke on himself. David huffed several deep breaths to stave off that unhappy outcome. When the feeling subsided, he looked around to figure out where he was. David didn’t recognize his surroundings. Then it hit him: he was in his bedroom at the townhouse. He didn’t remember getting there.

Several thoughts rushed through his mind.

’How did I get here?’ ‘Did I drive last night?’ ‘Am I still drunk?’ ‘I have to pee—NOW!’

With that last thought, David got out of bed and almost fell down again when the world got all wobbly and tilted to the left. He managed to right himself and stumbled to the bathroom. He struggled to get his pants undone so he could relieve himself. David’s head pounded as a steady stream began to flow. He heard the rain suddenly come down much harder as it drummed against the window, distracting him. The momentary lapse in concentration caused him to topple backward and nearly crash into the wall behind him.

’FUCK!’

As David lay there, he realized he’d accidentally peed on himself, adding to his misery.

He couldn’t help but chuckle at the mess. Other people could cut loose and have a few cocktails after finals. But, when David did it, he found himself lost, in pain, and wanting to crawl back into his bed to sleep for another day or two.

He grimaced. As good as sleep sounded, he had stuff to do today.

“And I’m going to puke,” he mumbled to himself as he turned over and crawled to the toilet.

David spent the next several minutes purging the poison that had taken up residence in his stomach. When he was done, he felt a bit better. That worked until David brushed his teeth; the minty taste was his undoing. He was soon back hovering over the toilet as he dry-heaved. This was totally special. This was why he didn’t drink.

He got undressed and stepped into the shower. He chuckled when he noticed the water almost turned black after he stuck his head into the spray. It was a good thing the paparazzi couldn’t see him at that moment.

After his shower, David ventured downstairs to make himself some dry toast and a big glass of water. He found a chipper Cassidy making breakfast.

“I called the cleaning lady. She took one look and went back to get reinforcements.”

He just nodded. Then Cassidy smiled.

“Did it work?”

David blinked because he had no idea what she was talking about.

“You tried to get me drunk. You said that we would be so hungover that neither of us would remember why we were drinking last night.”

He closed his eyes, which was a mistake because the world tilted again. When he almost fell off the stool he was sitting on, Cassidy barked out a laugh.

“Here. Eat this, and then go for a run to sweat it out. Trust me on this one,” Cassidy said confidently.

She’d shoved a pancake in front of him. After he ate it, he did feel better.

The concrete street reflected the early summer sun and added to his headache.

David’s body found a comfortable pace as he began to think. Last night’s events started to come back to him. He remembered having a great time as he partied with all the new people that had come into his life since he’d arrived on campus. Seeing them all together made him realize just how many there were.

The highlight of the evening had been when the USC Song Girls had shown up and wanted to dance. That was when the party had really started. He remembered, towards the end of the night, climbing on the table and dancing with Milena’s best friend, the redhead.

David struggled for a moment to remember her name.

’Taylor!’

Things got a bit sketchy after that. He did remember looking for Milena, and someone told him that she’d just left. He must have tried to find her; he recalled wandering the street for a bit.

David shook his head when he realized how dumb that was. He vaguely remembered someone finding him and bringing him back to the townhouse. He seemed to recollect two people helping him wobble up the stairs and putting him to bed. David had no idea who they were; it was all too fuzzy.

His mind wandered off into thinking about all that had happened to get him to this point.

It felt as though at every turn, there was some sort of mixed signals, something that he’d failed to recognize or decipher. It started with the fiasco at Oklahoma. Hindsight was 20/20, and now that some time had passed, David could see every misstep he’d made. If he’d just slowed down and thought it through, he would have been able to work it out.

Instead, he’d been worn down after months of sixteen-plus-hour days of work, making three movies in record time. He should have gone to the campus and talked directly with the interim athletic director. If he had, David would’ve discovered that Stewart Chadwick was behind his problems. It wouldn’t have taken long for him to work it out from there.

The flip side was that the head coach hadn’t fought for him. If David had been in the coach’s position and given his word, he would have made them fire him or make it right. Knowing that his head coach wouldn’t go to the mat for him told him everything he needed to know.

USC wasn’t much better at keeping their word. In their case, they had a coach who made promises that he obviously didn’t intend to keep. If David hadn’t been able to tell that USC was due for a coaching change soon, transferring would have been a likely scenario. Still, all the reasons that David had decided to come to USC remained valid: he was close to his family; USC was a kick-ass school educationally; and they were a traditional powerhouse. However, looking at the total package objectively, it still wasn’t necessarily the right place for him to land.