Chapter 25

Crystal sat at David’s desk in his dorm room, where she’d been sitting for hours. She scrubbed her eyes, the dry, itchy feeling getting to her. The words on the screen were getting smaller and blurrier, and Crystal blinked a few times. The next thing she knew, she’d blinked again, and it was morning. The alarm on her phone was dinging, and a pen and sticky notes were stuck to her face.

“Dang it, I fell asleep.”

David had to be pissed with her because his bed was still covered with all her stuff. He must have slept on his couch.

She walked out to the main room and found Alex.

“David said there’s coffee and a travel mug on the counter for you. Plus, a bagel and cream cheese are in the fridge, so you have something to eat before your presentation.”

Crystal had to stop for a second to let that sink in. No one she’d ever dated before would have taken care of her like that.

“I know,” Alex continued. “I feel like a bad boyfriend for not thinking of that myself. He let me hook up Chloe before she left this morning.”

“I guess he’s a keeper.”

Alex mimicked, zipping his lips closed.

“Your secret is safe with me,” he said and returned to his room.

She made her bagel, filled her travel mug, and hurried off to class.

Her heart did its usual ‘happy to see you, David’ dance as he walked into the studio to do his Trojan Inquirer vodcast, but Tracy was upset.

“What’s up?”

“I had Coach Deneau set to talk about USC baseball, but he had something come up. It’s just you and me today,” Tracy said.

David thought for a moment.

“Let’s do a mailbag segment. I bet Colleen has a bunch of questions people have sent in or asked at past events. Have her pull out the goofiest ones, and we’ll answer them.”

Tracy looked at him like he was crazy.

“But you know what would be a problem?”

“Is it me?” David asked. “It’s me, isn’t it?

“You would want to look at the questions first and reject all the good ones. I say we have Colleen pick and read them,” Tracy said.

“I’ll go along with that if she promises none of those ‘How do you feel?’ type questions. Tell her they have to be fun or something our fans want to know.”

“They also don’t have to just be about sports,” Tracy added.

“Fine,” David agreed.

A half-hour later, they were called to the set. Colleen took the guest chair.

“Welcome to Trojan Inquirer. To support our show, give us a follow because it really helps us out. Today, we’re going to do something different,” David said.

“Our special guest had an unexpected conflict, unfortunately. So we decided to ask our production assistant, Colleen, to dig into the mailbag so David and I can answer some of your questions,” Tracy said.

Colleen picked up the first card.

“On your soap opera, is that your real butt?”

David’s eyes snapped over to Tracy to see if she was punking him. She gave him a bit of a head shake to let him know she wasn’t in on this.

“I think the questions need to be for the both of us,” David said, pushing back.

“Then you don’t want to tell us when we’ll see full-frontal?” Colleen asked.

Tracy knew Colleen had dated David for a time. Frankly, Tracy had never understood it because Colleen was far from David’s usual type. Seeing her give him shit on camera gave Tracy a glimpse into why he’d liked her.

“I give. They have a butt model come in for those scenes. I’ve told them I won’t do full-frontal until they find the right porn star to be my stand-in,” David said with a straight face.

“What, Teeny Weeny isn’t available?” Colleen asked.

“Next question,” Tracy prompted before the two of them got any worse.

“Why is an Academy Award-winning actor with seven films and two J-dramas under his belt doing a cable soap opera?”

“First and foremost, I’m an actor. No matter the medium, I’m willing to consider a role if I think it’s a fit and will help me grow as an actor. One way to broaden my acting talent is to take on new and different roles, such as the Japanese miniseries I did a few years ago. I gained a lot of knowledge from that experience and learned more from doing my movies. I don’t consider this current series beneath me; I’m still learning a lot and hopefully improving my craft,” David said.

“I’ve known David for years, and he loves to be the center of attention, and I mean that in a good way. Otherwise, he never would’ve become a model and film star. That’s why I would watch him even if he were just dead guy number three on some cop show,” Tracy said.

“We’ve seen the official announcements of Coach Clayton’s departure, but it feels like there’s something else going on there. Can you tell us the inside story of what really happened?” Colleen asked.

Tracy saw David stiffen, so she jumped in.

“The timing and speculation point toward something to do with the FBI investigation. But that would be a wild guess on my part. I’m sure the truth will come out eventually,” Tracy said.

“I really don’t know any more than what you read in the papers. I fully expected that Coach Clayton would be leading us this fall, and I was as shocked as anyone when he suddenly departed,” David said.

If Tracy didn’t know David, she would have assumed he was comfortable talking about this. He obviously knew more than he was sharing. She would have to ask him about that later.

“That last question leads to an obvious one: do you think USC will make Coach Merritt their permanent head coach?” Colleen asked.

“As the saying goes, that decision is way above my pay grade. I’m going to support the coach and the team any way I can, but I can’t predict what’s going to happen there,” David said.

“Again, I have no insider knowledge, but it’s obvious to me there’ll be a new coach come the end of the year,” Tracy said. “If and when that happens, we’ll do a show on all the available candidates and talk about who would fit best.”

“You have some tough games coming up, particularly the ones with Utah and Notre Dame. What do you think your chances are?” Colleen asked.

“We have a good team. We’re still learning to work together, and the coaching drama hasn’t helped. You’re right; Utah and Notre Dame have terrific teams, and those will be brutal battles for us. I’m sure our coaches will do everything they can to prepare us for those, and we’ll give it all we’ve got.

“But there are several potential trap games on our schedule. For example, after our game at Utah, we come home to play Arizona State. Some might say that should be a piece of cake for us, but it’s way too easy to come away from a hard battle and let your foot off the gas. And, of course, there’s always UCLA, where you can simply throw away the win-loss records because anything can happen in that one,” David said.

Tracy shook her head at David.

“It will all come down to quarterback play. If David’s the quarterback, we’ll win. Simple as that,” Tracy said.

“Okay, let’s shift gears here. If you had to eat one takeout dish for the next thirty days, what would it be and from where?” Colleen asked.

“That’s a good question,” David said.

“It’s a hard one,” Tracy agreed.

“Mine would be something for breakfast. Back home, a restaurant called Granny’s serves the best cinnamon rolls in the world, and I could eat those thirty days straight without a problem,” David said.

“You would also be big as a house,” Tracy said.

“It has to be something local,” Colleen said.

“While he thinks about that, I’m a big chicken-tenders fan for takeout. My problem is which place would I pick,” Tracy said.

“I like Chick-fil-A and Popeyes because they’re spicier. Chick-fil-A has a peppery flavor, while Popeyes has that Cajun seasoning,” David said.

“I agree with those, but I’m going to go with Culvers if I have to eat it for thirty days. They make theirs to order, so it takes longer to get your food, but it’s worth the wait,” Tracy decided.

“Since you say it has to be a local place, my choice is my friend Doreen’s coffee shop. She serves a nice coffee cake, and she does one with pecans and sour cream that would work for me,” David said.

The end-of-the-show music began.

“With that, our time is up. Be sure to tune in next week, and don’t forget to subscribe,” David said to sign off.

“You are so dead,” David said to Colleen after they were away from their mics and the cameras.

“I think it was one of our better segments. We should do it more often,” Tracy said.

David gave them both the evil eye and walked off.

“Give him time to cool off. He’ll be fine with it once it airs,” Tracy promised Colleen.

Since David was in the Cinematic Arts building, he popped in on Adriana Haynes, the executive director, and pitched RTVR. She suggested he talk to their Media Arts department head, Henry Scott. His department handled film, television, and game development.

David found Dr. Scott in his office. They talked for five minutes, and Dr. Scott told David to call him when he would be demonstrating the RTVR system.

Crystal invited David over for dinner at the sorority house to thank him for letting her take over his room the previous night. She’d ordered a pizza with half sausage and mushroom for David and half spinach, caramelized onions, and black olives for herself.

He knocked on the door, and Wren opened it; it looked like she’d been waiting for him. She had her arm locked in his as she escorted him to Crystal’s room.

“I didn’t realize that one of the pledge responsibilities was to escort guests,” David said.

“It must be something new,” Crystal muttered.

“If you need anything else, ask for me personally,” Wren said, then stuck her tongue out at Crystal and ran off.

Crystal was formulating evil plans for Wren when David distracted her by giving her a kiss. His mere presence gave her joy.

“How did your presentation go?” David asked.

“Better than it should have. I can’t believe I fell asleep.”

She’d been saved by her capacity to speak in front of her class. All the other people who’d presented that day had been so nervous that it detracted from the content of their presentations. Her professor said hers was the best of the day. Being a sorority and Panhellenic president, she was used to public speaking.

“What’s up?” David asked. “You never ask me here.”

“I think I now remember why, with all the girls trying to poach you.”

“It takes two to tango, or so I’m told.”

“Oh, I know. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to walk the gauntlet to get to my room,” Crystal said.

Amusement flickered in the eyes that met hers.

“How is that different from a walk across campus?” he asked.

“It’s that my sorority sisters are getting to know you and are comfortable enough to hit on you,” Crystal said.

“And they know I only have eyes for you.”

He had a point, but still!

“Anyway,” Crystal said, changing the topic. “I got some good news. I received a call from the president of the university. Sigma Upsilon is losing its charter.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

“That they are no longer a fraternity at USC.”

“What happens to their frat house?” David asked as he went into business mode.

“I don’t know. I assume they’d have to sell it.”

David turned serious.

“It would be almost impossible to sell. The way it’s laid out, you would either have to gut it or ... I don’t know. Are there any sororities or fraternities that might want to buy it?”

“They all have their own houses, so I doubt any of them would want Sigma Upsilon’s house.”

“Who owns it?” David asked.

“If it’s like ours, it’s held by a business entity or trust created to hold the property. Why do you ask?”

“Find out who’ll be selling it and give me their information, please. I’ll give it to my mom, and she can help them sell it. They need someone who can see beyond what it is and has some idea of what it would cost to renovate the property. Otherwise, it could be sitting empty for a long time,” David said.

“That’s a little mercenary on your part, isn’t it?” Crystal asked.

“I guess, but if someone needed an agent and your dad was the best solution, wouldn’t you put them in touch with each other?”

She, in fact, had, so she called the former president of Sigma Upsilon and gave him Carol’s number.

Then, there came a knock at the door. It was Emily, holding their pizza.

“Did you pay for that?” Crystal asked.