Chapter 44: Making Amends

"Where were you last night?" Becky asked as soon as we met in the cafeteria on Tuesday.

"I called you back but you were already in bed," I said, trying to ignore her question.

"I waited until eleven. Don't you have curfew?"

"What did you want?" I asked her. We were seated at a table with other sophomores but Sid had not joined us. Some of the other kids were watching us.

"Do you know Buzz Summers?"

What kind of a question was that? Everyone knew Buzz Summers. His locker was next to mine in the varsity dressing room. He was a senior and the starting quarterback.

"I know him. He's on the football team but his name has not always been Buzz. I remember when he was called Derrick back in junior high school. Is that the reason you called me? To ask if I know Buzz Summers?"

"He called," she said, making a little movement with her lips. It's between a pucker and a smirk and I think she knows it drives me insane.

"He called you?" I sat there dumbfounded. Why would Buzz Summers call Becky? "Does he need help with homework or something? He's a senior."

"I know he's a senior and I know he plays quarterback. I just wondered if you know him, that's all," she said, dismissively.

"What did he want?" I was getting irritated with how she was rationing little bits of information. She was doing that thing with her lips again, and giving me that 'who me?' look with her eyes.

"He said he saw us at the party on Saturday night and wondered what I was doing with you. He knows you and Gina are like engaged or something."

"Did he say that? What did you tell him?" I felt my heart pounding. What business was it of Buzz Summers if Becky was with me? How did he know about Gina?

"I told him Gina was busy so I was pinch hitting for her. Is that what you call it, pinch hitting?" Becky was really getting me stirred up. I wondered if she knew how upset she was making me. I would deal with Buzz Summers but right now I had to find out what else was said and she was not being forthright with me.

"Is that all he called for? To find out why you were with me?"

"Not exactly, he wants to take me to a party next Saturday." She was clearly watching me for a reaction. Was she enjoying making me unnerved?

"Shit, Becky. You didn't say you would go, did you?" I asked, holding my breath. I pushed my tray to the side, not hungry for the first time in my recent memory. If she said yes I was going to get up and walk away.

"I told him I would have to talk to you." Her big eyes were staring straight into mine.

"You did?" I asked, starting to breathe again. I looked at my tray of food but I was still not hungry.

She was playing with her food, looking over at me, back at her food, checking the other kids at the table to see if they were watching and back at me. "I told him I would go with him if you didn't need me to pinch hit again," she said, lowering her eyes and then peeking at me for a second.

"I do," I almost shouted. "I mean, I was going to call you after I talk to Greg. He called last night but I called you back instead of him. I'll talk to him tonight and then I'll call you, okay?" Shit, I hadn't heard of a party. Was that what Greg was calling me about? What was I going to tell Gina? What was I going to say to Priscilla? Shit!

"You're not just saying that, are you? Do you really need me to pinch hit or is it because Buzz called me?" Becky asked, showing her logic seeking, calculating side.

"You won't be pinch hitting. I said I was going to call you. It will be a real date," I said in my best convincing manner, stopping short of telling her that Gina had dumped me. She seemed to accept my explanation but I knew I would have to be prepared to answer the question about Gina later.

"I'll have to find something to wear," she said, thoughtfully. "And don't tell me to come as a tomboy. It was embarrassing. All the other girls were wearing dresses. I'm not asking you for advice ever again."

Becky's mood had changed from serious to playful and I relaxed too. I even took a few bites of food before she changed the subject. "Let's study tomorrow night," she suggested.

"Okay," I said without thinking but not with the enthusiasm she was seeking. Becky looked at me, questioningly, her eyes demanding an explanation. A bell interrupted her look and I suggested we leave the cafeteria before the juniors and seniors would arrive and want our table.

"Do you want to study with me?" She asked, leaving off the implied end of the sentence, "or not?" as we walked down the crowded hallway. It was not unusual for us to walk from the cafeteria to class but it seemed to me that kids were looking at us differently, like we were together, together.

"Let's make it tonight," I suggested, wanting to avoid having to tell her that Wednesday was Gina's night. How could I get out of going to Gina's house without making her upset and suspicious? It was all about appearances with Gina. She would be bullshit when she found out that I was deviating from her plan to keep us together, appearance wise, while giving her the freedom to be with Aaron. It was just a matter of time until she would find out I was going to a party with Becky. I had to take action, but what?

"I can't," she said as we filed into the classroom, without me finding out why she couldn't study with me that night.

Gina was carrying the appearance thing a little too far. "You said I could wear them in any order," she said when I questioned why she was wearing the Thursday, green and white dress on Tuesday. "I didn't think you were going to take orders from me any longer?" I questioned why she was still wearing the dresses I had picked out for her.

"We have to make it look like we're still together," she said, moving close to me. "My dad wants to know if you invited Greg to come to his party," she said. I told her I had not spoken to Greg yet. "Pat my ass and say something to make me laugh," she said, leaning into me before we took our seats. I patted her ass but couldn't think of anything funny to say. "Did Aaron really suck his own cum out of your pussy?" I asked, making her turn and glare at me.

I got sent to the showers early that afternoon. "You're finished for today, Kovel. Run your laps and take a shower. See me in my office tomorrow if you still want to play," Coach Nelson yelled at me. I took off, only looking back when I was fifty yards away. Most of my teammates were still watching me. The rest were watching Buzz Summers, surrounded by the trainer and two of the assistant coaches. They had him on his feet but he still looked a little wobbly.

Coach Sterns was waiting for me when I came out of the showers. "What was that about?" He asked.

"How am I supposed to get ready for a game if I can't hit?" I asked, knowing the statement was absurd. I had come close to giving Buzz Summers a concussion. We didn't hit like that at Cromwell.

"Cut the backtalk, Kovel. You have some explaining to do before Coach Nelson will let you back on the practice field. Let's hear it; I'll tell you if it will fly with the Coach."

I knew Coach Sterns was trying to help me but I wasn't in the mood to tell him the reason I had caught Buzz Summers off guard and decked him. "Who told you I missed curfew?" I challenged him.

"Curfew is going to be the least of your problems if you don't have a good story for Coach Nelson. Sammy, you had a good chance of starting this Friday. Now you'll be lucky to dress and that's after you apologize to everyone from Coach Nelson to Buzz Summers to the rest of the team for that display you showed us out there. What's troubling you, Sammy?"

He was right; I would be lucky to dress for the game, let alone play. But apologize to Buzz Summers? No way was I going to do that. I was near tears; this was going to finish me.

"She's only fourteen, Sir. He's what, seventeen and a senior? He can have any girl he wants. He has no right to hit on her. She's fucking fourteen years old," I said, struggling to hold back my tears.

Coach Sterns was clapping his hands. "You're good, Kovel, but that isn't going to impress the Coach," he said, giving one last clap. "He's sentimental but he's not stupid. You'll do well to work on your apology speech, not how you lost your girlfriend to the star quarterback."

He left without saying more. I got dressed and walked away from the practice facility, without looking at the field. An hour later I was waiting for Priscilla Baker when she drove into the parking lot at her apartment building.

"Sammy, why aren't you at football practice? Did something happen?" She asked, looking around to see if anyone saw her talking to me. I didn't want to tell her about what happened at practice. How could I explain what made me upset with Buzz Summers when I didn't know myself?

"I'm going to make copies of the tape and then I'll leave," I said. She looked around again and permitted me to accompany her upstairs to her apartment. She changed clothes while I set up the recorder to make the first copy. When she came out of her bedroom she was wearing shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers. It was evident to me that she was not wearing a bra and it occurred to me that she had dressed hurriedly without bothering to put panties on either but I wasn't in the mood to find out.

"Would you like something to eat, Sammy?" She asked, demurely blinking her eyelashes slowly.

"I'm going to make one copy to take with me. You can make the second one after I'm gone," I said, thinking I was explaining that I would only be there for an hour. The tape ran sixty minutes, which we had discovered when the tape ended, abruptly during Gina and Aaron's third fuck.

"I don't know how to do that, Sammy?"

Was she shitting me? "I'll get it started. All you'll have to do is remove the original and copy when the machine stops," I said.

"What if something goes wrong? I would feel better if you made both copies," she said, sounding pathetically incompetent. I decided she wanted me to hang around for two hours. Was she angling for me to take her to bed?

"I'll wait until I get home to eat. Thanks anyway," I said, thinking that if she didn't go make herself something to eat it was a sign that she wanted to fuck.

"Are you sure? It won't be any trouble to make you something," she said, standing there dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, no bra, no panties.

I made up my mind. Quickly, I took two steps toward her. "You want me to fuck you, don't you?"

"No, I don't, Sammy. I told you, we're not going to do that any more." She looked nervous, looked up at me anxiously but didn't move.

"Are you wearing any panties?"

"Sammy, that's an entirely inappropriate question." Priscilla spoke sternly, like she was talking to a two year old.

After acting on impulse earlier that day and being thrown off the practice field, I was in no mood for games. I decided I had been in enough trouble for one day. "I'm sorry, Miss Baker. I should know when no means no," I said, squatting down and inspecting how the recorder was doing. It seemed to be running smoothly.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so abrupt with you," she said, sounding more apologetic than I had.

I watched the recorder, like there could be something that needed to be adjusted.

"Why didn't you just answer my question in the first place?"

"Which one?"

"Either one, I don't care which one," I said, having forgotten exactly what I had asked her.

"What order would you like to have them answered?" She asked.

"I don't care," I said. Why was she toying with me?

"Would you prefer them to be answered in reverse order of the order they were asked?"

"I said I didn't care. Reverse, I guess."

"No, yes," she said.

"Huh?" I asked, clearly confused. Why had I told her to answer my questions in reverse order? What were my questions, anyway?

"No, I'm not wearing panties and yes, I want you to fuck me. If you had said to answer them in the order the questions were asked the answer would have been yes, no." But by this time she was incoherent, talking to my ass because I had her over my shoulder and was heading into her bedroom.