Page 7 of The Backup Plan
Avery’s heart warmed when she watched him inspect her room. When Justin left Bridgeport two years before, he was running away, in search of a fresh start, with a promise to hold a place for his little sister. Frequent calls and texts between Indiana and Connecticut sustained them as Avery fought her way to scholarships and a place at UND to escape their parents’ dark cloud.
He confessed more than once how daunted he was by the legacy of an older brother they both worshiped, and wondered if he was doing the right thing by helping Avery run from home like he did. She let him play his protector role and even feigned helplessness once in a while so he’d feel more secure in the shoes Isaac left for him to fill.
Judging by the satisfied smile on his face as he latched the window, he was relishing the job.
“I have a clean shirt in the car,” he said. “I’ll change, and then we’ll take a walk through your class schedule.”
“I don’t want the class schedule tour,” she said as they exited the hall. “I have my map. Show me the fun stuff. The secret stuff that you don’t know about when you’re new.”
Justin pushed his sweaty blond hair off his forehead and pondered. “There’s actually a mysteries and legends tour. I’ll go again if you want to go. They do it the week after classes start.”
“Yeah, but anyone could go on that.”
“I know where you want to go. You could have just said it.”
Avery walked out of the tunnel into the sun, shading her eyes as she took it in: seventy thousand seats, glassed-in luxury boxes, state-of-the-art video displays dull and black among bright championship banners. In the center of it all was the grass and fresh paint, ready for the team to show off at an open practice for the freshmen and their families.
She heard Justin chuckle behind her when she plopped down in the end zone and breathed in the earth like a drug.
“This is the view that sold me,” he said, settling on the ground beside her. “I visited a lot of stadiums. I’ve had the honor to play in some truly beautiful ones.”
“This one feels like home,” she said, interrupting before he could finish his thought.
“And there’s no place like it.”
It was nothing like the places they once called home, and it was perfect for that exact reason. The stone-and-brick gothic architecture of her residence hall was nothing like the shingled Cape Cod houses where the Atlantic Ocean battered rocky shores, and the football field was painted with the wrong team’s logos. Home was supposed to be the University of Connecticut, where Isaac went and Justin was planning to go, but home would never be Connecticut again.
Avery nudged his shoulder. “Going to win it all this year?”
He snorted. “It’s a five-alarm fire in the locker room with everyone worried about Jordan. Maybe now that quarterback thing is settled, things will calm down. ”
“You said he just bailed. Did you ever hear why?”
“He bailed into a freaking vacuum. Didn’t withdraw from school, didn’t transfer, didn’t even call the coach. I guess Jordan’s parents have proven to the authorities that he’s alive since several people reported him missing or wanted a wellness check. So the cops in Pierre, South Dakota are satisfied with whatever they know, and that’s all we have to go on.”
“Maybe we’ll find him on the mysteries and legends tour.”
“The rumors are pretty imaginative already. I heard he knocked up a married Vegas showgirl, and he’s on the run from some seedy guys.”
“I want to do a series of panels on the Jordan theories. Save the rumors for me?”
“Deal.” Justin hooked his pinky around hers. They breathed in the end of summer in companionable silence until a half-dozen people in the opposite end zone began setting up equipment.
“How’s it look with the backup?” Avery asked. “I presume he’s not in trouble with showgirls and shady people.”
“Two backups. Cameron and Archie had it out in camp, and Cam was the obvious choice. So we’ve got our guy, but this is a huge anniversary year for the football program, and the boosters and alumni are fundraising like crazy while they show off the stadium upgrades. Our season is going to be more visible than ever before.”
Her hand twitched in the grass and she fought off the urge to tear a handful of blades from the manicured turf. “Can new guy hack it?”
“Cam’s good. He can sling it as well as Jordan could, and he’s getting better. But they have to redo all the media that had Jordan’s name, face, or number on it, and this time of year, with all that publicity crap printed and recorded, it’s a lot. And on top of that, the press is harping about Jordan leaving and making us look like we’ve got something to hide. No one knows what to say. The media crew is mainlining lattes, and they’ll be yanking Cam’s arm while we try and get him on the field to throw the damn ball. I feel for the guy. What a way to start the school year.”
“That kind of pressure on the weekends, and then you just go to class on Monday. Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Some of it is the reality of playing ball at this level,” Justin said. “We all have to do pictures here and there, and the more we win, the more we have to show off in social media. Pose one is the ‘upstanding student athlete,’ where I smile and do my best to look smart. In pose two, I lean forward a little and look slightly menacing. Then pose three, where I am instructed to mess up my hair so I look tough, and snarl like I’m coming for the quarterback’s blood. Pose four is when we just scream at the sky and beat our chests like animals. Sometimes they spray us with water so we look just sweaty enough to show manly muscle effort, but not so sweaty we look like it was hard to take the other guy down.”
“Photography is lies. All lies. You are a big softy, and a big, lying liar.” She stood and brushed off her shorts. “What’s going on down there?”
Justin eyed the end zone where Avery was pointing and grimaced. “I bet they’re setting up Cam’s press conference. Let’s get out before they make me put on a cheerleading outfit and stand behind him.”