The morning came a bit sooner than I would have liked, but I sprung out of bed anyway. It was Friday, and ever since Tanner and I had started dating, he always was able to find something for us to do on the weekend. Tonight, we'd be attending the away game in Idabel. Football was a big part of Broken Bow's culture, like most small towns in America. I hadn't been a big sports fan in Conway, but after moving here, I realized it was either this or stay home Friday nights.
Besides, while Tanner and most of our friends weren't on the team, they still lived for those Friday night lights. I showered quickly and fixed my hair into its usual fauxhawk, and chose to wear my black and gold school t-shirt with the school's mascot, the "Savages", plastered on the back. I always tried to be a bit festive on game days.
After wolfing down a piece of toast and rinsing my mouth with some orange juice, I heard Tanner's Dodge roaring outside my house. I grabbed my bag and went outside. Tanner usually always picked me up in his truck on Fridays, because we hardly ever had homework over the weekend and always hung out after school until the game started.
"How you feelin?" he asked as I climbed in the truck.
"I'm tired, but happy." I smiled. I wanted to tell Tanner just how happy he had made me last night, but I didn't want to sound sappy. There'd be time for that later.
Tanner was sporting some dramatic black and gold face paint while wearing a make-shift tank top that had Idabel's mascot, the Warrior, with an X through it on the back. He always showed more spirit than I did, but that was to be expected. He was from this town.
The football players were sporting their jerseys and the cheerleaders were all wearing their uniforms, as was common on game days. The teachers had pretty much caught on that not much learning would get done with spirits running high on game days, so they tended to be a bit more lenient with us.
Dani turned around in her seat to face me in English class that afternoon. "So, what did y'all do last night in Tanner's truck?" she asked with a slight giggle. I couldn't help but admire how straightforward country folk were. Sure, I had encountered my fair share of two-faced people at Broken Bow high, but everyone mostly made it clear whether or not they liked you.
"Why do you ask that like we did something bad?" I gave her a smile. I wanted to keep her guessing.
"C'mon, y'all might be different but y'all are still guys. What happened?" she persisted.
"He just kissed me. That's all." I shrugged.
"Tanner Christianson just kissed you? Are we talking about the same guy?" she asked. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
"C'mon, he's not the kind of guy to be pushy, is he?" I asked.
"Who knows? Maybe you're different." she said mysteriously.
The bell rang and we stood up to head towards the cafeteria. We met Tanner and Taylor on the way, them having come from the gym. Their 4th hour was a PE class, and all they did was lift weights the entire hour. I had asked why they didn't just call it `weightlifting'. Apparently, then the school would feel obligated to offer an official weightlifting team. God forbid.
"Where's Amy and Davis?" Dani asked.
"Those bastards ran off to Sonic without tellin nobody." Taylor said. And so while Amy and Davis enjoyed Sonic burgers, we were stuck with fried chicken breasts that tasted like paper. That was one thing you couldn't escape in America: if you're in a public school, the lunch is going to be sucky to okay. But why am I bitching? At least I got to eat.
"How was class?" Tanner asked me.
"We spent most of the hour talking about you." Dani interjected smugly.
"So y'all mean to tell me y'all didn't pay attention?" Tanner asked. I could tell he was trying to keep a straight face but I could see a smile trying to crack through.
"We have the same English teacher, don't we? Don't make us laugh." I smiled back. Honestly, Mr. Washington was a bore.
"Are y'all gonna come with us to Davis's after the game?" Dani asked us.
"I had another idea for us two." Tanner said, looking to me.
"I don't care. Whatever you want to do." I shrugged. I really didn't care. Tanner had never put me in a situation where I felt uncomfortable, so I trusted his idea.. whatever it was.
"But y'all ain't missed a party yet." Dani looked at us through narrow eyes.
"We'll start tonight, then." Tanner grinned at her.
"Fine. More beer for us." she flashed her own smile.
I stood up to get another milk and Tanner followed me.
"Hey, I wanted a chance to talk to you alone, but Taylor was on my heels the entire time." he said to me. My heart leapt.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Wrong? Ain't nothin wrong. Don't be stupid." he grinned at me. "I just wanted to tell you that it's just gonna be me and you tonight. I had enough bonfire fun last night. They can get drunk and sing till the cows come home.. I think we'll have more fun tonight together."
"You sure you're not ditching them because of me?" I asked hesitantly.
"Tyler, you're part of the group now. Don't talk like you're an outsider. This is what I want to do." he said.
"Alright, but what are we even gonna do?" I asked.
"Cain't tell ya.." he smiled even bigger and walked back to the table, leaving me in line. I watched his muscular legs hugged by his wranglers as he walked away. I was interrupted by a sweet woman's voice: "Honey, did you need somethin?"
"Oh, sorry." Embarrassed, I turned around quickly.
The end of day bell rung loudly and we all met up in front of the school once class let out. We all agreed to meet up at Davis's house before the game, so Tanner and I got into his pickup and headed out of town. Davis lived between Idabel and Broken Bow, so we had a few miles to go before we'd get there.
"So Dani asked me what we did last night in your truck." I said awkwardly to Tanner.
"Yeah, what'd you tell her?" he asked.
"What do you mean? I didn't tell her that we did it or anything." I laughed.
"Couldn't spice it up a little? I'm kiddin. She's nosy but she don't mean no harm." he reassured me.
"I didn't feel invaded or anything. She seemed genuinely curious." I said.
"Well, you're the first guy I've actually dated. So she ain't never got to see me like this." Tanner said.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Thinkin with the head up here and not down there." He blushed a little and kept his stare straight ahead on the road.
"Come on, don't tell me you've ever been a player." I asked, half-jokingly and half-seriously.
"Everyone has a past. That's all I'm gonna say." he shifted his smile to me. When we got to Davis's house, everyone had beaten us there. Tanner wasn't in any rush, given he was going the speed limit. It was like a game to race down these two lane backroads for the others, though.
"What are we doing before the game?" I asked curiously. Every week brought something different.
"They're gonna do some team ropin'. I think I'll cook some burgers or somethin." Tanner said.
"Y'all are late!" Davis called from the pasture.
"Don't say that like we got shit to do!" Tanner called back, his voice reverberating through the open sky.
"Y'all gotta see us kick Amy and Davis's asses!" Dani shouted out.
"Quit your yellin' before you scare my mare!" Davis retorted.
"I feel real stupid, but what are they doing?" I asked. I could tell it was some sport, because all four of them had saddled their horses and were wearing gloves.
"It's kind of complicated. Basically one of them will be a header' and it'll be his job to rope the steer around the horns or the head. Then he has to tie the rope into a dally' around the horn of his saddle. That's the part that sticks up near the front. Once that's done, the header guides the steer around the arena while the `heeler' waits for a clear shot at the steer's hind legs. His job is to rope the hind legs, and he ties a dally to the horn of his saddle just like the header. Finally, they face each other and back up until the steer is completely stretched out. Once they do that, a flagger (probably me) takes the time. The other team does the same thing and whoever does it faster wins." He explained. I could see him getting excited just talking about it. To me, it sounded complex, difficult, and cruel all at the same time, but I got over it. I was anxious to see it happen.
"Do you like doing it?" I asked.
"I love it! But those four got this kind of `couples' rivalry' thing going on so I'm lettin' them do their thing." he said.
Tanner went inside to get the stuff to grill the hamburgers, and I sat on the back of Davis's tailgate, as his truck was closest to the arena. When Tanner came back outside, I asked him, "Wouldn't an arena like this be expensive?" I asked, examining the lights that went around the entirety of the arena.
"Yeah, it is, but Davis's dad does competitions and stuff. It's like an investment." he said.
"And his parents don't care that we're using one of their bulls? Aren't those expensive too? What if they hurt it?" I asked. Curiosity was getting the best of me.
"You're so cute.. it's not a bull, baby, it's a steer. It don't have its balls no more. And ropers have steers specifically for this purpose. That steer is one of them. Cattle is all Davis's parents raise. Those four horses are the only ones they have, and that's just so there're mounts to team rope with. Normally, riders would bring their own, but since Davis has four anyway, it saved us time from havin' to go and load up a horse trailer. His parents have so much cattle that they don't mind using this meat to make hamburgers. Don't sweat it." he explained, holding up a package of hamburger meat wrapped in foil.
"So, do they slaughter the cows, or do they pay someone?" I asked.
"Davis's uncle owns the slaughterhouse in Idabel. That's where they get their cattle slaughtered. For the most part, they sell the meat, but they keep some for their own use. Have you ever had farm grown cow meat?" he asked me.
"The only hamburger meat I've had was from Walmart." I said, slightly embarrassed.
"Once you taste some of this, you'll never want store bought meat again. Where do you think this came from?" he asked, flexing his left bicep. "Not from eating processed meat." he flashed me a smile.
I smiled back. Tanner was such a sweet devil.. it was a fiery combination that captivated me.
"I'm gonna let this grill get hot while I go be their flagger. I'm running away once time is called though `cause I don't wanna lose an ear hearin' them cry about my judgment. Someone's gotta lose."
I watched the game commence from the tailgate. Amy and Davis were up first. The steer bolted out of the chute and into the arena, quickly moving far enough to open the barrier holding Amy. She ran through that arena like lightning. She obviously did this often as she caught the steer's horns perfectly with her rope. Taylor and Dani made very distinguishable `booing' noises from the sidelines.
Davis rode around the arena, trying to line up with the steer's backside. He threw the rope and caught the steer's hindlegs easily. As they stretched the steer, Tanner called out their time: "10 seconds!"
I watched in amazement. It all happened so fast that if Tanner hadn't explained it to me, I wouldn't have known what happened. My first reaction was that they could be professionals, but what did I know? I had just heard of the sport.
Taylor and Dani made gestures that I was almost certain would not be allowed at a rodeo as they made their way into the arena. Like Amy, Dani started off as the header, but she wasn't as graceful as Amy. Her horse nearly bucked her on her initial take off, but she got him to straighten up and roped the steer around the head. Taylor, the heeler, made his way around the arena, but tried to rope the steer's hindlegs from the side and barely missed. I heard him curse all the way from where I was, and he quickly threw out his lariat again and roped the steer's hindlegs. Tanner called out the time again: "18 seconds! Amy and Davis win!" he called out before returning to the grill.
"See what I mean?" he asked as shouts reverberated from the roping arena. "It gets pretty intense. And in an actual rodeo, no time would have given since Taylor missed the first time. That's how it is in most rodeos, anyway." he explained as he put the hamburger meat on the grill.
My head was spinning. I had just absorbed so much information. I was a city boy and my idea of `sport' was like football, basketball, you know.. the normal ones. I had barely grasped the concept of team roping when I realized how many different sports are played at the big rodeos.
"How'd you like that?" Amy asked me as the four of them came back to where me and Tanner were after turning the horses loose in the pasture.
"It was exciting." I replied. Truthfully, it was. Of course, I was more worried about one of them falling off the horses, which I'm sure they weren't concerned about.
An hour passed as the food got finished and we talked about how badly we were gonna beat Idabel that night as we ate the thick hamburgers. Taylor and Davis were drinking on some Bud Light, but the rest of us were sticking with sodas. I didn't drink anyway, and Tanner was probably saving his inebriation for another night. He did say he had something planned for us, so maybe that had something to do with it. 6:00 came around pretty fast, and the game started at 6:45. We all loaded up and headed to town so we could get good seats. Those bleachers filled up fast, especially at Broken Bow home games.
I rode with Amy, who was driving Davis's truck. Davis rode with Tanner in his, and Dani and Taylor took Taylor's. "Are y'all coming over tonight after the game?" Amy asked me. She hadn't been in the lunch room when Tanner had turned down Dani's invite.
"Tanner said he has something planned for me." I said nonchalantly. I didn't want my excitement to show through. I wanted to stay cool about it.
"Think he's gonna propose to you? Or drop the L word at least?" she suggested.
"I hope not.. I've only been dating him for a few weeks." I said.
"Don't worry.. Tanner ain't like that. He'll do it right." she said. Amy was different from Dani in that Amy was more serious. I usually took what she had to say more seriously than I did Dani, who seemed to joke a lot.
"Yeah. Dani asked me if we had done anything at the Bonfire last night. All we did was kiss." I said.
"How was that?" she asked.
"Intense." was the first word that came out of my mouth.
"I'd imagine so. This ain't Tanner's first rodeo. But then, I suppose it ain't yours, either. Y'all got something good goin'.. don't mess it up." She said.
"I'll try not to.. but most people who mess up their relationships don't usually do it on purpose." I noted.
"You're right about that." she replied as we pulled into the school's parking lot.
As the Idabel Savages came onto the field, Tanner and some other guys who had `anti-Idabel' shirts on booed the crowd. Well, actually, most Broken Bow students did. The same went for when the Broken Bow team came onto the field, but the Idabel side's booing was drowned out by the cheering of me and the rest of the BBHS students.
The sun went down by 7:30, and the extremely bright stadium lights came on all at once. It was the kind of surreal feeling that I didn't know existed till I moved to Broken Bow. Watching the cheerleaders perform cheers specifically worded to put down the other team, no holds barred really intensified the game. The way the guys on the field were just nearly fouling each other damn near made the game seem more like a brawl than a regular football game.
The score was tied with just thirty seconds remaining on the clock when our team's quarterback scored a touchdown. He had slid through two defensive linebackers like water and won the game for us that week. Deafening cheers erupted from our side of the stands and I wouldn't be surprised if we could be heard all the way in Texas. Tanner had been on the other side of Taylor throughout most of the game, so we hadn't talked much during the game. We all went out front to our trucks and the others talked about where they were gonna get the alcohol from for the night's party.
Tanner, on the other hand, put a rough hand around my waist and asked, "You ready?" Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I gave him a smile and whispered, "My life's in your hands, cowboy."