Author's Note: The following is a work of fiction. Similarities to any persons, both alive and dead is strictly unintentional. This is a story about two boys in love and if this type of story offends you, please do not read it.
The Champion
I could hear the sound of my heart beating in my mind. Everything going on around me seemed to be happening in slow motion just like in the movies when the star quarterback calls for the ball to be snapped and the opposing team's defensive linemen charge the offensive linemen. The sounds of helmets crashing and teenage athletes grunting through their mouthpieces reverberated off the thousands of fans cheering and screaming like an angry mob out to destroy the village monster. The coach is yelling and jumping up and down like a rabbit on amphetamines. And I, as the team's wide receiver, was running towards the goal line, trying desperately to lose the guy riding my ass.
Only this wasn't a movie.
Because I was running up the left side of the field, I broke right as soon as I reached what I knew to be our quarterback's best throwing distance. I didn't dare look at the clock on the scoreboard but instead was counting the seconds off in my head and by my count, we only had about nine seconds left in the game. My abrupt break had thrown off the linebacker that was chasing me, but there was a cornerback that was moving in swiftly to tackle me if I was to catch the ball.
My eyes were searching the line of scrimmage for Will Bergeron, our quarterback and my best friend, and I found him. He had rolled right, as usual and saw that I was in position. My heart beat faster as I realized that he saw me and I prepared myself for the pass.
Unfortunately, I saw what was happening too late.
Just as Will was about to release the ball, a defensive lineman broke through the offensive line and breached the pocket. Will went down with a thud, along with our hopes of winning the state championship.
I wasn't all that upset by our loss. We were, after all, the underdogs who had played a great season and through a series of good games and better luck, had made it to the state championship to play Louisiana's toughest team and consecutive three-time champions. We got to play in the Superdome, which is something I never thought we would be able to do. I knew that the fans were disappointed, but I think a lot of them knew that we had a great season and that the underclassmen that were replacing us seniors looked to be even more promising than we were. And those that thought we sucked. well, I never really cared what they thought to begin with.
After we shook hands with the opposing team, our guys began trudging back to the locker room. I saw Will talking to the offensive coach, Coach Rubens. The older man had his hand on Will's shoulder and seemed to be offering words of encouragement, but Will simply stared straight ahead, almost seeing through Coach Rubens, and simply shook his head. Coach smiled half-heartedly and nudged Will towards the lockers.
I ran up behind him and put my arm around his shoulder pads.
"You were great, Will," I said honestly because we did really play our hearts out.
"Yeah, so everyone keeps telling me," he replied coldly. "Then why the fuck did we lose, huh, Drew?" Pushing my arm off of him, he picked up his pace and headed into the locker room.
I felt like I was choking and I almost did. I was choking on the words that I really wanted to say to him - words that he would never understand.
After we were all showered and changed, I was stowing my gear away when I got punched on the arm. Looking up, I saw Jarrod Miller and Tyrus Dolan were standing behind me.
"Hey, Geyer," said Jarrod, "Dolan's parents rented a couple of rooms down by the convention center and I bunch of us are gonna go drinking and then crash there. You wanna come?"
"Ummm. sure, does Bergeron know?"
"I told him," Tyrus said, "but I don't even know if he heard me."
"I'll go talk to him," I said.
After I finished packing, I ran up to Will as he was walking out. "Hey," I said, "you heading out to the Quarter with us?"
"No," he answered darkly. "I'm riding home with my dad. He said he needs to talk to me."
"Are you."
"Yeah, I'm sure." He sighed, "Look, I'll call you later. kay, Drew?"
"Yeah. sure. later."
He turned and left.
That night, we had a pretty good time considering we lost the game. It was just us seniors so we were all a little melancholy that we wouldn't have a shot next year, but the general consensus was that we had played a great season and had a lot of fun.
We all got pretty loaded since we were carrying around some swag we had pre- mixed in some two-liter bottles. We had a great time walking down Bourbon Street trying to look inside the strip clubs and pissing off the doormen. After getting turned down at several places, we finally reached Cat's Meow which let in eighteen-year-olds, which was all fine and dandy except that Ricky Petit and I were still seventeen. My birthday wasn't for another two weeks.
So the rest of the guys went inside while Ricky and I stayed outside with the backpack. Ricky and I grumbled back and forth about not being able to get in, but we didn't mind, cause we had the alcohol to keep us occupied. We passed a bottle back and forth, which we had to do inconspicuously because this part of the Quarter was busy and had a lot of cops patrolling.
I had just reached the point of being drunk as a skunk when all of a sudden, my cell phone began to ring. Shit! I was hoping that it wasn't my parents. I told them we were spending the night at the hotel, but they didn't know we were coming down to the French Quarter.
"I'll be right back," I told Ricky, as I ran down the street, away from all the noise. Pushing the call button, I said, in the soberest voice that I could manage at the time, "Hullo?"
"Drew?"
It was definitely not my parents, but the voice did sound familiar. "Yeah?"
"Hey. it's. umm. it's Will."
I smiled broadly. "Will! Hey! Dude, you gotta get down here, we're having a blast."
"Actually," he said, "I wanted to talk... to you... do you mind?"
"Noooo," I breathed heavily into the phone. "Dude, you... are like my besht friend."
"Are you loaded or something?"
"I'm fiiiiine... just had a few drinks."
"Well, I'm coming to get you. Where do you wanna meet?"
"Well..." I said. "I'm standing at the corner of lamp post and street sign."
I don't know how he found me, but he did. I had managed to make my way back to Ricky to explain that I was being picked up and to steal a two-liter bottle of cocktail. When Will pulled up in his Jeep, I hopped in and handed the bottle to him. He contemplated for a second, then took a shot.
"I'm gonna need more of that before this night is through, but lets go somewhere that we can talk first."
We headed back across to the Westbank, where our high school is. We rode mainly in silence which gave me a chance to sort out my thoughts and sober up a bit. We headed toward the place that we called shell beach.
Shell beach was a place along the Mississippi River where there were mounds and mounds of small shells that were used to make makeshift driveways to trailers and to fill in holes in the streets. A few of us seniors discovered that at night, shell beach is a great place to make out, smoke some dope, or do whatever you don't want other people to see you do.
We got out of the Jeep and walked down towards the riverbank. Will took the bottle of booze and guzzled almost a quarter of it. He capped the bottle, set it down, and looked out over the river. In the distance, there were a few tugboats and cargo ships traversing the Mississippi, but there wasn't that much traffic at - I glanced at my watch - one o'clock in the morning.
I remained silent. It seemed as though Will was trying to say something, but couldn't bring himself to start. He still had that blank expression on his face that he had after then game. Expression notwithstanding, he still looked as beautiful as he ever did.
I hadn't met Will until we were sophomores in high school. We weren't in the same classes as freshmen and I didn't join the freshman football team as Will had. The next year, however, Will and I had homeroom together and gym the following period. Will was a long, tall drink of water, standing six feet tall with broad shoulders that would only broaden more over the next few years. His hair was a chestnut brown that he always kept shortly shaved to his head around the neck and sides and left just a tad longer on the top. His eyes were a dark dreamy blue that could keep you hanging on his every word. I was, overall, very impressed by the overall package of William Bergeron. Some fancy footwork during our touch football games during gym class convinced Will to persuade me to join the varsity team. Soon, we became inseparable. Will would often sleep over at my house, cause my family was a little better off and his father was a real asshole sometimes. We would take fishing trips out on my dad's boat and though we never really caught much, we would still have a great time in each other's company. Over the years, I began to realize just how great of a guy Will was. He was genuine, down to earth, and had a heart of gold that outshined anything else about him.
Throughout high school, neither one of us dated very much until just this year when Will began to see the girl he had taken to our junior prom. Kim was a nice enough girl but she was too demanding on Will. Our friendship began to deteriorate which hurt me immensely. We didn't sleep over at each other's houses anymore or have any more of our fishing trips. Will tried to hook me up with some of Kim's friends and I did make an attempt with one or two, but by then, I knew that my heart just wasn't into it. I knew what I wanted and I wasn't going to get it. I had accepted the fact that I was always gonna be more attracted to boys than I would be to girls, but there was no way in the world that I was gonna risk the friendship with Will by telling him how I felt.
Then about a month ago, at the beginning of our playoffs, Kim and Will broke up. I was sympathetic for Will because, even though I was secretly glad, I hated to see him hurt and alone. Luckily, we started rebuilding our friendship and things had been going great up until the championship game tonight.
Glancing back down at my watch, I noticed that twenty minutes had passed since we had arrived. I couldn't bear the silence any longer, so I got up from where I had plopped myself down and walked to stand next to my best friend who continued to stare out over the water.
"Will.?"
He said nothing.
"It was just a game," I said. "You can't beat yourself up forever."
Will gave an abrupt, sarcastic laugh. "Yeah, that's somebody else's job."
I was on the verge of a panic attack. I had never seen Will like this before. I had seen the dark and brooding side of William Bergeron before, but I had never seen anything quite this bad before. I grabbed him by the arm and swung him to face me.
"Look," I said. "What the fuck is your problem? We lost the game. Who cares? I certainly don't. But you know what? I'm not a loser and you are! You are the most popular guy in school. I bet you don't know how much some people idolize you. And then you come off with this piss-poor attitude that only goes to show everyone that the only thing worth giving a shit about is a spray-painted pewter trophy!"
I was fuming and I noticed that Will was shaking himself. Then something totally unexpected happened.
A tear fell from Will's right eye followed by one on the left. Suddenly, it was as if the floodgates had opened. Will began bawling at the top of his lungs. It was such a desperate and painful sound that I could only grasp his shoulders and pull him into my arms. I had never seen Will cry once in the three years I had known him. not when he talked about his mother who had died when he was thirteen, not when he and Kim broke up, not when we lost the championship tonight. But now, it was as if the years of grief had finally caught up to him and he wept unabashedly on my shoulder. He reached around my body and pulled me close to him. so close that our chests were mashed together and each hitching breath that he took felt like my own. I allowed my right hand to travel up his broad back, across his neck and finally the back of his head, gingerly caressing the soft hair. My unease was put to rest by simply being in his arms and smelling his scent on the back of his neck.
"Oh, God!" he cried out releasing more and more emotion while all I could do was continue to hold him.
Several minutes passed and finally the tears began to subside. I let my hands travel back down to his shoulders and gently began to separate us. His deep blue eyes met mine immediately and instinctively, I let my hand trace his clavicle, back up his neck, and took his handsome face in my right hand. Without thinking, I leaned in and and kissed him on his right cheek. I pulled away suddenly, realizing what I had done and my mind began thinking of a dozen excuses that I could give him.
Before I could open my lips, however, they were covered over by Will's. My mouth opened slightly as I experienced what, to this day, I consider the most passionate kiss of my life. I didn't even realize that I had stopped breathing until Will pulled away and quickly turned around and I found myself gasping for my next breath.
"I think it's time for complete honestly between you and me," Will said softly with his back turned. "And I'll start."
Will began to turn back around and I saw that he was pulling his shirt up. My heart skipped a beat until I realized that he wasn't taking his shirt off, he was just lifting it up. Suddenly, I saw what it was he wanted to show me. On his left torso, there was a bruise that looked fresh and painful since he took much care pulling his shirt back down.
"My dad's been beating the shit out of me on a constant basis for the past five years since my mom passed away. I think it just started as a convenient way to discipline me since my mom was always the one who took the time out to explain the difference between right and wrong and punish me accordingly. Once she died, my dad found it easier to just fuck me up whenever I did something he didn't like. Obviously, losing the state championship was something he disliked."
I stood before him with my mouth wide open. "I--I-- never."
"Didn't you ever wonder why my back and sides were always beaten up?"
"Well... you---you're the quarterback. You were always taking a beating. I guess. I guess I just figured you bruised easily. Why didn't you ever...?"
"Report it?" He laughed that sarcastic laugh again. "How would it look for the star quarterback to look like he's scared of his old man. And well, I guess whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, huh? Now your turn, Drew. Tell me something you've never told me before."
I couldn't obviously come out with what I wanted to say... not just yet. "I'm--I'm glad that you and Kim broke up."
"Why?"
"Because I was jealous. okay? I felt like she was taking my best friend away from me and I hated her for that. I know that I told you the reason I always gave her the cold shoulder was because I was jealous that you were in a relationship and I wasn't, but the truth is I was jealous because she was spending the time with you that used to be mine."
He sighed. "Okay, fine, my turn. I was the one that broke up with Kim. She didn't break up with me like I told you. Truth is, Kim was very happy walking around school like the fucking queen of England because she was dating the quarterback. I finally decided that I could never be with a person that didn't love me unconditionally for me. And while we're being all honest, I was never attracted to her." There was a moment of awkward silence and then it was my turn.
I closed my eyes. It was time to go for broke, so I simply swallowed back the alcohol that was doing somersaults in my stomach and said the words that I had been holding back for three years now.
"I love you."
"What do you mean?" he said.
"Phew. ha. what do I mean, well, ummm. do you wanna hear about what the smell of your cologne does to my groin whenever I get close enough to smell it on you? Or maybe you'd like to know that in English class, I spend most of the lecture in a daze because I'm staring at you the whole time? Or how about the fact that my stomach gets tied in a knot whenever you say my name? Or perhaps it would interest you to know that my heart splits in two whenever I see you sad or miserable and I can't fall in your arms to hold you close and tell you that everything is gonna be all right?" By now it was my turn to let the tears flow without abandon.
Will stepped forward and embraced me once again. He whispered into my ear, "Is everything gonna be all right?"
I laughed uneasily. "I hope so."
"Wait here," he said before he released me and walked back over to the Jeep. He pulled a couple of blankets and a pillow out of the back and walked back to where I was. He laid out the blankets and put the pillow to where we would be able to watch the river. He knelt down and took my hand. "Come here," he said.
We laid ourselves upon one blanket and covered ourselves with another. It was the middle of winter in southern Louisiana which meant that it was only about sixty degrees. We pulled ourselves close, each on our sides facing one another. We pulled each other close, wrapping each of our legs around the other's. Our foreheads were touching and our lips joined once again.
"Let's just stay like this all night," I said.
Will simply smiled and held me tighter.
There's more to the story of Will and Drew. I would appreciate all comments and criticisms: vidboyx2001@hotmail.com