Fame, Love, and other Lessons

by Frances, Jo

  Fame, Love

  and other Lessons

  by

  Jo Frances

  Fame, Love, and other Lessons

  Jo Frances

  Copyright Notice 2012 by Jo Frances

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 6

  Chapter 2 15

  Chapter 3 26

  Chapter 4 30

  Chapter 5 38

  Chapter 6 43

  Chapter 7 50

  Chapter 8 58

  Chapter 9 65

  Chapter 10 70

  Chapter 11 75

  Chapter 12 79

  Chapter 13 83

  Chapter 14 89

  Chapter 15 97

  Chapter 16 102

  Chapter 17 109

  Chapter 18 115

  Chapter 19 119

  Chapter 20 124

  Chapter 1

  Jamie Cameron had not seen her brother since he helped her move into the freshman dorm ten days ago. This was strange, considering how close they were, but it was really strange, considering they attended the same college. Jamie talked to him almost daily, and they texted each other several times a day, but it wasn't until their mother asked when Jamie had actually seen Luke that the truth was obvious to her.

  Still, this wasn't something she wanted to share with her mother, so she only said, "I don't know, Mom. I guess when we drove up together." Jamie, so used to covering up for her brother, hated to give specifics.

  There was a pause as her mother considered the reasons. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect a senior to hang around with his freshman sister, but I certainly thought you two would see each other more than when you lived at home."

  "It's hard, mom. We've both got two-a-days." Although her very proper mother was the furthest thing from a sports fanatic, raising two children who were high school, and now college athletes had taught her the appropriate jargon for two practices a day.

  "Yes I know, that's what Luke told me last week when I asked if he had checked in on you. He told me yes, but I didn't realize he meant over the telephone."

  An uneasy feeling came over Jamie. Why would he mislead their mother? Keeping her voice light she answered, "Mom, I'm fine! It's not like I'm getting lost, or people are taking my lunch money."

  Jamie could almost see her mother's smile. "No, that's for your brother to do," Frances Cameron said, both of them laughing at the memory of a devoted Jamie giving her brother her weekly allowance so he could buy basketball trading cards on e-Bay.

  "Well, all right." Knowing that tone all too well, Jamie knew that Luke would get a phone call next.

  "Mom, please don't call him. He always checks in, and I know if I ever need him, he'll be there."

  "But he should---"

  "Mom, come on. He's entitled to his own life."

  With a small sigh of agreement, Frances changed the subject, and they hung up a little while later.

  The next day, Jamie decided to take matters into her own hands. Her volleyball team's practice ended a half hour before the men's basketball team ended their weight training session. If she could find a reason to linger by the weight room, she might be able to run into her brother.

  The assistant volleyball coach's office was on the second floor of the massive athletic center and gave her the perfect excuse.

  "Jamie, what can I do for you?" Irene Lee waved Jamie into her office, decorated floor to ceiling with school paraphernalia.

  "I'm sorry to bother you, coach, but my academic advisor hadn't signed off on my classes for this semester, and I wanted to make sure that wasn't going to cause a problem with my scholarship." This was true enough, but Jamie could just as easily have asked her during practice earlier that day.

  "Well, are you taking a full course load?"

  "Yes; sixteen units."

  "OK, then there shouldn't be a problem." Coach Lee smiled kindly at her. "Anything else---?"

  "No. Um, ok. Thanks, Coach." Jamie walked quickly down the hall, sure that her Coach was probably wondering at her over-eagerness.

  Feeling very much like her ten-year-old self; the one who used to spy on her big brother, Jamie sat on one of the chairs in the lounge, doing her best to look involved in the contents of her gym bag. She thought about texting Luke to tell him to meet her, but something told her he would find an excuse to avoid her.

  The basketball team eventually wandered out in small groups, briefly registering her presence by the door and openly curious as to whom she was waiting for. Her brother was one of the last players to come out, accompanied by a few of the members of the starting lineup.

  Luke's eyes lit up in recognition when he saw her, but then quickly clouded over with irritation.

  "Hey," he said his voice deliberately casual. "What are you doing here?" Too casual, as though he didn't even know her.

  "Oh hi! I was just coming down from Coach Lee's office. I, um, had a meeting with her." She looked at him expectantly. Luke looked around as though trying to find an escape.

  "Where have you been?" she asked.

  This was met by a few poorly suppressed chuckles from the other players. Obviously she was not the first girl who had waited by the exit doors to ask this question. Before Luke could answer, Jamie continued. "Mom wants you to call her."

  "Mom?" Luke's teammates almost said the word in shocked unison. They looked from Luke to Jamie, and finally saw the connection. Long legs, sandy blond hair, same All-American good looks.

  "This is your sister?!" The group closed in on them, and Jamie found herself surrounded by a group of friendly guys, all trying to introduce themselves.

  "Hey, how are you, I'm Derek." She reached out her hand and found herself being hugged instead.

  Someone tapped her on the shoulder. "We've got a little Cameron! Hi, I'm Jeff."

  Luke laughed, and pulled Jamie away from the group. "Come on, guys! This is my little sister!"

  "Well, then, introduce us!" The guy who had introduced himself as Derek spoke, clearly enjoying Luke's protectiveness. "We want to meet your family."

  Speaking quickly and in mock exasperation, Luke answered. "Guys, this is my sister Jamie. She's a freshman here. Jamie, meet some guys I never want you to speak to again. Derek, Jeff, Tayshaun, Mike and--" Luke pointed to the tallest member of their group. "---Chase."

  Chase looked amused as he extended his hand to her and said, "Hey Jamie, nice to meet you." Jamie had heard of Chase; everyone on campus had. The guys knew him as the highest ranked recruit to their basketball program; the girls were drawn to his reputation in bed. She stared as she looked up at him, trying not to recall all the rumors she had already heard about him. He held her hand a split second longer before adding, "I'm a freshman too."

  This was met by loud howls of protest from the rest of the group. "That is such bullshit!" Derek said. "How can you sit here and lie to little Cameron?"

  Chase shrugged off the the insults as the rest of the guys slammed his too-obvious effort to make a connection with her. "I am a freshman!" he protested. "I was redshirted last year, so I'm considered a freshman this year." Derek jokingly pushed him away from her.

  Luke shook his head at Jamie. "You see this?" he said, pretending to be mad, but the laughter in his eyes giving him away. "This is what happens when you wait for me after practice." He held th
e door open for her. "Come on, I'll walk you back."

  As they walked through campus, Jamie stole a look at her brother. "Did I embarrass you with your teammates?" she asked. "Is that why you've been avoiding me?"

  Luke stopped and looked at her uncomprehendingly. "You really don't get it?"

  "OK! I'm sorry! But I tried not to do anything to embarrass you." Jamie looked so guilty that Luke realized she had planned this.

  "Why would you wait for me like that? If something was wrong, you could have just called me--"

  "But that's just it, you've been avoiding me, and it's not a big deal or anything, and it's not like I haven't made friends, but...I just don't understand why."

  And she really doesn't, Luke realized.

  "Jamie, did you see how those guys on my team reacted? I've been trying to keep you from all that. I've told very few people that my sister is on campus, and that's why."

  "They were perfectly nice to me--"

  "Of course they were! They're great guys, but they're grown men, and you.." He was at a loss for words.

  "I'm eighteen and that makes me an adult too." Luke rolled his eyes. Her petulant tone just proved his point.

  "Yeah, that's just awesome. Listen, Jaim, you have no idea how...look, I just don't want you hanging out with athletes."

  Luke's words came out in an uncomfortable rush. One of the things he had managed to keep hidden from both his mother and his sister was the life he had been living for the past three years. To them, he was the dedicated athlete who was too busy with basketball to focus on anything else. And while his father was not naive, Luke doubted even he could have imagined how many women he'd been with, and how many more were available to him. Anytime, all the time.

  The fact that his sister had actually lived the life his parents imagined for him was even worse. Jamie had gone to an all girl's high school, for no other reason than that it had the best volleyball program in the state. During the week, practices were held until seven at night, and weekends usually meant tournaments. Jamie's friends were her teammates, and as the girls moved into ever more competitive leagues, the dedication required of them resulted in an almost monastic experience. It was a self-selecting process: the girls who valued their social life dropped out of the team and had boyfriends.

  While Luke was relieved that his sister would finally begin to live a less sheltered life, he knew she wasn't ready for the world of easy hookups that he and his friends inhabited. This was not something he could communicate to her, though. So instead, he just repeated, "I don't want you around those guys."

  Jamie raised her eyebrows. "Fine! That's all you had to say! I'm not hot enough for them anyway."

  "Yeah, you're too ugly," he said sarcastically.

  "Did you think I was going to be a groupie, or something?"

  It was Luke's turn to be surprised. "Not in a million years. Why would you even say that?"

  "I've heard some girls talking. I didn't hear anything about the basketball team, but some of them really like the football players!"

  Luke gave a derisive snort. "They like them because it's football season. Trust me, the same chicks come around when basketball, or lacrosse, or whatever, season starts. They just love being with athletes."

  Looking younger than her age, Jamie made a face. "Gross. If they only knew how bad you guys smell after a game!"

  As it turned out, Luke had nothing to worry about. Once the rest of the basketball team learned that the six foot tall, beautiful girl in their midst was their team captain's sister, they treated her as respectfully as one of their own family.

  Several times a week, Jamie hung out with the players in the campus apartment Luke shared with Tayshaun and Mike, studying on the kitchen table while they played their endless video games. Spending time with her brother and his friends also did wonders for her culinary confidence. She had always liked to bake, but now with the guys around, everything she baked--even the mistakes---disappeared within hours.

  The only player who kept his distance was Chase. He was polite, but it didn't take long for Jamie to notice that if he was at Luke's when she came over he would find an excuse to leave within a few minutes.

  She would have asked Luke about it, but Jamie felt she already knew the reason why. When they first met, she felt inexplicably drawn to him. There was something so…raw and masculine about him, it was as if an electric current went through her every time she saw him. She did her best to hide this, but Jamie suspected it wasn't enough. There were so many girls after Chase---the last thing he needed was someone's kid sister staring at him while he was trying to hang out with his friends.

  Not that Chase was the only one who sought refuge from the pressures of being an athlete with his teammates. As the school year went on, Jamie learned a lot about her brother's teammates. Instead of idolizing them like everyone else did, she saw through the swagger to see them as the overgrown boys most of them really were. She saw their goofy, funny sides, and witnessed their insecure and vulnerable moments.

  At the same time, she also saw that with the benefits came a price, and this was made clear every time the group went out. Guys would crowd around trying to be a part of their conversation, while women would push Jamie out of the way to get their attention. Then it would sometimes get ugly, especially with drunks. The men would try to pick a fight with one of them, perhaps for the notoriety or possible lawsuit and the women could become insistent, touching and pressing themselves onto the players, even after they had politely told them no. As Tayshaun put it crudely, "just because it's free doesn't make it good."

  All of this sometimes made going out together more of a hassle than it was worth, which was why the guys spent inordinate amounts of time in each other's apartment, watching TV and playing video games. The result? They all became video game experts, and could often carry on entire conversations utilizing only movie dialogue.

  But the most important lesson Jamie learned was when she got a chance to see the relationships they had with other women. She quickly learned the hierarchy of women in their lives.

  There were the official "girlfriends"; women they had feelings for, respected, and took out on social occasions.

  There were the "down-low girls"; women who got their regular booty calls, but ones they weren't seen in public with.

  Finally, there were the ones who didn't even have a label; women whose presence in their lives was as fleeting as it took for them to find release. Even the girlfriends understood that they had no claims to the men; not their loyalty, not even their time.

  At first, Jamie was shocked by this behavior, but she gradually came to accept that it was a choice these women made. The same man who lovingly tended the barbeque grill for a team dinner could be the same one who left one girl at the bar to have sex with another in the bathroom. It all depended on what a woman was willing to accept in order to be with one of them. Those who wanted nothing for themselves got exactly that.

  Luke worried about the influence this was having on her. "Sometimes you talk like a dude," he told her. "It's kind of disturbing how none of this fazes you anymore."

  "Luke, please tell me you don't mean that. How can I talk like a guy? I don't even use the f word, let alone three times in a five word sentence!"

  "Yeah, and if you ever started--"

  "I won't."

  "OK, well, anyway, seeing all these random hookups can't be good."

  Jamie thought about that a minute. "Actually it's really good for me. I'm not going to have any illusions about men being faithful."

  Luke opened his mouth to protest then shrugged. "Well, maybe not men my age. And definitely not men who are faced with a buffet of choices everyday. So are you saying you're OK with that?"

  "Noo...but I do know that this isn't how I want to be treated."

  Luke nodded approvingly. "Alright. Not bad for your first two months as a college student." He playfully nudged her chin. "Just don't tell mom and dad what I'm doing."

  Towards the end o
f the football season, one of the alumni offered his stadium suite to the basketball team, and seizing upon the rare opportunity where they wouldn't have to choose between spending time with their team or with their girlfriends, it was quickly decided that the guys would all bring dates.

  "There's enough room in the suite, you can go, too." Luke offered. Jamie shook her head firmly. "Thanks, but, uh, no. Everyone is going to be paired up and I may as well walk in with a big L on my forehead."

  "You're my weird little sister, and you've already got a big L on your forehead." Ducking the playful punch on his shoulder Jamie threw at him, Luke continued. "Besides, Jeff just broke up with his girlfriend so he doesn't want to bring anyone, and Chase said he wanted to go alone."

  At the mention of Chase's name, Jamie perked up. "Chase is never alone," she said casually.

  "Lately, he has been," he corrected her. "I think with basketball season starting he doesn't want the drama of hanging out with any girl." Luke looked at her. "If you want to bring someone, I'm sure Chase would give you his ticket…"

  "You mean like my roommate?"

  "Jeez, Jamie! Not another chick, but like, a guy? You know, as mom would say---" Luke put on a slight drawl, "someone who's a little sweet on ya?" He frowned. "I'm not sure it's normal for you to be so single all the time."

  Actually, there had been someone; Austin, a player on the men's volleyball team who she had been working out with. Except Chase had seen them together once and when he showed up the next day at practice, Austin suddenly lost interest.

  "Well you did tell me I was ugly," Jamie offered.

  "You know that's not true," Luke said guiltily.

  "There are a few guys I've talked to, but it just didn't go anywhere. OK?"

  Luke looked relieved. "So you should go."

  Jamie nodded. "I think I will."

  The day of the game, Jamie, who usually wore her hair in a ponytail, curled her blonde hair so it cascaded down her face, and put on a little more makeup. She hoped Chase would show up without a date, but didn't want to admit this, even to herself.