Unliving Love

by Jason A Grimm

  Chapter 12

  The Night before

  The next week and a half had gone by in a blur. Every day it was the same thing. Mike woke up had breakfast went to the stadium to work out and watch films. Then he had football practice. The weekend in between last week and this week was the only difference. Saturday he had a football game which he won and Sunday morning they watched game film then had the rest of the day off. Monday had brought back the breakfast, workout, films, practice schedule except with one game left in the season and a bowl game riding on a big win the practices had gotten even more intense. He had been so tired from practice that he barely spent any time with Jen at night due to just being exhausted. He usually felt bad about it but with her new found friendship with Tracy he wasn’t even sure she noticed that he wasn’t around.

  It was now Thursday and he had one more day before the big game and it just may very well be one of the biggest of his college season. This year the teams in his division have been playing the best they have played in years and everything was coming down to this game. Not only did they have to win but they had to win in a big way. He knew they could do it but it wasn’t going to be easy. They were playing their division rivals who they had crushed last year but they had a strong recruiting season and were much better this year.

  When Mike walked through the door of his house late that night He saw Jen sitting on the couch with a stack of books and her laptop opened on the coffee table, and there sitting beside her was Tracy which he was happy about because he knew he wouldn’t be expected to stay up much longer. They were nearly inseparable as of late and spent most of their time looking into this and that about ghost, spirits, and demons. This made Mike start to wonder how Jen was keeping her grades up.

  “Oh hey babe.” Jen said to him as he walked in the door. “You look so tired.”

  “Yeah I am practice was rough. Luckily tomorrow is a light day. Coach knows he’s been pushing us hard and doesn’t want us worn for Saturday.”

  “Hi Mike.” Tracy said shyly.

  “Hey Tracy, I see you two are at it again.”

  “Yeah neither one of us had much else to do so we figured we’d see what we could see.” Jen replied. “Sit down babe I’ll heat you a plate we ordered out.” She hopped up from the couch careful not to knock over the stack of books that sat between Tracy and her. “We ordered Chinese I hope that’s ok. I did get your favorite... Kung POW Chicken. Hi Yaw!” She made an attempt at a karate kick but nearly slipped and fell.

  Mike and Tracy laughed as Jen tried to cover up her near accident. “Actually that sounds delicious.” He kicked his shoes off at the door and sat down in the oversize recliner. He had a feeling that the two would be at it tonight so he took a shower at the stadium. “So Tracy, have you two found anything else interesting in Wes’s journal?” He hadn’t had much time to do anything else but football and sleep so the girls had been making notes and writing down journal entries for him to go over when he had the time after Saturday’s game. He would either have a couple weeks between that game and the bowl game or the season would be over and he’d have all the time in the world.

  “Um… yeah we read some things there is just so much to go through.” She looked down towards the laptop as she turned a light shade of pink which was a lot lighter than the bright red she had turned when she first started coming over to their house.

  Tracy had gotten more relaxed at their house but it was still obvious she spent more time around the books she so obviously loved than she did around people. She was backward enough around Jen when they first started hanging out but the first time Mike had come home one night sweaty and shirtless hoping for a repeat of the shower his second night back from his parents’ house she did everything to hide herself except jump behind the couch. It was obvious that she had even less experience being around males than she did females. Mike found this to be somewhat of a surprise because she was actually very pretty.

  Jen brought Mike his plate of food and then carefully sat back down on the couch next to Tracy and their stack of books. “We are going to do some research on the house itself tomorrow. What did you do with the papers the lawyer sent you when you agreed to take the house? We could use a copy of the deed it would help a lot.”

  “It’s all in our bedroom in the bottom drawer of the desk.” He said between bites of food. “I’ll get it and set it on the desk before I go to bed.”

  “Did you hear from your parents yet? Are they coming up tomorrow or early Saturday?”

  “Yeah I called them on my way home they are coming up early Saturday. They had some stuff they had to take care of before they could come up.”

  “Didn’t say what it was?”

  “No just said stuff.” Mike hurriedly finished off the food on his plate then stood up walked over to Jen and kissed her on the forehead. “I’m beat. I’m going to go to bed babe.”

  “Ok love you.” She grabbed the plate he had in his hand. “I’ll take this you go on up to bed.”

  “Thanks, Love you.” As he hit the stairs he could hear Tracy begin to talk rapidly about how exciting it’s been researching the house and how that was always one of the most exciting things about paranormal investigations for her. It made him laugh that as soon as he wasn’t around she became such a chatter box. Jen had teased him about the lowly folk getting flustered around royalty such as himself.

  When he got to his room he changed into a pair of shorts then as he said he would, he dug through all the papers and laid out the packet of papers the lawyer had sent him then crawled into bed. Once his head hit the pillow it only took a matter of minutes before he was asleep.

  The next day started much like the previous days of the week. He awoke, ate some kind of breakfast, and went off to the stadium. There he did his workout, watched films, and then had practice.

  He did have to stop for gas on the way in the morning. There he ran in to several people who immediately recognized him, as did the ones he ran in to when he ran for lunch for him and the coaches. Everywhere he went there were people wishing him luck or chanting one thing or another about the following day’s game. This was the norm for Fridays before the game but it was taken a bit further with the importance of this one. The day had an almost holiday feel to it. It was hard not to like the admiration he received before a game but it also made him much more nervous because he knew all the cheers could very easily become ridicules with a bad performance.

  The morning went by faster than normal and before he knew it he was ready for practice and like the coach had promised they spent very little time on the field and none of it in pads. Once they finished their walkthrough of tomorrow’s game plan they hit the locker room where the rest of the time they spent inside studying film of the opposing team’s season games. The film part of practice dragged a little for him since he had seen these films more than a few times over the week but soon enough he found himself in his car driving home.

  He reached for his phone that was sitting on the passenger seat and dialed Jen’s number but there was no answer. He hung up and tried again, still no answer. I bet she’s probably with Tracy again with their noses crammed in a book. He thought to himself as he dialed the number again. With a third no answer he decided to leave a message. “Hey it’s me, you know your boyfriend. I was wondering if you ate. If you didn’t, do you want to go get something. Call me back.” He hung up the phone. She never called back and when he made it home her car was gone. Where is she? He thought as he pulled into the driveway. Then it hit him. Oh yeah they were going to go look into the house and see what they could find. He thought to himself as he opened his front door expecting to walk into an empty house, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “Surprise!” Six people shouted from inside the house.

  Mike stood there just as they told him to be, surprised. As he looked around to see who all was there he saw of course Jen and then there was his parents, his younger sister Janet, and off to the side was Tracy and a guy
he had seen before but didn’t really know. “What is this?”

  Mikes parents and his sister walked up to him and engulfed him in hugs.

  “We wanted to throw you a surprise good luck party.” Mr. Lachey answered.

  “Well I’m surprised for sure.” He was finally able to squeeze himself out of the bunch.

  “That’s not all baby.” Jen said as she smiled from behind the three bodies that were now smothering him with hugs. “Your mom and I made you a special dinner.”

  “Oh nonsense dear, all I did was watch and maybe throw a few constructive suggestions out there. It was all this beautiful young lady.” Mrs. Lachey said as she smiled and began to pat Jen on the back giving her a look of approval.

  Jen smiled. “Oh and you know Tracy of course and that’s Grant. He is a member of Tracy’s club and was helping us with our research.” Grant was a bit over six foot and besides Mike stood over everyone else in the room, though he was nowhere near the physical build of Mike. He had medium length brown hair and wore a grey hoodie that he had yet to take his hands out of the pockets.

  Mike knew exactly what she was talking about. “Hey man, nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand but as you can see.” He pointed to the three people who were still trying to engulf him again.

  “I get it.” Grant said with a smirk “It’s nice to meet you too.”

  He had the similar backwardness about himself that Tracy originally had when she first started coming over. To Jen and Mike they are just Jen and Mike but to almost everyone else they are the daughter of the man that just about owns half a city and could buy the other half if he wanted and a college football superstar that according to ESPN would easily be the number one draft pick. Because of this a lot of people wanted to be friends with them and even more people were intimidated by them. Out of any power couple ever in a college they were definitely in the top ranking and the best thing to each of them was that neither one knew who the other was before they actually got to know one another.

  “I am so excited about tomorrow.” Mr. Lachey said.

  “Did you get your tickets?” Mike asked. “I had them send them to you. I didn’t want to be responsible for them getting lost.

  Mr. Lachey laughed. “Yeah we got them. They are in the glove box, fifty yard line first row behind your bench. You really out did yourself.”

  “He didn’t want to be responsible for losing them either.” His sister Janet said who was now over talking to Jen. “So mom took them and stuffed them in the glove box as soon as we got them and then pulled the car in the garage locked the doors and then locked the garage door on top of that.” She and Jen began to laugh. Janet stood a good six inches shorter than Jen. She was still a junior in high school so she had a slight chance of gaining a few more inches, but if the height of her mother was any indication she was done growing. She had short blonde hair with well-tanned skin and wore just enough makeup to cover any blemish but not enough to notice she was wearing any at all.

  “Well you can never be too careful.” Mrs. Lachey said as she waved the two laughing girls off. “Ok girls lets go get the table ready and leave the men to their football talk.” She gathered them all up. “Tracy you too. You’re here, you’re family.” They all made their way into the kitchen and began to get out dishes open wine and finish off the meal that was on the stove.

  “So you nervous?” Mr. Lachey asked Mike as they walked to sit on the couch.

  “Nah what’s to be nervous about?” Mike waved his father’s question off. “I mean only the entire campus population and anyone who has ever gone to it or who plans to or who lives in the state are counting on me to win. Not to mention any scouts that may be watching, oh and the millions that will be watching on TV. I mean what is there to be nervous about?”

  Mr. Lachey laughed and patted Mike on his shoulder. “You’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah once I get on the field it’ll all go away. It’s just leading up to it that’s the bad part.”

  “I can only imagine.” Grant said as he shook his head. “I hear that ESPN said that the game will come down to your arm too and that you guys won’t be able to run on them effectively.”

  Mike looked over at Grant as Mr. Lachey began to laugh.

  “Thanks Grant.” He said with a chuckle.

  “You a football fan Grant?” Asked Mr. Lachey

  “Not really I’ll watch the games when they are on sometimes but that’s about as far as it goes.”

  “Well it’s not for everyone.” Mr. Lachey said with a smile. “I wasn’t a huge fan until Mal started playing. I was more of a baseball man myself. So what are you into then Grant?”

  “Me?” Grant was surprised by the interest in him. “Oh, books more academic stuff. I was never a big sports fan, nor were they fan of me.”

  “What do you study?”

  “Psychology...” He was cut off.

  “Diner is done, come eat.” Jen hollered from the kitchen.

  “Later then.” Mr. Lachey stood up. “Let’s eat.”

  Everyone took their seats at the table as Jen and Tracy finished bringing out the dinner. Jen sat a large pot on the table and Tracy sat down her basket of freshly baked rolls. “I hope everyone likes it.” Jen said as she took the lid off. “Chicken and dumplings.”

  Mike smiled. “It looks so great sweetie.” The pot was sitting right near him so he had a good view of the steaming food. “One thing though.”

  “What?” Jen said with a questioning gaze.

  “Where did all this stuff come from? The pot? I mean when did we get a bread basket?” Mike began to laugh.

  “Michael.” Mrs. Lachey said with a smile.

  “You’re an ass.” Jen’s questioning gaze became more of an evil one. “Your mother, sister and I went shopping if you must know.” She took the lid out to the kitchen.

  “I’m just teasing sweetie. It really does look amazing, smells amazing too.”

  “Just eat.” She ladled a large portion in his bowl. “That way I don’t have to listen to your mouth.” She smiled at him then served everyone else and finally ladled some into her own bowl and sat down. “Let’s eat.”

  Everyone began to eat their food as the fresh rolls and wine were passed around the table.

  Mike opted for a glass of water, he always made it a rule to not drink the night before a game or eat a lot which was easily the harder of the two. He avoided anything that would make him sluggish for the game the next day. He even refused sex so he had all his energy.

  “This is so good.” Tracy said between bites of a roll.

  “I agree.” said Grant. “I can’t remember the last time I had a really good home cooked meal.”

  “Yeah it’s usually something out of the microwave for us.” Tracy said.

  “Well I’m glad you like it.” Jen was smiling at them. “Now that I have all this stuff I should probably do it more.” She looked over at Mike. “Try and play the good house wife.”

  Mike looked over at his father to see his eyes getting big. He then tried to nonchalantly shake off his questing look. Luckily Jen didn’t notice the quick exchange between them, mainly due to Tracy’s quick response to Jen.

  “I used to love to cook at home.” She said. “I was usually the one to cook dinner when I lived there.”

  “I love the idea of loving to cook.” Jen said.

  Tracy laughed. “Well if you ever need any help.”

  The rest of dinner went much the same way. There was lots of conversation about nothing and everything at the same time. The one thing they didn’t talk about was the game though, which Mike was grateful for. It was arguably the most important game of his career. It was going to show the scouts how he could handle the pressure of the big game which in the Pros was hugely important. When everyone was done eating dinner and the table was cleared Mike’s mother brought out a large cake decorated like a football field with “Good luck Mike” written across the top in yellow icing. “Made it myself.” She said as she sat it d
own on the table.

  Mike smiled. “Looks delicious.”

  “Thank you. It’s marble your favorite.”

  Jen began to slice the cake and pass it out.

  “Just a small piece for me babe.” Mike said. “I’m at that line of eating just enough and too much and I need to sleep soon.”

  “Well how about we save you a piece and you can eat it tomorrow after the game?” Jen asked as she handed a piece to Janet.

  “Do you mind?” Mike asked his mother. He didn’t really want to eat it but also knew how much thought and effort his mother put into it.

  “That’s fine. I know how you are before games. Have your rules to follow.” She smiled at him.

  “Thanks.” He stood up and kissed her on the cheek.

  Mike picked up his glass of water and made his way to the oversized recliner as everyone ate their cake. He sat there thinking about tomorrow about what kind of defensive packages he was going to face about their star players. He hated doing that, he always tried to keep his mind clear the night before which is why he was usually in bed by now but he didn’t want to turn in quite yet with all the company over. He started to think of other things. “Oh hey Grant and Tracy are you two going to the game tomorrow?” He leaned his chair way back and looked at them upside down.

  Grant shook his head no. He had a mouth full of cake and wasn’t able to answer any other way.

  “Why not?” Jen asked. She was just about to put a small bite of cake into her mouth but stopped.

  Grant had just taken another bite of cake so Tracy answered. “Well honestly we had no desire to go at the time.”

  “Oh.” Jen said after she swallowed the piece of cake she finally got in her mouth.

  “That was before I had gotten to know you two. Never paid much attention to sports” Tracy’s checks reddened slightly. “Now though, we checked and all the tickets are sold out so we can’t go.”

  “Yeah we had talked about going.” Grant now had an empty mouth and could talk. “Tracy wanted to go cheer you on.”

  Her cheeks were now a much brighter shade of red.

  “Oh well if you two want to go you can come with me.” Jen said.

  Mike saw the puzzled look on their faces. “Her dad owns a VIP box and she’s allowed to bring guests.”

  “Oh I don’t know.” Tracy said. You could tell she was a little uncomfortable with the idea, knowing the type of people that would be up there.

  “It’ll just be us three.” Jen said noticing Tracy’s change in demeanor. “Mom and dad are out of the country on business and the people that usually come only do it to kiss his ass.” She smiled. “No ass to kiss equals no kiss asses.”

  “Oh you’re going to come then.” Mrs. Lachey said. “You have to. Remember you’re here, you’re family.” She was always quick to add people to the family. If you took a count of everyone she ever said that to their family would easily be in the hundreds.

  “Ok then. We’ll come.” Tracy answered.

  “Yeah sounds fun.” Grant said as he sat his plate down.

  “Ok then it’s settled.” Jen said. “Why don’t you two run and grab your clothes for tomorrow and come back and just stay the night here. “We get early starts on game days.”

  “It’s like a holiday around here.” Mike said with a laugh.

  “This’ll be really fun.” Tracy said as she turned towards Grant. “Let’s go get our stuff before it gets too late.” She stood up and he followed suit. “We’ll be right back.” She stopped and turned around as she got to the door. “What should we wear?”

  “Anything with the school name on it.” Jen said with a smile.

  Tracy turned and she and Grant walked out the door.

  Jen and Mrs. Lachey cleared the rest of the stuff off the table and loaded it into the dishwasher. She put the leftover food in to the fridge and then along with Mrs. Lachey went to the living room to sit. She climbed into the chair with Mike.

  “Are they a couple?” Mrs. Lachey asked Jen as she sat down on the couch.

  “I don’t know for sure. Tracy hasn’t said anything but I’m sure going to find out.” She leaned against Mike. “You get that vibe too?”

  “Yeah they radiate it.” She laughed. “Think maybe they need a little matchmaking help.”

  “I got the vibe too Jen.” Janet said from the table as she was finishing her glass of wine.

  “That’s the only glass you get, just remember.” Mrs. Lachey said as she saw Janet eyeing the bottle of wine on the table.

  “I know mother.” She said with a smile.

  “I’ll get to the bottom of it tomorrow.” Jen turned to Mike. You should be getting to bed babe it’s almost ten.”

  “Yeah I was just thinking the same thing actually.”

  “Yeah you need your rest.” Mrs. Lachey said.

  Mike patted Jen’s leg signaling her to get up. “Ok night everyone and thanks for everything, was a great meal.” He kissed Jen gave his family hugs and began to walk to the stairs. “Tell Grant and Tracy I said goodnight.” He turned back to the steps and made his way up to his room.