The Crush

by Scott Monk

  The fame and soon-to-be fortune hadn’t gone to his head, however. (His mum threatened to cuff him one if it did.) He still went to school. Well, more precisely university, where he studied sports psychology. He still hung out with his mates during the week. (Someone had to stop Chris asking every girl in Sydney out on a date.) And he still lived with his mother, albeit in a two bedroom brick home by the beach, which he’d just bought for her.

  Achieving success hadn’t been easy, though. He’d suffered rejection after rejection before a club finally signed him up. He’d also trained long hours, believed he could take on the best and continued playing district footy at every available opportunity. He wasn’t an overnight success like a lot of commentators had tagged him.

  Waiting in the change room for the cue to run onto the field, Matt shook free the tension from his body. Half-listening to the coach yelling encouragement, the twenty-year-old suddenly felt he was fifteen again, when the Bankstown Central High Mongrels went down to the Princes Boys College Lions. How devastating that loss had been. He grinned at how insignificant it seemed now. The world hadn’t ended. Life had moved on. The pain had healed a long time ago.

  Just like his feelings for that dark-haired girl. What was her name again? Kelly. Yeah, Kelly Sinclair. Boy, she’d been hot. Strangely enough, he’d never heard from her again after that day at Central Station. She’d moved to Perth, started a new life and forgotten about him. And he’d been too crippled emotionally to ever contact her again.

  He’d bumped into her parents just before they too relocated to Western Australia. Apparently Kelly enrolled in university to study veterinary science. She’d also found a new boyfriend who loved her dearly and never hurt her. She was the happiest she’d ever been. Matt was jealous at first but he eventually accepted her fate with happiness. Why wouldn’t he? He’d helped her rebuild. The fact that she’d found joy was his only reward.

  The news on her ex, Aaron Blackwell, was all bad though. After he’d torched his old man’s car, he’d been expelled from school. His family name could not save him. In fact, the tabloid press had found out about the incident and ran several stories about it. Knuckles was forced to defend his son and his own reputation as an abusive parent.

  Aaron’s friends deserted him shortly after too. He went to a public school for a while before dropping out. That caused more friction between him and his dad, before in anger, Aaron moved out into his own place and said he didn’t want to see his family again. He got a job as a taxi driver, had his licence suspended after three weeks and shacked up with a redhead called Rebecca who was four months pregnant. Latest goss was she’d taken a restraining order against him for domestic abuse.

  Matt was so glad his mum had brought him up right. Sure, they’d had their fights over the years but he was grateful that she’d always stuck by him. She was sitting in the crowd today. He’d secured front row tickets for her and her nursing buddies. She’d changed a lot too since he was fifteen. She’d finished university, quit her council job and begun working at a hospital. It had changed her whole outlook. She didn’t need to live through Matt, she had her own life.

  He’d been crazy ever to question her love for him. By protecting him from his father, she believed she was doing the right thing. In hindsight, it hadn’t been but he understood why she did it. She only wanted the best for her son. Her love was more than two parents’ combined.

  He couldn’t say the same about the man he’d once called dad. Despite all his promises, he never changed. He’d never bought his big property by a river. He’d never gone fishing. He never shared a laugh with his son. Leith Ryan was brought before the courts again for harassing Mrs Sanderson with his baby package. He was jailed for a further eighteen months, thanks to a testimony given by Matt himself. His father served another three weeks of his sentence before he broke out of prison. He tried to find Matt and his mum but they’d long moved. Eventually, he sought help from Uncle Jack who got him involved in a smuggling racket. Problem was, the racket was part of a Federal Police sting and both he and Uncle Jack were sentenced to seven years jail. Matt hadn’t heard what had happened to his old man since, nor did he care.

  Like Aaron Blackwell, his dad had never broken out of the circle that defined his life. He’d never grown as a person or admitted his mistakes. He’d held onto his anger and nursed his pain because they were comfortable and familiar. He’d tried to suck other people into his depressing, shallow world and hurt them. However, that same world had eventually collapsed and he had been left with nothing.

  Kelly, his mum, his Mongrel teammates and even Matt himself had made different choices, ones that involved taking risks, breaking away from easy options, believing in themselves.

  Then there was the pain of love. Matt’d had a crush on a girl who’d never loved him back. How desperately he’d prayed that she would. But love wasn’t all fairytales and happy endings, he’d discovered. Sometimes it hurt. Sometimes it paid off. Sometimes it just fizzled into a silly thought, only to be forgotten within a day or two. But to experience love, he’d had to risk the hurt. Rejection or bliss, he couldn’t let himself be scared of overextending himself. The other option was to hide in a ‘safe’ world where nothing would ever touch him.

  ‘Okay! This is it!’ the coach shouted, clapping Matt’s teammates as their cue was given. They ran through the shadowy tunnel and onto the playing field. ‘Show those nags from up north how to play football!’

  Streamers, cheering, placards and pompoms filled the air as the guys made their grand final appearance. The excitement crashed over them and almost buffeted Matt as he jogged out into the afternoon sun. Fans in their jerseys, hats and war paint shouted out their favourite player’s nicknames.

  One particular fan caught his eye before he took his position on the field. She was sitting next to his mum, dressed in his team’s colours and waving at him. They’d known each other for about two weeks but she was great. He had a crush on her, and she definitely had a crush on him. Before the match and after the good luck kiss, he’d promised to win the grand final just for her.

  The ref’s whistle blew, the crowd thundered and the kick was taken. Win, lose or draw, Matt would give it his all.

  Born in Macksville, NSW, and now living in Adelaide, 25-year-old Scott Monk is the author of three novels. His first book, Boyz’R’Us was published in 1996, his second Raw in 1998 and his third The Crush in 2000.

  Scott began writing at the age of 13 as a class assignment set by his Year 8 English teacher. Little did she expect that he would produce a 220-page manuscript—then ask her to mark it! After several failures, he wrote Boyz’R’Us when he was 19. It was published by Random House when he was 21.

  Boyz’R’Us won the Royal Blind Society’s Talking Book of the Year Award for younger readers. His second novel, Raw, published when he was 23, is one of very few young adult novels listed for study for the 2001 Higher School Certificate in NSW. His latest offering, The Crush, is about a 15-year-old rugby league player who falls in love with his enemy’s girlfriend.

  Not content with being an author, Scott joined The Advertiser newspaper in 1996 as a cadet journalist. He has written several hundred stories since about murders, shootings, celebrities, the nude Olympics and a pig that went to council. In 1999, he won South Australia’s Young Journalist of the Year Award for his commitment to youth affairs. He currently works as the Education Editor at The Advertiser, where he produces a weekly four-page section.

  Scott’s loves include Indian food, photography, cricket, chocolate, movies, thunderstorms, frogs, going to the gym and bodyboarding.

 

 

 
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