“Yes, I helped him get all the tailgate stuff.”
“Shit.”
“Jurnee, you need a shower. Definitely need to brush your teeth. Hurry so I can drop you off on my way out of town.”
“I’m not going.” Drawing my knees to my chest, my head leaned against the headboard. Derrick got off the floor and sat next to me on the bed.
“Listen, you’ve been asleep for two days straight. I haven’t made you get up to eat, and I’ve kept your worried parents at bay. But if you decide to stay in bed, skip the game and freak out every single person you know, you are on your own.”
“You wouldn’t leave me.”
“Would. Will. You have five minutes to decide. Oh, and Floyd said to tell you Russell is already talking shit. Something about how Michigan can’t lose this year because of this quarterback-receiver team.”
“They don’t have a chance with the speed of our defense.” It hadn’t escaped the two of us that I climbed over Derrick to fish out a t-shirt and sweatshirt. He passed by me and turned on the shower in the bathroom. He returned and leaned against the doorway with his back to me as I undressed.
“I’m sorry you heard what you heard. I’m going to say this, and then I will drop it until you’re ready to talk about it.”
Standing in front of him in my robe, I nodded.
“He deserves a chance to explain. You were eavesdropping, then you disappeared. Can’t imagine how worried he must be. Not knowing if you are safe.”
My eyes narrowed. Derrick shifted from one foot to the other. My head tilted, and I stared at him.
“Hey, you’re wasting water. Get in there.” He pointed and mouthed: ‘go and hurry up.’
An hour later, we were driving through the busy streets of East Lansing. The town felt swollen when the students returned each fall, but it vibrated on game day. Derrick’s dash clock read ten forty-five. From the looks of the lawns, the partying had been going on for several hours already.
“I can’t believe I was going to give this up.” I whispered as I watched the crowds of people as we passed.
“What?” Derrick turned down the music.
“I said it would be impossible to leave all this behind.”
“Jurnee, I understand that moving to New York is scary. Your entire life is wrapped up in this town and this team. But you know what? You can still come home for a game or two. Somewhere along the way, I think you began to think this place and this team were who you are. They aren’t, so don’t use them as an anchor around your neck.”
As I turned to look at him, the Michigan State fight song began over the radio. I turned it up loud. Derrick stopped at the red light and turned the volume down.
“This is too big of an opportunity for you to run away because you got your feelings hurt. Not to mention, you don’t even really know what you heard.”
“I–”
“No.” He interrupted me. “You fled. You didn’t ask him what he meant or why he would say that. You decided to remove yourself from the situation.”
The weight of his stare was too much. Turn green. Please turn green. Finally, the light turned.
“Green.” I pointed to the light for added emphasis.
“I’ll stop for now since it’s game day, but we will finish the conversation when I get back.”
“Hey!”
“What?” Derrick looked in his rearview mirror.
“Someone’s got a tent up in my tailgate spot.”
“It’s probably Floyd. He came and got all your stuff.”
The enormous white tent wasn’t anything I had in my garage. Derrick eased forward but was several cars back from the intersection. “I’m going to cut through the parking lot. Thank you for getting me up this morning.”
“You are welcome, my friend. Give me a hug.”
“Okay.” He grabbed me from the driver’s side and squeezed me extra tight. “Remember, I’m on your side.”
“You mean, Go Green?”
He released me and exhaled in disgust. “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go White. Get out of the car before the rest of the crazy Spartans start honking.”
“See you…”
“I’ll be back tomorrow.”
The first horn started to blow as the cars in front of Derrick’s had moved forward with the light change. I leaped out of the car and waved a sorry to the folks in the car behind.
“Go Green!” They shouted out the cracked window.
“Go White.” I returned as I headed to the mysterious tent on my tailgate spot.
Stopping by the couple that usually tailgates near me, they complained about the private party that had paid them to move this morning. Paid them. Wonder where my spot got moved to. Without a phone, I wondered how I would find Floyd for my ticket. Getting closer to the tent, I noticed Russell talking to Elena. What the hell?
“Finally! Jurnee’s here.” Floyd yelled as he slid his arm around Elena’s waist. “This is awesome.”
“Yeah. It looks awesome.” I looked around the tent and froze when my mind tried to register that Otis was standing with Tom. Shaking my head, my eyes glimpsed Eric tossing a beanbag at the cornhole game and Bryan on the other end laughing his ass off with Hal.
Sweeping the tent, I frantically searched the tent. “Looking for me?”
I spun around to find him standing behind me. “No.”
“You sure? You looked like you were looking for me.” Anderson brushed my hair back from my eyes.
I ran my fingers through my hair as I stepped out of his reach. “You were behind me. You couldn’t see me looking for you.”
“Okay, but you admit you were looking for me.” We both turned at the same time to see the drum section of the MSU marching band start their march to the stadium.
He was staring at me when I returned my gaze in his direction. “I mean, your boys are here. Why would I not think you were here?”
“Jesus, can you just admit that you were looking for me?”
I crossed my arms, I whispered. “Do not do this in front of everyone.”
“Can I have the tent, please?”
“You can’t kick everyone out of a tailgate just to talk to me.”
“Jurnee, I will clear this entire fucking block if you’re not careful.”
I turned to find everyone gone, and the sides lowered to make an enclosed room. What the hell?
“You left me.”
“Why would you care if someone that is ‘just for fun’ left?”
“You shouldn’t have left without talking to me.”
“Why? Nothing more really needed to be said.” I picked up a beer out of an oversized bucket.
“So I could tell you that you misunderstood what you heard.”
“It makes sense, really. Well, it started to make sense about halfway into my drive home.”
“What made sense?” He crossed his arms across his chest.
“You wanting to stay home all the time or arriving late to wherever we planned on meeting. You didn’t want anyone to know you were seeing me.”
“Ah. Incredibly not true.”
“Really. Untrue? Did you avoid being seen with me going in or out of restaurants?”
“I avoided being featured on Page Six.”
“Same thing.” I brushed past him, and he caught my arm. The beer bottle fell out of my hand and shattered onto the cement.
Floyd came bursting into the tent, “Jurnee?”
“We’re not finished.” Anderson growled.
“Jurnee?” Floyd repeated, ignoring Anderson completely.
“Do you have a ticket for me?” Anderson and I remained locked in a stare.
“I do.”
“We are not finished talking.” Anderson was shaking with anger.
“Let’s go find your seat.” Floyd held the tent door open for me to step through. Anderson reached for my arm but dropped it when I glared up at him. As I passed, Floyd blocked Anderson from following me.
“Listen, man. We appreciate the glamo
rous tailgate, but you are not going to fuck with our girl. I told you I’d give you some space, but she’s done for now.”
“She and I are far from done.”
Floyd laughed, “you are for now.”
43
Jurnee
Settled in my seat, I quickly wiped a stray tear from my eye before it fell. Anderson had put on a tailgate for my friends. He had done all of this for me. Derrick’s words repeated as I tried to focus on the pregame activity on the field. He has a right to explain himself.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Nope.” Elena looked behind me at Floyd. “And why am I in the middle?”
Before they could answer the question, Anderson’s voice came through the loudspeaker. “Jurnee Joplin Messer. We need to talk. Where are you, Jurnee?”
I tried to push past Floyd with no luck. Elena stood her ground, “not going to happen. You need to listen to this man. Give him a chance.”
Turning back to Floyd, “I don’t–”
“I know, but I think he’s in love with you.”
“What? You don’t know–”
“I know he said something stupid to his Dad. Then he followed you to Michigan.”
I gathered my hair into a ponytail and gave it a yank. “I’m scared.”
Floyd pulled me into a hug. “You’re also a Spartan.”
“Really. Now?” I pulled away.
“You’re always a Spartan. It’s not always easy.” The roar of the crowd around brought my attention to the huge scoreboard. There was Anderson, dressed in the MSU sweatshirt he purchased, making his way down the steps of the stadium. In an instant, I was the one on the massive Spartan scoreboard. Elena moved next to Floyd, “He may not be perfect, but that man is your prince. He’s here for you.”
Floyd kissed his wife, “Thank you for being my queen.”
“Girl, get down the steps. Go!” Elena said as she and Floyd pushed against their seats to make room. “Get your king.”
Ignoring whether I was still being highlighted on the scoreboard, I made my way down the steps to the section eight opening to find wherever Anderson was. At the landing, I looked over the field. I was going to miss the kickoff, but I needed to talk to Anderson more.
“Can you give this up?” As if I had called him to me from wherever he was, Anderson was now standing behind me. “You left me.”
“You said I wasn’t important.”
“You are the only thing that’s important.” My breath caught, and his hands cradled my face. “You being in my life is the only important thing.”
“You said...” The words finished in my head, but I didn’t want to repeat them out loud.
“I said what I said to my father. He will meddle and go out of his way to remove anyone that cares about me. Baby, breathe.”
It was as if my brain had forgotten that I needed to take in oxygen, and I gasped to get my breath. “We should take this somewhere–”
“Private.” Anderson tilted his head, waiting for me to see the irony in that statement. “I love you.”
“I love you–” His lips pressed against mine, and he pulled me into him.
The crowd around us cheered. The sound exploded around the stadium. This was happening in front of the world, and I could not have cared less in that moment.
“Please come home with me. Be with me.”
A tear rolled down my cheek. “Can we watch the game then worry about getting home?”
His hands slid around my waist, and he pulled me tight against him. “Home?”
“Home.”
Hand in hand, Anderson led me to the coveted Huffington Bank Club House atop Spartan Stadium. Derrick was leaning against a half wall with a plate of food in his hand. The way he was watching me, I knew he was worried about keeping all of this a secret.
“I love you, and I’m not mad. Thank you for getting me out of bed this morning.” I squeezed Anderson’s hand before releasing it to embrace my friend. “So, this is what has to be done to get you to come to a game?”
“This is the only way to watch a game. Everything good?”
“Better than good. I shouldn’t have left. I was scared.”
“I know.”
Anderson offered his hand when we joined him on the other side of the wall. He wrapped his arm around my waist while still holding my hand. My body found a spot next to his as we walked into the main club area.
“The guys came with you. This is going to get out.”
Anderson leaned in to whisper in my ear. “That’s right. The entire world will know you are off the market. Taken by this lucky bastard.”
“I don’t know how lucky you are, but you are one cocky bastard.”
“I’m going to make you repeat those words later in bed.” His words stopped me in my tracks. “Just so you know, I know you’re aroused and thinking about me being inside you.”
“Whatever.”
“Oh. Whatever?” Anderson moved me a couple inches from his body. There was a draft where the warmth had just been. “Shall we watch the game?”
We made our way to the outside seats and sat just as the game kicked off. MSU won the toss, and before I knew it, the first half was over. Everyone retreated into the Club’s giant room for refills and snacks. Anderson and I remained seated and silent.
“I’m sorry you heard what you heard. You and I haven’t really talked about my family much.”
“It seemed like a sensitive subject. I wanted to respect your privacy.”
Anderson nodded. “I was in love once.” He had my full attention as he continued, “the night I took her to meet my parents, my dad offered her a large sum of money to remove herself from my life.”
“What?”
“My dad offered my ex a check to leave her job, her house, and me.”
“And she–”
“Oh, she took the money. She took the money so fast that she had my father call her a taxi and tell me himself.”
“Did she really take a cab from the dinner?” I smiled at the waiter and accepted a bag of popcorn.
“Honed right into the taking the cab part, did you? Yes, the woman I loved accepted a check and left me.” His big hand dig into the bag pushing popcorn onto my lap.
“You think your father was going to offer me money to get rid of me?”
“I do.” He shoved the handful of popcorn into his mouth.
“You told him I wasn’t important so he wouldn’t contact me.”
Anderson watched me pick kerns of popcorn off my lap. “I did.”
“Did you wonder if he had offered me money when I left?”
He blinked. His words came out in almost a whisper, “I didn’t.”
“Good.” I popped a kern of popcorn in my mouth and let it dissolve.
He grabbed the bag out of my hand. “Did he?”
“Did your dad offer me money? No,” Shifting in the chair, “I left because I was scared.”
“Scared that I wasn’t serious?”
“Yes and no,” I rubbed my hands up and down my thighs in frustration with myself. He took my hands into his, “I’ve been wrong about how a guy feels about me before. One thing is for certain, I’ve never felt like this about anyone else. When I heard you on the phone, so flippant in your conversation–” Anderson tried to interrupt me, but I held his hands in mine to get him to listen.
“When I heard you say that this was just for fun, that made more sense to me than you actually having feelings for me. I’m so used to getting hurt or letting guys that aren’t good for me treat me poorly that it made sense. That says so much about me.”
“It says that you thought you had found a safe place, and I let you down.”
“Well, it said a lot more than that, but that’s it in a nutshell, I guess.”
“Jurnee, I’m going to spend the rest of time making sure you have a safe place with me.”
“Maybe we should practice being each other’s safe spaces after the game.” My poor attempt at wiggling m
y eyebrows was more funny than seductive. Anderson laughed and took me onto his lap.
“I would love to play ‘explore each other’s safe spaces,’ but we have a party to attend.”
“Party?”
“Yes, Ma’am. And as soon as you give us the green light, we are out of here.”
“Wait, what? Party? What time’s the flight?”
“The party isn’t until eight, and the plane is on standby for my call.” My mouth fell open.
“That’s another thing we are going to have to work through.”
“What?”
“The money thing. I have a lot. Dating me comes with some very nice perks,” He watched my eyes fall to his lap. “Not really the perk I was talking about, but I love you for thinking so highly of him.”
This time I didn’t blush as he continued, “You need to accept that I will do things that make your life simpler. I will respect your wishes, but part of being with me is allowing me to be me. For example, I have a party to attend tonight that I would like you to accompany me to.”
He held his hand up for me to let him continue, “I have a plane waiting, I have arranged a few dresses to be waiting for you at the hotel, and I’ve arranged for someone to come and help you get ready.”
Before he could say another word, I leaned into him and kissed him gently. He wrapped his fingers in my hair and pulled my head back as he deepened our kiss.
The clearing of throats made me end the kiss to find his best friends standing with mine. I whispered, “This is where I’m supposed to let you be you, huh?”
44
Anderson
Bryan thanked Jurnee twelve times on the way to the airport. Faith texted all of us before the game started to warn us that there was questionable weather coming in and to get in the air soon. Jurnee made everyone promise to return next year for the Michigan v Michigan State tailgate.
Otis called Michigan State Michigan by accident and was wide-eyed by the time my girl read him the riot act.
He even offered to buy her tickets to the other team’s game, which she flat refused. “I have never stepped foot into, nor would I ever step foot in the Big House.”
Mister Manhattan: A Hero Club Novel Page 21