The Touchdown

by Bishop, K. M.

  I sprinted to the other side the second that no one was watching me. I located the spot and turned to grab the ball. There was no throw coming. Chance was in trouble. So far, no one had noticed that I was open and waiting for a shot, but they soon would. Right now Chance was hustling behind the line ducking and moving out of the reach of three hundred pound men trying to tackle him and grind his bones into dust.

  Suddenly, he was open. It was just for a moment, but it was enough. He threw the ball hard to me. It was a beautiful, perfect spiral flying hard and fast right at me.

  But then I realized it was too hard and it was going to sail over my head. I had to grab it. I turned and started running trying my best to stay ahead of the ball. It was almost to me. I was going to grab it if it took the last bit of strength I had in my body. I was so tired. My back was killing me. My legs wanted to give up already. I had been tackled and beaten so much in this game already, and it was only the first quarter. How was I going to take three more quarters of football?

  I didn’t have time to worry about it. The ball. That was all that mattered. It was outreaching me, sailing over my head as I had feared it would. Damn. I increased my speed somehow and moved even quicker across the field.

  And then I heard people very close to me. It was chatter and gasping. “Watch out!”

  A shrill, high pitched voice was coming towards me. Watch out? For what? Where was I? Was I about to hit something? I was so close to catching the pass. But was I even still in bounds? Oh, no!

  I turned my head just then and looked down. I was about to run over a cheerleader. NO!

  I turned on the brakes and twisted to my left to avoid hitting the poor girl. It was going to be very close. Dammit. I was going to collide with her.

  I kept twisting and doing my best to step to the side, but my long legs that held up my six feet four inch height were not cooperating. I felt that my body was about to fall forward and topple over this pretty girl beneath me as she crouched down and gasped with terror at what was about to happen.

  My ankle felt like it came close to twisting unnaturally, but then the most miraculous thing happened. Somehow I ended up spinning far enough to the side that I missed the girl and my body fell to the ground crashing hard.

  But at least I had missed the girl. Thankfully.

  “Are you ok?”

  The girl’s voice sounded sweet behind me as I struggled to get to my feet. The fall had knocked the wind out of me a little bit since I fell flat on my stomach. I’d missed the ball. The throw had far overshot me. Sometimes Chance did not realize what a cannon for a throwing arm he actually had. The guy had a crazy gift.

  I stood up and tested my somewhat wobbly legs. I had not been injured and luckily I had missed landing on this beautiful girl who was standing before me. Wow. What a beauty. She was a Purdue cheerleader and the outfit looked outstanding on her. The girl was tall, athletic, with shapely curves, and long, toned legs that dropped down from beneath the small skirt of her uniform. That was hot. Damn, she looked good. And she had the most beautiful face that I’d ever seen. She was perfect looking.

  I was becoming aware that I was now staring at her and that I had yet to say anything. It was getting awkward, but still I couldn’t move. I could not take my eyes off her. I was even in enemy territory and getting boos and bad looks from everyone else around me. But I didn’t care. This girl was amazing. I had to get to know her better.

  “Are you ok?” The girl asked again.

  I shook my head and stretched my back out a little bit. “Um… yeah. I’m fine. Are you ok?” I asked.

  “Sure,” she replied with a cute giggle. Her friend was looking at her and then back at us. She was a cheerleader, too. Beautiful, but not as immaculate looking as this girl who I’d almost flattened a moment ago. Now that would have been a travesty.

  “Nice try,” her friend said. “You can go back to your side now.”

  I ignored her and just kept staring at his girl. “Are you sure you are ok?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. She glanced at her friend and rolled her eyes a little. The two of them shared a giggle. That was a good sign I thought.

  I jogged back onto the field without saying anything else. I couldn’t get that girl out of my mind. I had to get my head back in the game, but I knew that no matter what I did I would be checking her out the rest of the afternoon. That was by far the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life. And if I didn’t know better, it seemed that she had noticed a little thing between us, some kind of connection. Was that real? Or was I imagining it? I thought it had to be real. There was no way that this was a figment of my own crazy brain.

  I did not land that hard on the ground.

  “Good try,” Chance said when I rejoined the team on the field. “My bad on the throw. Alright, guys. We have one more down to get this right before we have to punt. Let’s do it.”

  We got the first down on the next play and then worked hard to get the ball into scoring position, but we failed once again. This trend continued throughout the second quarter until we finally were able to kick a field goal and get ahead by three points going into half-time. We were all exhausted as we took a few minutes to rest before the next half started up again. Coach ofcourse tried to tell us how worthless we were and how we didn’t really want this, and we were embarrassing our school and his hard work—all of the typical things he used to motivate us to play better. We all ignored him. The guy was the pits. We were all playing our hearts out.

  “Did you see that girl?” I asked Chance after the coach finished his stupid pep talk and we were waiting for halftime to end.

  “Which one?”

  “The one I almost clobbered going out of bounds.”

  “Oh, kind of. Why?”

  “She is amazing,” I said. My every thought since then had been filled with her.

  “Ok,” Chance said. “What? Are you going to ask her out? She cheers for Purdue.”

  “So? That has nothing to do with us. Besides, I thought I felt a little something between the two of us.”

  Chance laughed. “You’re losing it. Stay with us.”

  “I’m there. But I have to find out more about that girl,” I said. “I can’t stop thinking about her.”

  I knew that even thinking about asking this girl out was apt to get me attacked physically by several members of their football team. These guys did not play; they really took this rivalry that serious. It went far beyond football. There had even been talks of some actual fistfights occurring before in the days leading up to and the days after the game.

  But I was going to find a way to risk it.

  The rest of the game was a brutal matchup, same as the first. Eventually, Purdue scored a touchdown and moved ahead of us in the score. We were behind seven to three towards the end of the third quarter. We had to do something drastic.

  “Alright,” Chance said as we huddled. “This is it. We might not have another shot. We have to do this right here and now. I need the line to be an impenetrable force for just ten seconds. And I need our receivers to outmatch their defenders to get open. I will get that ball in your hands; after that it is up to you.”

  We broke the huddle and lined up. I glanced back at Lance and he nodded to me. The ball snapped and I took off. I instantly had a guy on my tail. I pushed my legs harder than I ever had before. Every muscle in my body wanted to quit and my body wanted to drop, but I kept pushing myself. There was no giving up here.

  I outran the defender and turned around just in time to see the ball drop out of the sky into my hands. My legs carried me the next ten yards into the end zone. The crowd went nuts on the Indiana side. We had just won the game. There was less than a minute left to play. As long as we didn’t do anything majorly stupid, we would win.

  Which we did. A minute later. The game was over. Indiana had won ten to seven.

  And it was a hard fought victory every step of the way.

  In the locker room the entire team was celeb
rating with loud music and beer, some of which ended up all over the coach who didn’t seem to care. He was far too happy that we had somehow pulled this off, and of course he would take most of the credit for it in the postgame interviews. The guy was such a bastard.

  “Hey, guys. We are heading over to that pizza joint a few miles down the road. Gonna grab some grub before the bus heads back home. You guy’s down?”

  I looked up to see Wally Sanders standing there. Wally was a defensive tackle. The guy was huge and usually ate two large pizzas all by himself and washed it down with a pitcher of beer. He was a big, lovable guy who rarely had a bad word to say about anyone.

  “Sure,” I said. “I’m down.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Chance replied.

  It sounded amazing. I was always hungry as could be after a game and some pizza carb loading sounded like the perfect way to get myself reenergized. My body was beat and broken, or at least it felt like that, but there was no reason complaining, not even to myself. When you played college football, this was exactly what you signed up for.

  As we left the locker room heading towards the bus, I kept replaying the last play over and over again in my mind. It had all come down so precise. How in the world did we manage to pull that off? I wasn’t sure. And I was afraid it might never happen again. We still had most of the season left to play and there were some really strong opponents ahead of us, and they may be even tougher than Purdue. But none would hate us nearly as much. I could say that for certain.

  As I walked across the lot towards the bus I saw the girl again. She was wearing her street clothes now, looking even more beautiful than she had earlier. Her hair was long, not tied back as it had been. It flowed and rippled in the slight breeze. Wow. I couldn’t believe that this beautiful creature existed.

  I watched her as if she was moving in slow motion. Her hand wafted through her hair a few times, catching the thick flowing mane and then letting it fall back down to her shoulders before running another hand through it. She was so beautiful. I had to go talk to her. But what would I say? I had no idea.

  I was about to leave for home in a few hours. We were a couple hours’ drive away from each other. Supposing that she did agree to go out with me, how long would we both be ok with a somewhat long distance relationship? Did that qualify? I thought so. We would not see each other most days. And that could be a bit of a lonely ride coming to see her, but for this woman it would have been worth it.

  I decided I was going to do it. I had to go over and say something to her. I started to walk over, getting my nerve up as I shuffled along. Why was I so nervous with this girl? I had never had much in the way of nerves when I had spoken to women before. Ever since I was young, it all had seemed pretty easy going to me. Talking to women was no big deal.

  But right then my hands were trembling slightly and my palms were growing sweaty. I felt instantly like I needed another shower.

  I quickened my pace as I glanced back to see several of my teammates watching me with growing concern. What was I doing? They were all shaking their heads at me to knock this off. This was a bad idea. But the more they quietly protested the more fun it sounded.

  And then it was over. My chance was gone.

  I was about half way to her when a car pulled up and she hopped into the back of it with a few other friends. Then they drove off quickly, almost burning some rubber and adding a tire squeal to the mix for good measure.

  She was gone. What the hell? Had she even seen me? I didn’t think so. She seemed preoccupied with her friends, all of whom I could assume were Purdue cheerleaders. Shit. I was not having any luck with this girl. And now she was gone. I might never see her again. Oh, well. I guessed it wasn’t meant to be.

  I turned around on my heels and walked back to my friends who were all laughing and booing at me. I joined in on the fun. They were all such dorks. But inside I was hurting just a little bit. I had really had my heart set on meeting that girl, or at least learning her name. And now it was over.

  Oh, well. Those were the breaks.

  I got on the bus.

  Ten minutes later we were walking into the Pizza Emporium. It was a nice place with delicious pizza pie where we usually stopped after games here. It was a bit risky if we had any run-ins with any Purdue players, but so far it had never escalated into anything but some dirty looks and mild jokes. That was all good-natured fun.

  We found a large, corner booth and sat down. I ordered a soda and a few slices of pizza. It wasn’t exactly on my ideal diet plan (which we were all supposed to be on), but I have always had a fast metabolism. I never had to worry about gaining any weight.

  I’d just received my soda when Logan Wyatt nudged my arm. “Hey, man. Isn’t that the girl you were trying to talk to?”

  I looked at the direction he was pointing and my heart almost stopped. There she was. She was sitting in a booth with a few of her girlfriends, several I recognized as fellow cheerleaders. She was facing away from me. She probably didn’t recognize me without the helmet, and probably didn’t care if she did. I was the enemy and I was stupid for even thinking that there could be something between the two of us.

  But I had to try it anyway.

  “Yes,” I said. “That is her!”

  I was out of my seat in a heartbeat.

  “Dude, let it go. It will never work out,” Logan said.

  “You’re delusional,” Jacob added.

  Chance sat there watching with an amused but optimistic look on his face. He thought it was hilarious and he wanted to watch me fail. That was ok. I might fail. And that was fine with me. What was more important is that I tried and did not let this opportunity pass me by.

  I sighed. “I’ll be back. Wish me luck.”

  “You suck!” “Never happen.” “She’ll probably mace you.”

  I laughed at my friends. They were such jerks sometimes.

  Slowly, I made my way over to the booth where she was sitting. Once there, I stood for a moment, letting the table warm up to my presence.

  I instantly received several dirty looks. All of the girls were looking right at me, except the one I wanted to talk to.

  “Did you lose your way?” The blonde asked in a snarky tone. “Your loser table is over there.”

  I almost answered her back. Did she see the same game I was just playing? Loser? Nah…

  But I ignored her. I continued to stare at the girl in front of me. Slowly, she turned her head until she was looking right up at me. It took her a moment and then she smiled. “Did you come over here to finish knocking me down? Maybe get it right this time?”

  I smiled. “So, you do recognize me.”

  “Um… yeah… you weren’t wearing a mask,” she replied. “Maybe that was why your plan failed.”

  She was teasing me. Good. I loved it.

  “Well, I just wanted to come over here and offer you my most sincere apology. I would never intentionally want to injure a beautiful lady such as yourself… who goes by the name of…”

  I let it hang for a moment, really laying it on thick and letting the pouty voice whine out for effect.

  She rolled her eyes with a sweet smile. “Wow, that is good. Have you been planning this speech since the first quarter?”

  “Well, the rest of the game I was busy beating your team senseless,” I replied with fake arrogance.

  “Whatever,” she said. “And by the way, my name is Ro.”

  “Ro,” I said. “I like it.”

  “Good, because I’m kind of attached to it now. If you didn’t like it, that would be too bad.”

  “Are you always this tough?”

  “Only with the enemy!” Her friend said. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or very serious. She was hard to get a read on. I ignored her and kept my attention on Ro.

  “I am sometimes,” Ro added. “When I’m hungry and there is a guy bothering me.”

  She was busting my chops. I could see the fun gleam in her eye. She was not being hostile; she was
flirting and testing me to see if I would cave under her pressure. Well, then she didn’t know who she was dealing with.

  “Some guy is bothering you?” I glanced around. “Where is he? I’ll clean his clock for you, no questions asked.”

  I pretended like I was going to fight an invisible foe. Ro looked at me like I was crazy and then started laughing. Yes, I was busting through her walls. Good. This was going well.

  “I can see you are with your friends trying to drown your sorrows in some pizza goodness, so I’ll let you go do that, but I would love to get your number and call you sometime.”

  Ro looked at me with a curious glint in her face. “Why would you want to call me?”

  I shrugged. “I thought you might have a hot friend you could hook me up with.”

  Ro looked surprised and a little insulted until she could see that I was teasing. She smiled and then said, “Give me your phone.”

  “Well, you forgot to say please.”

  “Do you want the number or not?”

  “Ok, since you put it that way…”

  I handed her my phone. She typed in her name and her digits.

  “Ok, I will call you,” I said. “Or I might not. If I’m still single in a few days, but who can predict the future?”

  “I can. You ain’t hitting this!” The blonde yelled as she stuck out her tongue and yelled with her friends. But Ro was still just glancing at me. She was intrigued, I could tell. And I was definitely intrigued by her. She was so beautiful.

  When I got back to my table I showed the guys the phone number.

  “Dude, you got to test it out,” Jacob said leaning over.

  “What?”

  “Yeah, for real,” Logan added. “She is here. If she fake numbered you, then you can totally call her on it and embarrass the heck out of her.”