The Touchdown

by Bishop, K. M.

  Bobby stuck out his tongue at me and smiled.

  “Brat.”

  “I know, right?”

  We chuckled a moment and took a few more sips of the whiskey.

  “So, what are we going to do?” Bobby asked me.

  “About what?”

  “Those psychos who are messing with you. I’ve been going over this repeatedly in my head, and the way I see it is that the cops are probably not going to find anything concrete to go on, and these morons are going to get away with this and if anything it will make them do crazier things. They are getting emboldened.”

  I nodded. I knew that he was right. But I didn’t want to admit it. I just didn’t want to go there. But the more he spoke, the more reasonable Bobby sounded. This had to end and the only way to get it to end was to take the fight to them.

  “I agree. But what do you propose we do?” I asked.

  “I have an idea. Let’s break into Dawn’s sorority house.”

  “Ok… why?”

  “Well, we need to dig up some dirt on her, something that will tie her to some of this stuff. Or at the very least we can find some dirt on her that we can publish online and smear her just the way she is doing with you. Fight fire with fire, right?”

  I sighed. “I’m not sure…”

  “Come on, babe. It will be perfect.”

  “How will we break in?”

  “I happen to know how to pick locks.”

  I looked at him. “Where did you learn how to pick locks?”

  “Misspent youth… I was a bad kid.”

  I laughed. “Why does this not surprise me?”

  He shrugged. “Anyway, I know I can get in.”

  “Isn’t there a security code?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but luckily a friend of mine from the team has dated one of the girls from that sorority before. I’m sure he remembers the code. I just hope they haven’t changed it.”

  I sighed. “This is crazy. We are talking about committing an actual crime here, to get back at them.”

  “They did the same thing to you. We are just giving them a dose of their own medicine.”

  “I know…but… I’m afraid to do this. If we get caught… we will lose any credibility we have about anything, probably get kicked out of school, and we will both lose our chances at getting pro contracts. Is it worth it?”

  Bobby was serious as could be. “They’ve crossed the line. We can’t let this continue. I know it’s scary, it’s risky. But if they can get away with it then so can we. Come on. I’m doing this with or without you. If you don’t want to get involved, then that is fine. I will take care of it.”

  “No, I can’t let you do that for me.”

  “Well, I’m doing it for us. If you don’t want to get involved, I will understand honey.”

  I took a deep breath and looked him in the face. “I’m in.”

  * * *

  We were actually going through with this. It was two days after we agreed on this plan to break in to the Chi Omega sorority house. This was absurd. What were we doing? We were both about to commit crimes. And if we were caught, we would be in so much trouble. Besides, if Dawn was there then I wasn’t sure what we were going to be able to find. But Bobby promised me that we would be fine and it would be well worth this recognizance mission.

  I still had my doubts. And to this day, I’m not sure why I went. But I agreed to go. I had to support Bobby. I had to support him and show him that I wasn’t going to let him stick his neck out for me. It wasn’t right if I let him go by himself.

  I’d tried to talk him out of this, but he made a lot of sense in why we should take care of this. Bobby explained to me on the way there, that the sorority was actually going to be gone that night, spending some evening partying at their brother fraternity that night. All of the girls would be partying until the wee hours of the morning.

  I nodded in understanding (even though I still thought this was a bad idea) and against my better judgment I went with Bobby to break into the sorority house.

  We arrived just under midnight. It was a Sunday night, and most of the houses on campus were partying somewhere, finishing up things for the weekend.

  But this sorority house was very quiet. Bobby had researched all of this, so he must have been thinking about it for a long time. And what was that he’d said about a misspent youth? Did Bobby have a bit of a past I didn’t know about or was he messing with me? Judging by how quickly and efficiently he’d planned all of this together, I was starting to wonder. We were going to have to talk about a few things. He might have some explaining to do.

  But I had to admit to myself that a lot of this was turning me on. Bobby was so cool and calm through it all. It felt like we were committing some daring caper. It was kind of exciting. But then reality would hit me between the eyes and remind me that we were actually committing an actual crime here that could have actual consequences and actually sent us to jail for a long time. And then Dawn would be laughing this all the way to her grave as an elderly grandmother.

  “Are you ready?” Bobby asked me.

  I looked over at him. I didn’t know quite how to answer that question. I was a bundle of nerves, butterflies flipping around every which way in my stomach, my eyes were twitching up and below them, my head was pounding, and my mouth was drier than the Sahara.

  “Sure,” I said. My voice came out shakily.

  “It will be fine.”

  “OK.”

  We made our way to the back of the house and around to the door. We were both wearing black hoodies, black sweatpants, and black ski masks. I felt utterly ridiculous. We looked like bank robbers or something. How in the world did I ever let Bobby talk me into this?

  I just kept reminding myself of all the horrible things that Dawn and company had done to me. This was the only way I could really fight back. It was just like Bobby said; fight fire with fire. This was right. This was payback. I was thinking about doing something far worse to Dawn.

  But I still felt weird about it. This was so out of character for me. But then again, I felt like my hand had been forced here. Sometimes you had to adapt to your environment. I was being taken apart by these fools and they were going to get what was coming to them.

  Bobby took out his small lock picking kit and went to work. It was fascinating watching him work like this. He used some small screwdriver like tools. One had a sharp edge, one a hook edge, and another one was kind of a cross between those two. It was very interesting.

  But I was still nervous. “Don’t they have cameras out here?”

  Bobby grunted. “Yes. That’s why we wear the masks. Keep it on.”

  Suddenly, the door popped open. “Wait here.”

  Bobby ran inside and I saw him disarming the alarm by punching in the code on the keypad mounted on the wall. Moment of truth….

  The beeping stopped. The alarm disarmed.

  I sighed with relief as Bobby motioned for me to come inside.

  I walked into the house and softly closed the door behind me. Then I joined Bobby. “Ok, follow me. We are going up to Dawn’s room.”

  “OK,” I said.

  He began down the hall that led to the front room and the stairs up ahead. I had never actually been in this house before. It was far nicer than I expected it to be, so much better than the dorms. The dorms felt more like human kennels. They were awful.

  The house was dark and eerily quiet. It felt so wrong to be there. Were we really doing this? The reality of it kept checking with me, to make sure that I was really on board with it. I was committing a felony. How did someone like Dawn just do this sort of thing like it was easy?

  We slowly started up the stairs. They creaked loudly. I let Bobby go first, waiting until he was several steps ahead of me. Then I began to take the first few steps ahead.

  I almost didn’t see her until it was too late. The blur of white flew from the side. I recognized it only as a figure, but I had no idea who it was at first. I turned my head to look at
the figure. All I saw was a face full of rage.

  They hit me full blast and knocked me down. My body fell to the ground hard. Luckily, I didn’t hit my head. Somehow I had the presence of mind to fall correctly, as I’d learned in that judo class I took my freshman year for an easy grade.

  I tucked my chin in and slapped the ground with my outstretched arm as I hit. Then I quickly turned my attention to Bobby who was climbing the stairs still unaware of what was happening. The shape was running up the stairs now and it had a weapon. Something was swinging in the air.

  It was a baseball bat.

  “No!” I yelled.

  The noise hit Bobby’s ears just fast enough for him to duck down at precisely the right moment as the bat sailed over his head. The girl was still moving though. She flung her body into his legs and took him down. He fell hard with several vicious cracks as he hit the stairs, his arms and legs flailing end over end as his body tumbled back down.

  The woman turned around quickly to assess Bobby’s situation. She smiled wickedly.

  It was Dawn.

  What the…?

  She was supposed to be gone. She stayed home for some reason. This was the worst possible variable to occur to us tonight. I was so glad we wearing masks.

  “You’re dead!” Dawn yelled.

  She grabbed the bat and started walking downstairs tapping it in her hand. She was just getting warmed up. She was really going to bash his head in. I could tell that she had no idea who was in the mask, but she did not care.

  I quickly got up and ran at her. She didn’t see me; her eyes were too focused on the back of Bobby’s head. He was moving slowly, hurt, but trying to make it to his feet.

  I caught her just as she brought the bat up to bash his head in. Again I tackled her, this time knocking the bat from her grasp. I pulled back and delivered a devastating punch to her face. Once. Twice. And she was out.

  My hand was now throbbing. My wrist felt sprained. I had never punched anyone square in the face before. I was not expecting it to feel like a piece of rock.

  I got up and made my way over to Bobby. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “What the hell?”

  He put his arm around me and I helped him out of the house and to the car. I hopped in the behind the wheel and drove us out of there. We were a few blocks away before we took off the masks.

  My heart was racing. My head was pounding. I felt like I was going to drop dead of a coronary.

  “What the hell?” I asked. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

  Bobby shrugged. “It would have been fine. What the hell was she doing there? Talk about your bad luck.”

  “That’s why people get caught and go to jail for crimes; it’s bad luck. I hope that she can’t identify us.”

  Bobby shook his head. “No. She won’t. I imagine she suspects, but she can’t prove it.”

  “It might light a fire under her ass to do something even more bizarre. We don’t need this kind of heat,” I said. “This is messed up.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come, babe. You could have sat it out.”

  “And what would have happened if I hadn’t been there?”

  Bobby glanced at me and then nodded, giving up on that argument. I had saved his life. Dawn would have bashed his head in if I hadn’t been there to yell at him.”

  “It’s ok,” Bobby said. “We will regroup and find another way.”

  “We are not committing any more crime.”

  Bobby looked over at me with a worried look in his eyes. “We can’t let them win. What they’ve been able to do to you is not something we can allow to go unpunished. You want revenge on them, right?”

  I sighed. I just wanted it all to end. I was tired of worrying about it all. I didn’t want to deal with having to look over my shoulder constantly, or wonder what new vicious lies were being spread about me on the internet. I wanted my life to go back to normal.

  But I wasn’t sure that was really going to happen. I wanted it to be over. And I knew that Bobby was right. It would not end just magically. I had to fight back and I had to fight hard.

  I just didn’t know if I would be able to live with myself afterwards.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Bobby

  I woke up early the next morning feeling like I’d been clobbered by a truck. It hurt to move, to stand, and it hurt to walk. But it could have been so much worse. I could still hear Ro’s shrieks in that stairway. I just by instinct ducked down and I actually saw the baseball bat swinging past my head. I felt the air as it sliced through it whizzing past my ear. It was close. That blast might have very well killed me.

  Then the stupid bitch tackled my legs out from under me. I could have injured myself. A twisted knee or a broken ankle would have put me out for the season. I’d be lucky to end up a walk on in the NFL. It could set me back a few years, that was for sure.

  I rolled out of bed with my early alarm and did some stretches in my bedroom. I was sore and felt like crap, but I decided a jog would do me some good. I put on my sweats and went jogging on my usual route. It was just a little bit after six. The sunrise was just barely starting to come up over the horizon. It looked beautiful. I always loved jogging early in the morning. It was a great way to wake up and get ready for the day ahead.

  I wondered if Ro was still sleeping in? I doubted it. Her workout routine was pretty fierce. She was in perfect shape. But her head these days was a total wreck, which was perfectly understandable. She’d been through hell lately. I missed her so much. I just craved to be with her all the time. This being apart thing…it was taking its toll on me. I was practically counting the days until graduation when we could move on to the next step of our lives, whatever that turned out to be, and just move on together. And we would be together; that was never even a doubt between us.

  Last night had been stupid. She was right. I’d realized it on the ride back. Why was it so important for me to push her to do this when she was clearly uncomfortable? I kept saying it was to avenge her—and it absolutely was—but it was also to get some revenge for me on the people who were hurting the woman I loved. It was tearing me up inside to watch her go through this and know that I couldn’t do anything to stop it. That’s how I felt at times. I felt so flipping helpless. It was heartbreaking, and it felt kind of emasculating. As a man, I’ve always been old fashioned. Ro was the toughest, strongest, and most capable person I’d ever met, but everyone needed some help sometimes. And as her man, I felt that I needed to do anything I could to be there for her, just as I knew she would always do for me.

  And sometimes it was a huge blow to my ego when I felt that I’d failed in that. I have never liked failing at anything, especially when it feels like I’ve let someone down. And Ro is the last person in the world I could ever stand to let down or disappoint. I could not fail her. I had to be strong for her and for us.

  I had to admit it was fun watching her beat Dawn’s head in. I got a little happy every time I remembered it in my head. It was playing like on a nonstop loop. That girl was going to have a few nasty bruises. What was she thinking flying into the fray that way against people she didn’t know? She had a bat, but we could have been very bad people with very bad weapons.

  It was just a testament to her stupidity. There was no way she could continue to outsmart us or make us feel that we were powerless against her. And all of it was because she didn’t get something she felt she deserved. It was lame and petty. That woman was going to get what was coming to her.

  I got back to my room and took a quick shower. Then I downed a protein shake and went to my morning classes. I felt a bit off, as if I might be coming down with something. Getting sick was the last thing I needed right now. But I chalked it up to the bruises from the fall down those stairs. That hurt way more than I expected it to. Each step was like getting kicked in the ribs. I took a few aspirin and went on, at least trying to get something out of my classes.

  Sometimes I wondered why I even both
ered with class. I knew where my future was going to lay and it had little to do with formal education. I was going to make it in the football arena in some capacity, and when that was over or I’d gone as far as I could in that, I would put the business hat on and see what was out there for me in that respect. The education system felt flawed to me. It was all theory and principles that had little to do with the real world of practical business application.

  After a morning of classes, I texted Ro to let her know I was thinking about her and to see how her day was going. It took her a while to text back. I understood; she had some busy days. But I was curious to see how the aftermath of the sorority break in would play out. Of course Dawn suspected Ro and me, and probably would start throwing accusations around, but she couldn’t prove anything. I wish I could see how crazed she looked. And how embarrassed she had to be sporting some fresh bruises on her face. Ro had clocked her really good. I knew that had to be very satisfying.

  I ate lunch and then went home to study for a bit before heading to practice. When I finally made it to practice I was feeling better and I was actually getting a little bored, excited that I got to play some football to cap off the day. That always made me feel happy.

  Practice went fairly well and I played great. There were no issues with the concussion I’d received a few weeks ago. I was lucky and it had been very minor. I was still pissed that I’d been forced to sit out a game when I knew I could have played. Luckily, the team pulled through ok without me, but just barely getting by.

  I hadn’t told anyone about what Ro and I had done and I didn’t plan to, even though it was tearing me up to keep that secret. Of course, I would have been more apt to tell if we’d actually succeeded in our mission. We did not. It was another failure in my mind and it pissed me off to think about. I’d planned it poorly and hadn’t done my due diligence to make sure that everything was in place the way it should have been. And it had almost cost me everything. I’d made some bad choices lately; I made a promise with myself going forward to think before I acted. I was letting my emotions run me ragged.