Senior Year Box Set

My calling him out startled both Max and his master. Max decided he wanted to end Duke’s life and lunged toward us as we got closer. I kept firm control of Duke, who basically said, ‘bring it on.’ I made him sit while our neighbor struggled to gain control of Max.

The man ignored me and dragged his dog home. Duke was disappointed in me when I had to pick up Max’s leaving. I agreed with him. I knew where the guy lived.

◊◊◊

“That had to be the worst horror movie I’ve ever seen,” Tim announced as we warmed up.

We were preparing to play Washington, who’d worked their way into the regional finals.

“What did you see?” I asked.

“The Hill Folk,” Yuri supplied.

It was the latest scary film in theaters. Wolf and Tim had taken Phil, Roc, and Yuri to the movies last night. I’d wanted to go, but Cassidy had insisted I take her to dinner again. She wasn’t in the least interested in hanging out with the guys when she could get me to take her on a faux date to Our House.

Cassidy knew I had connections as one of the owners, and Mary usually booked the area’s hottest bands. The only way to get in last night had been with reservations, or in my case, knowing someone. I’m sure I had more fun there than I would’ve had watching a movie—especially that one, based on Tim’s comment.

Tonight, all my baby mamas, along with my current crush, Joey, were going out on the town. I offered to man the grill and feed them before they left for their night out. My parents had volunteered to take the kids to my farm, where Grandma Dawson and Yuri’s grandmother, Yelena, would naturally spoil them rotten.

“You would have loved it,” Wolf said. “It had girls hiking in the woods with rapey possessed hill folk after them.”

“I swear people in those situations are idiots. They run through the woods in the dark from some guys who never go any faster than a determined walk,” Phil said.

“Of course they trip over something. In this case, it was their dead guy friend who’d lasted a whole fifteen minutes. I mean, seriously, run straight ahead and don’t constantly look back. That way, you won’t twist your ankle so they can catch you,” Roc said.

“I do appreciate that they somehow get their shirts ripped, so you get glimpses of the goods,” Phil added.

Funny how the creators of these kinds of movies know their audience—horny teenage boys.

“I still contend they had to be witches,” Yuri said, which made everyone groan.

It sounded like no one agreed with him. I was embarrassed to admit I wanted to hear more about his reasoning.

“David will back me up on this. He was a warlock in that secret circle-jerk movie,” Yuri proclaimed.

Wolf shook his head to let me know that I wasn’t to kill Yuri just yet. He wanted to find out where this was going as well.

“Tell him your theory,” Wolf said to distract me from doing what I wanted.

“There’s this one part where one of the girls gets caught under a falling tree. Her friend lifts it off her like she’s the Hulk. I mean, you read stories about a mother lifting a car off their child and stuff, but I think that’s all bullshit. The only way they could do it is with magic,” Yuri said.

“You’re a dumbass. Everyone knows that under extreme emotions, like fear and desperation, you can gain superhuman strength. It’s the adrenaline rush,” Phil said.

“I might have to side with Yuri on this one,” I weighed in. “Think about it. If adrenaline gave you that kind of strength, don’t you think there’d be something on the market where you would shoot up and lift small buildings when the need arose?”

“That’s an excellent point,” Wolf said. “If it were true, Moose would be handing out epi-pens to us before we stepped up to bat.”

“See! It had to be magic,” Yuri concluded.

I just shook my head when they all agreed with him. Maybe, just maybe, girls had it right: teenage boys were stupid.

◊◊◊

Of all the teams we played, Washington was the one we knew the best and had the most interaction with. Freshman year, I’d gone head-to-head with Ty. He and I had stayed in contact after that game. When we’d needed to fill a bus to go to Kentucky for football camp, we asked them to join us. Our offensive coordinator had gone to Washington to be their head coach. We’d even had our alternate prom with them, and I’d helped with their fundraiser last year. Finally, Ty had transferred to Lincoln High to help us win state in football.

All of that made this game more personal. The guys from Washington would love to knock our dicks into the dirt, and we knew it. It wasn’t like playing Eastside, who I hated, but this was a rivalry game.

It also meant that Washington traveled well. Unlike our past two games, they had nearly as many fans in the stands as we did. This was their last shot at taking us down, and their fans wanted to be here so they could say they saw it in person. It would be the talk of the old guys’ coffee klatches and barbershop waiting areas for years to come.