Safety Net Read Online Free PDF Page A

calculated. But he said, “You have a point. Choice
between telling you or Hutchinson?”
    “I would’ve picked me, too,” Erick
sighed, and that was as close to badmouthing Ryan Hutchinson as Dale would ever
hear coming from Erick West.
    When they reached their floor and
split up to go to their rooms, Erick called down the hall to him, “Hey, next
week, same time? Help me get some passes in?”
    Dale turned, walking backwards. “Bro.
Next week’s away. Arizona State.”
    “Oh, shit, that’s right.”
    Dale grinned at Erick’s panicked
expression, like he was going to get kicked off the team for forgetting their
schedule for half a second. He called out, “But week after that, sure thing!”
    Like that, without foreseeing it,
Dale had made a new best friend. Whatever happened next season, he knew who he
wanted to be QB1, who he’d trust with his life -- who he was trusting
with his life.
    He didn’t tell anyone else until
after the season was over. He spent Christmas break with his parents in Dayton,
and they didn’t talk about it until the last day, when his father brought it
up. He asked Dale if he was absolutely certain, and Dale said yes. His mother
looked like she was going to cry, but she managed not to, and Dale wavered
between wanting to ask what the big fucking tragedy was and wanting to lie and
tell them he wasn’t sure and maybe he’d change. He couldn’t leave Dayton fast
enough, felt like he couldn’t breathe until the plane landed in San Jose.
    He eventually told his soccer
player roommate. He’d been around the guy for five months and thought he’d
handle it without dramatics. Having learned something from telling Erick, Dale
remembered to put in, “And I’m not telling you this because I’m attracted to
you, because really, I’m not.”
    The roommate didn’t look happy, but
didn’t look revolted, either. He said something about “praying for” Dale, which
Dale decided was better than many alternative responses. He shifted the focus
away from his eternal damnation by asking whether he should tell their
linebacker roommate, and they talked about the guy for a while before mutually
deciding, no, probably wasn’t a wise move. Then the soccer player asked, “Does
this mean you’re going to be bringing guys back to the room? Like, for sex?” and
he definitely looked revolted now.
    Which was so funny, Dale’s romantic
life being completely non-existent, Dale wished he could laugh about it. He
just said no and promised he wouldn’t bring any guys to the room for sex, and
later wondered grimly if that meant, in reality, not bringing any of his
teammates over to hang out, if his roommate was going to get the wrong idea.
    He mulled it over all night -- his
parents, soccer player roommate’s reaction, not being able to tell linebacker
roommate -- and the next day when he met up with Erick he almost dumped it all
on him, but Erick had his own shit to deal with, and Dale felt like he’d just
be whining. I have to grow up.
     
    -----
     
    “I just don’t understand it,” Mama
said crossly, looking over at Erick from behind her newspaper and pinning him
with her gaze. “They recruited you. You wouldn’t have even considered
Crocker if they hadn’t come sniffing around you in the first place. Duran’s
lost it.” Erick narrowed his eyes, glaring right back at her, and she relented,
“All right, maybe he still has some good days. But on his bad days -- and,
honey, you know better than I do how many bad days there were -- are you
telling me they couldn’t use you? That’s horseshit, pure and simple. Those
people recruited you, and you sat out the entire season, and what do they have
to show for it? Six-and-six. It makes no sense whatsoever.”
    It was Christmas morning. Erick’s
dad was sleeping in, his traditional Christmas Day luxury, and Erick’s older
sisters were outside taking a walk, which really meant they were avoiding their
mother, and although Erick couldn’t blame them,