The cheering from the street spilled over into popular malt shop called ,”The Sweet Spot.” Abraham Marley, the elderly man who bought the place and wanted to recreate his favorite ice cream parlor was thrilled to death. He had just opened that summer and people in town hadn’t discovered it at that point. Due to the recent victory in consecutive weeks, everyone from the high school was celebrating. What once was thought by many around town was a failing venture was surprisingly becoming a lucrative maneuver.
“Have you been here before?” Ariel asked her friend, Janet.
“No, have you?” Janet replied.
“No, I heard it was good, though,” Ariel smiled as she looked at the menu on the wall.
“Me too,” Janet nodded.
“Where’s Reggie? I thought he would want to hang out with you after that win! My father thinks he’s the best QB Slidell High has had in years,” Ariel smiled as she continued to read through the menu.
“He’s out celebrating with his friends, we went out last night.” Janet said as she looked away.
Ariel couldn’t help but notice a sizeable bruise under her left eye. Janet flinched when she realized that her friend saw it. Not wanting to make Janet feel any more uncomfortable than she already was, she diverted her gaze back to the wall. While they were both staring at the menu, the teen behind the counter asked them what they would like to have. Ariel gestured Janet to go first while she was still trying to make up her mind.
After both of them had what they wanted, Ariel asked Janet if she wanted to go sit outside. Janet nodded as she led the way to the front door. Crowds of ecstatic teenagers were celebrating while they all waited in a fragmented line.
“I couldn’t hear myself think in there!” Ariel complained as she shoveled a huge spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.
“It was kind of loud,” Janet agreed.
“Let’s sit over there!” Ariel pointed to a park bench that was directly under a street lamp.
“Sounds good!” Janet followed her friend.
Soon after they sat down, Ariel caught a glimpse of a bruise under Janet’s right eye. Shying away from the light from the lamp above, Janet moved further down the bench. Curiosity finally pushed Ariel to the point where she had to know what happened to her friend’s face.
“I don’t mean to pry but I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to your face?” Ariel asked.
“Well, “ Janet sighed.
“Yes?” Ariel found herself to be even more intrigued with each passing minute.
“If I tell you, you have to promise you won’t tell anyone!” Janet pleaded.
“Of course!” Ariel immediately replied.
Tears began to stream down Janet’s face, glistening in the artificial light from above. She wiped her nose while she sniffled. Ariel suddenly came to a realization that she was surprised she hadn’t figured it out before.
“Wait a minute!” Ariel exclaimed.
“What?” Janet sheepishly asked.
“Did Reggie do that to you?” Ariel demanded.
“Yes,” Janet hesitantly admitted.
“Tell me everything!” Ariel moved towards her sobbing friend.
Janet tearfully explained to the coach’s daughter how Reggie would regularly beat and rape her. She also said how Reggie always had a bag with him with extra makeup for her to put on in case he beat her too bad.
Ariel just sat there without saying a word. She reached over and hugged her friend as she continued to cry. They disengaged from each other’s embrace and finished their ice cream. They walked back in silence until they approached the entrance to the malt shop. Janet noticed her mother was waiting there and she didn’t want to make her wait.
“Janet,” Ariel asked.
“Yes?” She had a worried look as she turned to face Ariel.
“Why don’t you tell anyone about this?”
“Because who wants to be the reason why the star QB can’t play? I will never be able to live that down,” Janet smiled as she slowly turned around.
“It’s about time!” Janet’s mother, Maya shouted.
“Sorry!” Janet called out to her mother as she rushed to her car.
Ariel stood there and waved at her friend as her mother drove off into the night. The last words of her friend stuck in her mind. While she was standing there in a trance, the loud horn from a pickup truck brought her right back into reality. Her father was staring at her the minute she got into his vehicle.
“Coach! You rule!” A young boy’s voice rang out from the crowd.
Coach Stedman briefly looked over to the direction of the voice he had just heard. Not knowing exactly where to look to address this fan, he looked over at his daughter instead. “ You didn’t hear me beeping?’ Her father asked in an irritated tone.
“Yeah! How could I not?” Ariel hissed.
“Jesus!” Coach Stedman groaned under his breath as he navigated his old truck through the hordes of students starting to make their way home. A loud creaking sound filled the air as Chuck Stedman tried to navigate his truck through the crowd.
“Truck’s sounding top notch Coach!” Another student howled laughing as everyone turned to look at the Coach and his daughter. Ariel slid further down the seat as her father finally managed to leave the area.
“Hey dad!” Ariel suddenly sat up straight in her seat and looked over at her father.
“What?”
“You are never going to believe what I just heard!” Ariel gleefully exclaimed as she turned to face her father.
————————————————————————————————————-
“So if y’all win this week, how many games in a row is that?” Maya asked her brother, Royce.
“Damn, I think it will be 5! Wow! That’s right! I just realized that! Even when I was there we never won 5 games in a row! Or 5 games at all for that matter!” Royce chuckled as he reminisced of his high school years.
“ Well, looks like y’all are coming into y’all’s own! Maybe this is y’all’s year!” Maya exclaimed.
“I sure hope so. With Reggie at Quarterback I think the sky’s the limit!” Royce announced.
“Well, the team’s got you as their doctor, so that’s a bonus! Not many high school football teams in Lousiana or anywhere for that matter have a world renowned Orthopedic Surgeon as the team doctor!” Maya proudly exclaimed.
“Well, I wouldn’t say world renowned,” Royce bashfully replied.
“You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that accident! You still could have had your practices!” Maya tried to make her brother feel better but it seemed to be having the opposite effect.
“You got that right!” Royce looked away as he felt the sting of his new reality.
Maya put down the knife and the cucumber she was holding and stared at her brother. She can’t remember the last time she had seen him this upset and it was concerning to her. She was just about to return to the cucumber when Royce spoke.
“I am not sure about how things are going with Janet,” Royce suddenly revealed.
“What do you mean?” Maya put down the knife and the cucumber and leaned closer.
“Well, let’s just say she hasn’t gotten used to me just yet,” Royce nodded.” That’s what it is, I’m sure.”
“She has maybe spent about 15 minutes with you her whole life! You’ve only been here a few months! It takes time!” Maya slammed the cucumber on the counter for emphasis.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right,” Royce agreed.
“I know Janet, give her some time,” Maya said.
“Ok,” Royce felt a little better as he held out hope that the two of them will have a good relationship someday.
Suddenly, the front door flew open. Janet marched through the doorway wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. Her uncle noticed that she didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk. Maya glanced briefly at her daughter before returning to her vegetables.
Janet didn’t look at either one of them as she continued marching across the kitchen. Royce and Maya were both pretending not to look as Janet disappeared around the corner to the hallway. Royce looked over at his sister who was back to dicing up carrots like a human food processor.
Royce rose to his feet and quietly made his way out of the kitchen and began to walk down the hallway. He noticed that the door to Janet’s bedroom was slightly open. Hearing her voice, he felt compelled to at least see if he could possibly hear her conversation.
“It was Reggie!” Janet shouted.
Royce froze in his tracks as his niece suddenly emerged from behind her bedroom door. The first thing that her uncle noticed was her black eye. Janet stared at her uncle for a second before realizing that she wasn’t wearing her sunglasses. Shielding her exposed eye, she brushed past her uncle without saying a word. He turned and watched her head to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Royce blinked a couple times as he silently put the pieces together from what he had just witnessed.
He went into the kitchen to talk to his sister but for some reason she was gone. The vegetables that she had been cutting were left on the counter. The knife that she had been using was lying next to the cutting board. Royce just looked around the house for a few moments before heading to football practice.
As the week progressed, all Royce could think about was the bruise on his niece’s face and the fact that she admitted that Reggie had did it. He wasn’t aware that they were dating. He expressed his concern to Maya but for some reason she didn’t seem that concerned.
Royce tried to start a conversation with Janet on many different occasions. She replied with one word answers and many times chose not to say anything at all. He didn’t take this personally but he did notice another bruise that she was trying to hide.
The more he thought about this situation, the more he wanted to make Reggie pay. Even though the team was winning and Reggie was the reason, Royce hated the fact that he was doing this to his niece. So he made the decision to take matters into his own hands and make Reggie pay for beating Janet. What he was about to do was going to be his gift to his niece even though she probably won’t see it as such.
Every week of the season, he had been giving Reggie pain injections due to a knee injury that he suffered in the first game. He knew this was unethical, but the pressure from the coach and even Reggie’s parents was overwhelming and due to his weakened state and fragile psyche from the accident, he agreed. The results of these shots translated to wins on the field. So, Royce made the decision to make a slight change to the injections.
Reggie came into the locker room before the game to get his shot like he always did. He never asked the doctor about what he was injecting, he just thought it was painkillers. This time Royce altered the injection. Instead of a shot for pain, he injected a rare drug he happened to have in his personal stockpile. This was very rare and it was extracted from a rare breed of octopus that lives off the coast of Chile. The venom from this animal will cause tremendous muscle pain and cause one’s limbs to stiffen and eventually render them immobile. This is what he was planning to inject into Reggie.
Reggie came to the locker room and hopped on the table. He prepped his arm for the shot and proceeded accordingly. Reggie thanked him, rose to his feet, thanked Royce, and headed out to the field. Royce watched him walk out of the locker room and smile.
As he was heading back to his office, he heard some girl calling for someone to talk to her. Royce noticed that he was the only one there, so he made his way to the door. He opened it slowly to find a teenage girl standing in the doorway holding a bouqet of flowers.
“Can I help you?” Royce asked the young girl.
“Yes, I wanted to know if you or someone could leave this at Reggie’s locker?” The girl had a big smile on her face.
“Sure, may I ask who you are?” Royce pleasantly asked.
“Yes, I’m Reggie’s girlfriend, Laura,” Laura smiled.
Royce felt his heart drop to the floor. Suddenly, he immediately knew who was abusing his niece. He felt nauseous as he took the flowers and told the girl he would personally leave them at Reggie’s locker. When he was sure that she left, he ran to the bathroom and vomited. When he was done all he wanted to do was talk to his sister and get to the bottom of this.