Chapter 46

Scooter

“What I don’t understand,” Morgyn says to Jeff, “is why everyone thought I was your girlfriend.”

The three of us are in her backyard, building a bonfire. All of Morgyn’s friends are coming over soon, and some of the guys from the team might even stop by.

“They came up with that a long time ago,” Jeff says. “At first it was a joke, and then I guess people started believing it.”

“And you never corrected them?” Morgyn shakes her head. “Real mature of you.”

Jeff looks embarrassed now. “Yeah, sorry—it’s not like I said you were my girlfriend. I just kind of let people draw their own conclusions. It was easier than telling them I was going to go hang out with some weird girl and skip rocks in the dark.”

“Weird girl?” she says.

“I mean that as a compliment,” he says. “I dig weird people.”

He’s kneeling, balancing some pieces of wood together.

“Take Scooter here. He’s either weirdly quiet or weirdly loud.” He laughs. “You should have seen him today on the field. The dude was freaking out.”

“Seems like it worked,” she says. “You guys were unstoppable in the second half.”

Jeff and I look at her, surprised.

“You were at the game?” I ask.

“I go to all of your games,” she says.

For a second Jeff looks stunned. “Wait, so you actually do care about football?”

She shrugs. “It’s fun to watch sometimes.”

“Did you ever consider telling us that?” Jeff asks.

“I don’t know. Did you ever consider telling people that I’m not actually your girlfriend?”

“Okay—you’re right. I’ll make sure I straighten that out. But seriously, you’re kind of blowing my mind. This is a whole side of you I didn’t know about.”

She raises her eyebrows. “I bet I have lots of sides you don’t know about.”

Jeff laughs again. “Well, like I said, you’re both weirdos. It’s a good thing I’m so normal. It keeps us balanced. Normal, abnormal. It’s a yin and yang thing.”

Or Thunder and Lightning, I think.

A few minutes later we have a nice fire going.

“Do you think the coaches at Huntington would let me walk on?” Jeff asks.

“Sure,” I say. “Why not?”

“Don’t look so happy about it,” he says. “I’m coming after your job, man.”

We’re both smiling.

“Seems fair to me,” I say.