Love At Last (An Edelmandola Fanfiction)

Chapter Four

Darrelle's PoV

We arrived in Minnesota late that afternoon. It was pretty nice, considering it was Minnesota in October. It wasn't the weather that was on my mind, though. On the plane earlier, Julian and Danny looked like they were in a pretty deep conversation. Danny didn't dare look at me and Julian just gave me a look to go away. Julian is a pretty good friend of mine, well, at least ever since I came over to Boston from the Jets. God I hated that organization. Anyways, they looked pretty deep in conversation and I'm not quite sure what it was about. They looked like they had feelings for each other. Jules had his hand on Danny's leg and eyes were completely devoted to whatever he had to say.

This could get interesting in the next few months...

The Minnesota game was a total lost cause. Not for us, of course. We knocked them into next week with a final score of 54 to 10. It was relatively easy, to say the least. Although we had nothing to worry about, I did. Danny and Jules looked distant the entire game. When they were in the game, they looked fantastic, but when they came over from the sidelines from a 3 and out, they wouldn't go near each other. I wondered if it was just a coincidence or if it was purposeful. Regardless, there is something going on and I intend to find out about it. I'm not going to let my best friends get hurt. I just hope they aren't causing it to each other.

We got back to New England early that Monday morning. Coach wanted us at practice Monday instead of having the day off because we have a short week. It was all because of our Thursday night game against Chicago. This probably isn't gonna be good for Danny and Jules. It just won't.

"Hey man," I started to make conversation with Julian. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. I'm just tired and really ready for some sleep."

"I hear ya."

"It's just that it's a really short week and I'm all stressed out."

"About the game?"

"Not really. It's kind of about something else."

"And that would be?"

"It's nothing."

"Well, it's obviously bothering you, so spill."

"You wouldn't understand."

"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Seriously, it's fine."

"Alright. Whatever man. If you want to talk to anyone about it, I'm all ears.

"Yeah. Okay man."

I didn't know everything about Julian, but I would like to think that he trusts me enough to be considered his friend. He sure was acting strange. I think that I should go and talk to Danny. He still seems a little shy around me though. I have played against him before while in New York, but that shouldn't be any reason for him not to talk to me. We are teammates now, after all. I walked across the field to go and talk to him.

"Hey man. What's all going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Jules over there is really stressed out about something. He tell you anything?" He had genuine concern on his face, which told me that he didn't know anything about it.

"I-I don't know anything about it." He wouldn't make any sort of eye contact with me.

"Danny? Is there something I did?"

"No." He looked really distant and kind of just looked like he wanted to keep to himself. He bent down to tie his shoe.

"Hey. Why don't you ever talk to me like you do Jules or Tom or even Gronk?"

"Because you're one of the greatest cornerbacks of all time and I don't want to piss you off."

"Tom is the greatest NFL football player of all time and you seem to talk to him just fine without pissing him off." I gave him a smile to be reassuring."

"Yeah, but Tom can't whip my ass like you CB's can. You guys are built for it." He still didn't look any better.

"Haha. Danny, the only reason I'd kick your ass is if you tried to kick mine first."

He smiled.

"There we go!" I smiled back at him.

"I promise I wouldn't even try that." He laughed.

"We good then?"

"Yeah."

"Oh yeah. By the way. Thanks for calling me the 'best ever CB'."

"Well, it's true."

"I wouldn't go that far." We started to walk back over to the middle field where we took a couple snaps and ran a couple plays. This went on for most of the day. By the end of it, to a stranger, it would have seemed like Danny and I had been old friends.

A couple weeks had passed by since that day. As the playoffs grew near, everyone became more and more anxious, though we practically have our division handed to us every season. Thank God I'm on the winning end of that deal this year. We were flying to Dallas this week and unfortunately, they were on a winning streak. Demarco Murray was looking more like Beast Mode than Beast Mode himself. I wasn't all too worried, though. They might have an army, but we have a Gronk.

The plane ride there was relatively noisy from all of the hype. Danny and Jules sat in the back, like usual. I was still worried for them. This has gone on now for a couple months. I sat there, wondering just what was really going on.