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(one week later)
Football games had passed. Assignments were given, and I was sitting on the couch while Jacob watched a movie. His mentality very different now since the passing and now we were in an apartment that now belonged to him. He couldn't bare sit in the house that had photos of his mother anymore, and I knew how he felt. But when my mom passed I was pretty young, so I couldn't just leave.
His flicked through the channels on the cable tv now. I hadn't been on cable tv in a while. But he continued silently and I just watched. He did this everyday, but then he would get up and hug me. He would lay down on top of me, hug onto my waist, and fall asleep. I didn't mind, he was warm, and his hair was nice to run my fingers through chastely.
And a few seconds later, he would prop his arms up on the sides of the sofa and look at me. His nice type of eyes looking at mine, and then after he would look long enough he'd start crying. And this had started a cycle that he wasn't getting out of anytime soon.
"Do you want a drink?" He asked quietly.
"No thanks." I said as he got up and left into the small kitchen that was lit up by a light bulb hanging onto the plastic lining on the ceiling. He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.
The one thing I liked about Jacob was that he didn't put himself into a drunk manner just because he was sad. He continued to watch football highlights here and there. He already signed with Tampa Bay, so he was set. He mumbled most times when talking about it, but one thing I could hear clearly was this.
"Mom wanted me to make it into the NFL, so I'll do whatever it takes to get there." He later smiled for the first time in a while and then looked back at whatever he was watching.
"She's more important than anything I've ever loved before."
>
Looks were exchanged as Vinnie, Evan, and I were sitting all together at the main table. Hats in front of us, some helmets from our own teams, and flashing lights in front of us as a large group of people looked at us.
My dad was there too, his smile bigger than I had ever seen, and Diana stood there with him. I met her and I tasted the cookies she made, she's pretty cool so I approve as I watch my dad hold onto her side and smile at us three.
Coach Johnson was there also, a female reporter by his side majority of the time, but he didn't mind as he kept his attention on us.
We all smiled as pictures were taken, but then as paperwork was put in front of us I became anxious. Vinnie looked over at us and smiled. Christian returning one while he stood near my dad, he already knew our plan but it just sucked that he wasn't going to be signing with us. Evan stared at the paper for a long time.
"Okay! Over here! ONE! TWO! THREE!" Another photographer took a picture of us and we all held onto the pens in front of us.
We all agreed I would speak, and that I would hold up the hat for the team. Recruiters stood behind the cameras nervous too, we were the top choices for them all and this choice us three were about to make would affect their teams too.
"Alright kiddos, you ready?" Coach Johnson asked and we nodded. I cleared my throat and looked at the guys, they smiled as the cameras were now recording us. A live screening of us announcing our futures, and over a hundred people watching including our own teammates. I faced the camera and smiled.
"The three of us want to thank you for coming to this very special event that will impact our futures forever." I paused and gulped as I now became nervous, "And we also wanted to say that we are thankful for all the opportunities we have been given, from our coaches to the recruiters. But now comes the part you all have been waiting for..." I looked down at the hats, if I picked one up we were set for our college years. I felt a hand interlace with mine and I looked to my side. Vinnie was grasping onto my hand tight, but so was Evan as I smiled.
And I looked at the hats again, and I thought about how when we were little and how this was all we ever wanted. We had been calling each other nicknames for years, we had been going over to each others houses on Sunday Night Football days, and we were all best friends even though Evan came in a little later. But now it was time and everything we worked for was going to this moment where I would see the people looking at me now and the ones who had been watching me for years, become proud of the person I've become. How four best friends became what they always wanted, and how nothing was going to hold them back anymore even though we weren't all going to be doing the same thing.
Because now the NFL was the main goal since we were already good for college, so I gripped onto Vinnie's hand and then let go. I moved closer to the hats and a grin spread on my face.
I messed with the material of the hat and raised it to the crowd and cameras. "We are all signing with the University of Texas A&M in College Station." Cheers abrupted, the guys stood beside me and we all put on the maroon colored hat as the coaches from the team smiled and shook our hands. More pictures taken, and more smiles. After finishing we all took a picture with Christian, he wore our hats on top of his head and the coaches joined in. Texas A&M had accepted him, so everything was for sure.
And I turned my head to see my dad shaking hands with other coaches and recruiters. Then I turned my head to the other direction. I smiled as I waved excitedly and ran over to engulf him into a hug. He patted my back awkwardly, but it was still nice.
"Good job kid. I'm proud." I looked up at Mike and he smiled, tears forming in his eyes. "I'm really proud."
