Big Shot | ✓

08 | the sun

At some point after my conversation with Reid in the film room, a mutual understanding between us had arrived on campus.

Over the next few weeks, we'd made decidedly non-hostile eye contact across the nutrition center as he sipped his gross green smoothie. But he hadn't given me an answer yet, and before I knew it, it was July.

Derek and I had convened in the air conditioned sanction of the nutrition center in the football complex, my large cold brew already sweating in the thick, artificial air being pumped in.

Official move-in day for fall athletes was last week, which meant it finally felt like a team belonged here instead of just us ghosts haunting an abandoned space that used to be loved. I was reminded that it was in fact still loved, the tables mostly filled as boisterous conversations mingled in the air, drowning out the sound of a baseball game that played on the massive TV screen set into the far wall. Some players came over and said hi to us and made the generic how was your summer small talk, but I still found my gaze wandering.

It wasn't like I proactively looked for him, but like me, Reid had no life outside of the football complex, and it didn't take long before he walked through the facility in stride with Coach Nix, the team's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. While the team wouldn't be allowed to formally meet with coaches until summer access started July 12th, as Reid had pointed out to me previously, those rules don't really apply to him. Nobody was going to nitpick the injured quarterback for wanting to get reacquainted with his offensive coaches.

They talked as they made their way around the facility, Reid's hands animated as they spoke.

"Are you even listening to me?"

Derek threw an ice cube at me, effectively placing me back at our table with a cold shock. A puddle of condensation had now collected under my cold brew, and I took a long, much needed sip.

"I am, I am," I insisted. "I think bringing transfusions tonight is a terrible idea. Somehow it would definitely result in someone getting arrested."

Transfusions were dangerous drinks because they didn't taste like alcohol and were packed with electrolytes, meaning you could get effectively blacked out drunk without tasting it and while being hydrated.

"I moved on from transfusions five minutes ago," Derek scoffed. "You know Jo, I'm starting to think you're just using me for my access into this building so you can catch sneaky glimpses at Donahue. You act like you're not interested in him, but you're just like the rest of us."

I scoffed. "First of all, if I did have this so-called interest in him, it's from a professional perspective. Second of all, I can get in here with or without you. Of the two of us, I believe I'm the one with an office in this building. You have a locker."

Derek kept his gaze on his straw, twirling it pinched between his fingers. "I know all of that. I was just seeing how defensive you would get."

"That's unfair, I'm always defensive."

"Point taken."

Reid flashed in my peripherals again as he completed his lap around the room by himself, passing a big sign on the wall by the door out to the lobby that said in blocky, silver letters BEST IS THE STANDARD.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the sign, I propped my elbow up on the table and balanced my chin in my hand. "You think he'd come tonight?"

Despite most fall athletes being all moved in, there was still such a small majority of Clemson's student body on campus. So instead of all of us trying to throw a bunch of little parties, it was just understood that there would be one big get together for 4th of July at the lake at the edge of campus, for anyone who was around to hang out, drink, and light sparklers. The town set off fireworks which could be seen from the banks of the lake, and a big bonfire was lit when the sun went down.