Big Shot | ✓

44 | dethrone

Revenge Game (noun) - A game in which a player is competing against a team he holds a grudge against. He may hold this grudge against an individual player, or be looking for redemption against an entire team.

Even though Clemson's season opener game against Georgia was clean and fair and not particularly malicious, it was still a game that Reid lost, and he took that very personally. So needless to say, when Clemson absolutely walloped Georgia 42-14 in the playoff semi-finals, I wasn't surprised. Not even because I had so much faith in his abilities (which I did), but because I knew that look in his eyes when he'd taken the field. He was angry and dangerous, like a wild caged tiger desperate to escape. I could wager a guess or two as to what he was trying to escape from, and if it hadn't been for my actual contractual obligations, I wouldn't have even watched. It hurt too much.

Two of the elite "New Year's Six" bowls were selected each year to host the two semi-final games of the playoffs on a rotating basis, followed by the National Championship the next week in Houston. We'd driven out to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl against Georgia that Saturday, not even bothering to celebrate New Year's since we went back home early on New Year's Day, then immediately had to begin preparing and packing for Houston, which we then flew out to Thursday night. All the traveling and everything that came with it had begun to take a toll on me - at least, that's what my excuse had been for skipping out on pretty much everything fun and social the team and the staff did the weekend in Houston leading up to the game on Monday.

As Mara and Derek sat with me in my hotel room the night before press day, I figured it was time to fill them in on everything. After all, it was getting increasingly difficult to hide the fact that Reid and I couldn't even make eye contact - at least to the people that mattered. It wasn't that it was getting easier to talk about, because it still felt like I was swallowing little needles every time I said his name, but it helped to talk to people who would sit and listen and try to understand.

Try being the keyword, since they couldn't fully understand. Their situation was different. They were happy together, and I tried not to let it get under my skin.

"Well, I think you made the right decision," Derek said to me with a shrug. "All you've ever wanted was to work in sports media. You'll get over Reid."

Mara smacked him on the arm. "That's so insensitive!"

I couldn't help but chuckle, feeling the very act of laughing foreign against my throat. "It's okay. Derek's always been a little..."

"Crude?" Mara arched an eyebrow.

"I was gonna say capable of inflicting blunt force trauma with his words, but yeah," I chuckled again.

"No please, continue talking about me as if I'm not sitting right here." Derek flopped backwards onto the floor. "I'll just pretend to be part of the carpet."

Mara reached over and put her hand to my arm. "I think what Derek is trying to say is that your career opportunities can be once in a lifetime, but we are capable of loving more than one person in our lifetime."

"Sure." Derek drawled out. "That's exactly what I meant."

Mara and I shared another laugh, and I knew what she said was true. Not because I thought I was miraculously going to get over Reid, but because I had friends and family that I was more than capable of loving, and of being loved by. Not in the same way, but for now, it filled some of the gaps that were meant for him. I just had to hope that one day they'd all be filled.

━━━━━━

Unfortunately I couldn't skip out on press day the day before the game. Field-level at NRG Stadium had been turned into one big press room, with the 50 yard line separating Clemson from Alabama. Prominent players and coaches got their own booths, where the media firestorm could rage for hours.