By the Playbook

By the Playbook (30)

                The night that I found out about the scholarship was nothing out of the ordinary. Ryder and I sat in the armchair of my childhood home, Rudy and Jared asleep on the couch and Gavin playing some stupid bird game on his phone in the next chair. A fire crackled in the fireplace, even though it was admittedly much too warm outside to need one. I just knew that I wouldn't be home for Christmas, and with the blinds closed, it was easy enough to pretend it was snowing outside.

Rudy was snoring, mouth open and one arm flung off the side of the couch. Jared was scowling in his sleep, one arm snug across his boyfriend's stomach and the other tucked under his head. I was on Ryder's lap, alternating between watching the fire and reading one of my father's favourite books. Ryder was watching a football game on his phone, an old tape of him playing in his freshman year. He kept one headphone in, the other kept empty in case I needed him to hear me.

Lullabies for Little Criminals lay open on my knee, my eyes flickering over Baby's story as the fire crackled. The football team had pretended it wasn't strange to set up every fan we had in the house in the kitchen to keep the temperature at an acceptable level, even as the fire radiated heat throughout the house. I was almost uncomfortably warm while sitting with Ryder, but it didn't matter. I was content, discomfort aside.

Ryder blew out a long breath, stirring the hair by my ear. I glanced at him to see him frowning at his phone, shaking his head slightly. "Something wrong?"

His blue eyes snapped to me and he offered a slightly startled, sheepish smile. "I was terrible as a freshman."

Gavin rolled his eyes, half listening. "Good enough to play as a starter on the senior team."

"Well, there's that," Ryder said, chuckling a bit at his friend before redirecting his attention to his phone. "Do you remember the game against North where Taylor Renner broke his leg?"

Gavin thought for a moment and then nodded, sighing once. "He didn't even go back to tryouts after his surgery," he said, tapping away at his phone. "That's a damn shame, too. He was all set up to go to USC, full ride."

I raised my eyebrows, remembering the pamphlets for the University of Southern California spread out across Ryder's desk when he'd first started applying for schools. "Isn't that where you applied?"

Both boys nodded. Ryder inspected his phone, frowning at his younger self. "Why did Coach even put me on the field half the time?" he asked himself, shaking his head. "Renner was the best player in the state," he said. "Universities were falling all over themselves to get him to apply and play for their team."

I rested my head against the soft spot between his shoulder and his chest, glancing down at my book. "Sounds like some guy I know."

Ryder chuckled. Gavin rolled his eyes again. "USC has the highest amount of NFL Pro Bowl players," he explained, sucking on his teeth for a moment with an annoying slurping sound. "It's a wicked team, and the whole education part is good, too. NFL scouts watch most of their games."

Realizing that I'd gotten more information about the scholarship in one night than I had in five months, I nearly fell off of my chair. Instead, I snuggled closer to Ryder, tucking my head under his chin so he couldn't see my expression and close himself off again. "And that Renner guy got the scholarship?"

"Taylor was one of the best players I've ever seen," Ryder said. "He'd have scouts watching him at every game. They were actually in the Everclear Cup finals when he broke his leg. It was a clean hit, but he just went down the wrong way. He tore his ACL and broke his femur – nasty, nasty recovery time."