Page 157 of Play of Love
"Oh yeah, it's not that. I guess um..." he bit the inside of his lip, looked away and then continued. "It's been different since my accident."
I knew that he'd been in a car accident, but I didn't know the details. When it happened, despite our differences, all I was concerned with was that he was okay. When I heard he was and didn't suffer any injuries I kind of dismissed it in my mind. However, from the look on his face, there seemed to be perhaps more to what had happened.
"Is it from an injury?" Maybe he was more injured than what Lucy had told me. Lucy had a habit of not wanting to worry me, so she held back sometimes on details.
"No... I was the only one to walk away from the accident with nothing wrong with me. There was three of us in that car. The driver was one of my best friends. He died instantly. The other is paralyzed for life. They were both wide receivers on the team. It's hard for me to play when they can't. The game's different."
I froze, mind and body numb at the thought. I was speechless. I didn't realize it was a serious accident like that, or that anyone had died.
"I didn't know that happened." It was classical Lucy to avoid telling me. Telling me all the details would have let on to the severity. "I'm so sorry."
He nodded and offered a small smile. "It's okay, and thanks."
There was only a mouthful left of his ice cream, but he threw it in the side bin next to the sofa. "I guess it made me think of my parents as well. It was similar circumstances."
That didn't even cross my mind. What happened to his parents was extremely sad. They'd had a head on collision with a drunk driver. I never knew them, but had heard many good things about them from Lucy. I'd been told so many things that sometimes I felt like I knew them. I felt bad that I hadn't considered that the recent accident would have brought up painful memories for him.
"But, hey. These things happen I guess." Although he tried to brush it off, I could see the sadness in his eyes.
"I am truly sorry." I offered again.
This time when he smiled the spark returned to his eyes. "It's all fine. I guess other than all that, football is fine. I do a lot of charity work now too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Training takes up a lot of my time, so I can't commit to anything like climbing Kilimanjaro or Everest." He chuckled. "So I tap into other things like bungee jumping, skydiving, and last month I swam with sharks."
I brought my hands to my cheeks at the frightening thought of that. "What? That's crazy."
I loved looking at the sea, and I might venture into the shallow by the shore, but that was it. Sharks terrified me to no end. One of my friend's cousin's got bitten by a hammerhead shark. It took their leg off completely. I couldn't imagine swimming with the dreadful things.
"I know, but it was supposed to fund a whole water system for a village in Indonesia. The whole thing was going to cost at least a million dollars."
"I can't believe you did that." I beamed. "Weren't you scared?"
"A little."
I rested my head against the sofa again and hugged my knees to my chest, getting comfortable as I listened to him.
He really had changed a lot. That in itself was a good thing, and I supposed that it would be easier, if only for Lucy's sake to try to get on.
