Page 89 of Escape Velocity
He has to deal with the idea that his son might lose a game after so many wins. Mason hopes that they get a touchdown just so the scouts can see more of Callum and recruit him and just so it doesn’t cause Mr. Brown to get even angrier.
The clock counts down, and the ball is thrown back to Callum. The players each cover someone and no one seems to be within reach. Callum looks around wildly, trying to find an open spot to throw, but it doesn’t look like there is one.
A player from the other team starts barreling toward him, someone much taller, burlier, and threatening.
Mason stands up, waiting for the sickening crash of Callum falling to the ground. What if he gets injured? Will he ever be able to play for the season? Will he ever be able to play again?
Callum lifts on his feet and almost throws the ball to someone but stops and makes a run for it, quickly maneuvering around the locomotive train heading toward him and sidesteps him, doing a spin around and starts weaving through different players.
Mason realizes he’s going to try for the touchdown himself.
His heart lurches as faith runs through his veins, praying that Callum can do it and win the game.
The crowd gets up, too. Everyone’s literally on the edge of their seats. They watch in awe as Callum runs at an unimaginable speed and weaves his way through the mess of players and finally gets to a clear spot through the rough, picks up his shoulders and makes a final sprint for the touchdown area.
Aplayer dives for him but misses and Mason breathes a sigh of relief.
Callum finally crosses the line into the end zone and makes the touchdown.
The crowd goes absolutely insane. Like they just won the championship game.
Mason jumps up and down and lifts his arm above his head in triumph. Jenna does the same. They hug in pure glee, and they jump up and down together along with the crowd.
The crowd is electric again. Just like the first game. The plague of negativity and rage that Mr. Brown had brought along with him like a menace is gone and replaced with triumph.
Callum takes off his helmet and puts his hands in the air, not even bothering to do his usual little dance, just glad that he took a huge risk and it paid off. The team goes crazy and pat his back and cheer him on, even Joel does as well, although not as enthusiastically.
Mr. Brown claps from the sidelines, but he’s not going crazy or even remotely impressed. It’s just another day for him.
Callum walks off the field as the clock runs down to zero and the Hornets are declared as the winners. He looks exhausted, yet relieved. He doesn’t even seem triumphant, that his final touchdown was done out of necessity instead of to win the game and move forward in the championship. It wasn’t to impress scouts or the school or even Mason.
It was done to avoid the wrath of his father.
Mason sits back down and scribbles furiously in his notebook, trying to write about how electric the crowd was and how Callum had them in the palm of his hand for most of the game, but especially the last minute.
There isn’t a single non-racing heart in the stadium, and everyone is watching.
That’s the power that Callum has. And no one else has it like he does.
The crowd starts filing out of the stadium, and Jenna follows behind him.
He passes by Mr. Brown and something inside him is invigorated like the crowd’s energy has electrified him like a charged ion.
He almost walks past Mr. Brown, but instead he walks toward him.
“Guess you’ll be waiting awhile for me to say your son plays like shit. Try again in the next millennium maybe,” Mason says, staring at Mr. Brown with his best smirk and stalks off, not even bothering to wonder what his reaction is.
Mason knows he just stirred the pot and stoked the flames, but he doesn’t care right now. He’ll pay for it later. He’s so high off Callum’s win that he wants to sing it to the heavens. To tell everyone how good his boyfriend is. If that’s what he could even consider Callum.
He walks back to his dorm with Jenna next to him, just as smiley as he is and he feels a moment of relief, that maybe he can make it alongside Callum. Maybe things can work out, and he can make it in this line of work until graduation.
Reporting on Callum is something he actually enjoys doing, and dammit if his parents don’t want him doing sports, he’ll do it because he wants to support Callum, and he’s going to speak his truth about him, even if it means some bumps along the way.
27
MASON
“He just can’t letit go, he’s just?—”
