Scars Ch 06 08

Okay guys, I got a lot of great feed back on the last set of combined chapters. This is going to be the last insert until I can get a few more chapters written in between. I have where I want it to go, but I skipped a whole year of everyone's lives...so I kind of need to fill it in. So if you're looking to get this continued, I'd beg for your help. Now, I know there hasn't been any sex, and I spelled parkour wrong the first time...and didn't explain where Dylan learned parkour and MMA, but I still want to finish this. I might go back and write a prologue of everything that happened in detail to Dylan after his dad dies once this whole story is complete...and it is far from done. Even with the large amount of writing I have done and waiting, I'm still no where near complete. So as you know, no sex happens right now, until everyone is above the legal age of 18.

Chapter 6

At practice the next day, I started out throwing the ball with Colin. At first it seemed like I was terrible. Colin kept telling me that I wasn't that bad. I thought he was lying. I started learning how to hold the ball the right way to throw it, using the laces to my advantage; how to pull my arm back at just the right angle to give it enough strength to go different distances. I was starting to throw with incredible accuracy in an hour.

Colin called out to Coach, saying I was ready to try my luck in a scrimmage. I was a little nervous. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I had to trust the offensive line...no one had broken through it, not even me, that first time I jumped over them, which luckily I was the only one on the team capable of that.

Colin pulled me aside just before we started and handed me an arm cuff. "Colin, I don't need that," I say.

Colin laughed at that. "Yes you do, even I do. It has the six major plays that we run and their call signs for when you get ready to have the ball hiked to you. Trust me, this is the quarterbacks' equivalent of the bible. Even NFL quarterbacks use them," he tells me.

"Oh, thanks, which arm should I put it on?"

"It goes on your right arm, which just so happens to be your throwing arm too. It's okay; it's not that big of a deal, I throw with my right arm so I know."

I slip the cuff on and run out to the field. I look down at the cuff and skim over the different plays. Coach and I had been over these this morning. "INDIA FORY-NINE, BLUE, SET HIKE!" I yell. I catch the ball and look for my open receiver. The defense is playing man-to-man coverage and all my receivers are covered, but there is no one in the near area. I take off like a bullet from the QB pocket.

I sprint for all I'm worth down the field. By the time the first defender is on me, I've already covered twenty yards. They bring me down after a gain of twenty-three yards. I'm pumped up and ready to go. "Morrison! What was that?" I turn to see Coach walking towards me.

"My receivers were all covered, I saw an opening, and I took it. I picked up more yards than if I had passed it. It could have been intercepted or blocked. I guaranteed a gain and a first down."

Coach looks at me. "That was a good call there. I'd like to see how you throw the ball under pressure. Guys give me a blitz and leave one receiver open. Just pick one amongst yourselves so Morrison here doesn't know who will be open. I want him sacked before he can make that pass. Morrison, I want you to find your man, get him the ball, and not get sacked, make sense?" he asked.

I nodded. I glance at the cuff again. I see one that had three receivers, one of which had a shift before the play started. I was going to pull a quick one on their blitz. "BLUE THIRTY-FIVE, DOWN," Jerry Louis, one of the tight ends, shifted from the left side to the wide right. "SET HIKE!" The ball is launched right into my hands, and I immediately look for an open receiver. I knew I had about ten seconds of guaranteed protection, after that, well it was up to luck. Jerry was now uncovered, the guy covering him trying to get to him but the other two receivers had short post routes and got in the way. Jerry had a long straight route and I fired off the ball. Jerry looked over his shoulder, getting his arms ready, and the ball just landed right in them.

He kept running but no defenders where near him. It was a touchdown! I had made my first pass and it had been perfect. The coach came over to me and clapped me on the back telling me how great that was. Even Colin told me it was a good play, he even commented on how I used the two other receivers to run interference.

After practice, I throw my gear into the trunk of my car and turn around. I jump back. In front of me is Emily and another cheerleader I don't know very well. Her name was Stephanie; she sat at our table at lunch. I figured she liked Brady, since she kept staring at him.

"Hey Dylan, how are you?" Emily asks.

"Good. What are you two doing here?" I ask, always suspicious.

"Oh, I'm here for Stephanie. You know her right? From lunch, she's one of my friends on the cheerleading team," Emily spews. She talks too fast too much. Like she's afraid someone will stop her or is afraid of being rejected.

"Yeah, I know Stephanie. How are you today?"

She giggles. 'Oh no...not one of these. Please, there must be a legit reason behind this and not Emily trying to hook me up with her. This has to be a joke...right?' I think. "I'm great. I hear that you are an up and coming star on the football team. You look...ripped. Holy crap...how much can you lift," she had grabbed my arm and was now pressing on the muscle there. It was very disconcerting.

"Umm...I can lift two twenty," I reply awkwardly. This was getting out of my comfort zone faster than I wanted it to. "So, Emily, why did you say you were here?" I ask to take the attention away from me.

"I told you...for Stephanie. She wants to get to know you better. Thinks you are pretty cool. We were warming up for cheer practice Monday when you pulled you little jumping tackle stunt on my boyfriend. We all saw it. You have become a bit famous in the school. Some kids think we will finally beat Calenburn High this year in the region champion chip."

"What! Who?" I swear I heard her just say Calenburn. That was my old town. I do remember them being regional champs for the past five years in a row now. They won state twice also.

"Calenburn. Why? Do you know that name?" asks Stephanie.

"Umm...no, I don't. I was just surprised that people think just one person, especially me, could make the difference in beating the regional champs," I lie.

"Oh, well I think it will. Hey, you want to go see a movie tomorrow? Brady asked my sister to go and she wants to make it a double date. The only thing is I don't have someone to go with."

"Tomorrow? You...are asking ME to go to a movie with YOU?" I ask to clarify.

"Yeah. Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, no there's not. I'm just shocked that's all. I'd love to take you to a movie Stephanie," I reply quickly.

"Call me Steph. Everyone does," she says.

"What time?"

"Brady will let you know. He and my sister have the plans all worked out and I don't really know what they are. Here's my number." With that she flounces off, dragging Emily with her.

Emily was in SO much trouble for this. I wasn't sure how or when, but I was going to get her back for this. I told her to stay out of it and she ignored it.

Brady was already at home waiting for me. "So...how'd it go with Stephanie?"

"You know about that?" I ask.

"Everyone knows she has a crush on you. I just wasn't sure when either you would notice or she would get the courage to do something about it. That's when Daphne and I came up with the movie idea," he explained.

"So I have you to blame for this. I thought this was Emily's doing. You are lucky that you are not a QB. I would make sure that next practice I sack you every play," I growl.

He laughs at that. "Yeah, I guess you do. Look, I didn't know that you were going to be involved. I knew that Daphne wanted to go out, but was going to feel sorry that Stephanie couldn't. I thought, 'Well, why don't we do a double date.' I didn't know she would actually ask you out, honest, I didn't," Brady says, throwing his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, I believe you. You're off the hook. I don't see what made people start looking at me. I haven't really changed. Yeah, I'm on the football team, but...if Stephanie saw my scars she will freak and then the whole school will know. I don't want that to happen," I confess.

"Dude, you will be fine. Stephanie might be ditzy, but she's not that kind of person. Neither is her sister. Their twins you know, they tell each other everything. It was embarrassing at first, when Daphne and I...you know...first started, umm..."

"Screwing each other? I know what you mean," I put in.

"Yeah...that, well, they told each other everything, which included that. It was unnerving at first, especially when they dressed alike, talked alike, and where saying the same thing...sometimes I didn't know who was who."

I shake my head and before I walk away I ask, "What time is the movie? I'm supposed to call Stephanie and pick her up."

Brady glances up at me from the fridge, rifling through it for something to snack on. "Oh, we're going to dinner at six and then to the movie at seven thirty."

"Dinner? No one told me anything about dinner," I complain.

"Sorry?" is all he could say.

I walk away to my new room. It wasn't shabby, not nearly as dressed up as the room I stayed in at the Owens, but it had a bed, a desk, and chest-of-drawers for my clothes along with a closet. I couldn't complain it was better than sleeping in my car.

I pulled out my phone and the piece of paper with Stephanie's phone number on it. I input it into my phone and then pull up my texts. I tell her, 'Brady says dnr at 6 + movie at 7:30. I pick u up at 5:30?' and then hit send.

She texts back almost immediately, 'sure c u then.'

I crack a smile. My first date since...well, ever. I didn't associate with anyone much before here. I check my mobile banking and see how much pocket money I have allowed myself for this month. I had enough and would be fine.

Chapter 7

I woke up at eight the next morning and decided I wanted to go for a run. I hadn't just gone and run for a long time, not including what I did for football, though this would help. I just wanted to run and it was a good way to finish waking up. I knocked on Brady's door and asked him if he wanted to go.

"Ermermph."

"Hey, if you don't want to go all you got to do is say so," I say.

"I said, 'a moment'" he says.

I walk down stairs and see Mr. Thompson isn't up yet. I guess he sleeps in a little bit on the weekends since he has to get up early on weekdays. I pour a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. I scarf it down, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and run back up stairs to get some running clothes on. I put on some running shorts, a pair of running shoes my mom gave me...one of the presents I got for the last birthday I had with her. They fit, but only barely. I was going to have to get new ones soon. The only problem was they cost nearly a hundred dollars a pair for good ones. I slip on an Under Armor sweat repealing shirt that I got when I finally got serious with working out.

I came back down the stairs and Mr. Thompson was now up and Brady was eating breakfast real quick. "Where are you two boys going so early? Your double date isn't 'til this evening." He asks.

"We're going running," Brady replies after swallowing.

"Oh, well, have a good time. When you get back Dylan, would you mind looking at the hot water heater? It's not working like it should. I'd really appreciate it if you could see if you could fix it. The cost to have a professional come out is really high right now since it is getting to be that cold season. Prices go up because everyone is realizing their stuff isn't working now," Mr. Thompson explains to me.

"Yeah, sure, I'll see what I can do with it. I don't make any promises. Those things were always one of my weak spots. I have had mixed results with them. It all depends on what, exactly, is wrong with it," I tell him.

Brady and I head out and start off. "So, why did you want to go running today?" he asks me.

"I don't know. I have a lot on my mind. The fact that you and Emily set me up with your girlfriend's twin sister, my past, football, school, work, everything."

"Ah, I see. Well, if you want to talk about it, I'm here. I don't mind just listening. I won't judge you for anything."

"Do you believe in God? Like the one true God?" I ask him.

"Well, yeah...why?"

"I don't. I grew up in a Christian family and we prayed every day for my father to come home. I prayed that the next time he came home, he wouldn't leave, ever again. That never happened. My mom always said that it was his time and God called him, "home" is how she put it. I had my doubts about that. I finally renounced any ties to Christianity later on," I confide.

"Why would you do that? Something terrible must have happened."

"Yeah, something horrifying happened. What I'm about to tell you I have never told anyone. The cops had therapists for me to talk to and I didn't say anything to any of them. You are the first one who I will tell this to," I say with less conviction than I wanted. "The reason I'm here, my mom's death, it wasn't an accident. It was a planned attack. That day, like any other weekend, I would go out to a lake near my house. It was about five miles away. I took our car to work and school because I worked farther away than my mom so she let me use the car. Before school I would take her to work, after work I would pick her up.

"Well that day, I rode my bike. I didn't take the car out to the lake because sometimes my mom needed it on the weekends and I didn't need a car to go five miles. I would go there at times. It was one of my escapes from the pain of being a disappointment to my mother. That's all I was most of the time. I got into fights all the time. She never knew why, only that I was fighting. I got into going to the gym at fourteen, going to the lake, and cutting I began at twelve.

"I started going to the lake and going to the gym as more of a stress reliever than to take away the pain. I cut when I was in too much emotional pain to deal with. Well, that day, I got a call on my cell phone..." I started choking up a little bit, reliving that day. I took a breath and continued. "My mother was calling me. She said there was somebody outside the house trying to get in.

"I told her to make sure all the doors were locked and to go to the upstairs bedroom and lock herself in it. I pedaled home as fast as I could. I did everything I could to get home quickly, including cutting through people's back yards. It was the fastest time I'd ever gone five miles. I did it in about ten minutes flat.

"I wasn't fast enough though. I had called the cops too, but I made it there before they did. When I got to the house...I just knew she was dead. I didn't want to admit it, but I knew. The front door was busted down, the frame in splinters. The upstairs bedroom door was the same. I got in there and...and...and I, I fell to my knees and just cried. My mother had been tortured. I could see it. She had been beat, strangled, stabbed in various non-lethal places, then finally shot in the head. But they didn't stop there. They had to disrespect her more. They took her body and strung it up in the corner of the room...like a FUCKING DOLL!" I was crying at this point.

"The cops found me there, probably twenty minutes later. They told me they would find whoever did it. They never did. I don't think they ever will. It's become a cold case now; they informed me just before I left the orphanage in my old town. You know what's funny? I left my old town and never wanted anything to do with it ever again. We will play against them if we make it to regionals. You've lost to them every year...for the past five years."

"Your...your that boy from Calenburn. I didn't know that was you," was all Brady could say at first.

"Of course you didn't. I kept my face off the cameras. I never went anywhere without a hood. I hated those reporters. Looking for a good scoop and trying to say that it was just a random B&E. It was not random. Nothing in that house was stolen. I know because I checked. The house was sold and the profits went into a special savings account that I'm not allowed to access until I'm eighteen. I have my dad's life insurance split between my regular savings and that savings. I'll be able to out right buy a house with cash after I'm eighteen," I say. I had stopped running.

"Dude, I didn't know, I didn't honestly. I won't tell anyone either. That's some deep shit right there. I'm so sorry. I know a little what you feel like. My mother just left five years ago after the divorce with my father. She took my little brother and left. We don't know where she went and we haven't heard from her since she left. I can't say I know how it feels to find my mother dead or have people encroaching on you like those reporters did, but losing your mother I can say I do know what that's like. I honestly don't know if they are alive or dead right now," Brady confides in me.

"Thanks man. I really appreciate the help. Finally just talking about it makes me feel a little better, not much, but a little. I can continue on and that's what matters," I say.

We head back to the house, running side by side. I didn't realize how far we had gone until we started heading back. We had run nearly three miles! I was so deep in thought and telling Brady that I hadn't even noticed how far it had been. We got back to the house and it had been an hour and a half since we left. We ran six miles almost nonstop in an hour and a half. We had about a fifteen minute break in between, but still, that was only fifteen minutes.

"How far did you guys go? You were gone for quite a while," Mr. Thompson asks.

"We ran a total of six miles, three miles one way and three miles back. We only stopped for about fifteen minutes give or take. We were running for a good solid forty minutes either way at least," Brady tells him.

I went out to the garage to look at the water heater, Mr. Thompson comes out, "You don't have to do that right now, you were just running for over an hour, take a break."

"I'm going to go ahead and get it done, then take a shower, and probably go sleep for an hour. I want to be fresh for tonight. Falling asleep at the dinner table or during the movie might upset Steph," I reply.

"Alright, thank you for doing this."

As he goes back inside I look at the water heater and find the access panel. The circuits looked fine until I found a few wires. It looked weird. I realized that they had been stripped. I could tell because of the way the wires were missing the plastic coating and were fraying on the actual metal wiring.

I go get some tools and before I start working, cut the power to the water heater. I use wire cutters to snip out the frayed wires and replace them. It wasn't all that hard, just a little time consuming, but I liked doing things that required thinking and using my hands. It took me about thirty minutes, but I got it down. I turned the power back on to the water heater and checked it to make sure there were no more sparks flying every now and then.

When I thought it was fixed, I decided the only way to see if it actually was working was to test it. I go put up all the tools and go see Mr. Thompson. "I think I fixed it, I'm about to go take a shower and find out if it is working properly."

"That's fine. Thanks Dylan.

I go upstairs and take a shower. I feel refreshed and check my phone for the time. It was already twelve thirty. I decided I had time to take a short nap and set an alarm for an hour. I was out before I even hit the pillow.