My first week is finally done and over with here at Keene State. It sure has been a completely different experience than it was during my freshman year at the University of Rhode Island. I would not say that it was more difficult, just different.
Walking across the campus to get to the parking lot by the Keene Community Ice Arena is an adventure in itself. Classes are spread out all over the place. The quad is about as far from my first and last class that I have to run from one to the next just to make it in time before the professor starts his lecture.
I really don't know how it turned out this way but Tag and I have most of our classes together. Just lucky I guess. It works out great when one of us is running late, the other is too. Just divide the ire of the Professor and neither of us gets the full wrath. It's cool to have a wing man who already is in an established relationship. It keeps the questions to a minimum about my personal life cause I can always deflect the conversation from me towards them. Works like a charm.
"So, hows about we grab a Pizza after practice tonight Rob?"
"Can't, have way too much to do with Professor Xe's ridiculous Trig homework. Is it me or do you feel like they are piling this crap up on us just to see who lives through the first semester without breaking down and screaming through the hallways naked, screaming at the top of your lungs?"
"Give it a break Rob, you're just being a drama queen. Suck it up big boy or I am going to have Melanie kick your butt into shape. Don't be a pussy."
I tackle Tag so quickly that I hear the wind being knocked out of him. His bulk hits the grass that lines the sidewalk with a deafening THUD.
"Bitch, get off me!"
"Who you calling Bitch, you Bitch? Mel's got you so whipped that your balls are bluer than my eyes."
"Your eyes are blue?"
Rolling off Tag's back, laughing myself into a fit, curled up in the fetal position, gasping with spasm until I catch my breath.
"Hack, phew."
"OK, that was about as gross as it gets. Next time you decide to spit grass out, not on my shirt will you Tag?"
"Yeah, well next time you decide you've go the urge to hump me in public, give me a little warning so I can put a cup on backward, DEAL?"
"Deal, c'mon gotta get in gear, like I said, I'm drowning in Trig and it's not going to get any easier laying here and smelling the lawn."
"You started this, not me. I was fine, walking along, minding my own business when out of no where, some damned pussy jumps me from behind and decides that I am going to be his scratching post. Next time, scratch your own itch in private, got it Kemosabe?"
My mouth spreads into the widest grin, Tag takes my extended hand, pulls me up to my feet. Man, he is built like an anchor, I sure am glad he is on my team cause if he had tackled me the way I did him, I think I would have ruptured my spleen.
The late afternoon sun beats down on my pick-up that I inconveniently park as far from anyone else as possible.
"Heads UP!"
Tossing my keys up into the air, Tag instinctively snatches them just before my bad throw has them soaring over his head. He lands a little awkward, his right ankle rolls over, he collapses into a heap on the hot asphalt. His ankle clutched in both hands, lying on his side, grimacing in pain.
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Son of a, FUCK!"
My feet planted for what seems an eternity, then a full sprint to my best friend, writhing on the ground, cursing like a drunk sailor in a whore house.
"I'm sorry, please, please, Tag, I'm sorry. I just thought you'd like to drive tonight. I didn't mean to throw the keys so high above your head. Dude, tell me you're OK. Please, don't be fucked up man, please!"
Tears are streaming down Tag's handsome face. His eyes closed as tight as a clam-shell, his lips pulled back baring his teeth in a snarling grimace. Shit, I really fucked up big time!
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! Help me get up and to the truck will you?"
The keys still tightly gripped in his hand, I lift Tag's arm up and over my head. He pulls tightly toward me, slowly, we begin to rise together from the hot pavement. The underside of his forearm scraped, bleeding in small spots where bits of sand and glass where ground into his flesh as it scraped the parking lot under his falling weight.
We limped slowly toward the truck, the beep, beep of the Viper Alarm system unlocks the doors. I open the passenger door, pivot Tag around until his backside was resting on the side of the seat. He braces himself with both hands against the frame of the truck's door jam, pushes himself up assisted by me as much I could considering his mass weighs more than I could lift on a good day in the gym. He slides himself back onto the seat, I lift his injured leg as gently as I can, allowing him to initiate the pace that he can tolerate.
Damn, why did I do that? What the hell are we going to do now? The hospital, I have to get him to the hospital.
"I'm taking you to the E.R., you just put your head back and take it as easy as you can. I'm sorry Tag, honest to god, I'm sorry."
"NO! Can't, we can't go to the hospital, just take me home, I'll be OK, just a tweak, trust me, I'm fine."
"What the heck are you talking about, tweak my ass, you're going to the hospital, not taking any chances, for all you know it could be broken."
"NOPE, can't, trust me, I can't go to the hospital, just can't."
"Why the hell not? If there is something really wrong, they will be able to fix it and you'll be back up and running after me to kick my butt in no time."
"I don't have insurance Rob, my parents don't have the money to pay me to go to the hospital, have you any idea of how much X-ray's alone are? Not to mention everything else they might bill for? Sorry, I just can't lay that on them. I'll be fine, it's not the first time I have rolled an ankle. That's all it is, I just need to get some ice on it."
ICE! Shit, why didn't I think of that?
"Be right back."
Closing the passenger door, making sure to do it as carefully as I can. I did not take any chance that I might jostle Tag, causing him even more pain than I already have. Turning on my heals, running across the parking lot toward the back of the Ice Rink. Piles of melting ice from the Zamboni wait for me to grab a couple of hands full. I dump my books out of my ruck sack, fill it with the shaved ice. Grab my books back up, tuck them under my arm and head back to the truck.
Seeing Tag's face, his closed eyes, his mouth slightly opened as he breaths in and out in an attempt to deal with his pain sends my stomach to my feet.
The passenger door opens, ever so gently I place my dripping shaved ice filled ruck sack onto his already very swollen ankle.
"Ahhhh."
Tag opens his eyes, looks at me with the twinkling reflection of sunlight on his tears as they resist spilling over the bottom eyelids.
"Thanks, that's so much better. Really, I'm fine. Come on, let's get going."
Hoping into the driver seat, a big paw reaches from the passenger side of the cab. My best friends upturned open palm, keys presented to me. The spoiled moment of my innocent gesture gone really badly.
The engine is brought to life, the pick-up very slowly covers the distance from it's parking space, rolls onto the roadway.
Small moaning sounds from the passenger side, I take my eyes off the road for a moment, look down toward the swollen ankle covered with my soaking wet ruck sack. I quickly look back to the road, look back at the handsome face of my friend, pain showing through his tough exterior. No matter how hard he tries to hide it, he really is hurt, badly.
I just drive in silence, don't even think to put on the radio to help distract us. It comes to me like a bolt of lightning.
"Listen, Tag, wake up. You OK? Look, this is what we're gonna do; I have health insurance, you don't. Yeah, I know this sound crazy but there really is no other way around this, you are going to have your leg checked out by a Dr. You, me, we don't look that different and I have never been to the hospital up here. There is no way that some lady who takes information and ID numbers is going to know you are not me. RIGHT?"
Breathing in deeply, I am sure that I have just come up with a brilliant solution to the insurance problem. But, is Tag going to go along with this? He's proud, just as proud as my Dad is. Would my Dad allow someone else to help out if he was in the same situation? HELL YEAH! He just did recently when Lee moved in with us to help offset living costs, gave him a huge raise and a new job title as site manager for his construction firm. Co-signed so that Dad could get his new truck. He not only would do exactly the same as I am, I bet he would even encourage me to do it.
"Rob, I don't know if that's such a good idea. Yeah, we might kinda have the same colored hair and eyes but you're kinda scrawny compared to, well, you know, my mythological god like good looks and build."