He arrived on campus summer of 1997. His name was Eddie Williams. He was eighteen years old, a freshman, and he was a man: 6’4”, 240 lbs, wide shoulders, thick arms and thighs and a goatee. A year before, he had been the most highly touted defensive high school football player in the nation, and now here he was, on campus at the University of Louisiana, ready to immediately step into the starting role. Most students were gone for the summer. He and some other players spent most of their time, when not in prep classes and tutoring sessions, hanging around the small local clubs and the dorms. Not only was it known Eddie was expected to start and star in the fall, and since he looked 25, he was also the only freshman who could buy beer and alcohol without being carded, so he became quite popular amongst younger teammates.
The first weekend of the fall term Eddie went out with some of the guys on the team. It was a week before the first game, and they had the weekend off to go home, or do as they please. The group was led by Mario, the team’s starting tailback. There were five of them in all: Omar, a second string tight end, Willie, Mario’s backup, and Steve, starting defensive end, the only white guy in the group. Steve knew some people in one of the big white fraternities on campus, Sigma Gamma. He and Mario had partied there regularly the year before, and Omar had been there a few times with them. It was late when they parked in front of the house in Mario’s luxury Four-runner, but the sounds coming from the house and the houses all around made it clear the parties were just still going strong.
Eddie eyed the house. Huge white columns stood in front. A few people stood on the balcony above, smoking cigarettes, drinks in their hands, and seemed to look down at them and yet nowhere all at the same time. Mario leaned in to Eddie and whispered, “You ever fuck a white girl before, dog?”
Eddie half-smiled, shook his head ‘no.’
“Just remember this,” Mario’s eyes glinted. “You ain’t a star yet.”
“Shiiit,” Eddie laughed lightly. Then Steve howled, signaling their arrival.
Eddie was fairly quiet the whole night, which wasn’t his normal self. There wasn’t a black guy in the whole fraternity, and besides the band playing, he and the three other football players were it. It didn’t seem to bother Mario, though. Eddie watched him the whole night as he laughed with the frat guys and they gave him beer, watched as girls talked to him. And the girls were fine. He hadn’t given much thought to dating white girls before. The only white girl he messed with in high school had been this sophomore girl who gave him a blow job on the school bus after a track meet. Now here he was among girls much more mature, and much better looking; daughters of doctors and bankers and general managers of department stores. Girls whose daddies paid their credit card bills.
He mostly hung out with his teammates, but he talked to some of the guys, and when he said his name, a lot of them knew who he was. Some girls came up to talk to him too, asked him where he was from, if he played football; some of them had heard his name, too. He found himself watching this one girl too often. Her name was Diana. She was one of the little sisters of the fraternity and she was gorgeous. She was dressed in expensive clothes that revealed a tight body. She seemed to know everyone there, and when she looked at him, which only happened a few times, her eyes seemed to melt him. He tried not to look directly at her, but he found himself stealing glimpses when she was near.
After the band finished playing, everyone went into the halls and kept drinking. Eddie was feeling a little drunk. A girl came up to him. She was short, had blonde curly hair and a cute face and body, and a big smile, as if she was the ambassador from the white people. Leigh was her name. She talked to him and made him laugh. There was something sexy about her that he liked. They kept talking and he wasn’t sure, but he thought she might want to fuck. Nonetheless he kept stealing glances at Diana, at the center of some excited conversation down the hall. Gradually and slowly, people started disappearing. Couples wandered off behind closed doors. The people who remained seemed to get louder to compensate. Mario and Steve came over with three other people. Eddie went to the bathroom to try to clear his head. When he came out, he started to walk back to the hallway where the others had been, and he ran straight into Diana. She smiled warmly, sincerely. They only spoke for a moment, but upon leaving, Eddie felt she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever met.
He went back upstairs. He hadn’t been gone long, but Mario and Steve were both gone. He was feeling like going home, so he started looking for Mario. “You seen Mar?” he asked a few of the fraternity guys standing around. Nobody had.
He found Omar and the others. Leigh was gone, which was probably a good thing. He told Omar he was going home and walked downstairs to go outside. He went to look out back to the where the pool was, and looking out, saw Steve and Diana standing by the pool talking. ‘Fuck’ he muttered, and went the other way, out the front door.
Walking outside, there was Leigh. “Hey” she smiled at him. He stopped to talk. “You leaving?” she asked. He said he was. “Me, too” she said. “Did you drive?”
“No, I’m walking back” he said.
“You don’t have to do that.” she said. “I’ll give you a ride.”
“Naw, I’m just going to the athletic dorms.”
“That’s all the way across campus,” she said. “Don’t worry about it, I’m going that way.” Her body language all night long had been hard to read, but now there was something in her eyes, the way she held herself, that made Eddie think she might want to fuck.
They got in her car. Leigh started to make small talk, asking him what his hometown was like. She had a real easygoing personality Eddie found he liked. Then she asked if he had a girlfriend back home. No, he said. He had been home the weekend before and fucked his old girlfriend Sophia, but she was still in high school and he wasn’t going to say anything about that.
Leigh’s car pulled up in front of the dorms. “This is it” said Eddie. “I appreciate it.”
“Eddie,” Leigh said, “would you do me a favor?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“My roommate is gone for the weekend, would you mind checking out my house for me?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“I wouldn’t bother you, but some of my friends down the street had their house broken into last week.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
They drove to her house. Leigh still acted friendly, just a little more quiet. It was a pretty nice house in a neighborhood about half a mile from campus. Leigh turned on the lights when they went in. Everything looked pretty normal. Eddie started looking around, checking closets and bathrooms, bedrooms.
