“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have brought someone. Now I’ll have to just use your girls,” I teased him.
Hunter looked nervous, but Ridge had a different look. I wasn’t sure what it meant.
“I don’t know about that,” Hunter sputtered.
I winked at Ridge and Hunter caught it.
“Up yours, asshole!” he said as he gave me a shove.
Bo called us over and ran us through his drills. I don’t know what the other two had been doing for the last two weeks, but it wasn’t football-related. It was good that we had today’s session because they were both off just a little bit. Towards the end, Bo was getting on them pretty good. They’re both competitors, so they quickly got focused; besides, they were tired of me making them look bad.
I didn’t feel like getting back into the cramped car, so I ran back to the apartment. I decided to skip my nightly workout. I wanted to be fresh for tomorrow. I looked forward to a big day and I wanted to make a good impression. This year was all about introducing myself to the scouting services. My junior and senior years were when the heavy recruiting would begin.
I actually beat them, as they were stuck in traffic. I was in the shower when they came back. When I got out, they were planning dinner.
“David, aren’t you on a high-protein diet?” Ridge asked.
“Yeah, I vote for a good steakhouse. I hear that Houston has some great ones, but I don’t want to break the bank,” I told them.
“The girls want to go get sushi,” Hunter told me.
“Why don’t you guys go do that and I’ll take Bo out for a steak.”
“You don’t mind?” Sam, Hunter’s girlfriend, asked.
“No, not at all. It’ll give us a chance to talk,” I told them.
I was actually relieved. I didn’t want to feel like the fifth wheel. Bo had worked in Houston after he left Lincoln in the fall. He knew just the place to take me. When we got back, I got to know the girls better.
“I just left Hunter in LA. He never mentioned a pretty girlfriend,” I said, to start digging for some dirt.
Samantha was a very cute blond who was all legs. She seemed to be a little older, maybe too old.
“I wasn’t going out with her. Sam was my physical therapist. I had one last appointment the Monday after I returned home, and I got brave and asked her out,” Hunter told the story.
“He was so cute. I thought I was going to have to ask him out, he was so shy. Then he comes back from hanging out with you all week, and he’d changed,” Sam told us.
What she didn’t know was he’d finally gotten laid.
“I told her it was all because of you,” Hunter said, trying to clue me in.
“I was afraid I’d damaged you for life,” I teased him.
Hunter blushed, and everyone wanted to know what happened.
“This guy is an animal,” Hunter started. “The first night he picks up this college girl. They went out to dinner and then came to our room. He kicked me out for hours.”
I was tempted to call him on it, but I could tell he didn’t want to tell Sam he spent the night with Mia. I just shrugged.
“The naïve boy that I am, I was pissed at him the next morning. We were waiting around for something in the lobby, and he starts making calls. I’m thinking he’s calling home. Nope, this Midwest boy has serious contacts there in LA. He was calling honest-to-God models,” Hunter said, now on a roll. “Back me up on this Ridge, you saw one of them.”
“What was her name?” Ridge asked me.
“Are you talking about Sage the ballerina, or Rose the Latin goddess?” I shot back, knowing full well it was Rose because Sage and I never were able to meet.
He snapped his fingers.
“Rose! She comes strolling in at the end of practice. You know how it is. All the guys are cutting up and making a lot of noise. Coach was telling us about the activities they had planned for us. When they saw her it went dead quiet, and for a good reason. She was an F! O! X! Fox!” Ridge told the girls.
“Here I’m pissed because I liked Ava, the girl he met the first night. I thought he was cheating on her. I never stopped to think people just hooked up,” Hunter confessed.
Everyone gave him a hard time. Hunter can take it as well as dish it out, so I was expecting him to rat me out.
“I came back to the room the second night from dinner and walked in on David and Rose going at it. I about died. He didn’t even break stride, they just kept going.”
“My ass was getting cold from the draft at the door. I think he watched us for like thirty minutes,” I said. “I finally had to kick him out when that couple wanted to join us. He was causing us to draw a crowd.”
“Don’t believe him!” Hunter defended himself. “I guess I did peek a little, but it wasn’t for thirty minutes. It was more like thirty seconds.”
Ridge pointed at Hunter.
“Brother, you and I need to talk later.”
“You do and you’re toast,” Penny told Ridge.
“How did you two meet?” I asked Ridge and Penny.
“On a bet,” Ridge told us.
“Oh, don’t start that crap. You know you had the hots for me. Just because your best friend bet you to come talk to me doesn’t mean you weren’t interested,” Penny scolded him. “This dork was at a middle school dance, holding up the wall. He’d been flirting with me all year, so I knew he was interested. His friends bet him he wouldn’t ask me to dance. He finally got up the courage to ask me to dance. We’ve been going out ever since.”
I liked Penny. She had spirit, and I could tell she kept Ridge grounded. Hunter, on the other hand ... I was afraid he’d found himself another gold digger. How could you be going out with someone for only two weeks and then fly them to Houston? Okay, I’m a ‘stupid boy’ at times.
I wanted to be fresh for tomorrow, so I went to bed. I checked my messages and Tami wanted me to call her. I didn’t bother getting on video chat.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.
“I just wanted to tell you that you’ll do great tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Tami, I love you.”
“Goodnight, David, I love you, too.”
Thursday July 10
I GOT UP AND WENT FOR a short run. It was already humid, so I decided to stretch in the air conditioning of the living room. I had to move the coffee table.
My focus, on stretching after a run, was to increase my flexibility and coordination. I find it helps my overall performance. While I stretched, the girls came out and sat at the kitchen table, watching me. I had taken my shirt off when I came in and they were taking in the show. It had been a while since I had so blatantly been checked out. Hunter and Ridge came out. Hunter had his head in the refrigerator when Ridge figured out what the girls were doing.
“David, get some clothes on. There are womenfolk in the room,” he complained.
“You just be quiet. We were just discussing when you and Hunter were going to get in shape like that,” Penny said.
“Leave me out of it. I’m never going to look like that,” Hunter said.
I just finished my routine and took a shower. I’d forgotten to take my supplements last night so I brought them out to the kitchen. I made myself a protein drink and took all my pills. Ridge started looking at them all.
“What’s BCAA?”
“It helps me gain more strength to complete more reps during weightlifting, which results in new muscle mass and improved results. It also reduces soreness after a workout,” I answered.
“I’ve seen creatine before, what does it do?”
“It’s stored in your muscles, and later converted into energy when needed. During workouts, more energy can be used, and creatine will allow for it to be available. Creatine then increases muscle mass, and allows for enhanced performance.”
“What was that you drank?”
“That’s the most important one. It’s whey protein. It helps with strength, speed, and recovery time. Since whey doesn’t need to be broken down, it starts working immediately and doesn’t need time to be converted into something useful to your body. Whey protein also leads to faster muscle repair, and increases your metabolic rate.”