When You Were Mine (Moreno Brothers)

Chapter 6 - Part 1

What the hell was he thinking? Time Series Analysis? Really? Of course, Sal thought it'd be a good idea to take this course. His brother loved this shit. Alex had already dropped a course and failed another. There was no way he could fail this. His parents had enough to deal with right now for Alex to risk losing his scholarship and have them deal with his tuition. But if he didn't pass this course with at least a C-, he'd be off the team and his scholarship would be history.

Professor Davenport examined the computer screen in front of him with Alex's coursework and the shitty grades Alex had gotten in the last couple of assignments and quizzes. Alex had already looked into it. There was no way around this. It was too late to drop the class, so his only option was to pass the class no matter what it took. He knew he was grasping, but he had no choice but to sit down with his professor and implore the old man to give him a chance. He'd do extra credit work or write a paper—whatever it took.

The long silent moments the unsympathetic professor stared at the screen using his mouse to scroll felt like an eternity. The old man continued to scroll agonizingly slowly, looking completely unimpressed—irritated even. When Alex was finally out of there, he had to refrain from letting out a roar; he was so pissed at himself. But at least it wasn't a "Sorry, there's nothing that can be done."

He had one feeble last chance to fix this, and if he didn't have so much other shit going on, this wouldn't feel so overwhelming. Still, he was determined to do whatever it took. He'd spoken to his dad earlier that week, and his dad had broken down mid-conversation about his grandpa. Alex would not add to his father's stress.

He checked his phone as he rushed to his car. His ankle therapy was in less than ten minutes. There was no way he could miss that. The last thing he needed now was for his ankle to get any worse. Then he'd really be in deep shit.

After that, he needed to get to the restaurant then back to football practice. Even though he couldn't do a full practice with his ankle still feeling this weak, the coach expected to see him there anyway. All players, even the ones recovering from surgery as he was, were expected to be there dressed and learning the new plays even if it was just by memory.

He groaned as he drove off with thoughts of the next gruelingly busy week, because on top of it all, he now had what Davenport had added to his already overflowing workload.

Seeing a text from Valerie made him frown. Since he dropped her off at her place Monday morning before rushing to school, he hadn't seen or talked to her. It'd been three days since he even called her. But this week had been so busy, and now it was only going to get worse. He didn't even have time to read her text. He had missed calls from the restaurant and Sofie. He needed to check those first.

Without listening to his voice mail, he called Sofie instead.

"Did you get my message?" she asked as soon as she answered.

"No, I haven't had a chance," he said, pulling out onto the street from the school parking lot. "I'm driving and I didn't wanna be pushing buttons. What do you need?"

"Payroll," she said. "You're missing a few people this week. Sal showed me how to do it before, and I know you've been super busy, so I was gonna try getting it done for you, but I had a couple of questions. I tried Sal first, but he didn't answer."

"I didn't miss anyone," he explained with a frown. "I just hadn't finished, but I'm glad you checked into it, because I did forget all about it."

"I figured as much," she said.

They went over the things she needed clarification on, and then he finally got some much needed good news.

"Mom called today," she said as if it just hit her. "Grandpa's doing better. The swelling has decreased significantly, and the doctors say it looks like there isn't any permanent damage. He might be awake in a day or two."