It had almost been two weeks and I still wasn’t talking to Parker. Max kept trying to press the issues so I wasn’t speaking much to him either. I wasn’t really talking to anyone lately. I had stopped having lunch with everyone after I got the note on Monday.
I figured the notes would stop coming after Monday when I didn’t respond to any of Parker’s attempts to talk to me about it. I was mistaken. They kept coming, expect instead of just once a day I was up to two or three. I hadn’t read any of them. It was now Friday and the big football banquet was tomorrow. Our parents are supposed to be flying down Saturday morning and meeting us there. No one knows where any of the boys are for sure going yet.
Banquet was always a big deal. It let the team know where everyone was going firsthand instead of having to find out in articles the next week when the boys were officially signed. The banquets were always kept private because if anyone said they were thinking about signing somewhere and then didn’t it would be a huge media deal.
I always loved the banquet. It was always entertaining watching the senior boys get emotional over high school, plus it was always fun to see how everyone else acted when decisions were made. This year was going to be real emotional for our family though. This time I actually have a relationship with the seniors that are leaving. Not to mention for the first time in a couple years the team is announcing a new captain. It’s all so surreal.
The lunch bell had rang but instead of walking to the cafeteria I walked to my next class which was photography. Ms. Doll let her students eat lunch in her class if they were working on something. I had been hiding out here for the last week. I was working on editing a picture for a class assignment. It was almost done but I still had some touching up to do. I opened photoshop and lost myself inside the world of photography. I continued working for some time before realizing someone was watching over my shoulder. I spun around in my chair to see who was there. I was surprised when I saw Miranda standing there.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked. Miranda hadn’t really taken notice to me being absent from the lunch table. At least I hadn’t thought she did.
“Can we talk?” she asked a little too quickly.
I nodded. Saving and exiting out of adobe photoshop. No one else was in class so I gestured for her to sit down beside me. She did. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this conversation. I was hoping nothing bad. I nodded for her to continue.
“It’s about Parker.”
Uh-oh. The first thing that went through my mind was that she knows. I talked myself out of that conclusion fast since we weren’t even talking. I tried my best to keep my casual composure. It was really difficult.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He never came to New York with us for my birthday. My dad was really mad at him and then they had a fight over the phone the next day. They’re not talking now.”
Lovely. I was the reason Parker didn’t go to New York which means I’m the reason why he’s not talking to his dad. Good job Josylne.
“So now Parker isn’t talking to our dad and banquet is tomorrow and he hasn’t told them anything. So my mom was yelling at me to find out what he’s thinking.”
Stupid college talk. I didn’t want to hear what Parker’s plans were. I already knew them. I didn’t say anything so Miranda kept talking.
“Anyway, I went to talk to him the other day and he wouldn’t say anything but I continued to bother him. He completely flipped and told me it was none of my business. So I talked to my mom yesterday and she told me that he got into USC. I asked him about it this morning and he totally ignored me.”
I was little confused why Miranda was telling me all of this. What did she want me to do? Talk to her brother. ‘Cause she of all people should know I wasn’t doing that.
“Okay so Parker won’t tell you guys anything. Isn’t that the point of the banquet? I mean if he got in to USC like your mom says then there’s no doubt that he’ll go.” This conversation was irrelevant. I didn’t know what she wanted me to do about it. This was something she should have told Jayden about. Jayden could talk to Parker a lot easier than I could, at least at this given moment.
“That’s the thing though. No one knows what Parker is thinking. Everyone else on the team has at least told one person where they’re going but Parker hasn’t. I’ve talked to everyone and no one knows. Not even Coach or Jayden or Max.”
“So, he didn’t tell anyone. He probably figured everyone already knows where he’s going.”
“No one even knew he got accepted! Jayden didn’t even know until I told him what my mom said this morning.”
I was becoming bored with the conversation. I already knew all of this information. I knew only two, well three people knew about USC. It didn’t strike me as weird.
“I don’t know what your getting at with this,” I stated. To me it just seemed like Miranda was ranting her problems to me. It was weird. We hadn’t really had venting talks since the start of the year.
“We’re worried that Parker isn’t going to accept the offer.”
That got my attention. Parker wasn’t that stupid. He had to accept the offer. Just because he didn’t tell anyone didn’t mean that he wasn’t taking the offer. Did it?
“Come on Mir. Your brother wouldn’t turn down an offer from his dream school.”
“I’m not so sure anymore,” she sighed. “He’s been acting really weird lately.”
Great another thing that was my fault. If she knew what had been going on between her brother and me I would have figured this was a guilt trip.
“Don’t stress about it Mir. He’ll do the right thing.”
Our conversation ended as the bell to go to class rang. Miranda left and I reopened my photoshop program to keep working on my project. I couldn’t get back into the zone of the things as Miranda’s words kept playing in my head. I never had a doubt in my mind that Parker wouldn’t accept the offer, until now.
I decided to text Max. I knew Parker had been spending a lot of time with Max lately so if anything was up he had to know. He just didn’t tell Miranda when she confronted him. Max responded quickly telling me to meet him by my car at the end of the day.
The rest of the day seemed to drag on. I was observing everyone around me. Every was talking about the football banquet tomorrow, even people that had no connection to anyone on the team. They just wanted to know where everyone was going, I don’t blame them.
The last bell finally rang and I walked toward my car. Max was already there when I got there. I could tell he was concerned.
“What’s up babe?”
All I had texted Max was that I needed to talk to him. No specifics. The parking lot was busy but everyone was too busy trying to get out of school to try to eavesdrop on our conversation.
“Miranda came to me at lunch today. She said that her family is worried that Parker isn’t going to accept the offer.” Max nodded. I forgot that Miranda had already had this conversation with him. “I told her he wouldn’t do that. He’s not thinking about doing that, right?” Max stayed quite for a minute. “Max...what do you know?”
