The Summer Job

Chapter 14- Conversations on a Curb

It's now been two days and Tyler still hasn't spoken to me. He's still been coming around the country club except he just acts like I'm not there. It would be nice if I actually knew what I did wrong.

I'm currently outside, wiping down tables when all of a sudden, I hear yelling. Not too loud, but loud enough for me to hear. I look over to see that Tyler is standing there in an intense conversation with a man who appears to be his dad. His dad is wearing a suit and looks like a typical rich business guy type. Tyler's jaw is clenched and I can tell he is mad.

"You need to grow the fuck up. You need to accept the fact that hanging around here by the pool isn't going to get you anywhere." His dad shouts at him. For the first time, I'm seeing Tyler acting in a different way. He looks somewhat vulnerable right now.

"I know but I don't want to keep training every second of every day when my knee is hurting. I can't keep putting this much pressure on my body." Tyler bites back.

"You're going to the evening training tonight. No questions asked." His dad demands as he walks out. Tyler is left standing there. I couldn't help but feel bad for him when I don't even know the full context of the situation. Tyler has talked about not having a good relationship with his dad before but I've never actually witnessed it.

Tyler then walks out towards the parking lot. For some reason, my feet started moving towards him. It isn't long before I'm at the parking lot. I look down to see that Tyler is sitting down on the curb with his head buried into his hands.

"Hey." I say softly as I sit down next to him. He looks up at me.

"What do you want?" He asks sharply.

"I wanted to see if you're okay. I saw you talking to your dad." I explain.

"Yeah well it isn't a big deal." He says, brushing it off.

"Tyler." I say as I squeeze his hand. He looks up at me with an unreadable expression before he begins talking.

"It's just that my dad puts so much pressure on me about literally everything." He begins.

"And you'd think that once I got commited, that he'd lay off a bit but if anything, he's even more on my ass." He rants. I can sense the emotion in his tone as he continues speaking.

"Was he always like this?" I ask suddenly.

"No and that's the thing. My dad and I used to be super close when I was starting football. My dad played in college and took it super seriously so when he told me he wanted me to play, I was excited. Excited to be able to follow in his footsteps and make him proud. But it's like once I got more competitive, my dad got more intense about it." Tyler explains.

"He took it so seriously that he would make me play through injuries. Which is exactly what I am doing now. I was lucky that so far, I haven't ever had too serious of an injury but if I did, I would be expected to play through it." Tyler states.

"What the hell-" I say, shocked.

"It doesn't help that my grades suck. We've tried countless tutors so I could get my grade in math to go up but nothing helped. And then school told me that I wouldn't be able to play on the highschool team if my math grade stayed at the level it was so my dad- well he used his connections to get my grade raised." Tyler blurts out.

"And look, that isn't something I'm too proud to admit. But you have to understand, it was more my dad than it was me. He had the idea and there was nothing I could do to stop him."

"Tyler I'm so sorry that you have to deal with that. Have you ever tried saying anything to your dad? I mean that just isn't okay." I ask.

"That's what that whole fight a second ago was about. He was trying to get me to train when my knee is bugging me and I refused but he wouldn't budge. He won't ever budge." Tyler responds, his tone getting darker. His jaw is clenched, making it visible that he is ticked off.

"Does he expect you to go pro or something?" I ask.

"I don't know but I don't think I want to go pro." Tyler responds with a shrug.

"The worst part is that I feel like nothing I ever do will fully satisfy him. No matter how well I play, i'll- i'll never be good enough for him." Tyler says with a sigh. My heart melted for him as he said that. I can't even imagine how that feels.

"No offense, but I don't like your dad very much." I say which causes him to laugh.

"None taken." Tyler responds with a chuckle.

"And just know Tyler, you are good enough. I've never seen you play football before but I do know that if you get commited to USC for it, then you must be pretty amazing." I add, which causes him to look down at me with a smile.

"Thanks Lana."

"Don't let your dad tell you any different." I say. He looks at me with a smile. I look down at our hands only to see that they're still connected. He notices too before I quickly pull my hand away.

"Sorry about that." I murmur.

"You're good."

"And uh you know that painting that I was working on." I say suddenly, remembering.

"Yeah?"

"I finished it." I say with a prideful smile. That thing took me a while to do so i'm happy to finally be finished with it.

"Well I'll have to stop by to see it then." He says which causes me to blush a bit.

"I guess so." I say with a grin.

"I still can't believe we literally live on the same street." He says.

"I know and we didn't even realize." I reply.

We sit there in silence for a second or two.

"As much as I enjoyed our little conversation on a curb, I gotta get ready for practice." Tyler says as he begins to get up.

"See ya." I wave