The Coldest Season | A Wonty Christmas Short Story

NOVEMBER

Monty

Frosty November arrived, and Monty still hadn't found the courage to tell Winston what Coach Turner had asked of him. He couldn't put Winston through the same thing again. He didn't want to go back to hiding their relationship. But what could he do? He couldn't afford to get himself kicked off the team. That would mean having to drop out of college. It would make him a total and complete failure, and he would disappoint Winston, and Estela, and even Coach Kerba. He didn't want to let down the people who believed in him.

Unsure of what to do, Monty had spent the month before trying to distance himself from Winston at campus. He didn't dare bring Winston to football practice anymore, not wanting to upset Coach Turner any further. He just wanted to be able to play football, to be recognized by his skill as a player and not judged by his personal life. He wished he could find a way to articulate all of this in a way that Winston could understand, but he let pass away every opportunity to talk about it with him.

Because the game against Penn State had been so close, Monty had told himself that he was just focusing all his energy on practicing hard. He told himself that he would tell Winston everything after the game, when training would be a little less crazy.

But then the day of the game arrived. October 17th. They had left home and flown to Pensylvannia to play in front of more than 110,000 people. Winston was with him, but Monty could tell that this new coldness he was displaying in front of his coach and his teammates was hurting him. It was all he could think about during the match. Having a distracted quarterback was not good, and Monty would never forget the frustration on Coach Turner's face when Penn State took the win, or the thinly-veiled disappointment he showed during the postgame press conference, where he was forced to admit the strengths of the rival team and how they all could learn from this loss.

"Hey, Monty. You alright?" Coach Owens had asked him right after the game was over.

"Yeah, yeah. Fine." Monty said.

"Listen, don't beat yourself up over this. It was a really close game."

Monty nodded but said nothing.

"Alright. If you ever want to talk, I'm here. Okay?"

"Okay."

No matter how nice Coach Owens had been about it, Monty knew that loss had a lot to do with him. Football was the only thing he was good at. Without it, what did he have? His performance in class was average at best, he could never be a straight A student. He loved having something that he was truly passionate about, something that made him feel good about himself. That was what football was to him. And just when he thought he had it all, everything had become so complicated.

Monty couldn't bear to even discuss football with Winston anymore. He knew Winston could tell something was up, but his heart broke every time he thought of telling him that they had to be discreet about their relationship. Winston didn't deserve to be hidden like he was something shameful.

They had had a nice time last month, a week after the game. They had gone to Necto Nightclub and had spent the night drinking and dancing. At that moment, he hadn't cared about what Coach Turner thought of him. Monty remembered having a strong desire to make Winston happy that night, to make everything up to him somehow. They had left the nightclub at 2:00AM, walking drunkenly to their apartment but feeling more in love than ever.

After that game against Penn State, they had had another loss against Wisconsin, and Coach Turner's mood was worse than ever. Practices had become almost torture.

Suddenly, the first week of November found Monty doing poorly both in class and during his football practices. A true "good-for-nothing", just like his father used to say.