Long Haul

Chapter 2

Lily

It was game day. I have now been educated about just how important football is to the students of Penn State. Lucas and Wes left late last night, deciding to head back to their own house before game day, leaving me with time to catch up with Amelia. I told her all about the stuff with Thomas, and she told me how silly I was to be with him, in her exact words.

"Lils you are hot as shit, if he can't appreciate you, dump his ass!" Amelia was very passionate about a lot of things in life but particularly my shitty boyfriends. Trust me I've had a lot of them through the years. Amelia and I have been best friends since birth, our moms were the best of friends until my mom passed last year. She had been fighting breast cancer for a while but she lost her battle, Amelia was there for me through all of it even if I tried to hide myself away and bury myself in work. My dad left when I was 5, so in all consideration the only family I have left is my little sister who is in her freshman year of college, but of course, I also had Amelia and her family. My mom was a heavy influence on me when starting my music career, she is the one who drove around with me dropping off my CD to recording studios in hopes one of them would like how I sounded. Now 4 albums later I was left to do it all by myself.

We made it to the stadium, cameras turned on me as we headed to one of the boxes which my manager scored me an invite to when I let her know I was heading to the game. One of the stadium security guards escorted us, ensuring a safe distance from others, I waved to the people calling my name as we walked past before making it to the box. Inside were some of the families of the players and some of the college officials. I was introduced to everybody before I found myself in a conversation with one of the families of a player. Shaking hands with them we got to talking before their daughter, Kacey, asked for a photo, she was about 16 with the most gorgeous long dirty blonde hair.

"I'm going to show Wes this photo, he'll love it." It took me a second to register,

"As in Wesley Brooks?" I question her as she nods her head slowly.

"Oh my god, you know my brother. Oh my god, he didn't tell me he knows you." She looks shocked her mouth practically hanging open.

"Don't worry we only met last night he's friends with my best friend." She looks at me amazed before I continue the conversation, asking her questions about herself. So, I pretty much just met Wes' whole family so unintentionally. Cheering breaks me out of thought as the teams run onto the field, I didn't find out which number Lucas or Wes were so I don't know who to cheer for.

"He's number 11 by the way," I look at her for a second before it clicks. Wes is number 11. I watch the game intently, I have never really watched a football game before, growing up in an all-girl household meant we usually opted for gossip girl or vampire diaries as entertainment. I learnt from my education session this morning that Wes is the quarterback, who is essentially the playmaker in simple terms, and Lucas is the tight end, meaning he and Wes work together during the games. By the end of the first quarter, Penn State is down by 6 points, which I have now learned is what one touchdown is worth. No one ever told me just how confusing football is, but it is also fascinating, the size of the players is astronomical, but they carry themselves with speed and precision. Towards the middle of the second half, Wes goes down after a hard hit, I hear gasps around me as my stomach begins forming a pit of worry. He is helped off the field, looking disappointed with himself. Wes puts his head in his hands as he sits on the team bench, the team doctor coming to check out his knee which seems to be the injury point. While I was focused on Wes, cheering broke through alerting me to the touchdown scored by Penn State levelling the score once again.

"It looks like they're letting him back on," Wes' mom, Caroline, says leading my eyes back to the figure on the sideline as Wes runs back on the field. A wave of relief washes over me, I don't know what it is but something about this boy lights up emotions in me.