Free Fourth Down by Kirsten DeMuzio Page A

his mom had told me, I was sure this
was the most he had talked about it in three years. I didn’t want
to speak for fear he would stop opening up. So, I reached up to his
hand playing with my hair and linked my fingers with his. He didn’t
pull away like I thought he might. Instead he held my hand in
silence for a long while.
    “Are you asleep?” I whispered after
like fifteen minutes of silence.
    He chuckled and turned his head to
face me, putting our mouths mere inches apart. In that moment, my
heart started racing and I completely stopped breathing. Ford’s
eyes searched mine, for what I didn’t know. Then he broke the
moment and sat up, dropping my hand and turning his attention back
to the photo album. He flipped the page to pictures of my senior
prom with Aiden.
    “Who’s this douchebag?”
    I couldn’t help giggling at his spot
on assessment of Aiden. “That’s Aiden, my ex-boyfriend. And you’re
right about him being a douche.”
    Ford shut the album and put it on the
table. “What did he do?” His mood was suddenly serious like he was
expecting me to say Aiden used to beat me or something.
    “Oh, you know. We dated through the
last two years of high school, planned to go to college together.
But when the time came, I stayed here and he went off to Cornell
without me. We tried to stay together, but by Christmas break of
freshman year it just wasn’t working. So we split up.”
    “Where does the douchebag part come
in?” Ford asked.
    “Oh, that would be when he was
cheating on me the whole time he was gone. We were already broken
up by the time I found out. And by then I really didn’t
care.”
    “I’m sorry you had to go through
that.”
    “It’s not like he was the love of my
life or anything. And he had the nerve to call me last week and ask
me to help him cheat. After two years of not speaking, he calls and
asks to use one of my philosophy papers. Can you believe
that?”
    I shook my head and looked toward
Ford, expecting him to be laughing with me at Aiden’s stupidity.
Instead his eyes were shooting blue daggers.
    “What?” I asked, alarmed.
    “Is he still calling you?” Ford asked
in a tight voice.
    “He called a few times the next day,
but the paper was due that afternoon, so I haven’t heard from him
since. He sounded pretty sure he was going to flunk out, so he’ll
probably be back in town by the holidays.”
    Ford humphed at me. “Well, if he
bothers you again, let me know. I’ll take care of it.” His tough
guy act made me want to giggle, but I held it in. He probably
wasn’t trying to be funny.
    I nudged Ford with my elbow. “Look at
you being all nice,” I teased.
    He rolled his eyes and picked up the
TV remote, effectively ending our heart to heart. I was hoping
there might be a fun romantic comedy on, but when Ford stopped on
another football game I kept my mouth shut. Although I was just
getting to know him, I knew he had taken big steps forward
tonight.
    When I was still living at home, Rick
had football on the TV nonstop. I never paid attention, and I had
never watched a full game. So, this was an educational experience
for me. I asked Ford just as many questions as my brothers had, and
he answered them all. Towards the end of the game, he was
volunteering information without me having to ask. Football turned
out to be a much more interesting sport to watch than baseball or
basketball and especially more interesting than golf. Once I got
the basics down, I could follow along fairly well. And I rooted for
the opposite team than Ford, because I liked their uniform colors
better. He seemed to think that was ridiculous. And he quickly
corrected me when I called their uniforms “outfits”.
    By the time my mom and Rick arrived
home shortly before 11:00, the game had just ended. I gave my mom a
quick rundown of the triplets’ evening, and then we gathered our
stuff and left. It was already late, and I had class in the
morning. Stifling a yawn, I stared out the window