Chapter 8
Royce~
Leaving Roxie for an entire weekend was hell.
Granted, being away from her at all was hell, but I wasn’t used to not seeing or touching her every day.
We were the clichéd couple that were riding that high of novelty.
Though it’s already been past three months, I still felt like I’d did on that day when I had run into her, knocking her on her ass, then inviting her to my game.
However, as I sat in the recruiting offices of USC, I knew that this trip had been necessary.
Roxie had chosen Grandstone because it’d been simpler, and not because she’d had her heart set on attending.
With that knowledge, I figured that I could do something promising about both of our futures without any of the guilt.
“Well, Royce, while this is a rather unexpected visit, it’s still damn good to see you, son,” Fred Kemper said, leaning back in his desk chair, smiling.
“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice, Mr. Kemper,” I replied politely. “But it was rather important.”
“I gathered as much,” he chuckled. “That’s why I made the time. I’ve been watching you play ball since you were in the eighth grade, Royce, and you’ve done nothing but get better over the years.”
When I had first met Fred Kemper, he’d been visiting Lindor City, his brother having gotten caught up in a legal mess. Allen Kemper had hired my father to represent him, and Fred had stuck around to see his brother through the unfortunate drama.
One afternoon, Fred had wanted to speak with my father, but Dad had told him that he was at one of my practices, and that if Fred wanted to talk to him, then Fred better go to him.
Their conversation had ended with Fred staying for the entire practice, eyeing me and a couple of other players.
After that, Fred had become a routine staple in my life, always popping up at random games.
He had also immediately recruited me for USC at the beginning of this year.
However, not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket, I hadn’t committed yet.
The plan had been to vet all of my options before selecting a school, only that wasn’t my plan anymore.
My plan was to be wherever Roxie was, so I was here to propose a win, win, win solution.
“I’m here to make a deal,” I told him, finally getting to the reason for my visit.
“What kind of deal?”
“I’ll commit to USC on one condition.”
One brow arched as he leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk. “What’s the condition?”
“I’ll only go here if my girlfriend can get in,” I told him.
This time, both his brows jumped. “What?”
“I have a girlfriend, and it’s either she follows me, or I follow her,” I divulged honestly. “While I have no problem following her, she’s not too crazy about the idea of me giving up football to do that.”
Mr. Kemper cocked his head in thought. “Why would you have to give up football to follow her?”
“She’s applied to Grandstone University, and their football program isn’t the best,” I admitted. “Hell, it’s practically non-existent.”
“I’ve never heard of Grandstone University,” he muttered as his brow furrowed
“Probably because it’s best known for its special educational programs,” I told him. “My girlfriend is deaf, and while she can read lips and speak, she can’t hear. Grandstone’s academia caters to the extra support its students need when dealing with limited understanding of the curriculum.”
Mr. Kemper dropped back into his chair. “Your girlfriend is deaf? Am I hearing that correctly?” I nodded. “And so...if we can’t accommodate her here, then you’re following her to Grandstone?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t want you to accommodate her,” I corrected.
“I’ve already checked into the programs here, and while they’re not Grandstone, they’re adequate enough to work for her.
” I leaned forward, then rested my elbows on my knees.
“I’m asking you to make sure that she gets accepted. ”
“That’s illegal, Royce,” he replied like I’d expected him to because it was illegal.
You weren’t supposed to guarantee any student’s acceptance into a college program.
Society wanted people to still believe that everyone had a fair and equal chance at an educational opportunity, though we all knew the ugly truth of it all.
I stood up, looked down at him, then stretched out my arm. “Well, it was nice seeing you again, Mr. Kemper,” I said. “Again, thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
Mr. Kemper immediately stood up. “Whoa, wait,” he quickly rushed out. “That’s it? You’re not even going to consider-”
“There’s only one thing that I’m considering these days, Mr. Kemper,” I said, cutting him off.
“And that one thing is Roxanne Rafferty, my girlfriend.” I dropped my arm, then straightened to my full height.
“Look, can you just listen for a second?” He nodded, though still a bit unsure.
“I first saw Roxie last year when I had first transferred to Yosemite. When I had asked about her, the first thing that I’d been told was that she was deaf, and that she only hung out with her best friend because her best friend was the only person that she could really talk with.
” I let out a deep breath before continuing to try to make this man understand where I was coming from.
“Like a pussy, I did nothing for an entire year. When I finally realized that the feelings that I had for her weren’t going to go away, I immediately signed up for ASL classes.
I’ve been taking them since June, though I still have a lot to learn.
Anyway, when I finally got the balls to ask her out, she said yes, and I want you to think about that for a moment, Mr. Kemper.
Do you seriously think that I would have put in so much effort to learn an entirely different language if I hadn’t been serious about her?
” I made sure to hold his stare for this next part.
“I love that girl with everything that I have and with everything that I am. There is no football without her because she owns all of me.”
He didn’t comment for a bit, but then he cleared his throat before finally speaking. “So, you’re saying that you’ll commit to USC if I can guarantee that she gets accepted as well?”
“Yes,” I answered, not caring about ethics at all. “If not, I’ll apply to Grandstone and follow Roxie’s dreams, and I’ll do it happily.”
“You know that I can’t make you any promises on paper, Royce,” he replied.
I nodded. “Yes, I do. That’s why I’m going to trust your word, Mr. Kemper.” I shrugged. “If you end up not fulfilling your end of our bargain, Roxie and I can take a year off of school, then apply to Grandstone again next year.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” he asked, his voice conveying his surprise. “I mean, you will seriously rearrange your entire future for a girl.”
“Not a girl. Roxie. I’ll jump in front of a bullet for her,” I corrected. “So, yeah. Yeah, I’m serious.”
~
Roxanne~
Pepper’s hands were moving at the speed of light again, but it was no less than I had expected. I’d finally lost my virginity, and Pepper had so many questions that it was hard to answer even one. Just as I began answering, there she went, moving her hands again, asking another question.
I chuckled to myself when I thought of Pepper’s future husband.
She was so used to signing that I could see the poor man getting cussed out in two languages, not knowing what hit him.
I could also see him taking up ASL just to keep up with her.
Pepper was going to be some lucky guy’s dream and nightmare all in one.
“I can’t believe it,” she kept repeating. “I mean, I knew it would happen soon, but...wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” I signed, though she wasn’t looking at me.
She was laying across my bed, staring moony-eyed at the ceiling. “I bet it was so perfect for you. Royce adores you, so there’s no way that he wouldn’t have made it perfect for you.”
“It really was perfect,” I said, using my voice. “It was just like I had always hoped. I knew that it was going to be uncomfortable at first, but...once we got all that out of the way, it really was incredible.”
She looked over at me. “Was it like all those romance novels?”
“Depends on the romance novel,” I joked, grinning. “Some of those romance novels are a little dark, even if the main character is a virgin.”
Pepper grinned. “Those are my favorite stories,” she admitted shamelessly.
I laughed. “Well, I can assure you that Royce had been more tender than brutal.” He’d been perfect, really. “However, as this thing between us moves on, I wouldn’t mind a little brutality.”
Pepper laughed as she jumped from the bed into a sitting position. “Oh, God, I can’t wait until I finally find a guy willing to do me the disservice of dirtying me up.” She waggled her brows, and the girl was such a character. “I want that up-against-the-wall sex.”
While Royce and I hadn’t limited our weekend to just one bought of sex, Royce had been very aware that my body had been adjusting to something big and major, so we had limited our sexual explorations to the bed.
Royce had spent a lot of time tending to my sore body, and it’d been sweet.
He hadn’t popped my cherry, and then gone all caveman on me.
He had treated me like I could still change my mind at any moment, and that was probably the most special thing about it all.
Royce hadn’t assumed that I’d been automatically open for business after that first time.
He had still respected me afterwards.
“Well, we didn’t have any wall-sex, but I’m not opposed to it,” I told her. “At some point, I want to experience it all.”
“I’m so happy for you, Roxie,” she said, grinning again. “I think you’ve really hit the jackpot, and it feels wonderful to know that you have someone else looking out for you.”
“He wants to go to Grandstone with me,” I told her. “He said he doesn’t care about football as much as he cares about me.”
Pepper’s eyes widened, then she placed the back of her hand on her forehead, falling back down on the bed. “Swoon,” she signed once her back hit the mattress. “Absolutely swoon.”
“We haven’t decided anything, but...God, I just can’t believe that he’s real,” I sighed. “He’s just so damn perfect. He really, really loves me, and...I’m so addicted to the feeling.”
Turning over, then propping her hand under her head, she said, “Celebrate it, Roxie. I know that it can feel scary, but...I don’t know. Instead of worrying that Royce is too good to be true, flaunt that boy all over the place. Show the world what you have and how blessed you are to have him.”
“Can I tell you a secret?”
The girl jumped up, then sat on the bed with her legs crossed, all ears. “Sure.”
“We didn’t use protection.”
Pepper pushed her blonde hair from her face, her pretty blue eyes threatening to pop right out of her head. “What?”
“There’d been no plans to have sex,” I explained.
“It really had been a case of one thing leading to another, and when he told me that he didn’t have any condoms because he hadn’t planned the weekend with sex in mind, I hadn’t cared.
I had just finished my period the week before, so I knew that it would probably be okay, so. ..”
“Oh, my God,” she mouthed, her hands signing along in her shock. “What if you get pregnant, Roxie? What...oh, my God...”
“I’d never trap him,” I told her. “If I get pregnant, I’ll deal with it.”
Pepper’s nose scrunched up. “If you get pregnant, that boy is going to drag you to the courthouse and get it done before we even graduate high school,” she signed.
“Well, hopefully, we don’t have to find out,” I signed back, returning to physical communication.
“Still, I did make an appointment with my doctor as soon as we got back. I also talked to Mom, and she hadn’t judged.
She helped me make the appointment, and she’s going to go with me, so that I can make an informed decision on the best birth control for me. I’m excited but nervous.”
With wide eyes again, Pepper signed, “Holy shit, do you think your dad knows?”
I grimaced, not liking the idea of my father knowing such a thing.
“I think he suspected it beforehand, even though Royce hadn’t planned it.
Granted, it’s not anything that I’m going to ask him, but I have no doubt that Mom has probably already told him.
They don’t keep important secrets from each other. ”
“Well, it helps that they like Royce,” she signed. “I think that helps a lot.”
“No doubt,” I signed back, agreeing wholeheartedly.
Before Pepper could say anything more, my phone buzzed and jumped around on the bed with a text notification.
Royce: I just got back n2 town. U busy?
I looked over at Pepper. “It’s Royce.”
She waved her hand at my phone. “Better answer or else who knows what the guy might do?” She grinned as she was judging my boyfriend, but I knew that she wasn’t being catty, not that Pepper was the catty type.
Me: Just telling Pepper how great u r in the sack
Royce: Five stars?
I started laughing, showing Pepper the text, and I had to let out a deep breath because I really was a lucky freakin’ girl.