37. Pink Marble
THIRTY-SEVEN
Cory
Victory Sunday, gentlemen. Everything’s coming up aces.
Hayden
For once, I agree. I got lucky.
Ethan
Bug off, Hammy. I’m going incognito on campus this week, thanks to you.
Hayden
Sorry not sorry. It was win or get benched for me this week.
Marshall
I just need a safe place to cry.
Dale
I’ll make you some Chunky Quarterback soup.
Marshall
Nice to feel seen by someone besides Maryland’s D-line. Everything hurts, and I’m dying.
The whirrof the rotary tool blurred into white noise as Cam leaned over a chunk of hickory, his soapstone garden set aside while he practiced the bougainvillea vine he hoped to add in one corner. Three discarded pieces of wood and several crumpled sketches cluttered the work table beside him as he tried again, singed sawdust burning his nostrils. Every row of flowers had its own consistent scale. Only the trellis and vines needed to shift in size from the front to the back, and if he did it wrong in the soapstone, he’d lose the entire garden.
He switched to another drill bit. Blame the ball for being over or under-inflated. Blame the gloves for being too slippery or sticky. Blame the tools, not the fact that just like in the game against Iowa, he couldn’t figure it out.
Spinning off his stool, he wandered to the scrap shelf where everyone put their mistakes, free for anybody to use as practice material.
Dale
Paging @CameronPorter
Camtastic yesterday, buddy. You were lighting it up with your guy 21.
Cameron
It was Arizona, Chiplet. Not a big deal.
Marshall
You were a surgeon on their secondary, and your linebackers were on fire. Not a big deal, my ass.
Hayden
You can brag in here.
Cameron
I figured you could have the floor since you actually won for the first time in a month. My bad.
Cory
And it’s Porter with the mic drop.
Cameron
I almost dropped twenty pounds on my toe in the weight room this morning. I haven’t slept.
Hayden
Me neither. I think I have a groin strain. For multiple reasons, and I regret nothing.
Cameron
Speaking of groin strain.
Ethan
Do I need to check the photo sharing settings?
Cory
We good.
Cameron
My buddy just found out that his girlfriend was only dating her last ex to get his attention. Is that messed up?
He scooped up a chunk of pale pink marble the size of a softball. Someone had chiseled one side into a series of geometric waves he admired, and had gone to the trouble of polishing the waves while leaving the rest of the stone untouched but for a brief inscription.
Fuck this rock.
Cameron
Is a girl suddenly more interesting to you if she’s with some other guy?
Hayden
We’re competitors. Look around here. Everybody wants to win. It obviously got your buddy fired up.
Cameron
Teammate. They’re both my teammates. The guy, and the fake ex or whatever.
Cory
Oh, that makes it a little more interesting. Does the fake ex know he’s a fake ex?
Cameron
He was in on it.
Dale
Girls don’t logic like we do, but why would another guy do that? Would any of us pretend to date a girl so she can get our buddy’s attention? And why?
Hayden
I’d do it if I got a little enjoyment out of the deal.
Marshall
Nope. Don’t bring the drama in the locker room. I wouldn’t do it. Maybe if it was for a girl friend interested in some guy I don’t know, it could be kind of fun. Not a teammate.
Cory
I tried to date my high school ex’s friend after she dumped me. I’m not proud of that, and it didn’t work. Lesson learned.
Dale
But really dating the other girl is unfair to her. If the fake-date guy knew it was a scam, then no one’s taking advantage.
Cory
Fair point.
Ethan
If it worked out for your buddy and the girl, who cares? It’s kind of cute she was so into him, and it doesn’t sound like it bothered the other guy. No harm, no foul, right?
Hayden
She chases him so he chases her… I mean, we’ve all called more complicated plays than that. Could be fun, as long as you win.
Cam positioned the pink marble in a vise and clamped it so the inscription angled toward him. He flicked the switch on the rotary tool and drew the bit across the surface in line after parallel line to sand down the words. The etching went deeper than he thought at first glance—not a quick, frustrated scratch—and he switched to a round bit to scoop out a crater and remove the words from the stone.
Ethan Engel has started a private chat.
Ethan
Avery and pseudo-Cory were just pseudo-dating, huh?
Cameron
Yeah.
Ethan
Did she say why?
Cameron
Because I was a dick and didn’t talk to her until I assumed she was dating my friend.
Ethan
That tracks. She’s excused.
Cameron
She couldn’t just correct me and say “no, I’m not really with him.” She got him to go along with this for weeks while I was miserable.
Ethan
Weeks while you guys got to know each other without getting naked, which isn’t a bad thing. Don’t lie. You’re thirsty AF. A slower start for a few weeks is good.
Did she actually lie about it?
Cameron
No. But I wouldn’t know anything if she didn’t tell me last night. She was just going to let it ride.
Ethan
Why did she tell you last night?
Cameron
My left guard’s girlfriend said it looked like she was being passed around the locker room and her brother was basically pimping her out.
Ethan
WHO SAYS THAT?
Cameron
Avery didn’t rise to the drama or expect me to go defend her honor. But she said if people are talking like that, she wanted me to know everything so the air was clear between us, even if everyone else gets it wrong.
I guess she and Isaac were going to let the fake relationship just disappear, since it was only for a few weeks.
Scrubbed free of its profanity, the pink marble became a blank slate. He uncrumpled one of his sketches of the bougainvillea and frowned, then looked up a video he referenced of the bloom’s pink petal-like leaves at all angles. The triangular leaves opened like a flower to reveal the tiny white and yellow blossoms within.
He wiped his arm across his forehead to catch a band of sweat and dug in his supply box for his chisels.
Ethan
My eyes are twitching.
I’m going to try not to think about what kind of bitch says stuff like that.
And I’m not going to think about what kind of idiot dates that bitch.
Cameron
An idiot who’s going to hear from me in a few weeks after I’m done needing his protection for a little while.
Avery doesn’t want me to say anything, but come on.
Ethan
I’d want to know if Kaia was being that nasty to someone.
How are you feeling about Avery?
Cameron
Still in love with her.
Ethan
Then what’s the problem?
Cameron
I tried to tell her I don’t care, that it’s not something to break up over. She was just disconnected and told me I shouldn’t trust a person like her.
It feels off.
Am I stupid for telling her I don’t care about any of that? Am I missing something? Why is she still so upset when I told her over and over everything’s okay?
Ethan
She might feel bad for involving your buddy to help.
Cameron
Isaac and Justin adore her. They wouldn’t play along if they thought I didn’t deserve her.
Actually, that’s kind of cool they think I do. Huh.
Ethan
Awww fam.
Cameron
She’s supposed to come with me this weekend. I don’t know if she still wants to. I need her to come with me.
Ethan
I do, too. She fights to get her man and takes no shit from people who want to tear her down. I want to meet her.
Cameron
She’s amazing, and clearly upset in a way I can’t help with.
Ethan
The throws we miss can really sting, even when we win. We always think we could have done better. Maybe she does, too.
Cameron
You have a point.
Ethan
It NEVER comes down to the field goal in overtime.
Avery entered the studio and put on her protective goggles without greeting him, and pulled up a stool at his side. Fingering the edge of the soapstone garden he’d pushed aside, she surveyed the mess of his work area and the discarded wood blocks.
“That stone is pretty.”
“You should have seen it a few minutes ago.”
“Yeah?”
Cam leaned forward and kissed her lips, a gentle touch so his plastic goggles bumped hers. He nodded at the marble chips and dust on his shoes. “Yeah. It looked like someone got mad at it and gave up. I think people who don’t work in sculpture very much forget how you can just grind some mistakes away with a little work.”
“What are you making out of this one?”
He took her hand in his, placing her palm over a plane he’d begun to round off like a cylinder, and spread her fingers to some angles he started to form. Wings.
“A bumble bee. It’ll take forever, but eventually.”
Avery nodded to her backpack on its hook by the studio door. Cellophane-wrapped blooms in shades of orange and yellow poked out the open top. Her whisper was warm on his cheek.
“I brought you flowers.”