One Step Too
Far
Chapter 4: ...But You Still Don’t Care At All
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“And I
want to believe you, when you tell me that it will be okay. I try to believe
you. But I don’t.”
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“Coach Bombay will be pissed when he finds out about this,” Charlie complained. “I’m left in charge, and everyone decides to run off? What’s up with that?”
Cecilia leaned over his shoulder and gazed over into the room. “I’m still here, I’m in charge too, remember.”
“I think Bombay’s specific words were ‘she’s in charge when hell’s frozen over’, so grab your jacket.”
Cecilia stepped into his and Fred’s room and looked around. “It kinda looks like a hurricane went through this area. Are you sure Fred did this just because he was mad? He’s never mad. And speaking of cold, did a polarbear die in here or what?”
“Would that make things cooler?” Charlie asked with a smile. “But it smells like something died in here, I’ll give you that.”
They were both stranded in the dorm, while the rest of team were somewhere else. Charlie had gotten a phone-call the evening before from Fred, saying that they needed their room to party at. Charlie had tried to talk him out of it, but a stubborn Fred was the same as a raging crocodile.
“So, uh, my boyfriend trashed your room, is that what you’re saying?” Cecilia asked. “Because I’m sure the rest of those hockey-nerds helped out too. Why wasn’t I invited?”
“You’re the enemy, Cee. You’re the tattle-tale, the assistant captain. You’re sleeping with the enemy.”
“Excuse me?”
“Just help me straight this up. Otherwise I’ll be the tattle-tale and tell Bombay about your stupid boyfriend. And I’ll drag you down with me, just wait and see.”
“Where are the little rascals anyway? Sleeping? Rioting the streets?” Cecilia said.
Charlie shrugged and kicked a bottle on the floor. “They have runaway from home, the poor little things. They better stay away, I’ll kill ‘em all when I find them.”
“I just can’t understand why I wasn’t invitied,” Cecilia muttered and began picking up paper-mugs from the floor. “My boyfriend really IS stupid.”
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Charlie sat down in one of the empty booths at the Rainbow Café. He was exhausted after cleaning the room all day. Cecilia had finally gotten hold of Fred, and used that as a valid reason to bail on Charlie’s messy room. Guy had showed up later, helping out a little, but he’d mostly went on about his latest argue with Connie.
Adam showed up just as he’d said he would, at the exact time he’d promised. He was annoying that way.
“He’s doing it just to prove a point,” Charlie growled and looked at Adam.
“Who?”
“Fred, of course. He thinks he can do whatever he wants, just because he’s my roommate. Just because he’s dating the assistant captain. Cecilia, I mean.”
“I thought you meant Travis,” Adam rolled his eyes.
Charlie read the menu, even though he already knew what it said. “You want anything?”
“Am I buying?” Adam asked, going through his pockets. “Because I don’t have any money on me.”
“So, what’s your excuse?” Charlie wanted to know. “Did I do anything wrong to deserve being left out of the little circle of idiocy I’d like to call ‘my friends’? Or maybe you were mad because I said that you couldn’t use the team’s account-money to buy pop-tarts? Because I’m pretty sure that Coach Bombay wouldn’t have approved that either.”
“Charlie, please, you talk faster then my ears can handle,” Adam complained. “I’m sorry you didn’t get invited to the party, but if it’s any kind of conscolation, Cecilia didn’t get invited either. If Travis was here, he wouldn’t have either.”
“So now your being condescending to us because we’re team-captains? That’s fair.”
“Could you honestly say that you would’ve have kept your mouth shut, without giving us a speech of any kind? I’m sorry that no one said anything to you, but I had no idea you weren’t invited.”
Charlie gave him a suspiscious look. “Honest? Honest to God?”
“Honest to God. I know you wouldn’t have told on us to Bombay or Muck, but please, Charlie, don’t be mad. Cecilia didn’t get invited, so you weren’t alone.”
“Why didn’t we get invited?” Charlie whined. “I’m a good captain, I run the team the best I can. I keep you out of trouble and I never rat on you.”
Adam shrugged. “I dunno. It was Fred’s decision, and you’re right. He probably was mad, and wanted to prove a point. He didn’t say a word to his own girlfriend, because he knew she would tell you. Isn’t that loyality for you?”
“I guess. Cecilia usually gets to tag along, you’re right about that. She’s a little party animal.”
“So, besides from these feelings of betrayal, how’s it going?” Adam asked and sipped on his Coke. “When are the coaches coming back to rule the team again? Not that you’re not doing a great job on your own. I was just wondering.”
“Well, I have four new people to look after. Julie is back from Maine, Travis and Sarah is back from Canada and Dwayne is arriving in two hours. Bombay gets back in five days, and Muck in a week.”
“So, when is Julie getting here? She’s going to be pissed, because Portman called her last night and told her about the forbidden party. You know how Julie likes to do forbidden things.”
“Great, Julie’s in a bad mood, Fred wants some kind of revenge on me, Portman’s driving everyone crazy and Guy wants me to fix his latest quarrell. Do people still use the word ‘quarrell’?”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Maybe if they’re old.”
“It works anyway. Travis’ll think I’ve failed as the captain because of all this crap going on.”
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Yes, I know I was wrong blaming Charlie for my own failures. I always do stupid things like that. Even though I got out of my freshmen year of high-school with more classes passed then failed, I still feel stupid sometimes. Like when the rest of the team is talking about something I’ve never heard of before. Or when Cecilia gets into a conversation with me about a subject she thinks is interesting, while I barely can spell to it.
Charlie is right about the drinking too, I’m afraid. In the beginning of the year I drank a lot too, but not by these proportions. I never woke up with a hang-over, or threw up because I was waisted. Cecilia did, I didn’t.
Then suddenly I got into trouble with school. I got on an academic probation and my Dad threatened to send me back home. After that I thought Cecilia was cheating on me with Adam, so I took out all my frustration on her. That didn’t go very well either. Somehow I ended up in a horrible situation, where I blamed Luis for my failures instead. That was actually Guy’s problem from the start, and stupid as I am, I had to butt in. Connie was mad at me, Cecilia was mad at me, Luis had no idea why I was mad at HIM, and Charlie said I had a problem with anger.
Gee, you think?
After that everything turned out a little better. Guy was still mad at Connie for the Luis-thing, and I’m not sure what happened with that. I don’t even know how the whole thing got started, but Cecilia tells me that they argue about that because of me. Me?
I do have problem controlling my anger. I take it out on the people that doesn’t deserve it. I say things I don’t mean, and do things I later regret. That’s me.
So things didn’t work out my way. Like it ever does... Going home didn’t help, talking to my parents didn’t help, seeing my brothers again didn’t help, and the tournament a few weeks ago sure as hell didn’t help.
I’m back to square one again, and I have to say; it’s not as bad when you’re drunk most of the time. It’ll pass as soon as school starts again. Everything will work out fine. Why shouldn’t it?
That’s what I keep telling myself, and that’s what I’ll keep assuming.
Problem? Me? Sure. But it has nothing to with alcohol. Charlie’s wrong about that part. I might drink a little too much, but I don’t have a problem with it.
C’mon, I’m the one saving other people out of trouble. I’m taking care of Cecilia, and I try to be a good friend.
That’s enough for now.
Yes, I’m an idiot, and I make lots of mistakes. But what do you ask of me?
I’m only human.
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