The Ten-Year Game Plan

Chapter 8- Josie

They were waiting for me with alcohol in hand and that's how I knew they were my best friends.

"Rough night?" Gisele asked.

"My dad," I said by way of explanation.

Cam unscrewed the lid to the plastic water bottle and handed it to me with no further questions. It took me till the third gulp for me to realize it was vodka. I barely felt the burn of it. Both of my best friends eyed me with concern, but I brushed off the looks. They knew I'd tell them when I was ready to talk about it so they didn't push.

We met outside the stadium and they were both dressed in school spirit while I was still wearing my outfit from dinner. Both of them had intelligently brought jackets while I was already starting to shiver.

"Let's hurry so we can find some good seats," I suggested, gulping down the rest of the vodka, gagging a little. But, hey it did the trick of washing away the memory of dinner.

Cam managed to sneak in another bottle in the waistline of her jeans and we brought it with us to the student section, giggling all the while. Gisele took us to where half of her sorority sisters were sitting. Half of them were drinking from flasks they'd hidden from security and the other half were yelling obscenities at the football players like they were at a strip club.

"Woo! Take it off number 11!"

"I'll let you score!"

"Nice ass!!"

Is this what people meant when they said that they loved football?

Cam and I just looked at each other and laughed. Gisele rolled her eyes at the red head who'd just yelled right next to us. At least we knew the first game of the year would be entertaining for us.

By the end of the first half, two girls had thrown up, one had broken up with her boyfriend, one girl slapped another girl, and then they kissed. I'm still not really sure what happened with that last one, but at least it seemed like a happy ending.

All three of us were considerably tipsy by half-time and I realized that I'd barely been paying attention. The score was 14-12 and I had to check the scoreboard twice because I thought I saw it wrong. We were winning. Against a team we definitely should've been losing to. I turned to Gisele who was considerably more sober than I was and actually watching the game. I, however, was enjoying my conversation with the girls of Kappa.

"Did you know we were winning?"

She snorted. "Yeah, I noticed. What gave it away for you?"

"Weren't we supposed to be losing?" Cam asked, the smallest slur in her words. Her boyfriend was on the team, but she still struggled to feign interest at the sport.

Gisele was about to answer her, but Cam's jaw literally dropped and she pointed across the stands. Gisele and I followed her eyeline and she was glaring at some girl wearing a jersey with the number 3 on it—Patrick's number.

Cam was sunshine in a person, do you remember me saying that? Well, at that moment she seemed a little more like lightning. She made to walk forward, egged on by the alcohol in her system, but both Gisele and I grabbed her wrists.

"She's wearing his number! I don't even know who that is! Why is she—"

"Look!" I pointed at three other girls in the stands wearing random numbers, "none of these girls are dating the players... they're just wearing the numbers. Trust me. Patrick has no idea who that is."

Gisele sighed. "As much as I'd like to see you kick some girls ass, Jo's right. Plus, security is right there and I'm not trying to spend the night in the drunk tank Cam Cam."