Late Night Conversations

Friday Night Lights

Tonight's the first football game of the season, the theme is Black Out. I got decked out in full black and put black war paint lines under my eyes. My dad dropped me off at the school at 6:30, as the game would start at 7 and I wanted to get a decent spot in the fan section, I knew I'd end up with the rest of the freshman anyways. As I walked up to the student fan section, I saw Tommy. He's a sophmore so I probably couldn't be with him during the game as too many sophmores would bitch about a freshman being in the sophmore section.
"Hey Gabbie," Tommy said as I walked  on to the bleachers, "come sit."
"Tom you know I can't, I'm gonna get too much shit from upperclassmen." I said about to walk to the back of the bleachers where freshmen sit.
"Gabbie, don't sit with the freshmen, you can hang with Kolby, Chad, and I. I'll defend you if they try and give you shit for it because sometimes upperclassmen throw water and such back on the freshmen and I don't want that to happen to you."
Tommy has always cared for me, and I've always cared for him. We've been through hell and back and wouldn't have be able to do it without each other, so we make sure to help each other out.
"Okay," I agreed as I sat down next to him.
Students continued to fill up the bleacher section, and before we knew it, the marching band was marching in and the football players ran into the stadium. We cheered loudly and stood up on the bleacher rows. We don't sit during the actual football game, we always stand on the bleachers unless it's half time. After the national anthem, the game started and if we're being honest, I don't fully understand football. I've given up on trying to understand it. Our team was definitely doing much better this year than in years past, that much I knew.

The whole night we sang along to the band's pep tunes and cheered loudly as our players would dive into the endline, scoring a touchdown. Before we knew it, the game was over and the student section was on it's way over to the high school cafeteria for 5th quarter, a party where there's food, music, and dancing.
Tommy, Chad, Kolby, and I all walked over to the high school while discussing the game, I didn't have much to say though, I didn't get the football terminology. Once we got to the high school they checked our IDs and let us in. We immediately went to the cafe and grabbed a plate. This was my first 5th quarter but I already knew the guys and know they aren't big dancers, I didn't feel like going to go dance in the gym by myself so I just sat with them. After an hour or two of laughs and embarrassing moments, 5th quarter was over and we all went home.

This was my typical Friday night every week until late October, our team had done really good and so the season went a lot longer. I didn't mind this though, as it was always a good time with my guy friends. We spent the last few games huddled up with blankets wrapped around us, in plenty of layers, our teeth chattering, in 30°F weather. With some rides from Tommy's mom along the way, but we always made sure the get there. These years were the last we had together and we wouldn't let anybody take that away from us.