The Unlikely Quarterback Ch. 11

*Thanks to Alwaysready64 for editing and contributing some snippets of this story, and PASTMASTER for his beta reading and editing.

*All sex described in this story will be between adults, 18 or over.

******

Chapter 11 Forgiveness, Friendship Renewed, and Homeownership

Amanda patched things up with Simone, then went on a mission to get me to forgive her. I had to evaluate whether I wanted Simone in my life, and on reflection I realized I no longer carried any kind of torch for her. I actually felt sorry for her in a way because from what Paulette told me, her relationship with her boyfriend turned out to be a dud. He professed to be a born again Christian and dazzled her with his false righteousness. But he turned out to be just another guy trying to get into her pants. Lucky for her, she realized what a joker he was before he could do much damage. In some ways, I felt like "Good she deserved that", and in another I felt like "Wow, another guy she screwed over."

According to Amanda, Simone always talked about me with regret and was always hard on herself about how she treated me. I finally agreed to talk with Simone. I felt like there was no reason we couldn't be friends and I was ready to forgive her. To tell the truth, I already did forgive her, I just never told her that. Besides, I found out things about her past that she never revealed to me. She was being blackmailed and didn't trust me to handle it, so I secretly handled it. Meeting up with her would give me the opportunity to confront her and set her free. Despite that I had no intention of getting back with her. Her breaking up with me took a weight off my heart.

I finished the spring semester at UCLA in 1991, and I would be starting the fall officially as a junior with half my units completed. I was so far ahead of my studies that I decided against summer school. Why rush through something I was enjoying?

Johnny's mom moved out of her house and I took possession of it on June first. I wanted to move in right away but the house needed a lot of work. So called up Candy, Amanda and Paulette for a kind of reunion/recruitment campaign, I needed volunteers to help renovate. It was times like these I wished I had more guy friends.

We decided to meet over at Baja Sonoras, I guess it was supposed to be nostalgic since that's where I first got to know most of them. The girls were all there when I arrived and had tables pulled together to fit us all. I didn't like the fact that Candy's boyfriend Jack was there and I did my best not to show my jealousy. I made my rounds, kissing the girls on their cheeks, shaking Jack's hand cordially, then sat down at an empty seat next to Amanda.

I noticed that there was one more empty seat across from me and asked, "Are we expecting someone else?"

"Me..." Simone said meekly behind me.

I stood suddenly and turned to face her. I know I said I forgave her but seeing her there brought back old feelings like an episode of PTSD.

"Mike? I know I'm not your favorite person right now, and I have no right to ask you..." she choked.

"Ask me to what, Simone?" I said angrily, and she flinched when I called her by her full name. "To forgive you?"

She looked at me nodding her head.

"For what exactly?" I asked.

"For betraying your trust... for stabbing you in the back... for ignoring your love like a fool," she said, hurried like she needed to get it all out before she was too afraid to say them again.

"There's nothing TO forgive," I said. "I'm over you!" I said, and I realized how dickish that sounded when I saw everyone's shocked face. "I'm not saying this out of any sense of vengeance. I'm not trying to throw this in your face. But what did you expect? Me to be pinning over you still?"

She shook her head and muttered "No."

"You hurt me... badly..." I said, and she flinched. "But I've had time to heal, and I realized that OUR love wasn't real. You can't be wooed away by the first 'wonder guy' you meet if you loved me the way I loved you," I accused. "We were barely dating Simone... We never even had sex... I reacted the way everyone does when they are rejected. But like all crushes throughout the ages, I got over it. I'm over you."

She was crying and sobbed, "Will you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive. You didn't owe me anything. Yes, you hurt my feelings, but that's water under the bridge so if you need me to say you're forgiven then, fine... I forgive you."

She nodded her head and said, "Thank you, Mike."

"You know, I'm not the one that needs to forgive you. You need to forgive yourself," I said.

"What?" she asked shocked.

"You destroyed my love for you, and that was the best thing in your life, wasn't it?" she looked shocked and nodded, unable to speak. "I understand why you sabotaged our relationship, Simone. You should have put more faith in me. I wouldn't have cared about your past."

She turned white, everyone looked flabbergasted and Amanda blurted, "What are you talking about, Mike?"

"I'm talking about Trey..." I said and Amanda turned as pale as Simone.

"Who is 'Trey'?" Candy asked.

"Some loser, drug dealing, wannabe gangster that's been blackmailing Simone for years," I said. "I had a feeling that there was more to Simone's past based on what Simone and Amanda told me so I hired a private investigator to look into it. I let him know everything I knew about you including your neighborhood 'gang' you were involved it."

"Oh, god! No! You weren't supposed to ever find out..."

"So, you dumped me instead?"

"What do you know?" she asked worried.

"Everything. My PI was very thorough and found out that 'Trey' AKA Treyvonne Williams, was Mr. Big show in your former neighborhood. The PI had people watch him for weeks and observed him selling drugs and overheard him blackmailing a few girls for sex. After, he gave me his report, I went over to his house and confronted his mom - yeah, the loser still lives with Mom. It turned out that he was abusing his mom for years too and she was afraid of him. I got her confidence and she let me into his room. That's where I found his stash..." I said, throwing her an envelope I had with me.

I had a feeling that my friends were going to ambush me. I mean they threw me so many hints it was obvious, so I came prepared.

"Wha... what's this?" Simone asked.

"That's the polaroids," I said, simply. "You're free."

The polaroids were pictures of all of the guys in her so-called gang running a train on her. Trey was blackmailing her for years, extorting her for money and blow jobs. It was no wonder she had such negative views on men, her only experience having sex was basically rape.

She ran into me, wrapping her arms around me, sobbing, almost knocking me flat on the table. Luckily, Amanda reacted fast enough to brace me and keep me from falling.

Simone looked up at me and asked, "What about Trey? He's got a gun."

"Don't worry about Trey..." I said grimly. "When he got out of the hospital, he was arrested. He tried to claim that I assaulted him, but the cops didn't care. My PI turned in all of the evidence he gathered against him and the cops had him for so much shit that he won't get out of prison until he's old and gray. Besides, his mother defended me saying that he threatened to kill her and I was only defending her. Who do you think the cops believed?"

"What did you do to him?" Simone said, smiling.

"You don't want to know, but let's just say he'll be walking with a limp for the rest of his life and his pretty face, ain't so pretty anymore..."

Simone wouldn't stop hugging me and all of the girls came over for a group hug. Everyone received their food orders and I got a carne asada burrito, Candy knew me so well. Finally, I sat down and Simone sat in my lap. She kept crying; her head buried in my shoulder.

"So, why'd you have to beat him up if you had him arrested?" Amanda asked.

Paulette snickered, "Why do you think? He's a vicious mother fucker. Just because he treats everyone like they should be treated and we think of him as a good guy... he's a caged beast underneath the surface. You let that beast out and watch out!" she said, laughing.

Amanda looked a little embarrassed and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You remember what I said, Manda, if I ever got the chance?..." she asked and Amanda looked without recall. "What I said I would do to HIM," she said, pointing to me, still nothing. "How I always wanted to see if a man could dominate me..." and Amanda seemed to gasp in recognition. "And how I always thought he would be perfect?"

"You didn't..." she said, in disbelief.

"I did. And I was right!" and Amanda looked kind of sad for some reason. To pour salt on the wounds, she added, "And not just me - Monique too!"

"No way, Monique would never submit to him!" she said.

"Oh girl! You done messed up," she said. "He not only did, but at the same time. I just don't understand why you'd ever let HIM go, voluntarily."

"Ladies, really? You're going to air my dirty laundry here?" I asked, and they ignored me.

"How? You know he'd never hurt you," she asked skeptically.

"The night he took us out on a date, it all started out like how we normally do. We teased him and embarrassed him and called him Daddy... But he was unfazed. I realized there was something unflappable about him. Once we got him dancing, guys kept trying to get in on the action," she related. "It wasn't until one brother grabbed my arm that I saw the beast..." she said, with a mystical voice as if she were relating a story over a campfire. "Mike was going to take that guy's head off! ... You all know how Mike took on six guys, by himself... and won! He fucked those guys up! Just imagine what he was about to do..."

There was silence, and everyone was staring at me, some looking at me differently. I tried to lighten the mood, "Come on, Letty. That's not how I remember it. From what I remember, you tore that guy a new asshole. You ragged on him so hard, I was about to call suicide hotline for him," I said, with an unconvincing chuckle.

"Yeah, you right," she said. She must have been practicing her slang because it was sounding more and more natural and not forced. "If I didn't you would have fucked that guy up, gotten us kicked out, and possibly taken to jail... Anyway, after that, we were like putty and he had us doing things I'm embarrassed to talk about... but got-damn, he's good."

I noticed, then, that Simone no longer had her head buried in my shoulder.

"I believe you," she said simply. "I always saw 'the beast' and was always afraid of it."

I looked at her and asked, "You know I would never hurt you... why were you afraid of me?"

"I wasn't afraid you'd hurt me, I was afraid to submit," she said. Amanda looked like she was going to go on a feminist rant and Simone recognized it. "Not like a slave, or 'a woman should act towards a man' - 'submit'. I mean that he has a demanding soul. He sees everything in black or white and he loves the same way. You cannot love him just a little, the beast inside him won't let you go half-assed with your love. You have to go all in or all out... I knew I wasn't ready for that," she said getting up and quickly and said, "Sorry," then turned and walked out the door.

I got up to go after her, but Amanda said, "No. I'll go. You stay here," and she took off after her friend.

After an awkward silence, I shrugged and said, "Umm, yeah. I just wanted to know if you guys might want to help me fix up my new house..." and everyone looked at me funny, especially Candy.

The conversation was stilted after that, but I did get commitments from a few of them to help me fix my place up. I left feeling awkward around them and Candy especially gave me a far off look I didn't understand.

*

Although I was 'banned' from attending my own graduation ceremony, my high school saw fit to send me a personal invitation to Stephanie's. A lot of my friends were there and I tried to act cordial to them and overall "put on a happy face", because even though I felt like shit internally, I didn't want to ruin Stephanie's graduation with my grumpy mood.

I was really proud of my sister; she was the valedictorian for her graduating class. I told her I would buy her a car if she became the valedictorian but I already got her a car last year. So, this year I was going to surprise her with a trip to Europe (with my Mom) for a month. She always wanted to see France, Spain and Italy so I got them a trip that took them to different hotels in different cities across those three countries.

My Mom has never been anywhere, so I let her know my intentions months ahead of time. Mom took care of all the passport and visa issues and effectively lied to Stephanie about what she was doing. Lorry would be home to take care of the house while they were gone, she was doing another internship over the summer before she went back to law school in the fall, so it all worked out.

I sat next to my mom on some folding chairs along with all of the other friends and family while the graduating class sat in the front rows. Each student's name was called up one at a time and Stephanie was called last, since she had to give the parting commencement speech. It started out pretty typical until she started talking about me...

"My brother Mike has always been my hero growing up. I know he would take a bullet for me because I have seen him jump in front of danger to protect me over the years. He protected me from my father when he turned to hit me after he got tired of beating on mom. He was only five at the time but he threw something my father said to him once in his face... 'only wussy men hit their women'. My father of course was incensed and after Mike took the hit meant for me, my father must have thought about what he was doing, because he ran out of the house and I was spared his wrath - thank god.

"Anyway, Mike physically protected me from an abusive stepfather too by taunting him, only to be beaten kidnapped and tossed out in the desert to die. Then last year, he protected me when men set out to rape me. And once again he almost died after being stabbed, but even while stabbed he did not stop fighting for me until I was safe.

"My brother is a natural protector, to tell the truth he is multi-talented and one of the smartest humans that I know. One thing he has always said to me, 'You don't always get to do what you WANT to do. And sometimes you don't even KNOW what you are good at. But if life reveals to you a special talent... One that very few can do... It is your responsibility to use those gifts for the betterment of society.' Forgive my paraphrasing Mike..." she said, and that got a few chuckles.

"Some of you know what you are good at. Some of you still need to discover what that is..." and she went on to talk about college and how we needed to find our talents and use them. Then she finished her speech to a standing ovation, and of course the graduating class threw their hats up into the air and everyone departed with their celebratory cliques to their various dinners and parties.

We decided to go to Black Angus this time. Their booths were bigger and the ceilings were higher up which helped with the acoustics so we wouldn't have to scream over each other. Simone, Paulette, Candy and Amanda were all there to celebrate with us. Stephanie would be going to Princeton at the end of summer, so a lot of her friends were coming by to say goodbye as we waited for our table.

Paulette gave me a side hug and a kiss on the cheek but the others were still acting awkward around me. But as the night progressed, they became more and more chatty and that soon faded to the background.

When we were seated, I sat between my mom and Lorry, almost like a protective barrier against the angry females in the room. The conversation stayed focused on Stephanie and her accomplishments and everyone had a story to tell of her antics over the years. Finally, Lorry brought me into the conversation by bringing up Stephanie's speech.

"I just wanted to say that Mike is more than a hero to you Stephanie, he saved me too. I'm in one of the most prestigious law schools in the country now because of him. I think we all have stories of what Mike has done for us over the years."

"Yeah," Amanda added, "I don't know if you know this, Stephanie, but last year Mike ran practically naked through Knotts Berry Farm to keep from having to thrash John Jr. and his friends. I know he could have taken them and wasn't worried about going to jail. He did it because he didn't want your birthday ruined."

"What?!" Stephanie said. "Why haven't I heard this before?"

"He made me swear to not say anything. I guess I broke my promise," she grinned.

"Ohhh, details, details," Stephanie pleaded.

Then Amanda went on to describe in detail everything that she knew, saw and was later told about the whole incident. I turned beet red and tried to excuse myself, but my mom put her hand on my shoulder keeping me in place. I guess reminding everyone that I wasn't a complete tool, acted as a catalyst because they all started talking to me again. And by the end of the night, everything seemed to be forgiven and forgotten, but I was still left wondering what I was being forgiven for.

I thought about it for awhile and I realized, I have four of the most beautiful women I could ever hope for offering to be friends with me and maybe more. How ungrateful was I? If that was my worst problem then, fuck it, I choose to be happy.

I stood up and tapped my glass with a fork to get everyone's attention.

"I'd like to say something, if you don't mind... First, I wanted to say that each of you were put in my life for a reason. I wouldn't be who I am today without anyone of you. At one point each one of you pulled me out of the abyss. And each one of you taught me a life lesson that made me a much better person. I'm far from perfect. I'm far from righteous, but I strive for it every day and thank you for making me better.

"My father was an angry bastard and he hurt people. I saw him beat my mother, I put up with him lashing my back with his belt, and ... he did far worse to others," I said purposefully not looking at Lorry. "I think I inherited that anger in him. But I was lucky, I was smart enough to be introspective and I observed how my feelings matched his behavior. I used to lash out in fits of pure rage and my sister Lorry would suffer through it. Lorry was always bigger and stronger than me, and she was sooo patient with me. She mothered me when mom couldn't. She stood fast and waited with love and eventually I saw that I was hurting her (or trying to) and I grew to hate myself. Through my hate I taught myself self-discipline, and over the years I learned self-control. I've never hit a woman or bullied someone weaker since. Thank you, sis," I said.

"Then there is Stephanie... Ain't she something?" I said, and everyone smiled. "There isn't a person that has gotten to know Stephanie that doesn't love her... I take that back; I should say there isn't anyone that is capable of love that doesn't love her. That psychopath she ran into was an exception not the rule... But, no one loves Stephanie more than I do. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for her."

"OK, give me all of your money," she asked laughing.

"No!" I said, laughing. "Only because you asked as a joke. You would never ask me for even one cent of my money. I know, I've waited for you to. You see she loves me too much and has too much pride in herself to ask. The truth is, Stephanie taught me how to love others, without that I would never have succeeded in caging that 'beast' I have inside. Without her love, I would be worthless. I would have been no better than Johnny, always blaming everyone for his problems, lashing out at the world... Anyway, I just wanted to say that I love my little sister. You are MY hero," I said, choking up.