Aren't You Lucky?

I open my eyes, wrapped up in my blankets, I look to the window and the sun is peeking through the blinds. My fan is whizzing and its breeze fills the room, it’s gonna be a great day.

I throw a shirt on and make my way downstairs, my father is in the kitchen holding a cup of coffee and scrolling through his phone.

“You ready for the big game tonight?” He asks me without even looking up from his phone.

Excitement fills my body, I’ve been playing football since I was little, and this is finally my chance to win state championships and impress a college coach.

“Hell yeah I’m ready!” I say confidently, I grab a piece of bread, smear some peanut butter on it, and head out the door, ready to start the day.

I make it to school, the halls are buzzing, everybody's excited. People are wearing facepaint, fake jerseys, and shirts with our school logo on it, everybody is in the football spirit.

I meet up with my friend Bryson in the hallway, “Dude, we are gonna dominate tonight!” He says excitedly as I walk up to him.

I nod my head in agreement, “Hell yeah!” I say excitedly.

Suddenly the head cheerleader, Courtney Ferguson walks by, “Hey Jason.” She says in a seductive tone while looking me up and down.

A slight bit of dread brews inside of me. Everybody always pictures me and her as the perfect couple, but she just makes me feel weird every time I’m around her.

I turn around and start heading to class with Bryson, “Dude, you are so lucky she’s interested in you! She’s the hottest girl in school.” He says excitedly, “You should totally bag that after the game tonight.”

I give a slight smile and nod, acting like I’m agreeing with him. No way things would actually lead to that tonight anyways.

Later that night, we are in the last 10 seconds of the game, we are tied 28 to 28. No way we’re going to get this last play, no way.

Suddenly, the referee blows the whistle, and the ball is sent flying through the air, without even thinking I run up and catch it. Surprisingly, there is nobody in the way between me and the end zone. I dashed, protecting the ball with my life, people tried to run at me, but I out maneuvered them, then suddenly, I was past the endzone a second before the clock ran out, I had won the game.

My entire team surrounds me as we are declared the winners, they pick me up and celebrate our victory, the cheerleaders join into the huddle also, the football team welcomes them. Everyone is screaming and cheering, this is the win of a lifetime that we will never forget.

We end up at a friend's house to celebrate. There’s booze, drunk teenagers, and the smell of youthful freedom filling the air.

I walk up to the counter where my friend Bryson is and grab a beer, I crack it open and start drinking it.

“That’s one hell of a way to finish off a season.” He says while nudging me on the shoulder.

I chuckle, “Yeah, it sure is.” I say, content with how my life is at this exact moment.

Suddenly, Courtney walks up and starts going through the cabinets, she finds a bottle of Vodka.

She grabs the Vodka and turns around to me, “Aww, look at the little baby drinking a beer, can’t handle anything stronger?” She asks in a demeaning tone.

Bryson laughs and lightly punches me in the shoulder, “Oh fuck no! You’re not gonna take that from her are you!” He says with his hand cupped around his mouth.

I start to feel uncomfortable and shake my head, “No thank you, I’ll just stick with a beer.” I say, trying to be polite.

Bryson wraps his arm around my shoulders, “Come on now dude, don’t be a pussy, drink the Vodka.” He says.

Courntey with an empowered look on her face pours a shot into a plastic red cup and starts swirling it in front of my face, “No that’s alright, if he can’t handle it, that’s fine.”

I grab the cup from Courtney’s hand, just one can’t hurt right? I gulp it down, and before I know it, Courtney’s pressuring me to take another one, again with my friends backing her up. She continues with this throughout the night.

I wake up, and look out the window, the sun peeks through the unfamiliar blinds. I’m all wrapped up in a blanket, although the room is hot and feels like an air conditioner has never touched this house.

I look around the room and realize that I never left the party. I pull the blanket off and realize that I am completely naked and for some reason I have a boner. What the hell happened last night?

I can feel tears start to form behind my eyes as I imagine the possibilities, I sit up and look to the other side of the bed, Courntey is there, still asleep, curled up facing away from me.

My heart drops to my stomach, I know what happened.

Bryson quietly opens the door and sees me sitting there naked, his eyes are red and he is slumped over, he had a pretty rough night too.

“Oh, fuck yeah dude!” He celebrates quietly as he picks up my clothes off of the floor and tosses them to me. I put my clothes on and quickly head out of the door, Courtney doesn’t move, she either isn’t awake or doesn’t care at all that I am.

I head home, my skin feels like it’s crawling, I feel disgusting. How could I let this happen, I just shouldn’t have drank.

I make it home and my father is sitting on the recliner drinking coffee and scrolling on his phone, “Late night?” He asks.

Trying not to cry, I nod my head up and down and say, “Yes.”

I guess my voice sounded funny, because my dad puts down his coffee on the TV tray and looks up from his phone, “What were you doing all night?” He asks.

I try to think, but I can’t remember, “I was at a party, I think that I…” I stop, I don’t know if I can say it.

“What did you do?” He asks, his tone getting angrier.

“I slept with a girl.” I say, my dad stares at me, his eyebrow lifted and a look of disgust on his face.

“So you just can’t keep it in your pants? Is that what it is?” He asks.

“No Dad, it’s not like that, what happened was…”

“No, no, save it. But know this, you could’ve just ruined that poor girl's life, she’s just a teenager for God’s sake.” He says angrily.

He goes silent after that, I have no words, nothing to say, I just head upstairs to my room. Once I get into my room, I close the door behind me, I feel disgusting for what I’ve done. I want nothing more than to crawl out of my skin. I lay down in my bed and close my eyes.

That Monday I get to school, I see Courtney crying in the middle of a group of her friends, her friends are there trying to comfort her. All of them look at me in disgust, one of them walks up to me, “What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” She yells at me. The bustling hallway suddenly goes silent as all of the students stare at me and her.

I try to form a sentence, but I can’t. Courtney’s friend isn’t done, “So I guess she’s good enough to fuck, but not good enough to wait for in the morning huh?” She yells, then everybody in the hall starts whispering.

I turn away from Courntey’s friend and start walking toward my class, but she isn’t done, “Yeah that’s right! Be a little bitch and walk away from me just like you did her!” she hollers angrily.

Bryson catches up to me in the hallway, “Dude! That’s crazy that you bagged Courtney fuckin’ Ferguson last night.” He says excitedly.

I shake my head, trying to make it obvious that I don’t wanna talk about it. Bryson rolls his eyes and wraps his arm around my shoulder, “Don’t try to be so modest now. I saw you Saturday morning with your hard lil pecker, I know what you did.”

I push his arm off of my shoulder and start walking faster in order to not be next to him any longer.

“What? You’re a lucky son of a bitch, that’s all I’m saying!” He yells at me as I walk to my class.

I wanna throw up thinking about this, the whole school knows now. Everyone either thinks I’m the luckiest guy in the world or the crappiest guy in the world.

The day passes by slowly, it can’t end fast enough. At the end of the day, Courtney hops in front of me as I’m trying to walk to my car, I stop.

She looks me up and down with a smug look on her face, as if she’s expecting me to say something to her.

“What?” She asks, “Am I just a dine and dash for you?”

I try to walk past her, but she puts her hand on my shoulder as if she’s trying to stop me, I could easily push through and keep walking, but I stop.

“See that’s the fucking problem with you hormonal ass boys. You wanna have sex, but then you don’t want anything to do with me afterwards. Are you gonna call me again when you get horny?” She rants

I shake my head, “I’m sorry. I’m a piece of shit and you deserve better than me.” I say in a monotone voice.

She smiles without opening her mouth, like she just had a girlboss moment. I hop into my car and start driving home.

I get into my house, my dad is sitting on the recliner, as usual, “Dad,” I say, he looks up at me, “It wasn’t my fault…”