Cody
This is it. This is that moment that changes your life. The lynch pin for the life you know you are supposed to live. This moment, this one right here, is mine.
It’s the fourth quarter of the biggest game of the year. The biggest game of my life. This is the Super Bowl. My team and I have busted our asses for the last year to be here and we are here. We are mother fucking New York, baby.
My parents and my girl are in the team box watching. My parents, they’re proud. I busted my ass as a kid in a small town in Texas to get to the NFL. I’m going to give my ring to my dad, the best guy I know. My girl on the other hand, she’s not proud. She gets off on being my fiancée. She’s after a different ring and I’m going to give it to her in the off season.
So here I am running to the end zone, fourth quarter of the biggest game of my life. Timmy, our quarterback and a crazy mother fucker all around waits until the very last moment to pass the ball across the field to me.
I leap up into the air like a mother fucking gazelle. No, they’re weak. Like a mother fucking mountain lion on the hunt for my prey. I arch back to grab the ball from the air and see all the flashes. This image. This picture of me is going to be on the front page of every paper in the morning.
My fingers just touch the ball when I’m hit from behind by a Mack truck, or at least that’s what it feels like. When my body hits the ground, the ball is in my arms underneath me and the human truck hits me again. I will never forget the sickening crack we all heard before everything went black…
Lights. Lights are bright. And blurry. Where the fuck am I? I blink again, trying to clear my eyes, when I see an angel. From the light up above me comes the most gorgeous girl with bright blue eyes and big, light blonde curls bundled up like my Granny’s yarn on top of her head. She smiles a toothpaste commercial smile at me.
“Welcome back.” But that’s all I hear. Because when I try to ask my angel if I’m dead, everything goes black again. And the last thought I have is what a dumb fucking question to ask an angel. Of course I’m fucking dead. And now, now, I’m also a moron.
When I wake up again, there’s a constant beeping that is driving me slowly insane. It’s likeBeep...Beep…Beep… I open my eyes again and this time everything works. I see Kimmy and her perfectly styled red hair. Her gorgeous face marred by an ugly frown. She looks up and realizes I’m awake. I realize that I am in a hospital and that God awful beeping is my heart beating, so that’s good, right?
“Oh, good. You’re awake,” Kimmy says coolly and I can’t help but think her first words to me should have been something along the lines ofYay!!! You’re still alive!!!But who am I to judge. “Look, your parents went to get a cup of coffee, so I’ll make this quick.”
“Okay,” I say but it comes out garbled. Kimmy obviously needs no approval because she just keeps on keepin’ on and with the words that come out of her mouth, I think I’d rather get hit by that guy from San Diego that’s the size of an elephant again.
“Look, it’s not you, it’s me.”
“What?” I ask.
“This just isn’t working out for me anymore,” she starts. “I signed on to be a football wife, not the caretaker to an invalid in Nowheresville, Texas,” I hear a gasp from the door and see my mom and dad standing there with my angel, who is apparently a nurse. A really hot fucking nurse. But I can’t care about that because this crazy person is ripping my heart out. And right in front of my mom, no less.
“I should probably go. I’m going off shift and Jackie will be your nurse if you need anything this evening.” And with that my angel leaves me high and dry. I don’t even know her name.
“You should probably go,” I tell Kimmy. “And you should leave your engagement ring with my mom over there,” Kimmy gasps.
“But I love this ring! You know how much I love it,” she pleads.
“Funny, I thought you loved me,” and with one last pleading look of her big brown eyes, she takes off my ring and stands. Kimmy walks over to my poor, sweet mom and places the ring in her up turned palm. Those eyes, they used to get me. I’d do anything to make her smile. And her puppy dog eyes got me every time. But never again. Brown, green, blue or hazel, I will never fall for another pair of lying eyes from any woman ever again.
