I walked up the steps to Wilson’s front door behind the rest of the group with Craig. He looked over at me and smiled saying, “Hey Lips, no biggie dude. Just messin with ya!”
I knew what he meant. Sometimes things don’t always turn out the way we hope they will. He thought he was being funny setting me up like that. I smiled and said, “Craig, you owe me one, OK?” And he knew he did. He owed me for more than what happened in the car. He owed me for taking all those sacks during the game, even after we knew we were losing. It made him look good.
“Sure Lips, I owe you one man! Count on it!” he replied putting his arm around my neck and pretending to take me down. I dug my shoulder into him with my arms around his waist and lifted him up off the ground, dropping him to his feet on the porch.
We walked into Wilson’s house. The place was packed with people from our University. I walked over to the table and picked up a coke and a handful of peanuts. Then another, and another. After my third handful of nuts, Stacy came up and handed me a huge slice of one of the six foot hoagies they had in the kitchen.
Stacy smiled at me and said, “Hey, I think I’m onto you.”
“Uh… what do you mean?” I replied.
Stacy looked up at me curiously and asked, “You have the hots for Cindy don’t you?”
I looked down at my feet and then back up to meet Stacy’s eyes and said, “Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t, why do you ask?”
Stacy smiled really big and said, “Well if you do like her, I know Craig is going to be playing pool all night, like he always does. And Cindy is just sitting out behind the barn all by herself just staring at the moon.”
“Woe dude! Are you serious?” I quickly snapped back accidentally revealing my interest.
Stacy smiled coyly and said in a whisper, “I would not run out there right away big fella, give it a minute… and then make your way out there. Finish your sandwich while we chat.”
My brain was swimming. What did all this mean? I hardly even knew Stacy. And what I did know about her is that she followed Craig around like a lost puppy dog. Why was she doing this? Should I trust her? Was this some kind of setup like what just happened in the car?
I stumbled with my reply, “Uh, Stacy… that would be total suicide. Craig would pound me for sure if he found out.”
Stacy placed her hand on my shoulder and leaned her mouth to my ear whispering, “I will keep my eye on Craig for you. If he even starts thinking of walking out there, I will flip the porch lights on.”
“Is Cindy in on this?” I asked.
Stacy smiled and said giggling, “She told me about your ride out here, and she really wants to help you with that big problem you seem to have.” Stacy looked down towards my crotch.
“She TOLD you about that!” I demanded.
Stacy got a serious look on her face, “We Cheerleaders have no secrets between us.”
“REALLY…” I replied in total amazement. The whole thing was kind of freaking me out. Obviously, Cindy would have had to have told her something. There would be no other way for Stacy to know about that.