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It only took less than 10 minutes for Lucian and his entourage to pull into Shekinah’s Pizza Shack where a dozen or more others had already made found their way after the game. It was widely known by the older people in Edensville that if you wanted to go to Shekinah's on a Friday night you went during the games because afterwards it was wall to wall and packed with teenagers inside and out, whether they won or not. Lucian parked the car before his passengers spilled out. David had been to Shekinah’s, but never on a Friday night after the game. He and Adam usually went home and played video games, but one cursory look showed him what he had been missing out on.
Anyone that was anyone at Edensville High was here! Edensville High's beloved senior and star quarterback Joseph Coatsman. The running back Jacob Wells and his twin Esau, who didn’t play football because he preferred the rougher sport of Rugby and played on a league out of town, leaned up against the front steps. Jonah Wales, the swim team's captain, was standing with Cane and his brother Abel Adamson joking around. Noah Arkley was singing and imitating how he was the league’s top kicker this season. Coaches Cyrus and Jordan were walking in. David had heard they kind of acted as unofficial chaperones after the game at Shekinah’s. Only because it was rumored that they were having a wild love affair and used the ruse as chaperones to get to be together out in public, which really was no big deal because they were both single. However, as the speculation goes, the school board seemed to frown on teachers dating so they chaperoned. David continued to survey the scene and saw Rachel Laban and her sister Leah who both worked at Shekinah's and were always here like main fixtures.
The crème de la crème of Edensville High Popular scene were most definitely here. In its very own form of royalty, there was the former head cheerleader Sarah Walker and the former captain of Edensville High’s football team Abraham Chaldean. They had graduated last spring and were going to college now, but still made it to the games every Friday night for old time sake.
The couple had been together since they met freshman year and were the perfect example of young couples in love and not the gushy, overly PDA kind either. This couple seemed to really have a respect for each other. Something their peers envied them, even if they didn’t admit it. David had even heard that the two vowed to never even kiss on the lips because they were saving it for their wedding day. They had participated in the Abstinence ‘til Marriage Covenant their freshman year and didn’t want to be tempted to break that covenant with God. The Abstinence ‘til Marriage Covenant mainly focused on waiting until marriage for the things like intimacy and sex, asking teens to ask themselves questions like can you officially say that this person is your future spouse or are they someone else’s and other questions like would you want someone else kissing or being intimate with your future spouse? David thought it was cool and all, but he was a little more liberal in his beliefs than that, and when he got a girlfriend he would most definitely be kissing her.
Abraham nodded to several of the football players as the two were walking across the parking, but suddenly stopped and looked straight at David. “Hey man weren’t you in Mr. Dabar’s French II class last year?” He asked.
“Yeah!” David nodded. “And French III this year.”
“Awesome, glad you could make it out tonight. Do you know Sarah?” He presented the beautiful college freshman close to his side.
“Yeah, we’ve actually known each other a long time. We’ve gone to church together since we were like in elementary school.” Sarah turned her head and looked at him as if she were trying to remember his face.
“Oh wow, I thought you were new here….you’re uh…” Abraham paused as if waiting for David to give his name, but Sarah is the one that provided it.
“You’re David.......David King, right?” Sarah smiled like the idea finally hit her.
“Oh okay, great, maybe I can get with you sometime and you could help me with some issues I’m having in my French class at State?” David shook his head.
“Yeah, I’d be glad too. I'll get my number to you.”
“Awesome.” Abraham nodded and pressed his fist toward David to match it with his own.
Almost as an afterthought David interjected. “That sure was a great game tonight!”
“Yeah it was, I thought after the third quarter we had them.”
David totally agreed with him. “Dude, yeah, with that pass Joseph threw down field and Jacob scored after that double side step reversal. I thought we had it in the bag!” David admonished.
“You saw that?” Abraham questioned.
David laughed. “Saw it? Dude, it was the most awesome play of the night!” The two fist bumped again. Abraham got extremely excited when talking about football. His aspiration was to be a coach of a huge college team, perhaps Florida State or UT Knoxville.
“I was so sure that we had them rattled after that too, but they left Goliath in on defense and offense.” Abraham frowned and shook his head.
“Yeah man, that guy is a beast.” Caleb Veroce stepped up and voiced his opinion. This is more than amazing! David thought. Here I am standing in the midst of the Populars talking to them about football like I am one of them. This has got to be the greatest night of my life!
Suddenly the roar of an engine and the sound of a rather loud obnoxious car horn got everyone’s attention. Joseph Coatsman pulled up in his brand new Mustang with what seemed like the other half of the football team hanging out of it.
“Dude, have you seen Joseph’s new car?” Caleb kind of hit at David's arm to get his attention.
“Yeah, I saw it today after school. His dad went all out on it.” David tried, but the guy acted like he hadn’t even heard him because he was too interested in what the guys in the Mustang were doing as they piled out of the sports car.
Caleb covered his mouth in awe. “Dude, you have no idea. The paint job is off the chain! It's called Auto-Kandy. The paint is literally heat-activated and changes colors when it comes in direct contact with the heat of the sun, motor or even if you just touch it with your hand or something warm! The car is flat black when it's cool and sunset orange when heat is applied. That is the craziest thing I’ve seen in a while!” He smirked and gave David another playful punch in the arm. “Other than the red F450 before the game that is….” He turned back to the Mustang. “Are those hand prints all over it? Looks like the team had….awe man really? Is that a butt print?” He laughed so hard he covered his mouth with his hand. “Duuuude! Now that is funny! Somebody on the football team must've been having a little too much fun after the game!” He nearly howled with laughter as he grabbed David’s shoulder and rocked with humor.
David grinned. He already knew the facts about the car, but played along. “Yeah…that’s pretty sweet!”
Joseph and his brood had gotten out of the car, but didn’t make it too far. Girls and guys alike ran over to where he was parked, Caleb included, leaving David’s side, which David didn’t mind. He watched as Caleb approached the quarterback leaning casually against his new ride answering questions about his car's custom paint job. David didn't bother to follow. There were too many of them. He was just happy to be there.
“I’m hungry.” Eve pouted up at Lucian.
“You heard the lady.” He patted David on the back. “She’s hungry, let’s go get that pizza.” He pointed the group toward the door of the Shekinah’s Pizza Shack. David followed suit, but had slowed to nearly a full stop as he looked back over his shoulder and took in the scene behind him in the parking lot.
Reaching the door, Eve called out to him. “Hey David, you coming or not?”
David peeled his eyes from the people in the parking lot and followed the three he came with. “Yeah sure!” He couldn’t wait to tell Adam about tonight. He reached into his pocket for his phone when suddenly it was snatched out of his hand by Jacob Wells and passed around by the Popular crowd. Giving a camera to a Popular was like giving candy to a diabetic, to
o much of a good thing was never good. Jonathan Saulson was the last one to wind up with David's cell. He took his own selfie before tossing it back to its owner.
Jonathan smiled. “You gotta watch this bunch man. They can't resist a photo op. They think they're celebrities.” His laughter mingled with the noise on the inside of the pizza place as climbed the steps and disappeared inside. David followed quickly behind him and instantly found Lucian and the girls making their way to their table. Yeah, this was the most amazing night of his life!
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Adam’s mom called promptly at 10:30 on the dot. He didn't even have to look at the caller ID.
“Hey, mom.” He answered trying not to sound too chipper or too depressed, either causing her alarm.
“Hey, how’d you know it was me?” She sounded almost dejected, like she was trying to surprise him and failed.
“Mom, I have caller ID remember? And besides You Are My Sunshine is my ringtone for you on my phone, remember?” He could almost hear her spirits inflate as she laughed.
“Oh, I forgot about that. So how was your night?” Adam sighed.
“Quiet.”
“Yeah? You didn’t go to the game?” She didn't wait for him to answer before asking. “Where’s David?” Adam really didn’t want to explain that he and David had gotten into an argument.
“He didn’t come over.” So what he lied, it was just a little one. He made it work nonetheless. “We have a project in French to finish over the weekend, so I guess he wanted to get it done like I did.” Yes, he felt guilty, was he going to fess up now? No.
Besides, Martha Grace was too busy praising him and his friend to care at this point. “Such good boys.” Adam could hear his dad in the background dictating to her his own set of questions to ask his youngest son. “Oh, Edom I will, give me a minute.” Adam rolled his eyes.
“How was your flight?” Yeah, he was distracting her and deflecting anymore questions that she might have about him and David. A guys gotta do what it takes to get out of the hot seat, right?
“Oh it was smooth sailing until our descent, descent, that's the right word, right Edom?” His father's voice was muffled, yes, and yet at the same time he could hear him trying to ask her a question. Adam could detect the aggravation in his father’s voice.
“Martha, just give me the phone, I'll ask him myself.” Adam heard the phone being passed from one to another then the two passing words to each other in the background for just a moment and then it all faded when his father’s voice came across the line.
“Adam?” He said rather sternly as if Adam were in trouble.
“Yes, sir?” His voice wobbled. It wobbled he was sure of it and his father heard it because he paused. Adam could feel himself getting tense and rather paranoid, guilt was an ugly monster. He waited.
“Martha…shhhh, yes, I will tell him the flight was great. Your mother wants you to know that it was the descent that was a little bumpy." He turned back to his wife. "There are you happy I told him? Can I speak with my son now?” Relieved to have the focus off of himself, Adam nearly chuckled, when he heard his mother’s snappy little come back of well, he’s my son too ya’ know. She could get Edom Grace stirred up faster than anyone else could and for that matter Adam was extremely thankful right at this moment.
“Adam is everything going okay? I heard your mom say that you didn’t go to the game.” Adam stumbled. "Why not?"
“Well, I didn’t say I didn’t go. I went, but only for a little bit. We were playing Palestine and you know we never win against them.” He tried to assure his father, it didn’t work.
“Well Edensville won when Joshua was playing for them.” His dad reminded him.
“Yes sir, they did, but Palestine didn’t have a guy named Goliath Gath on their team at the time either.”
“I see….” His dad paused, Adam froze with a knot caught in his throat, and he waited for his father’s reaction. “You know…”
“Well truthfully….I was bored with the game anyway and just decided that I needed to get in bed early because of all the yard work tomorrow.” There that sounded believable, didn’t it?
“Well, hmmm….you know what I was thinking?”
“No sir?” He nearly choked out.
“Why don't you just head on out to the Canaan Farms tomorrow and grab a truck load of mulch from out there instead of getting bags of it at the hardware store. You can just throw a tarp in the back before he loads it up. It won’t take you that long.” Adam sighed in relief. That would mean that he had to go all the way out on Seminary Road to old man Canaan's farm to get a truck load of mulch, but if that was the price he had to pay to cover up his guilt then so be it.
“Yes sir, I can do that.” His dad sounded satisfied.
“Just have Mr. Canaan bill me for it and don't forget the tarp.”
“No sir, I'll make sure there's one in it before they load it.”
His dad sounded satisfied. “Okay, well, I guess you better get to bed. You have an early and long day tomorrow.” Adam agreed, said his good nights to his parents and hit the end button on his phone. Yeah, it was gonna be a long day.
Later, as he got ready for bed and slid into his pajama pants the alert notification on his phone went off telling him that he had received a text. Going over to the nightstand he picked up his phone and saw that he had a couple of messages from David. The first one was one telling him that he was sorry that he had gotten so upset and that he forgave him for not staying. The next one was a selfie of Jonah and Joseph outside of Shekinah's followed by more pictures of other Populars. The next picture was of David himself, in the backseat of what looked like Lucian Black’s car with Miriam Marah sitting practically in his lap. Adam had never seen such a wide toothed grin on his friend's face. The message attached to it simply said wish you were here. Then Adam’s Instagram and Twitter accounts began dinging signaling that there were more pics being uploaded. These were of David inside of Shekinah’s Pizza Shack sitting in a round booth with Miriam, Lucian and…..Eve. Adam wanted to throw his phone across the room, but the pics kept popping up drawing his curiosity. Several shots were of David grinning and making facing with random people photobombing in the background, well not just any random people these were the Populars of Edensville High. Adam rolled his eyes. That could have been him tonight if he hadn’t been so worried about his dad finding out about him driving his truck. Ugh, always being the responsible one was never fun! He hit the end button and threw himself across his bed and yelled out angrily into the quietness of the house, “Ahhhhh…..man…. why am I such an idiot?” The question fell on deaf ears with no one else home to answer him.