--------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the Church of The Reverend Cotton Mather.  This story is
the sole property of the author, and may not be copied or downloaded 
for the intent of profit. Permission is freely given for anyone to 
download or copy for their personal pleasure or use, as long as 
there is no intent to charge money or barter for the privilege of 
acquiring this material.

   (Copyright 2005, revisions c. 2007, R.C. Mather)

E-Mail all comments to RevCottonMather at hotmail dot com
Don't be shy!  I enjoy hearing from you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


THE COMPETITIVE EDGE:
PLAYING THE GAME III

A Novel

by R.C. Mather



- 13 -

CAUSE AND EFFECT



The shit really hit the fan on Wednesday after Homecoming.
Fortunately, it was blowing in a different direction than at me.

Westy and Jason, along with everybody else from their pledge class,
got summoned to their fraternity house that evening after dinner.
They left the dorm thinking it was just another pledge hazing, joking
a little and complaining about the short notice.

They returned to their rooms three hours later pale, very quiet, and
still sweating.

I watched Westy rummaging around his desk, but he wasn't really
looking for anything. He was just fidgeting.

"Westy, what's up?" I asked.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. "Nothing, dude. Just forget
about it, okay?"

"Well, it's obvious something's fucked up your head, man. Don't
forget I've got to live in this room, too, so why don't you tell me
what's happening?" I persisted.

He sighed and shuffled over to the couch and tumbled down into it,
throwing his knee over the arm and leaning back to rest his head on
the back cushion.

"I fucked up, Sean," he said quietly. "You know that party last
weekend? Friday?"

I nodded. "Where I saw you and Jason with your dates," I said. I was
straddled across my desk chair, and I rested my chin on my hands on
the back of the chair, ready to listen to his story.

He snorted. "Yeah. What a hairball that date turned out to be." He
shook his head at the memory.

"What's the matter? Didn't get lucky?" I probably shouldn't have
said it, but he deserved anything that was coming down the tube at
him.

He gave a short, humorless bray of derisive laughter. "Not with
what's-her-face."

"Angelina," I reminded him.

"Yeah. Angelina. Big tits, high morals, dried-up cunt." He shook his
head as he remembered that night. "What a fuckin' waste of time and
money she turned out to be. Couldn't even get a fucking handjob out
of her. What a cunt."

"So, she's your problem here?"

"What? Angelina? No, man, what gave you that idea? She just wouldn't
give it up, that's all."

"So what's got you all fucked up tonight, then?" This conversation
was getting irritating. I was fast losing what little sympathy I had
started with toward Westy.

"Ah, it was that other shit from that night," he said, now a little
hesitant.

"At the party?" I prompted.

"Yeah, that night at the party. Anyway, I saw a girl there I'd been
out with before, you know?"

"A girl you'd been out with before? Or one of your one-night boinks?"

He smiled, a flash of the old arrogant Westy again. "It's all the
same thing, Porter."

"Maybe to you," I said disgustedly. "Okay, so you saw her at the
party."

"Her name was Amy. Shit, when I did her a couple of weeks ago I
thought she was a fucking tramp, but I didn't think I would ever run
into her again." He looked a little puzzled for a moment. "What do
they call it when something odd happens to you, like something
appears out of your past?"

"Serendipity? Or do you mean deja vu?"

"Yeah, serendipity, I think that's it." Westy settled in and
continued. "I thought it was, like, serendipity, when I saw her at
that party. I was a little buzzed, you know? And my fuckin' date was
getting more and more uptight as the night went on, and I had the
feeling I was gonna be shut out on nooky." He gave me another glimpse
of that Westy grin I had come to despise. "Can't have a Friday night
without a little action, you know."

"Yeah, right. My heart's bleedin' for you. So you ran into one of
your old squeezes." I tried to get him back on track. I was really
regretting offering a sympathetic ear.

"Man, where do you come up with this shit? An old squeeze. Is this
all part of those sappy Midwestern values you've been saddled with?"

I stood up. "Fuck you, Westy. I'm here trying to give you a hand,
and all you've got for me are insults?"

He sat up straighter, and actually managed to look apologetic. "Ah,
shit, Porter, I'm sorry. You're right, I'm an asshole."

I sat back down, albeit reluctantly. "Get back to the party, then.
I'm assuming this is all leading somewhere?"

His look turned sour and introspective again. "Yeah, sorry. It'll
all come around in a minute, you'll see. Anyway, Amy was at the
party, hanging all over Arthur Burns - he's one of the Sig Tau
brothers who live in that apartment, you know?"

One of Jeremy Peters' roommates. "Okay," I said. I motioned for him
to go on.

"Okay, okay, don't get your panties in a knot," he said, a little
roughly. He slumped back down on the couch and squirmed around to get
comfortable. "Amy was there, I think she was stoned to the max, and I
was buzzed and horny, like I said, so I got this crazy idea. I
cornered her one time when Angelina and Kitten were in line for the
can, and I sweet-talked her into a quickie. We couldn't use the
bedrooms, because we'd have had to pass by the line waiting to use
the john, and Angelina would have spotted me, so we snuck downstairs
and found a blanket in the back yard."

I knew where this was heading. It was like watching a car wreck in
slow motion, fascinating and morbid, but still irresistible.

"She peeled off her panties in about record time, Sean, it was
really something." He smiled again at the recollection, and then
remembered the consequences, and he sobered up quickly. "Anyway, she
was laying there spread wide, so I dropped my own shorts, hopped on,
and rammed home. When I climbed off her, Jason was there, watching,
so I asked him if he wanted a ride. Amy wasn't particular, so he just
pulled his dick out and hopped into the saddle for sloppy seconds."

"Yuck," I said.

"What's the matter, Porter? Never had sloppy seconds?" His lip
curled. "Wait'll you try sloppy sixths or sevenths, dude."

"Ain't never gonna happen, Bridges. Skip the gory details, okay?
Then what happened?"

"Got a weak stomach, Porter?" He saw the look on my face, and his
own expression was hard. "Yeah, I know, I'm a degenerate. So what?"

"Hey, what you do on your own time is your own business," I said.
"You want to be an asshole, go right ahead."

"I may be an asshole sometimes, but at least I'm not crying every
night because I'm young, dumb, and full of cum," he said with a
knowing smirk.

"Nope, you're not," I said tightly. "You're just hanging on at the
frat house by your fingertips. What happened with the girl in the
back yard?"

He sat up a little straighter. "Okay, anyway, so while Jason's
taking his turn with her, getting his rocks off, I run back upstairs
and let a few of my pledge buddies know what's going down, and
there's a line forming to the right. I figure I'd better get back in
there before Amy gets too loose and squishy to be any good, so I do
her a second time, and Jason hops back on, and by the time she had
done everybody in line, that bitch had taken about twenty loads, and
she was still on her back, squirming around and moaning for more."

"Jesus Christ, that's disgusting," I muttered.

"Yeah, it is," Westy said, almost happily. "Best damn night in this
rathole of a college yet."

"For Chrissakes, Westy," I said.

He waved me off. "Anyway, the upshot of it all is that Kitten caught
Jason with his fly open, put two and two together, and flew off the
handle. She told Angelina about it, and that was all she wrote.
Angelina took off, Kitten grabbed Jason and dragged him off to look
for her, so I had no choice but to tag along."

Apparently the memory of that part of the night wasn't very
pleasant, because his expression was dour again.

"So, I found out later somebody found Amy wandering around dripping
cum all over the floor, and then Arthur and Jeremy and some of the
other brothers started asking her about what had happened, and they
found out about my involvement in it all..." He paused, clearly
uncomfortable about telling this part of the story. 'It figures,' I
thought. 'Consequences just aren't something an asshole like Westy
would consider before jumping in on something.'

"And?" I, on the other hand, was looking forward to listening to him
confess about the aftermath.

"And so tonight the brothers called the entire pledge class over to
the house, and they really reamed us out. Me and Jason really got
hammered, not only by the brothers, but by the other guys in our
pledge class, too. Shit!" Westy pounded his fist on the arm of the
couch. "It's not like they weren't willing to take their turn at her,
and yet it's like they're blaming me for getting them in trouble!"

"The thankless bastards," I said facetiously.

Westy glanced at me, wondering if I was serious. The look on my face
must have told him I wasn't.

"All right, so maybe it was kind of my fault," he grudgingly
admitted. "Even so..."

"So how much trouble are you in with the fraternity?"

"On probation," he spat. "Jason, too. We ain't got no freedom at
all. Starting tonight, the two of us have to spend every spare minute
either at the fraternity house, or in the company of a designated
brother. Homework gets done there, and they're going to check it to
make sure it's done right. If I gotta go to the library, somebody
will go with me. I can't hardly go to the can by myself, for
Chrissake."

"So you're not going to be around here very much," I said. Inwardly
I was smiling, though I was careful to not let it show on my face.
'Things are looking up.'

"Just to sleep," he said. "From now until the end of the semester."

"Well," I observed, "it ought to keep you from finding mischief."

"It'll do that," he agreed. "Besides that, training for the swim
team began this week. I ain't gonna have energy to go sniffing
poontang during the week, anyway."

"You really have a way with words," I said sourly. I felt like I
needed to take a shower, and that was just from talking to Westy. He
got up and started rummaging around again. 'If he's looking for a
conscience, he isn't going to find it in his dresser drawers,' I
thought to myself. I did manage to keep my mouth shut, though, even
when he turned to me a little expectantly. 'Is he looking for
absolution? Understanding?' He wouldn't find it with me. No way was I
going to shake his hand. I almost looked around the room to see if
there was a ten-foot pole handy, just so I could say I wouldn't touch
him with it.

I suddenly felt the urge to call Reggie to see if she wanted to meet
me for coffee or something. I needed to talk to somebody sane, so I
could rinse the Westy taint from my psyche. I waited, watching as
Westy packed up his backpack with books so he could study at the
fraternity house. He left a few minutes later, still grumbling under
his breath. He left our door open and stepped across the hall to
pound on Jason's door. Music was floating down the hall from several
rooms, so I didn't hear them leave, but I was sure they had plenty to
talk to each other about as they walked over to the Sig Tau house to
begin their probation.



* * * * * * * * * *


Despite my feeling at that moment to call her, I resisted. I tried
to concentrate on my own homework that evening, and for the next
couple of weeks after Homecoming I tried to cool down my association
with Reggie just a little. Beer is a wonderful relaxing beverage, but
I had learned that both she and I were prone to being more...
attentive when under its influence, and in this instance,
attentiveness was not what we needed. We still went out on the
weekends together, but we were both trying to fit back into the molds
we had originally made for ourselves. Guilt, even implied guilt of
the soul, can sometimes be a blessing in disguise.

Even so, on our Saturday all-day bus ride up to the tournament in
Washington, D.C., I found myself thinking about Reggie. It was a
little dismaying when I finally recognized the truth I had been
avoiding for a long time: I already missed her, and I had only been
away from her for about eight hours, having spent most of Friday
night with her at another party, this one at Jesse and Bryan's
apartment.

'Christ, Porter, Reggie isn't the girl you're supposed to be missing.
What is wrong with you?'

Which brought me to another naked truth: I had been away from Kayla
for so long, I barely missed her anymore. This truth, instead of
setting me free, only made me sadder. That was not what I wanted, and
I knew it was not what Reggie wanted, either. It was just another
tangled knot my clumsy fingers would never be able to untie.

I wandered up and down the aisle of the bus, stopping to talk to
friends, hoping to find a conversation that was involved enough to
yank me out of my melancholy, but all I could achieve was a temporary
salve to my nagging conscience. I decided the only way to purge
myself was to write a long letter to Kayla, so I propped myself up
against a window toward the back of the bus and pulled a notebook of
lined paper out of my pack. I rummaged around until I found a pen,
propped my biology textbook on my knees, and began to laboriously put
together some coherent sentences. As I began writing about the
mundane events of my college life, I deliberately left out any
mention of Reggie, describing instead the recent hard life of my
roommate, tales of Jesse and Brittany, and moaning about my continued
bad luck playing gin against Spencer Goldman.

A couple of hours later, I discovered I was in a much better mood.
The combination of concentrating on my task and knowing I was writing
to my girl back home created a surprisingly welcome ache. I wanted to
see her, to touch her, to talk to her so badly it was nearly a
physical symptom. When I realized what it was, though, I embraced the
wanting and the emptiness. It was Kayla, just as it had nearly always
been Kayla. I was almost happy in my misery, having rediscovered that
which had been missing.

I signed off on my letter, folded it carefully, and put it back in
my pack. I settled back, crossed my arms, and let my head fall back,
ready for a nap. 'With luck I will dream of my white-haired angel,' I
thought lazily as I drifted off.



* * * * * * * * * *


I wasn't quite that lucky. No dreams of Kayla, or of any girl, for
that matter. I did manage to sleep for a couple hundred boring miles,
but then I was up again, and faced with another choice: study or try
to win back some of my money from Goldman. I opted to play cards, and
we acquired an audience of equally bored teammates as we battled for
four-suited supremacy.

For once, I walked away a winner, if only by a slim margin. Spencer
was happy to mark down the fact that I outpointed him in this
particular contest. He was undeterred, and with good reason, knowing
as well as I that he would recoup this loss another time.

The bus pulled in to the Capitol Hotel, our home away from home for
the next week, after dark. We were all anxious to get off the bus and
put our feet back on solid ground again, and we piled off the bus and
stood around as Eddie and our driver crawled into the storage space
beneath the coach and started sliding our individual gear bags and
suitcases out.

I grabbed my stuff and lugged it into the hotel lobby, where Pick
was stationed. He doled out room keys to the designated holders as we
checked in. Pick had decided on who was staying with whom, and he
elected to spread everybody out. Instead of rooming with Spencer,
Bryan, or Jesse, the teammates who were my closest friends, I was in
a double with Luke Severin. Luke and I had hung around together on
occasion, and neither of us had a problem with it. We could live
together for a week without getting on each other's nerves.

We all stowed our gear in our rooms, and then met in a reserved room
in the restaurant for a late dinner. By the time the soup arrived, I
was ready to nod off, thinking longingly of stretching out between
nice, cool sheets. Everybody else looked as wiped out as I felt. We
finished up our meal and called it a night.

We had our first practice scheduled for the next morning. Our bus
was waiting for us after we finished a light breakfast, and we rode
over to one of the practice fields at Georgetown University. We
started slowly, walking three laps around the field, and then broke
into an easy jog for three more laps. We stopped and stretched while
Pick, Eddie, Stan Harvard, and Marv Allison, our equipment manager,
got our practice balls and jerseys out and ready.

We broke out into our Alpha and Omega practice teams and took the
field. Pick gave us some final instructions, and we spent the next
hour working.

By then, I was just as comfortable in midfield as I had ever been in
my typical defensive position. Pick still started me every game in my
right back spot, but during every scrimmage I played up. I moved over
to the center, switching with Max, so often that we hardly had to
communicate about the switch anymore. He would see me start to move,
and he would angle over to cover my territory, practically on
instinct.

Sometimes we would switch because of the movement of the ball or the
positioning of an opposing player, and sometimes we would switch
simply because of a gut feeling I might have. Either way, our switch
nearly always rippled through both teams. Cause and effect: when
Alpha and Omega saw Max and me move, adjustments were made all up and
down the field. Perhaps an Alpha back turned and passed to a player
other than his original intended target, or maybe a forward
sidestepped and changed direction. It wasn't long before these
changes in tactic became evident to all my teammates.

The biggest change, though, occurred early on in our practice
sessions when Max and I shifted. My Omega teammates, watching what we
were doing, became much more fluid in their coverages. The
willingness to change up or back, as well as side to side, made our
scrimmage team a lot more versatile, and we covered the ball much
better. Sometimes, especially during the early learning phase, we
found ourselves bunching up, but shouted instructions from the
captains up and back usually corrected it. Alpha was having a much
harder time creating space and moving the ball into a quality scoring
position.

Alpha Team was also observant, however, and they very quickly
adapted, especially when they saw Max and me shift. They, too, began
to utilize speed and slippery coverages, adjusting to Omega's
changes. Ehrlinger and Porter were the triggers, it seemed, and the
ripple effect spread through both scrimmage teams. Once the positions
taken up by Alpha became as changeable as Omega's, the complexion of
the entire Gator team changed. No longer could another team
concentrate on Jesse Wilhoit attacking from the middle, or Frenchy
defending on the left. Anymore, Jesse could very well be handling
midfield duties from the left or the right, and Frenchy could be
found up and in the middle right next to Jesse. I was certain that it
played hell with other teams' scouting reports on us, a fact that no
doubt tickled Pick. He just stood on the sidelines with Stan, looking
like he had swallowed a canary, as he watched his team transform on
the field.

We finished up our practice and got back on the bus. We had another
short practice scheduled for the afternoon, and our first game,
against George Mason University, was the next afternoon. Our practice
in the afternoon consisted mainly of shooting and passing drills,
enough to put the ball on our feet but not enough to feel like we
were working ourselves to death. We finished up with a two-mile run
around the practice fields and the stadium. Just for kicks we took
practice balls with us and played passing games among us, working on
keeping the ball in the air as we ran. It was good practice, and it
made running miles more fun as we did our laps.

After we got back to the hotel and had showered, I called the hotel
where the South Carolina team was staying and talked to my old buddy
from home, Trent Abbott. He had called me a few days before to let me
know where they were staying during the tournament, and we wanted to
get together with Eric Johnson, who was staying in his dorm on campus
at the University of Maryland. I got permission from Pick for Jesse
and me to leave the hotel for the evening, and we took a cab over to
Trent's hotel. From there we all took the cab out to College Park, so
we could meet Eric at a pizza joint just off campus.

When we arrived at the restaurant, a local dive called Charlie's,
the three of us tumbled out of the cab and raced each other into the
dim interior. I spotted Eric sitting in a booth against the wall. He
saw me at about the same time, and stood up as we approached.

"Porter, Goddamn, it's good to see you," he said, holding out his
hand.

I didn't bother shaking it, but instead I stepped in to him and
wrapped him up in a big bear hug.

"You're even uglier than I remember you," I said, my voice a little
husky.

"You always did have poor eyesight," he retorted. He patted my back
as we hugged.

We finally broke apart, and Eric shook Jesse's hand. "You keepin'
this young one in line?" he asked.

"You have no idea what a pain in the ass he can be sometimes," said
Jesse. "Just ask his good friend Frenchy when you meet him."

Jesse and I had a good laugh over that one, and ended up explaining
a little about my history with Frenchy to Eric and Trent.

"Sounds like he could out-weasel Weasel," said Trent.

"Weasel had redeeming qualities," I said. "Frenchy hasn't really
shown any as yet."

"He's a helluva player, though, you've got to admit," Jesse reminded
me.

"Yes, he is, and he'll be glad to show you when you run into him,
pal." I pointed to Eric, who would no doubt be faced up against him
if we played each other later in the tournament.

"Sounds like fun," he said. "Coach has been working on my takeoffs
and my sprinting speed. Sounds like the kind of matchup I can test
myself against."

"Jesus, you mean you're even faster than you were last year?" I asked.

Eric just smiled, which was confirmation enough for me.

"Well, I hope it isn't us who lights the fire on you," said Jesse.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about it," offered Trent. "Once he's
got a ball to worry about, it slows him up something considerable."

Even Eric had to laugh at that.

The four of us spent most of that evening in a sausage-and-cheese
pizza extravaganza, catching up on college life for each of us. We
bragged about our teams, laughed over some of our teammates (of
course, tales of Frenchy were a big hit with Trent and Eric), and
brought each other up to date with news of home.

I asked Trent about his girlfriend, Danielle Nickerson, and he told
us they were moving into an apartment together next year. They didn't
want Danielle's parents to find out about it quite yet, so he asked
us to keep the news to ourselves until they could break it to her
parents over Christmas.

Eric, in turn, said that he and Keisha had been having some
problems, and I probably wouldn't see her this week. Something didn't
ring true, but he was so reticent to talk about it I didn't press him.

In short order, though, we were back to being the three amigos once
again, goofing off and carrying on almost like high school. Jesse
hung back just a little, content to let the three of us be ourselves
for the evening, smiling at us and laughing with us. Perhaps he was
remembering his own high school friends as he watched our interplay.

Almost before we knew it, it was time for the three of us to head
back to our hotels. It was nearly midnight, early for college kids,
but we still had a curfew to obey. We promised to catch up with Eric
during the week at the tournament. I really wanted to watch Maryland
play, not only to see Eric on the field once again, but also to scout
out a potential opponent. I was also planning on watching Trent's
team play the next day, since they were taking the field against
Kentucky right after our game.

Eric stayed with us outside the restaurant until the cab came.
Jesse, Trent, and I tumbled into the back seat, shouting out to our
friend as he turned and, with a final wave, walked off into the
darkness, back toward campus.

We dropped Trent off at his hotel, and finally made it back to the
Capitol, just making our curfew. Luke was already asleep in our room,
so I undressed in the dark so I wouldn't disturb him. I brushed my
teeth and washed my face, turned out the bathroom light and stumbled
in the dark, stubbing my toe against the bed frame before finally
climbing into my own bed. I sent out a silent prayer to Kayla, and
then rolled over onto my side. Tomorrow was the first tournament day,
and I was looking forward to the week.





(Continued in Chapter 14)


  
CE13