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Re: Daring to Dream - The Dash Davis Story
Chapter Nine: The Next Chapter
Dash spun his phone around in his fingers. Thoughts scrambled around in his brain. He was thinking of the worst possible outcomes. It was already 8:03, he had no idea why the meeting hadn’t ended yet.
“Man, come walk with us. Don’t sit there and worry about it,” Darius spoke while grabbing Dash’s phone.
Dash nodded and stood up, following his friends through the park. They were all laughing about their usual stories from the day. Surprisingly, Marcus hadn’t called some bitch out on her awful weave and Kwame managed to not do anything repulsive.
“Oh ****, not this crew,” Darius shook his head as they wandered into another group loitering the sidewalks.
Apparently, they knew them from school somehow. Dash didn’t care about the scruffy looking fellows, he noticed a girl behind them under a tree reading a book. That’s textbook love story ****. If you see a pretty girl reading under a tree in a damn park and you don’t go talk to her, you just might deserve to castrated.
Dash had a bad habit of losing all of his cares in the world when he was frustrated. It was a mindset that since everything else wasn’t working, probability was this will. At any other point in time, he probably wouldn’t have walked over and started talking to a girl seemingly out of his league, but fate works in funny ways.
“Is that 18th century poetry by chance,” Dash asked, acting like he knew what he was talking about.
The girl lowered her book to reveal a face that captured Dash’s hopes and dreams. She had big cheeks with caramel skin and a huge smile. She looked like a goddess in Dash’s eyes. That may have been from the light peeking out from the dark, but nevertheless, she had Dash instantly. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, giving her odd grey eyes a stunning glimmer.
“Um, no. It’s just an English book,” she replied sarcastically.
If Dash had a gun on him he might have killed himself right there, but he was no quitter, “Oh, I speak English, sometimes.”
Dash cringed inside his mind as she replied, “What do you speak when you don’t speak English?”
Dash knew he was already looking stupid, so he might as well capitalize as if he was doing it on purpose, “Love.”
She started giggling and Dash felt like a god. He had small talk with her for a few minutes before asking for her number. She pulled a pen out of her backpack and wrote on a torn piece of notebook paper. The girl grinned while handing Dash the note.
“I’m Amanda.”
Right as Dash got the digits, a loud ruckus occurred behind him. He quickly turned to see Kwame and another dude wrestling for position. Darius went one on one with the guy’s friend. Darius hit the man three times before tackling him. Marcus chased after another bro who had no interest in retaliating. Quan, though timid, was in the mix, throwing punches just so he looked like he was fighting. Dash’s eyes were big as the brawl continued. He walked quickly over to the mess. Within a quick second, an image came flying out the side of his right eye. By the time he knew he’d messed up he was on the ground. A kid stood above him about to pounce. Marcus quickly shoved the boy off and chased after him.
Some adults stepped in and within a few minutes the fight had finally came to an end. He held his eye which was starting to swell. Darius, Kwame, Quan, and Marcus all celebrated with a fight well won. They walked back towards the parking lot. Dash looked back and saw that Amanda was no longer under the tree. Luckily, the note was still in his hand.
“Dash, you gotta jump in during fights man. It’s what brothers do,” Darius said while getting in the car.
Dash shook his head, “I know. I just don’t get in fights a lot. I don’t have that instinct to run and start swinging.”
“Well, if that **** happens again, we may need you. I know we weren’t that good before you came here, but one thing we did do was have each other’s backs,” Darius preached.
“That’s something Johnson players never did,” Dash sighed.
“You ain’t a Jaguar no more. You’re an Eagle, man. You’re a brother,” Darius smiled.
All the excitement did manage to get the meeting off of Dash’s mind. When he got of the car though, he was well reminded as his phone rang. Darius pulled off and Dash stood in his front yard with the sun setting behind his house. The phone kept sounding but he didn’t want to answer. He finally built up the courage.
“Hello?”
“Dash, it’s Mark.”
Mark was the lawyer who was given to him to defend his case, “How’d it go?”
“Eh, could’ve went better, but you are cleared to play and no wins have to be forfeited.”
“That’s great!”
“Yes, it is, but, I have to inform you of something. I first thought I shouldn’t, but you really should know.”
“What is it?” Dash questioned, mildly confused.
Mark took a silent moment then spoke, “You know how we thought some Butler people got a hold of some files and tried to turn them in on you, so they could win?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“It wasn’t Butler.”
Dash shook his head, “It was Johnson wasn’t it?”
“No, it was your grandfather.”
Dash instantly was filled with emotion. Anger, hate, confusion. He quickly told Mark goodbye and ran in his house. His grandpa sat in his recliner watching television. He greeted Dash as though it was another regular day.
“Why Pawpaw?” Dash said.
His grandpa turned around, making a bottle of booze visible in between his legs, “What you talking about?”
“You tried to get me ineligible,” Dash replied sternly.
His grandpa’s face turned from confusion to anger, “Bull****, Dash. You know I ain’t do that ****.”
“Don’t sit there and lie to me. They have it on file,” Dash shook his head.
His grandpa tried to stand up but needed the assistance of his chair, “You listen here. I didn’t do that ****. I was framed.”
“You know what… if you don’t admit that you don’t want me to play because you can’t stand I ain’t playing at Johnson, I’m leaving.”
Dash’s grandfather walked eye to eye with Dash, the alcohol was coming strongly off his breath, “I… didn’t… ****ing… do it.”
“Bye,” Dash replied while turning and storming off to his bedroom.
He quickly started throwing clothes in his bag as he grandpa made his way to the doorway. Dodger Davis began beating on the walls, making a scene just to make one. Tears were now streaming down his face causing Dash to cry as well. They weren’t emotional guys but the sight of the other one in such distress upset them a lot.
“Where you gonna go, huh?” Dodger spoke through his angry tears.
“I don’t know, I’ll find a place,” Dash replied, neglecting to look his grandfather in the eyes and walking past him.
Dash opened the door, “David Davis III, if you walk out that door, I don’t want you back.”
Dash turned around, his heavy bag tightly gripped in his hands, and looked at the shell of what used to be his empowering grandfather. With several steps he walked out the door, not closing it, and onto the street. Dodger Davis fell to a knee, cried, and reached for a bottle.
Last edited by footbrawl; 08-04-2014 at 12:07 PM.
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