Help Him

I finished Jada’s make up and we headed out to the car. Mom was already outside, but I didn’t look at my phone to read her text. She had given it back to me after keeping it for two days due to my negligence of getting Casey home by 9:00 pm on a school night.

“Oh you girls look super cute,” my mom said.

“Thank you Missy,” Jada said.

“You know I’m such a hottie right Ms. Ham?” Casey taunted jokingly.

My mom rolled her eyes and laughed. She made us pose for a few pictures and then we got into the car.

We headed to the field. When we arrived there were so many cars. People were parked on the sides of the road and even on the side of the school’s grass. It was packed. Mom gave me $10 for snacks and we waved goodbye. We headed up into the student section where Jeff and Cyman said they would be at, after we got through the long line. The minute we got to the top I could see large balloons. They looked like they said something, but a tall older gentleman was blocking my way. Suddenly, I heard Casey squeal!

“Oh my god Cyman! Yes…yes…of course,” Casey screamed.

I truly still didn’t know what was happening until the gentleman finally sat down. I saw Cyman giving a bouquet of yellow and blue flowers to Casey and she kissed him! Right there, in front of all those people, my best friend had her first kiss. I was so proud and so excited for her. Cyman had asked her to the homecoming dance after all.

After a few minutes, Casey settled down and we were able to watch the kick off. Keegan is our school’s kicker for the Varsity Tigers. We watched excitedly as the teams played. By halftime we were up 21-7. We have had a really good season. With two more regular season games left, we could definitely make the playoffs. I would love that for Baylen so much. He really wants to be scouted for LSU, Louisiana State University, so he needs exposure at a higher level.

Jeff wrapped his arms around me almost the entire game. It felt nice. They were all so kind to Jada too. Sterling’s girlfriend, Kimber, got us all popcorn and sodas so we didn’t even need to leave our seats. Harlynn was there, but we barely saw him. So many people wanted to see him and say hello since he was visiting from college. I kept seeing Jada watch Jeff and I. I would lean into him more each time that she did. I needed her to see that I had someone and that someone wasn’t Keegan. She seemed to be having fun with us. I hope Keegan knows how we tried to include her. She really is a nice girl. I would high five her every once in a while and we would scream together along with Casey obnoxiously loud.

As halftime wrapped up we continued to watch the game get more and more intense. The Falcons were only one touchdown behind now and we were at 3rd and 8. The center snapped the ball and Sterling looked for an open receiver. He scrambled in the pocket, trying to find anyone that was open. The offensive line eventually crumbled and Sterling was sacked. I saw Keegan grab his helmet and start jogging onto the field. They were going to punt the ball instead of going for it on 4th down. This was respectable. Keegan prepared to run and kick the ball, but the other team tried fiercely to block the punt. This caused one of the Falcons players to collide right into Keegan. I watched almost in slow motion as he hit him and knocked his helmet clean off. I held my breath as Keegan fell and slammed his head hard against the grass. We all waited. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t getting up.

SOMEONE HELP HIM, I thought.