Body Slammed! (13 page)

“That's what I told him,” Goose said.

Jesse didn't know why Goose was harassing him about his friendship with TJ, but he was getting sick of it.

“I have an idea, Jesse,” Wendell said. “Why don't you invite TJ to Goose's party? That way we can all meet him.”

“No, Wendell,” Jesse said, peeved. “TJ's taking me to a party at his apartment clubhouse. I'm
his guest.”

“
Ooh
, you're his guest,” Goose taunted. “What is he? Your girlfriend?”

Jesse's face flushed red.

“Yeah,” Bucky piped in with his irritating, high voice. “What is he? Your girlfriend?”

Jesse snapped. The rage he felt toward Riley spewed out. Without thinking, he seized Bucky by his shirt and slammed him against the lockers. “Look, punk! You keep talking like that, and you'll be eating your pizza at Goose's party with your jaws wired shut!”

Bucky's mouth fell open.

Wendell quickly pulled Jesse off. “What's the matter with you, man? Bucky was just joking. There's no need to freak out.”

Jesse slapped Wendell's arms away. “Get your hands off me, fatso!”

Bucky's face was chalky. His lower lip quivered and his eyes grew watery.

“Why are you picking on Bucky, man?” Alberto asked. “He didn't do nothing to you.”

“Yeah, why are you picking on him?” Sam echoed.

Other guys circled around Jesse.

“What happened?”

“Jesse slammed Bucky against the lockers for no reason.”

“Why'd you do that, man?”

“Yeah, why are trying to beat Bucky up?”

Bucky sat at the far end of a bench and sobbed. He was the smallest player on the team, standing five foot seven and weighing no more than a hundred forty pounds. Bucky wasn't an athlete. The only reason he was on the team was because he could punt and kick better than anyone else. He got teased a lot, but he was well-liked by everyone on the team. If Jesse had gone after anyone, it should have been Goose. He was the one who had been teasing him about TJ. Or Riley. He was the one Jesse was really mad at.

Jesse grabbed his duffel bag and made his way out of the locker room through a gauntlet of cold, angry stares. At that moment, he became the most hated guy on the team.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

S
aturday evening, TJ pulled up in front of the Target store, where Jesse had been waiting for him. Jesse had never wanted to see anyone more than he did TJ. He needed to talk to someone about what had happened the night before, but he didn't want to discuss it with his grandparents. Or his mother. And especially not his father.

TJ was wearing a variation of Green Lantern's costume. He had on a long-sleeve Green Lantern sweater, a green mask and green wrestling tights and boots. Jesse wore a black turtle-neck sweater and black pants, which he figured would be okay for a Halloween party, but it wasn't a costume. Jesse worried that he wasn't dressed appropriately.

“What's the good news, Jesse?” TJ asked as he drove out of the parking lot. “Are the Sidewinders the new district champs?”

Jesse stared out the window in silence.

“Are they?”

“No,” Jesse said quietly. Then unable to hold back, he choked up and began to cry.

TJ rubbed Jesse's neck. “Hey, man, don't let it get to you. The Sidewinders had a great season. You've got a lot to be proud of.”

“But it was my fault, TJ!” Jesse wailed. Through his tears, he told TJ everything that happened, including his blow up in the locker room. Jesse even told him about Sara and the comments Riley made about her.

“Don't think about it, Jesse,” TJ said. “It's over. Now come on. Let's go have fun. At the party, I'll introduce you to some gals that'll make you forget all about that old Sandra.”

“Sara,” Jesse said.

“See? I've forgotten about her already.” TJ reached in the back seat for a plastic bag. “Here, I've got something for you.”

Jesse opened the bag and took out a brown wrestling mask with white trim. The design was unfamiliar to him. He didn't know of any wrestler who wore it. Jesse was disappointed that TJ hadn't given him a duplicate of the Mil Máscaras mask.

TJ drove into the Brookstone Apartments parking lot and found a space near the club house. He turned off the ignition and told Jesse to put on the mask. “Whatever you do, while you're at the party, don't take it off. You understand?”

“But what if it gets hot?” Jesse asked as he laced up the mask.

“I'm telling you, Jesse,” TJ said, his face growing serious. “Don't take it off.”

At the door, a stout female security guard with short, dark hair was checking IDs.

“Evening, Maxine,” TJ greeted the security guard. “I want you to meet Sweet Brown Coffey, an old friend of mine. He's been wrestling in the indies for years. Coffey just got hired by the ACW.”

The security guard looked Jesse over. “Sweet Brown Coffey?” She let out a hearty laugh. “Honey, you're just how I like my coffee. Sweet and brown.” She waved them through. “Y'all have a good time, and don't drink too much.”

Once inside, Jesse asked, “What was that all about?”

“You're underage, Jesse,” TJ said. “No one under twenty-one is allowed in here. That's why I want you to keep the mask on. You're built like a man, but you've got a baby face. There's no way Maxine was gonna let you in if she saw what you look like.”

Jesse suddenly felt out of place. He glanced around the room. Most of the people appeared to be in their mid-twenties to early thirties. “So who's Sweet Brown Coffey?” he asked.

“You are,” TJ said. “For tonight, anyway. Get used to the name. That's how I'm gonna introduce you. Come on. Let's go meet some people.”

Strands of jack o' lantern lights hung across the ceiling, illuminating the darkened club house. Flames from black candles in glass bowls shimmered brightly. Trays of chicken wings, meatballs, taquitos and vegetable platters sat on three long tables. A cauldron in the center of one of the tables served as a punch bowl. A DJ dressed as a pirate boomed out techno music.

TJ led Jesse to the bar where a woman in a cat costume was arguing with the bartender, because he wouldn't serve her a drink.

“Hi, TJ,” she said. “I love your costume. Who are you supposed to be? The Green Hornet?”

“No, Kristi. I'm the Green Lantern,” TJ said.

Kristi hiccupped. “Oh, yeah. I saw the movie.” She wagged a finger in Jesse's direction. “And who are you supposed to be, darling? The Brown Lantern?”

“This is a wrestling buddy of mine, Kristi,” TJ said. “Sweet Brown Coffey.”

Kristi ran her hand along the side of Jesse's mask. “Ooh, darling. You're just how I love my coffee.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jesse said. “Sweet and brown.”

Kristi shrieked with drunken laughter. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

Jesse wished TJ had come up with another name for him. The Brown Lantern would have been better than Sweet Brown Coffey.

Kristi brushed up against TJ and said, “Darling, would you tell Hector to let me have just one more margarita? Please?”

“Kristi, you've had enough to drink for a while,” the bartender told her. “Why don't you get something to eat? Maybe later I'll serve you another margarita, but not right now.”

TJ peeled Kristi off him. “You heard what the doctor said, Kristi. Have you seen Arlene and Donna?”

Kristi hiccupped again. “Sure. They're sitting over there by the skeleton thingy.” She pointed to a table where a rubber skeleton with red, glowing eyes hung from above.

TJ introduced Jesse to the bartender, a man named Hector Castro, who lived at the apartments. “Give me two scotch and waters, Hector,” TJ said.

After the bartender prepared the drinks, TJ handed Jesse a glass and said, “Here you go, buddy. Drink up.”

Jesse couldn't refuse TJ now. The bartender might suspect something. He took a sip. The scotch and water burned his throat. Jesse didn't understand how anyone could enjoy drinking the stuff.

Having given up trying to persuade Hector to serve her another margarita, Kristi followed TJ and Jesse to the table where TJ introduced Jesse to Arlene, a girl he had been dating, and Donna, Arlene's roommate. Donna was dressed in a short, leather brown dress with two feathers that stuck out of a headband. Arlene wore a black-and-white French maid outfit.

“Are you really a wrestler?” Donna asked when Jesse sat next to her.

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

“You're kind of small for a wrestler, aren't you?”

“I fight in the light-heavyweight division,” Jesse told her, even though the ACW had no light-heavyweight division.

Donna took a sip of her drink. Then she reached for the bottom of Jesse's mask. “Let's see what you really look like.”

Jesse pulled away. “Sorry, but no one can know my true identity. You know, for security reasons.” He didn't know what that meant, but it made Donna laugh.

She was gorgeous—long, dark-brown hair, blue eyes and full lips. She was probably twenty-four or twenty-five, far too old to be interested in Jesse if she knew how old he really was.

“You're not ugly under the mask, are you?” Donna asked.

“No, actually I'm quite handsome,” Jesse said. “In fact, one of the reasons I wear the mask is because if I don't, my female fans will jump over the security railing at the wrestling arenas to try to get at me.”

Donna laughed again.

Under the mask, Jesse felt relaxed and uninhibited. Donna had no idea he was really a sixteen-year-old junior in high school. She asked Jesse about his wrestling career, so he told her his father's stories—about how he had wrestled for the Southwest Wrestling Association, the Universal Wrestling League and National Pro Wrestling. When Donna asked why she hadn't seen him on TV, Jesse explained that he was still new to the ACW, so they were only using him in house shows.

TJ and Arlene got up to dance. Feeling confident, Jesse took Donna by the hand. “Come on, let's join them.”

Kristi eyed Jesse's near-full glass of scotch and water. “Are you going to finish that?” she asked.

“Help yourself,” Jesse said.

He hadn't dated anyone since he broke up with Sara, so he was thrilled to be with a girl as beautiful as Donna.

After a while, Jesse and Donna stopped to get something to eat. Back at their table, TJ began telling a ghost story that had supposedly taken place in San Antonio.

“Years ago, a school bus stalled on the railroad tracks on Shane Street,” TJ told the group. “A train started coming toward it. The conductor yanked on the train whistle's string to warn the bus driver to move out of the way, but the bus didn't budge. Then, bam! The train smashed into the bus, killing the driver and a bunch of little kids.”

Arlene and Donna gasped. Kristi's eyes were glazed, and she looked as if she was about to pass out.

“Anyway, they say that if you drive to the railroad tracks and stop your car over them, the ghosts of those little kids will push your car away from the tracks,” TJ said. “I've even heard stories
of people who sprinkled baby powder or flour on the trunk of their car before going out there. And after their car is pushed past the tracks, they've discovered the ghost kids' handprints on the trunk.”

Arlene snuggled up to TJ and said, “I have an idea, baby. Why don't we go out there right now?”

TJ turned to Jesse. “What do you say, Sweet Brown Coffey? Wanna see some ghosts?”

Jesse looked at his watch. It was almost midnight. He had told his grandmother that he would be back by twelve. “It's getting late, TJ. I think I'd better start heading home.”

“Aw, come on, Sweet Brown,” TJ said. “Don't be a party pooper. The night's still young. Let's go meet some ghosts.”

“I want to go, too,” Donna said. She looped an arm around Jesse's. “Come on, it'll be fun.”

Jesse's heart melted. How could he resist? He smiled at her and said, “All right.” He asked TJ to let him drive.

TJ pulled his keys from a pouch that was strapped around his waist. “Be my guest.”

The five of them left the club house. Donna sat in the front with Jesse, and TJ, Arlene and Kristi sat in the back.

The electronic gates swung open and Jesse headed out of the Brookstone Apartments complex. “Which way?” he asked.

“Remember where Romo's is on Hanson Road?” TJ asked. “Drive to it. I'll tell you where to go from there.”

While Jesse drove, Donna nuzzled up against him and kissed his neck. “Take the mask off,” she whispered in his ear. “I want to see what you look like.”

Jesse wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead. “Maybe later.” He had no intention of removing his mask in front of her. He had told Donna he had been a wrestler for ten years, leading her to assume he was twenty-
seven or twenty-eight years old. That was fine with him. He didn't plan to see her again. She was just his date for the evening, someone to help him forget about “that old Sandra.”