Entering the coffee shop, I searched the packed place until I found a cluster of students at the back. A few people stared at me. It was amazing that since getting game time and helping my team get a W, I had become a kind of campus celebrity.
A journalist had heard about my story, of surviving terminal cancer by being in a clinical trial for a new form of monoclonal antibody, and it had gone viral overnight. People seemed to see me as some kind of reborn athlete.
I didn’t care for any of it. All I wanted was my girlfriend back. A week was too long to go without her.
I pushed past people who were muttering in low tones about my presence in the shop and stopped right at the cluster of tables that housed the writing group. I found Junebug in seconds. Dressed in jeans and a pink shirt, hair in a messy bun on the top of her head, June was engrossed in what somebody was saying, brown eyes bright and showing her interest.
Some guy I didn’t know, one who was sitting far too close to my girl, looked up and saw me standing here. I could tell by his raised eyebrows that he knew who I was. “Er, hi. Can we help you?”
The person who was reading their work paused, and June looked over to see who the guy beside her was talking to. She shifted on her seat the minute she saw me. Her cheeks paled, and I wanted nothing more than to reach across the table to kiss her and remind her that she was my girl and I was her guy, that we were Jesse and his June.
“Jesse,” June murmured, looking nervously around the table. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see my girlfriend before I leave for Clemson tomorrow,” I said. I made sure I had her undivided attention when I said, “I missed you, Junebug.” I heard the strain in my own voice, the one that told her just how much of what I was saying was true.
The guy beside June turned to her. “You’re dating Jesse Taylor?”
The guy’s attitude was shitty, but I ignored him, still too busy holding my breath waiting for June’s response.
“I am,” she said to him, then got to her feet. She gathered her things and came to where I stood. “Let’s go outside,” she said.
I followed her out. Hell, I’d have followed this girl to the ends of the earth. As soon as we got outside, June turned to me. She had her satchel crossed over her chest like a shield, her stance was defensive, and she could barely look at me.
“Junebug?” I whispered. “What’s happening?”
She stared off into the distance. When she faced me again, her expression was lost, her big, brown eyes sad. “I think…” she said, shaking her head. “I feel we’re just going in two very different directions, Jesse.”
I felt my heart shatter into a thousand broken pieces, slowly, one excruciating smash at a time.
“What?” I rasped out desperately. “What do you mean?”
Tears filled June’s eyes. “You have football. You have your dream, Jesse. And I’m so happy for you. But I clearly don’tbelong in that world.” She pointed at the coffee shop behind her. “I have my writing group and Sydney and my online story. I stay at home and read books for fun. You play in front of tens of thousands of people in stadiums and have parties thrown in your honor.”
“So?” I said quickly. “That’s all just white noise. I only care about you and me.”
“You care about football too, Jesse. And you should. It’s all you’ve ever wanted. You’re doing it, what we prayed we would be able to do when we didn’t think we had a future.”
“You’re my future, June!” I anxiously ran my hand through my hair. “What’s really happening?” I asked. “You don’t have to come to the parties. I won’t go if that’s what you want.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, Jesse. Don’t you see?” Tears fell down her cheeks. “You deserve all the acclaim, all the attention that’s coming your way. But I can’t handle it… I can’t take the attention.”
“What attention in particular?” I asked, completely confused.
June suddenly quieted and completely shut down, her expression shuttering.
“Junebug, please,” I said, and stepped closer to her. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, but she looked broken-spirited and frail. “Did something happen? Last week at the frat house, something happened, didn’t it? That’s when you began pulling away.”
June was silent for so long, I didn’t think she was ever going to speak, but finally, she said quietly, “They were making fun of me.”
I froze, and my hands started to shake.
“A group of girls who were all trying to get your attention.”
My blood went ice-cold and turned sluggish in my veins. Her haunted gaze met mine.
“They were mocking my limp, Jesse, my hair…” Her words may as well have been razor blades to my heart. “They couldn’t understand why you are with me and said it was only because we fought cancer together, that you felt obligated to be with me now.”
“But that’s not true,” I said. Gone was the coldness. Anger, hot and potent, built within me so much I felt like I was made of fire. I stepped closer to June and put my hands gently on her arms. “Baby, you must know that.” The tears falling down her cheeks were twin rivers that I needed to stop.
