RedZone (4 page)

“Nah, I need to rest.” Trey said stepping into the shower.

  Bryce scanned the party for familiar faces, when he spotted a few of the guys from the team. He jogged over to them greeting them with hand pounds and chest pumps. Everyone who came over to the guys congratulated them on the win and gloated over Bryce’s MVP award from the game earlier that day and asked him about his feelings for the upcoming Homecoming game that next weekend. “You think we can win homecoming?” One of the players on the team asked. “We’re going up against a nice ass team!”

“Man we’ve been whipping their asses since I’ve been here. We’re good!” Bryce laughed

“You’re definitely going to the pros!” One of the frat boys said handing Bryce a beer out of the cooler.

“Yeah I got invited to the combine in the spring” Bryce mentioned proudly.

“Word! So you’re not going to finish school?” One of his teammates chimed in.

“Yeah definitely. I’m just going to see wassup. I just want to finish this season out with a bang.” Bryce insinuated.

  It was pretty comfortable night for it to be mid-October. Some of the women at the party had on jeans and hoodies while the promiscuous ladies had on mini skirts that barely left anything to the imagination. Bryce noticed Sevynn staring at him from across the room. “Yo, that broad is always looking at you man.” Angel said to Bryce nodding his head toward Sevynn. Bryce turned his head to avoid eye contact. “Ain’t that Trey girl anyway?”

“I don’t know what the fuck she is. She’s a thot if you asked me.” Bryce said in an annoyed tone.

  Sevynn, began walking over to Bryce. She wore her hair straight that evening, with a little eye shadow and lip-gloss. She had on a pair of tights and a short shirt that left her behind out in the back. All of the men surrounding Bryce stared at her big butt as it bounced towards Bryce. She tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Bryce rolled his eyes as he turned around.

“Yeah?” Bryce asked now facing Sevynn.

“Can I speak to you in private?” She asked suggesting that they find somewhere away from the other men.

“About?” Bryce didn’t budge from where he stood.

“Bryce, for real.” Sevynn said frustrated at his behavior towards her.

  He began to walk leaving her following him. He found a spot outside on the patio since no one was out there. He stayed close enough to the door so his teammates could see him.

“What Sevynn?” Bryce asked still annoyed that she pulled him from the party.

“I want to apologize for getting between your friendship with Trey.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Bryce asked low so no one could hear the conversation.

“What’s wrong with me?” She asked, “I was trying to make sure you two pussies weren’t gay!”

“Look you little bitch.” Bryce said ferociously, “That man has been my friend since we were kids. You want to go around being a ‘team player’, that’s on you but don’t bring that shit to my door.”

“Bryce, why are you frontin’ darling?” Sevynn asked slyly, looking Bryce up and down, “You were enjoying our little moment until he walked in.” She continued. “If I recall, you were already a little hard. I bet if he hadn’t came in I would’ve had you cumin’ all over the place.”

“Get the fuck out of my face.” Bryce said backing up towards the patio door. “Stay the hell away from me, you crazy bitch.”

  Bryce needed to clear his head the house was so crowded he really didn’t have anywhere to go. He asked one of the guys from the frat where a bathroom was and he headed up the stairs. He looked in each door down the hall trying to find the bathroom. It was so many rooms in the house, it had to have been at least 10 on the second floor, and even with the directions from the frat guy he still hadn’t found the right door.

  When he did find the bathroom, it had been locked he could hear moaning coming from the other side. He snickered at the audacity of whoever was in there. He figured he would just wait in another room until they were finished taking care of their business. The room next to the bathroom looked to be an empty room as if someone had moved out. He stepped in a looked around. It was dark with only a chair in the middle of the room.

  The only light that showed was from the balcony door, which didn’t have curtains. Bryce walked over to the window and looked out he could see some of the people leaving the party, some drunk, some sober.   It was an eerie silence in that part of the house even with the commotion of the party down stairs. It gave Bryce the creeps as if someone was in the room with him. No one was there.

  His best friend popped in his head. He still felt bad about the situation with Trey and Sevynn. He still couldn’t believe what she had done that night, and then tried to seduce him again.

“Yo Trey, ya girl is trippin!” Bryce said through the phone once he heard Trey pick up. It was normal for them to just start phone conversations without saying hello.

“That ain’t my fuckin’ girl, Bryce.” Trey answered. “Why, what happened now?”

“She tried to come on to me again. The bitch is crazy.” Bryce said.

“Yeah she tried apologizing to me too.” Trey said then fell into an awkward silence. “She’s at the party?”

“Yeah, I had to get away from her, she came over to me in front of the team.” Bryce continued, “I just don’t need Chele finding out about this shit.”

“If she hasn’t already.” Trey said suggestively. “I mean campus is but so big. And the video is all over  UrbanVideoWorld.com.”

“I know.” Bryce said shamefully. He then was startled by a presence in the room with him. “What are you doing here? Trey, I’m call you back” Bryce hung up the phone.

***

‘AAAAAhhhhhh” a horrific scream came from outside. Everyone in the frat house ran out to see what was happening. The scream could be heard through all of the noise and music in the house. “Oh my GOOOOODDDDD!” Another scream came from another direction. The crowd surrounded the gruesome scene. Blood and glass everywhere, women screaming, and men looking around for suspects. Angel, Bryce and Trey’s teammate, ran over pushing people in the crowd out of the way. “What the fuck happened?” He questioned standing over the lifeless body of his teammate, Bryce. “Who the fuck did this?” He screamed.

  Bryce laid on the ground with his neck twisted and shattered glass from a broken beer bottle next to him. A puddle of blood poured from his head mixing with the beer. His eyes were opened and blood red from the impact of the fall. “Call 911!” Someone yelled. People in the crowd pulled out their cell phones, some started to dial the police, others sneaked to take pictures of the body in the middle of the walkway.

“Bryce man wake up!” Angel said trying to wake his obviously dead friend. “Who the fuck did this?”

“Somebody gotta call Trey!” Another teammate cried out. “Someone has to call his mom!”

“What happened? Did anyone see?” One of the frat boys questioned the crowd looking for witnesses.

***

“Hart!” One of the officers yelled out. “We just got a call from S.U.”

“What another fight?” Detective Charles Hart said uninterested looking down at his book. “Isn’t that what Campus Security is for?”

“No. I think you want to take on this one.” The officer replied walking over to Detective Harts desk. “Some kid fell out of a window.”

“Fell or Pushed?” Detective Hart put his book down and hopped up from his seat. He grabbed his jacket and badge, and headed down to the campus.

***

  Blood dripped down the concrete walkway, and into the grass. Blinking yellow and red lights glared in the background, while police pulled yellow tape around the scene. The crowd of students stood around in shock looking at the body, barely covered with a plastic blue blanket. “It looks like an accident.” One of the officers said writing on a note pad. “Kid must’ve been drunk or something. Looks like he fell from the balcony” The officer that stood next to him kneeled down and pulled the blue plastic off of the victims’ head. “This was one hell of an accident.”

“Did anyone see what happened?” Another detective asked walking over to the scene. It was Detective Hart. He kneeled down and examined the body. “This is that cat, Bryce Henson.” He pointed out. The other officers looked puzzled at the identification of the corpse.

“He was a prospect for the pros. He just got the winning touchdown in the game today.” Detective Hart, rubbed his bald temples in empathy. “Did anyone inform his family yet?”

“Yes, his mother is on her way. Apparently he’s from Philly, so they should be here in no time.”

Detective Hart bent over again and talked lowly to Bryce’s body. “Damn man, you could’ve been something.”

***

  Trey was trying to fall asleep when he heard a loud banging on his door. He jumped out of his bed and answered. It was Angel. He had bloodstains on his hoodie and tears in his eyes. “What, What happened to you?” Trey asked in shock at the gruesome sight.

“Bryce. Bryce is dead.” Angel began to cry hysterically.

“No, I was just talking to him!” Trey said in disbelief.

“He fell from a balcony at the party.” Angel told the story from his knowledge. Trey sat in silence, with a blank look on his face.  All he could think of doing was getting over to the scene. He rushed putting his clothes on and begged Angel to lead him to Bryce. “I have to call Michele.” Trey added. “She’s already over there, she’s like a zombie right now.” Angel mentioned as they rushed out of the building door.

***

“Are there any witnesses?” Detective Hart stood up and asked the kids in the crowd. A short, chubby, young woman raised her arms slowly. She was the one who found him.

  She walked slowly over to the Detective, her eyes were filled with tears and her body trembled as she walked closer and closer towards the body behind the police tape. Detective Hart grabbed her hand and escorted her away from the scene. He saw how shaken up she was, but he needed as much information as possible. “What did you see, Ms.…” Hart asked.

“Lindsey. I didn’t see much.” She answered looking down, “I just walked out of the back patio door and heard a hard thud sound. When I turned around he, he was….” She began to sob, Detective Hart handed her a tissue from his pocket.

“I know this is hard for you, Lindsey. We are going to find out what happened.” Detective Hart had suddenly been distracted by another scream. This time it came from Bryce’s mother.

“My Baaaaaaabbbbyyyy!” The woman wailed.  She tried to fight her way pass the two police officers and exhaustedly slumped to the ground, still screaming.

  The sight of her mourning made everyone around the scene sob. Trey had arrived with Angel. When Trey saw Bryce’s mother he asked the officer if he could go comfort her, and that was his best friends mother.

“Trey, what happened to my baby?” She asked hugging on to Trey tightly.

“I wasn’t here, Aunt Vicky.” He answered, he looked down at Bryce, and his face was still blank. No tears. No feeling or emotion.

  He held onto Bryce’s mother and helped lift her off of the ground. The coroners came back over and put the body into a black bag and carried it onto the van. Trey  didn’t know what to say or do. He put his head down and stared at the blood stained ground.

  Trey sat on his bed and stared at Bryce’s side of the room. It was completely bare. Bryce’s mom came a took all of his clothes and posters out.   The only thing that was left was a photo of them when they played in high school. He was also preparing to move out of their room. The school offered him a 4.0 for the semester  because of him losing his roommate, his best friend. Trey hadn’t eaten or slept that whole week. He was lost. He looked out the window and saw how nice it was out. The sky was clear and it was a comfortable day. He fixed his tie and headed down to the lobby.

  When he arrived at the front of the dorm building, he saw all of the other guys on the team dressed in their best suits, most of them were the suits they would wear on road games.

It was the day of Bryce’s funeral. Trey dreaded going. He knew  going  would be so final and he wasn’t ready for it. The turn out for the funeral astonished Trey. He knew Bryce was well loved but people were coming in by the packs. There were so many people everyone was standing around the walls and some just couldn’t get in the door.

  Bryce’s casket was set up nicely with the school colors around in flowers and balloons. Trey sat with the family. He held Bryce’s mothers hand tightly and patted her back as she sobbed. Michele looked frail and in shock. She was just staring at the casket. Trey looked around the funeral home and saw their middle and high school coaches and teammates. And there in the far right corner was Sevynn. She had a blank look on her face. Trey rolled his eyes and focused back on his friends service. He was asked to make a speech but he refused. Their coach, Coach Booker, went up and said nice things about Bryce and then a few of his family members went up.

When the service was over Trey ran after Sevynn. “Why  did you even bother to show up?” He asked her harshly.

“What do you mean? I came to pay my respects.” She snapped back at him. “How dare you insult me like this.”

“How dare you show your face!” Trey responded. “Look you need to stay away from me. If it wasn’t for you I would’ve been there that night.”

“If it wasn’t for me?” She asked appalled and pointing at herself. “You chose not to be there. Don’t put this on me.” Before Trey had a chance to answer one of the guys off of the team flagged him over. The bus that the team came over in was leaving to follow the procession to the cemetery. “Don’t come near me again.”

***

  The day after the funeral would be the homecoming game. They hadn’t had practiced all week but Coach Booker thought they should that evening. He said it would help keep the team’s minds off of everything. “This is going to be our first game without Bryce.” Coach Booker said, with a knot in his throat. He looked over at the empty locker. “We are going to retire his Jersey tomorrow. I..” He couldn’t finish his speech, he put his head down and sniffled. “Just play for him. Win or Lose, play for Bryce.”

The locker room fell quiet as the coach walked out of the locker room.

“This shit is unreal man.” One of the guys said finally.

“Like who could have done this to him. He was a cool dude.” Another chimed in.

“Look, we are going to play for him like coach said.” Trey said finally. He never was the ‘giving a speech’ type so he made it short. “He was my best friend, my fucking bro. I’m hurting just as much if not more than y’all. But y’all know he would be hype right now and ready for tomorrow.” The guys nodded their heads in agreement.

  Trey hated being in his dorm room after everything. He tried to find places on campus to go instead of being in his room. Everyone was busy that night the Greeks were having a step show. He wasn’t in the mood to go. The only person he could think of hanging with was Michele. He began to dial her.

“Yo Chele, what are you doing?” He said when she picked up. “I am about to come to your building. Ring me in.” Trey walked across campus towards Michele’s dorm. He looked over across the quad and saw flickering of candles. It was coming from a shrine that was forming where Bryce’s body was found. He stopped, and thought about walking over but he decided to just keep going towards Michele’s.

***

“I don’t know how to feel, Trey.” Michele said with red eyes from crying. “I just feel so empty.” Trey knew what she meant. He felt like something was missing as well.

“Do they know anything yet?” She asked referring to Bryce’s autopsy report.

“Nah. Not yet. They are waiting for the toxicology report.” He said rocking back in fourth in the dorm chair.

“Sevynn, came by to see me earlier.” Michele mentioned out of the blue.

“Leave that girl alone. You don’t need to be around her.” Trey demanded.

“Why did y’all break up?” Michele asked curiously.

“No reason. I just don’t like her.” He was getting annoyed even thinking about her. Trey looked around the room at all of the pictures of Michele and Bryce.

“He was going to marry you.” He said breaking the long awkward silence.

“How do you know?” Michele asked surprised.

“Man, he talked about you all the time. Everybody knew who you were.” He replied with a small smile. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without my friend. I’ve been acting so shitty towards him since we got here.” Trey felt guilty. He treated his friend bad for the few years that they attend S.U.

“Do you think y’all gonna get to the Championship without him?” Michele asked wiping tears from her eyes.

“I hope so.” Trey responded.