Wonder where my spot got moved to. Without a phone, I wondered how I would find Floyd for my ticket. Getting closer to the tent, I noticed Russell talking to Elena. What the hell?
“Finally! Jurnee’s here.” Floyd yelled as he slid his arm around Elena’s waist. “This is awesome.”
“Yeah. It looks awesome.” I looked around the tent and froze when my mind tried to register that Otis was standing with Tom. Shaking my head, my eyes glimpsed Eric tossing a beanbag at the cornhole game and Bryan on the other end laughing his ass off with Hal.
Sweeping the tent, I frantically searched the tent. “Looking for me?”
I spun around to find him standing behind me. “No.”
“You sure? You looked like you were looking for me.” Anderson brushed my hair back from my eyes.
I ran my fingers through my hair as I stepped out of his reach. “You were behind me. You couldn’t see me looking for you.”
“Okay, but you admit you were looking for me.” We both turned at the same time to see the drum section of the MSU marching band start their march to the stadium.
He was staring at me when I returned my gaze in his direction. “I mean, your boys are here. Why would I not think you were here?”
“Jesus, can you just admit that you were looking for me?”
I crossed my arms, I whispered. “Do not do this in front of everyone.”
“Can I have the tent, please?”
“You can’t kick everyone out of a tailgate just to talk to me.”
“Jurnee, I will clear this entire fucking block if you’re not careful.”
I turned to find everyone gone, and the sides lowered to make an enclosed room. What the hell?
“You left me.”
“Why would you care if someone that is ‘just for fun’ left?”
“You shouldn’t have left without talking to me.”
“Why? Nothing more really needed to be said.” I picked up a beer out of an oversized bucket.
“So I could tell you that you misunderstood what you heard.”
“It makes sense, really. Well, it started to make sense about halfway into my drive home.”
“What made sense?” He crossed his arms across his chest.
“You wanting to stay home all the time or arriving late to wherever we planned on meeting. You didn’t want anyone to know you were seeing me.”
“Ah. Incredibly not true.”
“Really. Untrue? Did you avoid being seen with me going in or out of restaurants?”
“I avoided being featured on Page Six.”
“Same thing.” I brushed past him, and he caught my arm. The beer bottle fell out of my hand and shattered onto the cement.
Floyd came bursting into the tent, “Jurnee?”
“We’re not finished.” Anderson growled.
“Jurnee?” Floyd repeated, ignoring Anderson completely.
“Do you have a ticket for me?” Anderson and I remained locked in a stare.
“I do.”
“We are not finished talking.” Anderson was shaking with anger.
“Let’s go find your seat.” Floyd held the tent door open for me to step through. Anderson reached for my arm but dropped it when I glared up at him. As I passed, Floyd blocked Anderson from following me.
“Listen, man. We appreciate the glamorous tailgate, but you are not going to fuck with our girl. I told you I’d give you some space, but she’s done for now.”
“She and I are far from done.”
Floyd laughed, “you are for now.”
43
Jurnee
Settled in my seat, I quickly wiped a stray tear from my eye before it fell. Anderson had put on a tailgate for my friends. He had done all of this for me. Derrick’s words repeated as I tried to focus on the pregame activity on the field. He has a right to explain himself.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Nope.” Elena looked behind me at Floyd. “And why am I in the middle?”
Before they could answer the question, Anderson’s voice came through the loudspeaker. “Jurnee Joplin Messer. We need to talk. Where are you, Jurnee?”
I tried to push past Floyd with no luck. Elena stood her ground, “not going to happen. You need to listen to this man. Give him a chance.”
Turning back to Floyd, “I don’t–”
“I know, but I think he’s in love with you.”
“What? You don’t know–”
“I know he said something stupid to his Dad. Then he followed you to Michigan.”
I gathered my hair into a ponytail and gave it a yank. “I’m scared.”
Floyd pulled me into a hug. “You’re also a Spartan.”
“Really. Now?” I pulled away.
“You’re always a Spartan. It’s not always easy.” The roar of the crowd around brought my attention to the huge scoreboard. There was Anderson, dressed in the MSU sweatshirt he purchased, making