CHAPTER 8

There were some more claps, a couple of players got up and shook my hand. Courtney was squeezing my hand so tight my fingers were turning white. My Dad relinquished the podium to Coach Mike who graciously accepted his new role, speaking briefly about the future. The assembly ended soon after, everyone filing back to their classes. Courtney walked with me to our next class.

"Can we talk tonight ?", she asked.

"Sure, no problem. I will call you tonight after I get home from the gym.", I replied.

That night Courtney and I talked about the upcoming year, what my plans were and what we thought our future was. We talked for several hours on the phone before hanging up. It wasn't until I was lying there in the dark did I realize that once again life was changing, things would never be the same again.

With football over, I decided once again, with Coach Mike's approval to begin my off season weight program off campus. He knew what was going on and decided since it was my last year not to make any waves. He just asked that I check in with him once a week or so and let him know how I was progressing. On my first full day back at the gym, I looked up Carl, the owner of the gym. Carl was a former U.S. Olympic Power Lifter and definitely knew his way around performance enhancing drugs. He was also a master of building both muscle mass and an expert in strength training. I basically told Carl what had happened with my Dad, but more importantly what I wanted next year. I wanted to dominate my opponents, I was willing to do whatever it took. Carl was always partial to me, I think due to my dedication in the gym. I never missed a workout, I pushed myself to the limit every time, he liked that.

Within a week I was "stacking", a term that basically meant I was taking both anabolic steroids and HGH in combination with each other. That in addition to two workouts per day, one at five in the morning, another at five in the evening and an enormous amount of protein intake everyday should do the trick. I started the program in mid January and had until early August before any organized practice would start at school. I was absolutely relentless for the next seven months, pushing myself to exhaustion day after day. I barely saw Courtney other than at school and maybe once on the weekends. We had become quite close, although we still had not had sex. In fact we had not done anything much other than what we had the night after the dance.

The first two months under Carl's program my weight actually dropped from 277 pounds to about 260 pounds. But my strength was definitely up, I was pushing more weight than ever. By the time our first organized practice was scheduled my weight was up to 288 lbs., my body fat was incredibly low. Even though physically I only weighed maybe ten pounds more than the year before, because of the loss of body fat, the muscle mass I gained, I looked much bigger. We started our organized practices the second week of August, the sun was blistering. It was quite easy to see who had taken the off season casually. Coach Mike was extremely upset with most of the team who had apparently thought this season under him would be easier. He dispelled that theory quickly as he drilled them into submission. I saw at least a dozen or so players throwing up, the heat and exhaustion had become too much. I dominated the line drills, no one could block me one on one. In fact I beat most two on one drills as well. I had become quicker, stronger and faster. No one on this team could come close to controlling me on the line of scrimmage. We were barely a month away from our first game, school was starting this coming Monday. The local newspaper came out with the preseason rankings and prospective senior prospects. Our team was ranked second in our district and thirteenth in the state. I was selected second team all district honors along with Chris Keller, our best running back.

I was a bit anxious to start back to school, after all it was going to be my senior year. The only drawback was that my Dad would be gone most of the time, I knew it was going to be hard on Ashley. I had a total of seven classes that year, five were with Courtney, which was great. It was nice to see everyone again Monday morning, some I had not seen since school had ended this past summer. Everyone could not help but commenting on how big I had gotten during the summer, I was even getting the eye from a few girls in my class. I was not the one who noticed the latter, Courtney was. She informed me of that on Friday night when we were waiting for the movie to start.

"You better keep your eyes and hands to yourself mister.", she informed me as we sat there holding hands.

"Courtney, I barely have time to see you , much less try to juggle more than one girl. You know better.", I laughed.

By this time the theater had pretty much filled up and the movie started. It was a boring movie, I could barely keep my eyes open, but Courtney seemed to enjoy it. We stopped and had a hamburger then headed home, stopping to drop her off at her house. Courtney lived in an upscale area of town, several streets of real high end homes. Her dad owned his own business, he appeared to be very successful. As I pulled into her drive, I noticed the house was dark, only her mother's car was in the driveway. I got out of my truck, walked around and opened Courtney's door for her. We walked slowly up to the front door as was our ritual. We usually ended the night with several heated and passionate goodnight kisses. As I pulled her close to me and pressed my lips to hers, I noticed she was not as aggressive as usual.

"You ok Court ? Is there something wrong ?" I asked.

"No, not really. Um…. I need to ask….. Well …do you have to go home now ?", she stuttered.

"No, not really. You want to go back out somewhere ?", I inquired, looking at my watch.