I Knew You Were Waiting For Me
By vonanna22
The cold crisp air made Sam rub his hands together and blow on them to help regain some feeling. The game had been over for approximately 40 minutes and he had watched the cheers and celebrations as the team, which he had co-coached onto success with Coach Beiste, finally won the championship.
After the high fives and cheers; Gatorade and Slushy dumps on people's heads the field was finally emptying out. He could see the visiting team's bus pulling out of the parking lot and on the side of it was the large picture of himself during his short but goal reaching modeling career.
"It must not have been easy to get into that bus after losing tonight's game" he thought. He watched himself turn the corner out of the parking lot and sit at a red light before turning on the main road and turn off toward the highway entrance.
It seems like it was so long ago-he didn't mind that though, modeling was not as easy as he thought it was going to be. It had too many pitfalls at every turn and around every corner, the heartbreak he felt when being rejected-repeatedly, the far too easily attained drug addiction that kept being offered to him by other models, the barely half –dressed girls everywhere, and the sexually frustrated photographers (male and female) made it impossible for him to continue.
It wasn't worth it, not if it would continue to endanger his relationship with Mercedes. She was going on tour and the thought of hurting her again was just not acceptable. He remembered the look on her face when she had made the decision to "let him go." She was heartbroken and so was he, when she told him that she thought it was the right thing to do-rather than asking "a cheetah not to run." He was devastated.
He had let her down, something he had never wanted to do. She didn't say it, but, here they were apart again, because she was a stronger person than he was. That was when he made up his mind; he was giving up modeling because he refused to be the weak one again. She deserved so much better than that and he was going to give it to her.
He had made up his mind that he was going home and working on himself. He needed to mature if he wanted to be with her. He needed to think about what he was going to do with his life so he could start preparing for the future-their future, together. She always leaned on her faith and it never steered her wrong, she was the strongest person that he had ever known.
He was so proud of her but, he loved her even more. She was the type of person that he wanted to be, she was loyal to her friends, she had deep convictions about her faith, and she was beyond talented and God seemed to bless her hard work and determination. She didn't have it easy, and everything was just handed to her like some other people they knew, no, when she would become big and famous it was because she deserved every bit of it.
That's why he was going to earn it too. He started going to community college at night and coach was kind enough to hire him so that he could start to put some money away, for an engagement ring if for nothing else; he wanted to show Mercedes that he had really changed, and that she mattered enough for him to do it willingly.
There were women who began approaching him while he was in school but he has made it very clear to everyone that he is in a relationship (whether that was technically true right now or not) he knew in his heart that truthfully he was always in a relationship with Mercedes. Those feelings never left him, he may have tried to suppress them, he may have tried to run away from them into other relationships, but who was he fooling? Not himself-never himself. Every time he saw her again, those strong feelings of attraction and love would wash over him all over again-he couldn't shake it, or her, she was the one-period.
He started praying in a deeper way and taking bible study classes so that he could gain the strength that she had to keep his promise to himself and to the secret promise he was making to her "He was going to be worthy of her this time around." He meant what he said he did want to marry her and have kids, a family, a yard, a house, and even a dog. So he was determined to make himself into a man that she would definitely take seriously.
He shook his head and pulled up the zipper on his coat as he tossed the last football in the big drum and secured its lid. The lights started going out on one side of the field and that was his queue that he should get inside and get the rest of his stuff from the locker room.
When he walked in from the field he grabbed his bag from off of one of the benches in the locker room and walked to the door and turned off the light. He took the corridor that took him the long way around just so he could pass by the old glee club choir room.