Read Online Painless by Derek Ciccone - Free Book Online

didn’t work, they threatened. Billy then turned it back on them—he quit.
    It turned into a national hot-button issue. Billy looked like the symbol of academic integrity in an arena where the college part was too often missing in college football . Ohio State looked like the Evil Empire that preferred winning football games to education. Kelly clung closer, despite her father forbidding her to see him. Ohio State eventually backed down.
    Billy returned to the field with much fanfare, along with his heavy class load. But in the second game of the year he tore his throwing shoulder so badly it needed three surgeries to fix it. He went through the vigorous rehab program to return to the field, but knew he’d never have the arm to ever be the starter again. So he gladly finished out his career under the radar as the fourth string quarterback, keeping his scholarship. People would tilt their heads when they spoke about it, as if he suffered some sort of tragedy. But he was at peace, as football was finally where it had always been for him anyway—in the rear-view mirror.
    Looking back, he was always surprised Kelly stuck with him after the shoulder injury crashed his stock. At the time, he was convinced it was out of love and loyalty. They married six months after graduation on the lavish Klein estate in a haughty suburb of Pittsburgh, in spite of her father’s threats.
    Billy agreed to join the family business. He would do anything to make Kelly happy, including putting his dreams on hold for her. His job title was Director of Public Relations, but to this day he still couldn’t articulate exactly what he did. They attended social functions, took expensive vacations, and led the expected life of a Klein. He thought things were fine. Every married couple has their problems and of course it can’t always be hot and heavy.
    But he now saw how the many small cracks were pieces of a bigger fault line. The biggest sign was that his neurotically image-conscience wife didn’t even put up a fight when he told her he planned to leave his job at Klein’s Beer to pursue the writing career he had put off for her. A job suited for the court jester, and certainly not worthy of a prince in the Klein Kingdom.
    In return, he couldn’t protest when she went to work for the campaign of Senator Oliver LaRoche. It was the first thing in as long as he could remember that she seemed excited about. He wondered whether, when she met LaRoche, she opened with the line, “You’re Senator LaRoche, aren’t you? Oh my God, of course you are. Can I be more pathetic?”
    Billy could rationalize losing Kelly to LaRoche, a man who ran his campaign under the slogan of “Family Values,” which was too laughable to even laugh about. He was a blue chip stock. But it’s the other part of the story that ripped his insides out. The part where his soul was taken from him. The part that sometimes made him wonder if he should’ve pulled that trigger. He didn’t want to think about that part anymore, so he forced the thoughts from his mind.
    So once again Billy Harper would try to ease the pain by vicariously living through a fictional character. He put on his Elmo suit and headed for Carolyn’s party.
     

Chapter 12
     
    Billy moved toward the large party tent. The day remained cool, but the heat was dizzying inside the heavy Elmo costume, and he hadn’t even applied the head yet.
    According to Chuck, the party was going to be modest compared to many of the over-the-top shindigs in their neighborhood, but would still be extravagant enough so the Whitcombs wouldn’t be sent to the social leper colony.
    The theme was natural science and was coordinated with the New Canaan Nature Center. Carolyn initially wanted a princess party, but Chuck nixed it. Then she negotiated a hockey party, which gained Dad’s support, but was vetoed by Mom. Aunt Dana came up with the compromise plan of natural science, and since she was paying for it, natural science it