Read Online the Big Time (2010) by Tim Green - Free Book Online Page A

“That’s one of the reasons I love her. She doesn’t get bent out of shape about little things like that. She knows how I get about being hurt. I’m not good company right now. Besides, I need to just get home and get to work on these knees.”
    Seth reached into the front pocket of his jeans and removed a pill bottle that he shook gently at Troy. “I’ve got some heavy-duty medicine and an appointment with a bucket of ice in my tub. Speaking of ice, you’d better stick your finger in some, too.”
    â€œMedicine? Like painkillers?” Troy asked, his forehead crunching up with concern.
    â€œNo,” Seth said, stuffing the amber plastic bottle into his pocket and beginning to walk away again, “an anti-inflammatory. Same stuff they give to racehorses.”
    Troy’s jaw went slack, but before he could say anything else, Seth had disappeared. He sensed Tate at his side and turned to see that his mom and Nathan were also there.
    â€œHow is he?” Troy’s mom asked, her eyes following the arc of the metal door as it swung closed. “Was he mad?”
    â€œHe said he’d call you later, Mom,” Troy said. “Mad? No, he wasn’t mad. I’d say more like hurt.”
    â€œMentally?” his mom asked. “Or physically?”
    Troy looked at his mom. “I’d have to say both.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    AS SETH PREDICTED, TROY’S mom did understand when Troy explained what Seth had said about not being good company and wanting to get started on icing his knees. She still stopped at Fat Matt’s, and they ate ribs and grilled chicken back at Troy’s house, watching the beginning of Sunday Night Football . Between eating, Troy’s left hand kept secretly returning to his pocket to caress the corners of his father’s business card while his right hand stayed dipped in a big glass that held icy water for his hurt finger. Normally, he would have wanted Tate and Nathan to stay as long as they could, but he was relieved when Tate licked the BBQ sauce from her fingers and stood to go.
    Troy saw them to the door, and Tate and Nathan disappeared into the pines, headed down to the tracksthat would take them home. As soon as his friends had left, Troy removed his father’s card from his pocket, studied it, then put it back. He marched into the living room. The Styrofoam boxes from Fat Matt’s still lay about the coffee table, but his mom had already disappeared into her bedroom. He could hear her talking to Seth on the phone. Troy tried to ignore the soft, gooey sound of her voice through the door as she offered sympathy and comfort to the star linebacker.
    Troy turned off the TV in the living room and waited impatiently. Finally, he heard his mom tell Seth that she loved him, and her bedroom door creaked open.
    â€œWhat?” she asked. “You’re not watching the game? You feeling okay?”
    â€œI want to call my dad,” Troy said, his hand sneaking back into his pocket to clench the rumpled card.
    His mom sighed, then her face did that thing where her chin went up and the corners of her mouth tugged out and down into little crescent-shaped wrinkles. “Yes, we need to talk about that.”
    â€œI want to see him,” Troy said, “and you said that if he tried to sue for me, you’d let me see him. You said. Gramps was right here.”
    â€œRight,” she said, drawing out the word. “He’s suing me. Funny how that happened all of a sudden at the dome, after you spoke with him.”
    â€œHe came up to me,” Troy said, feeling the ground slip out from under him. His stomach sank, becausehe knew where this was headed and he knew his mom couldn’t be fooled. Even so, he had to try. “Gramps said my dad needed to prove I wasn’t just a whim because he saw me on Larry King , and he asked his client to get him passes so he could see me. That proves it wasn’t just a