Damaged Petals.

[Soapy]

Season 4, Episode 7
LaPenna leaned back in his chair, legs crossed, pen resting loosely against his knee as Brice finished recounting a story about an interaction with a TA regarding a missed assignment—half bravado, half annoyance—before trailing off into silence. The clock hummed softly on the wall.

Then, out of nowhere, Brice shifted forward.

"How would you rate me as a leader?"

LaPenna didn’t blink, but there was a small, almost imperceptible pause as he adjusted his glasses. "Rate you?"

"Yeah," Brice shrugged like he was asking something casual. "Like… one to ten. Whatever. Just curious."

LaPenna set the pen down. "That’s not really what these sessions are for, Brice."

"So you can’t just answer the question?" Brice leaned back, arms crossed now. "It’s not that complicated."

"I’m not here to evaluate your performance as a leader," LaPenna said calmly. "I’m here to help you understand yourself better. How you think, how you react, how you deal with pressure."

"That sounds like leadership stuff to me."

"It can be," LaPenna allowed, "But giving you a score would turn this into something it isn’t."

Brice let out a breath through his nose, sharp. "Whatever. Forget it."

LaPenna watched him for a moment. “It sounds like the question mattered to you.”

"It didn’t," Brice said quickly. Too quickly. He stared at the carpet. "I was just asking."

"People don’t usually ‘just ask’ something like that in the middle of talking about their discussion post."

"Maybe I do." Brice’s voice went flat, defensive.

"Maybe," LaPenna said. “But it stands out.”

Brice’s eyes hardened. “You always gotta make it into something.”

"I’m trying to understand what’s behind the question," LaPenna said gently.

"There’s nothing behind it," Brice shifted even farther back in the chair, as if trying to physically pull away from the conversation. "I said forget it."

LaPenna gave him space, watching the way Brice’s shoulders stiffened, the way his gaze locked onto the wall instead of him. The silence stretched, not hostile, but closed-off, familiar—a shutdown he had seen in earlier sessions.

"We can sit in silence if you want," LaPenna eventually said. "Or we can talk about what made that question come to mind."

Brice didn’t respond.

His leg bounced. He kept his eyes fixed anywhere but LaPenna. The clock ticked on, a steady metronome in the room.

After a minute, Brice finally exhaled, annoyed and resigned. "We can sit in silence."

"Alright," LaPenna said softly.

The rest of the session passed like that—quiet, Brice locked behind a door he wasn’t ready to open again, LaPenna respecting the space but not retreating from it.

When the hour was up, Brice stood quickly, snatching his backpack off the floor.

“See you next week?” LaPenna asked.

Brice gave a half-shrug that could’ve meant anything. “Yeah. Whatever.”

LaPenna nodded once. “Take care, Brice.”

Brice didn’t answer, already halfway out the door.

…

"Fucking hell, Eli, say something."

Eli opened his mouth but nothing came out. His mind raced with more questions than he had words for, and he didn’t know what he should ask, what he could say, what the right thing even was.

"You think I’m like batshit crazy now, right?" Connie laughed, though there was nothing humorous behind it. She started to get up from the couch, and Eli reached out on instinct, grabbing the back of her arm before quickly letting go.

"I’m sorry," he said, hands up.

"See?" she sat back down, crossing her arms tight across her chest. "Now everything is going to be different. That’s why I didn’t say anything!"

"Look," Eli cleared his throat, feeling the urge to fill the space even though he didn’t know how, "I’m glad you told me, okay? I think this is good for us. That you felt comfortable enough to open up to me about this."

"But?"

"There’s no but, Connie," he said, moving closer, gently placing a hand on her thigh. "I’m here, alright? I’m with you, and we’re going to work through this. This is just part of us getting to know each other—really getting to know each other."

"You probably think I’m some crazy bitch," she rubbed her eyes before burying her face in her palms. "We have sex for the first time and the next day I’m spilling my guts out to you. What a fucking pathetic cliché."

"Hey," he lifted a hand to her shoulder, easing her back up. "Don’t talk like that."

"You sound like Mendel," she scoffed, leaning back into the couch and staring up at the ceiling, afraid that looking at him would make her cry.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Eli’s hand resting on her leg—not gripping, not pulling, just there. Present. Letting her know he hadn’t gone anywhere. His mind spun with a thousand questions, each one louder than the next, until finally one pushed its way out.

"Do you still love him?"

The question hung between them, but instead of creating distance, it almost softened the air around them. Connie didn’t rush her answer, and Eli didn’t push. He just watched her think.

"Honestly? I don’t know," she said quietly.

Eli nodded—slow, thoughtful, accepting.

They continued sitting there, shifting until their fingers found each other and laced together, a small, wordless agreement that the conversation wasn’t an ending but perhaps the beginning of something more.

…

"We don’t have to do anything."

"I know," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She avoided his eyes at first, then slowly raised hers toward Jimmy’s. "But I want to. Unless you don’t want to?"

"I do—I think I do. I just don’t want things to… I don’t know, change between us or make things weird after."

The sun was sinking behind them, a soft orange glow catching on the swings and empty benches of the small neighborhood park. It was the same secluded patch of grass and trees behind their houses where Jimmy had once watched Brice disappear into the woods with girls who weren’t always Connie. Now Jimmy sat on the old wooden bench with Nia, the air cooling around them as dusk set in.

"We always said that we would, you know," Nia said gently, leaning back as if the memory embarrassed her now. "Instead of it being with some random."

"Shouldn’t it be special, though? Or like… mean something?"

"I guess," she shrugged, trying to make it seem casual, though Jimmy immediately realized he’d stepped wrong.

"I’m not saying it wouldn’t be special with you," he added quickly, stumbling over the words. "I just think if we’re going to— you know— it should be because we want to. Not because of some stupid agreement we made when we barely even knew what we were talking about."

"I already said I wanted to do it," she muttered, looking away with a shy smile. "And it’s not because of no pact, Jimmy. You’re so stupid sometimes, I swear."

"I’m bad at this stuff," he groaned. "I don’t know, I guess I’m not like Brice or whatever."

"That’s a good thing, believe me," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"It shouldn’t be here, though," he said after a moment.

"Of course not here. Jimmy, who the fuck do you think I am?" she burst out laughing — real laughter this time. "You’ve been spending too much time with the football players."

"I am a football player," he said, laughing too.

"Yeah, but not really," she looked him in the eyes, softer now. "You’re not like them."

"And that’s a good thing, right?"

"There’s a reason why they’re all in my DMs," she said, sliding her hand into his, "and you’re here with me."

[Captain Canada]

Jimmy out here acting like Season 1 Keshawn

[Caesar]

Jimmy out here acting like Season 1 Keshawn

Soapy developing a penchant for writing these scared of pussy characters.


Brice gotta be the worst patient in the history of therapy. Lawd almighty. Man ain’t making no progress and ain’t even trying. Just let them Johnny Manziel it out.

If I were Eli, I would’ve had to have dipped on Connie’s ass ngl.

[redsox907]

If I were Eli, I would’ve had to have dipped on Connie’s ass ngl.

For what? He's shown to be sensitive and attentive, even when she doesn't reciprocate it. Would be a sharp change of character for him to suddenly hit it and dip on a problem. I still think Connie gonna fuck it up by giving in to Brice, but we'll see.

Brice is doing therapy because he wants someone to tell him he's doing better, not that he wants to be better. BUT I do think he is starting to see he may need to be better, which prompted the leadership question. I think LaPenna fucked up the interaction though. Knowing Brice tends to shut down, he could have fed into it slightly to get Brice engaged in talking about growth. Maybe not directly feeding into the question with a rating, but flipping it back to him. "It sounds like you're questioning your own ability, how about you tell me what you would grade yourself and we can discuss from there," type direction.

Jimmy scared of pussy, gonna be scared to grab that INT when Brice tosses it his way.

[djp73]

Brice finna be David Carr with all the sacks he's taking

[Soapy]

Jimmy out here acting like Season 1 Keshawn

Jimmy out here acting like Season 1 Keshawn

Soapy developing a penchant for writing these scared of pussy characters.


Brice gotta be the worst patient in the history of therapy. Lawd almighty. Man ain’t making no progress and ain’t even trying. Just let them Johnny Manziel it out.

If I were Eli, I would’ve had to have dipped on Connie’s ass ngl.

Not my fault y'all were overly sexualized as teenagers

If I were Eli, I would’ve had to have dipped on Connie’s ass ngl.

For what? He's shown to be sensitive and attentive, even when she doesn't reciprocate it. Would be a sharp change of character for him to suddenly hit it and dip on a problem. I still think Connie gonna fuck it up by giving in to Brice, but we'll see.

Brice is doing therapy because he wants someone to tell him he's doing better, not that he wants to be better. BUT I do think he is starting to see he may need to be better, which prompted the leadership question. I think LaPenna fucked up the interaction though. Knowing Brice tends to shut down, he could have fed into it slightly to get Brice engaged in talking about growth. Maybe not directly feeding into the question with a rating, but flipping it back to him. "It sounds like you're questioning your own ability, how about you tell me what you would grade yourself and we can discuss from there," type direction.

Jimmy scared of pussy, gonna be scared to grab that INT when Brice tosses it his way.

This and also, given what we know about Brice and his family dynamic, was it really his choice to go in the first place?

Regarding LaPenna:

[Soapy]

UMD (2-3, 0-2) | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 14
PUR (4-1, 2-0) | 7 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 16

UMD QB Malik Washington (Soph): 25-40, 300 Yds, 2 TD, Sacked 1x
UMD WR Ryan Manning (R-Jr): 8 Rec, 128 Yds
UMD DT Noah Carrington (R-Sr): 6 Tkl, 3 TFL, Sack
PUR QB Brice Colton (Fr): 23-37, 190 Yds, TD, Sacked 1x, 6 Car, 39 Yds
PUR HB Gabriel Joyner (Jr): 18 Car, 55 Yds
PUR WR Corey Smith (R-Fr): 9 Rec, 76 Yds

Season Stats 132-187, 1337 Yds, 10 TD, 3 INT, Sacked 21x, 45 Car, 129 Yds, 2 fumbles (2 lost)
Remaining Schedule vs. Wisconsin, at UCLA, at Iowa, vs. Minnesota, at #11 Penn State, at Illinois, at #7 Indiana

[Caesar]

Brice Colton gotta show us something else. He putting up these Arch Manning ass numbers out here

[redsox907]

I mean he didn't eat dirt for lunch this time. But he ain't proving ND should have signed him anyways

[Captain Canada]

Uninspiring statline, but a win's a win.