Girls Can't Play Football

Chapter 11

I'm so sorry about the wait!!! I know it took forever, but I've been really busy with school, not to mention I had some serious writers' block going on for a while. But here it finally is, the next chapter!!! Enjoy...

 

Chapter 11

I climbed out of the front seat of Taylor’s Camaro, smiling like an idiot when I saw Caleb take Sophie’s hand. Taylor slung his arm across my shoulder, apparently deciding that traditional handholding would allow far too much space between us. I swear, the guy has absolutely no concept of boundaries. Personal space is just a suggestion to him.

The school was decorated for Homecoming on every available surface. I highly doubt the decorating committee slept at all in the past month. I mean, it takes a lot of effort to reach this level of tackiness. Blue and gold streamers, balloons, crepe paper, the whole horrible nine yards. It looked like a bad ‘80’s movie threw up in here.

When Taylor and I entered the gym, the other football players started clapping and cheering for us and the other students soon grudgingly joined in. My cheeks heated in response. You definitely didn’t get this kind of attention when you won a gymnastics competition.

Fuller rushed over and slapped Taylor hard on the back before picking me up in a bone-crushing hug. My breath wheezed painfully from my lungs, making me forget my former embarrassment. Funny how oxygen deprivation will do that to you. “Fuller, man, you’re crushing her. Try not to break my date before I get to second base.” Taylor grinned impishly while awkwardly rubbing the spot on his back that Fuller had hit. I’m sure he had a bruise forming there now.

Fuller chuckled and set me down. “Sorry, Charlie.”

I gasped a breath. “It’s okay, Fuller.” I lightly patted his shoulder before I turned to glare at Taylor. “Hey, you haven’t even got to first base yet, so don’t go assuming that you’ll make it to second, you ass.”  Fuller laughed and walked away, but my eyes widened as Taylor smirked and prowled forward, quickly realizing my mistake. Taylor is not the kind of guy you lay a challenge out before unless you’re ready to be proven wrong.

I backed away as he advanced, his eyes alight and his mouth twitching with amusement. My back hit the padded gym wall tucked in a dark corner away from the crowd and DJ. Taylor didn’t stop until he was mere inches in front of me and I felt his chest press against mine each time I dared to breathe, which was a lot less often than it should have been. He raised his arms so I was entirely caged in. Can anyone say, “I know why the caged bird sings?”

The rational part of me knew that he would move if I pushed him away, but for some reason my arms weren’t listening to the logic. I stared up at him with wide eyes, completely paralyzed. Taylor stared back, his grin slowly fading. He raised one hand until it gripped the back of my neck and his thumb traced the corner of my jaw under my ear making me shiver. “You’re so beautiful.” He whispered. With that heart-stopping compliment he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine.

It felt so soft and gentle at first, but then he began roughly moving his lips against mine. That’s when I snapped out of my brief bout of immobility. I reached up with one hand to grip his strong shoulder and the other tangled itself in his hair, somehow pulling him even closer. He groaned and shifted one hand around my waist and pushing me further into the wall. Our mouths worked wildly together, with his tongue slipping into mine. I moaned loudly at the taste of him, but didn’t have enough sense left to blush.

His hand that had been previously gripping my neck made its way down the length of my back to grip my ass. He used it as leverage to sensually grind our lower halves together. I gasped at the feeling. Damn, he was good. When he started to move his tongue to the same rhythm as our hips, I just about lost my mind. My fingernails dug into his shoulder when his teeth scrapped and nipped at my bottom lip. Seeming to take that as his cue, the hand at my waist started to slid up my side.

I moved my lips to his ear and whispered, “Nice try.” I caught his wandering hand right before it reached its destination, much to his disappointment.

“So you know this is coercion right?” I asked playfully, looking up at Taylor with my arms looped around his neck as we slow danced in the center of the crowd.

“What do you mean?”

“This, our date. You and Sophie completely coerced me into this. You backed me into a corner to get me to go out with you.”

“I regret nothing.” Taylor stated boldly. “I really like backing you into corners.” He added with a wicked grin.

I tossed my head back with the force of my laugh. “Well, at least you’re honest, even if you are a pig.”

“Speaking of my inability to keep my mouth shut, tonight at the after party-”

“After party?” No one told me about an after party, but I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise. No one had told me anything about tonight until the last possible moment. I had never considered myself a control freak before, but tonight was making me question that.

“Yeah, the party at Jaime’s house.” Taylor continued casually, while I froze. Jaime hated me, or hated Taylor, or hated both us. To be honest, I really wasn’t too clear on the details, but she definitely had a weird vendetta thing going on against someone and the idea of partying at her house didn’t really spell out a fun time to me. “Didn’t Sophie tell you about it?”

“No, she didn’t.” there was an annoyed undercurrent to my voice, but c’mon! How many things do I have to be left in the dark about until the last possible moment? Am I really that difficult that everyone feels the need to just spring things on me? Or maybe I’m too easy going so no one thinks I’ll care about it. This is actually a big problem. Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing it wrong.

“Oh, well, this is awkward.” Taylor stops moving and rubs the back of his neck, pointedly looking away from me.

I squint up at him, wondering what has obviously got him so uncomfortable. “What?”

“Uh, Jaime, she asked me earlier, like a few days ago, if I was going to her party and I, uh, said that I was.” He glanced down at me and seeing my confused face, quickly looked away again. A pit formed in my stomach when I realized where he was going with this. “Somehow, I really don’t know how, but she got the idea that I was going with her to the party from that. Like, as her date.”

I moved my arms off his shoulders. An evil little voice in my mind told me to throw a big, embarrassing tantrum, but I could never actually go through with something like that. Even though it may give me some sick sense of satisfaction to embarrass him right along with me.

“You know, I really don’t get you.” I looked up at him and my hands unconsciously started smoothing the front of my shirt down. My voice, thankfully, came out clear and strong. “It seemed like you actually liked me. Maybe you’re just a good actor, but it did. You could have just asked me out to piss off my dad, but you stuck around after that too. Then you finally get a date with me, only to leave me for a girl that, by all accounts, seems to hate you. Or she’s a psycho ex. I can’t tell which, but either way, you’re choosing her over me right now. So, have a nice night, asshole.” I turned and walked away without a backward glance.

To be honest, I’m not really sure if what he did was all that wrong. I felt taken advantage of, but was I overreacting? Taylor and I weren’t dating or anything, and while he was my date to the dance, I didn’t even know about the after party. Just because once he told me about it, I assumed he would take me, we hadn’t actually agreed to that though. I knew the real problem was he had hurt my pride tonight. I thought he really liked me while he was moving on to the next girl.

Damn, football practice is going to be awkward tomorrow.

What did you guys think??? They finally kissed!!! Hate it? Like it? Love it? Want to marry it and have it's babies? Hope the 'it' is referring to Taylor or are things just getting weird? Haha jk. Also what do you guys think is going on with Jaime and Taylor? Any guesses? Predictions? I'm curious as ever to hear what you guys have to say!!! Thank you again for all of your patience!

~Lydielou