Going for the Seven

Chapter 22

Three months later

Samantha

The image in the mirror looked like me, but felt more like a ghost.

Gone were the black clothes and combat boots. In their place a pair of tight fitting blue jeans and a midriff metallic silver shirt. A pair of strappy sandals showed off my toes which Kim had bullied me into painting to match the shirt.

"I'm not so sure about this?" I pulled at the dangling silver earrings that played at my neck as Kim finished with my hair. Instead of my normal, every day messy bun, the thick strands were pulled back in a smooth high ponytail, several pieces left out to frame my made up face.

"You look great." Kim slapped at the hand that was attempting to stretch out the bottom of my shirt so it wouldn't reveal as much of my flat stomach. "Stop fidgeting."

The girl looking back at me with large blue eyes did look great, stunning even. She looked like the kind of girl who could walk into any party and immediately be the center of attention. She looked like the girl who died on the side of the road in her parents crushed SUV.

Walking back to my dresser, she started digging again into the stash of my old clothes that she had stumbled upon then forced me to wear for tonight. She emerged with a black skirt that I remembered distinctly because it had been so short on me that when Cash saw me show up at a party in it he had marched me straight back home and demanded I change.

"No." I shook my head adamantly as she approached closer with the mini skirt.

"Sammie, I'm the stylist. You have to trust me, this would look perfect on you." She held the skirt up by the waist band. "It'll be conservative compared to what my sorority sisters will be wearing."

And that was part of the problem wasn't it. I had no business being at this party. I wasn't that girl any more.

When Kim had brought up the idea of rushing a Greek Sorority at the beginning of the semester I had encouraged her to join, but had begged out, claiming that between studies, football and therapy, I just didn't have the time. I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't that girl any more.

Heck, I doubt I had ever been that girl. I had always felt more at home on a football field than at sleep overs with groups of gossiping girls. But I had been pretty and had an outgoing best friend so I had played along.

Now, I was about to break out in hives at just the idea of hanging out with all of Kim's new sisters.

"I'm just not sure this is a good idea." Turning my back on Kim I paced to my bathroom, itching to change back into my comfortable pajamas.

"Come on." Kim followed on my heels. "You haven't gone out at all this semester."

"Probably because the last time I did I lost my virginity and ended up in the back of a cop car in the space of a couple hours." I pulled at the hairband that suddenly felt too tight, destroying Kim's hard work.

Kim stopped my hands before I could pull the earrings out. Leaning into my back to envelope me in a rose scented hug. "I'm sorry that happened. But I'm here now, I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

I knew she wouldn't. But I didn't know any of her new friends. "It's just not my scene. You'll have more fun if I'm not there."

"You're football guys will be there, they always are." Apparently, Kim's sorority sisters had a thing for football players and invited them to all their functions.

The idea of being with my guys did comfort me a bit. "He won't be there right?" She had already assured me about Liam, but I needed to be sure.

"Liam never comes. I heard he doesn't party at all." Kim reached up and fixed the damage I did to my ponytail. "And we can forget the skirt." She relented, her pleading eyes met my own in the mirror.

After all Kim had done for me this year, I guessed that I owed her one. "Fine." I sighed, accepting the silver bracelet that she handed over and ignoring the small victory dance she performed in the mirror. "But I reserve the right to leave if it's horrible..."

"Or if a certain someone shows up." Kim repeated what I had been saying since agreeing to go to the party with her. "I know....I know. You will have a great time, I promise."

I followed her back into my room, laying out on the bed as she finished getting ready. She too was raiding my stash of old clothes for her outfit for the night. She had settled on a blue off shoulder top but was still undecided on which bottoms.

"I don't understand you're aversion to Liam being there anyways." Kim pulled on some black cut off shorts that showed off how long her legs were and I gave a thumbs up for my approval. "It's not like you don't practice with him every day. You are still training him right?" .

"Yes. Of course." I lied. "It's just different. On the field I have the shield of being one of the trainers or coaches." And off it, I was too worried that I would jump his bones again to risk getting close to him.

Not that he hadn't tried his hardest to corner me multiple times. Even using Adonis to try to pin me down.

And worst thing was I couldn't blame him. I had promised to train him. But with the exception of giving him special diets and work outs to complete on his off time, I didn't spend any time one on one training him like I would have Cash. Like I would have if he was any other player.

I told myself it was so no one would suspect anything. After all, no one could know that we planned on training him up to replace Stevens. But deep down I knew it was different.

I knew it was because when I watched him on the field I wasn't just seeing a great football player. I was seeing him as a man. Watching the play of his muscles, getting lost in his dark eyes. Every time I watched my traitorous body would get worked up and strain to get closer to him.

So instead of treating him like any other player I would train. I acted like he wasn't there.

I could tell he was frustrated with me. Heck, even Coach Gates had asked me what I was doing, why we weren't making any progress. But until I figured out a way to tramp down this attraction to Liam I was going with the route of avoidance.

"Why do I feel like you're lying to me?" Kim called me out on my shit.

"Because I am." I burrowed my head into my hands. "I'm a coward. I haven't been training him at all. And all the while that Stevens asshole keeps getting better and better." Every practice that he worked one on one with one of the other quarterback coaches Stevens was getting that little bit extra leg up on Liam.

"Sam?" I could hear all the unasked questions in Kim's voice. She knew how much getting Stevens replaced meant to me. How much I didn't want to see him in my brothers position. Or heck, on the team at all.

"I just can't do it Kim." I admitted. "I can't look at him as just another football player. And he definitely doesn't look at me like I'm a coach." No every time he looked my way it felt like he was slowly undressing me with his eyes. Like he was just waiting for me to break down and let him take me back to his bed.

"You've still got it bad for him huh?" I didn't miss that her eyes moved over the the chair in the corner of my room. The chair on which his large t-shirt rested just waiting for me to slip into at the end of the night and curl up in my bed.

"I sleep better in it." I defended, getting up and snatching the shirt out of sight.

"Yeah, because you have the hots for it's owner."

"I can't help it." As much as I wished I could just turn it off. "He was my first you know. Doesn't every girl have a hard time getting over her first?"

"Only if they're good." And he had been. My face heated and pulse raced just thinking about our one and only night together. A night I'm sure he had repeated with other girls multiple times since then. I ignored the stabbing pain in my chest at that thought.

"I know just what you need to get over this." Kim snapped her fingers. I wasn't sure I liked the gleam in her eyes but at this point I was willing to try anything. "We just need to find you a new guy."