The Friend Zone

Chapter Fifteen: No Regrets

"Pretty damn good," he said.

"I take it you've been here a while?" I asked.

"Hey Tess, good to see you haven't changed," he laughed slinging his arm around my shoulder. It was only ten but he reeked of alcohol already.

"Get your hands off of her dumbass, didn't I tell you we're dating now?" Taylor laughed, half shoving Chase just to see if he was intoxicated enough to fall over yet.

"No shit," he said, "It's about damn time."

"Are Ethan and Hank coming soon?" Taylor asked.

"They're here, they went to the bar to get drinks and they're coming back now," he replied.

"Hey guys," Taylor said as Ethan and Hank approached our table.

"Hey Taylor, Tess!" Ethan said, setting his drink down at the table, "How are you two?"

"Great," Taylor replied as Ethan gave me a hug and Hank followed.

Ethan and Hank were Taylor's old linemates, they'd spent the most time together out of anyone else on the team the last three years they spent playing together.

"So Taylor here was just telling me how he and Tess are a thing now," Chase said, taking a drink.

"No shit," Ethan laughed.

"I knew it was going to happen if you two went to school together," Hank laughed.

"Apparently I was the only one who didn't know," I laughed.

"Usually I'm the last one to know this shit, I'm okay with it," Taylor laughed.

"What are we standing around for? I'm finally legal here, let's go get drinks!" I said, shoving Taylor away from the group and toward the bar.

###

A few rounds and a few shots later, we had made the decision to go dance out on the crowded floor under the gleaming neon lights. It was nice to be able to go out and not have to worry about getting caught drinking or dancing with Taylor and it was safe to say that I took full advantage of that.

"You know we could just stop dancing and make out in the middle of the floor like every other couple is doing and not have to worry that Kayla's crazy ass sees us," I whispered in Taylor's ear between songs.

"I guess we could, couldn't we?" he replied with a drunken smirk spread across his smug face, "But what if we went back to a booth where nobody's going to bump into us?"

"Sounds good," I replied, our faces merely inches away from each other. Soon he was leading me back to the booth we had claimed by the hand.

I wasn't quite sure how we managed to make it back there without stumbling more, I was wearing five-inch heels and we had both had more than our fair share of alcohol in the past five hours or so but somehow we got back to the booth without tripping or stumbling over our own feet.

We had barely gotten back to the booth before his arm was snaked around my waist and his hand was on the back of my neck and our lips finally met. The passion was there but the coordination wasn't, considering we were both extremely drunk. It was then that we almost fell into the booth.

"Careful," Taylor breathed, only pulling away long enough to say that single word and laugh a little.

"Damn we're a mess," I laughed as his lips trailed down from my lips, to my neck, then down to my collarbone.

"We should probably get back to the hotel," he said.

"I'll call a cab," I said, reaching into my pocket to grab my phone.

###

Ten minutes later we were back at the hotel and had managed to find our way to the room we had rented for the night.

"I'm going to get changed," I said as we walked into the room, dropping my clutch and coat on the floor.

"Me too," he said.

I walked over to the table on the other side of the room that I had left a knapsack with a t-shirt and pair of leggings in it for the night. I quickly shed my skin tight jeans and long sleeved crop top and slipped into one of his t-shirts I had stolen from him before I was rudely interrupted.

"Damn you can't even let me change my clothes," I whined as he grabbed my waist from behind and kissed my cheek.

"Sorry," he said, "I didn't realize you were actually going to sleep in pants tonight."

"I guess I don't have to," I said, turning around to face him. No sooner had I turned around were his lips on mine again and his hands traveling up and down my back.

"Good," he said, his hand now tangled in my hair and his other hand on the small of my back, causing me to fall back, only to have him catch me before I fell back onto the bed.

I didn't know exactly where this was heading but I didn't seem to care. Maybe it was the amount of alcohol I had consumed or I was finally going to stop giving a shit what everyone else was going to have to say about Taylor and I being together.

"Do you want to stop now?" he whispered in my ear after we had fallen onto the bed, causing a tingle to run down from my ear all the way down my spine.

"No," I breathed, his forehead pressed against mine as we laid there.

"You sure?" he asked, "I-I don't want you to regret this in the morning."

"Yes, I'm sure, God, Taylor keep going," I said, "No regrets, I promise."

###

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