A Knight Comes To Bed

RACHEL GILROY WAS your quintessential, all-American college girl—dark hair, blue eyes and peppy attitude. Fresh out of high school and bright eyed, she'd gone straight to college to earn her degree. The University represented a lot more than just a diploma, for Rachel, it was an opportunity to make her parents proud.

Rachel didn’t have it easy like the other kids in her university. Her father had been a farmer until his untimely demise in a hit-and-run accident out on the dusty farm roads. While insurance money and a decent bid to buy the farm from a friend kept them out of the streets, her mother had worked for years as a seamstress to make ends meet in the absence of the her father’s income.

Rachel never once forgot about the life she and her mother had to go through. She had been young when her father passed, all of twelve years of age, and it had been hard for her to understand why no one had been held accountable. It had been difficult for her to understand any of it.

One day she had had a father, a big man with hands rough with callouses from throwing hay bails into the backs of pick-ups, and the next day she didn't. Try as she might, Rachel couldn't remember much of the last day she'd had her father in her life. It had all been a blur to her. She couldn't even remember if she'd said she loved him, or if he kissed her on the cheek.

It had been a stormy spring morning, the kind that farmers in the Midwest depend on to water their crops, when he'd got in his pick up to head into town for something her mother had asked for. Rachel had gotten on the school bus without any thought to whether she would still see her father when she got home. Her mind was instead occupied with thoughts whether she would be able to go outside for recess or if recess would be moved into the gym because of the storm.

That afternoon, the principal came into the gym and quietly spoke with the teacher with such a solemn face that all of the children knew something had gone wrong. There had been some kind of terrible accident. Each child hoped deep in their heart that the bad news wasn't for them. That the angel of death had passed over their families that day. They wondered if maybe there had been a tornado that had ran over someone's farm house and taken up not just planks of timber and nails but screaming loved ones.

Rachel had been just like the others and hoped more than anything the news wouldn't be for her, but when the principal motioned her over and walked with her to his office with his arm around her shoulder, Rachel knew there was no escaping it.

When she found out that her father wouldn't be coming home from work that night or ever, she burst into tears and had been inconsolable. She was sent home right away to her mother where they both mourned deeply for days. Things had never been the same for her and her mother, but they still had each other to depend on.

It wasn't until years later, long after her tears and dried, that she came to understand that the man who had killed her daddy in a car accident had been drunk, but allowed to walk free because he was the governor’s son.

Rachel had gone to college not just to educate herself and help ensure a better future than her parents had, but also because she wanted to make a difference. She wanted to be able to help stop the kind of injustice that had happened to her from ever happening to anyone else.

But she knew that in order to do that, she'd have to be able to be powerful. Rachel took the application process to college seriously. She buried herself in books during freshman year, and never once forgot what she came to college for. And now, she was now putting a great deal of effort into studying for her sophomore year midterms.

THE SMALL ROOM she shared with three other people smelled of old carpet and musty air ducts, and was no place to seriously study for the midterms. Rachel never felt that she was able to focus much in her apartment, so she often camped out at the university library for major exams. The university had seen better days, that much was certain, but its facilities still had many years of use left in them.

Sam Matheson sat directly across from her, peering intently at his advanced calculus.

To Rachel, Sam was one of those guys who had everything going for him. He was on the school basketball team, next in line to manage his father's successful business and from the rumors she had heard around school, was great in bed and knew exactly how to please the ladies. Rachel wasn't sure if she could ever see Sam in that kind of light, though. He was such a great guy that he seemed too good to be true.

Rachel didn't know him all that well, just what she had heard. Rumors travel quickly—and thoroughly—through college communities though, so Rachel had heard quite a bit. She'd heard about how Sam had come to be the next in line for the family business because his brother had gone through a bad divorce and then committed suicide, leaving the future of the business in Sam's hands.

Rachel kept glancing up from studying her biology book to stare at those very able-looking hands, when the whiny voice of the guy beside her drifted into her consciousness.

“I see that you’re studying biology there, and I, uh, I've been sitting beside you all semester.” the boy named Allen said. Allen had been indeed sitting next to her all semester, and very well knew that Rachel was in no way attracted to him at all, or at least Rachel had thought that he had known this. She guessed it wasn’t obvious now that there was some confusion.

“I guess you have, Allen,” Rachel said. “Is that why you came in here to study, so you could help me?”

“Well… I didn't want to leave you in here with this brute sitting across from you,” Allen said, then let out of a stale-sounding laugh. “These basketball players are trouble, you know. Isn't that right, Sam?”

For a moment it seemed like Sam wasn't going to look up from his text book, and instead would continue perusing its words and numbers, but then he answered.

“I guess so, Allen,” Sam said without looking up. “Something like that.”

Allen let out a half laugh-half snort of approval that Sam would seemingly bow to Allen's dominance, and then continued with the obvious attempt at picking Rachel up.

“You see, Rachel,” Allen said. “I've been helping you a lot in class and whatnot, and, um, we don't really know each other that well. Hell, the way I see it you would have failed that last test if I hadn't let you look off of my pages.”

Rachel sank down in her seat when she realized what Allen had just said. She was mortified that he would bring this up in front of Sam! Rachel wasn't good at biology and didn't mind if people knew that, but it wasn't alright that Allen would just blurt it out loud.

Academic dishonesty was taken very seriously by university officials and if any students reported hearing such a thing uttered aloud, there could very well be some kind of formal inquiry, investigation or maybe even a probe to try and suss out what the particulars of the situation were.

Rachel wanted to drop dead and be buried where she sat. She was so shocked and embarrassed that of all people to witness what had just happened, it had to be Sam.

“Allen, I can't believe you would just say that out loud in front of whoever was around,” Rachel hissed. “Do you have any idea how much trouble I could get into if someone found out I cheated?”

“Well, you see, basketball players are known to be 'cool' so I doubt Sam will tell anyone. Right, Sam?” Allen said.

“My lips are sealed,” Sam answered, a small smirk fluttering around the corners of his lips.

“So anyway, Rachel,” Allen went on. “I was wondering if you would be free to join me tonight to the local theater down on Main Street. I think it would be nice for us to spend some time together, and maybe get to know each other.”

For a second Allen stopped talking to dig around his pockets, then triumphantly pulled out two tickets.

“I got us the best seats in the house for a silent theater going on. I think it would be fun. Silent theaters haven't really caught on around here yet but I'm hoping they will soon. Maybe we could grab a cup of coffee after the show, have some time to talk.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Sam said. “But Rachel and I are attending a meeting of one of the school clubs we’re in, so I doubt she’ll be able to join you. Sorry to ruin your plans, man, but I just thought that would make things a little easier for both of you.”

“Oh, really,” Allen said. “What club?”

“Rock climbing,” Sam said with a smile. “Now if you don’t mind, Rachel was helping me study.”

Defeated, Allen slunk out of the room with a dejected look on his face. Rachel felt a little bad for Allen, but was relieved that Sam had saved her from what could have been an awkward date. She couldn't believe how cool Sam had been about the entire thing, he could have fooled her back there.

“Thank you so much,” Rachel said with a sigh of relief. “That was awesome of you,”

“No worries,” Sam said. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

Rachel looked at her text book for a few seconds before smiling and looking up at him. “My name is Rachel, by the way, I don't think we've ever been introduced,” she said.

Sam let out a chuckle and extended his hand across the table, reaching to shake hers.

“Nice to meet you Rachel,” Sam said. “As you heard Allen say, my name is Sam, I'm on the basketball team and evidently I am, as he put it, cool.”

He spoke in a way that made Rachel really comfortable with him. She couldn’t help but giggle.

“Sucks how he can't keep his mouth shut about letting you look off of his paper,” Sam said as he shook his head. “I know how hard that biology class is, and you know what? I looked off of a few papers myself when I was taking it.”

“Really?” Rachel asked. “It was tough for you, too?”

“Super tough!” Sam exclaimed. “I couldn't for the life of me keep from falling asleep in that class, and then the instructor had that thick accent that was hard to understand. It was all just a little too much.”

“The professor's accent is so hard to understand!” Rachel agreed. “It kills me that there isn't some kind of captioning service provided by the university. And you can completely tell when he has been hitting the bottle the night before because it’s extra thick when he's hung over.”

“Ooohhh! That's what she said!” Sam said before bursting out laughing.

Rachel couldn't believe that Sam had said that. She liked his sense of humor, and the way his eyes lit up when he laughed seemed to make her smile.

“So, Rachel, if you get sick of studying for biology and need a break, there’s a party at my place if you want to come and hang out,” Sam said.

“Sounds like fun, but I don't go out a lot and don't know too many people,” Rachel said. “I'd hate to end up the person weirdly standing by themselves at the party.”

“Don't worry ‘bout that,” Sam said. “Brian and Felicia will be there, you know them from some of your classes. I'm pretty sure I've heard them talk about how well you guys get along. Tom will be there too, and I think you two know each other from growing up in the same small town?”

“Oh my God, you know Tom? No way!” Rachel said. “We grew up in the same little town together—nothing to do but tip cows. And I know Brian and Felicia from class.”

“See! It's that simple,” Sam said. “There will be other people you know for sure. And it would be great to talk to you more.” Sam finished his sentence by flashing a smile at Rachel.

“Well, if I have time, I’ll try my best to be there,” Rachel said.

Just as Rachel was about to excuse herself to leave and find a less distracting place to study, one of the basketball cheer leaders walked in to the room and sauntered her way towards their desk. She touched Sam's arm, giving him a big smile and talking in a low voice about something that had happened at practice the day before. Sam smiled back and laughed his low, hearty laugh.

Rachel admired how easily the two of them flirted, how smoothly it all went. They looked like they flirted often. Rachel wasn't jealous at all. She just found herself wishing such things came to her so easily. She hoped that if she went to the party, she could flirt with Sam with such ease.

Rachel stopped paying attention to Sam and the cheer leader, focusing on her book. She barely even noticed when the two left together. She tried not to think anything of it. They were both on the same sports team so jumping to the conclusion that they were together would be a little much, she thought.

Few minutes after they had left, Rachel decided it was time to take off as well. She hadn't gotten nearly the amount of studying done that she needed, but she still had some time to catch up. She gathered up her things, putting her books in her bag and checking under the table for anything left behind. Finding nothing, she made her way to the front lobby of the library and left after dropping a book off in the return drop box.

When she started walking to her car from the front doors she saw one of the football team's defensive linemen walking toward her. Rachel didn't like the way he was looking at her. It was one of those looks that men give meat when it was on the barbeque.

When they get close to walking by each other, Rachel got so nervous she tripped on her own feet and collided with the football player. Untangling herself as quickly as possible, Rachel got up and moved rapidly away from the man.

She didn't want to look back for fear of the leer she knew he would have on his face. Rachel walked away toward the parking lot as quickly as possible.

RACHEL WAS RESTLESS when she got to her apartment. She couldn’t seem to get much focus, and her thoughts always drifted back to Sam’s party. She’s not a big fan of party scenes, but with Sam being there, the idea didn’t seem so bad. After much internal debate, she decided that maybe the best thing for her to do would be to take a break from studying and just go.