Bound Together (17 page)

I had first period with
Zoey
, and Mr. Rhinehart gave us the whole period to work on our assignment.
Zoey
looked board and distracted. She was sketching in her pad, just putting the finishing touches on the
Eiffel Tower
drawing. I don’t know what I expected, but it was annoying me that she was acting like nothing had happened between us on the trip
—
or last night.

“So, I had an idea for the paper.”

She stopped drawing and waited for me to continue.

“How to avoid looking like an American tourist in
Paris
.”

She smirked and nodded once. “Sounds cool.”

“Okay, so I thought we could break it up into different sections.” I opened my notebook and read them to her. “Attire, food, demeanor, language, and sight
-
seeing. Five sections, two pages each and we’ll have ten pages.”

“Sounds like a plan.
”

We divided up the work and used the rest of the period to start writing the paper. At least I did, I think
Zoey
continued drawing.  When the bell rang, she left class before I could even shrug my backpack over my shoulder.

I headed to weight lifting and changed.

“There he is!” Justin called, thumping my back.

“Hey man.” I thumped him back, then shoved him off me. “What’d I miss
last
week?”

“We got our asses
kicked by Dover last week, dog
—
it’s good you’re back.” I threw my shirt on over my head and swung the locker door closed. “So, how was it? You get any ass?”

I walked ahead of him into the weight room. “No, man
—
it was pretty cool though.”

“Cool.”
He nodded. 

*****

The week at school passed by quickly. Whenever I saw
Zoey
in the halls or the cafeteria, she looked the other way or did her best to disappear.

“
We
gotta
whoop
some ass tonight,
”
Justin said, once I reached the locker room.

“I’m in.” I
gave him a fist bump and a smile.

We were playing Oracle Tech tonight
, and
C
oach wanted us to take it easy this hour. We head
ed
outside and walked around the track once and then spent the rest of the time stretching.  I sat on the ground in the front of the team, leading stretches while Coach talked all about Oracle, their past performance, their tendencies, their speed.

“There’s some good guys on this team,” he was saying.

I bent over at the waist, reaching for my toes in a hamstring stretch and the rest of the team followed. 

“There’s some big guys on this team,” Coach continued. “They’ve got a guy named
Timsley
, whose rumored to be college bound.”

Justin told me they’d done drills in practice that week all aimed at taking this guy
Timsley
down. I switched the stretch, and pulled my ankle up behind my
butt
, stretching my quad. The guys followed.

“All right
—
they’re all yours
,
Matt.” Coach Dickey tipped his ball cap at me and headed into the gym
like he usually did the last ten minutes of class
. The guy
’
s eyes were on me. I switched legs and pulled my other ankle up behind me.
I remembered last year, when everything seemed so much easier. I remembered getting into a circle with the guys, and the
your mom
jokes would be flying, but now they just stared at me, waiting for me to do something, anything.
I clapped my hands together, signaling the stretches were over and the guys circled up around me.

I mouth went dry, and my mind was blank. The team was looking at me, waiting for me to start. They squinted into the sun as the seconds ticked by. Someone cleared their throat. I felt a bead of sweat run down my temple. My heart sped up.

Justin stepped forward. “The past three years agains
t Oracle it’s been a tough game
—
this year we’re
gonna
steam roll those fuckers!
”

The guys erupted in cheers, before taking off, jogging towards the showers.

“Hey, thanks man,” I said once it was just Justin and I.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I shook my head. “
Must still be
jet
-
lagged I think.”
We walked to the showers without saying anything else.

At the game that night,
Timsley
was living up to everything we’d
heard. He was a beast
—
easily
six foot five and three hundred pounds.
My only tactic was to charge at him and try to take his legs out from under him. The first time I’d dropped
him, which felt really good. It was right in front of the student section too, and I relished in the sounds of their cheers as I jogged away. 

But after that first time, he caught on to my strategy, and he’d decided he wasn’t going to be dropped by me again. After that, trying to tackle him was like running into a brick
wall. It actually hurt when we collided, and stole the breath from my chest
. H
e wasn’t going anywhere.
W
hen I couldn’t get him down,
I just held onto his jersey and tried to drag him down. I h
eard the whistle and let him go
.
I tried to walk it off, but I suddenly had a bad feeling about the rest of this game.

At half time, we were holding on, but just barely. The team looked pretty roughed up with bloody elbows and grass
-
stained jerseys.
I looked up and
spotted
my parents in the crowd.
My mom waved. I didn’t wave back.
I scanned the faces in the student section, looking for
Zoey
, though I’d never seen her at a game before.

The second half of the game only got worse. I had little to no effect on
Timsley
, and though I tried to keep my head in the game as the clocked ticked down, the worse things got and the further they pulled away from us on the scoreboard. Coach Dickey was pissed. I pretended I couldn’t hear his screaming at me from the sidelines.

After the game, I didn’t say anything to the team. I threw my pads off and was the first one in the showers. I stood under the cool water and took deep breaths.

Justin followed me out of the shower with a towel wrapped around hi
s waist. “Hey, don’t worry
, man
—
that guy was huge.”

“Yeah, I guess.” We were dressed by the time the rest of the guys were done showering.

“
You
going to
Summer’s
tonight?
” He punched me in the shoulder
.
“Her parents are out of town –everyone’s going. Come on.”

I grabbed my bag and
followed him to the student parking lot and we drove in a caravan to Summer’s house. 

We pulled up to a two
-
story house on a wooded lot, and judging by how far
down
the block we had to park, the place was already hopping. We went in without knocking .
“It smells like skank in here,” Justin s
aid, eagerly sniffing the air, rubbing his hands together.

Someone handed me a red plastic cup of beer
, but once I reached the kitchen, I set it on the counter
. Chelsey was there with Dave.
He sat on the counter and she was standing in between his legs.

On second thought, I picked up the beer and took a swig. I looked around and recognized a lot of people from school. On the other side of the dining room,
Zoey
stood talking to Morgan.
She wore a
navy blue
sweatshirt with the hood pulled up.
Her eyes practi
cally glowed against the blue of
her shirt.
Even though she was out in public at a party, she still managed to set herself apart and made a point to look like she didn’t fit in. Part of me was jealous that she never pretended, that
she was always true to herself, not worrying about pleasing anyone.

Laughter in the kitchen brought my attention back to the moment. Justin was telling a story about a freshman he was close to closing.

“Isn’t she a little young
—
even for you?” I asked.

Their eyes
turn
ed
on me.

Justin’s grin turned devilish.
“If there’s grass on the field
—
play ball
.
”
The guys busted up laughing.

I took another gulp
of beer and realized the guys in the kitchen were
looking at me,
asking about the game.

“What happened,
Capt’n
?” Bryce asked, knocking back his beer.

“We got whooped like a
red-headed
step
-
child tonight,” Justin said
, crushing a
n empty
can in his hand
.

“
Looks like
Paris
made
Parker
soft,” Bryce said.

“
Guess
you won’t be a Marine like your brother,” another said.

I looked to Justin, who had a sour look on his face, knowing the comment was off, but he said nothing.

I rubbed my temples, hoping that wasn’t a headache a felt coming on. I looked over to
Zoey
and saw her blue eyes were locked on mine, looking worried.
Without saying anything, I left the kitchen
. I didn’t know where I was going, just that I needed out of there.
I headed towards the back of the house
and
passed by bedrooms occupied by horny classmates.
I tried t
he
bathroom
, but the
door was locked. I turned and was ready to slump down in the hallway and totally loose it, but I felt a hand on my forearm pull me around the corner.

Zoey
was pulling
me into a darkened laundry room.
She closed the door behind us, blocking out nearly all the light, except for what came in around the cracks in the door.
She placed her hands on my chest and walked me backward
s
until I bumped into the washer.

“What are you –”

             
“
Shh
.”
She
placed a finger over my lips. “No talking,” she whispered
near my ear
.
She put her hands under my shirt and ran her
fingertips
up my stomach. It sent a chill through me.
She reached up on her toes and kissed me. I brought my hands to her face, and pushed her hood back and kissed her deeply.

Being in a darkened laundry room with
Zoey
was way better than being out in the party. I felt so comfortable with her, and yeah, I liked kissing her too. My heart was pounding, but in a good way. I felt alive, challenged, accepted. Not like I did out in the party with my so
-
called friends. 

“
Zoey
,” I said in between kisses. “Hang on…can we….”

She stopped kissing me and held my chin so I was forced to meet her eyes. “I. Said. No. Talking.” Then she went back to kissing me.

I didn’t argue. I lost myself in
her
attention. She didn’t care how I did on the field, that I didn’t have a witty come back for the guys in the kitchen, or that I didn’t have the faintest idea about what I was doing.
I mean, she did only seem to want me for one thing – but who was I to complain? This is one thing I could do right. Hopefully. 

Zoey
scooted towards me, and pressed her chest to mine.
It was pitch black but I could just make out
her
smirk as she
wrapped her legs around my waist and pulled me in closer.

It was like no time had passed since the trip. We both remembered, or at least our bodies did. I danced my tongue around hers felt her groan as she
ran her hands through my hair. S
he
wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me even closer. I fumbled in the darkness, and
gripped her
ass
,
pulling her closer to
grind my hip
s into her. I felt her breath
catch
against my neck.