Full Count (14 page)

“You don’t ever fucking touch her
like that again or I will beat the living shit out of you.” Dylan stood over
Ben, his hands clenched in fists so tight they were turning white. Donuts and
cups littered the stairs behind him while Ben slowly stood up.

“Oh, don’t worry about that I’m
done with whores, she’s all yours.” Dylan’s feet quickly moved forward to
follow Ben, but I grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Dylan, please don’t. It’s done
now, so please just leave it. I really didn’t want him to get hurt like that
but after the way he just acted I don’t feel as guilty.”

“You’re right,” he answered back,
wrapping me in a quick hug. “I was trying to be thoughtful and all, bringing
you breakfast, but I guess it kinda got ruined.” His hands motioned to the stairs
and I picked up a can of Diet Coke that had rolled to my feet. “Was this for
me?”

“Of course, although I think it’s
pretty gross that you would drink pop with breakfast, I know you don’t drink
coffee so…”

“Well thanks.” I placed a kiss on
his forehead and tugged on his hand. “I’m sure I have something up in my room
that we can scrounge up to eat.

We ended up in my bed, wrapped in
each other’s arms. Even though Jake had just left, this just felt so right. We
shared a package of Pop Tarts and talked for an hour before we both drifted off
to sleep.

“What in the hell is going on
here?” I woke up to Kitty’s voice and peeked an eye open, she had one hand on
her hip and her green eyes narrowed at the sight. Dylan groaned and turned over
onto his side, his nose nuzzling into my neck even deeper. Her foot came up,
wedging into his ribs until he finally opened his eyes.

“What’s up, Kitts?” he murmured out
in a sleep laced voice, running a hand through his hair that was even messier
than usual.

“Um, well just wondering why you’re
in bed with my roommate?” she bit out, her tone laced with ice as she stared
down at the two of us.

“Hmm…well I don’t know if that’s
really any of your business.” He jumped off the bed and leaned down to press a
kiss onto my forehead. “I’ll see you later at work tonight, ‘kay?”

I answered with a nod of my head
and couldn’t help the smile that curved my lips. Sure, I was going to be
peppered with about a million questions in a minute, but at least I had seeing
Dylan to look forward to tonight.

Kitty waited until the door clicked
shut and then she started in. “So, how long has this little thing been going
on? Were you with him the other night when Ben and I couldn’t get a hold of
you? And to think I covered for you. What all have you been hiding from me,
Miss Paige? And what about Ben, or even Jake for that matter? I can’t keep up
with all the guys and to think how innocent you were when you showed up on
campus. I am so proud.” Her hands clasped together and she let out a little
squeal before plopping down on the end of my bed.

“So you’re not mad about the whole
Dylan thing?” I scrunched up my nose at her, waiting for the answer. I could
tell she had a crush on Dylan from the first time I had seen them together, but
as far as I knew, Dylan had never let it go anywhere.

“Of course not,” she answered with
a wave of her hand. “What I’m mad about is that I feel like I was left out in
the dark. You’re supposed to tell me everything, so I can give you some womanly
advice. Remember?”

“Ok, fine. Dating Ben was….nice,
but I could tell something was missing and we weren’t serious. Dylan and I just
seemed like we had some sort of weird connection the minute we met. He was
always teasing me or flirting, I swear he gets me so flustered. And then one
thing led to another at the party the other night.”

“Wait, which party? Last night when
you sneaked off or the one at Chris’s place?”

“Well,” I answered, dragging out
the word. “Both actually, but it started with the one at his place. We went
into his room and well…let’s just say, I’m no longer a virgin.”

“O-M-G!” She let out a gasp,
covering her mouth and jumped up to her knees. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell
me right afterwards. And then obviously you two snuck off together last night.
What a little slut you are. Ahh, so how was it? Was he freaky or was he sweet
and gentle? I have a feeling it was freaky, like so freaking ah-mazing, can’t
walk for the next week kind of way. Am I right?”

“It was pretty amazing. So I told
him I just needed a day to break things off with Ben, I felt so guilty but I
knew I really had no feelings for Ben. And then Jake comes along, basically
confessing his love for me.

 “Ugh. He confused me so much. So
he left me with my head spinning and then out jumped Ben all stalker- like,
accusing me of being a whore. So I told him I wanted to break things off and
that I was really sorry, and he want a little crazy.” I pulled up the sleeve on
my sweatshirt and the outlines of Ben’s fingers were clearly evident. Kitty
reached out a hand to gingerly touch it with a questioning look on her face.

“But then Dylan showed up with
breakfast for me and thankfully diffused the situation. And that is how we
ended up here.”

“Wow, first of all, that is some
crazy shit with Ben. I mean he always seemed pretty laid back, I can’t believe
he did that to you! He deserves a major kick in the balls with a pair of my
favorite stiletto heels. Second of all, how in the hell did your life turn into
a freaking soap opera? I’m supposed to have front row seats since you are my
roommate and all.

“And now you’re involved in a love
triangle? Ah the plot thickens. Dylan or Jake, which will she pick? Or will she
pick one and then go back to the other. Did you at least use protection with
Dylan? We really don’t need to add a love child into the mix that would surely
end up as a Lifetime movie then.”

“Shit!” I sat up quickly, ramming
heads with Kitty. “Shit, shit, shit. How could I have been so stupid?”

“Um, I’m assuming by
that
response, that’s a negatory. You really weren’t thinking, were you? Well don’t
fret my pet, we’ll take you down to the health clinic and you can get put on
the pill. We don’t want any little accidents happening. I don’t think we could
really fit a baby into this room.”

I picked up a pillow, aiming for
her head, but she ducked at the last minute and I missed my shot. “I’m so glad
you’re here for such great advice. You wanna hang here today? We could eat ice
cream and watch chick flicks all day. Let’s skip over Lifetime though.”

“Sure,” she replied, jumping up to
look through the stacks of DVDs that were lined up above the flat screen. “We
wouldn’t want to watch your whole situation reenacted on TV, now would we?”

Dylan

Luckily, my nap with Paige had
released some of the tension that had built up when I saw that douchebag’s
hands on her.  I really wanted to go off and beat the shit out of him after he called
Paige a whore, but one look at her instantly calmed me down.

And then Kitty had to walk in and
basically woke us up from the best nap of my life. I left Paige to deal with
that though. I knew she was probably getting an earful from Kitty right now,
hopefully Kitty wasn’t too hard on her.

I unlocked the front door,
instantly assaulted by the smell of pancakes and bacon. Claire must have stayed
over last night. I was already in bed when Chris got back and never heard him
when he got home.

“Hey dude, where in the hell were
you so early this morning? I know you were home last night when we got back,
which I thought was a little weird. Now you’re up early on a Sunday morning?”
Chris eyed me over his cup of coffee sitting at the kitchen counter, while watching
Claire cooking breakfast.

“Well, I guess you’re going to find
out eventually since I know Kitty will blab to you. Me and Paige kind of have
something going on.” Coffee sprayed all over the counter and I patted him on
the back to relieve his choking. He acted like such a girl sometimes.

“Dylan, really? Didn’t we already
have this discussion? You were supposed to leave her alone. Don’t you think
things will get awkward when you end up screwing this up? She and Kitty are
really close. I mean Kitty told me last night she invited her to Thanksgiving,
what if you’re not even still together by then. Did you really already forget
the whole situation with Rachel?” He waved his hand over to Claire who was
setting a stack of pancakes on the counter and had brought an extra plate over
for me.

“Give him a little bit of credit,
Chris. I’ve seen the way you are around her, Dylan. Maybe Paige is the girl to
finally change you for the better.” Wow, I really wasn’t expecting that, especially
from Claire.

“Thanks,” I replied, dipping a
piece of bacon in syrup before stealing a slurp of Chris’s coffee. “Things are
different with Paige, you’ll see. I’ll do my best not to screw it up. I’m going
to head up; I have a paper to finish before I head into work.”

“Later,” Chris mumbled out through
a mouthful of pancakes with his eyes narrowed at me. I would really need to
prove to everyone how serious I was about Paige. Now I just needed to figure
out how.

                                                ****************************

I threw a duffle bag in to the
backseat of the beater mobile before hopping in and heading over to campus for
my night shift with Paige. Not that I minded work before, but now it was even
better.  Now I had something to look forward to every time. Tonight I had plans
for Paige and hopefully she liked them.

I had never really planned dates
before, with Sara we just hung out at the bar she worked at or met up on campus
every once in a while. So this was a whole new kind of ballgame for me and I
had to look at it like there was a full count. I was either going to strike out
or get on base, hopefully the latter, in more ways than one. But my
relationship with Paige wasn’t just about sex. She was feisty and fun. I could
talk to her about basically anything.

I pulled into the parking lot,
leaving my bag in the backseat for later. “Hey stud, I thought I would find you
here.” I turned around and watched as Mia sauntered up to me, leaning a hip
against my car.

“Hey Mia, what’s going on?” My eyes
darted around the parking lot, hoping that Paige didn’t show up early like I
had. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but I didn’t want her to jump to
conclusions.

“Well, I heard about you and Sara.
You completely devastated that girl as I suspected. So I thought maybe you
wanted to go back to our arrangement?” She ran a hand up my arm, shifting her
body closer to mine but I shrugged her off and backed up a step.

“I don’t think that’s a very good
idea, Mia.”

“Oh come on Dylan, you know you
miss me. And I could always bring Brandy over again. Remember how much fun that
was?”

Instantly images assaulted my head
of exactly what she was talking about, but luckily Paige pushed right through
to the front of my head.

“Nah, I’m interested in someone
right now and I’m trying to see how things work out with her. So that is not
gonna happen.”

“Ok, fine.” She let out a loud sigh
and stood up straight, placing a hand on my chest. “But remember, I’m just a
phone call away.”

I shook my head as I walked away through
the front entrance of the library. Chris was right, that whole thing with Mia
was a bit degrading but I think more for me than her. I never thought I would
ever meet a girl who was more interested in sex than me.

I clocked in and headed up to the
third floor to wait for Paige. Hopefully our shift would go by quickly and then
we would be out of here. “Hey.” I felt small arms wrap around my waist from
behind and a head nuzzle its way into my back, that flowery scent instantly
overtook me.

“Hi.” I twisted my body around to
lock eyes with her. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement and I was guessing
it was from seeing me, I’m sure my expression matched perfectly. She stood on
her tiptoes to place her puffy lips on mine and instantly we were somewhere
else.

But this time, I was the one to
pull back. “Gotta get to work Sparky, I have plans for you tonight.”

“Oh really? And what if I have
other plans, Rookie?” My heart dropped when she said it. Maybe she had changed
her mind about us already. She must have seen the dejected look on my face
because she grabbed my chin to pull my head down to hers for a quick kiss.

“I’m just kidding Dylan, I’m game
for whatever you have planned. Luckily, I got a late nap in after Kitty finally
left me alone, so I’m all rested up. Are you going to tell me what this big
surprise is?”

“Uh, no.” I slapped her ass when
she turned around to push the metal cart towards the elevator and she jumped,
letting out a squeal. “Oh come on Sparky, that didn’t hurt. You have plenty of
extra padding back here.” I squeezed a handful and she let out a huff while
punching the up arrow. “Am I supposed to be offended by that or is that a
compliment?”

“That is very much a compliment,” I
whispered into her ear, backing her against the wall of the elevator and
reaching both hands around to grip her ass in my hands. Her legs instantly went
around my waist and her hips arched into me. “I have a feeling we aren’t going
to get very much work done tonight,” she panted out after my teeth grazed her
nipple through the thin material of her shirt.

                                                 
*********************

“Here we are.” I pulled open the
passenger side door for Paige to get in and instantly wished I had cleaned my
car out. I leaned down in front of her to throw empty food wrappers and books
in the back seat to clear a path for her feet.

“Sorry about that.” I slammed the
door behind me before jogging around and sliding in behind the steering wheel.
Thankfully, the late night was still warm and would be perfect for the plans I
had.