Full Count (2 page)

“Is that really all of the clothes
you brought?” Kitty whispered out through the hand that was covering her mouth,
like she was in shock from my apparent lack of clothing. It sure seemed like a
lot to me when I unpacked everything, but once I compared it to her half of the
closet, it seemed a bit lacking.

“Well yeah,” I answered back while
looking at her side of the room compared to mine. She already had it decorated in
various shades of pink, of course. Her loft style bed that was identical to
mine was piled high with silk throw pillows and white flowered lights were
twined around the rails. At least a dozen picture frames were already covering
the surface of her dresser and computer table. Compared to her side, mine
looked equal to a jail cell.

“Didn’t your Mama take you shopping
before you came? Mine went nuts with the whole decorating thing, as you can
see.”

“Um no,” I replied, a little
uncomfortable that this question was already coming up. I didn’t know too many
people my age that had lost a parent. Sure, divorce was a common thing, but it
was totally different to just having your parents living in separate houses.
“My mom died when I was ten, so it’s pretty much just been me and my dad for
awhile.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that Paige,”
she replied in a quiet voice, a single tear running down her face. And that
right there was why I hated telling people. I hated the pity, but Kitty took it
to a whole different level with the tears.

I pulled out the one and only
picture frame I had brought along and set it next to my bed. It was one of Jake
and I that someone had captured without us even knowing. My arms were wrapped
around his neck while he was carrying me piggyback style and both of our heads
were thrown back, probably laughing at one of his goofy jokes.

“It’s alright, really. My dad did
the best he could to play Mom and Dad. I turned out ok.” She stood up and
patted me on the back, while looking over my shoulder.

“That you did. I just can’t
imagine,” she took a big sniff and wiped at her face. “I’m sorry, I’m just a
softy. My brothers are always teasing me for it. Anywho, I need details on who
that
is.” She tapped on the glass with her manicured nails and her painted lips
curved into a smile I knew all too well when it came to Jake.

“That is my best friend, Jake. He
had a fit that I didn’t go to the University of Florida where he’s playing football,
but I felt like I needed a change.”

“Best friend?” She raised a
perfectly plucked brow at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “How can you
be best friends with
that?
” She tapped on the picture again to emphasize
her point and I swear she was practically drooling.

“Well, I really didn’t have any
girlfriends back home and we grew up together. I just don’t see him in
that
way. I’m a bit of a tomboy if you can’t tell.” I pointed down to my simple t-shirt
and shorts, something I hadn’t seen in her entire wardrobe, even her pajamas
were those matching silk sets; color coordinated and lined up in the closet on
hangers.

“Hmm,” she replied with a finger to
her lips still staring at the picture. “I can’t wait to meet him.” She walked
over to my side of the closet and started flipping through hangers.

“Now about your clothing situation
and your room stuff. Are you happy with all of that or would you like some
help? I’m not going to be one of those nagging roommates or anything and try to
change who you are, but shopping is kind of my specialty. What do you think?”

I chewed on my thumbnail while I
thought it over, a bad habit I had picked up after my mom died, and one reason
why I never had paint on my nails. Kitty looked like she genuinely would do
whatever I wanted. Maybe I was a little too quick to judge her, she just
reminded me of all of the girls back home who had been bitches to me growing
up.

“Ok, sure why not? Do you have a
car on campus?”

“Nope,” she replied while tapping
away on her pink crystal studded phone. “But all of my brothers go here and Daddy
said that they had to chauffer me around. Not that they wouldn’t anyway, I have
them all wrapped around my finger. Christopher especially.”

She picked up her purse and scooped
her keys off the dresser that were attached to a giant pink K. “C’mon, he
should be here any minute.” We walked out into the hall that was filled with
the sounds of girls yelling back and forth to each other.

 I specifically picked this one as
my first choice because I knew it was a female only dorm. It was also nice that
everything had just been renovated, so it still had that smell of fresh paint
and look of cleanliness. I had searched online for hours when picking out
dorms, reading horror stories about broken a/c’s, mold, and even mice. I may
have been raised by a guy, but I was still Daddy’s little girl and he always
took care of those kind of things.

Kitty took a different route than I
had, passing up the set of elevators. She called out to several girls as we
passed and I wasn’t surprised that she knew almost everyone’s name. We passed
by the kitchen that I knew every floor had, which was another plus. I figured I
would probably get sick of eating at a cafeteria for every meal, so the kitchen
would be nice even though I could barely boil a pot of water.

We went down the eight floors of
stairs, which didn’t bother me at all since I kept pretty active with Jake, I
figured Kitty would be out of breath, but she didn’t even huff once and she had
heels on. “Here we go,” she held a door open for me on what looked to be a
brand new silver pickup truck that sat high off the ground. I placed my feet on
the running board and still had to hop up. Kitty slid in next to me and I
looked into the front seat at the two boys who were currently assessing me with
their eyes.

“Now you boys betterbehave
yourselves, this is my roommate, not one of those girls that fall at your feet.
Paige, that’s Christopher,” she pointed to the driver, who basically looked
like a clone of Kitty. His features were obviously manlier, but his face was
almost delicate looking.

“And this here is Dylan. Don’t fall
for any of his lines, he is the biggest player here so don’t waste your time.
But he’s Christopher’s best friend, so I have to deal with him.” Her tone had
turned icy for the first time since I had met her which seemed to only amuse
Dylan.

His chocolate brown eyes were
glittering with laughter and I caught sight of one indented dimple on his
cheek. Where Jake had always been good looking, Dylan would easily outdo him in
a heartbeat. Everything about him seemed perfect, from his messy brown hair, to
his nose that seemed just a little bit crooked, but fit his face well. He had a
tan arm thrown over the back of the seat and I could see the corded muscles,
I’m sure the rest of his body matched perfectly.

“So nice to meet you, Paige,” Dylan
replied, ignoring the glare that he was receiving from Kitty for even talking
to me. I felt my cheeks flame from the way he was looking at me, like he was
trying to eat me alive with his eyes.

“Um, you too.”

“So Kitty, where we headed?”
Christopher asked, interrupting the awkward stare down I was getting from
Dylan. I saw his brown eyes flicking back and forth to me in the rearview
mirror, so I pulled out my phone, willing it to ring to offer a distraction.
His looks were making me nervous and doing weird things to my stomach.

“Let’s head over to the Columbiana
Centre, there’s a ton of outdoor shops over that way. I’ll treat you two to
lunch while Paige and I hit up some stores.”

I drowned out the conversation
while the two guys argued over where they wanted to go to eat and Kitty tapped
away on her phone. My phone rang and the screen showed that it was Dad.

“Hey Paigey girl, how’s things
going?”

“Good, I think,” I answered back.
“We’re going shopping right now.” Dad’s booming laugh came over the speaker and
I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “It’s not that funny. Did you make it
home alright?”

“Sorry Paige,” he said in between
gasps, “I just know how you are when it comes to shopping. Apparently, that
roommate of yours is already rubbing off on you. But anyway, I’m still about an
hour away. I just needed to call and warn you about next week, I almost forgot.
I know it’s the first home game and I just wanted to let you know that the
Gamecocks are like the Red Sox of football. Their fans get a little crazy, but
I know you’ll have fun. Just be careful.”

“Ok, thanks for the warning. Text
me when you make it home. I love you.”

“Love you too, Paige.”

I ended the call and looked up to
find Dylan’s eyes on mine again. “Was that your boyfriend back home?”

“Nope,” I answered back with a pop.
“Just my dad.”

“Oh, so what was he warning you
about? Probably guys like us, right?”

“Actually, no. He was comparing the
football fans around here to Red Sox fans. He has a baseball analogy for
everything, he’s into every sport, but he eats and breathes baseball.”

Christopher and Dylan both let out
a snort and Kitty rolled her eyes. “Those two are both on the baseball team and
they basically do the same thing your dad does. That’s normally all they talk about;
I’m surprised you’re the one to bring it up.”

“Oh, well yeah. My parents actually
met at a baseball game and got married like two months later. When my dad found
out my mom was pregnant with me, he handed her a list of the greatest baseball
players and told her to pick one. Luckily, she didn’t pick out Babe or Ruth
like my dad wanted and just went with…”

“The great Satchel Paige,” Dylan
interrupted as Christopher pulled the truck to a stop in front of one of the
biggest shopping areas I had ever seen, by the gleam in Kitty’s eye, I could
tell she was already in shopping mode. “Ok boys, we’ll meet back up with you in
a few hours, here’s some cash.” She shoved a wad of money at Christopher and
pulled on my arm. “Let’s go Paige, we have some shopping to do.”

Dylan

“Ok dude, you hungry yet or you
need to hit up a few stores?” Chris climbed out of the truck and slammed his
door, pulling me out of the daze that Kitty’s roommate had me in. Wow, that
girl was fucking gorgeous and I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know it. She
wasn’t like the typical girls Kitty hung out with, but I guess since they were
roommates they were kind of stuck together.

Not that Kitty would ever hang out
with someone based on their looks, she just tended to migrate towards all of
the other perky blondes. But Kitty didn’t have a mean bone in that tight body
of hers, except when it came to me. I think it had to do with the fact that I
pretty much had every girl around campus besides her and it made her angry.

I had dodged her flirting for the
first two years since Chris and I had become roommates, I knew all three of her
brothers would gang up and beat the shit out of me if I even looked at her
funny. Now apparently, she was turning the flirting into anger. Not that I
noticed much in the car ride over here. I was more focused on Paige.

Truthfully, she wasn’t the type of
girl I normally went for. Her sandy brown hair looked like it had a soft
natural curl to it and hung to the middle of her back. Her wide blue eyes made
her look so innocent and I’m pretty sure she was. I would have no problem
helping her with that. I couldn’t help myself but to check out that body when
she got in the truck. She was probably only a little over five feet tall, but
had curves in all the right places. Damn, that ass.

And those cheekbones of hers were
like nothing I had ever seen before. Cut high and prominent on her angelic
looking face. What the fuck is that all about, Turner? I shook my head to clear
all of the girly thoughts and jogged to catch up with Chris, who was already
heading towards a restaurant on the corner. Food it was, I guess.

We were instantly seated since most
of the lunch crowd had already come and gone. The waitress took our drink and
appetizer orders, lingering at the table for longer than necessary to bat her
eyelashes between the two of us.

“Anytime you could get those drinks
for us, beautiful, that would be good. We sure are thirsty.” I licked my lips
to emphasize my point and she giggled as she turned on her heel and Chris
rolled his eyes at me.

“What dude? The ladies can’t resist
my charm, it’s not my fault.”

“Sure, Dylan. Why don’t you just
try laying off the lame one liners every once in a while?” We were interrupted
once again by the eager waitress who set our drinks down along with a bowl of
chips, while ‘accidently’ brushing into my arm. I knew, without a doubt, that
her number would be plastered at the bottom of our bill when we were finished eating.

“Don’t be jealous, just because
you’re tied down, doesn’t mean I have to be too. I’m not a one woman kind of
man, you know that.” Chris snorted in between chips. “Yes, unfortunately I do.
Did you really need to screw around with one of Claire’s best friends? I’ve had
to listen to her bitch and moan for the past two weeks about how you kicked
Rachel out as soon as you were finished having sex. She seems to have forgotten
that I warned Rachel about you, but nope, now I’m the bad guy. Would it have
seriously killed you to at least let her stay the night?”

“Yes, actually it would have. Let
the girl stay the night, and then they want to cuddle and talk about their
feelings. Then they expect you to make them breakfast and all that shit in the
morning. And then there’s the awkward stage when you just want them to leave
and they want to hang out with you all day. Not my thing, you know that.
Besides, it would definitely be awkward if one of my regulars showed up, don’t
you think?”

Chris leaned back on his chair and
crossed his arms over his chest, like he was in deep thought over this.
Sometimes I wondered how we ended up being best friends, he was so uptight
about things and I just liked to live life to the fullest.