Full Count (22 page)

“If you say so.” I grabbed a giant
bowl out of the cabinet and dumped in a bag of tortilla chips. From the looks
of it, we were having a Mexican themed night with margaritas included. “Hey
girls.” Claire came into the kitchen already dressed in her jammies for the
night. She had practically moved in since I did and we had become quick
friends. It was nice to have someone around this giant house when Dylan and
Chris were gone, it felt so empty.

“Paige, Dylan left a surprise for
you in the fridge, it kind of goes with the theme of the night.” I opened up
the fridge to find a glass casserole dish covered with foil and a yellow post
it note stuck on top.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, you can’t mess this up, babe.
Don’t forget to take pix of naked pillow fights. Love you.

I giggled while punching buttons on
the stove and pulled off the sticky note. “That boy is way too sweet, I never
expected it out of him truthfully.” Claire hopped up on the counter, grabbing a
chip out of the bowl. “Except for the whole naked pillow fight. What’s that all
about?”

“You really don’t want to know and
he can just keep on dreaming.”

The house was soon filled with
noise when Maddie and Kylie arrived. Apparently, Kitty must have filled Dylan
in on our themed night because he had made enchiladas that we demolished, along
with chips and salsa and what seemed to be endless amounts of margaritas, we
were having a pretty good night.

“Okay girls, face mask time.” Kitty
brought around a bowl and we all tied up our hair. So far, we had done each other’s
nails and toes, watched girly chick flicks that I still hadn’t taking a liking
to and blasted music dancing around in our jammies. Living with Kitty had been
a totally new experience for me, but my first sleepover with all girls was kind
of mind-blowing.

“Here Paige. You can go first.
You’re my very first test subject, doesn’t that sound like fun?” Kitty beamed,
scooping her fingers into the bowl of goop and coming at me with green glob.
“Hold up, what in the hell is that? I am not putting guacamole on my face Kitty
Chapman. That’s where I put my foot down.”

“Oh, Paigey,” she giggled out,
coming even closer with that green crap. “This isn’t guacamole silly. It’s avocados,
honey, and yogurt. I heard it does amazing things for your skin. Normally I
just get the store bought stuff, but I figured this would be fun to try out.
Don’t worry, it’s not gonna make your skin fall off or anything, everything’s
completely natural.”

“Fine, let’s get this over with
then.” We all took turns letting Kitty apply the mask and then Kitty applied
her own. We all looked like green goblins after she was finished. There was no
way in hell Dylan was getting a picture of this.

“Oh my goodness,” Kylie giggled
out, looking down at her phone that had basically been attached to her hand all
night. She continued to chuckle softly, her eyes never leaving the screen.

“What’s so funny?” Maddie asked,
probably more out of feeling obligated since she was here than actually caring.
Maddie definitely hadn’t lucked out in the roommate department like I had.
Whenever we met up for lunch, she always had some new story to tell me about
Kylie.

“Oh my friend Zoe, who’s dating
Dean, keeps sending me pictures. She went on the road trip with him. Apparently,
the baseball team is having some fun tonight before they head home in the
morning. I swear those guys really know how to have a good time.”

“Really?” Claire snatched the phone
out of Kylie’s hands and scrolled through the pictures. Her jaw dropped open
before handing the phone off to Kitty who had pretty much the same reaction.

“What’s the matter, is Chris in
some of those?” Both answered with a quick shake of their heads and when I
reached for the phone, Kitty pulled it back. “I don’t think you want to see
these, Paigey,” she whispered out.

“Just give it to me.” I snatched
the phone out of her hands and my own mouth dropped open when I saw Dylan, who
was in almost every picture, sprawled out on a bed with a girl wrapped around
his waist, and her hands looked to be…..everywhere.

“What the hell? Why would Zoe have
pictures of Dylan in a bed?” My eyes narrowed at Kylie who was trying to look
totally confused over the whole situation, even though I could tell she was
faking it. Did she somehow forget that I was dating Dylan? I freaking lived
with him!

“Well, I think Dean and Dylan
usually room together so…” she trailed off, pulling on a blonde ringlet that
had escaped. “I’m so sorry Paige, I didn’t really think about it before I
showed y’all. What a complete asshole,” she let out a loud sigh, picking at her
nails. Yeah, I could tell just how sorry she was. So heartfelt.

“You know, what I think I’m going
to go to bed for the night.” I stood up and Kitty almost immediately jumped in
front of me. “Paige, don’t you want to talk about this? There could be a
perfectly good explanation.” Her argument was weak and I knew she didn’t
believe it. The evidence was pretty clear. I truly thought I had nothing to
worry about when it came to Dylan, even though I had been told time and time
again how much of a player he had been.

For god’s sake, I was his first
real girlfriend! Granted, I was pretty new to the whole dating scene too but I
hadn’t whored around with a bunch of guys before meeting him. My lip began to
tremble as the images that were now burned into my head kept popping their way
up. No, I would not cry over Dylan Turner in front of anyone. I wasn’t going to
be
that
girl.

“I’m just really tired guys. I’ll
see you all in the morning.” I left the slumber party and washed off the green
mess that was stuck to my face. The living room was quiet and it almost sounded
like everyone left, which I would kind of preferred. I really didn’t want to
face anyone right now.

I felt like a complete idiot for giving
my whole heart to him and he just stomped on it without a care in the world.
The tears started to drip down my face the minute I hit the pillow. I picked up
Dylan’s pillow and threw it across the room. The once comforting smell was now
making me sick to my stomach and I knew I wouldn’t get a blink of sleep
tonight.

Dylan

“What. The. Fuck?” I pushed on the
body that was lying next to me, that most certainly wasn’t Paige, and heard a
small squeal when the body hit the floor. An unfamiliar exotic looking girl
with long jet- black hair and almond shaped eyes popped up, dressed only in a
bra and underwear, rubbing her elbow. “Ow, what was that for?”

“What the hell are you doing in my
room, let alone my bed? I don’t even know who the fuck you are. And where are
your fucking clothes?”

“I’m friends with Zoe,” she replied
perkily, quickly forgetting about her injury. “She said I could sleep over last
night after we went out.” She pointed to the hotel bed that was next to mine
where Dean and Zoe were still passed out, probably from a very late night of
partying. I had passed, much to the surprise of just about all of my teammates,
except for Chris.

I had Paige now and that whole
scene just didn’t interest me. I knew how alcohol could affect people’s judgment
and I wasn’t going to take any risks, even though I wouldn’t ever do anything
to mess things up with Paige even if I was completely shit-faced.

“Well okay, Zoe’s friend, time to
get the fuck out.” Her face scrunched up in confusion and still remained that
way even after I threw her shoes at her. “Now.”

“Fine,” she huffed out. “I thought
Zoe said you would be a lot of fun. Apparently not.”

I seriously needed to do something
about this whole roommate situation. Coach knew Chris and I were great friends,
but instead stuck me with the jackass, Dean, who snuck his girlfriend into our
room every night. I packed up my bag without waking Dean, let him get his ass
chewed out for showing up the bus late, he deserved it for being a fucking
idiot. I couldn’t wait until I got home to Paige.

I got back to the house pretty
early since we had only been in a town about two hours away from campus, I
would have preferred to come back last night but Coach was into the team bonding
thing majorly. Plus, I knew Paige had her little sleepover last night and I’m
sure she wanted a break from me every once in a while.

The house was empty when I walked
in and after surveying all of the rooms; it looked like all of the girls had
already taken off. I pushed open the door to our room and I swear my heart
swelled out of my fucking chest when my eyes landed on Paige.

I felt like a girl sometimes when I
got those mushy feelings, but I couldn’t help it. She looked beautiful, laying
there in the early morning sun, her curls fanned out around her and her bare
legs twisted around the comforter. She was a serious blanket hog but I didn’t
mind, as long as she was next to me.

My lips couldn’t resist how sweet
she looked and I placed kisses all along the base of her neck until I reached
her face, raining kisses onto her nose, eyelids, and finally her puffy lips
that I had missed so much. She groaned and swatted at my face, but I just
couldn’t leave her alone. Finally, she sat up with a start and then narrowed
her blue eyes at me. Yup, she definitely wasn’t a morning person.

“Don’t you dare touch me.” Her
voice was cold and icy; I swear I could feel an actual chill in the air. Maybe
she was on her period or something, I knew from Kitty that girls could get
pretty touchy when it came to that time of the month.

“What’s the matter babe? You not
feeling good? Is that why everyone left?”

“Seriously Dylan? Are you going to
play stupid?” Her phone whizzed towards my head and luckily, with my awesome
hands, I caught it. “That’s what the matter is.” I held her phone, staring it
down like maybe she had broken it or something. Maybe I hadn’t called enough
while I was gone? I had been pretty busy but I still tried to make time for
her. “Go ahead, check the most recent message from Kylie. She forwarded
something very interesting to me.”

I scrolled through the texts until
I found the one from Kylie and opened it up, which contained several pictures
of what looked to be me sleeping with that fucking girl that I had woken up to
find this morning. What the hell? How did I not wake up when all of this had
been going on? I could see why Paige was pissed, her hands were in some very
incriminating places and there were at least a dozen pictures, which all looked
to be courtesy of Zoe. What a little bitch. If I had seen Paige in this
situation, I’d be hot as hell too.

“Paige, this really isn’t how it
looks.” I expected her to not even let me explain but she just crossed her arms
over her chest and stared at me with a blank expression, so I continued.

“I swear I would never do anything
like this, baby. The guys went out to celebrate our win last night but I went
back up to the room, I just wasn’t in the mood. I missed you.” Her eyes seemed
to soften just a bit at that but I couldn’t be sure, she still looked pretty
pissed.

“Coach stuck me with Dean who
thought it would be cool to bring along Zoe. When I woke up this morning, I
found this chick in my bed. I swear I had never seen her before and I had no
clue about these pictures. Please believe me.” I looked at her pleadingly and
crouched down next to the bed to grip one of her hands.

“Fine, I believe you.” Her words
hit my ears but I wasn’t sure I heard right. “Wait, what? You believe me?”

“Well, don’t act so surprised
Dylan, you might make me change my mind. I knew it seemed suspicious when Kylie
showed everyone the pictures last night. I see how she looks at you and I
really wouldn’t put it past her to having set this whole thing up.

“She was probably trying to make
you look guilty, so I would break up with you and she would be right there to
comfort you. I might not have been friends with a lot of girls, but even I can
think like a ruthless bitch every once in a while. So, just know that I trust
you no matter what.”

 I breathed in a heavy sigh of
relief before wrapping my arms around her. It made sense that Kylie set this
all up somehow. There had been more than one instance where I had to basically
fight that girl off. I just didn’t get it; she only seemed to be attracted to
the guys who were clearly taken. “Good, I’m glad you trust me. I wouldn’t ever
do anything to mess this up and I hope that you know that. And I’m glad I have
an awesome girlfriend that actually listens to me. If you had been anyone else,
I would have been kicked out on my ass by now. I love you.”

“Yeah, you are pretty lucky, aren’t
you?” she whispered out, her hands slipping into the waistband of my boxers and
gripping me at the base. Pretty lucky, indeed.

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

We had a home series and Paige was
an even better mood than usual since her dad had just arrived. He had brought
along his girlfriend, MaryAnn, who was a petite lady with chin length blonde
hair, that looked she was truly in love with Max. Max looked like he had lost
some weight since we had last seen him, but he was still in good spirits and I
guess that was all that counted.

Paige had been cleaning the house
for days before they arrived and had the guest room all set up. I had to admit,
she looked pretty sexy in those tiny ass shorts, running around cleaning. I
think it was the first time I had seen her actually clean anything.

“Hey Max, how’s it going?” I leaned
over the railing from where I was standing on the field and shook Max’s hand
where he was seated in the stands. He and Paige had come alone, since
apparently MaryAnn wasn’t a big baseball fan. Paige had been baffled by the
whole thing since baseball was practically Max’s whole life, but they seemed to
get along well enough.