Full Count (7 page)

Luckily, we had gotten here a
little early and Chris was able to score a large table for us in the corner. I
pulled out a chair for Paige on the end and she slid in as I sat next to her.
The rest of the Chapmans filed in quickly behind us and I stood up to give Tim
and Susanne hugs. Kitty sat across from us with frat boy, I think his name was
Brad, and flicked her eyes between Paige and me.

We placed our orders and received our
drinks quickly. “So,” I leaned close to Paige with my hand resting on her bare
thigh. She looked fucking amazing like usual, but even more so tonight. She had
a frayed denim skirt on that was dangerously short and I was just begging to
see what was underneath. Her hair was loosely curled around her bare shoulders
with a deep blue tank top on that tied around her neck. My fingers were just
itching to flick away at that knot, just like opening up a Christmas present.

“How’s it going?” She didn’t make
any movement to shrug off my hand so I kept it firmly in place with her soft
skin under my hand. If anything, it seemed like her legs moved just an inch closer
to me. “Really? How’s it going?” she asked me back teasingly. “We just saw each
other on Wednesday, Dylan. Do you miss me already?” She bit her lip, waiting
for my answer and I let out a groan.

This girl was seriously trying to
kill me and I don’t think she even knew it. “Of course Sparky, I always miss
you. I wish we had more classes together, and then maybe I would be able to
spend a little bit more time with you.”

“If you want to hang out as
friends
,”
she emphasized, “outside of school, I wouldn’t be against that.” I sat back in
my seat as the waitress came back with our salads. Already I missed being so
close to Paige.

As soon as my obstruction was gone,
I leaned back towards Paige, this time brushing her ear with my lips and I
could see the instant goosebumps that broke out onto her skin.

“Do you really think we could be
just
friends
and hang out
?
Do
friends
make each other feel
like this?” I grabbed her hand under the table and placed it on the hardness
that was straining against my shorts. Her hand lingered for just a second
longer and she gasped, quickly pulling her hand away. Her chair squeaked
against the hardwood floor as she pushed it out and she stammered out an
‘excuse me’ with a flush to her cheeks before rushing to the bathrooms.

“What did you just do to her, Dylan
Turner?” I turned to see Kitty’s eyes narrowed at me and ready to follow Paige.
I held up a hand to her and stood to follow Paige, mentally kicking myself in
the balls. Did I really just do that? I knew how innocent Paige was and clearly,
she was horrified.

“I didn’t do anything. She got
something in her eye; I’ll go check on her.” I threw my napkin onto my empty
chair and parked myself in the darkened hallway that led to the bathrooms to
wait her out.

 As soon as the door swung open, I
grabbed her by the shoulders and I could see the surprised look on her face
when she saw me. “I’m so sorry, Sparky, I really didn’t mean to do that. I just
can’t help…”

My words were cut short as her
small body slammed into mine, pushing me against the wall. My head was pulled
down to meet hers, her hands tugging at my hair to bring me closer. Her soft
lips crashed into mine, our teeth clashing together by the force.

I took over control, darting out my
tongue and sliding it across her puffy lips before slipping into her warm, open
mouth. She tasted sweet just like I imagined and I couldn’t get enough. I sunk
my fingers into her hips and pulled her body even closer. Her hands worked to
untuck my shirt and found the hem to slide up my stomach to my chest. I was
seriously about to pull her into the bathroom and lock the door behind us when
she stopped, breathing heavily with her eyes glossed ever.

“That can never happen again,” she
panted out while reaching up to tie her tank top that had somehow become
loosened by my hands. “You have a girlfriend.”

“And you have a boyfriend.” She
cast her eyes downwards and whispered out, “I know,” before quickly walking
away and leaving me alone. I knew that instant I was in love with this girl and
I needed to do anything to have her. Anything.

Paige

The alert of a text woke me up and
I unlocked the screen to see that it was from Jake. I smiled as his daily
countdown popped up and rolled over onto my back to answer him. He kept
bringing up the date of October 20
^th
for some reason and I had
finally remembered to ask him, it was the day the Gators came to town and I
couldn’t wait. Only two weeks left.

I heard the click of keys turning
in the door and saw Kitty tiptoeing in with her pink heels in hand.  “I’m
awake, no need to sneak in.” She jumped when my voice startled her and brought
up a hand to her lips.

 “Ugh, you caught me; I was totally
doing the walk of shame this morning.” She plopped down on my bed with a wide
grin and tucked her feet underneath her, still dressed in the same outfit she
had worn out to dinner the night before.

“So you and Brad? Already?” They
had only been dating a couple of weeks, while Ben and I had been together a
little over a month. My virginity was still intact and I planned to keep it
that way.

“Yes,” she answered back. “He is
just ah-mazing. I never thought I would be dating a frat boy, but he’s
different.” Brad seemed to be pretty nice from the few times I had met him, he
seemed to worship the very ground that Kitty’s designer heels touched and I
knew that was the kind of guy that was perfect for her.

“And what exactly was going on with
you and Dylan at dinner last night?” I started to reply with a ‘nothing,’ but
never made it that far.

“And don’t try to lie to me, Miss Paige;
whenever you two are together the sexual tension is so thick, it’s hard to
breathe. And then you run off to the bathroom and he follows after you. You
were definitely gone a lot longer than it takes to get something out of your
eye.”

I bit back a snort when she said
that, apparently that was the excuse Dylan had given for me running off so
quickly. More like me ramming my tongue down his throat, something that I was
feeling extremely guilty about. But after the placement of my hand on the bulge
in the front of his pants, he had me so flustered and turned on; I just felt
this urge to attack him.

“Nothing happened that matters. I’m
with Ben and I just need to forget about Dylan Turner. You said it yourself, he
is bad news. We’ve become friends I guess, but I don’t think he wants to keep
it just as friends. And I really am happy with Ben.”

“Mmhm, if you say so.” She stood up
from my bed and started to discard her clothes, leaving her in a matching pink
leopard bra and panties set, before slipping under the covers of her own bed.
“But just to let you know Dylan isn’t that bad of a guy. I’m not afraid to
admit, I hated him just a little bit because I had a crush on him and he never
returned the feelings.”

She confirmed my suspicions that I
had from day one of being around the two of them. “But now I have Brad. And
Dylan and you just seem to be drawn together like magnets. Ben’s a nice guy,
but I think you’re just settling with him. You’re only eighteen years old, no
need to act like you’re going to get married or something. And I can tell you,
Dylan is probably just the kind of fun you need. Sometimes you have to take
risks in life for things to pay off and Dylan might just be a risk to take.”

I wasn’t really sure how to answer
her back and didn’t need to once I heard her soft snores floating from her bed.
Sure, Ben was safe but I truly did like him. Dylan…he was just trouble and I
wasn’t so sure if he really was the risk I was willing to take. If I did, I had
a feeling I would end up with a broken heart and no one would be left behind to
pick up the pieces.

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

I spent the rest of the day lazing
around in bed reading until I heard a tap on the bathroom door and tiptoed over
to answer it so I wouldn’t wake up Kitty. “Hey, what’s up?” I whispered to
Maddie, who was on the other side. Her room looked about as dark as mine and I
figured Kylie probably had a late night too.

“I take it Kitty’s out too? Do you
wanna go grab some lunch? I’m starving.” She grabbed her stomach to emphasize
her point and I let out a quiet laugh. Maddie and I often ended up being eating
partners most of the time. Kitty and Kylie tended to eat all of that healthy
crap, more power to them I guess.

“Sure, let me change real quick and
I’ll meet you downstairs.” I threw my hair up into a messy bun and slid on a
pair of yoga pants with a black tank top.

We were almost in the middle of
October and it was still around 75 degrees out daily. I was glad I had decided
to stay in a warmer climate, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to survive anywhere in
the Midwest. Dylan had filled me in on growing up in that area and his stories
about snow in October literally made me cringe.

I softly shut the door and pulled
out my phone when I felt it vibrating, smiling when Jake’s name popped up on
the screen. “Hey Jakey.”

“Hey baby girl, god it’s so good to
hear your voice.” We had been keeping in contact daily, but only through texts.
I knew how busy he was with football even though he hadn’t gotten much playing
time yet, being a freshman.

“I know. I can’t wait till you come
up, it’s weird not being with you like almost 24/7, I think I’m having withdrawals.”
I jogged down the stairs and found Maddie in the lobby in similar attire. She
gave me a silent wave when she saw I was on the phone and we walked out through
the doors, heading to our usual spot at Grand Market Place.

I heard a voice in the background
and Jake’s muffled voice reply something back. “Jake Niles, is that a girl I
hear?” I asked in a singsong voice. “No,” he laughed out in a husky voice. “My
roommate’s girlfriend is leaving; they have a lot of sleepovers. I invested in
a nice set of ear plugs after awhile, they come in handy.”

“Hmm, well, have there been any?”
Jake had dated sporadically in high school, but he always ended up breaking
things off before they got too serious. All of his girlfriends hated me and I
tried to stay out of the way as much as possible, but Jake wasn’t having it. To
this day, he had never picked another girl over me. I thought that maybe now
that we had some space between us things would change.

“Naw, there is this one girl I’m
interested in, but she seems to have no clue. Got any of your girly advice on
what I should do about that?”

“Well, I’m no expert in the dating
thing really, but I guess if you really like her you should just tell her and
get it out there. You never know what’ll happen.”

I heard a deep sigh through the
phone, like he was contemplating my advice. Really, any girl would be lucky to
have Jake. “I have to let you go, me and Maddie are grabbing something to eat.
I’ll talk to you later this week.”

“Alright, sounds good. Oh hey Paige,
before I forget, do you think you can sneak me into your dorm after the game?
The team’s getting put up in a hotel for the night, but I wanted to spend some
extra time with you.”

I chewed on my fingernail thinking
it over. Jake and Ben knew about each other, but I could tell that Ben had some
major animosity towards Jake, even though they had never met. I had explained
time and time again that we were just friends, but Ben still seemed to get
upset whenever he saw me texting him. But Jake had never picked another girl
over me and I wasn’t about to pick my boyfriend over him, especially when we
hadn’t even been together that long.

“Sure, that sounds like a plan. I
would never be able to pass up some extra time with you. I’m sure Kitty can
help me sneak you in after the game. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, baby girl.”

Maddie and I moved along in the
line to get stir- fry and once we both had our trays we found an empty table. “So
how have all of your classes been going?” I asked in between bites of my
lo-mein.

 My first impression of Maddie had
been correct when I thought she looked like a bit of a bookworm, she was pre-med
and an intense student. I rarely saw her out, besides our lunch dates and I
knew Kylie was always trying to drag her off somewhere.

“Pretty well, I’ve had to learn how
to juggle everything around lately since I got a new job last week.”
“Oh really,” I answered back. “Where’d you end up getting a job at?”

“The library,” she replied, playing
with the straw on her coke. “I really didn’t want to work during school, but I
needed a way to make some extra money, so I picked up a few morning shifts. I’m
already there half the time anyway, why not just live there, right?”

“Do you know if they’re still
hiring?” I’d been slacking on looking for a job since I got to campus. Dad told
me not to worry about it and just get settled in before I started looking, but
it would be nice to earn my own money.

“Yeah actually I think they are.
Since it’s open twenty-four hours, they’re always hiring students and the place
is so freakin’ huge, they basically have to employ a whole army to run the
place. I work again on Tuesday, maybe you could stop by and talk to my boss.”

After lunch, we headed back to our
rooms, parting in the hallway. Luckily, Kitty was finally awake and I pulled
her away from the TV where she was catching up on Pretty Little Liars, a show
she had me hooked on. Really who the frick was A?

She paused the episode with a groan
after I blocked the TV. “Uh Paige! That was getting pretty intense, what do you
want?”

“Oh come on, you know they will
just end up leaving you hanging anyway.” I pulled her hand towards my side of
the closet and did the Vanna White thing with my hands. “And don’t you think
helping me pick out an outfit for my date tonight with Ben would be so much
more exciting?”