24. Rocky
twenty-four
Rocky
When Montana opens the door tonight, she’s looking as beautiful as always. She’s wearing mom jeans—as she likes to call them—with a shirt that has the ghost face from Scream and says, “No, you hang up,” combined with her white and black high-top chucks. Her curly hair is half up, half down with hoops in her ears, and she’s wearing the perfume that I love. She smells like home, I’ve never smelled anyone who has smelled like cotton candy before, and if I could smell her all the time, I would.
Perfect Pitch Karaoke Bar, the bar that we’re at tonight is crawling with college kids more so than usual. The girls are having a great time dancing, and us guys are watching them have fun with each other. Since we’re on a bye week, most of the guys from the team are here too. I also know that Addison is here with some of her friends, but she has been keeping her distance. I want to believe that she isn’t the person she showed herself to be at her apartment.
“Hey!” Addison beamed.
“Hey Addy, what’s going on?”
“Not much, just came out with some of the girls. How have you been?”
“I’ve been good.” I nod, while taking a sip of my beer.
“I, uh, I miss you, as a friend.” She smiles shyly.
At that moment, Montana and Autumn walk back over. Well, if this isn’t awkward. Addison starts talking to the girls for a little bit as I hang back. I turn my head to see Talon and Xander arguing so I move over to where they are and see they are trying to figure out what song to sing.
“Backstreet Boys? I'm more of a *NSYNC guy myself,” I say with a laugh.
“Ha ha, very funny. The girls dared us to sing, and you know I won't back down from a dare,” Xander says laughing, and I shake my head.
“Just wait till Monti gets up here. Her voice is amazing.” Talon nods.
“I’ve heard her singing around the house when she's cleaning, she does have a great voice.”
I look back over and notice that Addison isn’t with the girls anymore. I don't know what to make of this change in her demeanor, but I really do hope she means what she says.
I’ve been feeling off these last couple weeks, so it's been nice to get out with my friends. I still haven’t opened up to them about what happened after the game with John. I need to talk to my mom and dad first.
We walk back over to the girls and then the DJ announces it’s Montana’s turn to sing. She gets on the stage and Autumn yells for her.
“What is she singing?”
“You’ll see,” Autumn says with a smirk.
It goes dark in the bar, then a spotlight shines on Montana lighting up her beautiful face. The music starts and she starts singing in her angelic voice. I swear, if she didn’t want to be a graphic designer she would have an amazing music career. The sweet sounds of Nonsense by Sabrina Carpenter start to play through the speakers.
Think I only want one number in my phone
I might change your contact to don’t leave me alone
You said you like my eyes and you like to make em roll
Treat me like a queen now you got me feelin’ thrown
But I can’t help myself
When you get close to me
Baby, my tongue goes numb
Sounds like bleh, bleh, bleh
She’s looking straight into my eyes as she's singing like I’m the only one in the room. Her voice is so beautiful, that natural rasp she has carrying through every tune. The crowd is going wild and she's having a great time up there.
She’s such an amazing woman, and I know I love her. I just pray she feels the same. I want her to feel safe in confiding in me with anything. But until she's ready, I’ll just keep making her feel like she is safe with me.
She walks towards me and sits on my lap as she continues singing.
Think I got an ex, but I forgot him.
She smiles, shrugs, and hops off my lap and goes back to the stage to finish the song.
I’m grinning like the Cheshire Cat. I look over at my sister, and she’s smiling back at me. Behind her, Addy is there with her friends, and something flashes across her face, but as quickly as I saw it there, it’s gone. Maybe it's my eyes playing tricks on me since it's dim in the bar. Maybe I'm still skeptical of her, but I won't say shit until I feel like I need to.
Monti comes back after finishing her song, and she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me. It’s a sweet kiss that turns passionate. I taste Malibu from her Scooby snack and it's now in my top five favorite flavors.
The guy's head over to the stage, and they jump on.
“Check one, two, three,” Talon says in the mic. When the sounds of Baby by Justin Bieber and Ludacris comes through the speakers, the crowd gets really loud. They are dancing and the girls are going wild.
The girls and I are laughing, and Talon comes up to Autumn and starts dancing on her. She immediately puts her hands over her crimson red face, feeling more and more embarrassed the longer he is around her, but Talon doesn't back down.
When they finish, there’s some commotion by the bar, we turn and see Marley, the girl who Xander “hates” with some guy and she’s telling off. Marley is a few inches taller than Montana and is wearing shorts and a crop top—she’s not thin, but she’s not thick. She has long red, almost copper hair. Montana says it’s ‘Cowboy Copper.” Whatever the fuck that means. Her tattoos on her left arm are very intricate, the line work is phenomenal and there’s a sunflower on her thigh with words that I can’t make out. Montana hops off my lap and starts walking towards her and the guy she is arguing with.
“Killer, where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to see if she’s okay. He grabbed her arm.”
“Okay, I'll go with you.” I nod to lead the way.
We walk over, and I know my girl can handle her own, so I stand back, as back up for my girl with my arms crossed over my chest and watch her.
“Hey, dickwad, get your hands off of my friend. The fuck is wrong with you?”
“Mind your business, bitch. This is between me and my girl.”
“I’m not your girl anymore, Trey. Leave me alone.” Marley yanks her arm away from him.
“Trey, I don’t know you, but you better watch your fucking mouth talking to my girl like that,” I grit out.
“Or what, pretty boy? The fuck you going to do about it?” This MGK wannabe takes a step towards me.
I chuckle and start to walk up to him, but then he’s clocked right in the face by Marley.
She bends down, points to me and says, “That’s what he was going to do. Him right there, is a man who backs his girl up, you are a baby back bitch who can't keep his hands to himself. Touch me again and that punch will be the least of your worries.”
Marley stands back up, Montana starts to talk to her while Talon and Xander wander over. Xander’s green eyes are simmering with anger, almost what I look like when someone is talking to Montana. His nostrils are flared and he’s ready to fight on behalf of someone he quote, unquote ‘hates.’ The way he’s looking at Trey like he wants to rock his shit says otherwise.
We can hear the girls talking softly.
“Thank you for helping me with him, I appreciate that more than you know.”
“Anytime, Marley, you know I have your back. You can hang out with us if you want,” Montana suggest.
She looks over at Xander, and something crosses her eyes. She shakes her head no, and says she’s just going to go home for the night. But, Montana convinces her to go back to her place for a sleepover with her and Autumn. Leaving sounds like a good idea. It’s after midnight and we should head out because we still have practice in the morning. No days off.
It’s been a great season so far and if we want to continue it, we can’t sleep on these other teams. We head out and the girls part ways because they are having a sleepover since us guys have to be up early.
We drop them off at Montana’s place and we head to the football house to go to bed.