Chapter 14 #2
He studied me for a moment, then nodded. “You look different out there. More confident.”
“I feel different.”
“Good. Keep it up.” He squeezed my shoulder and moved on to talk to the defense.
Max dropped onto the bench beside me, grinning. “So. That was pretty fucking great.”
“Thanks for the assist.” I smiled at my best friend as balance slowly returned. He could have taken that goal on his own, but I was glad he trusted me enough not to.
“Thanks for finishing it.” He took a long drink of water. “Maddox seems very pissed off with Nova wearing your jersey.”
I hummed. “Guess, he is not as observant as he thinks.”
Max laughed. “He asked me if there's something between the two of you.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I told him wrong girl,” Max grinned, and I gave him a puzzled look. “Come on, you can't fake that chemistry between you and...”
“Okay, okay, got it,” I hit him hard so he wouldn't say Rosalie's name.
“She's good for you.”
“I know,” I grinned. “It's fucking scary... caring about someone this much.”
Max laughed. “Tell me about it.”
We sipped our water quietly, and my friend glanced at the rest of the team. “You know you need to tell Aaron at some point?”
“Yeah, but I want to give us time to figure it out first before all the judgment.” Max nodded in agreement. “Does it make me delusional to think he is going to be cool with it? He is cool with us spending time, bonding over recovery... I think he is going to be fine with it.”
“Unless you break her heart.”
I let out a sad laugh. “It's not something you can control, but I don't want to do that.”
“I know, bro,” Max clapped me on the shoulder. “I know you don't. So take all the time to figure it out, I'll keep your secret, you don't need to worry about that.”
“Thank you, it means a lot.” And I meant it. Despite our small differences over the past months, I knew that Max would put our friendship above the team. He might have been worried about how this would all play out, but he had my back. And having him in my corner meant the world to me.
The second half was harder. Redwood came out aggressively, clearly having gotten a halftime pep talk about not going down without a fight. They pressed higher, tackled harder, and in the 58th minute, they scored off a defensive mistake.
2-1.
The game shifted. We were still in control, but barely. Every attack felt desperate, every tackle felt dangerous.
In the 72nd minute, I felt it.
A Redwood defender came in late on a tackle, his cleat catching my shin. I went down hard, and for a split second, that familiar terror gripped me.
Not again. Please not again.
But when I sat up, my leg was fine. Bruised, probably, but fine. The defender got a yellow card. I got a free kick just outside the box.
Max jogged over. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” And I meant it. I wasn't hurt. I wasn't broken. I was fine.
“Want to take this?”
The free kick. Direct shot on goal. Twenty yards out.
Old Dex wouldn't have hesitated. New Dex felt the fear creep in. What if I missed? What if I let everyone down?
But then I looked at the stands again. At Rosalie, on her feet, hands pressed together in front of her mouth like a prayer.
Do it anyway.
“Yeah,” I told Max. “I want to take it.”
He grinned and stepped back. “Then make it count.”
I placed the ball, stepped back, and took three deep breaths. The goalkeeper positioned his wall. The referee blew the whistle.
I ran up and struck the ball with the inside of my foot, curving it up and over the wall. The goalkeeper dove but couldn't reach it.
The ball nestled into the top corner of the net.
3-1.
This time, when my teammates mobbed me, I let myself feel it. The joy, the relief, the pride. I'd done it. Not perfectly, but I'd done it.
We held on for the final twenty minutes, Redwood unable to break through our defense. When the final whistle blew, we'd won 3-1.
My first game back. Two goals. A clean performance with no panic attacks, no freezing up, no phantom pains that stopped me from playing.
I'd done it.
I was officially back.
My name was shouted from several sides, but my eyes pulled me to section C, where Rosalie stood screaming it together with Ivy and Nova.
Max was in front of them within minutes, kissing Ivy over the railing, and I wanted to do the same. Instead, I joined the rest of the team and headed to the locker room to change back before our bus ride, ignoring that Maddox and Aaron both headed for the girl.
In less than twenty minutes, I was showered and dressed in my Titan’s sweat set, ready to head to the bus and back on campus.
“I'll see you guys on the bus,” I waved to my teammates. All my closest friends were still showering as they spent some time with the girls.
I caught sight of Rosie immediately as she leaned against our bus, a wide grin on her face, and fuck, wearing my jersey.
“Hey, Thorn,” I grinned at her, and after a quick scan of the empty parking lot, I wrapped my arms around her.
Rosalie clung to me, her arms squeezing my neck as I twirled her around. “You were amazing, I'm so freaking proud of you!!”
“Couldn't have done it without you,” I muttered in her ear, and it was the truth.
She nudged me, and we moved against the wall, hidden in the shadow of the dim parking lot. Without any question, she sank her fingers in my hair and kissed me. It wasn't one of her tentative kisses; it was more passionate and bolder. Like she needed to kiss me, otherwise she would die.
And I kissed her back with equal eagerness. Like I wanted to kiss her on the field in front of everyone.
Our tongues danced a sensual dance as I swallowed the tiny moans leaving her mouth. She was so responsive to the tiniest touches.
My hand slid over the curve of her ass, and I gripped her firm backside, pulling her flat against me. She rolled her hips into my growing erection and moaned again, driving me crazy.
It didn't happen many times that I had to be the one killing the fun, but I had to remind myself that she was a virgin and we just started dating.
“I missed you,” she muttered over my lips when I pulled away.
“I could tell by the way you kissed me.” Rosie reached up, kissing me again, and I laughed. “My needy little Rosebud.”
“I'm just proud of you,” she replied, her lips turning down for a split second.
I kissed her temple and held her against me. “I know, I'm just teasing you.”
“You know,” she muttered against my neck. “There were so many girls wearing your jersey... for an away game.”
“They are called groupies,” I chuckled. “I don't really concern myself with them.”
Rosie arched her brow. “Really, they were discussing why you haven't been interested in their texts lately.”
“Yes, I did fuck them in the past,” I sighed. “I fucked almost every female Senior and Junior currently on campus. You know that.”
She scrunched up her nose. “So now you moved on to Sophomores.”
Yeah, that didn't come out the way I wanted it.
“Thorn... you know who I was before my injury. I never pretended like I wasn't that person.” She nodded in agreement. “I can't stop people from talking about the past.”
“I know, but...” she started when voices sounded around the corner, and I recognized the silhouette of Alfie and Liam.
“It sucks our girls couldn't come,” Liam muttered, referring to their respective girlfriends who didn't make the drive.
“Yeah, but they will be there waiting to celebrate. Max said we could all have dinner, but Maddox wants to throw a party,” Alfie muttered. “Yeah, but I agree with Aaron, I much rather party tonight than...”
Their voices faded as they climbed onto the bus, and I exhaled. That was close.
“Where's Dex?” Liam's head appeared, looking around, and Rosie quickly pulled me further into the darkness.
“Maybe getting a quicky in with some of the groupies? He hasn't been interested in them for a while, so it makes sense he wants to have his victory sex,” Alfie shrugged.
“Now I get why he rushed out,” Liam laughed, and they both disappeared back onto the bus.
Rosie grimaced. “You better go... but before, let me make you look like you were having your victory sex.”
“Thorn, you know how guys are,” I shrugged, as she ruffled my hair, but before I could finish my sentence, she kissed me again.
This time, she rushed it more, her tongue meeting mine within seconds in a deep, passionate kiss that was going to leave me breathless.
But before she released me, she sucked my lower lip into her mouth and flashed me a wicked grin.
“Now you look like you actually have been having some action.”
I felt my lips pulse as she stepped away, my body missing her heat immediately.
“Have a safe trip back, I'll see you at home,” she flashed me a wicked smile, and I shook my head, staring after her, all hazy.
How did I ever believe that this girl couldn't flirt?
I whistled as I made my way onto the bus, adding 'Secret Love Song' to our playlist to remind her how much fun this was to hide, despite wanting to parade her up and down in front of everyone.
Liam and Alfie hooted when they saw me. “Had a good time?”
“Yep,” I popped the p with a smug grin as Rosalie hugged Aaron, who was exiting with Max and heading towards the bus. I watched as they said their goodbyes, and she joined the girls towards their car, and the guys continued towards us.
Aaron wasn't even in his seat yet when my phone pinged with a notification.
Rosalie added 'I'm Not the Only One'.
I frowned at my phone and texted her.
You're the only one, Thorn.
Her reply was immediate.
Rosalie
Oh, I know. But you have to share me with ballet.
I laughed out loud, forgetting I was on a team bus. Several heads turned my way, and Coach raised a questioning eyebrow.
“I can see you're in an excellent mood post your two goals, Stallman. Care to share with the group what's got you laughing?” he asked, and I tucked my phone away deep, not wanting to risk anyone seeing Rosalie's name.
“All good, Coach, I prefer to keep it to myself.”
“A gentleman never kisses and tells,” Alfie laughed, and the whole team started buzzing with excitement that I hooked up with someone.
“Welcome back to the land of living,” Maddox grinned at me, as Max threw me a puzzling look.
I only rolled my eyes and tucked my phone deeper into my pocket. “Let them talk.”
The rest of the bus ride was uneventful. The guys were all organizing the party, texting everyone to come over, but all I could think about was Rosie and having her in my arms. Which, with a house full of people, was impossible.
Suddenly, the ache in my chest grew. How simpler things were last semester when we were just friends, and we could openly hang out. Now, we were afraid that even the slightest touch or eye contact would blow our cover.
Are you coming to the party?
Rosalie
Do you want me to? I wasn't planning to. I need to recharge my social battery.
I always want you there, but it's going to be torture without being able to touch you.
Rosalie
You could skip it too... meet me in the studio, we could watch a movie...
A smile tugged on my lips.
Tempting. Let me change, and I'll meet you there.
“Can you text Nova and let her know about the party?” Aaron's head popped up next to me, and I almost dropped my phone. The last thing I needed was him seeing my text thread with Rosie. There were way too many hearts in there.
“Sure, no worries,” I swiped my screen to Snapchat before deciding to text Nova there. “Let's take a selfie for her.”
Aaron leaned in, and I snapped a quick pic of the two of us, captioning it: Party at our place, don't miss out!
“Since you have such a good network of sorority girls, maybe you could snap them all,” he suggested, and I winced. “What?”
“Haven't really caught up with them in a long time...”
“Come on,” he laughed. “You know they'll come if you ask. Plus, now you're back. You can drop the sad recovery act.”
It wasn't an act, but I didn't correct him. Instead, I sent the same photo to several girls and added it to my public story before darkening my phone screen. “Happy?”
Aaron was frowning at his phone, ignoring me. “Gotta call Rosie, she said she is not coming.”
“Maybe she just needs space," I offered, my heart hammering in my chest.
“Or maybe the car ride made her hip hurt,” Aaron bit into his lip and nervously typed on his phone. “Or who knows if she and Nova...”
“Dude,” I stopped his spiral. “Maybe she just wants to chill with Daisy. Watch a movie, I don't know.”
Aaron stared at me. “I know you guys are friends, but you don't know her the way I know her.”
I was not going to correct him, but I got to know her better.
“I'm going to do some stretches,” I muttered as the bus pulled in. “See you at the party.”
My delusion that Aaron would be okay with me and Rosalie quickly evaporated. He still thought of me as the playboy, and he still liked to be on top of every little thing Rosalie did. We needed to keep it a secret until he chilled down.
If that was ever going to happen.