CHAPTER 9 #3
She leaned in to kiss him, and he eagerly met her lips, desperately seeking out what he had been missing the whole day agonizing about what was going on with her and with them.
He wrapped her up in his arms and leaned back against her headboard, letting out a long sigh as she laid back with him and wrapped her body tightly around his.
He slowly stroked her blonde curls with one hand and rubbed her back with his fingertips with the other, and she allowed her body to relax for the first time since all of this went down.
She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent and wiggled herself as closely as she possibly could against his very large and very warm body that was unusually soft due to the layers of sweatpants and hoodie that he had on.
“I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell me what happened,” he whispered into her hair.
“It’s not that Trist, I just don’t want you to act out of anger or impulse and get in trouble.”
He stayed silent, continuing to rub her back and place small kisses on the top of her head.
“I just feel so safe when I’m with you,” she whispers into his neck, and he feels goosebumps cover his whole body.
“I shouldn’t have let you leave with him last night. I’m gonna beat myself up about that for the rest of my fucking life.”
“Trist, don’t,” Tessa said flatly, “I was a stubborn asshole trying to make you feel bad. I practically forced you into having no choice.”
“Not true. I could’ve physically restrained you.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at such a ridiculous idea. “I’m serious,” he said, getting some comfort out of hearing her giggle. “I should’ve fireman carried you back in that house and locked you inside.”
“Trist you were so drunk you would have dropped me on my head.”
“Bullshit. I’m an athlete, I can carry anything anywhere.”
She hummed in satisfaction, knowing it was true. Knowing how large and capable he was at anything physical. It made her body snuggle even deeper into his side. There were a few moments of comfortable silence between them before Tristan spoke up again.
“You know, I wasn’t planning on telling you this after such solemn circumstances but.
..” he said, causing Tessa to giggle at the use of a ‘big word’ as he called it, which he was quick to let people know that Tessa was the reason for his expanding vocabulary.
..there was silence again before Tristan cleared his throat and placed his finger under Tessa’s chin, lifting it so she would look up into his eyes, “...but I love you, Tess. I’ve really fallen in love with you and I’m still learning how to be mature about all of this.
I’ve never loved a girl before. And I’m sorry I haven’t been showing a whole lot of emotional maturity, but you make me want to be better and do better.
And I hope that none of this makes you put all those walls back up with me.
..I hope you can let me love you and take care of you, the way you deserve to be loved and cared for. ”
Tessa’s heart felt like it had grown twice it’s size and was about to burst out of her chest. She couldn’t believe the words she was hearing and thought this for sure was a dream.
But when she felt his fingers gripping the back of her neck, she was reminded this was real and that the guy that she had fallen head over heels for, despite all of her efforts not to, felt the same way about her.
“I love you too,” she whispered through a lazy smile.
“Really?” He asked, unable to hide the goofy grin that broke out across his handsome face.
“Really.”
He leaned down, and they shared a passionate kiss filled with love, promise, hope, longing, and so many other emotions that they were perhaps too young to truly know how to navigate.
And as Tristan held Tessa in his arms that night, he waited for her to drift off to sleep, before quietly sneaking out from under her, tucking her into her blankets, and sneaking out of her bedroom door.
He had only one thing on his mind, and he knew he wouldn't be able to function if he didn’t take care of it.
Tristan looked at the time on the dashboard of his truck to see that it was just past midnight as he parked his truck in the parking lot of the sports bar a few miles away from campus.
It took a few phone calls and convincing, but he was eventually able to track down Jake’s location.
And as if it were just another night out with friends, Tristan very calmy – eerily so – exited his vehicle and walked towards the back patio of the bar, and he spotted him immediately.
He was lounged out on a chair with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and a very drunk blonde on the chair beside him. No one else was outside as it was still drizzling lightly and bitingly cold even with the heat warmers that were scattered around.
Tristan swung his legs over the railing, keeping his hands tucked into the pocket of his hoodie and his head down under the brim of his Cleveland Browns hat, but once he stepped up to Jake, he proudly tipped his head back up, making very direct and aggressive eye contact with him.
And although Jake tried to appear like he was unfazed, Tristan noticed the slight tremor of his hands the moment he registered who was standing in front of him.
“Sup Kelly?” He said sarcastically. “You want a beer?”
“Get up,” Tristan said calmly, taking a few steps back.
“Why?” Jake asked, still trying to appear unfazed, but the slight dip in his voice betraying him.
“Because I said if you laid a hand on her I’d kill you.
Now get up. I don’t want to sucker punch you while you’re sitting down.
Although I don’t know why I’m giving you the courtesy of standing up to me like a man, because really, you’re just a small-dicked asshole who likes to try to force himself on my girl, is that right? ”
The blonde next to Jake awkwardly gets up and says she’s going inside, leaving the two men alone outside.
“Listen, I don’t know what she told you,” Jake said, putting his hands up in mock surrender, still clutching his beer. “Yeah, I tried to get something out of her but the prude little bitch got all clammed up on me, so relax and don’t-”
Tristan lunged forward and grabbed Jake violently by the collar of his ugly brown leather jacket and smashed him against the brick wall of the building.
He didn’t want to hear anything else from him and also didn’t have anymore words of his own.
There was nothing that Tristan would be able to say that he believed his fists couldn’t say better.
So he landed a very solid and clean punch against Jake’s cheekbone, causing him to stumble to the ground.
“Fuck that felt good, been wanting to that for months,” Tristan said with a wicked grin, watching as Jake stayed crouched on the ground. “Come on bro, get up,” he said his voice laced with annoyance. “This isn’t any fun if you don’t fight me back.”
“All this over a girl, Kelly?” Jake sneered, finally gathering himself to stand back up. “A girl who probably won’t even put out for you. She sure is pretty but she’s probably a boring fuck-”
Another swing and perfect hit from Tristan knocked Jake straight onto his back, and at this point, Tristan is seeing pure red.
He’s crouched above him, gripping his shirt in one hand, and pummeling Jake’s face with the other.
He alternates between spitting insults at Jake and begging him to get up and put up a fight.
Tristan has no idea how much time has passed by the time a crowd begins to gather.
It could have been seconds, could have been hours.
He blacked out in a rage over the thought of Tessa being alone and scared in his car, and he was also taking out his rage for himself on Jake for even letting the situation present itself in the first place.
Tristan is suddenly ripped from Jake’s body and then pinned onto the ground on his front, and it doesn’t take long for him to understand what’s going on when he feels his arms being painfully pulled behind his back.
“Way to go, Kelly,” the cop says flatly as he clicked the cuffs closed around his wrists. “Nice way to fuck up your career.”
Tristan sighed and begrudgingly stood up after the cop roughly pulled on the cuffs. His eyes scanned the crowd around him and was relieved to have found one of his teammates.
“Call my brother,” he said as the cop began to drag Tristan away from the crowd and towards the car. His teammate nodded and immediately took out his phone to call Jordan.
“What are you gonna get me on?” Tristan asked with a sigh as the cop pushed him against the car and began patting down his legs.
“Aggravated assault,” the cop responded through loud smacks of his chewing gum before rambling off his Miranda Rights.
“Fuck,” Tristan swore under his breath, and was suddenly aware of all of the ways this could change the trajectory of his life and career, but really at that moment all that he really saw was the look in Tessa’s piercing blue eyes as she said I love you, and suddenly everything else faded away, and he easily slid into the backseat of the cop car without a fight.
All he could hope now was that Tessa and Coach Adams would be understanding.