by Bella King
“Thanks for trying to help,” I said, tearing open the package and spearing a hotdog with a charred stick.
The girl was a brunette with olive skin and eyes that matched her hair almost exactly. Like the other girls on the cheer team, she was gorgeous, but that said little about her personality. I was curious if she was really sided with Megan or if the cheerleaders being Megan-supporters was a myth used to boost her numbers.
“Bradly is a creep,” she answered. “It’s no problem. What was your name again?”
“Ava,” I responded, holding out a hand.
She shook it. “Betty.”
I liked that name. It seemed old-fashioned, but in a charming sort of way. You didn’t many girls named Betty nowadays. I smiled at her, tilting my head as an idea popped into my head. “You know Megan, right?”
“Girl, everyone knows Megan,” she responded. “She’s the student body president.”
“Do you support her?” I asked, squinting my eyes.
She squinted back. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m curious,” I said, studying her face. She showed no sign of leaning either way, but I hoped since she didn’t like Bradly, that she wasn’t a fan of Megan either.
She shrugged. “Cheerleaders voted for her.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I said, challenging her stance.
She frowned. “Tell me why you want to know, and I’ll answer it.”
I nodded. That was fair enough. “Megan and I have beef, you know. She doesn’t like me very much, and to be honest, I think she’s a crazy bitch.”
Betty burst into laughter. “Oh god, I’m glad someone has the balls around here to say it.” She grew quiet, hunching down and whispering, “But I’d be careful about saying that out here. Basically, everyone out here supports her for one reason or another.”
“But why?” I asked, extending my hotdog toward the fire and leaning in to whisper with Betty.
She shook her head. “Different reasons. Most of the cheerleaders support her because she increases the funding to the cheer program every year. That’s enough for them. The jocks over there support her because she hooks them up with cheerleaders. She’s like a pimp, but I don’t buy into her bullshit. It’s gross, if you ask me.”
“And Bradly? He just supports her because he wants to get his dick sucked. He could do that without her, I think,” I replied.
Betty nodded. “You’re right. Megan must have some dirt on him. That’s how she keeps people in check. It’s either bribes, blackmail, or violence. Sometimes it’s all three.”
“Shit, well she’s going pretty hard with the violence on my end,” I admitted.
“I’m not surprised. Strong women always meet heavy resistance with her. You either have to move out of the way or accept it. There’s no opposing Megan.”
I pulled my hotdog back from the fire, which was already black and bubbling on the outside. “There has to be opposition.”
“Nobody dares to cross her,” she replied. “Too dangerous.”
“Well I have, and I’ll keep crossing her until she breaks. It can’t be that hard,” I said, puffing up my chest and looking proud.
Betty smirked bitterly. “You’re brave, but foolish.”
I laughed. “That’s what another girl told me. Molly.”
Betty pulled her head back. “Stay away from Molly. You have no idea how deep she is with Megan.”
I was confused. “Are you serious? We’re kind of friends now.”
Betty looked shocked. “Ava, Molly is Megan’s cousin.”
“What?” I said leaning back with equal shock. “I didn’t know that. Are we talking about the same Molly?”
“Brown eyes, thin, carries a gun in her car even though they’re not allowed on school campus.”
“Fuck,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s the one. She’s been nice to me so far, though.”
Betty snickered. “So far,” she said, leaning forward and lowering her voice again. “I heard that the girl who died from alcohol poisoning last year was because of her,” she said. “But don’t tell anyone I told you,” she said quickly. “I don’t want to become Megan’s next target.”
This was an incredible amount of information to take in. I found it hard to believe that Molly was in so deep with Megan, especially when she had been so helpful to me. Then again, all the warnings might have been a way of getting me to stay in line. This could be another one of Megan’s tricks.
I leaned back when another idea popped into my head. What if Betty was the one who was tricking me. Maybe she wanted to isolate me, to make me feel like I couldn’t trust anyone. It would be easier for Megan to gain control over me if I was alone.
Either way, I was confused not. I bit into my hotdog, burning the roof of my mouth as I thought about what I was going to do. I couldn’t ask Molly directly. If she was fucking with me, then she wouldn’t just go out and admit it. She would want to keep it hidden.
I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat in silence beside Betty and ate my hotdog.
Chapter 15
It gets cold where the sun doesn’t shine.
I only drank one beer because of the not too distant memories of Megan’s poison cocktail that I had to drink at school that had nearly killed me. I was cautious around alcohol in general after that, but one drink didn’t hurt. It was cheap and light, so I barely felt it.
I chilled out by the fire, eating hotdogs and chatting out empty things with Betty and some of the other women. I stayed far away from the jocks, who had pulled a few of the cheerleaders into their laps and were making moves on them. Of course, the women loved it, but I thought it was nasty.
Betty was right there with me, shaking her head at the girls who were clambering into the jocks’ laps. “Why do they do that? What could they possibly gain from sleeping with those guys?”
“An STD?” I offered, which almost caused Betty to spit out her drink.
“Oh my god, yes,” she said after swallowing her drink. She laughed, throwing back another gulp.
“I guess Bradly isn’t really that type though,” I said, pointing over to him.
Betty squinted her eyes across the fire to see him sitting alone, almost awkwardly as the other guys made out with their chosen partners. “You’re right. Maybe his balls are so small from all those steroids. He probably doesn’t want to let anyone know.”
I chuckled but felt a little bad for him. Maybe he wasn’t as awful as people made him out to be. If he was being blackmailed by Megan over something, maybe he didn’t even want to be involved in all this. I wanted to believe that he was a nice guy on the inside, but after he had thrown my panties into the fire, I had trouble justifying that line of thought.
The night was winding down, and Betty wandered off to sleep off the drinks and food she had consumed by the fire. The fire itself was getting pretty low, and I felt chilly even being beside it. The night air was growing colder than I thought it would. The shade from the trees and the running water nearby cooled the area down considerably. I would have liked to have a sweater.
I got up, glancing back at Bradly as he sat by the fire, still shirtless. I wondered if he would get cold like that, but I bet his enormous muscles did a good job of keeping him warm. I found myself wondering how nice it would be to sleep in the same bed as him. It would feel like a toasty little oven.
Fuck, that’s enough of those thoughts. Bradly was the bad guy, and I still had more information I wanted to get from him. I couldn’t forget the reason I had started talking to him in the first place.
I began walking back toward my tent as a cold breeze blew through the campground. It was colder than I could stand in my shorts and tank top. I hoped that my tent alone would provide enough cover from the cold otherwise I would wake up as an ice cube.
My skin had goosebumps and my nipples grew hard through my bra, even though it was padded. The cold blew right through my clothes, sticking to my skin like liquid. I shivered violently as I walked up
to my tent.
One touch was all it took for me to know that sleeping in my tent wasn’t going to be an option tonight. The nylon fabric felt colder than the air outside, and when I unzipped it and stepped in, all I could feel was the moist coldness of it. The floor of the tent had grown frigid from the air blowing through the dampness, which made it even worse than before it had begun drying.
I stepped out of the tent, shivering and crossing my arms tightly in an attempt to keep myself warm. It was Bradly’s fault that I was out here freezing like this, so he would have to be the one to fix it. I wasn’t going to bed until he did. I wouldn’t be able to.
I retreated back to the warmth of the fire, where Bradly still was. When I arrived, he got up and stretched, throwing out his large arms and expanding his broad chest. Once again, I marveled at his massive body before clearing my throat.
“Excuse me,” I said, my arms still crossed tightly around my chest.
He looked down on me like I was a bug running around his toes. “You want me to dry some more clothes for you?” He joked.
I wasn’t laughing. “Listen, you soaked all my stuff, so my sleeping bag is wet, my tent is wet, and it’s too cold for me sleep.”
He shrugged. “And what do you want me to do about it?”
“I don’t know. Give me your sleeping bag,” I suggested, motioning to his large tent.
He chuckled. “You’re cute, Ava. It’s too bad you’re so annoying.”
“I’m serious. Do you want to be responsible for my death out here?”
He smirked and me and shook his head, like everything I said was just a joke to him. It was easy for him to make light of my situation. He wasn’t the one who risked freezing to death without a proper sleeping bag.
Bradly began unzipping his pants, turning toward the glowing embers of what remained of the fire.
I spun around when I realized he was pulling out his cock. “What are you doing?” I asked, panicking a little inside. I was afraid that he was going to try to get me to have sex with him out here or something. Everyone else had gone to bed.
He chuckled, then I heard the sound of liquid splashing into the firepit, sizzling into steam as it hit the glowing logs. “I’m putting out the fire.”
“Gross,” I said, but I was tempted to take a peek at his cock.
I heard the sounds of him zipping up after a few seconds, and I turned back around. He had a satisfied smile on his face, and his eyelids were starting to get droopy.
“Time for bed,” he said, walking over to his tent.
“Hello,” I announced, waving my hand. “Are you going to help me or what?”
He sighed, pausing before he stepped into his tent. “If you want to use my sleeping bag, you’re just going to have to share it with me.”
I pulled my head back, feeling a strange mixture of discomfort and energy at his words. “No way,” I exclaimed.
He shrugged, then disappeared into his tent, zipping it up and leaving me with the smoking fire pit in the dark.
I was cold, alone, and a bit scared of the dark. I decided that anything would be better than having to share a tent with him. I walked back to my wet tent and laid down on the wet floor, trying to rock myself to sleep and praying that I didn’t freeze to death overnight.
Chapter 16
Compromise is the same as losing.
An hour was all it took to change my mind. I was shivering so badly that my teeth were threatening to chatter right out of my mouth. Any more of this and I would be sick like Molly the next day. I would hate to have to make a three-mile hike back to civilization with a nasty cold.
I decided to do the only thing that I could do to save myself from the cold. I was going to have to suck it up, swallow my pride, and share a sleeping bag with Bradly. While some women would have killed for that opportunity, I was more cautious. Sleeping with the enemy seemed like a mighty fine way of getting myself into more trouble than I was already in. Besides, what would Molly say?
Nobody had to know about this, and I planned to make it very clear to Bradly that he couldn’t let word out that I had slept in his tent with him. It was embarrassing enough to have him tossing my bra and panties into the fire in front of everyone. This was a step up from that.
I crept over to his tent, careful not to alert any curious sleeper to what I was about to do. I needed this to be a secret. Nobody could see what I was about to do.
When I got to Bradly's tent, I ran my nails over the nylon doorway, making a whizzing sound as I scratched. It wasn’t possible to knock, so I figured this was the next best thing. He didn’t answer, which didn’t surprise me. He was probably already asleep.
“Psst,” I whispered, then paused.
Still, no answer.
“Bradly,” I said, my voice hushed.
Again, no answer.
I sighed, weighing my options. On the one hand, I was freezing to death, and on the other, I was freezing to death. Decision made. Watch out, Bradly, I’m coming in.
I unzipped his tent, which was all it took to wake him up. He lurched up in his sleeping bag, eyes wide as though he might have to defend himself from a killer instead of an innocent young woman like myself.
“Calm down, I’m just taking you up on your offer,” I said quietly.
“Don’t get in here with dirty clothes,” he said when I came up to him.
“You ruined all my clean ones,” I replied.
“At least remove your shorts and shirt then. They’re filthy,” he said, rubbing his eyes with balled-up fists.
“You’re ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head while I pulled down my shorts in front of him. It was too dark for him to see me properly, but I would have to sleep right next to him in the bag. It didn’t appear to be much larger than he was.
I didn’t have many other options. It was too cold to argue with him. I just wanted some warmth, and I would do just about anything now to get it. I pulled off my shirt and tossed it where I had dropped my shorts.
“As a matter of fact, you better take those off too,” he said.
Even in the dark, I could see his teeth flashing from his arrogant smile. He knew he had me in a compromising situation, and he intended to take full advantage of it.
I groaned but unhooked my bra and slid my panties off in front of him. Now, I was completely naked, and even colder than before. I dived down, searching for the zipper to open his sleeping bag and get warm with him.
“Don’t try anything funny,” I said as I unzipped it and slid inside beside him. He was warmer than I thought he would be, like a giant radiator beside me. It was pure bliss having his bare skin touching mine, and I felt excitement between my legs at his touch.
“I’m trying to sleep, so I would say the same thing to you,” he grumbled, turning over and pressing his muscular ass against me.
Oh my god, he was completely naked in here. I could even feel the little hairs on his butt against my thighs. I tried to slow my heartbeat. What if he heard it thumping away beside him? Would he think I was turned on by all this?
Truthfully, I was, but I didn’t want him to know that. I just wanted to get to sleep and slip out of his tent as early as I could manage so that nobody saw me. I wanted no drama, and no rumors to be spread around the school about me sleeping with the captain of the football team. That wouldn’t do me any favors under Megan’s scrutiny.
I scooted closer to Bradly’s hot body. I could feel every detail of the muscles in his back, and the scent of his masculine cologne and sweat was to die for. I felt relaxed instantly, warming my body to the core with his large body.
I came closer, pressing my legs against the backs of his thighs and daring to wrap an arm around him. He grunted but didn’t oppose this. I settled down, spooning him in the most peaceful way. I was in heaven. Even though I would have to forget about all of this and go back to hating Bradly in the morning, for now, I was going to live it up.
I closed my eyes, taking in another breath of his scent. It was indescri
bably amazing, like old wood and something spicy. It smelled like hard work and old leather, like a cowboy who had traveled the country and seen it all.
Bradly moved, flipping over to face me unexpectedly. “What are you doing?” He asked.
I moved my head back, which was just inches from his. “I’m sleeping.”
“No, you’re not. You’re breathing really heavy and it’s making it hard for me to sleep,” he replied.
“I normally breathe like that,” I lied, trying to cover up that I was inhaling his scent like a crackhead with a bag of blow.
He chuckled. “You’re a terrible liar, Ava. Why don’t you just tell what you really want?”
I froze, my heart the only thing in my body that dared move. I let like I couldn’t breathe with how fast my heart was beating. “I don’t want anything,” I whispered, barely able to speak.
“The keys. Didn’t you want those?” Bradly said.
I sighed in relief. “Jesus, I thought you were talking about something else. Yeah, the keys. Do you know who has them?”
Bradly placed his large hand on my hip, resting it there. It was heavy but felt good against my skin. It’s how I imagined it would feel when he gripped my hips and sunk his cock between my legs.
Fuck, concentrate, Ava. The keys. Talk about the keys.
I pushed his hand off my leg. “Tell me who has the keys. I know that you knew more than you were letting on.”
He laughed and placed his hand back on my hip, squeezing it this time. “I know a lot of things, but why should I tell you? Megan doesn’t like you one bit, and Megan isn’t the type of woman I would cross.”
“I still don’t get that,” I said, letting his hand stay on my hip. “Why are you afraid of her?”
“I’m not,” he said, his voice growing defensive. “I just don’t have a reason to cross her. It’s a waste of my time.”
I snorted air out of my nose in amusement. “You’re full of shit. I know she has dirt on you.”
The air was still after I said that. I could practically hear Bradly’s mind racing as he tried to think of a response. He was gaging how much I knew, and what was safe to reveal to me. It took him several seconds to respond.
