First Down

by Paula Mabbel

  The thud of the door made Emma jump. Tears rolled down her cheeks, the struggle to admit Mary was right being too painful to cope with. She curled on her bed, forgetting about the coffee she was holding. The liquid spilled all over the floor. She didn’t bother to clean up. Instead, she let the mug slip from her trembling fingers.

  “What is happening?” she asked herself, tears blinding her eyes as violent sobs started shaking her small body.

  *****

  The entire day turned out to be a waste. Emma couldn’t muster the strength to get up, losing all motivation to attend classes or catch up with coursework.

  She spent all day in bed, either crying until her eyes burned or falling in and out of a troubled and restless sleep. The headache had come back with renewed strength.

  Awakened by the need to use the bathroom, she glanced at her phone and saw two missed calls from Ridley. Her heart ached at the thought of him.

  Checking the time, she learned it was late; he had to have been home for hours.

  After coming back empty handed from a trip to the fridge, she called him back. She couldn’t suppress a heavy sigh when he picked up.

  “What happened, baby girl?” he asked. She could sense the alarm in his voice.

  “Nothing. I’m sorry.”

  “What for? Are you alright, baby?”

  She pinched the bridge of her nose to stop the tears that were threatening to choke her up.

  “Hello?”

  “I’m fine, baby. It’s OK. I’m sorry I haven’t picked up your calls.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In my room. Why?”

  “I was just there, 15 minutes ago. You didn’t answer the door. I’m coming again.”

  “What?”

  He had hung up already and she panicked. He sounded upset. Was he mad at her for not picking up his calls?

  He said he had knocked on her door earlier. He was concerned. Maybe he was checking up on her instead?

  She felt guilty for putting him through something like that and, with renewed energy, she went into the bathroom to freshen up, then cleaned the coffee stain as well as she could. She was on her way to the kitchen to make some more coffee when she heard the knock on the door.

  “Just a minute!” she yelled, throwing the dirty paper towels in the trash.

  When she unlocked the door, Ridley stepped right in. She blushed, sheepishly looking at her feet.

  “You look unwell. What happened, Emma?”

  “I’m fine,” she lied, swallowing hard. He wrapped her in his arms tightly. Just what she needed, the safety of his body. The happiness of seeing him brought tears to her eyes.

  “Your roommate told me you weren’t well when I called. She said she arranged for you to be excused from your courses today, but didn't tell me what was wrong,” he informed her.

  “She did?”

  “What’s going on?” he asked again.

  “I…nothing. Just tired, I guess.”

  She walked into the kitchen and fumbled with the coffee filter. She didn't trust herself to look at him.

  He sat at the small table separating the kitchenette from the living room and watched her with concern in his eyes.

  “You’d tell me if something was wrong. Right, baby?” he began.

  She nodded.

  “I’d like to think you trust me enough to confide in me.”

  “I do,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Then why don’t you tell me? I’ll do my best to help you, you know that.”

  She didn’t know how to tell him, but she wanted to get it out in the open too badly.

  “I don’t know what to do, Ridley.”

  “About what?”

  “About me, my life. About us.”

  He kept quiet. Not daring to look at him, she went on.

  “I love you.”

  Her words hung in the air for a long while. She didn't expect a reply, and started to talk again when he interrupted.

  “I love you too, baby. And I want you to be happy. I will listen to anything you have to say, so let’s work things out, alright?”

  She nodded, relaxing.

  “You know I dream of becoming a pediatrician.”

  “Yes. A very sweet thing to do.”

  “The thing is I cannot stay away from you either. If we’re apart more than a day, I hurt.”

  She knew she sounded stupid, showing a side of her that might make Ridley run for his life. That possibility brought fresh tears to her eyes, but she kept on.

  “And I’ve been coming to see you any chance I get. Only life doesn’t work that way. I’m beginning to understand this. I’m starting to see I need to choose, but first I need to know something.”

  When she finally looked into his eyes, he seemed to have listened intently. She swallowed hard.

  “I need to know if you want to be with me.”

  “I am with you, baby.”

  “No, Ridley. I want to know for sure. I know it’s a lot of pressure and I am so sorry to have to put you in this position, but I need to know if you want to be with me. Seriously, with common goals and dreams. Do you see a future for us?”

  “Emma, it’s hard to promise something like that.”

  She looked down, nodding.

  “All I know for certain is that I want you and I will do whatever is possible to be with you. But the future is a mystery. I can tell you this, though: I’ll do my part in this thing as well as I can. I don’t know if that’s what you wanted to hear, baby. But that’s the only truth I know.”

  Another moment of silence passed between them.

  “Now, your turn. Why did you need to ask me that?”

  She looked away.

  “I needed to make a choice.”

  “What kind of choice?”

  “I had to choose between two things I hold dear, and your answer settled things.”

  “Don't you think that I deserve to know? At least talk about what it is that’s making you hurt this badly.”

  “I will drop out of college,” she finally said.

  “What? Why? You love it here! And what about med school?”

  “Yes, but I love you, too. I love you more. And I need to focus on one thing at a time. It’s hard to be torn between two sides.”

  “So what? You want to just get married and live on a ranch?”

  “I…” she didn't think he would be so blunt about it. Embarrassment for not taking into account the kind of commitment he had to accept burned her cheeks. She wished the floor would swallow her up, keep her from further making a fool of herself.

  “You’re not that type of woman. You’re meant to be a doctor. The best in her field, I am certain. Why abandon your dreams like that?”

  “I can't do both. I am exhausted all the time and my performance in school isn’t good. I wouldn’t even call it mediocre. It would just complicate things.”

  “But if you give up your dream, it will eat away at you. Baby, don’t you see? You’re meant to fulfill your dream. And I wouldn’t want to stand in your way. I couldn't live with that.”

  “But I can't bear the thought of losing you. I would end up just the same, good for nothing without you. I wouldn’t get into med school with my grades anyway...”

  “What if you can do both?” he cut her off.

  Her mouth stayed open, but no sound came out.

  “Can’t you change your schedule? I mean, make it so that you have fewer classes or something?”

  “I can study part time. But I would lose my scholarship and my parents won’t pay for anything they disapprove of. There’s no way I could manage…”

  He rose and stepped towards her. With one steady hand, he pulled her close, kissing the top of her head protectively. She figured that she had scared him off with her proposal, and he was trying to find a way to lay her off easy.

  “Don’t worry about the scholarship. I’ll pay for your school.”

  “What?” she pulled back, her mind strugg
ling to comprehend the meaning of his words.

  “I’m sure that I can afford to support my woman. Common goals and dreams, isn't that what you said?”

  She started crying, the reality of his unconditional support finally reaching her.

  “Aw, baby. Don’t cry. I told you I will do my best to help you.”

  “So, what are you saying?” she mumbled, unable to believe the happiness Ridley was promising.

  He chuckled. “Why don’t you get your courses changed to part time. I’ll take care of the tuition.”

  “But part-time students can't live on the campus. Where will I go?”

  “You’re moving in with me, baby girl. Isn't that obvious?”

  “What?”

  Her voice had left her. A strange trembling in her chest was making her want to cry, but rendering her unable to do so at the same time.

  “Yes. You’ll study part time, move in with me, and everything will be OK. What do you say?”

  Her reply was to bury her face in his chest and cry like a baby.

  “I know you’d make the best doctor in the world, and children anywhere would be lucky to have you. Your dreams are my dreams, baby girl. This is how serious I am about you. About us. I love you.”

  She tried to mumble “I love you, too” between sobs, her hands grasping his checkered shirt tightly. For the first time in her life, Emma felt safe. She dared to look into his eyes, trying to show him how grateful she felt. He held her gaze, his comforting smile warming her heart and bringing new tears to her eyes.

  He bent and kissed the tears away, holding her close in a protective embrace. Emma knew that together, they would able to overcome anything life wanted to throw their way. She wasn't scared anymore; she was free.

  *****

  THE END

  The British Biker’s Baby

  The atmosphere was heavy in the dingy bar. Everyone within a hundred-mile radius had come for the meeting that was about to start. Trina could hear their nervous whispers coming from the main room from where she was standing on the stairs. Everyone knew that something big was going to happen. The rumours had been circulating for weeks.

  “Are you ready?” Trina’s brother Dominic asked her.

  She glanced over at him with a distant look in her eyes. She was ready. She knew that she was ready, but that wasn’t stopping her nerves from making her body shake, just ever so slightly. “I think so,” she said and smiled nervously at her brother.

  Trina looked up to Dominic -not just because he towered over her, but because he was the best brother that a girl could ask for. Sure, he wasn’t a clean cut, business suit wearing kind of guy, but his heart was big and he loved her immensely. Their parents had died in a car crash when Trina had been seven and Dominic had been twelve. From that day on, Dominic looked after Trina, as though he was her mother, father and brother all wrapped up into one.

  “Then let’s do this,” he said, as he took his sister’s hand and led her down the stairs and into the main room of the bar. Their appearance quickly quietened the buzz of conversation and within minutes you could have heard a pin drop. “It’s good to see so many of you here,” Dominic said as he addressed the crowd. “As I’m sure a lot of you know there have been some pretty heavy rumours going around about our competition. They seem to think that they can move onto our territory and take our custom,” he went on and the crowd grumbled loudly in reaction. “The time has come for us to do something about it. I’ve been given a tip that the Snake Fangs are due a huge drop off in a couple of weeks. A drop off that that’s worth more than a million dollars, we’re going to hijack that drop off and make us some money.”

  The crowd went wild.

  “It’s not going to be easy though,” Trina picked up from where her brother had left off. “We’ve been given the date of the drop off, but not the location. If we’re going to find that out, then we’re going to need to send somebody in undercover. We’re going to need somebody that we can trust to work them from the inside and find out where this drop off is happening. Any volunteers?” She asked the crowd with a smirk. “No?” She asked when all the men in front of her were glancing nervously to the person next to them. “Well, it’s a good job that we’ve already got somebody willing to do it then.”

  “Who?” Someone in the crowd called out.

  “Me,” Trina said, as she pouted her big, red lips at the crowd. “I’ve discussed this with my brother. I’m going to get close to the leader of the Snake Fangs. His name is Rob and he’s the one person who will know the location of the drop off. I’m not going to lie to you guys this is going to be dangerous for me, so when I’ve got the location I’m going to be taking a fifty percent split of the money. The rest of it will be divided out between you all.”

  The crowd started to call out in disagreement. “What makes you think that you are worth half of the money? I’ll go do it if I’m getting half a million for it,” a man with greasy ponytail and old leathers that did nothing to hide his gut said.

  Trina glanced around the crowd and then settled her eyes on the man who had spoken out. She sharpened her gaze on him, until her eyes were barely slits and then she walked over with prolonged steps that only added to the intense atmosphere. She stopped at his table. She could already see small speckles of sweat starting to line his forehead. She slammed her hands down on the table, so that the whole thing shook and the noise rang out through the otherwise silent bar. “What did you say?” She asked him with a cold hard tone.

  “I said I’d do it,” the man said quickly, but he didn’t sound half as cocky as he had the first time.

  “That’s funny because I didn’t see you jumping up to volunteer when I asked,” Trina said with a harsh smirk on her face. “In fact, I remember you sitting next to your friend here silently. Do you know what that makes you?”

  “No?”

  “That makes you spineless. I can’t have someone without a spine working this job. It had to be done properly,” Trina said and then she dropped her hold of his eyes and walked back to the front of the room. “This plan isn’t up for discussion. When I get the location of the drop off you will all be alerted and you will all be expected to show up for the heist. Some of you may get hurt. Some of you may die,” she said as though their lives meant nothing to her. “The important thing to remember though is that any person who had aided the heist will receive a share of the money. If you are hurt or killed, then we will respect our agreement and send your share to your next of kin. Any questions?” Trina finished speaking and looked out at the crowd.

  Trina waited for a long minute, before she nodded her head to indicate that the meeting was over. She turned her attention away from the full room and back to her brother who had been standing quietly by her side.

  “You did well,” he said approvingly.

  “Thanks bro, I aim to please,” she said smiling at him. “Are we all set for tonight?”

  “Everything’s ready,” her brother nodded quickly. “We just need to get you into position and we’re good to go.”

  ******

  Trina felt nervous as she put one delicate red heel in front of the other. She didn’t let it show on her face though. She couldn’t have the other boys, sensing the nerves that she was feeling. They had to think that she was invincible. They had to think that she could kill them all with just one look. She stopped outside of the rotting wood door and took a deep breath. This wasn’t their territory. They were playing with fire just being there.

  She flicked her long brown curls over her shoulder and then pushed the door open. It flew with the force she’d put behind it and crashed into the wall. Everyone in the bar turned around to look at her. She put on a sultry smile, as she walked into the room with her hips swaying from side to side. No one stopped her from walking over to the bar. “I’ll have a cold one,” she said to the bartender who looked over at Rob with questioning eyes.

  “Go ahead, you can serve her,” Rob said with a small nod, before he walked over to Tr
ina and took her hand, before kissing it gently. “I hope you have a really good reason for being here,” he said softly, but that softness was tainted with a stern underlying warning.

  Trina pulled her hand back from him and smirked. “You better believe it,” she said to him, as she lifted up her big, blue eyes so that she could look him right in the eye. “I want in,” she said when his eyes met hers.

  Rob’s eyes changed as she spoke. She could see the brief moment of surprise followed by shock and then mistrust. “And why would a girl like you, do a thing like that? Don’t try to fool me princess, I know exactly who you are and exactly who your brother is.”

  “Well, I’m glad that I won’t have to waste time with introductions, then,” Trina said quickly, as she held her own in the conversation. “As for my brother,” she said and she wrinkled her nose in disgust, “I’m done with him. I’m done with him club and I’m done being treated like a little girl,” she said in a dead serious tone.