by Emma Quinn
As we got towards the exit, Faye seemed to sense me and our eyes connected. While she stared at me, my heart flapped and fluttered wildly in my chest. My blood boiled and I got butterflies. As always, Faye made me feel a million dollars, she was the only one who’d ever stirred me up like this.
Was there hope? For a second I thought there might be. There wasn’t any hate in her eyes at all which had to be a good sign, didn’t it? Maybe I could pull her away from Kevin and beg her to be mine. I almost slid my hand away from Sierra’s to connect with her instead… but as I did, Faye’s eyes spotted the movement and she saw my hand in one that was clearly a girls’. Sierra was lost in the crowd, Faye probably couldn’t see who I was clinging to, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t know that Sierra was only my friend anyway so there wasn’t any excuse.
Faye’s eyes narrowed and her lips pursed in determination. She turned a little away from me and hooked her hand around Kevin’s neck and she dragged him towards her for a deep and passionate kiss. This time I could see feelings, maybe hate for me but maybe love for him, I couldn’t tell. The kiss made my heart hurt because it wasn’t instigated by him or forced upon her. Faye wanted this one. Her lips parted, she darted her tongue into his mouth, she was really going for it. At one point she molded her whole body into his as if she wanted to take him home and have sex with him.
Maybe she did and maybe she would… and what could I do about it if she did?
Shit. I dipped my head down and I moved rapidly towards the door, giving myself over to Sierra totally. She was right, being here was bad for my health. Being near Faye wasn’t any good for me especially when she was so connected with Kevin, the guy that she’d liked all along.
I didn’t tell Sierra that part, but now I was going to have to. I would have to tell her that Faye had been attracted to Kevin long before me because that changed things. I already knew what she was going to tell me, that I was the consolation prize, the rebound, the guy who would lose.
22
Faye
“T
his is our last night!” Kevin told me as we wrapped up what would thankfully be our final interview. I couldn’t wait to get away from him, I was more than done spending time with the ever arrogant Kevin. I couldn’t wait to start working with the next player, who’s name was Daz. I knew he had a girlfriend who he was very committed to, which meant we couldn’t have any trouble at all. “I bet you’re sad, aren’t you? But don’t worry, the kissing can still carry on if you want it to.”
I cringed and visibly shuddered. I’d only acted that way because I felt slightly tipsy and I’d just seen Angelo with his new girlfriend. Irrationally I wanted him to know that I didn’t care. I wanted him to think that I’d finally got what I wanted with Kevin and that I didn’t miss him at all.
I was hurt though, there was no denying that. Why did I have to be just another notch on his bed post when the next girl got to be the one he committed to? It wasn’t fair. He was a player, and if he’d continued to be so then I wouldn’t have been quite as hurt. That would be him, not me.
“Hmm, I don’t know so much about that. I think we should keep our distance.”
“Can’t handle the heat?” Kevin laughed. “I get it. You think you can keep away now but you’re wrong. One way or another you will end up back with me, wanting me desperately.”
I snorted. “I highly doubt that, but whatever. If it helps I don’t mind if you want to keep on believing that. I think I’m going to go and get this edited now before I start with Daz.”
“Urgh, Daz is so boring.” Kevin rolled his eyes dramatically. “You’re going to find him so dull. Even his welcome party tonight is going to be awful. Cathy will be all over him.”
I liked the sound of that, it’d be much easier to deal with a possessive girlfriend than a guy who thought it was okay to be moody and demeaning. Leaving Kevin’s mood swings would be awesome.
I left Kevin behind and headed straight back to my room where I found Tia spread across her bed. She glanced up at me with a happy smile spread across her lips. “Been with Kevin, have you?”
“Honestly, Tia, I know that you saw one nice moment of him but he’s horrible. I’m glad to be done with him. I’ll be glad to be done with this whole mission actually. My life before I started filming for the football team was so much easier. Remember when we used to talk about things other than boys?”
I shook my head and laughed. Things seemed incredibly different way back when. After this football season was over I could go back to normal. There was no way I’d get mixed up in something so dumb in my last year at college, I would be too busy. I would have paid my dues by then, done all the shitty jobs for my resume. Any employer would have to take me… surely?
“Yeah, it was kind of boring,” Tia declared. “I like all your tales about the football team.”
“They might be fun to listen to, but not to live, you can trust me on that one. Anyway, I’m headed over to the library to edit this and upload it. I’ll see you afterwards, okay?”
“Any parties tonight?” Tia chuckled again as I nodded. “Wow, the team do nothing else.”
“I know, but I’m not going to stay late tonight. The guy I’m dealing with next is less of a party boy and has a girlfriend who keeps him on a tight rein, so thankfully I’ll be in bed at a reasonable hour.”
“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll see you in the early hours of the morning then. Have fun.”
“Fun… hmph, we’ll see.” A party with two guys I didn’t want to see wasn’t fun. “Yeah, sure.”
I put down all the bits I didn’t need and grabbed up only what I had to have for editing and I walked towards the library. As I went there was almost a skip in my step because I was done with Kevin now. I might have to see him, but there wasn’t any excuse to speak to him. He was tricking himself into believing that I would want to hook up with him, there wasn’t a chance in hell. He’d get bored now, I was sure of it, I wouldn’t hold any appeal to him at all. Not when I wasn’t a prize.
As I stepped into the library I got the same feeling I always did. I couldn’t enter this room without recalling how it felt to meet Angelo. I found that so annoying since he’d clearly moved on and probably didn’t remember it at all. I couldn’t wait until I got to that place myself.
It won’t be long, I tried my utmost to reassure myself. I got over Tyler, who I had an actual relationship with, so I can do the same again. It won’t take me long…
“Thank you very much, Daz,” I said to him with a genuine smile. “It’s been a real pleasure to interview you. Now I want to get some shots of you at the party to show how fun the team is, then we’re done for the day.” I stepped back and trained the camera on him. He looked a little awkward. “That’s it, just carry on as normal now, pretend I’m not even here.”
Cathy, his girlfriend, slid onto his lap and spent a lot of time flipping her hair over her shoulder and pushing out her breasts. Rather than being the jealous and possessive girlfriend I was expecting, she was more than happy for me to film Daz… as long as she got to be in the shot too. I suppose it was good because she showed a behind the scenes element, but I had a feeling it would get annoying.
They wouldn’t relax, it was so obvious that the camera was upon them, I didn’t know what to do. I kept trying to blend into the background, to make it seem like I wasn’t there, but it didn’t help.
“You know you could just film me again.” A pair of hands grabbed onto my waist, making me jump. “I told you Daz would be boring, I bet you’re missing me like crazy now.”
I didn’t want to turn to see Kevin, but I had to just to get him off of me. As I did it became very apparent that he was much more drunk than he sounded. He could hardly stand, he rocked back and forth on his toes. He nearly crashed into me, which was irritating because I had to hold him up.
“Woah, Kevin, what’s going on here? You know I’m not filming you now.”
I didn’t want to talk to him either, but here I was, stuck
chatting to him like a chump.
“I know, but I wish you were. I like being filmed by you, it’s fun. You’re fun.”
He swayed again, so I shut my camera off and focused a little more on him. He clearly needed me right now, and I hoped that by the time I sorted out what was going on with him that Daz and Cathy would’ve relaxed to make getting a little bit of footage of them a whole lot easier.
“Do you want to get some fresh air? You seem really wasted?” I asked. “I can come with you?”
“Yeah you can, because you’re an awesome chick. I would love that. I need air.”
I focused hard and concentrated on getting Kevin outside. It wasn’t easy because he could barely stand but we just about managed it. As soon as we reached the outside area, I felt a little awkward and uncomfortable. I didn’t know how I should react to him now, it was weird.
“Woah.” Kevin fell against me and I smacked into the nearest brick wall with him against me, fixing me there, keeping me in place. “Careful there, you nearly knocked me over.”
“I really like you, you know?” he murmured in a tipsy voice. “You’re so cool. That’s why I kept pestering you. I might play it like a big man, but really I just want a nice girl, you know?”
“Erm…” Maybe the truth was coming out because he was drunk, maybe not, I couldn’t tell. I just knew that it wasn’t the sort of chat that I personally wanted to be having. “Really?”
I tried to shove him off me but all that did was cause Kevin to slap his palms against the wall next to me, on each side of my head. I felt pinned, my breaths sucked in panicked, I froze. I could feel his breath tickling my face and it wasn’t a sensation I liked at all. His lips moved in, I got the horrifying sensation that he wanted to kiss me. I didn’t want to be kissed, not now.
“Kevin, I think you need to get back to your room,” I said in a whimpering tone. “You’re drunk.”
“Not too drunk to want you. You know that, I’ve always wanted you. And I know that you do too, because you kissed me in the student bar that night. You know for a fact that you did.”
He pressed his mouth into mine, and crashed hard. It was uninvited but because of the position I found myself in I couldn’t drag myself away. His hands moved from the wall and towards my tee shirt. There he slid his hand upwards and over my skin towards places where I really didn’t want him to go.
“Stop,” I whimpered desperately as I tried to yank myself away. “Stop this now.”
“Oh don’t be boring, Faye. This is what you want isn’t it? To be with me? To get fucked properly? I’m sure you haven’t had much fun since you’ve been here at college. You deserve the full experience.”
His hands were all over me, touching my breasts, my butt, my thighs… it was horrible. I had the dreaded sensation that I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this and that something dreadful would end up happening to me. Why the fuck did I come outside with him? I didn’t even like the guy…
“Please don’t do this,” I begged while pushing as hard as I could, but it did nothing against Kevin’s strong frame. “Please leave me alone, you don’t need me, you don’t need to do this.”
“Oh but I do,” he said with a self satisfied smirk. “Because I like you and also to hurt Angelo.”
“Angelo won’t care, he has a girlfriend, he doesn’t even want me.”
There was nothing else for it, if I didn’t want this to go in some horrific awful way I had to find the energy deep inside me to scream. I needed to get someone’s attention, there had to be someone around who could hear me. Maybe Kevin would stop if another person came along. Or the noise alone could be enough. I just needed to find it somewhere…
I parted my lips, sucked in a deep breath and tried, but nothing happened at first. My raspy throat couldn’t seem to manage it. I sucked in and tried again, refusing to give up. I didn’t want to cave and let Kevin have whatever he wanted. He’s already taken away far more than I wanted to give him with his hands. I couldn’t do it anymore. Luckily, this time a shrill noise burst free from my chest, exploding into Kevin’s ear drums and making him step backwards.
Oh thank God, I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I just need to run. My legs need to get working…
23
Angelo
I
stared back over to Daz and Cathy, finding it easier to watch them being filmed than Kevin. Even if Faye refused to look at me, I preferred to see her with someone who didn’t want to use and abuse her. Kevin was utterly wasted tonight and more of an asshole than usual. I didn’t want him anywhere near her when he was like that, Faye deserved so much better.
I moved over to where Faye was not so long ago to see an empty, gaping space.
“Are you finished?” I asked Daz and Cathy. “Has Faye finished with you already?”
Cathy pulled away from Daz and gave me a knowing smirk. She seemed to think that it was something to lord over me that I’d drunkenly hit on her not so long ago because I was sad. I guess it made her feel sexy and powerful or whatever. It was hard to brush off, but I tried.
“Kevin came over and mauled her, he was all drunk and annoying. I guess they went outside. She better be back soon, though, she can fuck around with him whenever she wants. I want to be filmed!”
I didn’t even bother to answer Cathy, I turned and raced outside at the speed of light. Maybe it was a lover’s moment that I would be interrupting, or maybe it was going to be something more sinister. I had no idea, but I couldn’t leave Faye outside alone with him just in case.
As I raced through the doors a terrified sounding scream grabbed my attention, only confirming what I already feared. It sounded like Faye, it had to be her, there wasn’t anyone else that I could imagine being in such trouble. With my thundering heart racing in my mouth and nerves zapping through my veins, I took off and raced forwards through the horrible darkness of night.
“Oh my God.” I found them quickly, Kevin was too drunk to get too far. “Faye.”
He had fallen away from her, probably due to the volume of the shriek but soon recovered and crashed his body back into hers. He had his hands all over her, touching her despite the fact that she clearly didn’t want it. Faye pushed at him, fighting him off her, but of course she wasn’t strong enough. Her slight, petite frame was nothing compared to his thick muscular body which he worked on every day. It wasn’t a fair fight.
“Oi!” I yelled loudly, watching the scene in front of me get out of hand. “Kevin, stop!”
All of a sudden, a shot of adrenaline tore through my body and everything loosened. I ran towards Kevin with a deep burning rage in the pit of my stomach. How dare he touch her like that, it wasn’t right. Faye was a good girl, one who wasn’t used to louts like him. She didn’t deserve it.
I yanked him off of her with ease and threw him to the ground. We had matching strength but he’d been drinking so it was unbalanced. He hit the ground with a thump and stared up at me in shock.
“What the fuck are you doing, mate?” he growled at me. “You letting jealousy get the better of you? Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, mate, but the prissy bitch picked me over you. She’s about to let me into her pants.” He pushed himself into a standing position and squared up to me. “So you better back the fuck off now and leave us to it, alright? She doesn’t want you and I don’t much like you either.”
I glanced over to Faye who was shuddering and shivering with fear. It wasn’t anywhere near cold enough for her to be rattling and shaking in such a way. This asshole had done that to her.
“Fuck you, Kevin,” I grunted back. “If you can’t see when a girl doesn’t want you then you have problems. You need to get your sorry ass to one of those consent work shops.”
Kevin came at me hard, he hit me with his shoulder and knocked me flying backwards against the hard, cold brick wall, not too far away from where Faye stood. The scraping of the bricks plus the force almost knocked the wind right out of me, but it wasn’t enough to hold me back.
“Stop this now, Kevin, I don’t want to fight you,” I tried my hardest to reason with him. “Let’s just leave this here and you get your sorry ass to bed okay? We can talk about this tomorrow.”
“Argh!” Kevin wasn’t having any of it, he charged at me again so I did the only think that I could to defend myself. I swung my arm back and I shot it forwards to connect with his face as hard as I could. He shot backwards, falling towards the ground, gripping onto his eye the entire time
“Oh my God.” Finally, Faye spoke, but it was only to gasp in shock. “What did you do?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just… I guess I just lashed out.”
Faye raced back inside, leaving me alone. I stared down at Kevin with a nervous disposition, wondering what the hell I could do next. He curled up into the fetal position and held himself there.
“I’m sorry I hit you, Kevin,” I said slowly. “But the way you treated Faye was wrong. I just… I want to protect her I can’t seem to help myself. I guess I really like her, you know?”
Kevin didn’t reply, he didn’t say anything at all, he just moaned in pain. I felt bad, but what else was I supposed to do? He wasn’t being respectful, then he fought me first.
“Oh my goodness.” Dimitri came flying from the building with Faye not far behind him. “What the hell has happened here? Why are you two fighting?” He tutted as he saw Kevin on the ground. “Angelo, you get out of here, I’ll sort this out, okay? I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow.”
Faye grabbed onto me and dragged me away from the scene. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go, but at least I wasn’t leaving Kevin alone. Dimitri would know what to do, he always did.
“Thank you so much for saving me,” Faye gushed once we were far enough away from the scene of the crime. “That was scary, Kevin is so strong, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.”
