Game Changer

by Amelia Whitmore

  "Just calm down. I mean, look around you, they're just fans. It's not like the actual players are here or anything."

  "You're right. I just… It'll be so awkward if I see him again," I admitted.

  Kira rubbed my back. "Everything's okay, sweetie."

  Talking to her reminded me of something. "So, how are you liking your classes?"

  Kira had transferred to the University of Houston to be closer to Ethan. I thought it was adorable. They'd been dating and going strong ever since Erica's wedding.

  "The classes aren’t any harder here than at UT, just different. I like it though." She said with a grin.

  "Here you are baby. I had him put a lime in it, just how you like it," Ethan said as he set Kira's drink down in front of her. He also didn't miss the opportunity to nuzzle her neck while she was otherwise occupied with our conversation. I couldn't help grinning like an idiot.

  "So, when's the wedding?" I asked with a smirk. Kira blushed like a tomato and Ethan shook his head and laughed.

  "I think we should start with saying we love each other."

  Kira's eyes widened and she turned in her chair.

  "You love me?" She asked softly. Ethan’s eyes softened as he leaned down and kissed her lips lightly, lovingly.

  "Of course I do. I've loved you since we were teenagers. I just didn't realize what the feeling was."

  Kira's eyes were tearing up as she threw her arms around him and kissed him fiercely. I let it go on for a while before I noticed other people giving them funny looks.

  "Ahem!" I cleared my throat loudly but it didn't stop them. "Guys!" I said, snapping my fingers in front of their faces. Still nothing. "Ethan, if you don't stop attacking my friends face, I'm going to seriously cripple your manhood," I warned him. That seemed to do the trick, because they soon separated.

  "I love you too," Kira said. I'm pretty sure that after their public display of affection, her statement was moot.

  After that, we all fell into an easy conversation, laughing and teasing each other relentlessly.

  It felt good being out again and getting back to a normal life with my friends. That was until a loud bustling noise came from the front of the bar. We all turned to see a group of about nine or ten men strut in, causing everybody to cheer.

  "What's that all ab..." I was about to finish my sentence when my throat closed up. The last person to walk in the door was the last person I ever expected to see. Aiden.

  Chapter 9

  I had to get out of there, but how could I without him seeing me? I looked around and didn’t see a back door. I began to panic when he quickly made his way over to our table.

  "Emily," he said in greeting, as if I actually intended to talk to him.

  After a moment, I stood up and let him lead me outside and glared at him. I wasn’t going to speak at first.

  "How've you been?"

  "Busy with school and you?"

  "We just started our pre-season. How was your flight back?”

  Did he really just ask me that? I looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and irritation.

  "What do you want Aiden?"

  "I want you, Emily. I miss you."

  "You're engaged and about to be a father, for fuck sakes." I shook my head in disbelief. "I should get back inside." As I turned to leave, he grabbed my arm.

  "Wait!" We stood there for a minute, before he finally spoke up. "Please, let me explain.”

  "There's nothing to explain Aiden. I get it. You wanted a vacation fling, a good time with no commitments or relationship drama."

  "No, you have it all wrong."

  "Aiden, go back to Brittney and take care of your baby."

  I walked back inside and grabbed my purse, ready to get the hell out of Dodge.

  "Can we please leave guys?" I asked desperately. I may have seemed strong when I was telling Aiden to go back to Brittney, but in reality, the only thing I wanted to do was beg him to kiss me, and make all of our problems go away.

  "Of course."

  They all stood up immediately, making me more than thankful that my group of friends were such great people.

  "Emily, wait!" I heard from behind me. My shoulders sagged and I closed my eyes.

  Ethan stepped between us, blocking me from Aiden.

  "Hey Man, just leave her alone, alright? You've caused enough damage as it is."

  Although I appreciated him standing up for me, I could have killed him for choosing the word 'damage' over 'drama'. Really Ethan? I'm not freaking damaged. I'm just hurt.

  "I just need to talk to her," Aiden pleaded.

  "I don't think that's a good idea."

  Kira came over with Kaitlin and they took me outside. I ran my hand through my hair.

  "I can't believe he's here.”

  "Maybe its fate," Kira suggested.

  I rolled my eyes. For weeks she'd been trying to get me to talk to Aiden. I think she hoped we'd be back together once we spoke. Well, obviously that didn’t happen.

  A few minutes later Dylan walked outside and announced that Ethan and Blake would be staying behind and that we were supposed to head home. I was really confused, but he didn't say anything more so I shrugged and drove Kira and Kaitlin home.

  "So, that was the guy?" Kaitlin asked.

  I nodded.

  "You never told me how hot he was." I glared at her in the passenger seat. "What? You can't exactly deny it, and he plays football for a living? That's freaking sexy."

  I groaned and focused on the road.

  "He is sexy. But what's completely un-sexy is the fact that he’s engaged with a baby on the way and when I met him he didn’t tell me any of that. And now he’s saying I have it all wrong?”

  "Maybe you do?" Kira piped in from the back seat.

  "Kira, whose side are you on anyway?"

  "Yours, always. That's why I'm defending him at the moment," she said.

  "Well knock it off. I don't want a man who is with someone else, making out with me. Who does that? That's not okay."

  "I guess I won’t be able to convince you to give him a chance, will I?" Kira asked in defeat.

  "If Ethan had a secret fiancée that was knocked up, wouldn’t you be pissed off?

  "Of course I would."

  “Exactly. So please stop trying to push me towards him."

  Kira exhaled loudly. “I just think there is more to the story. Some things just aren’t adding up and…”

  “Kira, I love you but please… enough with the Aiden stuff already. I'm going to go upstairs and change into my pajamas, then we can watch a movie.”

  They agreed. When I came back downstairs in my t-shirt and boxer shorts, Dylan was sitting on the couch with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn. I crawled up next to him, resting against his body and taking a huge handful of popcorn.

  "Hey there handsome," I greeted. He chuckled and wrapped his left arm around me.

  "How you doing?" He asked sympathetically.

  I shrugged in response and focused on my popcorn.

  "Maybe you should let him expla..."

  I cut him off before he could finish, turning to glare at him and snapping back at him.

  "Do not even start on that, Dylan."

  He looked almost surprised. "Sorry," he mumbled, making me feel bad.

  "No, I'm sorry. I just don't want to even think about him anymore, let alone consider him trying to make up some excuse for what he did. Cheating is never okay in my book. It’s just not something I find acceptable, ever, under any circumstances and most especially when his fiancée is pregnant."

  He nodded and pulled me back to his side.

  Chapter 10

  Ethan walked inside after talking to Aiden and I looked up at him expectantly. When he just went to sit with Kira, I realized that I would need to actually ask.

  "What happened?"

  He looked at me with a curious grin before asking me why I wanted to know.

  I bit my lip and nodded, turning back towards the TV. He's right, I w
ouldn't listen to anything Aiden would say, so I shouldn’t be allowed to hear it from Ethan.

  "Oh come on, Emi. I was just kidding."

  I cut him off before he could continue. "No, you're right. I don't deserve to know. I could have listened to him in person, but I didn't and that’s that. So let’s all just move on and drop the subject already."

  "No, I can tell you what happened," Ethan began.

  "Actually, I want to go to bed now," I told him, before I stood up and went up the stairs. It wasn't until I was pulling back the covers that I realized Dylan had followed me.

  "Holy crap." I said, clutching my chest. "You scared me!"

  He laughed. "Sorry about that. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

  "Oh, I'm fine." I said, getting into my bed.

  "Mind if I join you?" He asked, pointing to the empty half of the bed. I glanced there, thinking about how many times I'd wished Aiden was there in the past few months, but nodded nonetheless.

  "Sure."

  He climbed in the bed next to me and turned to face me. "Emi?" He started softly.

  I twisted to face him too, smiling slightly. "Dylan?"

  "I have something I've wanted to tell you for a while now." He sounded nervous.

  I wrinkled my nose, but nodded encouragingly. "I don't know how to say this." He sighed, closing his eyes.

  I cupped his cheek in my hand and told him to look at me. "You're one of my best friends. You can tell me anything."

  "Emily, I love you," he blurted out.

  I jerked my hand away, incredibly confused, "What? No."

  Dylan grabbed the hand I'd pulled away, linking my fingers with his, "I love you," he repeated.

  My mouth gaped open as I looked for something, anything to say, "Dylan, you don't love me."

  "Yes I do. I was trying to tell you before you left for Cancún, but I kept chickening out and then you came back all hooked on this Aiden guy. I just can't keep it a secret anymore."

  "Dylan, I only like you as a friend, I'm sorry."

  "Wait, what?" He asked, sounding confused.

  "You're my friend. That's all I see you as." I told him carefully.

  "But, I love you," he countered.

  "Dylan, just because you tell me you love me doesn't mean we're magically going to be together forever or something."

  I was feeling uncomfortable with how he was reacting.

  "That's what happens in the movies though, that's what's supposed to happen, don't you understand?" He asked, sounding mad.

  "Dylan, I think you should get out of my room now."

  "But Emily, I love you," he said, pulling me under him and forcing my wrists above my head. I went to knee him in the groin but he used his thighs to separate my legs.

  "Dylan, you're hurting me."

  I started to panic.

  "Don't worry, we’ll make love and you'll love me back, I just know it. It worked with my last girlfriend and it'll work with you too."

  I started to cry and I fought against the strong grip he had on my hands.

  "Dylan, let go of me. This isn’t funny. You are really hurting me."

  Instead of releasing my hands, he lowered his mouth to mine. His lips were cold and dry to the point of cracking. I twisted my head to the side, screaming.

  "Emily, no. Stop screaming, baby. People will think I'm hurting you," he said in a rush, putting his hand over my mouth. I took the opportunity to use my newly freed hand to poke him in the eye as hard as I could.

  "Get off of me Dylan!" I yelled.

  My door burst open to reveal Ethan, Kira and Blake. Ethan looked ready to kill when he saw Dylan on top of me.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" He demanded, gritting his teeth.

  "We're in love Ethan, get out." Dylan said, now glaring at them.

  "Like hell I'm getting out. Get the fuck off of my sister, now."

  "Dylan, go." I said.

  "God damn it Emily, No. I'm not leaving." Dylan said. I didn't even see it coming, only felt the blowing sting after his hand collided with my face.

  "Oh hell no," I heard vaguely before I passed out.

  In the fifteen minutes I was out, a mixture of shock from the hit and stress from the fear, Ethan kicked Dylan out of the house and called the police, who were there when I came to.

  "Oww," I whispered, holding my jaw.

  "Oh god Emily," Kira cried out, running over to me. I was now laying on the couch downstairs.

  "What's going on?" I asked, trying to get up. “Where is Dylan?”

  "Sit back down." She pushed me lightly, forcing me to remain seated on the couch.

  Ethan walked in with the police and gave a relieved sigh when he saw that I was awake. He came over and sat beside me, pulling me into a hug.

  "I did something you might be upset about, but you can kill me later if you'd like," he whispered.

  "What does tha…" I was cut off by one of the officers.

  "Emily Smith?" He asked. I nodded, "Could you tell me what all you know about Dylan Hickman?"

  "I shrugged.” I know everything about him, except I always thought he was a gentle person who wouldn't hurt a fly. I said, sounding dazed and rubbing the bruises in the shape of fingers on my wrists. "I don't know what happened this evening. It's like one second he was normal Dylan, and the next he was trying to rape me."

  "Ma'am, Dylan Hickman is out on parole after beating and raping his last girlfriend. It says on his rap sheet that he has a borderline personality disorder, causing him to experience random outbursts of violence. He's supposed to check in with his parole officer and therapist twice a month, but he hasn’t made any contact in months."

  My jaw dropped, this was all so unexpected.

  "You mean that I've been living with a convicted sex offender for the past year?" I asked in utter shock.

  I felt Ethan's hand rubbing my back. It felt like I could barely breathe.

  "We're going to need you to come down to the station at some point in the next twenty-four hours to finish filing this report.

  "Okay," I agreed, still shaken and completely in shock. Dylan was a convicted felon? How was that even possible?

  "We'll see you tomorrow, ma'am."

  I slumped back in the couch as they left.

  "Tonight sucked," I whispered, "I'm going to bed."

  "Are you sure you don't want to stay down here?" Kira asked.

  “No, I’m fine really. I just want to go to bed and forget any part of this day ever happened.”

  I crawled in my bed and was soon dozing off when I heard a soft knock on the door. I instantly stiffened.

  "Come in." I called out softly. The door cracked open, the light from the hall made it so I could only see the silhouette of whoever was standing in the doorway. It was definitely a man, but he was bulkier than Ethan or Blake. If I knew any better, I'd say it was...

  "Emi?" My jaw dropped and I gasped, sitting up in my bed.

  "Aiden?" He walked across my room to my bed, sitting on the corner.

  "Ethan called," Aiden said.

  "Oh." I said, not sure what to say.

  "The baby's not mine," He blurted out. "I broke up with her before I left. I found out that she'd been cheating on me and that he got her pregnant. Apparently, I didn't make myself clear enough for her because the next thing I knew, she was in Cancún, telling everyone that we were still engaged."

  He ran a shaky hand through his hair.

  "Look, I'm not here to make you forgive me or anything, I know you'll do what you think is right. I just needed to make sure you were alright, and that you were safe."

  I didn't think about what I was doing, only acted. Before I realized what was happening, I was throwing myself at Aiden, wrapping my arms around him and sobbing uncontrollably. He held me tightly against him, soothing me.

  Chapter 11

  I woke up the next morning with my head resting on a hard chest. My mind raced as I tried to figure out how a man ended up in my bed, but then I remembered the eve
nts of the previous night.

  I still couldn’t believe that Dylan had a criminal record, let alone the fact that he raped his ex-girlfriend and almost raped me. We were such good friends. How could I not know this about someone I lived with and spent almost every single day with for the last year?

  Then there’s the whole Ethan calling Aiden thing. Why would my idiot brother do that? I don’t think I was too upset about it, because Aiden being here was great; I hadn’t slept that well in a really long time.

  And now I knew the truth. Aiden wasn’t cheating on his fiancée, because he didn’t have one. He wasn’t going to have a baby, Brittney just lied. But still, there was so much going on right now, I didn’t know if I could deal with Aiden too.

  “You’re thinking too hard for this early in the morning,” I heard Aiden’s husky voice say. It sounded muffled as it vibrated through his chest.

  “I’m not necessarily thinking. I’m processing.”

  “Uh huh. Well, how about you stop processing and we talk about it.” He sat up in the bed and pulled me with him.

  I sighed, “I don’t know what to say to you. I appreciate the fact that Brittney wasn’t exactly who I thought she was, but you never told me otherwise. Granted I never gave you the chance, but we were together for nearly a week and you didn’t mention anything. It was just so out of left field.”

  “I did tell you about Brittney.”

  I glared up at him.

  “You told me you used to be engaged. Not that it was a week prior to our meeting, not that she was pregnant, and not that she might be coming to the wedding.”

  He frowned.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to feel like a rebound or anything, because you weren’t. I didn’t expect to feel the way I did about you, and having that feeling after only days of being around you made me realize that I never should have been with Brittney. The baby’s not mine, so I didn’t think it was important. I honestly had no idea that she was going to show up at the wedding. Believe me when I say that I told her she wasn’t wanted there.”

  “Are you positive you don’t want to be single for a while? I mean, after having your fiancée cheat on you and finding out she’s having another man’s baby, you’ve got to be wary of women in general.”

  “You know, I never felt that way with you. It never felt like I was pushing myself to forget about Brittney, it just felt natural to be with you. Then the past few months have been just fucking horrible without you. You’re the only thing that’s been on my mind. I wanted to come to you so many times, but everyone just kept telling me to give you time, saying you needed time.”