Unstoppable

by Christina Marie

  “Good to know.” I smiled back at her.

  Sarah was a heavier set woman, but absolutely beautiful. She could easily be a plus size pinup model. Her brown hair was tied up with a bandana, she had a light dusting of eye shadow on, and pale red lip gloss covered her full lips. Mom and Sydney introduced themselves to her; I could tell right away that she had won over both of them.

  “Whoa! Who are those studs?” Sarah’s eyes got big when dad and Cade walked in carry boxes.

  Mom laughed, “That guy,” she pointed at dad, “is Bryan my annoying husband. And that tattooed teddy bear is Cade, Sydney’s annoying husband.”

  “Nice to meet you both.” Sarah waved at them. “Okay, let me show you to your room little princess.” She clapped her hands, looped her arm through mine and walked with me to the opposite side of the dorm room.

  Mom and Sydney both laughed, “It’s nicer than what we had that’s for sure.” Sydney said.

  “Our beds were like, this far apart.” Mom held her arms out.

  Sarah wrinkled up her nose, “That had to suck if you brought home a romper room buddy.”

  Dad cleared his throat, “Do you intend on doing that frequently young lady?” he narrowed his eyes at Sarah.

  Sarah snorted, “Are you kidding me? Look at me, I’m not exactly first pickin’ for college boys.”

  Sydney rubbed Sarah’s arm, “You’re beautiful, why would you even think you’re not?”

  She shrugged her shoulders, “It’s no big deal, honestly, I plan on studying hard and spending as much time with my roomy as possible.”

  I loved Sarah, she was the breath of fresh air that I needed.

  A few hours later all of my stuff was tucked into my room, Mom and Sydney both started crying when they got ready to leave. Dad even had tears in his eyes, “I promise all of you, I’ll take good care of her. No Debbie downers allowed!” Sarah hugged mom and Sydney then Dad and Cade.

  We decided to take a walk around campus before it turned dark outside. While we walked Sarah and I spent that time getting to know each other. She was the youngest of four girls, her home town was a small town in Kansas, and she chose Washington State because it was far enough away she didn’t have to worry about her mom showing up.

  “Why? I mean you and your mom don’t get along, at all?”

  Sarah shook her head, “Nope, I’m the fat one. The one that won’t amount to anything in life. She hates that I want to start my own clothing line for plus sized people. When we get back to the dorm I’ll show you the portfolio I’ve made so far and you can give me your opinion.”

  “I’d like that.” I smiled at her.

  “OH! I have a great idea, follow me.” She picked up our walking pace.

  “Where are we going?” I asked with a laugh.

  “You tell me what sport you like better--Baseball or Football?”

  “Honestly I’ve never been big into sports but maybe…baseball?”

  “Baseball it is!”

  We ended up at the baseball stadium and sat as close to the top as we could. “So this is what you do to pass time?” I laughed.

  She shrugged her shoulders, “Who doesn’t like to stare at men in tight pants?”

  I looked out at the field, “So…they are just throwing the balls back and forth. I’ll try to contain my excitement.”

  Sarah laughed, “It’s warm ups, wait until you see some of these players. The pitcher is pretty fine but the short stop is hotter! Well in my opinion he is.”

  I had to practically squint to see the faces of the players after they had jogged to their positions on the field. “He’s cute.” I nodded at the guy standing at short stop.

  “Told ya so.” Sarah nudged me with her shoulder and smiled.

  “I’m not going to try and hook up with him or anything, just saying he’s cute.” I laughed.

  “Oh no…are you a virgin?” she asked with a serious look.

  “Ah—no.” The memory of that night with Ryder caused my heart to stutter.

  Sarah narrowed her eyes at me, “Okay, sooo do you have a boyfriend back home?”

  “Nope.”

  Sarah laughed, “Let’s head back to the dorm so you can tell me all about Harley Russell. We’ll order take out, how does that work for ya?”

  “Just fine!”

  We ended up ordering Chinese takeout. With the boxes of food between us we sat down on pillows beside the coffee table.

  “SO, you don’t have a boyfriend? You’re not a virgin? I can’t see you being a loner in school unless your school was full of snobs.” Sarah said as she dished food onto her plate.

  I told her about the girls from school and how I did get along with a select few of them. “The guy I lost my virginity to is actually a really good family friend. We share the same birthday, he’s one hour older than I am. Our moms run a fitness center together and our dads are in the same MC.”

  “MC? Like a motorcycle club?” she asked. I nodded my head yes, “That is frikin’ awesome. What’s his name?”

  “Ryder,” I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and scrolled through to the picture of Star, Ryder, and me the night of prom.

  “HOLY SHIT HE’S HOT!” I laughed and held my hand out for my phone, “Uh no I’m not done staring yet. You need to tell me why he isn’t your boyfriend. I mean…wow!” she kissed, yes kissed my cell phone screen before handing it back to me.

  I shook my head, “He didn’t go to college, I knew that if I would have dated him that leaving to come here would have been even harder after he told me he loved me. I needed to get out of that town. Ryder’s very intense when we are together.”

  “Wait—wait, he told you he loves you and you…left?!” she asked with wide eyes.

  I blew out a breath, “Our parents don’t know about the hookup, I’m sure they have their suspicions but…”

  “Have you talked to him?” she interrupted me.

  “No, he’s been busy with his custom painting and I came here early.”

  “Wow, you do know a guy like that is a rare find. He will love you through the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

  After taking a drink of my soda, I stood and threw my plate away, “I know, but who knows maybe after I get settled in here I’ll meet another awesome guy.”

  Sarah threw her plate away, “True, I’ve seen some hot ass men around. I think I’m going to shower then head to bed. Tomorrow we can go work out together if you want.”

  “Sounds good, where are we going?”

  “It’ll be a surprise!” She grinned then hugged me.

  Bright and early the following morning Sarah was knocking on my bedroom door. I tried to pull my covers over my head but she was very persistent and threatened to throw water on me if I wasn’t dressed and ready within fifteen minutes.

  “I must have left out that I’m not a morning person.” I grumbled when I walked into the kitchen.

  “Eh, details ~ details roomy.” She slid a mug of coffee to me.

  “I love you!” I breathed in the aroma before taking a drink and almost spitting it out.

  Sarah started laughing, “I like my coffee like I like my men, dark and strong.” She flexed her muscles.

  “You are trying to kill me.” I coughed then dumped the coffee down the sink. “Starbucks, now!”

  “YES!” Sarah fist pumped with a smile. “In all honesty I never drink regular coffee, I’m a Starbucks whore.” She told me as she grabbed her purse off of the hook by the front door.

  We walked about two blocks, “So what is the workout we are going to do?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  Annoying, that’s what Sarah was, annoying. I needed actual good caffeine if I was going to survive the day with her. “You’re way to annoying in the morning.”

  She laughed, “Probably even a little immature for some people, but, I like to start my day off in a good mood, with a big cup of Starbucks, and a smile on my face.”

  “I love you.” I slung one arm around her shoul
ders and squeezed.

  “Aww, I love you too!”

  Starbucks hit the spot, I was ready to get my day started. I needed a good work out and was excited to get started, until we walked up to a building that had stripper poles and dancer decals on the front windows.

  “Uhh…”

  “Chill, you’ll have a blast. Come on.” Sarah had to physically drag me by the arm into the building.

  “Stripping? Hell no.” I tried to back out of the building.

  “It’s not actual stripping you ding dong, I promise you, it’s a blast.”

  That was twice she had said it would be a blast, all I could do was take her word for it.

  Two hours later I couldn’t stop smiling, “That was a…”

  “BLAST! I told you!” Sarah interrupted me.

  The class was full of highly energetic women, the workout was very intense, and the strippers that were instructing the class were hilarious. Sarah was really good on the pole too. I joked with her that she could always see about getting a job. She laughed, “Could you imagine the guy’s faces when I walk on stage? That would be comical!”

  “I think I’ll be more sore tomorrow than what I was when I started teaching ZUMBA. Thank you for inviting me, how often do we go back?”

  “Every two days and every other weekend. I’m so glad you had fun!”

  When we got back to the dorm, I showered then called mom to tell her about our day. When she repeated the word stripping, my dad was on the phone in a nanosecond.

  “You fucking did what? I swear to god Harley…”

  I laughed and laughed, “Chill out, it was a fitness class!”

  “You are indeed going to be the death of me while you’re at college. Love you, here’s your mom.”

  We talked for a little bit about getting my class schedule and familiarizing myself with the different buildings on campus. She told me they had two new high school cheer squads that had joined the fitness center. “So are you ever going to tell me what went on with you and Ryder? He’s been MIA from family dinners.”

  “Mom!” I screeched into the phone.

  “Calm down, I’m outside, your dad is inside. Just tell me.” She sighed.

  “We—had sex.” I said quickly.

  “I figured. Just promise me you’ll be careful Harley, if you want me to I’ll make you an appointment to get on birth control.”

  “I can do that myself. I’ll ask Sarah to go with me.”

  “ALWAYS, no matter what, even on the pill…use protection!”

  “Okay, this conversation is over.” I laughed.

  “Love you baby, be careful.”

  “Love you too.”

  After we hung up I decided to try calling Ryder, it only rang twice then went to voicemail. His deep baritone voice, “You know what to do.” Sent my heart racing. The beep for me to leave a message snapped me back to task.

  “Hey, I just thought I’d call and see how you are doing. Give me a call soon. I miss you Ryder.” My voice cracked. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and hung up.

  When I went into the living room Sarah was in the kitchen making a salad.

  “You look like somebody kicked your puppy.” She gave me a weak smile.

  “I talked to mom and she wants me to go to the doctor and get put on birth control, so, I told her I’d ask you if you’d go with me. Then I tried to call Ryder but he didn’t answer. God—I miss him.” I sat down on the bar stool and plucked a piece of lettuce from the bowl.

  “He might actually be busy, pissed off and maybe a little hurt too.”

  I hated knowing that he was mad, “I know he’s pissed but I wouldn’t ignore him for this long.”

  Chapter 8

  “You want to tell me why you just ignored her call?” dad asked with a grin as he leaned against the work bench in my shop.

  “No, not really.” I replied then looked back at the tank I was prepping for paint.

  “You haven’t been to a family dinner in weeks, you didn’t come see her off before she left and you just ignored her call. What’s your deal?”

  “Nothing…fuck!” I threw my shop rag down on the work bench and braced my hands on the edge. I could feel dad staring at me, waiting for me to talk. “We hooked up the night of graduation. I wanted to try having a relationship with her, because I swear I’m so in love with that woman it drives me crazy. She on the other hand said we couldn’t do the whole relationship thing.”

  “So you’re just going to ignore her? That’s pretty shitty Ryder.”

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do? I know the very second I hear her voice, it’ll take you and Bryan stopping me from dragging her back here. She’ll find some punk to fuck around with and forget about me.” I finally looked at dad.

  “You know you’re acting like a junior high kid that just watched his crush kiss another boy right? How do you think your mom and I got together?”

  “No clue.” I honestly had no idea how they met. Dad walked over to the refrigerator and came back with four beers. “Long story I take it?” I took two of the beers from him.

  “You could say that but I’ll just make it short and to the point.” The beer bottle hissed when he twisted the cap off. “I met your mom because she was dating a douche bag while she was at college.”

  “Okay and?”

  “He was a territorial, possessive, abusive piece of shit.” In one long pull dad drank half of his beer.

  “Like he was beating on mom?” I asked and took a long drink of my beer.

  He nodded his head, “Yep, but the very second I looked into your mothers eyes. I knew I would do anything I had to, to keep her safe and make her mine. She tried to hide her bruises but I saw them by accident. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes, she knew that I knew what was going on and I wasn’t going to just walk away. One night he scared her so bad she called Bryan and asked if we could come to her dorm. Nothing happened that night between us she actually went running right back to him that same weekend. Felt like she had ripped my heart out and stepped on it. Pissed me off so bad I couldn’t stand to look at her. After graduation she broke up with him but that didn’t stop him from trying to get to her.” He told me about the fire at the fitness center then about the Ronnie guy breaking in to moms house.

  “She fucking shot him? Like pulled the trigger and put a hot bullet in him?” I was shocked. I knew mom could take care of herself but never imagined she would do something like that.

  Dad held up two fingers, “Twice,” he grinned, “Here and here.” He pointed at his shoulder and the inside of his groin. “Prez wanted to watch him bleed out but I was the one that let the dumbass live. I know you’ve heard your mom’s nightmares from time to time or noticed how jumpy she gets at night. Should I have let the motherfucker bleed out…probably, but if your mom has to suffer with what he did to her then he can suffer from what she did to him.”

  I opened my other beer the same time he did, “Holy shit,” I shook my head, “So what if she would have kept going back to him?”

  Dad shrugged, “I wouldn’t have let her. I won’t lie Ryder I fucked another chick or two while your mom was dating Ronnie then when she broke up with him she tried to date another guy. The pull your mom and I had toward each other was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I knew that it would be just a matter of time before she realized she couldn’t keep ignoring her feelings for me. Don’t keep ignoring Harley or she’ll move on. Talk to her and be her friend, but whatever you fucking do. Don’t knock her up, I think Bryan would kill you.”

  I sat there silent, “I can’t talk to her though.”

  He laughed, “Sure you can just be her friend.”

  I snorted, “Right. I’ll remember that when she brings some dick weed home from college.”

  “Believe it or not I don’t think she’ll do that. I think being away from you will make her realize that she feels the same way about you.”

  We both finished our beers, “Enough of that heavy shit, I have thing
s to finish.” I grinned at dad.

  “Not coming to dinner again I take it?”

  “Not tonight, I will next weekend.”

  He nodded his head and walked out of the shop. I debated on calling Harley back and talking to her but chose not to.

  ~~~~

  My first trip to a bike rally had been a huge success and gained me several more clients so getting things ready for the next one was top priority. This bike rally was the biggest of the year, thousands of bikers would be there. Along with that came lots of booze and hot chicks. I had already planned on setting up an airbrush booth to do body paint for that exact reason. It would be an easy way to make extra cash.

  Two of the Rail Riders club members went with me, I laughed when dad and Bryan had to go out of town to a convention with mom and Theresa that week. Luckily the guys that rode down with me were single and planned on having fun too.

  When we got there, hundreds of bikers milled around looking at different bikes. Some of the custom paint jobs were badass and sparked different ideas for me to try. We found the tent that I had rented and quickly set up the airbrush kit and body paints. Within a half an hour I had three hot women waiting for me to paint them.

  “What will it be?” I asked the bleach blond woman that had tits the size of cantaloupe barely held in by a leather bikini top.

  “Well,” she dragged a finger between her tits, “I want something that makes it look like I’m wearing this top but I don’t want to really wear a top.” She licked her lips and stepped closer to me then pulled the strings loose from the top and let it fall to her feet.

  I knew better than to even hit on her because the ring on her left hand told me that somewhere lurking was her husband. No doubt ready to beat my face in if I touched her wrong. I grinned up at her and started airbrushing roses over her pink peeked nipples and made the vines stretch around to her back. As a fill in I painted sculls that had roses in the eye sockets and made some scratch marks along her ribs that looked like thorns had ripped her skin open. “Property of?” I asked without looking up at her.