by Anthology
Glancing at my watch I ask, “Think it’s safe for me to go back in there?”
“It’s been thirty minutes,” she says, looking at Noel, and raises her eyebrows.
“Only one way to find out,” he replies and we begin our way back to her room.
****
Approaching her door, we can hear loud noises echoing in the mostly empty wing. I can make out more of their words by the time we reach her door, putting us all on alert. Mallory and Keaton clearly have not resolved their situation, and don’t notice our arrival. He is hurtling accusations and names at her, and I finally snap. Enough of this shit. No one talks to my girl like that anymore and gets away with it.
“You need to take a deep breath before you charge in there. No need in making it worse,” Noel warns quietly, holding onto my arm. Nodding in response, I remove my arm from his grasp and enter the room.
“What? Our relationship isn’t good enough for you anymore?” He notices her look in my direction and turns to see what has her attention. “Oh, it’s you,” he says icily, “You the one filling her head with this shit about me cheating on her? Did she fall into your bed fast enough when she heard your lies,” he asks, eyes wild and unnerving. “He’s the reason you were such a bitch and held out on me in Galveston, wasn’t he?” Keaton moves closer to me so he can poke me in the chest when he speaks. “It was you.”
THAT. SON. OF. A. BITCH.
From the corner of my eyes I can see Xana move to Mal’s side, pulling her back and away from us. “Get. Your hands. Off me,” I am able to say, my teeth clenched together tightly.
“Why? Can’t handle a little truth?” He smirks, acting like he’s pulling one over on me. “Does she jump every time you tell her to?”
RED. Lots of RED. It’s everywhere I look as my clenched fist lands directly on his nose with more force than I aimed for. His head is knocked back and blood flows freely from his nose. I may have broken it, but before I can land a second blow to his midsection, Noel steps in between us and puts out his arm across my chest to prevent any more physical contact.
“I never interfere in other people’s relationships, but I’m making an exception for your sorry ass. You’re not her boyfriend any longer and you will never, and I mean never, talk to her that way again. In fact, I think you should just leave now. You lost the privilege of being her boyfriend when you forgot you were one. Own up to it, be a man, and leave her alone.” It’s all I can do to step back and let Xana and Mallory quickly help him clean the blood from his face. Somehow, his nose isn’t broken, and that almost makes me madder.
Walking over to Alexis’s side of the room and sitting at her desk, I take several deep breaths, trying to remain calm while Mallory and Keaton exchange hushed words with one another. My eyes never leave them, preparing to step in at a moment’s notice.
When he is all cleaned up and ready to go, Noel accompanies Mallory as she escorts Keaton to the lobby. Xana closes the door behind them and drags Mallory’s chair over to sit in front of me. She takes my fists in her hands and holds them tightly.
“Are you gonna be alright?” Her voice is so quiet and gentle I raise my head to verify she even spoke at all.
“Thanks for getting her out of our way. I’d never want her in a position to get hurt,” I tell her, hoping she believes me.
“I know. I’ve suspected the two of you had feelings for each other for awhile now,” she giggles a little through her grin.
Caught off guard by her confession, I stare back at her while my brain processes a response. “You really are perceptive, aren’t you?” She grins more at that statement, and I continue, “I can’t speak for her, but maybe I do.” I stare back at her, hoping she can see the seriousness in my face.
“Yeah, that wicked fist of yours kinda confirmed that for you,” she laughs, making the corners of my lips turn upward.
“I wasn’t planning on getting in the middle of things - that’s why I left with you guys, but he said those words and my body reacted on its own.”
“I understand. You remember my ex-boyfriend, Jeff, right?” I nod, remembering quite well some of the things I’ve heard he would say about her. “Well, let’s just say Noel’s reaction was worse than yours.” She smiles widely as she remembers the confrontation.
“I hope she isn’t mad that I hit him. Shit! Did I just mess everything up?” I pull my hair in my hands and stand up to pace the room.
“You’ll be fine. We all heard what he was saying. She won’t hold it against you for hitting him,” she reassures me, but I’m still reluctant to believe her.
Unaware of just how many times I’ve paced in front of the sink and closets, I stop in my tracks when the door opens and Mallory and Noel enter the room. Noel, standing behind her, simply nods at me, and holds his hand out to Xana. She stands from her chair and hugs me, kissing me on the cheek, before taking his hand and leaving with him.
Now that we are left alone, the tension in the room thickens enough that I feel like I can’t breathe. I can’t decipher what her expression means, nor does her body language give me any clues about her frame of mind. This drives me insane, and I soon find myself breaking the silence with nervous words.
“How mad at me are you,” is all I’m able to ask.
“I’m not mad, Gavin. Shocked he came all the way here? Yes. Surprised he denied everything and blamed me? Sure, but mad at you for defending me? Not one little bit.” She smiles at me, and I feel the knots in my shoulders relax slightly.
Mallory slowly takes the few remaining steps between us and places her palms flat on my chest. “It wasn’t your fault. He’s not who I remember him to be. While I’m sad about that, I don’t regret ending it with him.”
“Did he hurt you,” I ask and remove my hand from the pockets I stuffed them into to pull her hips against my front.
“No,” she tells me, shaking her head. “He never touched me, just said awful things I never expected to come from him.” She shrugs and looks away from me, seeming embarrassed about what Keaton said.
“How did he act when you checked him out? Did he try again?”
“Noel suggested we finish our conversations outside, away from the other residents.” She leans her head on my chest and slides her hands to my back. “We sat down on the concrete benches and talked about things more calmly. Noel waited against the dorm wall while we talked it all out. He admitted to just growing so used to me being with him that he began to overlook it. He even apologized for turning things back on me when he is the one that actually did cheat. He really is a reasonable person when he isn’t being a jealous jerk.”
“Jealous?” He didn’t just look a little jealous to me.
“Yeah, when he saw us together. That and the way you were looking at me. His words, not mine,” she reassures me. “It kinda woke him up, I guess you could say.” She looks up at me and then bites her lip, as if she’s afraid to say anything else.
“What is it?” I pull her lip from her teeth and run my thumb across her cheek.
“He’s staying at a hotel for the night. It’s too far and late for him to drive back now.”
“I know that makes sense, but I’m not sure I trust him,” I say honestly.
“I know, but things will be fine. He is a lot calmer now. He’s gonna call before he leaves to figure out how to get our things back from each other, the stuff I don’t have here. Other than that, we’re done.”
Closing my eyes and exhaling, I lean my forehead to hers. “We have a game tomorrow afternoon, but if you need me, you know you can call me, right?”
“Yeah, but Noel will be here, too. I promise I won’t be seeing him tomorrow so you can stop worrying.” she says in order to appease me.
“Good. I guess I’d better get going,” I reply and pull my body away from hers. Her look of sad confusion makes me stop.
“Do you have to go,” she questions in a quiet, shaky voice. “I thought we were going to watch movies.” Her disappointment nearly kills me.
&
nbsp; “Thought you’d need some quiet time after what just happened.”
“No. I’m not letting that upset me right now. I want to watch them with you, if you’ll stay?” Those damn plump, pouty lips and big, brown puppy dog eyes of hers are my weakness. I can never resist her when she turns those on me.
“Okay. I can stay,” I confirm, her smile bright enough to light up a room. How could I ever say no to that face?
We spend the next couple of hours watching a movie on television and joking around. Before I realize, it is ten o’clock and she is starting to yawn. I decide it is time for me to leave and turn in for the evening as well. I have a long day ahead tomorrow with our away game. Fortunately, the travel time isn’t that long.
“Come on. Let’s check me out so we can both get to sleep.”
Mallory reluctantly agrees and we make our way to the lobby to get my ID and say goodnight. When we are done checking me out, she follows me out to the front steps where we move over to the side, out of the way.
She places her arms around my waist and says, “Thanks for helping me look over my homework.” Looking down at my chest she continues, “I’m sorry about what happened with Keaton. I hate that you got dragged into it.” I lift her chin up to so I can look into her eyes.
“Don’t apologize. It’s over, and that’s that.” I’m not sorry for decking him. He was being an asshole and had it coming. I am sorry she witnessed it, but I’d do it again without question. She belongs with me, and I’m not letting anyone get in the way of that any longer.
“Okay,” she says quietly sharing my gaze. The longer I look at her, the harder it gets to resist crushing her mouth to mine and kissing the breath right out of her. The thought of sliding my hand into her hair and tugging her head back for better access to that long, soft neck of hers is pushing my ability to restrain myself to the edge.
Before I am able to pull away from her, she stands on her tiptoes and does exactly what I wanted to do. When her lips crash into mine, natural instinct takes over and I return her advances with more urgency than she gives me. Her arms move to my neck, pressing herself into me, and I grab her hips to keep her there. Damn, what I wouldn’t give to have her like this up against the wall in my dorm room.
Our tongues taste each other in a wild tango, and the crashing together of our teeth doesn’t stop us. Soon, the kiss begins to slow and morph into a gentleness I’ve never experienced with anyone else. Slow and seductive it continues before she pulls away.
“Wow,” she whispers in shock, not quite believing what just happened.
“Goodnight, M&M.” I touch my forehead to hers, briefly kiss her, and walk back to my dorm. Leaving her standing there on the steps, I never look back, and take the long way back to my room.
It takes more than an extended walk to calm down, and a long, cold shower later leaves me thinking of her anyway as I try to fall asleep. It’s a good thing I decided to turn in early because sleep evades me for a few hours.
I’ll give her time to completely finish things with Keaton and have some space. After that, it’s just a matter of time, because there is no question she’ll be with me.
Chapter 9
It’s Sunday night and I finally have some down time. Baseball has kept me busy this weekend. Since the season is in full swing, our game schedule is pretty packed with practices, meetings, team events, and games. This has kept my mind occupied, not thinking about Mallory and what went down with Keaton.
I’m walking into my room, having just come from the gym, when Mallory calls me. “Hello,” I answer, and then toss my door keys and gym bag onto the bed. Kicking off my shoes, I walk to the fridge and grab a bottle of water.
“Hi. Are you busy?” She sounds nervous about something, and I’m a little apprehensive to hear what the cause of it is.
“Nah, just got back from the gym. What’s up with you,” I ask, sitting back on my bed. I really need a shower before I go eat.
“Oh, I just got off work a little bit ago. Thought I’d see if you’ve been to the cafeteria yet.”
“I was going to go after I took a shower. Why, you want to go with me?”
“If you don’t mind, I was just so glad to get off work I didn’t want to stop and get anything.”
“I bet you were. I’ll meet you over there in say, thirty minutes?” Relief is evident in her voice as she agrees and we end the call. After finishing off my bottle of water I grab my things and head for the shower. There are a few guys milling around in the hallway as they slowly arrive back on campus, but the bathroom is empty when I enter. Standing under the steaming hot water eases the sore, achy muscles in my shoulders and upper back, so much so, that I become very relaxed and start yawning.
Extra long shower complete, I throw on a t-shirt, basketball shorts, and a hoodie and make my way over to the dining hall. She is waiting on the top of the steps that lead downstairs to the cafeteria when I make it to her. Most of the students are already done with dinner so we have our choice of seating, even though we sit where we usually do.
We’ve randomly chit chatted through half of our meal when Mal decides to break the obvious tension between us. “How was your game yesterday? Since I had to work a lot this weekend I wasn’t able to keep up with the score. Did you make any runs,” she drills, leaving me no time to answer before asking another question. “Was it a close game?”
“Slow down, M&M. We played a good, close game and I did score. What’s got you all worked up?” Setting my fork down, I turn toward her and wait for her to speak. It’s obvious her nerves are getting to her, and I’m now more than curious as to why.
Dragging her fork through her mashed potatoes and playing with them, she stares at her plate, as if to gather up the courage. Taking a deep breath and releasing it, she looks up at me and begins. “Sorry,” she pauses, “I guess I was just afraid you wouldn’t want to see me after everything with Keaton.”
“Why would you say that?” I am surprised she would say something like that after the talk we had before, and that kiss.
“Because you’ve had to put up with listening to me talk about my problems with him, my drama.”
“Cut that shit out. If it really bothered me, I wouldn’t have listened.” I continue to look her in the eyes, so she can see just how serious I am. Listening to her was never a problem for me. Even when she was talking about him, I wanted hear her talk.
“Okay, I just don’t want you regretting anything.”
“No regrets here.” I run the back of my fingers along her cheek and around to move her thick, wavy chestnut hair over shoulder, “Anything else bothering you?”
“No, everything is settled with Keaton and we’re fine with it.” Mallory studies my face, with what I assume is an assessing gaze, and must like what she sees because she starts to smile.
“That’s good. Where does that leave the two of you?” She twists her body toward mine and closes the distance a little more.
“Friends. Like I’ve said, we’ve been growing apart for the last three years since high school. What we had then was great and real, but now we’re just in two different places. Our relationship has become more of a brother-sister one than that of a couple. Seeing you in my room wasn’t what he was expecting and the guilt just got the better of him. It’s hard letting go of that habit after such a long time together, but it’s been coming for awhile. Neither of us wanted to admit it.”
“And you’re sure things are okay between you two? No other issues that need to be settled?” Absentmindedly, I take her hand in mine and rub my thumb across the back of it. The smile she gives me is simply beautiful. It’s been too long since I’ve seen her smile like that.
“I’m sure. Everything is fine.”
“And you’re okay with that?” I furrow my brows, looking into her face to see if what she is telling me is the truth.
Nodding she says, “Yeah, it’s a relief, actually. I feel like a weight has been lifted.” She smiles once again and closes the gap to brush her li
ps against mine. After a kiss that was way too short for my enjoyment, she pulls away and adds, “I’m more than okay.” Before I throw away my dinner and take her to my room, I grin at her and take a bite of my chicken.
We finish the rest of our meal, the sexual tension between us growing stronger. Conversation still flows, however it carries a new spark it didn’t before. Simple glances and touches that were innocent before are now laced with fresh intentions, intentions that are now possible with her new relationship status. She’s free to be who she wants to be, and I’m free to make her mine.
When we’ve put away our trays and exited the dining hall, we stop on the sidewalk that leads to both of our dorms, neither of us knowing what to say or do. “Do you have anything you need to do,” I ask, praying that she will say no so I can take her back to my room and...talk.
“All my homework was finished with you Friday night,” she pauses and bites her lips as she looks up at me.
Taking her hand, I pull her along with me, not saying a word as to where we are going, and she doesn’t protest. I can’t walk fast enough to the dorm where we can be alone, and it seems she is just as anxious because she is keeping up with my fast pace.
I check her in within minutes of entering the lobby, and waste no time in getting us to my room. Releasing her hand, I begin to unlock the door, only to find it unlocked, and open it. As I pull Mal in behind me, I find Steven putting things away in his closet. He needs to leave. Now.
“Hey, man. Mallory,” he greets us and shuts his closet door.
“Hi, Steven,” she returns his greeting. “Did you just get back?”
“Yeah,” he begins, then notices the death glare I’m giving him, and then glances down to see I’m still holding her hand in mine. Having been roommates for two years, he can read my mind and understands instantly that I need him to leave us alone. After all the times I’ve given him privacy with the girls he’s brought over, he owes me one and he knows it. A smirk appears on his face as he looks at Mal and replies, “But I’m headed out with the guys to grab a bite to eat.” Steven grabs his keys and hoodie, and heads past us to the door. “Later.” He waves to Mallory as he leaves the room, and I lock it behind him.
