Bring Her On

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  Monday passed in a blur. I barely had the time or energy to eat and work, let alone talk to Echo or think about her. Much.

  On Tuesday, my kids were on edge and jumpy and I didn’t know how manage them. Dom and I tried, but they were just not having it.

  “Hey,” a voice said behind me, and I whirled around to find Echo, leaning around the curtain.

  “What?” I snapped, and then winced.

  “Why don’t we do something to take the pressure off?”

  I walked over to talk with her so not everyone could hear.

  “Don’t you need to drill them perfectly one more time?” I asked, crossing my arms.

  “If they haven’t gotten it by now, they’re not going to. Why don’t we have them perform for each other just for fun?” she asked.

  That didn’t sound like fun at all.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Echo rolled her eyes as if I was being difficult. “Fine, then let’s take this damn curtain down and have a freaking dance party.”

  That I could agree to. I never said no to a dance party, even when it was suggested by Echo.

  It was probably a little too symbolic as both squads shoved the curtain away and moved the mats together until we had one huge space that covered almost the entire gym. Talk about plenty of tumbling room. I hoped we got to keep the mats even after the other team left. There was already a fundraiser the replace all the old equipment (which I’m sure was insured), that had exceeded its goal, so the Heartwood cheerleaders were going to be fine when their brand new gym was finished before the start of the next school year.

  I made Dom choose a song and he cranked up the speakers. After a few seconds of reluctance, the dance fever hit everyone and it was on.

  I saw my kids pull out viral dance moves and bad-on-purpose moves and there was so much movement you couldn’t tell who was on what team anymore. Dom threw himself into the fray, and then a few of my squad dragged me in and then all the adults were in the mosh pit of teens, laughing and dancing and having the best time.

  A circle formed and, one by one, each person showed their best moves as the rest of us cheered them on. That led to a few people throwing tumbling in and then Echo shimmied into the center and did a fucking standing full and everyone lost their minds.

  She stood up from the trick and winked right at me.

  Bitch.

  One of her assistants (I still couldn’t remember their names) did the worm, and that got a lot of support, as well as two girls from Echo’s squad doing a choreographed routine that they had clearly known for most of their lives.

  When it was my turn, I pulled out my tried and true move: the shopping cart. That elicited both laughs and groans and I didn’t even care. I pulled a toe-touch out of my ass that wasn’t as good as it was in high school. Yoga had kept me limber enough to throw a decent jump, or at least it felt decent when I landed.

  They cheered for more, but I put my hands up in defeat and semi-limped back to the edge of the circle.

  I needed to do more cardio. Maybe I should be conditioning with the squad.

  The dance party slowed down and everyone sort of collapsed on the mat together in a pile.

  “Good job, everyone,” I said, clapping. “I think we can end on that note. Tigers, I’ll see you all tomorrow for the sendoff party.” Dom had organized a party for all the cheerleaders and their parents at the local VFW hall so we could all eat spaghetti and have some team bonding before we flew out on Thursday.

  “And Bulldogs, I will see you all at the restaurant for our sendoff party.” Of course they were having one at a restaurant. Mine was a spaghetti potluck.

  Everyone rolled up the mats and put them away and there was chatter between the two groups, almost as if they were friends. Their room block at the hotel in Orlando just happened to be next to ours, so we were going to see a lot of each other the rest of the week.

  I circled up my squad to say goodnight.

  “This is it, everyone. In two days we get on a plane. Sleep, if you can. Try and pack earlier rather than later, because you will forget something. I can text you the packing list. This is going to be an amazing week, and all I ask is that you give me energy eleven. You’ve got this. I’m so proud of everything you’ve done so far this year. You’re amazing, you’re awesome, you’re the best. We’ve got this, Tigers. We have got this.”

  They all whooped and cheered and then we did our signature chant to end the night. The Bulldogs had their own and we ended up each doing ours at the same time, so the gym was just a big bowl of noise for a few moments.

  I got all my kids out the door, and Echo put hers on the bus and sent them off. She was doing that thing where she packed her shit up slowly and I shared a look with Dom.

  He just shook his head and tossed me the keys for the gym and walked out.

  A few seconds later, I got a text message from him.

  Don’t do anything bad.

  I snorted and looked up from my phone to find Echo walking toward me, her bag over her shoulder.

  “Something funny you’d like to share?” she asked.

  “Not really,” I said.

  She set her bag down and started pulling something out of it.

  “What are you doing?” I leaned over to see what she was pulling out.

  “I thought we could take a little trip down memory lane.” She pulled out two cans of the horrible energy drink that had gotten us through cheer camp in the past, along with the hot, crunchy snacks we had gorged ourselves on.

  “How did we consume these two things at the same time?” I said with a shudder. I did not want to read the ingredient label on either product.

  Echo pulled out the first level of the bleachers that had been pushed back to make room for the cheer mats.

  “You up to see if it’s as great as we remember?” She sat down and nodded at me.

  Dom had told me not to do anything bad, but this wasn’t going to be bad. It was going to be fine.

  Echo and I cracked open the cans and clinked them against each other.

  “To Orlando, and may the best team win,” she said, and then burst out laughing. “I couldn’t even say that with a straight face.”

  “You can’t do anything straight,” I said, pointing my can at her.

  “That’s true.”

  I smelled the drink and it brought back so many memories. It instantly yanked me back to those summer days when anything had seemed possible, and I had never been so happy to be surrounded by cheerleaders.

  “You go first,” she said, looking into the can as if something was going to jump out and bite her.

  “We used to suck these things down. This isn’t a big deal.” I took a sip and nearly choked. “Oh god, it’s terrible. Why did we like this?”

  I tried another sip, just to see if it was better than the first one. It was worse.

  “It can’t be that bad,” she said, and then I relished the look of horror on her face as she sipped and then swallowed the noxious liquid. She put her hand over her mouth and then set the can down. “That was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever put in my mouth. How can our memories be so faulty?”

  “No idea.” I grabbed a bag of the crunchy cheese curls and hoped that they wouldn’t disappoint me. I crunched into one, and it was just as good as I remembered. One for two.

  “Okay, eat these. They’re good,” I said, pushing the bag toward her.

  “I’m scared,” she said, but she picked up the bag. After a few moments, she opened it up and nibbled the end of one piece. Pondering, she thought about it before shoving the whole thing in her mouth.

  “Much better,” was her verdict.

  We sat and crunched and the sound echoed through the empty gym.

  “I can’t believe we’re leaving in two days. It’s so weird,” I said. I still had to do laundry and pack. Oops. Do as I say, not as I do.

  “It’s going to be awesome. They’ll do good. I mean, neither of us is winning.”

&nb
sp; I gave her a look.

  “We both know it’s true,” she said.

  “Fine. But I still want to beat you. I don’t care if we come second from last. As long as you’re last.”

  Echo shook her head back and forth slowly and then finished her chips and pulled a wipe from her purse to clean her fingers like some kind of princess. I just licked mine off like a normal person, but then she passed me a wipe.

  I snatched it from her fingers and she scooted closer to me, moving the cans of discarded energy drinks. One moment there was space between us, and the next she was right there.

  “I thought about revisiting one more thing from our past, if you’re up for it.”

  There was no reading between the lines needed here.

  “Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I could hear Dom’s voice in my head, telling me to put a stop to this, to push away from her and go home.

  I didn’t listen.

  I leaned closer to Echo, and the combination of the energy drink and the crunchy snacks on her breath was weirdly arousing. Maybe it was just Echo. She was arousing.

  “What are we doing?” I whispered, staring deep into her eyes. On the surface, they were brown, but they were so much more than that. Dark caramel and honey and chocolate. All delicious things swirled together.

  “I don’t know, what are we doing?” she said, her breath whispering across my lips. I was millimeters away from kissing her and I wanted to. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to do a whole lot of other things with her. Things we’d done in the past, things that had rocked my world and opened new doors and that I still thought about to this day.

  Would it still be the same, kissing Echo? Would her lips still set my blood on fire and make me forget how to take a breath? Or would the kiss fall flat? I didn’t know which would be worse, honestly.

  I didn’t want to want her, but I did. The wanting had built and built, and tonight I didn’t think I had the ability to say no.

  “What are you waiting for, Kiri?” I had to close my eyes and think for a moment. I inhaled and reminded myself that we were in the Corsica gym and, if things escalated at all, we would not want to be on a hard gym floor, and there was no way I would sully the cheer mats and still be able to look my squad in the eyes.

  I stood up on shaky legs and held my hand out.

  “Come on.”

  She didn’t ask where we were going as we gathered our things up, shut the lights off, and locked the doors. Echo followed me to my car and got in when I unlocked the door, tossing her bag in the back.

  I kept the radio off and didn’t say anything as I drove us to my house. I was afraid if I said something that I would change my mind. I just had to keep driving. Mere minutes later I pulled into my driveway and shut off the car.

  “I have cats. Just so you know. Three of them.”

  “I love cats,” she said. “Your house is adorable.”

  It was. That was why I’d picked it. I’d been thinking about a completely different place and then drove past this one and there was a real estate agent literally shoving a FOR SALE sign in the lawn. I took one look at the house and put in an offer.

  “Don’t you want to see it?” the real estate agent had said, but I’d just shrugged and said sure, but it wasn’t going to change the fact that this was my house and I was meant to live here.

  “Thank you,” I said to Echo. “I can take you back, if you want. Or you can come in and we’ll see what happens.” We both knew what would happen when she walked in the door. The air was charged with it. My skin prickled with the awareness of her, of her breath, of her heart beating in the enclosed space.

  I looked at her under the glow of the porch light.

  “Let’s see what happens,” she said, opening the door and walking toward the porch.

  “This is a bad idea,” I said to myself, before I got out of the car and followed her to the front door.

  The cats attacked me before they saw Echo, and then all three of them froze with the entrance of a newcomer.

  “They’re all friendly and love people, but take a few seconds to warm up,” I told her.

  “Hello babies,” she said, crouching down and holding her hand out for them to sniff.

  Meatball was first, approaching Echo slowly and then sniffing her fingers. After a few seconds, Meatball gave Echo’s hand an experimental lick, and then rubbed her head on Echo’s leg. Spaghetti was next, and then Cupcake last.

  “Aren’t you beauties, yes you are. Your mama must have to vacuum all the time,” she crooned to them in the cutest voice.

  “That’s what robot vacuums are for. I have three. One for each cat.”

  “Good plan,” she said, standing up and glancing around. “It looks just like I thought it would look.”

  She took a few steps toward the living room and I watched her.

  “You imagined my house?”

  She nodded and turned around to face me. “Lots of times.”

  I moved around the space, turning on lamps to give the space a soft glow. The cats ran from me to Echo, begging for attention. I got them fed and gave them fresh water. When I went back to the living room, Echo had made herself at home on my couch.

  “Do you want something to drink?” I should offer her something, right? I mean, she’d brought me the horrible energy drinks and the crunchy things. It was the least I could do.

  “Whatever you have. Or water.”

  I just wanted water, but I also wanted to be fancy, so I poured water into wine glasses and added a slice of lemon on the side.

  I brought the glasses over and handed one to Echo. She sipped and gave me a puzzled look.

  “It’s water,” she said.

  I pointed to my glass. “But classy.”

  She laughed and took another sip. “I totally thought you were giving me straight up vodka or something.” She had taken off her shoes and pulled her legs up on the couch, as if she was getting cozy.

  This wasn’t what I expected. I kind of thought the instant the door closed, she was going to start ripping my clothes off, but we were more in the position to have a lovely chat about the weather. Had she gotten cold feet? Had she changed her mind and was trying to be polite?

  “You can go, if you want. I’ll take you back.” I set my glass of water down.

  “I don’t feel like going home alone tonight,” she said, draining the rest of her water and putting her glass next to mine.

  Our eyes met and I inhaled and the sound was so loud, even over the kitties chomping down their dinner and fussing at each other.

  “I don’t feel like being alone tonight either.”

  She leaned toward me, pushing forward until she was almost on her hands and knees facing me.

  “That makes two of us.”

  I had a second to brace myself before she pressed her lips to mine. For a second, I didn’t know what to do, and then it was like my lust furnace kicked on and I remembered what kissing was, and what I was supposed to be doing. I gasped, and she took the invitation to push closer, to slip her tongue in my mouth and I had a shock of memory of the first time we had kissed, and she’d done the same. The past and the present, layering on top of each other.

  My hand reached for her face, to bring her closer to me. Echo pressed me back, until I was lying against the arm of the couch and her body covered mine. I stretched out under her and the contact lit up every nerve in my body, even though we still had layers of clothes to keep us apart. For now.

  The kiss had only been sweet and kind in the first few seconds, and then it had turned into something desperate and feral, driving us both more and more wild.

  Now was the time for the tearing of clothes, for the searching for hidden skin, for the desire to ignite and consume both of us.

  Our mouths parted, but only so we could attempt to undress each other at the same time.

  “You’re wearing too many clothes,” I whined, as my fingers tried to get her naked all at once.

  “It’s a lot easier
to yank off a cheer bra and shorts, isn’t it?”

  The last time we’d done this, we’d definitely been wearing far less clothing.

  Echo took both of my hands that were struggling with her buttons and hems and held them.

  “Let me do it.” Her hips straddled mine and she sat up, pressing her hips into me so hard that I saw stars. Echo pulled her shirt over her head and then undid her bra.

  “Are your tits bigger?” I asked. They definitely looked bigger than I remembered.

  “I had them done. You like?” She looked down at me as I gazed her perfect chest.

  “Very much.”

  “You can even touch them if you want.” I did want, so I reached up and squeezed one. Echo threw her head back and moaned.

  “Mmmm,” I said. I probably could have spent the entire night just messing with them, teasing her nipples, and re-learning every inch of her magnificent body.

  I made a disappointed sound when she stood up.

  “Hold on, I’m coming back. Why don’t you take something off? It’s only fair.”

  I sat up and removed my shirt and bra.

  “Just like I remembered,” she said, running one hand up my belly to cup one of my breasts. It felt good, but it would feel better if she would hurry up and take her pants off. There was a time limit on tonight and I didn’t want either of us to lose our nerve.

  Echo got her pants off, and stood next to the couch looking down at me in all her naked glory.

  “Fucking hell,” I said.

  She laughed and then did a pose like she was in a fitness competition, flexing for me as she turned around and then flexed her ass. Unable to resist, I raised my hand and spanked it. She yelped a little bit, but giggled and turned back around.

  “See? I remember what you like.”

  “I’ve learned a few things in ten years, Kiri.”

  I raised one eyebrow. “Have you now? Why don’t you show me?”

  “What’s the password?” That was what she’d said that first night, and I remembered the answer. It didn’t require a verbal answer, but a removal of clothing.