Pure Will

by Kristi Pelton

  This Simmons guy laughed and I yanked on Will’s arm. He only met my eyes for a second before turning back to him.

  “Ignore him, please,” I said.

  “Done,” Simmons said even though I was clearly talking to Will.

  Will snickered and shook his head, wrapping his arm around my waist. We went to a corner alone where he started to shed his clothes.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “Neal Simmons.”

  “Do you two always go at it?”

  “You two? Let’s go with ‘does he always run his mouth when he shouldn’t?’”

  Will was popping his neck and stretching his arms…looking hot as hell and stimulating something deep in my groin. I hated fights but seeing him defend my honor was…arousing, and now he was half naked. My lips parted.

  “Look my little sex fiend,” he said lifting my chin, breaking my nonverbal communication with his chest and abs. “I luuuuuuve that you like my body.”

  I shook my head. “Love…not like,” I clarified then reached out and touched his warm flesh.

  He flinched first then smiled. “I have to focus. A minute ago, I wanted to kill someone and the adrenaline was pumping…now that adrenaline is pumping directly to my joint.” He took hold of my hand and rubbed it against his tented shorts. “How’s that gonna look when I walk out of a locker room full of guys?”

  “Maybe I should take care of it.” I smiled biting on my lip.

  Immediately, he pulled my lip from my teeth. Then he started walking toward me, and I back stepped until I was pressed up against the cold metal lockers. His lips skimmed over my cheeks and his nose skidded back to my ear where he nipped my ear lobe.

  “Baby. In about six hours, you are going to take care of this. And I’m,” he whispered, “going to take care of this,” he said, breaching the elastic of my panties, dipping his fingers inside of me then touching the sweetest spot known to women.

  “Will,” I panted.

  He pressed his lips to mine, finding my tongue only for a second then he slowed the kiss.

  “I need to concentrate. Please. Let me walk you out.”

  I pouted a bit but then went with him.

  As we rounded the lockers, Simmons sat there giggling like a little girl. He’d obviously heard our conversation. I was proud of Will because he ignored him.

  “You can take care of me right now. I won’t tell you no. And I’ll damn sure take care of yo…”

  Before the words fully came out, Will had left me, hurdled the locker room bench and pinned Simmons down. Two other guys rushed over and tried to grab Will but he shoved them both while still holding Simmons by the throat.

  “Will!” I shouted.

  “Denton, you know if you hit him, you are DQ’d. Don’t do it, man. He isn’t worth it,” one of the guys said.

  Simmon’s face was turning red.

  “Will please, stop!” I cried.

  He loosened his grip because the color was leaving Simmons face.

  “I will say this one time. You can talk shit about my father being trailer trash. You can talk about my momma playing on the other side of the tracks. You can even talk about Matty, you low down dirty prick. But if you ever speak of her again, in any way, I will kill you. Now say you’re sorry.”

  Simmons remained quiet.

  Will tightened his grip again. “Say you’re sorry!”

  “I’m sorry,” he sputtered out and Will was up and off him and pushing me out of the room.

  The stadium was jammed packed with spectators, and when I got to my seat, Will’s parents sat next to me. His mother welcomed me with a hug and his father, well, he still had the shit-eating grin. The jitters remained inside me as I tried to forget about what had taken place.

  The crowd started shouting and camera crews swarmed the tunnel. The guys started to make their way out while barely clad girls stood at the mouth of the tunnel with signs. I saw that Simmons on the jumbotron coming out first.

  “Neal!” the girls squealed and that Simmons guy was already posing with the girls and signing their tanks. This was not at all what I expected. He was kissing their cheeks and wrapping his arms around the girls.

  “Will!” They turned and screamed and the long-blond-haired girl threw her arms up to wrap around him. He smiled but held up his hand to stop her. Several girls surrounded him and I just stood and stared. One girl had a sign that read: I want to have Will Denton’s baby. I flipped around and stared at Will’s parents. His mother took my hand.

  “Honey? He didn’t tell you about the girls?”

  I shook my head trying to act like it didn’t bother me…but seriously what the hell? His dad only glanced at me with that damn grin of his.

  I watched as Will made his way over to two little boys who stood waving their programs and shouting at him as if he were a superhero. I grinned from ear to ear as he signed their programs and took pictures with each boy. After a quick fist-bump with the boys, he joined Simmons and the rest of the guys on the course.

  After the national anthem played, the games began. This Simmons guy and Will competed neck and neck in each heat. Just like in his gym at home, Will would climb a rope over and over and over again. He’d lift some weights over his head over and over and over again then go back to the rope climbing. Will finished first that heat. Then they lifted medicine balls over their head slamming to the ground repeatedly. Simmons won that heat. The next one Will had to use a sledgehammer looking thingy to pound this huge metal slab down a slide. God he was good. Incredible. Every time he blasted the sledgehammer into the slab, his face held a determination and in my head—I think the slab was Simmons head. Will won that heat.

  By the end of the day Will was leading going into the last event. The last event was more like a series of events. He had to lift a barbell of weights over his head, jump up onto a box, do monkey bars, jump rope and then ride a bike. And if that wasn’t enough, he had to do it again. I stared around the arena as people chanted his name and cheered for him. There were cameras everywhere for the live event, and at one point a camera man shot images of me and Will’s parents. This was all more than I ever imagined. So much bigger than I understood. And at the end of the day, Will placed first—maintaining his first place in the state. I heard his dad say that with his times, he was now ninth in the nation. Wow.

  What really sucked most was after watching all these girls yell at him and try to get his attention, and knowing that I was going home with him, that night I started my period so Will taking me up on the offer to take care of him still stood, but I was out of luck.

  A week later Kate was turning 22 and I promised her I’d go out with her for her birthday. The only promise to Will was not to go to the Boom Boom room at the Hawk. I hadn’t been out for a while so it was fun getting all dolled up. There was a band playing at The Granada so we started there. Last year, Kate did the whole 21 shots for her birthday, and Ham and I ended up carrying her back to the apartment where I stayed up with her all night long to make sure she was ok. Tonight was not going to be a repeat.

  The band was pretty good and we danced, sang and drank. By 10 o’clock, Kate had drawn a crowd of three, and in typical Kate fashion, I don’t think she’d chosen her flavor for the night. She’d been seeing Liam but tonight he clearly wasn’t on her mind. The music was loud and we showed our moves on the dance floor. One guy, Rowan, had bought some Jello shots and handed me one.

  “Thanks!” I screamed. We all held ours in the center and toasted to Kate. I rolled my eyes watching Kate thrive from the attention.

  Rowan came back with two more shots, handing me one.

  “Thanks,” I repeated.

  “You’re way prettier than Kate.”

  Whatever! I nodded. “Thanks.” Third time.

  “We’re going to a strip bar, come on.” One of the guys said to Rowan, who laughed and nodded.

  “Kate!” I shouted as she was walking past. “A strip bar? Really?”

  “Oh, it’ll be fun.
Besides, it’s my birthday!”

  She traipsed off with the other two guys, and Rowan waited for me. I was already a little uncomfortable.

  The neon lights outside the strip bar with a sign reading free hot dogs was not all that enticing. I’d never been to a strip bar, but this lacked…class. I guess somehow class and strip bar didn’t belong in the same sentence anyway. There were five cars and two motorcycles in the parking lot.

  The first guy, I think I heard Kate call him Ross, paid our cover charge. The big ass bouncer wrapped a little bracelet around my wrist and we went in. The bar was cold and dark and suspect. Men were scattered about the room. Some in dark corners. Some sitting right up next to the stage, front row action, I guess. Creepy The stage was empty.

  “What can I get you all to drink?” a bartender asked.

  Ross ordered without even consulting us then handed us our drinks. We made our way to a table for six, and as we sat, the music started blaring. A beautiful girl with a spray on tan slithered out through the curtains in a nurse’s uniform. Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood” played as first her hat then her lab coat were slowly and seductively removed and thrown across the stage.

  Catcalls came from guys sitting around. One scrawny guy with big round glasses sat right next to the stage watching Nurse Roxy. The blood-red bra she wore came off and her boobs were smaller than mine! I expected strippers would be bigger than a B cup. I laughed at first, watching her but then felt sad for her.

  “It’s kind of sad,” Rowan said near my ear, reading my thoughts and I flinched at his closeness.

  When I spun around, wooziness overtook me. I got my cell phone and texted Will.

  Canyou get com get me; send

  “Kate. You feel ok?” I asked and I could tell my words were slurred.

  Her half-mast eyelids tried to focus on me. How much had we drank?

  “Come on girls. We’re going to go the VIP room,” the other guy Mason said taking hold of Kate’s arm.

  VIP room. What was that? They slapped another bracelet around our wrists. I glanced up at Roxy who was completely nude outside of a barely there g-string. She kept pinching her nipples and pulling on them.

  “Why’ds she do that?” I asked Rowan, trying to focus on pronunciation.

  “To make her nipples hard. That’s why they keep it cold in here too,” he explained.

  My phone dinged.

  Where are you? What’s wrong

  I went to sit down and saw some guys staring at me.

  Rowan said, “Let’s go back with them.”

  He guided me into a dark room and girls were dancing in different areas for groups of guys. We rounded the corner and there was Kate. She, Mason and Ross were doing a shot. Rowan took my phone from my hand and we sat on a sofa that I knew if I were sober, I wouldn’t be sitting on.

  “Kate. Wesho go.”

  She didn’t hear me; she was up dancing next to the stripper. I was not ok. I couldn’t think straight. I needed Will. Things were spinning.

  “Rowan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don hur’ me,” I said and my eyes closed.

  Chapter—Will

  I practically red-lined my truck with every acceleration through a stop sign or traffic light. I’d only been to this bar twice but I knew exactly how to get there. I dialed my phone.

  “Will, it’s late. What’s wrong?” my dad asked.

  “I need your help. I need you to meet me at Mo’s.”

  “The strip bar?”

  “Yep.”

  “You got it, Son. I’ll be there in fifteen.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  Dad was waiting in the parking lot by the time I slid to a stop in the gravel. I was out of my truck and walking toward the steel door.

  “You want to give me a heads up on what’s going down here?” He asked holding the door shut. “I can’t go in blind, Will. Tell me something.”

  “Cam’s here. We are going in to get her,” my voice shook. “And her best friend Kate.” I tried to open the door and he hit it closed.

  “And they are here alone?”

  “Dad! Let me in the fucking bar,” I gritted through my teeth shaking with an uncontrollable rage.

  He grabbed my shirt and shoved me up against the dirty vinyl siding.

  “Listen to me. I could never look at your mother again if I had to go home and tell her something happened to you. Now if I can walk in and get Cam without incident then fine but if I need a weapon, I need to know.”

  “No. You don’t need a weapon. But Dad, I gotta get in there.”

  He patted my chest. “Let’s roll.”

  Just from being there the few times I had been, I knew my way around. As my eyes scanned the main room, Dad took off to the VIP room. A guy in the corner saw me and the panic must have registered on my face because he pointed to the VIP room. Did he know who I was there for? Of course, the two girls in a strip bar!

  I heard my dad’s whistle. Kate was dangling over his shoulder. Why would he have gotten Kate first? I ran toward him.

  “I’m taking her to the truck.”

  “Why didn’t you grab Cam?”

  “She wasn’t back there!” he shouted.

  I darted through the VIP room, back out through the main room, then headed to the girl’s restroom.

  “Cam?” I shouted barreling through the door.

  A guy sat on the disgusting floor with Cam’s head on his lap.

  “Will?” the guy questioned.

  “Yep. Rowan?”

  “Yep. She’s pretty out of it.”

  I bent down brushing the hair from her beautiful face. Her eyes fluttered open but then closed again.

  “She didn’t really want to come,” Rowan said rubbing her arm and if it wasn’t for his phone call to begin with, I’d have punched him for touching her.

  I nodded. The rank bathroom stunk and I wanted her out of there.

  “Get your fucking hands off her!” my dad shouted from behind me.

  I held my palm up to him, though I didn’t want Rowan touching her either. “Dad. I got this.”

  Regardless, Rowan’s hands shot upward. “I’m not trying to hurt her.”

  Rowan looked at me. “She needed to go to the bathroom and you asked me to stay with her,” he said.

  “Thank you. Truly. I owe you.”

  I lifted her limply into my arms.

  If looks could kill, my dad’s glare would have dropped Rowan right there. He was protecting me…and Cam; and he clearly knew how much this meant to me. How much she meant to me.

  “Get out of here Will. I can deal with him.”

  Rowan’s eyebrows rose.

  “Dad. Seriously. This is who called me from Cam’s phone.” Cam’s body twitched in my arms, and I tightened my grip.

  “Do you know what she drank?” I asked.

  Rowan kept his eye on my father. “Only one drink here. I don’t know what it was. The bartender fixed it. Several jello shots. I don’t really know outside of that.”

  “Did one of your buddies give her something?” Dad asked not budging.

  “I don’t know,” Rowan answered.

  “OK. Thank you again. Do you need a ride anywhere?” I asked.

  Rowan shook his head. “I’m good. Thanks.”

  “Go Dad,’’ I ordered my dad out before me. There was no way in hell I was leaving him alone with Rowan. Dad left.

  “Will.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re a lucky guy.”

  I nodded and followed my dad out.

  I sat on the sun porch watching the sunrise. Sleep had eluded me all night. After tucking Cam into my bed, I laid next to her thinking about her and Kate winding up with these guys. Would she be ok if I was out with three girls? The same thoughts played out over the long night. What if Rowan hadn’t been a gentleman? What if… The coffee burnt my lip when I took a sip. Kate was a problem, but she was also Cam’s best friend. Getting her out of the picture wasn’t an option, but con
trolling her somehow? I trusted Cam. I didn’t trust Kate. I didn’t trust most guys. They think with their peckers. And Cam was living in a Will only pecker zone.

  “Will?”

  I heard the voice of my angel. Her mussed up hair and half-opened eyes were sexy as hell. I patted my lap. She gave me a sleepy grin and shuffled to me. I sat my coffee on the end table, and she sat on my lap with her knees pulled up.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  I inhaled a whiff of her hair and kissed the top of her head but remained silent.

  “Forgive me?”

  Trying to be tough…to stand my ground…I stared down at her. But the moment her drowsy emerald eyes met mine, I knew I’d cave in a second.

  “I think we need to talk,” I said.

  She sat upright and her eyes sprang open with fear.

  “Listen,” I said and it was if I was looking into a creek with mossy stones at the bottom. Tears had flooded her eyes. “Caaam. Baby. Don’t cry.”

  I was caught somewhere between crying myself and grinning. She was so stinkin’ cute. God, I loved this girl. I loved her so much.

  “Listen baby. I don’t know how to do this. This…” I shot my index finger back and forth between us. “…is new to me.” The inexplicable feeling inside my chest was too much to bear. I stood with her in my arms, sat her gently in the chair and covered her with a small quilt my grandmother had made. A tear broke the barrier and slid down her cheek. I laced my fingers behind my head and stared at the hazy sun finally making its appearance.

  “You being out without me is hard, but I understand and I want you to go and have fun with your friends. But…” I just had to say it. “Matty wanted me to enlist too at first. I would have been higher ranked because I’d already graduated from college. I really didn’t want to do it. So, he did it alone. Every day, I think about what if I would have been there too. What if I could have stopped it somehow? What if…”

  FUCK! I was fighting back tears of my own. I felt her arms wrap around me from behind and the pain nearly diminished. The immense comfort she brought to me was immeasurable. I turned around and held her.