Pregame

by Taylor Wade

  “I want one of those,” he declared, as the waitress came back over to take our orders.

  “I know what I want,” Reese said, tossing his menu down onto the table.

  Savanna and I ordered a burger, deciding to split one considering their abnormal size, and Reese and Wes both ordered a deluxe and milkshakes.

  “Hey, I’m Reese,” Reese nodded his head at Savanna, who actually blushed, and he flashed her a boyish grin that I could only assume was genetic.

  “Uh uh, Savanna,” I warned, “Not happening.”

  Reese and Wes both looked at me, eyebrows furrowed, and Savanna shot me a glare telling me to keep quiet.

  “Sav, do I have to remind you of our conversation yesterday?” I asked her, raising an eyebrow.

  Savanna sighed and grumbled, “whatever.”

  “What am I missin’?” Reese asked me.

  I didn’t say anything, but Savanna surprisingly spoke up, “I have a problem going after the wrong guys.”

  Wes laughed beside me, and slid his arm behind me, resting it on the back of the booth.

  Reese still looked confused, “Okay…”

  “Well, Brookelyn here is warning me to stay away from you,” Savanna told him, and smirked at me, making me look like the bad guy.

  I rolled my eyes and Reese seemed offended, “I’m not a bad guy!”

  “Reese, you just got out of prison.” I gave him a pointed look.

  I expected Savanna to back off but apparently the idea of prison wasn’t as scary to her as most.

  “Really? What was it like? Did you get into fights? Do they really use that sleeping gas when people cause problems?” she bombarded him with questions but Reese didn’t seem to mind, answering each of them in detail.

  I turned to Wes, “Sorry about yesterday.”

  “It’s alright. I kind of put two and two together and figured you must’ve been scared after the fight. You know, especially with what you had told me and everything…” he trailed off.

  “Yeah, I’m just not very good with violence,” I admitted, looking away from him and taking a long drink from my milkshake.

  Wes touched my arm and I turned to look at him, “I’m sorry.”

  I could hear Savanna and Reese still chatting about prison life in front of us but my focus was solely on Wes.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered, “I know you’re not like that.”

  Wes let out a relieved breath just as our food arrived. We all ate, laughing, while Savanna continued asking Reese questions about being in prison.

  “You need to stop watching so much TV, Sav,” I laughed.

  “Oh, shush, Brookelyn.” Savanna said playfully, “Plus, Reese didn’t even do it. He shouldn’t have even been in prison. Right, Reese?”

  “Very true.” Reese nodded, stuffing a french-fry in his mouth, “So are you gonna let me take your friend out sometime, or what, Brookelyn?”

  “Oooh, we could go on double dates with brothers. How cute is that!” Savanna exclaimed and we all laughed.

  “I don’t know about that, Savanna.” Wes said, and looked over at me, a smirk playing on his lips, “I like to keep Brooke to myself.”

  He winked and I blushed, nudging him with my shoulder.

  “My little brother has gone soft. How fuckin’ precious.” Reese joked, earning a glare from both Wes and me.

  The rest of the meal continued the same way, and we all discussed out thanksgiving plans. Savanna was heading back home to Florida for the break, and I was going home as well, riding with Elle. Wes and Reese told us that they were spending a few days at their father’s house, although they weren’t too excited about it. They were mostly going for Ariana’s sake. She had relentlessly begged them to be there. The two guys clearly cared about their little sister a lot, and since their father hadn’t been in the picture until recently, they had been stand in fathers for her all of their lives. Ariana was seventeen, and a senior in high school, but with the way that Wes and Reese spoke about her you’d expect her to be much younger. Wes brought up that she had a boyfriend and Reese, who hadn’t known, choked on his milkshake and started cursing, threatening the poor guys safety.

  By the time we finished eating, I was pleased to see that Reese was much different than he had been on Saturday night. I only hoped that he stayed this way. It would be hard to be with Wes when he was constantly getting into fights to defend his brother.

  Somewhere between when I had spoken with Emmy this morning and now, I had decided to give a relationship with Wes another chance. I knew that he was a good guy, if not a little rough around the edges, and I couldn’t continue to let fear dictate my life.

  Wes held my hand as we walked out of the restaurant and over to Savanna’s car. I laughed when I saw a ticket on her windshield.

  Savanna giggled in conversation with Reese behind us, and I heard them exchange numbers. I walked over to the passenger side of the car and turned to face Wes, smiling up at him.

  His expression was serious, and I squinted through the sun as it blocked my vision, starting to set.

  Wes’s left hand released my own, and he raised it, tucking my hair behind my ear, raising his other hand and placing it behind my neck. I stopped breathing as he bent his head down, pulling my face towards his. I closed my eyes in anticipation, praying that he wasn’t teasing me again.

  His warm lips met mine, soft yet firm, and it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Fireworks shot off in my chest and I was vaguely aware of Reese and Savanna sending out catcalls behind us. Wes smiled against my lips, and pulled my bottom lip into his mouth, sucking on it gently. I opened my mouth slightly and flicked my tongue across his top lip, eliciting a small moan to escape him. His tongue met mine and together they danced in a sensual rhythm. He tasted like the vanilla milkshake we had been drinking, and I moved my mouth more eagerly against his. After a few more moments, Wes pulled away and placed his forehead against mine, both of us catching our breath. He had a content, crooked smile on his face, and I could feel my own mouth stretched across my face in a wide grin.

  “Was it worth the wait?” he asked me softly, and I nodded.

  “It was, but you should probably kiss me again so we can be sure…” I teased.

  Wes smiled and bent his head towards me again but our lips only met briefly before Reese’s voice interrupted us.

  “C’mon, man! Put some ice on it, I gotta get to work!” he yelled to Wes.

  I groaned, frowning as Wes pulled away.

  “Don’t worry, ugly. There’s plenty more where that came from,” Wes said, placing a quick peck on my lips and winking before turning towards his truck.

  “You can’t kiss a girl and then call her ugly! It’s not good for her self esteem, you know!” I yelled to him, but continued to smile.

  “Just trying’ to keep you humble, baby,” he threw back, grinning.

  I shook my head and climbed into Savanna’s car, smiling like a fool the entire way home.

  SIXTEEN

  Thanksgiving break passed by slower than I would have preferred. After the kiss with Wes outside of the diner, we had started spending more time together and the long week apart was torturous. We would meet up after classes almost everyday, doing our work together and taking very long, very passionate study breaks. Kissing Wes had become my new favorite pastime. Before Wes I had thought I knew what kissing was, but I was wrong. In the past, it had been pleasant, and fun. With Wes, every kiss seemed to ignite every inch of my skin on fire, my chest bursting into flames, overwhelmed by his touch.

  We had only been together for a few weeks and I still wasn’t ready to give myself to him fully. My body was ready, but my head wasn’t quite on board. More often than not I would find myself feeling badly for leaving Wes unsatisfied but he understood my hesitation. I still hadn’t told him anymore about my demons and he didn’t ask, but I knew that he thought about it and I knew I’d have to open up to him eventually if I wanted our relationship to last.

  I
have been able to admit to myself that I was in love with him but I wouldn’t say the words until I knew that he felt the same. Wes had told me that he’d been in a few relationships in the past but none of which lasted longer than a month or so, and he also said that he’d never been in love with any of his past girlfriends. I hoped that I would be the first, and last, girl he would ever love.

  Wes would call me every night during the break and we’d talk until we were too tired to keep our eyes open any longer. I loved telling him about my family, but I loved hearing about his even more. He and Reese had gone to their father’s house, as promised, and Wes was surprised by how well behaved Reese had been. Their father, Roy, had two little girls with his new wife Anne. The girls were only four years old and loved having big brothers to play with. Roy had been a little apprehensive at first but after seeing Reese with the girls Wes said he saw his father tear up a little bit. Because Reese had been the oldest when Roy walked out, the reunion had been very tense between them for the first day but then Reese’s protective instincts took over as soon as the two little girls asked him to play dollies with them. Wes told me that it was a precious sight seeing his brother playing with Barbie’s with their new little sisters, and it was something he’d hold against him the next time that Reese started mouthing off.

  Ariana had been overjoyed seeing her brothers and the three of them spent a lot of time catching up. Roy even joined them for dinner between the four of them one night, which warmed my heart. Ariana applied to a few colleges, Wes had said, but she was hoping to attend our school the following fall semester, and I could tell Wes was hoping the same so that he could keep an eye on her.

  As promised, Wes and Reese were introduced to Ariana’s boyfriend, and of course, Reese threatened him with bodily harm if he hurt his sister. I laughed when Wes told me how sacred the poor guy looked. At one point Ariana’s boyfriend had wrapped his arm around her and Reese not so gently removed it before Ariana forced him to apologize. Reese was an aggressive guy when he wanted to be but after spending more time with him during the past few weeks I’ve been able to see a different side of him.

  Most of the break I spent at home with my parents, and Elle would come over and hang out as well. I was an only child but my parents might as well have adopted Elle with the amount of time she spent over our house.

  Thanksgiving day was eventful as usual, with all of my aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents coming over. My grandparents grilled me about my new boyfriend while we sat around the table for dinner. My family was nervous considering what had happened with my last boyfriend, and although their worries were unnecessary I appreciated the amount of love I felt being home.

  The day before we headed back to school my mom and Elle’s took Elle and me to the spa and we got massages and treated ourselves to manicures and pedicures as well as haircuts. Elle refused to cut her hair so she settled for a trim and a blowout. I was feeling like changing things up a bit so I added a few highlights to my hair to lighten up the dirty blonde coloring and chopped a few inches off. My hair, which had flowed all the way down my back, landing just above my butt, now landed at the middle of my back.

  “Excited to see lover boy?” Elle asked me as we started the two-hour drive back to school.

  “You have no idea,” I smiled, “actually, you probably do.”

  Elle laughed, “I hope you don’t mind having the apartment to yourself for the weekend because I don’t plan on leaving Colin’s room once, unless I have to use the bathroom, of course.”

  Classes didn’t start until Monday but we decided to head back a couple of days early. Savanna wasn’t flying in from Florida until Monday morning so the next three nights I’d be alone in the apartment. Although, I wasn’t really planning on being alone. Wes and I had never spent the night together, and although I still wasn’t sure if I was ready to sleep with him, I wouldn’t mind falling asleep beside him.

  We were about twenty minutes from the apartment when my phone chimed, signaling a new text message. I smiled when I saw Wes’s name on the screen.

  Wes: have elle drop u off here when ur back. I want 2 c u

  Me: will do, sexy ;)

  Wes: r u flirting w. me?

  Me: yes. What r u wearing?

  Wes: ;) jeans no shirt. u?

  Me: jeans shirt no panties no bra ;)

  Wes: gtg take a cold shower, thx

  Me:LOL c u in 20

  Wes: thank god

  “Change of plans, Elle,” I told her, still smiling, “drop me off at Wes’s, please.”

  “I can’t wait for you two to get out of this honeymoon stage,” Elle laughed, glancing at me sideways and I chuckled.

  “Whatever, drive faster,” I joked, only half kidding.

  ~~~~

  “Oh, thank god,” Wes sighed, pulling me into a tight hug, “I’ve missed you.”

  I smiled against his bare chest, “Me too.”

  Wes pulled back and looked down at me, wearing a frown.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked him, and he pulled his hands in front of me, grabbing my breasts, “Hey!”

  I laughed when he just shook his head, his expression that of a sad puppy, “You are wearing a bra. Such a tease, Brookelyn.”

  I laughed when he reached behind me and unhooked my bra, slipping it off of my shoulders.

  “Wes!” I exclaimed, grabbing my bra and running towards his bedroom, “You don’t live alone, you know!”

  Wes chuckled and followed after me, grabbing my waist when we both got into the safety of his bedroom. He pulled me into him and kissed me firmly on the lips, stealing my breath. I moaned as his tongue snaked into my mouth and our kiss became frantic. I pulled away and slid off my tank top, laying back onto his bed and pulling him on top of me.

  “No one’s here right now,” he whispered against my neck as he trailed kisses from my neck down to my collarbone. I ran my fingers through his hair and he brought his mouth back to mine, my skin burning hot with desire.

  I parted my legs and he moved between them, his arousal pressed against me through our jeans. We stayed like that for a while, slowly moving against each other, our kissing alternating between sweet and slow to frantic and passionate. Wes’s bare chest felt soft against mine, and I traced the outlines of his tattoos with my fingers.

  “God, do you have any idea how fucking beautiful you are?” he murmured, rolling off of me and pulling me so that I was lying on top of him. I placed my chin on his chest and looked up at him, a content smile playing on my lips.

  “Do you have any idea how sexy you are?” I threw back at him, and he shook his head once, his eyes locked on mine. His expression was serious, a mix between passion and adoration, and I felt my heart swell inside my chest by that one look.

  “I mean it, Brookelyn,” He leaned down and kissed me gently on the lips, running his fingers through my hair. “You’re perfect.”

  I laughed once, disagreeing, but a blush crept onto my skin, “I’m not perfect, Wes. No one is perfect.”

  His eyes narrowed as he inspected me, his head slightly tilted to the side, “maybe not. But you’re perfect to me.”

  My blush darkened, and I avoided my gaze, but Wes grabbed my chin softly between his fingers, and tilted my face up to his. He kissed me again, and I grabbed his bottom lip between my teeth and sucked on it gently, probing his lips open with a flick of my tongue. He opened his lips and his tongue once again met mine. He tasted like soda and spearmint, and I knew that I would never taste either flavor ever again without relating them to kissing Wes. Every thing about his kiss was intoxicating.

  Our mouths sped up against each other once again, and I broke away from him, peering into his beautiful blue eyes.