I pulled him off the table. He let out a little whimper but did as I said. He kicked off his shorts and hobbled over to the ice bath with my help. He looked nervously down into the water.
“Just jump right in,” I said encouragingly.
“Easy for you to say,” he muttered. Then with a sigh he pulled his shirt off over his head so that he was clad only in his boxer briefs. I was too concerned to marvel at his perfectly chiseled abs and tall, lean, toned body... okay, maybe I marveled a little. David swung his leg over the side of the tub and lowered himself down. “Oooh. Oooooh,” he exclaimed as the cold set in.
“It’ll be over in a moment and then the pain will numb,” I said.
David didn’t say anything and I wasn’t sure what else to do. We remained in awkward silence for a while.
“How’s that feeling?” I finally ventured.
“Better, mostly numb now,” David said with a grimace and then he gave an awkward chuckle. “I guess this isn’t a very bad ass or tough guy type of injury.”
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” I said. “Sam should be embarrassed. He could go to jail and get sued for that. He probably should.”
“I’ll worry about Sam,” David interjected.
“Please, please just don’t feel embarrassed,” I said. “Would it help if I told you some embarrassing stories about me? I’ve got a lot of them. I’m very clumsy.”
David laughed but then grimaced again. “It’s hurts to laugh,” he said. “No more jokes. I can’t imagine you ever doing anything too embarrassing.”
The kiss list flashed through my mind and suddenly I wanted to keep myself busy and preoccupied. “I’ll look up your injury on the internet and see if there’s anything we should be doing,” I said.
I went to the old computer in the room and began searching through medical websites. Some of the images that came up on the screen were a little graphic and I noticed that David averted his eyes uncomfortably. The gist of the advice was to ice the wounded area. “If the pain lasts longer than an hour or there’s swelling we need to get you to the doctor,” I said.
“Really, I’m fine,” David said quickly. “His foot hit me mostly in the inner thigh so it was just a glancing blow.”
“Hmmm... okay,” I said critically, going into doctor mode. “But we are going to need to check for swelling after you get out of the tub just to be safe.”
“We? After I get out of the tub?” David said in a strangled voice. “Uh, no. I can, uh, check myself. I don’t need you to help with that, especially right after I get out of a tub of ice.”
“Well, let me know if you see anything worrisome” I said hesitantly, wondering if I should insist - for purely medical reasons, of course. I continued to read through the websites. “They say we also need to get you in some underwear that had lots of support and protection. Your boxers are all soaking now. Do you have any extra clothes in the locker room?”
“Uh, I’ve got some spandex for running in my locker,” David said. He sounded bashful. No doubt this was a sensitive subject for him. I couldn’t let him know that talking about his underwear mortified me as much as it did him. He deserved to be treated with dignity.
“Give me your combination and I’ll get it,” I said.
“Okay, but just get the bag please,” David said after a moment. “I can get what I need from it after.”
I was relived to give David a few moments of peace, though it took some willpower to be able to tear my eyes away from his shirtless body.
I hesitantly pushed my way through the doors of the boys’ locker room and flipped on the lights. I waited but didn’t hear anything. It was deserted at this time of day. Good. Then an overwhelming smell of body odor and hints of cheap colon and body spray hit me and I gagged. Why did the room smell this bad? The girls’ locker room smelled like fruity perfume and soap. Boys were gross.
I wandered through the locker room and found the area where the runners kept their stuff. A card that read “D. Reagan” was pasted on the locker. I used the combination that David had given me and retrieved his bag.
How could I make this better? David had tried to help me and I had gotten him hurt. He was my hero but felt humiliated. That wasn’t right. There had to be a way for me to make him feel like the hero he was.
I thought about my girls. What would they say? Alyssa would tell me to be nice to David and take an interest in his interests. Payton would tell me to flirt with him to make him feel manly again. Olivia... what would the budding psychologist say? She would probably tell me to put David in a role where he could take control again. If people act the role, they start to assume the role. So I needed some activity that David was passionate about where he could take the lead and I could flirt with him.
Wrestling. The thought flew into my mind. David had already told me that he couldn’t wait for the wrestling season to begin. Maybe I could ask him to show me some moves? He could take on the role of the teacher and I could use it as an excuse to feel him up and flirt with him. It was perfect.
And then the idea flew out of my mind as quickly as it had entered. Wrestling was physical and that’s the last thing that David needed right now. Every time he moved he would feel pain. Once again, I was out of ideas.
As I walked out of the locker room I passed a row of lockers with baseball bats and other baseball equipment. I stopped in surprise. The baseball season wasn’t until spring. What was this stuff doing here now? The baseball guys must practice in the off-season and get lockers from the school to store their stuff. As I looked down the row of lockers I saw one labeled “S. Queen.”
I felt my anger rise as I looked at Sam’s name. I fought the petty urge to get a bucket and dump water on his clothes. Then as I stood there, glaring at his locker, an idea occurred to me. Sam had hurt David, the least he could do was lend David something to make help him get better. I searched the locker room and grabbed a chair with metal legs. I threaded one of the legs through the lock on Sam’s locker and wrenched down until the lock broke open. Then I searched through his bag until I found the particular item I was looking for. It picked it up with my fingers, trying to touch as little of it as possible, and dropped it on top of David’s bag. Then I had another thought. I extracted David’s running shirt from his bag, ran back to his locker, and locked it inside.
I had one more stop to make before I could set my plan in motion. I stopped in the girls’ locker room and went to my locker. I picked out the tightest fitting soccer shirt and shorts that I had and changed into them. Then I looked in the mirror and fixed up my hair as best I could.
David looked at me in confusion when I got back into the therapy room. “Why are you wearing your soccer stuff?” he asked.
“I had an idea,” I said. “Right now the principal and our teachers are going to be busy sorting out who is responsible for the fight. I don’t think it hurts to lie low for a while until things blow over. Besides, are you in any hurry to get back to classes? No one is going to get any work done while everyone talks about the fight and the teachers give lectures.”
“So?” David said uncertainly. “What did you have in mind?”
“I want you to teach me how to wrestle,” I said.
David laughed heartily and then grimaced. “I told you not to make me laugh,” he said.
“I’m serious,” I said. “At the running meet you told me you couldn’t wait for wrestling season. Well? What better time than the present? You can teach me a few moves. Unless you’re afraid of getting beat by a soccer chick, that is. We can be pretty tough, you know. I’m willing to bet I can take a pretty boy wrestler down.”
David’s expression was pained. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he said. “I don’t think I can do anything too active right now.”
“I’ve already thought of that,” I said. “And I found this. Just put it on and you’ll be fine.”
I held up his bag and showed him what was on top of it. He choked and began to cough. “That’s a jo
ckstrap,” he said between coughs.
“I know,” I said. “I borrowed it from Sam’s locker. I don’t think he’ll mind, considering. Oh don’t give me that look. We’re not five years old. I know what a jock strap is and why boys need it. Now stop wasting time and get suited up or I’ll think you really are scared of me.”
“Putting on another dude’s cup is disgusting,” David said.
“Just slip it on over your spandex shorts,” I said. “It never has to touch your skin.”
David looked at me incredulously but it seemed like he had run out of excuses. I averted my eyes as he got out of the tub and changed into his spandex shorts and the jockstrap. After he had slid on mesh running shorts he told me I could look. “Hey,” he said as he rummaged through his bag. “Where’s my shirt? I could have sworn I packed my running shirt this morning when I left home.”
“I didn’t see it,” I said innocently. “I just grabbed the bag like you said and I’m not going back in that locker room. It smelled really, really bad. You can’t wear your golf shirt, though; it’s too nice. Just go shirtless. I don’t mind at all.”
David eyed me for a moment and then seemed to decide that I was not devious enough to hide his shirt. “So what’s the bet?” he said.
“Bet?”
“Yeah, you said you bet that you could ‘take a pretty boy wrestler down,’” David said. “I’ll teach you a few moves and then we’ll see what you’ve got. If I win, what do I get?”
I shrugged. “What do you want?” I asked.
He hesitated and then blurted out, “You have to go on a date with me.” His face got red as he said the words but he looked serious.
I smiled. Inside, my heart was soaring. I restrained the urge to jump around and pump my fists in the air like I had after kissing Sam.. “Okay,” I said. “And if I win?”
“What do you want?” he asked warily.
I thought about it and then said, “If I win, you have to take your shirt off wherever and whenever I tell you to all month. And you have to go on a date with me.”
David looked surprised. Then he said, “Dang, I should have thought of that.”
“Why Mr. Reagan,” I exclaimed, “I thought you were too much of a gentleman to say something like that.”
David shook his head. “You’re unbelievable. You took my shirt, didn’t you?” he said.
“What can I say?” I said with upturned palms. “I’ve gotten fond of those abs.”
Luckily, several gym mats were folded up against the wall so people could stretch on them when necessary. We unfolded the maps in the middle of the floor of the therapy room. Then we started with a basic wrestling stance. David taught me where to put my feet and hands and how to arch my back. He told me to bend my knees so I had a low center of gravity. Then he taught me how to do set up takedowns after doing something called drop steps.
“Now I’ll teach you the double-leg takedown,” David said. “You’re going to do a drop step and then grab the backs of my thighs. Pull them towards you as you drive your head and shoulders into my waist. You’ll be pulling my legs and knees one way and forcing my body backwards. It’s an effective takedown maneuver.”
Finally, and excuse to touch him. I wrapped my arms around the backs of his legs and pushed my shoulders into his hips. Nothing happened but I got to brush his lower abs with my cheek. They felt good. I tried to lift him up to throw him down but he felt like a ton of bricks and wouldn’t budge.
David laughed. “You need to try harder than that,” he said. “Don’t worry, I won’t break. You’re not going to pick me up, just try to knock me over.”
I took a step back and then threw myself into the drop step and takedown. I smacked into his waist hard and this time and I felt him sway backwards. I pulled up with my hands as hard as I could and he toppled over. I landed on his bare chest.
“Good!” he praised me. “Let’s try it again.”
I’ll admit that I took my time getting up and may have been a tad liberal with where I put my hands as I did.
We repeated the drill over and over again until I could take David down with ease. Then the real fun started; he started teaching me different holds. David was mostly too shy to perform the holds on me and when he did he was always careful about where he put his hands. I was the opposite. If I was doing a hold on him I took the opportunity to feel as much skin as possible. I slid my hands over his rippling muscles with hidden glee.
I have no idea how much time went by. I felt like I was in a daze. David was amazing with me. He quickly grew more and more comfortable with giving instruction and being in command. His voice lost all signs of shyness and embarrassment and became authoritative. It was even sexier than his aw-shucks act.
I wanted to show him that I was interested in what he was teaching me so I asked as many questions as I could think of. When I ran out of pointers to ask about, I started asking him to show me some advanced holds. I really wanted him to put his hands on me so I kept pushing him to show me more and more holds. “What are some of the most advanced or embarrassing holds in wrestling?” I asked and then I made him describe them to me. He told me about the cradle and the spladle and the double grapevine. It was easy to picture why the spladle was also called the “banana split” when he told me about it but I couldn’t figure out why the double grapevine was nicknamed the “Saturday Night Ride.” When I asked David what it meant he got really red and wouldn’t say. He described them all in detail to me and showed me how they started out but to my dismay he wouldn’t show me the rest.
“Okay,” he finally said. “I think you’re ready for our little match.”
“You’re going down, pretty boy,” I said as we faced off against each other.
David was quick. Too quick. Before I could even move he had grabbed my legs. He lifted me into the air and set me down on the mat gently. “Give up?” he asked with a smile as he looked down at me.
Apparently he didn’t know how competitive I was. If he thought I was a damsel in distress, he was greatly mistaken. I let out a war cry and hurled myself at him. He laughed as we rolled across the mat.
Every time I tried a move he would spin away and counter. I felt like I was fighting a phantom. Then he started moving me around so that each time I tried to pin him I was somehow the one that ended up lying on my back looking up at him. He was toying with me and I knew it. He had a broad smile on his face. I was definitely enjoying it as well but that didn't mean I was willing to lose. After all, being able to make a gorgeous guy take his shirt off whenever I wanted was a pretty amazing power to have.
The next time I landed on my back I saw my chance. David rested on all fours above me with his legs straddling my knees and his hands on either side of my torso. “Give up?” he asked again with a smirk.
Instead of answering him I brought my knee up sharply like I was going to strike him in the groin.
David’s eyes flew open wide in panic. He reacted instinctively by cupping both hands around his crotch. I knew that his mind didn’t bother to consider that he was already wearing a protective cup. It just processed a threat and recalled that the expected target had endured far too much pain for one day.
The diversion was just what I needed. I jumped up and hooked my left leg around his right ankle. I reached for his other ankle like he had taught me to do.
David quickly bent down to rest his right arm against the mat to stabilize himself and protect against my attempt to roll him. That’s when his instructions came screaming into my mind. Spladle! The move was perfect for this situation based on what David had told me.
I didn’t have time to run through it in my head. I had been in many situations like this before in soccer and had learned never to hesitate. I move as quickly as David’s directions flashed through my mind. Step 1: grab his left ankle. I leaned over him and seized his ankle. Step 2: roll him and splay his legs. I threw my body weight to the right and pulled David over top of me. As I did I pulled his left ankle one way and spread hi
s right ankle the other way with my leg. Step 3: lock it in. I put my hands around David’s left thigh and pried his leg even farther in that direction. Then I shifted my other leg so that it was inside David’s right knee and hooked my knee inside his. Then I laid back and admired my handiwork.
David’s back and head were lying perpendicular across my abs. His hands were flailing uselessly above his head. His body was doubled up sharply at the waist so that his butt was sticking up into the air and his legs were spread wide apart like he was doing the splits. I had locked this tall, lean, shirtless stud-muffin up and rendered him completely helpless.
I couldn’t help it. I giggled excitedly at my victory. “Well?” I asked. “Do you give up?”
There was silence for a moment and then I heard him say “Yes, I give up.” He said the words quietly and I instantly sensed that something was wrong. Of course. He had been humiliated in front of me and I had just built him up a little to tear him right back down. I instantly released him and knelt beside him.
“David, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to...”
David sat up and reached out with his hand. He brushed my cheek and then gently pulled my head closer to meet his lips. We kissed and then laid down on the mats and kissed some more. I felt his shirtless body on top of me and rubbed my hands over his muscles as the passionate kiss continued forever.
I half thought days had passed by the time we finally left the therapy room. David had to put his running bag back so I followed him back into the boy’s locker room. I scrunched up my nose as the stench hit me.
David put his stuff in his locker and then went back to Sam’s to drop the jockstrap off. He hesitated in front of Sam’s locker, however, as if a thought had just occurred to him.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Wait here,” he said. He dropped the jockstrap on the bench beside the locker and jogged out of the locker room. He returned a couple minutes later with a jar of gel. I recognized it instantly as the same type of topical gel I applied to my skin after sports injuries. The chemicals in the gel told the nerve receptors in the skin that the gel was ice cold and then hot. Very hot. The gel could be painful on the skin of one’s arm. In a more sensitive spot, the gel would be almost unbearable.
Kiss List (The List Series) Page 6