1st Time Love (Dirty Down South)

by Sapphire Knight

  Two figures on the sidewalk draw my attention. As I get near, I can make out Brianne and Kadence. She’s dressed in jeans and a t-shirt like yesterday. I love it; she looks normal—not all dressed up trying to show off for anyone.

  I like it when a woman can be herself and still be beautiful. The fakes stuff gets too over-the-top sometimes, and when you go swimming or take a shower, and all the fake comes off, it’s like being with an entirely different person. And sometimes the other person looks pretty scary. That sounds dickish, but it’s the truth. Too much black on your eyebrows or under your eyes is really a curse, not a benefit. Don’t ask what it is with me noticing eyebrows, but I always have for some reason.

  Pulling over beside them, their pace increases, clearly thinking I’m a creeper or something. Turning down the radio, I shout through the open passenger side window, “Kadence! Brianne! Come here.”

  At their names they stop power walking and turn toward me, Brianne shielding her eyes from the headlights. “Ty?” she asks, squinting.

  “Yeah, get over here! Both of you.”

  I can’t believe they’re walking in the dark. At least there are two of them in case someone were to bother them. They approach the passenger window. Kadence stands back a little bit, while Brianne leans on the window sill, smiling. “What’s up, Ty?”

  “Hey, stranger; you guys hop on in, and I’ll give you a ride.”

  “Okay, thanks. Come on, Kay,” Brianne calls.

  “No, I’m fine. Thanks, though.” Kadence starts to walk off.

  Brianne turns to me, “She’s not going to let you give us a lift, she’s stubborn like that. Thanks, though.”

  “No, wait. I’ll get her. You get in, and I’ll put her through the driver side.”

  “You’re actually going to carry her over here?” Her eyes grow wide, and I grin mischievously as the vision of her holding onto me like I’m her prince fills my mind. She’s small enough I could lift her no problem, and I’ll probably get bonus points when she sees how strong I am. She has no idea all the fun we could have together. These muscles aren’t just fluff.

  “Why not?” I shrug. “She bumped into me yesterday, after all. I think me carrying her around is probably the next step in our physical introduction.”

  She giggles, full of excitement at our plan. “She’s going to kill you. It’s going to be hilarious, go for it! Oh and be careful; I’m pretty sure she knows self-defense. She may throw a kick or two.”

  Brianne’s acquainted with me well enough to know that I wouldn’t hurt her friend, just mess with her a little. When I open my door and sprint after Kadence, Brianne jumps into the passenger side, quickly closing the door. I can hear her excited laughter float out of the open window as she watches us.

  I snatch Kadence around the waist, lifting her up before she even knows what’s happening. Then take off running back toward my truck, jiggling her around like a sack of potatoes. She’s small enough that I could tote her around all day I imagine.

  “Ho-ly s-hi-t! Put me do-wn!” she yells, making me chuckle louder as her voice dips and rises with each of my bumpy strides.

  “Nope, you got me yesterday in the hall. Now it’s my turn.” Getting back to my still-open truck door, I practically launch her petite body inside. Then I jump in beside her before she can escape, slamming my door closed in a flash.

  “Stealing me is payback for accidently bumping into you? It wasn’t even that hard!” She huffs while Brianne laughs, tears trailing down her face as she giggles at Kadence being manhandled.

  “Nah, if I were stealing you, then I wouldn’t be dropping you off at your dorm. I’d just keep you, and I’m pretty sure there’d be a rope or handcuffs of some sort.”

  “Well, that’s not creepy at all.”

  I wink, smiling at her. “I’m assuming you stay in one of the dorms over here or do you belong to one of the sorority houses?” I doubt that she’s in a sorority, but ask anyway. I don’t want to offend her by ruling it out right away.

  “We’re in Charleston Hall.” Kadence sends me a sideways glance.

  “You’re even closer to me, then.”

  She leans forward, turning up my radio and restarts the song after she hears what’s on.

  “Please, help yourself to the radio.”

  “Hey, you stuck me in here, so technically it’s your fault. Just be thankful a good song’s on, or I’d be dj-ing for you.” Grinning at her, she returns it with a soft smile and pink cheeks.

  Moments later, we pull into her dorm’s parking area. “See, no kidnapping charges to be filed. If anything I may have just saved you from some unnecessary foot blisters. You really should be thanking me.”

  “Gee, you’re so thoughtful.”

  Brianne opens her door, waving, “Thanks, Ty.”

  “No problem, see you Wednesday.” I wave back, as she steps out and my gaze lands on Kadence again.

  “Unless you want to be kidnapped?” I ask. “I could work something out. I do have an empty room and a loud radio to drown out any noises you decide to make.”

  “You’re really not making yourself sound good; I just want you to know that.”

  “We could go for a drive.” It’s full of innuendo, but she ignores it.

  “And where would you take me?”

  “Well, where would you want to go?” I’d take her wherever she let me as long as we’d get to be alone. I want to know everything there is to know about her, including the color of her panties.

  “I guess you’ll never know, Tyler Owens.” Smirking, she climbs out, closing the door behind her.

  “Hey!” I call as she turns to walk away.

  “Yes?” Her eyes sparkle with our easy banter.

  “You should probably give me your number.”

  “It’s like that destination we were just discussing; you’ll ‘probably’ never know it.” She winks and walks towards Brianne.

  Cute.

  She’s got jokes, and it makes her even more fascinating. Now not only do I want to kiss her sassy little mouth but I also want to smack her on her sweet round ass. Christ, this is exactly what I needed after that fight last weekend and then having to sit out of the last game—a good ole-fashioned distraction. A fun one at that, I can already tell.

  Waiting, I make sure they get inside the building safely, and the entire time, I’m thinking of our exchange. I can’t get over the excited feeling in my stomach and the way that my heart’s beating fast. She’s a damn tease, and I love that shit. It makes me want to discover each inch of her body and get to know her in every other possible way as well.

  Since when have I wanted to waste time on a chick like this? It doesn’t matter; I want to now. There’s one thing I’m good at besides football, and that’s winning. I’ll get that number, just wait and see.

  “He likes you,” Brianne announces loudly, nearly singing the words as we walk through the corridor toward our shared dorm room.

  Exactly what I didn’t want to happen. But secretly inside, I’m flattered, but that man spells trouble, no doubt.

  “No, he doesn’t; that was just flirting. That’s all guys like him do. They play with the ‘me types’ and date the ‘Jada types.’ I’m way too boring for a man like that.”

  “Oh gross.” She waves me off. “Jada’s such a tramp. When she came up to him at the table, I swear his skin crawled. Ty’s friendly with pretty much everyone, but I see him in class twice a week. He doesn’t flirt with all the girls like you two were doing in the truck just now. He’ll tease sometimes, but it’ll be for like two seconds until the girl gives in and hands over her number or whatever.” She unlocks our door, and I follow her into our room.

  Like that’s any better. “You’re so not helping his case with that one.”

  “I’m not trying to, just wanting you to see the point that I’m trying to make. I’m not going to lie to you about him to try and make him look good or anything. You’ll see the kind of person he is on your own, and I have a feeling you’ll li
ke him back.”

  “I see he’s a flirt and if I want him to stop, then I should just cough up my number, is that right?”

  At least that’s what I’m getting from her defending him anyway. She seems to think he actually likes me and is thrilled with that prospect. Me—not so much. Ty is all trouble with a capital T. I noticed it from the first time I laid my eyes on him, and I don’t have any time for that!

  “No…Well, shit. That did sound kind of bad, I guess. So, umm Ty sleeps with girls, lots of them. But he’s also mega popular around here. You saw how those females in the cafeteria acted with the football players tonight. Girls just throw themselves at the guys. It doesn’t mean that he’s a bad person or that he’d be the same way if he actually liked someone. That someone being you.”

  “Why do you care about this, anyhow? You get absolutely nothing out of me liking him except putting up with my bitch fest about him. I’m not like you; ice cream doesn’t solve my problems when it comes to guys. If anything it makes my issues worse because my butt gets bigger.”

  “Ugh, I don’t know, essentially I’d get nothing, but this isn’t about me. It would just be nice to see you with someone like him. I think you’d sort of balance each other out or something. Especially with what happened at last week’s game. He needs someone who won’t bring any drama around. And by the way, I love ice cream, thank you very much.”

  I know she does, I’m the one who gets stuck eating it with her.

  “I have no idea what went down at his game, you know I only watch the NFL.”

  “Well to get straight to it; he ripped a guy’s helmet clean off his head and was sitting on top of him, throwing punches. He knocked the other player’s tooth out and everything. It was pretty awesome after watching the asshole ram into Ty during almost the entire game.”

  Jesus, she’s not helping his case at all.

  “Oh, God. See, he has violent tendencies. Exactly why I need to stay away from him and you just let him carry me around. I see who’s side you’re on.”

  “Whatever! You’re being dramatic, and I’m the dramatic friend, remember? And uh, good luck with staying away from him, because you’re definitely on his radar.” She beams a smile, and I roll my eyes at her for the twentieth time today. She’s used to it. Over the years it’s become my go-to response with her whenever she comes up with her next scheme.

  That’s fine. I’m sure I’ll be back off his radar just as quickly as I popped on it. Guys like him can’t stay devoted to liking or being interested in one person, so I’m not worried in the slightest bit. Tyler Owens is exactly like all the rest of the jocks in college. One thing on his mind and when he doesn’t get it from me, he’ll forget I even existed.

  It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.

  -Babe Ruth

  Game five-

  One week later and three hours until game time…

  “That cheeky fucker.” Mumbling the words, I close our dorm door once the delivery guy walks off. The hall was littered with nosey students, probably wanting to know why we were getting a delivery that didn’t consist of take out.

  “Who was it?” Brianne mumbles, taking a big bite of pepperoni pizza. I swear this chick could live off the stuff and she stays looking like a twig too.

  “Delivery guy. He dropped off tickets to the home game today.”

  “No way! You ordered us tickets?” She asks around chewing a big bite of food, clearly excited to go and cheer for our school’s football team. Alabama students pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe football during the season.

  Facing her, I hold up the number twelve football jersey—a Tyler Owen’s replica jersey that was just dropped off with the envelope full of game tickets. She bursts out laughing, and I follow with my own giggles. She knows I didn’t order it, that’s for sure.

  “How is he being cheeky? I think it’s very sweet.” She chuckles around another bite of pizza. “Plus, that means we’ll get to go early and tailgate!”

  “Yeah, no. And because he’s automatically assuming I want to watch him play football, and wear his jersey at that. I should show up wearing a jersey with another team member’s number for that one.”

  “But you love football.”

  “Wrong. I love NFL football, one team in particular, actually, and you know I don’t do the tailgating. Those guys end up trashed before the game and half the time in a fight. I’ve seen the news about it and have read the campus paper about having a good time but being responsible on school property.”

  “They do get pretty wild with the partying.” She nods. “You’ve never even seen Ty play before though, he’s good.”

  “So? Neither have you.” I shrug, and she grins, guiltily. “Wait, you’ve seen him play before? How do I not know this? You’ve been holding out on me a lot.”

  “You were visiting your dad in Texas and my date at the time took me. Ty ended up scoring two touchdowns.”

  “My best friend, and yet you leave out vital information.”

  “Nah, that date turned out to be a dipshit. Now get dressed; we have a football game to go watch!”

  “I’m not going. Maybe I’ll see if one of the skanks down the hallway wants the tickets, lord knows they were nosey enough when the guy dropped the envelope and jersey off.”

  “Hell no! Remember what he did when you wouldn’t let him give you a ride?”

  My thoughts flash to him carrying me, his muscles hard against my soft body. They felt delicious, way better than they should have, that’s for sure. “You’re right.” I nod, “We can show up to the game for a while, but once it gets boring, we’re leaving, or at least I’m leaving.”

  “He sent more than one ticket? And trust me, it won’t be boring. College football’s not what you think it is.”

  “If you say so, and yeah, he sent five.”

  “Holy shit!” She jumps up and runs to her closet. “I have the perfect shirt to wear too.”

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  “Do you want to invite anyone else?”

  “No, we’ll get all that space…Plus I don’t really have anyone else I’d want to spend that much time with,” I reply bluntly, and she laughs.

  Brianne turns into this excited maniac, rummaging through both of our closets to find her outfit and some shorts to go with my newly-acquired jersey. I have to admit, seeing him in those tight football pants does have me a little excited.

  “You sent five tickets? Five, bro?” JJ looks at me like I’m crazy.

  “And a jersey.” I shrug, and he bursts out laughing.

  “Oh man, and you haven’t even hit it yet. She’s going to have you whipped at this rate.”

  “I will though just wait, and it’ll be ten times better than what you’ve been dipping into.” A few of the guys around me snicker, knowing I’m talking about Jada and her slutty friends. Kay is prime meat, no doubt in my mind, but none of these idiots take the extra two seconds to see it.

  “I don’t know bro; you send her tickets, buy her a shirt…Now you’re talking about her pussy being better.” He looks behind me. “Watch out, Chandler; our pussy magnet may be getting spoken for.”

  Huffing, I slam my locker closed. “I’m having some fun; it’s not like we’re falling in love or any of that crazy shit.”

  “Mmhmm,” Chandler pipes in from behind. “So where are you planning on taking her after the game?”

  “Back to my bedroom if the tickets work like I want.”

  Laughing, JJ bumps my forearm with his, giving me props.

  “Hey, Niner, check this out, Owens sent some chick five tickets for the game today.”

  “His eyes widen. “Does she have hot friends?”

  I shrug. Brianne’s not bad looking, but I don’t know about any other friends of hers.

  He busts out laughing and makes a few ‘whipping’ sounds causing the other guys to chuckle with him.

  Nosey asses.

  Ignoring them, I grab my receiving gloves and check myself over aga
in, to make sure I’m all set for today’s game. I’ll take Kadence out any day if she’ll let me. I’m not admitting that to my boys, though, and besides, right now she’s playing hard to get. It’s all good. I love the chase—makes things way more entertaining.

  She’s the best type of distraction for me right now, too, with the fight happening two weeks ago and Clyde not letting me or Nate help him out at home. I need something to get my mind off it all, and she’s perfect. Besides, once I do finally get her, it’ll be that much more satisfying.

  “Come on twelve!” Coach shouts so I’ll get to the front of the team with Kash our QB and lead everyone out. Grabbing my helmet, I get in my position. “Defense and offense team captains?”

  “Yes, Coach!” Kash and I both yell together as our teammates start stomping their cleats against the concrete floor, getting pumped up. Between stomps they smack their hands against their thighs, making loud clapping sounds. The locker room begins to sound like a giant rumble, and it causes my heart rate to speed up.

  I play both sides; offense and defense. I’m actually slotted for four different positions but play wherever the team needs me at the most. Plus, it allows me to be a team captain for the defense. I’m close to a lot of the guys, including our quarterback on offense because of it.

  “We ready to show them how Alabama football gets played in our house?”

  “Hell yes!” The entire team shouts back, making the locker room sound like more of a thunderous echo. It’s the stomping and chanting that always gets my adrenaline going, then when we run out and hear the fans doing the same, it does insane things to my stomach. I always feel a huge burst of energy and excitement come over me.

  “Then send them back home!” Coach hollers and the team goes crazy.

  The guys stay in line, jogging behind Kash and me as we make our way out the hall and onto the field. The stadium’s full today, with fans standing and screaming to greet us. I’m grateful for all of the support, every single one of them cheering us on, but my gaze immediately scopes out one section in particular.