by K. A. Linde
We dug into the bottom of the machine and pulled out the two Cokes. Cole looked at it as if it were a goddamn miracle.
“This is seriously the coolest shit,” he said after we shut all the lights off and headed back to his car.
“It’s so random.”
“That’s why it’s the best superpower ever.”
“I accept this great achievement.”
He slipped his hand back into mine and gave me another look that made me melt into a puddle. “I don’t want this night to end.”
I flushed again. “Me neither. I’m having a great time.”
“We could go get a drink,” he suggested.
“I don’t have a fake.”
He shrugged. “You don’t need one. I can get us in.”
“Are you that self-assured about everything?”
“No,” he said. “I wasn’t sure that you’d say yes.”
“I didn’t.”
He leaned back against his Jeep and finished off the Coke, setting it on the hood. “Yeah. Why did you say no anyway?”
“I kind of swore off football players.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You dated a football player here?”
I shook my head. “In high school.”
“Well, damn, guy must have broken your heart if you swore off all of us.”
“Something like that.” Not that I wanted to talk about Ash at all.
“So, why’d you say yes then? I’m still a football player.”
“Don’t remind me,” I said with an eye roll.
“I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m glad you did. I’d been working up the courage for weeks.”
“No, you haven’t!”
“I’m serious,” he said. “I liked that you never gave a shit who any of us were.”
“So, you do notice that people notice you,” I teased.
He held his hands up and shot me that same cocky grin he always shot the camera. “I mean … I noticed more that you didn’t notice.” He tugged me a little closer until we were nearly sharing the same space. “I like that.”
I cleared my throat, feeling everything in me set aflame from that look. “What if I said I had noticed?”
His eyebrows shot up. “That so?”
“Maybe,” I said with a laugh.
His eyes dipped down to my lips, and for a split second, I thought he might kiss me. Right here in the center of downtown, where anyone and everyone could see us.
I realized two things simultaneously: I wanted him to kiss me, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that to happen.
This date … this date had been perfect. Easy. Uncomplicated. I’d made out with random strangers, and it hadn’t meant anything. But I knew without a doubt … this would mean something.
Cole Davis meant something.
So, I took the step back that I needed to breathe in his presence.
“Why don’t we get you home, Lila?”
I nodded. This time, I didn’t correct him.
And I never would again.
3
Athens
April 5, 2008
The tailgate before the spring G-Day game looked like a stampede of elephants had trampled over North Campus. Josie wove drunkenly through the crowd of people, as if she went to Georgia, easily maneuvering us from one drink to the next.
To be fair, Josie had gone to an Atlanta high school that had sixty people out of their senior class come to the university. So, it was feasible that she knew more people here than I did.
“You have to sit with us,” Channing said, latching on to my arm.
“Definitely.”
My buzz was tipping into dangerous territory, but how could I deny the captain of the dance team? I couldn’t.
Georgia had two main dance teams. The one that marched with the band for football games and the varsity team that performed at all basketball games, volleyball games, and gymnastic meets. Channing and I were on the latter.
The lot of us pushed into Sanford Stadium, falling into place in the one hundred–student section in our array of red-black-and-white game day dresses. The good thing about being surrounded by other dancers was that we knew every cheer and doubled the volume in the stadium.
“Oh my God!” Josie screamed. “There’s Cole!”
Her words were lost in the uproar as the football players jogged out onto the football field for the annual scrimmage. Half of the team was in red and half in white. They’d play each other, including any new recruits who had signed to Georgia for next season. The coveted quarterback position was typically won at this game, and we had two promising quarterbacks this year. I couldn’t wait to see them both play.
Though I’d be lying if my eyes didn’t follow Cole in his red uniform. I’d told him last night where I’d be sitting with the rest of the dance team. And today, he looked up at the audience and pointed straight toward me.
The crowd went wild. No one, except Josie and me, knew that the gesture was pointed and not just a thank-you to the entire crowd. My face was on fire, and Josie bounced up and down with excitement.
“He is so hot,” Channing said next to me. “Not my type obviously, but I can appreciate a pretty face.”
“He really is,” I agreed easily.
“I heard that he’s back on the market. His last relationship went down in massive flames.”
I frowned. I didn’t want to know more about him than what he’d told me. If I wasn’t ready to discuss my relationship … maybe he wasn’t either.
“Lila went on a date with him last night,” Josie said gleefully.
Channing’s head snapped to me. “Excuse me? And no phone call? Are we even friends?”
I laughed and shot her an apologetic look. “It was kind of last minute. We have Kinesiology together, and he asked me out.”
“Holy shit! How did it go? Tell me everything.”
So, as the two teams lined up for the game, I divulged to Channing what I’d already spent last night telling Josie. And by the end, Channing looked as if she were going to explode with excitement.
“So, he was pointing at you?” she gasped. She pulled her blonde hair up into a ponytail since the heat was out of this world today. It was like spring had come yesterday and full-blown summer hit today. Typical Georgia.
“Yes!” Josie squealed.
“Oh, I love this. Who knew our little Delilah would snag Cole Davis?”
“I mean, it was one date.”
“Whatever,” Channing said with a hand wave. “That was more than a first date.”
And I couldn’t deny that. Not one bit.
It was a brutally hot day. I was sticky and would have happily gone home to shower and chill in the air conditioning, but I couldn’t leave my seat. The dance team continued to cheer through the fourth quarter. When the red team scored the winning touchdown, the entire stadium went wild, even with the dwindling numbers. We made up for the empty seats.
Before the clock ticked down its final few seconds, I grabbed Josie’s hand and tugged her out of the bleachers. We raced down the stairs to field level. Sanford Stadium was set up with a ring of five-foot hedges surrounding the field and a path around the hedges that led to the seats. I wanted to be the first one down there to take pictures between the hedges.
Josie and I snapped pictures individually and then together when we could grab someone to take it for us. The person taking our picture gasped.
I was about to ask what was wrong when I heard the cheers of the football players behind us. Josie grabbed her phone back and swiveled to take shots of the football players in the hedges, chanting with the marching band and remaining fans.
A few players jumped the hedges and pulled themselves up into the stands in front of the marching band to dance and celebrate.
“Oh my God!” Josie cried, taking picture after picture after picture.
We were at the heart of it. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.
Then I heard my name behind me.
&nb
sp; Josie and I both whipped back around to find Cole Davis standing on the other side of the hedges. His helmet was still on, but I could see the gleam in his eyes and the wide smile on his face.
“This is crazy!” I yelled over to him.
Whatever he said next disappeared as the marching band started up another song.
“What?” I called.
He shook his head in exasperation, and then with two purposeful steps, he jumped, vaulting the hedges and sliding over to the other side. My eyes widened in shock. I’d seen other players clambering over the hedges, but he’d made it look like he’d taken a hurdle. Precise and somehow effortless.
“I said,” he began, tugging his helmet off of his head and looking down at me, “I was looking for you throughout the game.”
“Oh,” I said. “You found me.”
“I guess I did.”
He took that final step forward, bridging the distance between us with ease. His hand pushed up into my hair. My head tilted up to look at him towering over me.
We hung there, suspended in space and time. Everything shifted. The world dropped away. The chanting buzzed into silence. All around us, people celebrated, and here, right now, it was just me and Cole.
Then his head dipped down, and his mouth touched mine. We melded together as if we were always meant to be. He tasted like sweat and the sweet tang of a sports drink and something inexplicably him. My fingers tangled into the front of his jersey, distorting the number eighty-eight. I reveled in the feel of his kiss. I’d been hesitant last night, but all that hesitancy had evaporated.
He hooked his other arm, still holding his helmet, around my back, crushing me against his chest. I’d never felt so small as I did against his muscular build. I stood on my tiptoes, throwing my arms around him as he deepened the kiss. His tongue sweeping in to claim mine. I groaned deep in the back of my throat.
Then to my surprise, he effortlessly lifted me off the ground. I gasped as he twirled me around and then stole another kiss.
My eyes were only for him as he gently set me back on my feet. That was when everything else rushed back in. And the cheers from the crowd had changed in volume, erupting into applause and catcalls and whistles. Which was the moment that I realized they were cheering for us.
My face turned beet red, and I buried it into his jersey. “Oh my God!”
He laughed. “That was quite a kiss.”
“You were on the big screen!” Josie cried, snapping a picture.
“We were not!” I gasped.
Josie winked. “I got it all on my phone.”
“Stop! You did not. How many pictures did you take?”
Josie shrugged. “How could I not take pictures?”
Cole chuckled softly. He put his finger under my chin and tilted it up until I was looking at him. Then he stole another kiss. “Don’t listen to anyone else. This was perfect.”
My eyes locked with his again. “It was.”
“You’re mine now,” he said with all the heat of our first kiss baking in the summer sun.
Still, I shivered at the proclamation. And how right it was.
“I already was.”
And that would never change.
4
Athens
May 5, 2008
Finals week wasn’t the ideal time to throw a party. I definitely should have been studying for my Spanish final. Languages were not my strong suit, and I needed an A on the final to keep my B in the class. It was pathetic.
Instead, I was waiting for Marley to show up in Athens. She was the genius of us. She’d been in the Duke TIP program since middle school, which identified young talent, and had been admitted to the university with early acceptance. I missed her, as she was five long hours away. Thankfully, she didn’t have any finals at Duke and was currently driving south to be here in time for my birthday party.
I texted her, requesting an ETA.
Driving down the Atlanta Highway. *insert B-52 lyrics*
She was ridiculous, but I was glad that she was finally here.
Cole had been needling me all day about coming over to his place early for birthday shenanigans. It didn’t matter that we’d celebrated his birthday yesterday downtown. Half the football team had drunkenly shown up and gotten him so plastered that he’d blacked out the second I got him into his bed.
It was still surprising to me that our birthdays were so close. His on the fourth of May and mine on the fifth. I’d always hated having my birthday on Cinco de Mayo until college when it was apparently the coolest shit ever, and Cole had promptly declared that he was throwing a joint birthday party. Then he’d planned two anyway. Having two birthday parties after claiming we were only having one was perfectly Cole.
HERE! HERE! HERE!!!!!
I dashed out of my dorm room and down into the Brumby lobby. Marley had hiked up the hill and opened the lobby door when I got out of the elevator. We collided in the middle, laughing and practically near to tears. This was the longest either of us had ever gone without the other. I’d seen her at Christmas, and it was too long to go.
“I missed you!” Marley said.
“So much,” I told her. “Let’s never do this again.”
“Deal.” She finally released me. “So, when do I get to meet him?”
“Cole has been asking the same thing.”
“Well, it’s not fair that Josie was here the weekend y’all met,” Marley said. She brushed strands of her curly, dark hair out of her face and adjusted the large backpack on her back. It was likely all she’d brought with her for the day that she was staying with me before she returned to Savannah for the summer. If I knew my best friend at all, the rest of stuff was neatly arranged in boxes in the trunk of her giant SUV. Likely labeled, dated, and color-coordinated. “I mean, she’s been rubbing it in that she got those pictures of y’all at the game.”
“She sold them to a newspaper,” I groaned, dragging her deeper into the dorm.
“I know! That’s so Josie.”
“Isn’t it?”
We hurried back upstairs, chatting animatedly about everything and nothing.
I’d known Marley since second grade when we were both in Mrs. Jackson’s class. Marley complimented my Lisa Frank shirt, I gushed over her scrunchie, and then we promptly got in trouble for talking too much. We’d been inseparable ever since.
After we both got dressed, I texted Cole to let him know we were on our way and then took my beat-up Hyundai north of the dorms to the light-blue house where Cole lived with his two roommates. I knocked twice on the front door and then let myself inside. The party wouldn’t start for another hour and wouldn’t really get going until later, but already, there were a handful of people present, sitting around, watching TV, and pregaming with beers.
I pulled Marley in behind me. We hurried past one of Cole’s roommates, Barry, and continued into the kitchen. Cole turned at our presence, and a smile split his face.
“Finally,” he said, scooping me up and kissing me.
“I did text you.”
He patted his pockets. “I don’t know where my phone is.”
“You’re always losing it.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now. You’re here.” He turned to my best friend. “And you must be Marley.”
“I am,” she said, extending her hand for him to shake.
He took it. “So good to finally meet you. Lila talks about you nonstop.”
“Funny. I was going to say the same thing about you.”
He grinned as his gaze shifted back to me. “You talk about me nonstop?”
“You’re my new, shiny toy,” I told him with a wink.
“And what does that say about me?” Marley asked.
“You’re the Woody to his Buzz Lightyear.”
“I don’t know whether or not to be offended by that.”
“You’re forever, babe,” I told her, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “Now, we have two birthdays to celebrate.”
“Yes, wh
at can I get you?” Cole said. “Beer, wine, margaritas?”
“Margaritas,” Marley and I said in unison.
Cole blended together the drinks, and we took them into the living room to watch SportsCenter. I’d seen the baseball highlight plays already. Apparently, it was a casualty of spending a lot of time with Cole. More and more sports.
“So,” Marley said as she sank into a chair. She tucked her legs up underneath her and looked at Cole.
“Oh no,” I said into my margarita.
Cole glanced at me. “What?”
“Here it comes.”
“Tell me everything about you,” Marley said. “What’s your major? What do you want to be when you grow up? What do your parents do?”
“Mars,” I grumbled. “We talked about this.”
She looked sheepish. “I know you told me to stagger my questions, but this is who I am.”
Cole just chuckled. “It’s fine. I don’t mind the third degree from your best friend.”
Cole’s other roommate patted him on the back. “Good luck with that.”
“Thanks, Tony,” Cole said with an eye roll.
Tony leaned forward. “I’ve known him since high school. Trust me, he’s not that interesting.”
Marley and I laughed as Cole punched him in the shoulder.
“Dick,” Cole grumbled. “My major is sports management and marketing. I don’t ever want to grow up. And my dad is a football coach. My mom is a middle school teacher.”
“Okay, okay,” Marley said, holding her hands up. “I don’t understand what sports management even is.”
“It’s someone who wants to work with sports,” I told her.
“Yeah, but … what do you do with that?”
“Ignore her,” I said. “You don’t have to submit to this interrogation. She’s a science person, and she wants to, like, cure cancer.”
“Dementia,” Marley corrected.
“Interrogation already accepted,” Cole said with that same smile. His blue eyes bright as they rested on my best friend. “Sports management could be anything from professional sports to running a rec league. Personally, I’d like to be a talent scout for a professional football team, but I’m also interested in marketing and PR. Which is why I’m a double major.”