Right Kind Of Wrong

  Tessa looked at Naomi, “No! He has to tell us if he’s single.” She crossed her arms over her chest and jutted her chin out then looked at me. “Well?”

  I shook my head and laughed, “I do have a girlfriend…”

  “AH-HA! See! Seeeee! So Martin—“

  “Morgan.” Naomi and I corrected Tessa.

  She waved a hand dismissively, “Details details. If you have a woman, why are you over here talking to the three of us? I’ve seen you watching my beautiful little friend all night too.”

  I shrugged a shoulder, “Just being sociable, she didn’t look like she was having too much fun.” I replied.

  Christa hiccupped, “She’s about to have less fun…” she spun around and started puking over the rail of the porch.

  Tessa and Naomi both sighed, “And our night is over.” Naomi said as she pulled Christa’s hair away from her face.

  “Do you need help getting her home?” I asked.

  Tessa smiled a drunken smile, “Are you going to carry her across campus to our dorm?”

  “It’s totally okay, we can get her home.” Naomi interrupted.

  I cocked my head to the side, “My momma would whoop my ass if I didn’t help three ladies get home safely.”

  Christa groaned before standing up from where she was leaning against the rail, “I need my bed.”

  Naomi pursed her lips then looked at me, “Okay, fine, you can help us get her back to the dorm.”

  I smiled, “Lead the way.” I bent over and swept Christa up in a cradle hold.

  Tessa looped her arm through Naomi’s and I followed them down the porch. “You’re cute!” Christa slurred.

  I smiled down at her, “Thank you ma’am.”

  “Awww, and your southern! I’m in love!”

  “He’s taken!” Tessa replied.

  There was no response because Christa had promptly passed out against my chest. After walking for about ten minutes we were finally standing in front of their building. Naomi tried to get me to wake Christa up but I refused, “I’ll get her up to her room.”

  Tessa walked ahead of us through the building to the elevator. As I stood there with a sleeping Christa in my arms, I couldn’t stop stealing glances at Naomi. The doors glided open and a sleepy Tessa trudged down the hallways and unlocked a door. She pointed me toward the bed that was Christa’s. After putting her down she mumbled, “Thanks, southern hottie.” Before rolling over and falling back asleep. Tessa was already in her own bed with the covers pulled over her head.

  Naomi worked on taking their shoes off and putting trash cans next to each bed, “Thank you, I’ll uhm…walk you out.” She said. I followed her out of the room.

  “There’s only two beds in there, so…where’s your room?” I asked.

  Her eyes got big, “It’s…down the hall.”

  “Okay, well…goodnight.” I said to her.

  “Thanks again.” She said with a smile.

  “Not a problem, see you around.” I gave a small wave and shoved my hands into my front pockets as I walked away. Rather than go back to the party I decided to head back to my dorm instead. Just as I walked into my room my cell phone rang, Tabitha’s smiling face flashed on the screen. “Hello beautiful.” I answered.

  “I miss you!” She replied.

  “I miss you too.” I kicked my shoes off and stripped down to my boxers. “What did you do this evening?” I asked.

  “Absolutely nothing. Read for a while, sorted through the stuff I brought home from New York and put it all away. Visited with Kevin and Mom.”

  “Why didn’t you go out with Vi? She said she tried to get you to go to the party at Luke’s place.” I went into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth.

  “I just…I don’t think it’ll be any fun without you here. Did you do anything fun?”

  I debated on not telling her about walking with Naomi and her friends back to their dorms but decided that it was only right. “I carried a drunk girl back to her dorm.”

  “Seriously?” Tabitha screeched.

  “She was trashed and puked, I couldn’t just stand back and watch her two friends try to get her home.”

  Tabitha was quiet for a few seconds, “I…see. So, when do you think you’re going to come back here?”

  I blew out a breath when I laid back onto my bed, “I’m not sure, our first game is Friday and it’s an out of town game. We won’t get back here until late.”

  “Oh…is it okay if I come to a home game? Maybe ride down with your parents?” She asked.

  I smiled, “I’d like that, but bring your own vehicle, because I won’t be lettin’ you leave with my parents.”

  We talked about my class schedule and football schedule, our first two games were away games so it would be another three weeks before I would get to see Tabitha. “It’ll go by fast, I promise.” I told Tabitha.

  “I just need to see you, I feel so empty not having you here.” She told me.

  “I know…” I yawned loudly, “I’m going to get some sleep, try to get out and about with friends. That’ll help keep your mind occupied.” I said.

  “Okay…I love you.”

  “Love you too, night.”

  We both hung up and I tossed my phone onto the nightstand. When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t stop seeing Naomi’s petite figure and brown eyes. “Fuck!” I groaned. I couldn’t be thinking of her…I pinched my eyes shut and tried to think of every single thing it was that I loved about Tabitha.

  Over the next week, it seemed that every direction I turned I was running into Naomi. “It’s fuckin’ crazy that I’ve never seen you until this week.” I said with a laugh.

  Her tan skin glistened from the sun, “I had to change a couple of my classes.” She said with a smile as we walked into the lecture hall. “What are you majoring in?” she asked.

  “Undecided for right now. What about you?” I asked.

  “Social worker.” Her smile was mesmerizing.

  I wanted to touch her lips to see if they were as soft as they looked. I blinked away the thought and nodded my head. “After you…” I opened the door for her and followed her into the room. The classroom was already full, we stood at the doorway looking for two empty desks, “There’s a couple up there.” I pointed to a corner of the room on the back row.

  “Great!” She bound up the steps and hurried down the narrow aisle to the desks. “Seriously, why are there so many people in here?” She said and shook her head.

  I laughed, “It’s usually full, I’m guessing others changed their class schedule too.”

  The professor walked in, “Get your pen and paper ready, take notes on the video. Friday you’ll be quizzed.”

  “He’s short and to the point!” Naomi whispered.

  The lights dimmed down and the movie screen lowered, a documentary on American literature started playing. I watched and took notes, every so often glancing at Naomi out the corner of my eye. Suddenly her hand was on my thigh, “Stop it!” She whispered around a laugh.

  “Huh?” I asked. Her hand remained on my thigh. I shifted in my seat because just her touch on my jean-clad thigh had my dick getting hard.

  She squeezed my leg, “Stop shaking your leg!”

  My knee bounced a couple more times, “Oh…sorry.”

  Naomi giggled quietly and removed her hand, only to slap it back down on my leg a couple minutes later. I immediately stopped bouncing, “I take it you do that when you’re concentrating?”

  “Most of the time, I guess.” I said with a grin. Why the fuck my dick needed to continue to harden was beyond me. I reached down and adjusted myself through my jeans.

  Naomi glanced over and her eyes widened, “Is that a jock thing? Jock itch?” She asked, and quickly looked away. Suddenly it was her leg bouncing up and down. I placed my hand on her knee, the pale pink skirt she wore had ridden up so my hand made contact with the middle of her thigh. She stiffened and so did I.

  I leaned over and whispered, “It’s not jo
ck itch, my dick is hard and now it’s about the consistency of granite…stop shaking your leg. I take it you do that when your nervous?” I brushed my pinky against the inside of her thigh, her skin was as soft as silk and I could feel the heat of her pussy as I moved my hand higher.

  “Morgan…” she gripped my hand with hers and pushed my hand away. “We probably shouldn’t sit beside each other again.”

  I fisted my hands on my desk, “Yeah…probably not.” I mumbled.

  When the lights turned back on, Naomi grabbed her backpack and quickly stuffed her things inside of it. She hurried out of the room pushing through the crowd of students. I pushed after her and caught up with her outside. “Naomi, stop!” I yelled.

  She stopped but didn’t turn to face me, I walked up behind her, “I’m sorry.” I said softly.

  “You, you have a girlfriend.” She said but still didn’t turn to face me. Then she walked away. I stared at her as she walked away.

  My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, I pulled it out and it showed a new message for Vance.

  The video played and he zoomed in on Tabitha as she danced with the rest of the dance team at a pep rally. Her smile wasn’t as bright but she still looked amazing. The uniforms were new and looked to be a little on the jazzier skimpier side for the high school. The dance ended and Vance turned his cell phone toward him, “Later fucker!” He laughed and the video ended.

  We texted for a while longer and decided he would come on a weekend that Tabitha wasn’t going to be there.

  The rest of the day went by and I watched the video of Tabitha a few more times. It was like I had to keep reminding myself that she was my girlfriend, the fact that I touched Naomi and my body reacted the way it did to her touch…pissed me the hell off.

  Our last practice of the week coach told us to go home and take it easy, “No fuckin’ drinking! If I smell booze on you in the morning…you’re fuckin’ benched!”

  I spent the night in my room with Brody and Zane while we watched video of the team we would be playing. They were big, but not very fast, not one to underestimate the opponent though I made sure they both watched their positions.

  The video didn’t do justice to the size of the motherfuckers we played against. Number sixty-eight, Brent Briggs, for the Knights was the size of a goddamn refrigerator. He blind-sided me just after I caught the pass and took two strides, the crack of our helmets made me see stars.

  Brody leaned over me, “Morgan! How many fingers am I holding up?”

  I blinked a few times and pulled my mouth guard out of my mouth, “Four.” I guessed.

  “Get your ass up!” He extended his hand out to me and pulled me up to stand. “You okay?” He asked.

  “Yeah…where the fuck did he come from?” I replied as I jogged back to the huddle.

  We ended up losing to the Knights by twelve points, but, at least we knew what we needed to work on both offensively and defensively. After I finished showering I asked the trainers for a couple of Tylenol. The young guy dumped three out and handed them to me. “Don’t forget, every Monday you guys test.” He told me. Because every Monday before practice it was mandatory we tested to make sure there were no concussions going unnoticed.

  On the bus ride home, I dozed on and off to sleep the only thought that crossed my mind was how good the ice filled whirlpool was going to feel against my aching muscles.

  When we unloaded coach ordered all to the locker room to put our gear away and to rotate from the ice bath to the whirlpool. “Fuck…” I groaned and hissed as I sank into the ice. In the large tub next to me Brody screeched like a girl when he made contact with the icy goodness. I looked over at him, “Just cup your junk and sink down!”

  He blew out rapids breaths, “You doing okay? That dude hit you like a mac truck.”

  “Yeah, just a little bit of a headache. Your knee okay?”

  “Nothing that some pain meds and this torture wont take care of.”

  We both laughed and tried to relax, after only a few minutes coach yelled that it was time for us to switch to heat. My teeth were chattering, my legs were weak, and a wave of dizziness hit me. “You okay Green?” Coach asked.

  “Yeah…might have been in a minute too long is all.”

  “Hit the heat for three minutes then get out.” He said before walking away.

  “So, I’ve seen you talking to a cute little brunette around campus.” Brody said with a grin.

  I laid my head against the back of the whirlpool, trying to stop the room from spinning. “Yeah…Naomi.” I replied.

  “Yep, she’s on the dance team. Seems pretty shy.”

  I opened one eye, “She dances?”

  He chuckled, “As much as you two have been seen talking, you didn’t ask?”

  “Nope, just what she’s majoring in.” Another wave of dizziness hit me and I decided it was time to get out. “Jesus Christ.” I muttered.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Zane asked. When he walked up behind us

  Once I was out of the tub I braced myself against the edge, “I’m dizzy as shit.”

  Coach must have been keeping a watch on me, “Look at me.” He said when he was standing in front of me.

  I opened my eyes and stared at him. He flashed his pen light across my eyes. “Your pupils are fine, come see me tomorrow morning. I want to have you test tomorrow and Monday.”

  I dressed and grabbed my cell phone. There were several missed calls and text from Tabitha. “Christ.” I muttered and put my phone in my pocket.

  Rather than call her back, I went straight to my dorm and stripped out of my clothes, took a couple more Tylenol and went to bed.

  The following morning I felt better than I did the night before, my headache was completely gone. I showered and dressed in a pair of running shorts, cut off sleeveless shirt and my tennis shoes. When I got to the training center Coach was waiting for me. “You look a hell of a lot better than you did last night! You played a hell of a game. The computer is all set up for you.”

  “I don’t have a damn concussion.” I muttered.

  “Better safe than sorry.” He said with a laugh.

  The test was about as simple as could be, and ten minutes later coach was walking out the door with me. “Okay, get some rest. You passed the test just fine.”

  As soon as I got in my pickup, my cell phone rang. Tabitha was calling.

  I answered and she immediately asked why I didn’t return any of her calls or text last night. “I had a fuckin’ headache and was wore out.” I told her.

  “Well, obviously you’re in a piss poor mood! Call me when you actually want to talk.” She said and hung up.

  I slammed my hand against the steering wheel, picked my phone up again and called dad.

  “Son, sorry to hear about the loss.” He said when he answered.

  We talked about the game for a little bit and he gave his words of advice and encouragement.

  “I need to talk to you about Tabitha…” I told him.

  “What’s goin on?”

  I blew out a breath, “She’s pissed I haven’t been home yet, I don’t think she understands that I have commitments here. I could have come home that one weekend but I chose to stay here and hang out and get to know people. Then I told her that I helped a lady get home from a party, because she was trashed. Tabitha was pissed. I didn’t call her back after the game or reply to her texts and she just hung up on me when I told her that I was tired and wore out after the game.”

  I heard the screen door shut, he had walked outside. “She’s young, Morgan. There’s going to be doubt on both of your ends. There’s going to be temptation there at college, I tried to warn you.” He chuckled. “Do you think maybe you two would be better off takin’ a break for a while?”

  “I don’t fuckin’ know. I’ll call her back and talk to her. She’s gotta try to understand. I’m gonna get some breakfast then I’ll call her back.”

  “If you need to talk, you can call anytime son. We love you.”
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  “Love you too.”

  When Tabitha answered the phone, I could tell she had been crying.

  “I’m sorry.” I said.

  “I…it’s okay. I’m over reacting and being clingy.” She sniffled.

  “Just let me explain how it’s working on my end…okay?” I asked.

  I spent the next few minutes explaining, in detail, my daily schedule. “So there are going to be days that I come home from practice and crash…some days I’ll have the time and energy to talk. I’m sorry that I’ve made you feel like I don’t care.”

  “I just need to chill out and—“

  “Trust me?” I interrupted her.

  “Yeah,” she blew out a breath, “I’m sorry.”

  We talked for a while longer then hung up. I felt better and less stressed about everything.

  Zane’s birthday was a few days later and we all decided to go out to a club. We would limit our alcohol though so that coach wouldn’t try to kill us during practice.

  As we sat around talking with our teammates Naomi and a group of her friends walked over to where we were sitting. She smiled at me and looked away. I stood up from the table and pulled her out to the dance floor. “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “You’re avoiding me and quit talking to me.”

  Sam Hunt’s song ‘Take Your Time’ started playing so I pulled her in close to me. Naomi tried to back away but I held her close. “Morgan, you have a girlfriend.”

  “We are just dancing.” I replied.

  Naomi shook her head, “We shouldn’t…I…”

  “What?” I prodded.

  “I know that you have a girlfriend and I shouldn’t feel like I do about you.” She blurted out. Her cheeks turned a dark pink.

  I grinned down at her, “It’s not just me then? I’ve been so fuckin’ confused.”

  She shook her head, “Do you see now why I think us being this close is a bad idea?” Instead of pulling away she leaned her head against my chest and we slow danced in the middle of the crowded dance floor. The song faded into a fast song but we didn’t pull away. I cupped her face in my hands, she fisted my shirt in her hands and without hesitation we moved in to kiss each other. In that very second the music faded out and the people around us seemed to disappear. Her soft lips against mine sent fire through my veins. Our tongues touched and a fire deep inside me ignited. The way she sighed and I felt the vibration deep inside of myself. “Can we go back to your place?” She asked.