Elyse gags, and I explain my professional fascination with this injury. “OMG,” Tia says. “Better you than me. I’ll go to the bathroom so I don’t have to hear. Pause it after the gross part, ok?”
She and Elyse run off to the ladies room and I watch Claire fix Jamie’s arm, sighing at the thought of relieving someone’s pain with such skill, even as I cringe at her technique. When the girls get back, they tease me about my morbid fascination with injuries. I just shrug. But the time feels ripe to ask them for help.
“Hey,” I say timidly, fidgeting with their popcorn dish. “Can you help me pick an outfit for the banquet?”
They click off the TV and turn toward me, rapt. “Holy shit,” they say. “Are you finally going to bag Baxter Morgan?”
I flush. Seeing my face, Tia rolls her eyes. “Come on, Olive.”
“Like I said, Baxter and I are just friends,” I tell them. They start to respond, but I hold up a hand. “But I decided I agree with you. I need to get laid. I was thinking I could…entice someone Friday night at the banquet.”
Suddenly the room is a whirlwind of activity. Elyse is a business logistics major with an entire closet full of power suits. Tia agrees with her that, since I’m not one for skirts, I should rock a sexy suit on Friday. We spend the next 45 minutes practicing walking the dorm halls in spike heels until I feel confident I’m not going to tip over.
They both agree to help me with my hair and makeup on Friday, and when I finally go off toward my room, I feel energized and excited. I’m going out with a guy, and there’s no pressure because, well, he’s in love with someone else, too.
And, somewhere along the way, I’m going to find someone at that party and I’m going to have sex with him. I’m going to let all out the sexual frustration and it’s going to help me focus. I can tell.
High on the anticipation of the next few days, I don’t notice that my room is occupied until someone pulls me inside, slamming the door shut behind me.
“Where the hell have you been, Liv?” Baxter Morgan has apparently gotten sick of me avoiding him.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Bax
I know it’s not fair that I storm in and out of Olive’s life like this, but damn it, I need her this week. So much shit is going on. And I haven’t talked to her for days. I don’t think I’ve gone this long without seeing her in the whole time we’ve known each other.
“Liv,” I say, as she opens her mouth to scream. “It’s me! Where have you been?”
When she tells me she’s been across the hall watching television, I tug her over to the couch, and accidentally pull her onto my lap as I hit my head on the damn loft bed. “I don’t mean just today. I haven’t seen you since Sunday morning!”
I pull her tight into a hug, not knowing how much it was going to affect me to see her again after so long. I feel my heart racing and I realize what I’d most like to do is kiss her, and so I take a deep breath and ease her onto the couch next to me, leaning back to put some space between us before I cross a line.
“Bax,” she says, “It’s just been a long week.” She tells me how she feels bad she wasn’t able to be at my whole game, how she blames herself for me getting distracted and getting injured.
“Liv, no. This isn’t on you, babe. Don’t even think that.” I tell her my shoulder has been feeling great, that even though Justin is a total prick and I hate him, he’s taking good care of me. “I can start contact practice again if I pass a range of motion test in the morning.” I hold my arm out front like Frankenstein. “Look how good I’m getting.” I don’t tell her I will likely need another cortisone shot to get through the game this weekend. I can rest it in a few months. It’ll be fine.
She smiles and swats me with a pillow from the couch. “Hey,” she says, twirling some of that wheat-gold hair around her finger. “I need to tell you something.”
I’m pretty sure I know what this is, so I just wait for it and try to control my breathing. She’s going to tell me she’s going out with some other guy. Another athlete at this school.
I don’t want to be an angry neanderthal. I just can’t help it most of the time. She tells me how she’s going to the booster banquet with Tim from swimming, just as friends, and to my surprise I still feel sort of calm about it. “Ok,” I tell her. “I sort of knew that you were going. One of the other football guys knew.”
She furrows her brow. “That’s weird,” she says. “I didn’t tell anyone but Tia and Elyse…well, I guess the other trainers knew.” She crinkles her nose. “I don’t really like that they talk like that.”
I don’t tell her that Kevan knew, and I’m not sure how he did. “I didn’t know it was Tim, though. That’s the guy you’ve got your hands all over these days?” I’m teasing, sort of, but Olive cracks a smile.
“His hairless skin is so smooth,” she says, stroking my arm with her hand. My dick springs to attention faster than I can draw breath. “Not like your gritty, hairy flesh.” I close my eyes as she rubs my arm. I’m suddenly very close to coming in my pants.
