4
-Malcolm-
FOOTBALL PRACTICEthis morning is like most things in my life. Hard and fast. Coach has us running drills in full gear and even though there's a cold bite to the October air, I'm sweating in rivulets by the time we have a break.
Over by the bleachers, North pulls his helmet off, twisting his hair into damp spikes. I jog over to him, tugging my own helmet off and feeling the cool air brush against my skin.
North sees me and his face lights up, even though I haven't been more than fifteen feet away from him all morning. I didn't know it was possible to like someone this much.
"Hey, you need a drink," I tell him.
I grab a bottle of water and a towel from my bag and toss them to him, and he catches them deftly, one in each hand. He pops the lid off the water and gulps it down, his throat rolling. I watch, transfixed at the way his Adam's apple bobs with each swallow, and I have to gulp too as I get lurid flashbacks of the night before.
Once the bottle is empty he throws the towel over his head and scrubs his hair and face, soaking up the sweat. When he pulls it off his dirty-blond hair is a disheveled mess that looks like he's just fallen out of bed after a hard fucking. Damn it, now I'm having flashbacks again that send my blood pulsing downward, and I've already come twice this morning. This can't be healthy.
North tosses the towel back at me and I throw it over my own head. It smells like him, and I breathe in deeply while I scrub the sweat plastering my hair flat.
What's my problem? My sex drive has always been high, but I haven't been this rampantly horny in years. I want to be all over him at all times—tasting, smelling, touching. I can't get enough.
I push my wild hair away from my face, and North spits and pokes at his tongue.
"What are you doing?"
"Ech, I've got a hair on my tongue."
"Here," I say, motioning.
He opens his mouth obediently, and sticks his tongue out, along with the fine blond hair coiled on top of it. I go to grab it and he lunges forward, trying to lick my hand and nip at my fingers. I jerk my hand away and scowl at him while he laughs before he sticks his tongue out again. This time he holds still as I pull the hair out and wipe it on my pants. "There you go."
"Thanks, Mal." He bumps shoulders with me.
Coach yells for us to line up again, and it's only then that I realize I just put my fingers in North's mouth on the playing field in front of everyone. It felt like such a natural move I didn't even think about it. North doesn't seem to notice.
I stuff the empty bottle and towel back into my bag and slap North on the shoulder. "Keep working hard and I'll take you for a shake later. How about that?"
He grins. "I love having a sugar daddy who gives me sugar," he says as he wriggles his helmet back on.
As we jog back, I spot Josh already at the line, staring at North with a deep crease between his heavy eyebrows like he's trying to figure out a calculus problem. Or in Josh's case, how to unlock his own front door. His eyes meet mine and then he turns away quickly, busying himself with readjusting his pads like he wasn't just staring. Shit, did he see that?
I couldn't care less what people think of me, and I have no problem with my sexuality being public. My many problems stem from what I think of myself. I have no energy left for other people's opinions. Except North's.
But North is friends with everyone on the team. He's friends with pretty much everyone at Langley College. And I'm pretty sure he does care. We seem to have the opposite problems. I'm not ok with myself, but I don't care what anyone thinks of me. North is absolutely fine with himself, but it's the opinions of others that get under his skin. Maybe if you added us together you'd get one whole healthy person with no hangups. Although, in that situation I'd be taking a hell of a lot more than I'd be giving.
The rest of the drills go past without incident, Coach pushes us hard, and we give all we can. North dazzles as usual, graceful out on the field as a long-legged gazelle. But now that I'm aware of it I notice looks thrown our way. Glances under the shadow of a helmet. Heads turn whenever North and I are together. North either doesn't notice or is doing a good job of pretending not to care, so I shrug it off.
By the time we trail back to the locker room, I'm exhausted.
***
"So, if I get good grades, how are you gonna reward me?" North asks under his breath as he peels his pads off.
The results for his bio paper will be posted later today, and he worked damn hard on it.
"I'm sure I'll think of something," I smirk.
"I was thinking . . . I like it when I can pick my own reward."
"Yeah?" I ask, imagining what kind of kink he might want to try next. He's still new to this scene and every Google search unearths a new world of opportunities. And yeah, I know his browser history. I check it in front of him sometimes. It's one of our things "OK, how about this? If you get in the top 25 percent you can pick what I do to you. But if you get lower than that, I get to do whatever I want."'
He blushes that sexy red color and smothers a smile that's bashful and rakish at the same time.
"Ok, deal," he says and holds his hand out for me.
I shake. "So, what's your request?"
The pause before he replies makes me think I might have just made a mistake. I narrow my eyes at him as he fiddles with something in his locker.
"I want you to come out with me on Friday," he says.
Damn it, the team social? I should have known he wasn't done with that.
"No," I reply flatly.
He straightens, his full attention on me now. "You just agreed that I could pick whatever I want, and you'd do it. and I want you to come out for drinks."
"That's not what I meant," I growl.
He holds up his finger. "Maybe not, but that's what you said."
What is he? The fucking Riddler?
"No deal." I slam my locker closed.
North lets out a frustrated noise. "Why not? You never come, you might actually enjoy yourself for once if you give it a chance."
I scowl. "I enjoy myself all the time. At home. Why do you want me to go so badly?'
"Because I like you. And I don't want to go without you."
I sigh. Growing feelings is a pain in the ass.
"Fine, we'll make a deal. But if you don't make the top 25 percent you have to drop the whole ‘going out and spending time with other people' thing for good. Ok?"
"Oh my god, yes. Deal," North says and pumps his fist. "We're gonna have so much fun."
"You have to win first," I say.
North has never gotten into the top 25 percent, I believe in him and his hard work, but there's no way in hell he'll score enough to make me go on that bar crawl.
"Malcolm Blackwood coming out for a team night? Oh, I'm gonna win. The universe is behind me on this one."
I smirk to myself and finish getting ready. It's never gonna happen.
***
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
Hell has frozen over. Pigs are flying. And North jumps around on the grass of the quad pumping his fists.
"Yes. In your face, Mal."
I stare at my phone and the list of results just posted on the system. "Shit."
"Fuck yeah!" He does a dance that involves shaking his shapely ass from side to side. "I'm the best. It's official."
For fuck's sake. I've been training him too well. He's become too strong, and now he's turned on his maker. Is this how Frankenstein felt?
"Oh my god, I cannot wait for Friday night, we're gonna have so much fun."
I pinch the bridge of my nose. I brought this on myself. I flew too close to the sun, and now I'm paying the price; I have to go and socialize.
Although I have many, many skills, peopling isn't one of them. Sure, the guys on the team aren't that bad, but that doesn't mean I want to sit around in a hot sticky bar drinking warm beer and listening to them brag about how many people they've fucked and in which positions. I'm drained just thinking about it.
But, shit, it looks like I'm going. North is so happy it makes my cold shriveled heart grow a couple of sizes, Grinch style. And North did do really fucking well. Underneath the dread of small talk, I'm really fucking proud of him. He deserves a treat.
I sag. It can't be that bad, right?
North stops dancing around. "Oh, we need to get our costumes ready," he says.
I freeze. "Costumes?"
North gives me a guilty look. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. It's a costume thing for Halloween, ya know?"
Forgot my ass, he didn't tell me on purpose because he knew I'd refuse. I do not do costumes.
No. Fuck no. Not happening.