The Football Player's Rebel

Never Thought I'd be Here

Melanie's P.O.V.

As soon as Tuck and I get into the truck, I pull my phone out and text Tiffany.  There is NO WAY I'm about to go to a football game and sit in the stands all by myself.  I need reinforcements.

*Hey! I need you to go to the football game with me tonight.* -Melanie

*WHAT?! NO!* -Tiffany

*Please, Tiff?  I'll be all by myself if you don't :(* -Melanie

*Why are you going to the game? Not really our scene...* -Tiffany

*Me and Tuck hung out after school and he doesn't have time to drive me home. Told him I would come to the game so he wouldn't be late. Please?!* -Melanie

*Fine! You owe me, though!* -Tiffany

*OMG! Thank you!* -Melanie

*I'm talking about, spilling all the juicy deets, about why you were with him, anyway! That's what you owe me!* -Tiffany

*Fine! Just hurry up!* -Melanie

*...and everything that went on last weekend too, because you never spilled on that!* -Tiffany

*OH MY GOSH! FINE!* -Melanie

*Be there in ten!* -Tiffany

*You're the best!* -Melanie

*And don't you forget it, sweet cheeks! ;)* -Tiffany

I roll my eyes and put my phone back into my jacket pocket.  I nervously twiddle with my thumbs in my lap, because I've already had enough attention on me this week.  Going to a game for the first time since we've started high school, was definitely going to make people talk, especially since they already think something is going on between Tuck and I.

Tucker reaches over and grabs my hand, squeezing it to comfort me.  I look over at him and sigh as he smiles gently at me.

"It'll be fine. I promise.", Tuck says reassuringly to me.

I roll my eyes at him and let out a heavy sigh, "Easy for you to say, when you're the one on the field, and I'm the one being thrown to the wolves."

Tucker squeezes my hand again, "If anyone messes with you, then they'll have to deal with me. Sound good?"

"Have you actually met the girls we go to school with?", I ask him, "I just have a really bad feeling.", I mumble under my breathe as I look down at both of our hands.

"Do you want me to take you home, Mel?", he asks gently.

"Nope! I have to embrace the high school social experience sometime or another.  Besides, can't miss my favorite guy doing what he loves.", I say as I wink at him.

A big smile stretches across his face, "I'm your favorite guy?"

"Well, one of them anyway.", I tease at him.

We pull into the parking lot and I suddenly feel nauseous, "Breathe, Mel, breathe.  You've got this.  You're a freakin' badass.  No matter what, you hold your head high, and stand your ground.", I think to myself as I look around the parking lot.  

I sit in the truck for a minute longer, taking deep breathes to try and calm my nerves, before finally grabbing the handle of the door and pushing it open.  The second I step out of the truck and turn around, I see a group of cheerleaders whispering by the front entrance, looking towards where me and Tuck are standing.  I roll my eyes at them, before turning around and walking over to Tuck.

"Look, I have to go get changed.  I hate to leave you this way, because I know a few PEOPLE have spotted us, but I can't be late.", Tuck says to me as he looks over at the cheerleaders, before leaning over and kissing me on the forehead.

I freeze in my spot as I watch him turn around and run towards the locker room, cursing him for doing what he did.  As if people didn't have enough to talk about after what happened Monday, he has the nerve to kiss me on the forehead while a bunch of cheerleaders are watching.  I decide to pull out my phone and quickly text Tiffany again, to see how far away she is.

*Please hurry! Something just happened." -Melanie

*Pulling into the school parking lot, babe.  Meet me in my usual spot." -Tiffany

I shove my hands in my pocket and start walking away from the stadium towards the school, knowing that Tiff always parks by the back entrance.  I take maybe five steps before I feel something soft hit the back of my head.  I turn around, only to see a pom-pom lying on the ground while two cheerleaders walk towards me, one of them being Sara Johnson.  I roll my eyes at the two of them.  Seriously?  They couldn't even let me get through the gate, before they started with me?

"Guess what they say isn't really true, Bethany.", Sara chirps as she walks towards me.

Her friend, Bethany Campbell, takes giant strides beside her as she tries to keep up, because she's only five foot one compared to Sara's five foot six.

"And what would that be, Sara?", Bethany snickers as she crosses her arms over her chest, before skipping towards me and circling me around me like I'm her prey.

I clench my jaw and tighten my fists by my side, ready for whatever is about to happen.

"That vampire's can't come out in the daylight.", Sara says as she smirks and comes to a hault in front of me.

"Vampire? Really?", I say as I chuckle at Sara. 

Is this seriously all she could come up with?

"Yeah, you know, creatures that like to feed off of other people to try and live a life they WISH they had.", Sara tells me as she flips her hair over her shoulder, leaning on one hip.

"Ah, clever.", I say as I laugh at her and clap my hands sarcastically, before narrowing my eyes at her while crossing my arms over my chest, "I'm surprised your idiotic little brain could come up with that. I figured all of your brain cells died. with all of the hair spray fumes you inhale daily."

"Did you seriously just call me dumb?!", Sara shrieks, before shoving me.

I know this b***h didn't.  

Before I could even react, I see someone come up beside me and throw soda all over Sara, staining her red and white cheer uniform in the process.

"Oops, I'm sorry! I thought I saw a THIRSTY b***h trying to push up on my girl, so I decided to drench her down.  It was just you, though, Sara!  My bad!", Tiffany says as she menacingly laughs while standing beside me.

I drape my arm over her shoulders, "Sara....thirsty bitch...I don't really think there's a difference, Tiff.", I say laughing, reaching out my hand to give Tiff a high five.

Tiffany high fives me back, before snapping her attention towards Bethany, "And don't even think, that I don't have more for you if you try something, mini b***h!", Tiffany yells at her as she tries to sneak up on us, "I'm not afraid to drench you, too. Give me a reason to!  I dare you!", she says as she glares at her, taking a couple of steps towards her threateningly with the rest of her soda that's in the bottle.

Bethany stops dead in her tracks and takes a step back, looking over at Sara who is now crying about her stupid uniform being ruined.

"I think we have a f*****g football game to attend. Care to join me, Mel?!", Tiff says excitedly as she smiles at me and hooks her arm out, inviting me to weave mine through it.

"Break a leg, girls!  Toodle-loo!", I say in a high pitched voice as I wave goodbye to Sara and Bethany, before walking over to Tiffany.

I weave my arm through hers, "You are f*****g AWESOME! You know that, right?", I tell her once we start walking towards the stadium.

"Takes one, to know one, babe!", she says as she smiles up at me.

We get to the stadium and decide to sit on the very top left corner of the stands, away from the rest of the student body.  I'm wearing a purple buffalo plaid sweatshirt, with slits I cut in it myself going down the chest of it, distressed black skinny jeans, and black combat boots that are untied, with a black beanie on my head.  Tiff is wearing a gray and black plaid flannel shirt that is unbuttoned with a black lace camisole under it, black high waisted shorts with black tights under them, and black high top converse.  We definitely stand out from the sea of red and white, which is our school colors, that spreads across seventy five percent of the bleachers.  The other twenty five percent of the bleachers are covered with the colors green and yellow, which I'm assuming is the opposing team's colors.

Everyone watches us as we walk up the bleacher steps. Tiffany flips off some popular twit along the way that we overhear talking about us, before we finally reach the top.  I sit down and I lean my back against the chain link fence that surrounds the bleachers, while Tiff sits beside me and crosses her leg over her knee, before leaning her elbow on it.

She turns and looks at me, "So you wanna tell me what happened last weekend before this whole shindig gets-a-going?", she asks me as a smirk spreads across her face.

"Promise not to judge me?", I ask softly, feeling a little embarrassed about what I'm about to spill.

Tiffany shakes her head at me, "Never, babe.  You should know me better than that by now."

"Look, I don't even really know what happened.  Just, all I can tell you is that when me and Tuck are together we're like two magnets pulling towards one another.  He apologized at the skate park and that DID make me put my walls up, like I normally do when I'm trying to avoid something emotional.  Later that night, though, he text me to come outside.  I guess he had just came home from a party, because he was drinking on his tailgate and was a little drunk.  I met up with him outside, because I had finally calmed down from what had happened at the skate park, after the phone conversation I had with you.  I don't know if it was because he had a little liquid courage, or what, but rather than bringing emotions into it he just grabbed me and took control.  Tiff, when I say it was just so sexy...", I confess, as I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees, "...he just, took control of me and acted like nothing ever happened.  I was so sexy in the moment.  No bringing up the past or bringing up any kind of unresolved feelings.  We were just in our own little world for a little bit.  You know what I mean?  There was just something about the way he kissed me, that made me want to wash what happened in the past, out of my brain.", I finish off, before looking over at her.

"Oh damn, girl! You got me all hot and bothered telling me that little PG-13 story!", Tiff says teasingly, as she dramatically fans at her face.

I laugh at her and shove her shoulder.

Tiffany finally stops joking around and looks over at me seriously, "So what happened this evening? Why did I end up here, at a football game? Something I swore to myself I'd never do."

"He saw me walking down the sidewalk and offered me a ride home.  As soon as I got in, he just naturally put his hand on my knee, like it was something he's done a million times to me before.  He ended up passing our neighborhood and took me to a field that overlooks the town.  He had raspberry filled jelly donuts and hot chocolate, a blanket..."

"...he's on his game, I'll give him that.  Raspberry filled donuts and hot chocolate is like a love potion for you...", Tiffany interrupts as she teases at me, chuckling at her joke, before letting me finish my story.

I snort out a laugh at her, before continuing, "We sat and talked about me and Asher, about how I'm going on a date with him.  Tuck asked if Asher makes me feel the way he does, to which I told him not yet, but he owes it to me to let me try to have different experiences, besides just him.  He agreed, and we came up with a compromise."

"Which is?", Tiff asks me as she lifts an eyebrow at me questioningly, now intrigued by my story.

"For every three dates I have with Asher. or any other guy that might come around, Tuck gets a date too.  I also wait around at his practices two days a week, so he can drive me home.  It gives us the chance to be able to spend time together, without there being any strings attached for me.  He says it gives him a chance to win me back, because he is never going to stop trying, and he is not letting me go this time.  After that, I went to get back into the truck so we wouldn't be late for his game, but he followed me to my side and told me he forgot something.  I started to ask what he forgot, but he interrupted me by crashing his lips into mine, and it quickly turned into a full blown make-out session against his truck.  When he finally pulled away from me, he said that he 'forgot his good luck kiss'.", I finish telling her before looking over at her.

"He is so in love with you it's not even funny.", Tiffany says with a scrunched up face, almost like she's disgusted.

"No he's not.", I reply back, shaking my head and looking down at my feet.

"Look Mel, he's in love with you, trust me.  I mean, who wouldn't be?  Look at how amazing you are.", she says as she motions her hands towards me,  "You're right, though, he DOES owe it to you to let you experience other guys besides just him.  I know you've made out with a couple of guys here and there, after everything that happened between you and Tuck, but he's the only 'relationship' you've ever even had.  I mean, you're still a virgin.  There hasn't been too much EXPERIENCE going on in your life."

She lets out a frustrated sigh and nudges me with her elbow, "There's a world of other guys out there, besides Tuck.  You need to feel around, see what's out there, find out what you're into.  If he's serious, he'll let you do that and he will have to learn to be okay with it.  He can wait and be tortured a little bit.  If you guys are meant to be together, you'll eventually be together"

I nod my head at her in agreement, "Which is exactly why I'm not bringing emotions into anything.  I'm not getting into a relationship with anyone, whether it's Tucker or some other guy.  It's our senior year, damn it!  This is our time to be free and have fun and not worry about being tied down to a specific guy.  That's why I'm just going to go one dates and have a little fun while I'm at it.", I say excitedly.

"WHOO! YOU GO GIRL!", Tiff yells as she throws her hands in the air dramatically, which gains attention from a few students who turn around to look at us.  Tiffany sticks her tongue out at them, which makes them roll their eyes at her, before turning back around.

"Welcooome to Friday night footbaaalll, everyone! Let's welcome our opposing team, the Long Beach High Jackrabbits! AND LET'S MAKE THE STADIUM ROAR, BY CHEERING FOR OUR SANTA ANA SAINTS!  Whoooo's ready to ruuumbllle?!", the announcer yells over the speaker.

Soon the entire student body stands up, before stomping their feet on the metal bleachers underneath us, literally making them shake.  Me and Tiff look at one another and fall out laughing at the scene that's unfolded in front of us, eventually clenching at our stomachs because we're laughing so hard. Soon enough, though, we stand up and join all of them, stomping our feet as well.  The cheerleaders run onto the field and spread a giant paper banner out underneath one of the goal posts.  Seconds later, we see the football players run out of the locker room and bust through the banner, before jogging over to the sideline and sitting on a bench.  Three of the guys, #36 #25 and #67, walk to the center of the field.  Tuck being #36, Chad being #67, and a junior named Derek being #25.  Tuck and Chad were both Captains together, and Derek was a Captain in training for next year.  Three other guys from the opposing team meet them in the middle with a referee.  He tosses the coin and it lands on the ground, before he points to our guys while all of them high five, before turning around to jog back towards their side of the field.  Tuck is jogging slower than Chad and Derek, following behind them as he scans the crowd, before his eyes finally land on me after only a few seconds.  He takes his helmet off while staring at me, before he hits his fist to his chest a couple of times where his heart is, lifting his hand up to point at me while smiling.

"See, I told you he was in love with you.", Tiff says as she nudges my arm with her elbow, before going back to clapping.

I smile bashfully, before hitting my fist to my chest a couple of times where my heart is as well, then point back at him.

A wide grin takes over his entire face, before he suddenly covers it again with his helmet, and jogs to his team.