The Football Player's Rebel

Some Badass Chick

Tuck's P.O.V.

"...and I wouldn't be interested in it, even if he was."

My heart fell into my stomach.  I knew it would be hard to win Melanie back.  I knew that Saturday night she had told me she just wanted to start out by being friends, but I had hoped that eventually, I could get back to where we had left off when we were fourteen.  For the past thirty six hours, all I could do was think about Saturday night.  The kiss we had shared, my fingers brushing over the soft skin of her back only for me to realize she didn't have a bra on when I ran my hand up the back of her shirt.  The way she moaned when I kissed her neck and the way she ran tangled her fingers in my hair.  I couldn't stop thinking about her wrapping her legs around me and how light she was as I carried her to the bed of my truck.  Everything about her was so sexy, so beautiful.  She had turned me on in ways other girls never did, and all we did was make out.  I never stopped loving her, so when she finally opened up Saturday night and let me be intimate with her, I took it all in, every second of it.  

I stood there in the hallway defeated, staring at her as she walked away from me. 

"Guess that loser thinks you ACTUALLY have a thing for her.  Maybe stop playing games with her little heart, before she decides to fall in love with you and leach herself off of your popularity?", Sara says as she moves her way into my view of Melanie. 

"In other news, my parents are going on a date night tonight and won't be back until later, meaning I have the whole house to myself.  You should come over.", she says as she bites her lip while running her fingers through my hair, putting her arms over my shoulders and pressing against me.

I grab Sara's wrists and move her arms off of me, stepping away from her, "Not interested."

I walk away from Sara as I hear her let out a high pitched shriek, before hearing her heels click away from me down the hallway.

I reach the boy's locker room as the bell starts to ring.  Every guy in there turns their head towards me, all with smirks on their faces.  I walk to my locker and drop my backpack on the ground, stripping my clothes off to change into my gym clothes.

"Dude, what the hell was that all about?", I hear Chad say behind me.

Chad Cooper was one of my best friends; the ultimate jock, playboy type.  He stood with a solid muscular build at six foot one.  He always kept his sandy blonde hair cut short and spiked it up with gel, and girls drooled over his light brown eyes because they were golden, or so I've heard from all of them.  He was absolutely my right hand man, my ride or die. Although he never understood why I was so hung up on Melanie, he knew our history between one another.  Chad had caught me multiple times staring at her in the hallways, or staring at her as she read a book on her front porch while we were playing football in the front yard.  One day he finally asked me if something had happened between us, why I was always staring at her like I knew her differently than others at our school knew her.  I explained to him about our past, leaving out the fact that I was in love with her.  Even though he tried, he never seemed to grasp the concept of why I always felt so guilty about choosing popularity over mine and Melanie's friendship.

"What was what about?", I ask chad, smirking at him while I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about.

"Don't play stupid with me, Tuck.  I saw the whole thing.  I saw the way you were looking at Melanie when you had your arm around her, while you were walking her down the hallway.", he says as he playfully punches me in the shoulder.

"How was I looking at her?", I ask, now intrigued, because I didn't know I was looking at her in any certain way.

Chad raises an eyebrows at me questioningly, "Are you f*****g in love with her, bro?", he asks quietly.

I sigh and look back at my locker, grabbing my cutoff tee and shorts out of my gym bag, refusing to answer him.

He laughs as though he didn't believe me and leans in towards me, "Are you serious? You're actually in love with Melanie Wilson?"

"So what if I am?", I ask defensively as I turn back towards him, slamming my locker door shut.

Chad puts his hands up in mock surrender as he chuckles at me, "Tuck, I never understood it, until today.  That girl she was in the hallway, standing up to Sara the way she did, that's a side of her none of us have ever seen before.  It was pretty f*****g hot.  I kind of got a glimpse of what you've seen in her all these years, and so did a lot of other guys.  Guys like confidence like that in a girl.", he says to me as he nods his head to a few guys who are standing around the locker rom.

His words radiate through me, setting fire to every part of my skin with jealousy.  He was right, guys do like confidence like that in a girl, and Melanie drips with it.  Panic sets in as I become more aware of the conversations going on around me, between the guys Chad had nodded towards.

"Did you see Melanie let loose on Sara in the hallway?  A girl that can stand up for herself like that is so damn hot.  I think I'm going to ask her out on a date.", I hear one of the football players say to the soccer captain.

"That Melanie chick was always so sexy and mysterious to me.  That fire she has in her might be something I'm interested in trying to tame, if you know what I mean.", another guy says as he winks at his friend suggestively.

I clench my jaw and turn back to Chad who is tying his shoelaces.

He looks up at me once he is done and pats me on the shoulder, "Don't worry, if Melanie was interested in any of them she could've had them by now, a girl with that body and that fire and brains like hers.  If she was interested in being popular and dating jocks, she could've easily done it by now.  She hasn't, though, which means she doesn't want a part of our lifestyle.", he says, before he starts to walk towards the door.  

He suddenly stops and turns back towards me, rubbing his chin with his hand before he speaks again,  "The guy you need to worry about is the guy I saw her talking to in the cafeteria this morning."

"Which guy?!", I ask, pausing everything I am doing.

"The new guy.", Chad tells me, before turning back towards the door and walking out.

Then it hit me, he was talking about Asher, the guy we had met Saturday evening at the boardwalk.  I forgot all about him after the moment Melanie and I had shared late Saturday night.  Chad was right, he was the one I needed to worry about.  The other guys, they're just going to annoy Melanie, she's too smart for them.  She'll know the only reason they're hitting on her is because of the way she stood up for herself in the hallway.  She'll know that she will just be another girl they're trying to conquer, another notch they're trying to put in their belt.  Asher, though, he was giving her the attention she deserves before anyone ever saw that side of her.  He saw and appreciated the beauty in her within the first thirty minutes of him meeting her. He was also her type; rock bands, skateboarding, even their looks are alike.

I then knew that there was a chance I was going to lose her, and she might actually be serious about us being 'just friends'.

***

Melanie's P.O.V.

I walk into Algebra 2 and see Asher instantly.  He stood out from everyone else, his light blue hair and piercings highlighting his tan skin perfectly.  I walk over to him and point at the empty seat beside him, "This seat taken?"

He looks up and smiles at me, making butterflies creep their way into my stomach.

"I've actually been saving it for you.  Couldn't imagine going through this torturous class with anyone else by my side.", he gently laughs, his beautiful smile making my bad mood slowly drift away.

"Why are you late, though?", he asks as he scrunches up his eyebrows in concern.

"Just some drama that happened in the hallway had me held up.", I say as I look down at my book, flipping open to the page I left my homework in.

"Oh yeah, I heard a few people talking about that as they walked in.  I heard them talking about how some badass chick ripped one of the popular girls a new one.  Hate that I missed it!  That's pretty awesome!", he says, not realizing that I was the girl he was talking about.

I smile a little at the fact that people were calling me a badass, the exact term Tiffany had used to describe me only moments before the incident had taken place.

I grab my homework from my book and set it out on the table.  Our teacher was late, as usual, so we had a few minutes to talk before he showed up.

"So did your brain turn into mush having Spanish so early in the morning?", I ask him playfully.

He smiles at me, sending butterflies into my stomach again as I notice dimples in his cheeks that I hadn't noticed before, "Luckily it didn't, because I wanted to ask you a question and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to ask it if my brain was mush."

"Oh, yeah? What would that be?", I ask as I place my elbow on the table, leaning my chin onto the palm of my hand.

"What are you doing this weekend?", he asks me as he smiles coyly.

"No plans yet.", I say as a blush creeps it's way onto my cheeks.

"Well, I have four tickets to a My Chemical Romance concert in L.A.  My friend Fletcher and I are going.  I would love it if you could come.  If you have a friend you'd like to bring with you that doesn't mind being set up on a blind date, I'd love to make it a double date.", he says as he looks down at his book shyly, playing with it's pages.

I smile and let out a gentle sigh, "My best friend Tiffany just so happens to be single.  If Fletcher doesn't mind a fiery red head in a teeny tiny package, then I'm sure she would love to come along.  She's always up for adventures like that."

"Teeny tiny?", he asks laughing, "You mean she's smaller than you?! I don't see how that's even possible."

"She's a whole five foot.  I have two inches on her, thank you very much!", I tell him defensively while chuckling a little.

"Well, Fletcher is six foot two so that should be an interesting match.", he says as he laughs out loud now, making people turn around to look at us.

He glares at the other kids in our class, making them turn back to their own conversations, before he turns and looks at me, "So we've established that Tiffany is okay with going on a date with Fletcher, but are you ok with going on a date with me?", he asks nervously as he plays with a ring on his finger.

I just smile at him, grabbing his hand to calm his nerves, "I would love to go on a date with you.  You're exactly what I need in my life right now.  So please, stop being so nervous around me, okay?", I ask as I wink at him playfully.

He smiles back at me in understanding and I pull my hand away just as Mr. Stephens walks in, a smile permanently etched onto my face.