Their Freefall At Last by Julie Olivia

11

Ruby

Bennett’s in a thick white bathrobe right outside the stadium locker rooms. I stand beside him, holding a towel, looking here and there beside the brick building, like some bodyguard. As if I could ever be. I’m practically half his size.

“Are you nervous?” I ask.

“No.”

“I would be.”

“I know you would be,” Bennett says with a low chuckle.

“So, are you?”

“Okay, sure, a little.”

He gives me a side smile. I give him one back.

We can hear cheers from the bleachers, a distant whistle from the field. The band bursts into a pithy fight song. It’s all the typical energy of a Friday night football game at Cedar Cliff High, heightened by our final championship game. And Bennett is about to ruin all of it.

The thing is, our football team is good, and Bennett knew going into this year that we would continue to be as talented. Michael and Landon did not disappoint.

Bennett inhales and exhales. I place a hand on his arm to steady him.

“Quinn’s got the car running,” I say. “And I have the swim cap.”

“Oh. Thanks. I forgot it.”

“I knew you would.”

I dig in my pocket and pull the floppy cap out. It’s the only thing we could think of to hide Bennett’s mane. If he came out with his rocker hair waving about, everyone in the stadium would know who he was. Plus, it looks hilarious.

The first time Bennett tried on the swim cap, Quinn couldn’t stop laughing for five solid minutes. Even Lorelei had to excuse herself from the room with her hand covering her mouth after she spit out her soda.

And when he puts it on now and it catches on his chin, then his nose, I burst into full-on belly laughs.

It smacks into place. He reaches out and cups a hand over my mouth.

“Shh, shh,” he says through his own muffled laughter.

Bennett’s arm winds around my waist, and he tugs me under the awning of the building, into the shadows and out of sight from people who might get suspicious of a giggling girl standing next to a bulky guy in a bath robe.

He twists me around, pushing my back against the brick wall. The hand not covering my mouth rests beside my head, caging me in. I can’t focus on anything but Bennett towering over me, his hand over my mouth, the twin of my own pink bracelet tickling against my chin.

His eyes dart between mine, the blacks of them so blown out that I can barely make out the brown. He slowly removes his hand. My breaths are heavy. So are his.

A few months ago, when Michael said he thought of me in a sexy way, it made me uncomfortable. It felt invasive and, without a doubt, weird. But, for some reason, when Bennett couldn’t tell me whether he thought about me too, it made me feel good.

A walkie-talkie buzzes at my hip, and I jump.

“Queen Bee for Gemstone,” the voice buzzes. “Queen Bee for Gemstone.”

I glance down at it, and Bennett smiles, leaning away from me.

I unclip the walkie from my jeans and click the side button. “Uh, Gemstone here.”

Bennett chuckles, reaching into my other pocket, his hand sliding over my ass. My breath hitches in my throat, but he comes back with my pack of gum.

“I’ve got the car ready to go,” Quinn says. “Does Viking know where to go?”

“I know where to go,” Bennett chimes in. “Side fence. Between the hedges.”

I click the side of the walkie. “He says he knows.”

“Ten-four,” Quinn replies. “See you on the other side. Queen Bee out!”

The final buzzer echoes through the stadium, and there’s an earthquake of cheers. Cedar Cliff High must have just won the state championship.

I swallow and look at Bennett, whose eyes are wide. His hands wind together.

I grin. “Here we go! Nervous, Pirate?”

Out of nowhere, Bennett pulls me in for a hug, tugging me closer and resting his chin on my forehead. His heart is beating wildly. I wrap my arms around that tapered waist of his and tug him closer. I hold him tight, and I don’t pull away until he does first.

“I’ll see you in the car, okay? We’ll zip right outta here. Promise.”

He nods and raises his hand, and we high five. Then, I take off down the dirt path and toward the bleachers.

The steel clangs beneath my feet as I jog, sidestepping all the cheering students hanging near the railing, shimmying through the boys with their chests painted in the letters CCHS and the girls with cheeks slashed in the paint of our school colors. I reach the far end of the bleachers right next to the parking lot and spot Quinn and Lorelei idling in Bennett’s truck. I anxiously wait too.

A giant trophy is getting carried onto the field. Lorelei’s brother, Landon, has his helmet off, punching the air. I feel bad his victory will be ruined by this, too, but he doesn’t seem too bothered by it.

He walked in on our planning session one night, and all he could say was, “Neat. Give him hell.”

Turns out, Bennett’s not the only person with an axe to grind.

Michael runs down the center of the field, hitting the helmet of every other player, and staring up at the championship trophy with lust.

Right as they hand him a microphone, when the cheering dies down and he speaks half a sentence, it’s cut off by a collective gasp.

Across the field, leaving the safety of the brick building, is a bald, naked man. Arms pumping at his sides. Legs extended. And freaking booking it across the field. I swallow, my jaw clenching at the sight, at the sudden burst of laughter and cheering and excitement as my best friend streaks in front of the entire town of Cedar Cliff.

But as he gets closer, I see more of him. The way his tight stomach ripples with each pump of his arms. The muscled thighs that tighten and release. And between them, the thick, veiny, heavy thing I’ve only imagined in the darkness of my bedroom.

I see my best friend’s penis.

I’m having a hard time registering it. I knew I would see it today, but I didn’t realize it would be so … big?

I keep staring, the blood rushing to my cheeks with every running step he takes, every time it hits against his strong thighs. I wonder how those thighs would look, pumping between my legs. I wonder how he would feel.

I want to know.

I inhale a shaky breath.

The crowd is yelling. The marching band is lifting their gold and silver instruments with hollers even though the director is trying to calm them down. The cheerleaders down front wave their pom-poms. One girl in particular is near the edge of the field with her bright red hair pinned in a bow. She looks entranced at the sight of Bennett.

MyBennett.

I look out at the football team and freeze when I find icy-blue eyes staring right back at me. How Michael spots me in the crowded bleachers, I don’t know. Regardless, his face is red. He tosses down his helmet and runs to the coaches down front.

Oh no.

A car honks. It’s Quinn. Bennett is nearing the far gate. I bolt and clunk down the bleacher stairs and into the parking lot.

He’s rounding the corner of the hedges, and I toss him the towel. He takes it, wrapping it around himself, but not before my AP teacher is running after him too.

I don’t know what makes me do it—Courage? Stupidity? That energy of feeling like a badass, like my best friend?—but I step in front. “Wait, Mr. Murphy! I had a question about—”

“Ruby, now is not the—”

I shift my position so he can’t pass, right as Bennett leaps into the back of Quinn’s truck.

“Well, the exam, there was a—”

“Miss Sullivan, if you don’t move …”

Bennett watches me stall, standing to run back to me, but I wave my hand at Quinn, and with a nod, she finally squeals off. The last thing I see before they turn the corner is Bennett’s cinched-in eyebrows and his worried gaze.

I might get in trouble, but I can’t help the smile that rises onto my cheeks.

What a rush.

More footsteps come from around the corner—the football coaches, teachers, and most of the home football team. Landon appears, and so does Michael. They’re both out of breath, watching the truck drive off.

“Who was that?” a coach asks.

Michael and I immediately exchange a glance. His eyes dart between mine. I shouldn’t be surprised, even though I am a little, that he instantly says, “It was Bennett.”

“Bennett?” Landon says quickly. “No, I’d recognize Bennett. He’s my sister’s friend.”

Michael shoots him a glare, and Landon shrugs.

“You kidding me right now, Arden? That was Bennett. He ruined our game.”

I’ve never seen his face so red.

I curl my bottom lip in to hold back my laughter. “I mean, you still won.”

“I swear it was Bennett Shaw,” Michael argues, ignoring me. He’s almost the color of a cherry now.

“Definitely not Bennett,” Landon replies as if his team captain isn’t losing his mind in front of him. “He has tons of hair. That dude was bald. Right, Rubes?”

I waltz up to Michael, feeling more confident than I ever have in my life, and grin my biggest, winningest grin. “Right.”

Michael tongues the inside of his cheek and tilts his head to the side. “One day.”

“One day what?” I ask, teasing because I can.

He lets out a breath of air through his nose. “One day, your loyalty will bite you in the ass, Red.”

I laugh, but it comes out weaker than I’d like. “Well, let’s hope you’re wrong.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah. You keep hoping.”