Another New Life Read online

  I sat in the student center for a while waiting for Troy to return, but he didn't. I headed back to the dorm, praying he'd be there waiting for me, but he wasn't.

  I went up to my room.

  "Hey, sweetie." Darcy was on the floor doing leg lifts. When she saw me, she couldn't get up fast enough. "Hey, what happened?"

  "Troy and I got in a fight." I fell on my bed, held my pillow over my head, and screamed. It didn't make me feel any better.

  "Oh, sweetie, about what?" She sat at the edge of my bed and started rubbing my leg.

  Why were southern women so touchy-feely?

  I scooted back on my bed and leaned against the wall.

  "You know I told you his ex-girlfriend was in town." I told her the story about meeting her last night and the conversation at lunch today. "He said I was being insecure, but I'm not. That woman wants him back."

  Darcy didn't say anything at first. She sat back and took my hand.

  "Sweetie, I love you, but I'm sorry, Troy is right."

  "What?" I took my hand back.

  "He is. Just because she wants him doesn't mean she gets to have him."

  "Yeah, but—"

  "And Troy didn't say or do anything to make you think he wanted to be with her."

  "No, but—"

  "Seriously, Miranda. Troy is a–maz–ing, and he adores you. You're blaming him for something he can't control."

  "I'm not blaming him."

  "Yeah you are, because you're asking him to fix it. It's not his job to fix it. If you don't get over your insecurity and realize how much he cares for you, you're going to lose him."

  I grabbed a pillow and scream again.

  She was right, but...

  "But he didn't have to leave. He should have stayed and talked it out with me. He shouldn't have stormed off."

  "He probably stormed off to avoid smacking some sense into you." Darcy stood up and went over to her bed and sat down, and then got back up. It appeared she needed to say something but couldn't decide where best to begin.

  I was afraid to say anything at this point; she might smack some sense into me. I knew I was being childish, but I was new to this whole best friend/boyfriend relationship dynamic. I started to open my mouth to tell Darcy this, but she found her words and began speaking.

  "I've dreamed of finding the perfect guy to sweep me off my feet ever since I can remember. And I know that makes me sound totally pathetic, but I don't care. I want a boyfriend who loves and adores me. Someone who not only wants to hang out with me, but prefers it." She stared off into the unknown. "I want someone who inspires me and who's proud to be with me."

  I couldn't look her in the eye. Now I was embarrassed. I had what she wanted.

  "I'm tired of guys who measure how much I like them based on how far I let them go on the first date." She faced me. Now I was afraid to look away. "Rand you have this great guy who treats you right, and you don't realize how lucky you are."

  ***

  I fish my phone out of my bag and sent Troy a text:

  Miranda: Where are you?

  He responded in less than five seconds.

  Troy: Downstairs.

  I looked up and found Darcy staring at me.

  "He's here?"

  "Yeah."

  "Go make up. Kiss each other's faces off. I'll be here when you get back. Alone. With no one to love."

  Her sad face broke my heart. "Come on. Get dressed, give us few minutes, and then come down. We'll go to The Loop and have dessert."

  "And sit and watch you two get all lovey-dovey while I get fat. No thank you."

  "No, come one. I promise, no lovey-dovey, whatever the hell that means.” I pulled her arm to get her to sit up. "It's just three friends hanging out."

  "Okay, but if he so much as brushes up against you in an adoring way, I'm out of there."

  I found Troy sitting on the picnic table with his legs dangling over the side.

  I couldn't tell if he was mad or relieved, probably both. I was glad to see him. I locked eyes with him as I took my time walking over. His dark eyes lightened, and he tried to suppress a grin as it spread across his face.

  When I reached him, we didn't speak. I grabbed his face to kiss him, but paused for the second it took me to whisper, "I'm sorry."

  I was not sure how long we stayed like this, but long enough for Darcy to catch us.

  "See, this is exactly what I didn't need tonight."

  I backed away from Troy. "I'm sorry. You're right."

  "What's going on?" Troy asked.

  "Well, I thought it would be fun for us three friends"—I emphasized "'three friends"—"to hang out, at The Loop."

  "Okay," Troy said, looking back and forth between Darcy and me.

  "You know, friends who don't hold hands, don't kiss, don't touch each other under the table, and—"

  "Get lost in each other’s eyes," Darcy added. "Come on, Troy. It won't kill you not to kiss your girlfriend for a few hours."

  "Oh, I get it." Troy grabbed Darcy's hand and gave her a hug. He said as they walked away together, "But Darcy and I can make out if we want to, right?"

  Darcy giggled and blushed, which made me laugh. I followed them.

  "Or you and Darcy can make out. I wouldn't have a problem with that." Darcy pushed him away, and I hit him on his shoulder.

  "Ew. That's disgusting," Darcy said.

  "In your dreams,” I said.

  It took Darcy thirty minutes to dump us for a blond-haired frat boy.

  I woke up the next day feeling foolish about our fight. I didn't trust Rhonda, but I understood it had nothing to do with Troy.

  I had not practiced since Sunday. So I spent all my free time outside of class in a practice room working on my midterm composition. When I had made some progress, I headed over to Troy’s. I missed him.

  When I arrived, I knocked, but no one answered. With all the cars parked in the driveway, I knew they were home. I opened the door and heard muffled voice from the back of the house. I headed toward Troy's bedroom and found Ryan, Todd, and David standing outside the door listening and trying not to laugh.

  "What are you guys doing?" I startled them.

  What were they so focused on outside of Troy's room?

  Ryan pushed me back into the living room.

  "Don't freak out," Ryan said.

  "She was here when we got home," Todd added.

  "Who?"

  "Rhonda."

  I sat down on the couch. Rhonda, in Troy's bedroom.

  "Why is she here?"

  "We came back from practice, and I went into to Troy's room to throw his books on the bed, and there she was." Ryan tried to remain serious, but it was hard with Todd and David giggling like schoolgirls. "Naked."

  "What?" I stood up.

  "Troy is pissed," David said, standing closest to the door.

  It took me a few seconds to paint the picture in my mind of Troy, my boyfriend, in a room with Rhonda, his ex-girlfriend with her redhead, six-foot-tall nakedness in full view. I ran past Ryan before he had a chance to stop me.

  I opened the door and found Rhonda with a sheet wrapped around her. Troy must have been standing inside the door because I didn't see him when I walked in the room. In fact, I didn't notice him at all, until he grabbed me around the waist as I went after Rhonda. I had one finger on her before Troy snatched me back. I was pissed. Why wouldn’t he let me kick this girl's ass?

  "Rhonda, get your shit and get the fuck out of my house," Troy yelled. The force of his words shook the room. Thank goodness his wrath wasn't directed at me. It kind of fired me up even more. When he yelled at Rhonda, he loosened his grip, and I took the opportunity to go after her again.

  I wanted to smack the smug look off of her face.

  Her eyes widened as she backed up into the wall. Her one free arm shot up to protect her face. I was able to get a hand on her this time before Troy caught me. He tightened his arm around me before I could do any real damage. He picked me up and sat
me down on his dresser across the room. Then he took up a stance in front of me, and I couldn't move even if I wanted to.

  Rhonda gathered her stuff, keeping her eyes on me as she headed out of the door.

  "I'm sorry, but he's so fucking good," Rhonda said through a fake, pouty smile. Then she addressed me. "Remember, Miranda, I taught him everything he knows. You can thank me later."

  "I'll thank you now, you redheaded skank. Bye-bye."

  Ryan and the guys continued their giggle-fest in the hallway.

  Rhonda walked out, and Troy shut the door.

  ***

  I stayed perched on the dresser, afraid to move. Not sure what to do or say. I sat there waiting for him to remember I was in the room. His shoulders set in a flex, he banged his fist on the door.

  "Hey." He turned to face me. "Come here."

  "I'm sorry," Troy whispered in my ear as he buried his face in my hair. "You were right."

  "It doesn't matter; I know you would never risk what we have for that." I exhaled, and he held me tighter.

  "Redheaded skank?" He leaned back to look at me; a smile crept up the corners of his mouth.

  "You should have let me kick her ass."

  "I would have, but"—he grabbed both my hands in his—"I was afraid you would hurt these beautiful hands and then you wouldn't be able to play. She's not worth it."

  He kissed one hand and then the other.

  The adrenaline from the near fight coursed through me, and I got chills when Troy touched me. My skin was super-sensitive to his touch. My whole body reacted to his kisses.

  I grabbed him behind the neck and pulled his face down to kiss his lips. Troy's tongue touched mine, and I moaned. The sound came from deep inside me. Troy smiled as he kissed me deeper.

  His hands massaged my thighs, and I wrap my legs around his waist. I moved my hands to his shoulders and trailed my fingers down his arms and his sides until I reached the bottom of his shirt. I stopped for a second to look into his eyes. I lifted his shirt over his head.

  Troy without his shirt took my breath away every time. I had run my hands up and down his cut abs before, but this time, the heat emitting from the tips of my fingers as they touched his body felt amazing. I had a superhero touch.

  I explored his stomach with my fingertips, etching the lines in my brain. Troy, with his hands on my thighs, traced a trail from my knees to my butt and didn't stop there. He moved his hands up my torso, pushing my shirt up along with it. He stopped and stared in my eyes. I removed my hands for a second and pulled my shirt up the rest of the way. I couldn't wait to get my hands back on his chest and my lips on his neck.

  Troy's hands stopped moving. I removed my lips from the valley on his neck I had grown fond of.

  "What wrong?"

  "Just wanted to make sure you were still with me," he said while moving his hands back down to my thighs. I guess he saw what he needed to see. My nerve endings worked overtime. My body wanted Troy, and without a doubt, my mind wanted him too.

  "Nowhere else I'd rather be." I stretched up to kiss him as I ran my fingers along his side. He shivered at my touch as I pulled him closer. I didn’t remember having this type of effect on a man before. Not from a simple kiss, and not from my touch.

  At this point, everything was different.

  ***

  I'd like to say lying next to him after having the most amazing sexual experience of my life, I would be basking in the sexual afterglow they talk about, and I was, but not entirely. I couldn't stop my brain from working. I created a running checklist in my mind comparing Troy with other guys I'd had been with. Don't get me wrong, Troy won hands-down, but it shocked me how amazing it was with him. I thought if this was what sex was supposed to be like, what in the hell had I been doing before?

  Troy picked me up and carried me over to his bed. He laid me down and knelt in front of me. He didn't waste any time removing my jeans. He leaned over me and kissed me long and hard on the lips. As I reminded myself to breathe, he moved to my neck and then my shoulders.

  As a quarterback, he'd honed his sense of touch and tested his senses on every part of my body. Every place he touched evoked a giggle, a moan, or a verbal confirmation to continue.

  All my past sexual encounters had one thing in common: speed. It was like the guys I was with were in a race. The guys raced to the finish line as fast as they could, while I was left playing catch up on my own, or worse, abandoned on the track to finish all by myself. With Troy, we were on a light jog through a winding park. We weren't in any hurry.

  I laid back and watched him explore me. His focus similar to the focus I'd seen on his face when he was on the football field.

  With other guys, I recalled how it felt and how it tasted, limited myself to those senses. With Troy, I used all my senses. Now I understood why guys loved to watch.

  My eyes followed him as he kissed down my stomach and marked a trail from my right hip to my left with the tip of his tongue. My eyes opened wide as he opened my thighs and kissed a trail from my knee up my inner thigh. I thought I knew where he was heading and closed my eyes for a second, but opened them again when he jumped to kiss down my other inner thigh. He was driving me crazy, but I stayed quiet and continued to watch, anxious to see what he would do next. We locked eyes as he fingers touched me, followed by his tongue. Realizing he enjoyed watching my reaction took me over the edge. The orgasm hit me from out of nowhere. I should have expected it, considering what he was doing to me, but it still caught me off guard, and a low growl escaped my lips. A sexy grin spread across Troy's face as I collapsed onto the bed.

  Then he was gone.

  "What"—trying to find my voice again—"What are you doing?"

  Troy searched through his dresser draws.

  "Looking for a condom. I didn't exactly plan this."

  He opened the last drawer with no luck.

  I rolled over, which took some effort considering I had not regained feeling in my legs. I opened his nightstand draw and in the back under some papers; I saw a metallic wrapper illuminated by the light coming from the bathroom.

  "Will this work?" I held it up.

  "Yes."

  "I noticed it last week when I was looking for a pen."

  "You are observant." He walked back over to the bed and gave me an appreciative kiss and took the condom. He sat down on the edge of the bed with his back to me.

  I got on my knees behind him. He removed his shorts and put the condom on as I kissed up and down his neck. My fingertips played scales down his sides, and once again, he shivered. His reaction made me smile. I might have giggled; I was not sure of the order of things from this point forward, because I stopped thinking for a while.

  He turned around, picked me up, and laid me across the bed. I gasped as he entered me, thrilled by the way he felt inside of me.

  With Troy, it started at amazing and increased to sexy greatness from there.

  He moved inside me slow at first. He kissed me, and our tongues moved with the rhythm of our hips. He looked in my eyes and whispered my name, and I panted as he moved faster.

  He slowed down every few minutes. Long enough to push my hair off my face and plant sweet kisses on my eyelids, nose, and mouth. All the while keeping a steady but slow pace. It was like he wanted to watch me enjoy myself. I screamed his names as another orgasm hit me.

  All my senses were on overload. He moved faster and faster holding my gaze up to the point when all he could do was hold onto me as his body stiffened and shook. He let out a primal grunt like he'd been holding it in for this precise moment and collapsed.

  With other guys, I was useful. There. A warm body.

  With Troy, I was necessary, special.

  Whatever word I chose wouldn't do it justice. For sure, I couldn't wait to do it again.

  Troy stayed inside of me until his breath returned to normal. He rolled us over. As we lay sided by side, he pulled me close, kissing my shoulders and neck.

  My skin found a new level
of sensitivity, and his touch made me giggle.

  "What are you giggling about?" Troy asked as he continued.

  "I've got a good buzz going on over here."

  "You are practically humming." He ran his fingers down my arm, and I shivered again. He grabbed the end of the blanket behind me and covered us both.

  "You were amazing."

  "Thank you very much," he said, and laughed. "You did good, too."

  "I should have done more." I kissed him. "Every time I was figuring out my move, my brain got scrambled."

  "You've got moves?"

  "I have a few, I think."

  "Well, we can save them for next time."

  I gave Troy my own sad pouty face.

  "What?" Troy said.

  "Yeah," I said, "I'm a little disappointed."

  "Why?"

  "Disappointed we can't do it again, now. No more condoms."

  "I could borrow some from Ry."

  "No, then he'll know we had sex."

  "Oh, babe, the people in the house three doors down could hear us having sex," Troy said. He found this hysterical.

  "Oh my God, I wasn't that loud."

  "I loved it. Especially when you screamed my name."

  I groaned and buried my head into his chest.

  "It was sexy as hell."

  "I kind of let go and enjoyed the moment," I said. "I've never done that before."

  I looked in his eyes, hoping he understood what I meant. Sex had never been that way before. The way he kissed me, he understood. He rolled over on his back not taking his hands or lips off of me.

  We lay there kissing and running our hands over each other until I felt him growing hard under me. Someone needed to be the responsible one here.

  With all the mental strength I could muster, I crawled off of him and went into the bathroom.

  When I came back out, Troy had pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

  "Get dressed. We've got to go get provisions."

  Five minutes later, we headed out the door.

  On a white board near the door, Ryan had left Troy a note.

  Hey T,

  Used your truck to take the party over to Thompson’s. Thought you could use some privacy. No worries. Red Headed Skank is banned for life.

  Ry.

  "I'm a big fan of your best friend."