Troy breaks our kiss, and I know I've got a stupid, dreamy look on my face. I blink a few times, then smile. "Why'd you stop?"
Troy smiles back and strokes my hair with his hand. "Because if I keep going right this second, I'm worried that I won't hold back . . . and to be honest, Whitney, I want to hold back. You're . . . you're pretty special for some reason. I'd like to get to know why, or at least have a chance to know why."
"So you don't want to just pop my cherry and then run off?" I tease, and Troy's face drops in shock. "What? Yes, a girl can get to a month shy of her eighteenth birthday and still be a virgin, you know. Especially one who spent all of high school until the past two days overlooked."
"I shouldn't have overlooked you," Troy says, then laughs. "I guess I'm not as good a guy as I thought."
"You're a guy," I reply, leaning my head on his shoulder again. "Ruled by your penis, and just barely more evolved than your average chimp. I get it. Girls, we're not much better. You should have seen the nasty looks I've gotten over the past few days from some of the other girls on the cheer squad. As Dani puts it, bitches be hatin'."
Troy laughs and shifts his arm around so that he can hold me with his left arm. He reaches behind us and comes back with the box that my chicken sandwich is in. "Yeah, well, you can tell them that I'm not interested right now. Here, you don't want that to get cold."
We talk for another hour, occasionally turning or shift around on the rock to grab our food or just reposition ourselves until the sun goes all the way down. As I drink the last of the McFlurry—the rest of it had melted—I can't help but laugh. "You know, Troy, this isn't how I imagined our date would go."
"Neither did I," he says, running his fingers through my hair. "I know this might be a bit fast, but I was wondering if you'd like to go out again sometime?"
"What about Saturday?" I ask. "I'd say Friday, but Mom already told me she's taking me out for a celebration dinner for my making the cheer squad."
Troy laughs and nods. "But it has to be Saturday early afternoon. I uh, well, I've got a part-time job that takes up Saturday from four thirty until midnight. All day Sunday too."
"Oh? Where?"
“A pizza joint just outside town. Don't tell anyone that, please? State law says that I'm not supposed to be working that late while I'm in school. The owner doesn't know anything about football, and he thinks I graduated last year. I'm just glad I don't need to lie about my age anymore now that I'm eighteen."
I see the tremble in his jawline, and I nod. "That's fine, Troy. So I guess this means that we're not going to be going on a lot of typical dates during football season?"
Troy shakes his head, then shrugs. "Sorry. No Friday or Saturday nights at the movies. Best I can do is the occasional matinée."
I smile and lean in closer. "I think I can deal with that. On one condition."
His cocky little grin is back, playful and, if I can use that word, arousing. "What's that?"
"Another few of those amazing kisses?"
Troy keeps to my condition and is actually a gentleman, cleaning up our mess and walking with me back to the car. When he opens the door, I turn to him and take his hand. "Just a moment," I say, tugging on his arm.
Troy turns and give me a quizzical look. "What?"
In a move that I can't even believe I'm doing as I do it, I take his hand and lift it, putting it on my right breast, where by instinct, he cups it, sending shivers down my body and heat between my legs. I let him stroke with his thumb for a few seconds, then reluctantly, I lift his hand off, and it's my turn to kiss his knuckles. "There. You can tell your buddies you at least got to second base. I know they're going to bug you about it."
Troy shifts, and I smile when I see that his pants are fitting him, well, a little more snugly around the crotch than they were a minute ago. Troy shakes his head and takes my fingers in his again, kissing my knuckles. "No, I don't think the guys need to know what happened here tonight. Some things are too good to share, and you want to keep them all to yourself. Come on, let's get you home before your Mom wants to kill me, and that would totally ruin our plans for Saturday."
Chapter 6
Troy
I sit in the stands of Fox Stadium, wearing my number 12 jersey, hanging out with the rest of the guys. We just completed our final walkthroughs for tomorrow's game, and Coach Jackson handed out our game jerseys. Some of us, me included, put them on before we head home. We're ready.
"You looking forward to the pep rally tomorrow?" Cory asks. He's really stepped up over the past two days, and he's feeling good about things. I understand, because Wednesday's practice, and then today's walkthroughs, went like fucking clockwork. "You know, I'm kinda looking forward to it."