Fighting to Be Free (Fighting to Be Free 1)

I slid my hands down her back and gripped her ass, “Really, you like watching football?” I asked smiling. I really knew nothing about her at all, but I sure as hell wanted to.

She shook her head turning her nose up, “Not really, I kind of have to though. Well, I pretend to watch anyway.”

“Why?” I asked confused, if she didn’t like football then why watch it? Maybe she was into jocks, I bet Mark played football.

“I’m head cheerleader.” She shrugged.

Holy shit, I was screwing a cheerleader? I groaned as a thousand lustful thoughts of her in a little cheer uniform, were flooding my brain. “Shit that’s hot! Seriously, you’re a cheerleader? You have a uniform?” I asked, I could feel myself getting hard again.

She nodded and rolled her eyes, “What is it with guys and cheer uniforms?” she teased, trailing little kisses across my cheek.

“Seriously Ellie, you wear those little gym shorts under your skirt?” I asked, my voice filled with lust.

She giggled against my neck, “Yeah,” she mumbled, sucking on the side of my neck. I smiled that she was giving me a hicky, payback I guess.

“What colour are they?” I asked, moving my hand from her ass and slipping it between her legs, rubbing her gently through her jeans, ignoring the pain from my hands. She moaned breathily.

“Well, why don’t you come to the game Friday, and maybe I’ll let you see my gym shorts up close,” she purred, sounding sexy as hell.

“Yeah? I’d love to watch you shake your………..pom pom’s,” I answered, suggestively, making her giggle again.

She kissed me again before pushing herself up, “I need to go, Jamie. So I’ll see you Friday then, game starts at seven in my school field. I’ll be on the sidelines, if you want to come say hello,” she said, grabbing her bag from the floor.

“I’ll walk you to your car.” I pushed myself up and grabbed my t-shirt.

“Oh wait, I almost forgot the reason I wanted to see you today!” she cried excitedly. I watched, confused, as she dug around in her bag, grinning. “I stole something from you yesterday when I left.”

Stole something? What the hell did I have to steal? She pulled out my ripped photo and held it out to me. She took my photo? Why on earth would she take that? “Why did you take that?” I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat at the sight of the ripped photo of my sister.

“I needed it so I could get you this.” She smiled, holding out a white envelope.

What the…. “What is it?”

She laughed, “Well open it and see.” She shook the envelope at me, urging me to take it.

I took it out of her hand and opened it, inside was a photo of Sophie. Holy shit! I looked at it shocked, how could she have gotten this? It felt like my heart stopped, this photo was so important to me, it was the only thing in the world that mattered to me, the only thing of any value and when I saw it had been ripped I felt my heart break all over again at the loss of her. How the hell could this girl that I’ve known for three days do something like this for me? She barely knew me, yet she went to all this trouble. She really blew my mind, and just left me speechless.

She pointed to Sophie’s face, “They couldn’t get the line to go completely, and the hole at the bottom looks a little….. strange,” she said quietly.

I raked my eyes over it slowly, the photo looked almost perfect to me.

“How did you do this?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.

“I took it to get it restored.” She shrugged dismissively, as if doing the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me, was no big deal. I’d never had anyone think of me like that before and to be honest I just didn’t know what to do or say. I wasn’t used to being treated nicely.

“Thank you,” I said gratefully.

The words just didn’t seem enough, this meant more to me than anything. I could feel my eyes starting to prickle, so I looked away from the photo quickly, I never cried, I cried at Sophie’s funeral and that was over four years ago. Before that, I probably hadn’t cried since I was about seven years old. Crying didn’t get you anywhere, you just had to suck it up and deal with what life threw at you.

“You’re welcome, I could tell you were upset about it,” she said, biting her lip nervously. “There’s a disk in there too, so you could get more copies if you wanted to.” She nodded at envelope that I was still holding. Jeez, she is so incredible. “Well, maybe I’ll see you Friday then, Jamie,” she said, grabbing the door handle to leave.

My heart took off at the thought of someone hurting her, “Hey wait! Don’t go out there on your own.” I put my hand on the door, holding it closed.

She rolled her eyes and smiled, “My, we are a gentleman,” she teased.

“I’m not a gentleman, I just don’t want you to get hurt by the scum that live in this building.” I pulled my t-shirt over my head quickly and slipped on my sneakers. I grabbed my keys from the side and slid the photo into my pocket and took her hand, pulling her close to me as we stepped out of the door.

I walked her out of the building, glaring warningly at the guy who immediately started checking her out. She shank against my side, making pain shoot up my back, I pulled her even closer as the prostitute stood up smiling at me seductively. “No thanks,” I stated, shaking my head, making her sit back down. Ellie started to giggle next to me as we walked up the path.