Possessive Coach

I can’t let it work. I have to keep my cool, keep my hands away from him, and remember that he’s just some punk kid with an ego problem. He doesn’t matter, not in the long run, not at all. He’s going to graduate one day, but I’ll still be coaching. I just need to deal with him until that blessed day comes.

Or until he breaks his leg and can’t play anymore.

The only problem is, I don’t want to sacrifice Chloe’s life in the process. If Erik leaves her alone, I can walk away from this. But if he keeps pushing her, keeps calling her, keeps harassing her… I’m going to have to find a way to ruin him.

One way or the other, I won’t let him hurt what’s mine.8ChloeDavid’s tongue, David’s lips. I keep thinking about him all day long. I float from tutoring, to class, to dinner at Chipotle with Sara, and back to our apartment. I throw my bag on the floor as soon as our door shuts and flop down onto our old fluffy black couch. It still has white dog hairs collected in the corners from the original owners, this nice old couple that lived in an apartment at the end of our block. I always wondered why anyone would have a white dog and a black couch, but it didn’t matter since they sold it so cheap.

“What’s with you?” Sara asks, sitting down in her chair. It’s big, brown, and suede, with some stains on the arms and the back. We found that one out on the curb on trash day one afternoon. We brought it home, cleaned the hell out of it, and it’s been Sara’s little spot ever since. “You’ve been distracted again.”

“I slept at David’s place.” The words come tumbling out.

She gapes at me. “Wait. Hold on. You did what?”

“Didn’t you notice I wasn’t around this morning?”

She shakes her head. “I usually leave before you get up.”

“Oh, right. Surfing.”

“You slept at David’s? That assistant coach of the football team, David? David Fyall? Hunk extraordinaire?”

“Yes,” I say. “I mean, I got this call last night, a really creepy prank call that I’m pretty sure was Erik, and—”

“The star quarterback of the football team is calling you in the middle of the night?” She just stares at me. “What kind of life are you living all of a sudden? I thought you were, like, boring.”

“I’m not boring.”

“I mean…” She trails off, grinning at me. “You study a lot.”

“Studying doesn’t make me boring.”

“I mean…”

“If you say ‘I mean’ one more time, I’m going to throw my physics textbook at your face.”

She laughs and sits up, leaning toward me. “So what was his place like?”

“Nice,” I say, not mentioning that I’ve been there before. “Clean. Adult.”

“Huh. Sounds exciting.” She rolls her eyes.

“Believe it or not, we didn’t, you know.”

“Fuck? Get dirty?”

“No,” I say. “Well. A little. We fooled around.”

“Fooled around?” she screams. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means, I mean, whatever! It means nothing, okay?”

“You sucked his dick, didn’t you?”

“No!” I grab a gray silky throw blanket and bundle it up before pelting her with it. The blanket does not make an effective weapon because she just wraps her arms around it and hugs it tight. “He went down on me.”

“You lucky bitch,” she says, her face straight, her eyes wide. “You found a hot older man that wants to go down on you. I think you just won the lottery.”

I flop back on the couch and sigh, stretching my legs out. “Give me back my blanket.”

“Hell, no. Was it good?”

“Yes. Give it back.”

She throws it over and I tuck it behind my head. “It’s supposed to be a secret though. I mean, obviously.”

“I know that. Wow.” She leans back in the chair. “So do you, like… like him?”

“Yeah,” I say, staring up at the ceiling with a little smile on my face. Whoever owned this place before us put textured paint up there, and I can imagine it crumbling and falling down all over me. “I actually kind of do. Except Erik is making it really complicated.”

“That dickhead,” she says. “I don’t get him. He could have any girl, but he decides to harass you?”

“I know,” I say, “but I think that’s exactly it. He can’t have me, and I stood up to him, so…”

“What a fucking piece of shit.” Sara makes a disgusted face. “At least you have Hottie McCoachface to console you.”

“Gross. Don’t ever call him that again.”

“Just saying, it could be worse. You could be studying.”

I sigh and close my eyes. “If only.”

Sara laughs and hops up to head back for a shower. I listen to the water running, my eyes closed, going over every moment of my time sleeping over at David’s. Waking up in his bed was strange, and seeing him cook me breakfast was stranger, but he still managed to make it a lot less awkward than I had thought. He’s funny and charming and he genuinely seems to care about me.