Offside

“Fucking bitch!” Nicole screamed back. “Jealous little skank!”

“Whoa there,” I said as I tried to calm her down a bit. I wasn’t the least bit successful, and she continued to struggle against me. I had to get her away from the other girls before she actually hurt me.

“Oh, she definitely let him,” I heard Crystal saying to the other girls.

“It does explain a bit, huh?” Lisa said with a giggle.

“Innocent little act of hers didn’t last long, did it?” Heather nodded in agreement.

Wasn’t she bitching at me yesterday for talking smack about Nicole?

“Klosav!” I yelled out. Mika jogged over and reached us just as I got Nicole out of the stands and back down on solid ground. She kept struggling and trying to punch my arm, but I held tight. “Go shut your girl up. Get Jeremy and Clint, too.”

“No problem.”

He’d been hanging all over Heather since she asked him to the dance, so I figured he could do a little something to help out. The rest of the team was just standing around watching and trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next. Coach Wagner was trying to get them to pull it together, but everyone was focused on what was going on in the stands.

“Dump her ass if she won’t play nice!” I called back up to Mika as I kept pulling my kicking, screaming kitten backwards away from the field. I didn’t wait for his answer because it was right about then that Nicole managed to land a kick to my shin, which nearly took me down.

That shit hurt!

“Holy shit, Nicole!”

“I told you to let me go!” she yelled with another snarl.

“We’ll figure that out later,” I told her. I placed her feet on the ground just long enough to get a better grip on her, spun her around, and tossed her over my shoulder. It made it a lot easier to hold her legs, which really were pretty damn strong.

I carried her across the field, into the parking lot, and to my car despite all her protests. Dropping her ass down into the passenger seat, I blocked her way so she couldn’t get back out. Eventually, she stopped screaming at me and started to calm down.

“You want to tell me what that was all about?”

“Just what I said before!” Nicole snapped.

“What did she say to you?”

“It doesn’t matter!” She pulled her legs up to her chest and covered her face with her arms. Her shoulders rose and fell as she took deep breaths. I was pretty sure she was trying to stop herself from crying.

“Obviously it does,” I replied. I crouched in front of her and touched the edge of her knee with my finger. She pushed my hand away.

“Take me home!” she finally yelled.

“I will,” I said, “but my keys are in my soccer bag, which is back at the field, so you’re going to have to wait a minute. Will you stay right here for two minutes while I go get my shit?”

Rumple huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, lioness turning back into a kitten. She still had her claws out, but at least she wasn’t screaming for blood anymore.

Meow.

I took my own deep breath. Her display was kind of turning me on, and I was pretty sure that was a bad idea right at that moment. I stood and placed my hands on the roof, leaning in close to her. She looked up at me, and I could see the tears in her eyes.

“I’ll take care of it,” I promised. “Let me take care of it, okay?”

“I’m not coming back to your practices.” She was adamant.

“I’m going to fix that, too,” I said. “I should have thought of it before, but that will be fixed before tomorrow. You’ll have someone else to sit with who won’t give you shit, and those bitches aren’t going to bother you again.”

“Are you going to play another round of locker stuffing?”

“No, I have other ideas, though.”