One of the Boys: Prequel

Part One: He Loves Me

I was the only one left in the locker room because I had a reason to bother with a shower. I grudgingly slid on one of my only—albeit ratty—pair of jean shorts and pumped a bit of mouse onto my palm. My baby blonde—as referred to by my best friend Alyssa because only toddlers have hair so light and fine—hair hung limply past my chest in lifeless waves. I snapped the black elastic headband against my wrist before sliding it over my forehead to tame the flyaways. It was all I bothered with when my hair was down; my only alternative hairstyle was practically the same process, only I threw it into a messy bun at the nape of my neck afterwards.

I threw my game cleats into my locker along with my warm-ups. I didn’t want to appear in Luke’s Jeep with a giant hunter green Adidas that I had to stuff into his trunk. If my non-sexy outfit wasn’t a mood killer then the bag definitely would be. I finally pulled my t-shirt over my bra. It was actually from Victoria’s Secret—a gift from Alyssa and a sacrifice that I’d only ever made for Luke. She bought it for me on my one month anniversary with Luke, when she figured it was suitable for me to sleep with him and when she realized it wasn’t appropriate to have sex with my super-hot senior boyfriend. I agreed with her—it wasn’t suitable to where a sports bra for your first time and that’s exactly why I wasn’t planning on sleeping with Luke that first month. But it was now it’s the third and our anniversary was tomorrow.

Although there’s this part of me who really, really wants to and she’s getting harder and harder to stifle, which is probably why I brought stuffed matching lingerie in my duffle bag when Lucas told me that he would pick me up after the game.

Accept lately I’ve let him up my dingy sports bra on numerous occasions. I don’t see how he would mind—sports bras have none of those messy clasps which equal easier access to the chest area—especially since the elastic isn’t at its springiest point in life. That reminds me; I really need to take a trip to Dick’s—sporting goods, I mean. Now I realize that most teenage girls don’t have the same respect as I do for Dick’s; most girls at my private school only by their Northface jackets there. But then again, I may be the only who buys undergarments there.

Maybe I’d go to places like Victoria’s Secret for bras if I needed to buy regular bras, but mine look the same way they did when bought and no matter how many bags my mother discretely left in my room, most still have tags. I can picture Alyssa in my room, shaking her head. Those sports thingies that you wear, they just do nothing for your shape. But this new Ipex your mom bought…”

There are some seriously cool things about being the first junior captain of varsity soccer—ever. I had keys to the three gyms our school had and the two sets of male and female locker rooms. No idea why they gave me copies of the guy ones, but Luke’s spent countless minutes brainstorming reasons because as captain of the boys Varsity team, he’s never gotten a copy of the girls’ locker room’s key. And Ace never hesitates to grovel when he knows the locker room is missing teachers and full of cheerleaders.

They even gave me the school’s security codes, so even if Coach McKay was late—which happens a considerable amount of time because she’s got six kids between the ages of three and nine—we can get into the school for early morning practice. I had to sign all kinds of legal forms and can be sued up my ass if I share the five-digit code with anyone, even inanimate objects (yes, I did read the fine print, or my lawyer mother did). The fact that, Ace believes, they gave me all these keys and codes means that they’re really expecting the State that they didn’t get from Varsity boys Soccer.

I pulled the nondescript black Northface book bag over my shoulders and shuffled out of the locker room after I turned off all the lights. I nodded at the janitor on the other side of the Field House before flipping my cell phone open. A single text alerted me to his presence outside and I couldn’t help grin that spread across my face. It was a good thing I had a good fifty more feet to walk before I got to his car. I thought about it in terms of an equation. Cheshire grin + ratty t-shirt and jeans a dwindling desire to get into my pants. And isn’t a guy’s desire to get into a girl’s pants the only thing you can really count on with the male species?

The fire engine red truck was right out in front and brunette with long voluminous curls—she looked like a walking billboard for BIG SEXY HAIR products—was leaning in through the passenger window. My eyes narrowed defensively when I approached the door.

“Hey Luke,” I paused, smiling slightly. It was so random; what did she need to talk to my boyfriend about anyway. Last time I heard she was sleeping with Ace—and he still hadn’t agreed to date her. “Leah, how are you?”

“Babe,” Luke answered, reaching across the car. It looked like he was reaching for her chest; I noticed him cut his eyes at her and she moved back. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. “You were great today. Did you see Coach Elki made us sit together? He hounded Ace and I the whole game. Every time you had the ball, Hailey—‘You see that, Spencer; maybe we would’ve won State if you trained with your girlfriend’. You won’t believe what he said under his breath.”

“What’d he say,” I asked grinning. Elki Coaches the JV girl’s team too and has since gone from my Coach to biggest fan, in Luke’s opinion. I didn’t even realize Leah was still standing off to the side until I hopped in the car.

Obviously Luke did also. “Uh, we’ll see you later, Leah,” he said, dismissing her. His golden eyes sparkled when we pulled off. He launched right back into the story. “I guess he thought I wasn’t listening but Trevor heard him too. He’s glad that ‘the little piece of shit’ meaning me ‘isn’t hindering’ your focus.”

“Well, I’ll admit I’m a little bit less disciplined. I skipped a six mile run with Ace last Saturday,” I told him quietly. I recognized the street we turned onto a few avenues away from school; we were having Chinese tonight. I’d text my mother later and tell her not to save me any takeout of her own.

“What did you tell him anyway—why he couldn’t come in, that is,” Luke asked. He pushed his dark hair out of his eyes; he still hadn’t gotten used to having longer hair since he buzzed it off for swimming during the winter. It was very dark but you could still see red in it.

“That my knee was bothering me and I had a slight headache,” I told Lucas. He grinned devastatingly. I had torn my ACL last year and had surgery for it at the beginning of the year, except it really wasn’t bothering me last Saturday. Lucas had just decided—since Mom had to fly to New York to meet with a prospective client—to stay over that night. Who knows how far we would have gone had I been as inebriated as Luke had?

“You could have left me there for…,” he paused, estimating while his eyes were on the radio as he slid in a White Stripes CD. His favorite band, I knew. “What does it take you, forty five minutes?”

“I was otherwise distracted, if you remember correctly, and dead tired by the time you let me go to sleep. I sent that text message to him at like four in the morning—two hours before we usually leave,” I told him. My cheeks were tinged slightly pink but that was about as red as my skin got in ways of blushing.

“So, I am a distraction,” he answered slowly, in that sexy, smooth voice of his. His voice was slightly huskier when he spoke again. “Do you mind or enjoy the distractions I create, Hailey?”

I was fully embarrassed now. I gnawed on my lip but willed my cheeks not to rouge. “Can’t you tell, Lucas?”

“I’d like to think you enjoy the type of distraction I provide,” he smiled slightly. His right hand left the steering wheel and he tapped along the beat of “Icky Thump” on my knee. “So, do you want to go to that party at Ace’s? We could eat at the restaurant and then drive to his house. Or do you want to just go straight to my house when I pick it up?”

“We can—we can go to your house,” I answered in a shaky voice, after a moment’s indecision. I wanted to lessen the heat between us but I couldn’t quite ask him if he’d gotten my favorite vegetable and chicken lo mein. “I mean, only if you’d rather not go to the party?”

“No, I think we could have a private celebration.” He brushed his thumb back and forth across my thigh; goose bumps bloomed up and down my legs. “Besides, I’d rather be with you than the people who will be at that party.”

“That’s reassuring,” I said after he gripped the steering wheel with both hands tightly. After a few silent moments he swung into a parking space in front of the small shop—they served the greasiest, most fattening, but without a doubt the best Chinese in town.

“I’m gonna go in and get the food, okay,” he said before stepping out of the car. I sent Alyssa a quick, frantic text message and shortly after, the Spice Girls song she’d programmed into my phone as her ringer, (“Never Give up on the Good Times” if you’re wondering. I gag repeatedly whenever she calls) rang out.

“Are you serious,” she asked in a shrill voice; Alyssa’s always one for the dramatics. “So you’re not going to Ace’s thing? I can’t make it either; actually I’m heading to Noah’s house, for a party. He invited you, as odd as that may seem…maybe you’ll stop by there?”

“No, no Lucas and I are going back to his house…I want to do this—or well, him,” I answered quietly. I watched the doorway to the restaurant for any signs that he was approaching. Lucas was the only person I could see myself sleeping with and we did only have so much time left until he left for college. The University of Michigan isn’t really a short commute and I need him to know just how much I love him.

The girls he’d meet at college, I didn’t want them to be able to give him something I couldn’t. That just wasn’t an option. “Are you really going to have sex with Luke? You can’t do this unless you’re completely sure and is he who you want for your first time?”

“Yeah, of course I’d pick Luke,” I paused, picking at a tiny hole in the hem of my t-shirt. I should have worn something else…no, I should have had Alyssa dress me. But if I was going with Allie’s advice, what I was wearing on top wouldn’t matter too much. A guy’s real interest is what’s underneath. “Who else could I possibly…?”

“No one, but I know it’s important to you,” she started, but anymore of this deliberation and I’d be a nervous wreck once we got to his house. “I don’t want to see you hurt or regretting it.”

“Oh, he’s coming to the car now,” I blurted. “I’ve got to go.” It was a false alarm really; a stout old woman with silver hair actually emerged, but still. I turned my phone off and buried it deep in my bag. I couldn’t afford anymore distractions at this point. It would be just me and Lucas tonight.

I tried not to stare at him—a lazy grin across his face, watching me intently as I pretended to intently study my nail beds. Maybe he was smiling because Luke knows I have no interest in nail beds. Or maybe he knows that I’m finally going to… “Hailey, it’s your last chance to eat inside?”

“No, I just want to go to your place,” I nibbled my bottom lip, “I just want to stay in tonight.”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I was dead sure that I had just kicked a carton of lo mein off the table, but once I finally took a breath, letting my mouth finally leave his, I gasped. His fingertips was surprisingly warm when they traveled up my spine and despite this fact, I trembled.

Oh god, it was getting warm. I needed—I needed to get off of the den floor and up to his bedroom. His warm breath and lips on my neck sent another trill of pleasure through my body. Holy crap— “Luke, Lucas, can we go upstairs,” I breathed.

“Wait, you want to…Are you sure, Hailey?” His voice was so nice, husky and deep like that. “I mean, of course I want to but you’re…”

“I’m sure,” I turned my face to him and pressed my mouth against his hard, melding my body with his. I broke away and met his gold-amber eyes. I knew what I must have looked like—eyes dark and hooded, full of longing. “I’m so, so, sure, Lucas.”

.Now, I’m not fat, but I’m definitely not one of those tiny, little, waifish girls. No, my frame is small, but with years of sports, I have lots of muscle stacked on top. Luke hopped up quickly—I’m not naïve enough to ignore his eagerness—and pulled me with him, taking all of my weight because my legs were beyond jello.

He said it into my hair, fallen haphazardly out of its elastic ponytail holder, but I heard him just the same. I sighed, smiling. He loves me, I thought before finding his mouth again. I wouldn’t let it go until we made it back upstairs, and even then, he was still there. It was painful, and awkward, too but he was always there.

There was no doubt in my mind, Lucas Spencer, the most coveted boy at my school—and probably within a thirty mile radius—chose and loved me. At least, at this point there was no doubting him.

A/N: Ooookay! So this is part one of the prequel. I decided that a one-shot just would not work. Tops it will have six parts and there’s a very good chance that it will be less. So I hope you like it! And if you haven’t read the first nine chapters of ONE OF THE BOYS, then please, please, please check it out! I love the story and the characters so much.

Preview for part two:

Alyssa squeezed my hand while Ace tried to avoid my eyes. He was holding his hands clenched at his sides; Ace was debating...but what? Why were they waiting for me at the entrance of the cafeteria? “Honey, let’s go off campus for lunch—you don’t need this.”

“What—what are you talking about,” I snatched my hand away from her and brushed past them both. Both of my best friends tailed me. I didn’t hear their mumbled pleas for me not to go find my boyfriend.

Just what could this be about? Was Luke planning something? I finally found the table I’d been sitting at for three months now. “Luke,” my voice was shaky now, and I couldn’t figure out why I was so anxious. Maybe it was the pitying looks I’d gotten all morning. “Why are you…why is everyone acting so odd?”

Who was that in my seat?