Chapter 7

Wednesday, October Fifteenth

Game Six

I woke up Wednesday morning. I was a little disoriented, not used to waking up in someone else's bed with my arms around said someone else-but I got my bearings quickly. I shot a glance at the clock. 6 AM. Callie said she was setting the alarm for 6:30. Why did I wake up?

Then, I realized why. The girl who was wrapped in my arms was crying.

"Callie?"

She sniffled. "Did I wake you? I'm sorry."

"It's OK. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Everything." She sobbed a bit. "It happened. I went to bed with you. I told you how I feel about you. I swore to myself this would never happen. And now that it happened, I can't stop it."

"Why would you want to?"

"I'm so scared!"

I grabbed her and flipped her over, so that she was looking at me. I forced her head up so she'd have to look in my eyes. I could see the redness, and the tear-tracks. "Callie. I know you're scared. You think I'm not? I haven't exactly had good experiences either. But I'm willing to take a chance."

"I don't have a choice, now," she sniffled. "I'm already in deep."

"Cal. It's never going to work if you spend the whole time waiting for the other shoe to drop. I love you-and I'm not going to let you down."

She just kind of nodded, and sniffled again. I kissed her and held her a while. Not much more was said. We got up and I headed down to my room to change my clothes. Jack was there.

"Where the hell have you been? You don't watch the last two games with us, you don't come home last night? What gives?"

"I've been at Callie's," I admitted.

"Last NIGHT?" I nodded. "What happened?"

"Not a good idea to talk about it right now, OK?"

"All right. But-good or bad?"

"Good, if she doesn't freak, OK?"

"OK."

I met her for breakfast, and she seemed better. We went through our classes that morning. We both finished at 12:30, and our classes at that time were in the same building, so we met each other and walked towards the dining hall in the dorm. I reached out for her hand. Much to my delight, she eagerly took mine in hers.

It was extremely windy in Syracuse. Her hair was blowing all over the place. Her skirt kept blowing between her legs. She was talking about something that happened in class, and suddenly realized that I was staring at her.

"What?" she said.

"Do you know you're beautiful?" I told her.

"Yeah right. This wind is killing my hair!"

"You look fantastic."

"You really are a goofball," she grinned at me, obviously pleased despite herself.

"Yup," I agreed-and grabbed and kissed her. She beamed at me. Hey, if that's what I had to do to prove my steadfastness, I was willing!

We hit the dining hall and ate. Then we went to her room. We decided to get some studying done before the game started.

"You know, I could think of something other than studying to do right now," she grinned.

"No doubt. But if we study now, after the game..."

"Good plan!"

It got to be close to four, and she said, "We watching the game here? I'll bet the gang misses us."

"You want to go watch it with them?"

"Yeah," she said definitively, looking right at me. I got it. She wanted me to prove something-she wanted to take 'us' public. I had no problem with that. She also probably wanted to rub it in Melanie's face!

"That's fine," I said. "Besides which, we should probably tell Tim that the bet is off!"

We went to my room, where the gang was gathering. We sad down on my bed-and wrapped our arms around one another. This wasn't going to take long for anyone to figure out.

"Where you guys been for two days?" Tim asked.

"Working a few things out," Callie told him. "Oh, and, by the way-there's no more bet."

"You canceled it?" Melanie snorted...

"No," Callie said. "I conceded. Forfeited. He won." Everyone looked at her. "Well, I decided that his prize was better than my prize! Sorry, Tim."

"I'll live," Tim grinned. "So, you mean to say, you two..."

"Yeah," I said.

"You mean my little ploy worked?" Melanie gloated.