The Beautiful Game

Chapter Eighteen - Carter

    I try to keep a straight face and concentrate on the basketball game on tv as I sip the bottle of Budweiser and listen to the fast approaching footsteps on the carpet.

    Lou's face, framed with wild hair, curlier than I'd ever seen it, appears from the hall and her wide, disbelieving eyes make me grin. She's wearing a big grey jersey top and blue pyjama shorts that flaunt her incredible long, toned legs. Her phone is still in her hand, like she was ready to call bullshit on my being here.

    "Oh, I was just going to come and get you!" Ella spots Lou and claps her hands together as she exclaims from the kitchen.

    "What's going on?" Lou asks, through gritted teeth.

    "The boys have brought foo-"

    "I'm not hungry." Lou cuts Ella off in that defiant husky tone of hers, and I can't help but smirk.

    "What's so funny?" I sense her attention on me before I look up to meet her eyes, I feel Marcus nudge me with his knee, as if to say go easy. He's oblivious to the fact Lou's a fucking lioness and I'm the unsuspecting deer in this situation.

   "I bet Marcus twenty bucks you wouldn't eat with us." I tip the bottle back and drink what's left of it, soaking up her pointed gaze.

    "Twenty bucks? Don't go spending all your lunch money on me just yet Carter." I raise one of my eyebrows.

   "Come on Lou, have a drink with us." Marcus pats the two seater sofa beside him.

   "There's a gig later, it'll be fun." Ella says from beside her. "Kate's at study group but she said she could meet us there."

   Lou seems to take a mammoth breath before looking at Ella and nodding, Ella squeals in excitement and starts spooning some more of the Chinese noodles and beansprouts out onto plates. Lou walks into the kitchen to help and grab herself a beer.

   Marcus chuckles beside me, I look at him.

   "What?" I ask, under my breath.

    "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't refreshing to see a girl dislike you so much."

    I feel my chest deflate a little bit at his comment, I didn't dislike Lou. Not one bit. The only thing I disliked about Lou was the fact she was a walking, talking enigma.

   This thing between Lou and I, the bickering, the teasing, whatever it was, I enjoyed it.

   And I thought of her, often.

   I knew it was stupid when I sent that message last Friday night, I'd been lying in bed, staring at my ceiling and just not being able to compute what she'd blurted out into the night.

   Pieces of the Blondie puzzle had seemingly slotted more into place, her reaction on that first night together, when I'd so stupidly invited her into my bed. The look on her face when packets of unopened condoms had sprinkled out of my jeep onto the tarmac, or how I'd so casually suggested sex as a relaxation tactic. She was right, there was nothing casual about taking someone's virginity.

   The girls hand us our plates and finally join us, beer in one hand and plate in the other, Lou settles down on the plush sofa.

   I try not to let my eyes linger on her for too long, but as she crosses her tanned legs beneath her to sit comfortably, I can't help but imagine them around my waist. Tightening as I coax sounds from her that she didn't even know she was capable of.

   "Did you finish your application?" Ella asks Lou, before plucking the remote control from Marcus's lap and using it to peruse the movie channels. She lands on The Green Mile and clicks on, before lowering the volume slightly.