Wildest Dreams (Tayvin)

A ping too far

TAYLOR POV

As I walked into the house after being at the gym, I found it was silent. Like too silent. As I got into the kitchen I noticed a note:

"Ping Pong Table. Tournament Night. You +Me."

I couldn't help but smile as I looked out the back door and saw Adam sitting by the ping pong table bouncing the ball in the air with his paddle. I was about 20 minutes later than planned, so in the back of my mind I wondered how long he'd been out there. I grabbed a spare paddle from the basket by the back door, took off my sweater and wandered out, wearing just my gym shorts and sports bra.

"So..." I said as I got closer, watching as Adam looked up from his paddle and his eyes went wide.

"So...." He said, smirking as he came closer to me, dropping his paddle on the table.

"Nah uh. You said a ping pong tournament, I expect a ping pong tournament." I said, poking him in the middle of his chest.

"How do you know I don't use 'ping pong' as code for something else...." Adam said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Because if it is, you have a very weird and twisted relationship with your friends." I shot back, laughing as he paled.

"Umm... okay, let's do this then!" He said, smiling and picking up his paddle and a ball again.

ADAM POV

At first I was going easy on Taylor. She hadn't played as much as I had recently, since the ping pong table was mostly being hogged by my friends when they were over and we had much better things to do in the evening than play ping pong obsessively. But I quickly realized she was totally in in to win it.

Every shot I took, she easily got back. Every time I tried to trick her, she caught on and got back at me. I was surprised, but I wasn't going to let it show. The competition started to heat up, with strategic plays, challenging looks, and a level of trash talk.

I served a very gentle shot, with her easily hitting it back. That's when I decided to strike. I wacked the ball as hard as I could.... just not anticipating where it would head exactly.....

It was as if it was moving in slow motion as it flew directly across the table at about my shoulder height and hit Taylor square in the middle of her forehead. She stumbled backwards slightly as I stood stock still.

Suddenly I snapped out of it.

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry babe! Oh no!" I started to panic slightly, literally leaping across the table (okay, it was more of a rushed walk around the side) and going up to Taylor, who had a hand on her forehead and a weird look on her face.

"What the hell Adam?" She said, walking over to the bench nearby and siting down.

"What do you need? Ice? An ambulance?" I asked her, sitting next to her.

"Geez that hurt!" She said, her head down slightly as she held a hand over her forehead.

"I'm so sorry! Can I get you something for it?" I asked her again, gently rubbing her shoulder, trying to comfort her without being too over the top.

"A glass of water would be great, babe." She said, smiling at me weakly. At least she was smiling.

I ran inside and got a glass of cold water for her, sitting down next to her again as I gave it to her.

Suddenly I felt a cold burst and was soaked. She had thrown the water over me. I wiped it out of my eyes and looked over at her.

"You are totally paying for that." Taylor said, smirking and standing up again with her bat.

"Wait.... what?" I asked her, shocked by the development.

"I said, you are going to pay for that shot...now get your ass back in the game!" She said, grabbing the discarded ball and getting ready to play.

She was most definitely in it to win it.... and she did.

The next morning

TAYLOR POV

I was supposed to go out for brunch with some friends this morning, but had spent the last 10 minutes in the bathroom trying to cover up the bruise that had developed on my forehead from the ping pong match last night. There wasn't much I could go. It was quite obvious.

"Look what you did." I said to Adam as he walked into the bathroom.

"I said I was sorry.... like a thousand times." He said, pouting slightly.

I had already made him pay for it by beating him in ping pong, making cookies after dinner which he couldn't say no to, and going to sleep while he was showering without even giving him a goodnight kiss or anything.

"Yeah.... Well I guess I will just have to go out like this.... Let the tabloid say what they will." I sighed.

I collected all my stuff and left, luckily not getting photographed on the way to brunch.

"Taylor, usually you are so much better at covering stuff up than that!" Selena said, smirking slightly as she sat down across from me at brunch, and making all the other girls then looked at me more closely.

"Ping pong injury." I said in explanation.

"And by ping pong you mean..." Ellie said, suggestively.

"Ping pong. Like the game with the table and the bats and the balls. Nothing else." I said, rolling my eyes at my friends' dirty minds.

"That just makes it sound like kinky 50 shades shit.... But okay... how?" Ellie continued.

"Adam was a little too overzealous when he volleyed back a shot and it hit me in the forehead.... And I bruise easily....so yeah...." I explained.

They all accepted my explanation, with Ellie insisiting she needed to tell Charlie and the boys ASAP and everyone making fun of Adam when I told them how I 'punished' him for it, and we got on with our brunch.

ADAM POV

"Do you want to pay ping pong?" Burns asked as we left the studio for a break.

"Umm.... Not thanks.... I'm not going near that thing for a while." I said, stuttering slightly.

"Oh god... what did you guys do on the ping pong table? Do we have to burn it?" He said, making e roll my eyes.

"Oh my god! Adam! You injured Taytay?" Charlie said, walking towards us from the house.

"You did WHAT?" Burns said, sounding shocked.

"I didn't do it on purpose.... I just got competitive and put a little too much power into my volley and it hit her on the forehead... can we do something else now?" I said, trying to put the matter to rest.

"I can't believe you hit your girlfriend with a ping pong ball...." Charlie said, shaking his head.

"Well it happened. And won't happen again because I am never playing against her again." I said, crossing my arms and walking towards the house.

"Aww.... Adam got beat by a girl!" Burns said, laughing his head off, with Charlie joining in.