Disclaimer: The following is a prequel to Choices The Freshman and The Sophomore stories. It is a fictional adaptation. I do not work for Pixelberry Studios, the game developer or own the rights to the characters Chris Powell, Jo, Kyle or Nicole. All of the characters, story line and events were originally developed by me, some areas in part with @maxattack-powell, in conjuction to her adaptation of The Freshman.
Chapter 19: Good Girl (Part 1)
The flowing gold gown sweeps the hall floor behind Morgan as she steps out of the restroom where she changed out of her school attire for the day. A backpack is in one hand, a model of a Sekhem-scepter in the other.
She leans against the lockers and waits, looking down the hallway towards the location of the boys’ bathroom.
After five and a half weeks of research, hot gluing fingers together and ordering costume pieces online, the time has finally come for Morgan and Chris to stands as Antony and Cleopatra in front of Mrs. McWhorter and their English Literature classmates. She had asked her third period teacher Mrs. Horn if she could be released just a few minutes earlier to get to the bathroom and put on her elaborate makeup.
The sound of a heavy wooden door being forcefully pushed open as it swings on old hinges causes her to look up again. Chris steps out of the bathroom and Morgan’s breath hitches. He is wearing a toga his mother sewed for him. The white cloth drapes over his muscular frame, a burgundy sash hanging across his body. The material stops at his shoulders, leaving his robust arms exposed. The toga hangs just above his knees in a loose sag, his defined thigh and calf muscles are accented above the leather sandals he is wearing. The golden laurel wreath he and Morgan crafted together sits on the top of his head, a golden chord loops around his waist. He holds his backpack in one hand.
Chris looks up the hall and spots Morgan with her back to the lockers and his steps slow from their hurried pace. She had decided to purchase her costume online, saying she could always wear it again for Halloween and with the elaborate detail it required, it was much easier than asking his mom to sew all the pieces together.
She pushes off from the lockers and turns to face him. He looks her over from head to toe and he feels himself involuntarily take a deep breath. She is wearing a black wig and a golden beaded headdress, with a crown and bead tassels. Around her neck is a collar fashioned in the design of a vulture. The golden gown she wears drapes over her slender, tall frame and a gold cape hangs behind her. Chris looks at her face and her lips are a berry wine in color and she has drawn a deep cat eye in black liner and placed sparkling gold shadow above it. How pretty she looks hits him like a slap across the face, his head jerking back slightly. He wants to tell her she is beautiful but knows it is best to keep the compliment unspoken. Since the day at his house when they worked together and he could feel the tension pouring off both of them in waves, he has been very guarded in his word selection with her.
“I think we could get an A just off of our costumes,” Chris smiles a little.
“Well let’s say we go knock this presentation out of the park and get an A-plus?” She says.
Chris nods as they silently head up the hall to Mrs. McWhorter’s classroom. He opens the door for her and they stand over to the side of the room as Gabby Pointer and Michael Penny present as Daisy and Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. Chris’s toga is an instant distraction for the other young ladies in the class as they move their eyes off of the speakers Gabby and Michael and over to him.
Gabby and Michael are soon done and the class provides a polite applause although most of the girls have no idea what their speech was about.
“Okay, up next are Chris and Morgan and I must say your costumes are fantastic!” Mrs. McWhorter smiles at them. Morgan and Chris exchange a delighted glance and unzip their backpacks, retrieving the note cards they had meticulously arranged the day before.
They step to the front of the class and Chris looks over to Morgan. She gives a tiny head nod for him to begin.
“Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare is a historical account of the final years of the Roman leader and Egyptian queen together,” Chris explains. He glances down at his note cards. “It’s a tale of war, love and tragedy.”
“In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra’s most recent husband, has been assassinated and Antony is among the Triumvirate that has taken power after his death and has waged war against Caesar’s assassins,” Morgan explains.
“One important thing to keep in mind is this, Antony was Caesar’s closest and most trusted friend, but even while they were friends, Antony was also secretly in love with Cleopatra,” Chris glances at Morgan pausing as he studies her profile. Her transformation into the Egyptian queen is breathtaking. He gulps and clears his throat, looking back down at his note cards. He has lost his place for just a moment. “It is just a few years after Caesar’s death that Antony marries Cleopatra. Basically, his buddy died, he saw the green light and he swooped in there,” Chris nods and shrugs, drawing a laugh from the class as well as Morgan and Mrs. McWhorter.
“Antony becomes so entranced with Cleopatra, that it becomes dangerous and deadly for them both,” Chris continues. “He abandons his home country to spend time with her and things fall apart while he is away. Romans feel that he turned his back on them over a girl, er queen,” Chris corrects, “and the remaining members of the Triumvirate led by Caesar’s nephew Octavian wage war against Antony to take over the land he controls.”
“Part of the assignment today was to discuss the foods that Cleopatra would have loved as well as Antony. I can tell you one food she would have had to love,” Morgan explains. “Figs. Figs were a sweet delicacy as a fruit at the time and also played a role in Cleopatra’s death. Yes, death by fruit and no it had nothing to do with the fiber content of the figs,” Morgan smiles and the class laughs again. “She asked her servants to place an asp, a snake deadly like a Cobra, inside the basket. She dug her hand inside, eating a few of the figs before the asp struck, biting her and killing her. After this project I will never look at a Fig Newton the same again,” Morgan nods and Chris chuckles with the class.
They finish their presentation to a zealous applause from their classmates and Mrs. McWhorter before returning to their desks.
“Incredible job,” Mrs. McWhorter smiles at Morgan and Chris.
They look to one another from their seats, Chris flashing a toothy and joyful smile.
They sit through two more presentations before the bell rings. Morgan stands and grabs her backpack. Chris picks his up, standing as well, but stops at her desk.
“Hey, um, Morgan?” he begins.
“Yeah?” She turns and faces him and he is struck again by the detail of the makeup on her face and how striking she looks.
“I just wanted to say, thanks for being cool while we worked on all of this,” he shrugs a little. “I know with everything that happened… it could have gone bad and been really, really awkward. I know at times it still was but…we got through it,” he nods looking at her.
“Yeah, we did,” she says slowly peering up at him.
“When we first got put together, I didn’t know what to expect, but today went great and everything else was pretty smooth. I just wanted to say thank you,” he adds.
Morgan stares at him. “Yeah, you too. Thanks for being cool about it. But, really, we just did what we had to do.”
He blanches slightly at her comment but nods.
“We both wanted to get a good grade, and yeah, it was awkward, but we’re done now….” She says looking into his eyes.
“Done now?” He frowns. “Wait…you, you mean the project right?”
She chews her lip and barely nods.
“Morgan, I just want us to be cool with each other and I’m really hoping you are willing to forgive me. Is that…is that ever going to happen?” He asks. He bites into his lip in anticipation of her response. He feels stupid. He has tried to apologize and never gotten far in his attempts. His gesture at Christmas had been enough for her to at least speak to him again but not enough to clear the air. He doesn’t know how many more times he can ask forgiveness of a girl that does not seem open to it.
Morgan thinks for a minute, looking down at her desk. She lifts her eyes back to his.
“I think we both just need to let go of what happened that night and move on from it,” she says and looks around to make sure no one else is listening.
“I agree,” he nods. “So…are we okay?” He looks at her hopeful.
She takes a deep breath, mustering the nerve to speak frankly. “Just because people move on from something doesn’t mean that they are friends after it Chris….” She looks down at the backpack in her chair.
He blinks and sighs, shaking his head a little. Chris needs to be forgiven. He needs to feel that their friendship has been repaired and that he has her respect and trust again. It’s the only way the guilt and shame will go away. The thought that someone doesn’t like him bothers him in a way that he can’t shake, especially when that someone is Morgan.
“But, what about how things went with the project?” he asks sounding defeated.
“We’re done now Chris,” she repeats and grabs her backpack, heading towards the door.
***
The last bell of the school day rang over an hour ago but Tay Worley is still roaming the halls of Cherryfield High School. She wrapped up her calculus tutorial session with Sarah Jane Hope five minutes ago. Tay is drained. She’s been working with Sarah Jane since last semester and although she has made significant progress, the extra help and tutorials just have not seemed to click yet.
She’s worked with some difficult students but none as difficult as Sarah Jane. Even Ryan wasn’t this tough. He had posed problems in a much different way but never when it came to the work. He had tried hard and when they got down to it, Ryan was extremely bright when he sat and focused. He had finished physics last semester with a B and though he credited a lot of that to Tay, she knew she had simply helped him to see trees and not the forest.
As her mind drifts to Ryan and the time they spent working together, she feels a longing again. It has only intensified since she shut down the idea of them on Valentine’s Day: The day he had hand delivered that sweet note to her, shirtless nonetheless, telling her he was ready. Ready for what exactly she wasn’t sure but in her heart she felt like she knew. He was ready for something real, a relationship.
The truth was, Tay wasn’t. She didn’t want a reason to look back at Cherryfield, Maine once she graduated. Her life had been in Pittsburgh growing up and Cherryfield was just an inconvenient stop on the way to college. All she wanted was to graduate with honors and get into NYU.
Ryan was a threat to that isolated existence. He was a threat to her screw it all attitude that screamed I don’t need anybody or anything. But the truth was, she had come to need him. He was the bright spot in her existence here in Cherryfield. He was a friend but so much more to her.
If you had told Tay when she first began working with Ryan Hawkins that they would end up in the position they were in now, she would have laughed and cursed you right out of town.
She makes her way towards the parking lot, walking down a dark corridor that passes the gymnasium. She hears the sound of a ball bouncing against the hardwood and sneakers squeaking over the polished surface. She turns to head towards the exit but decides to take a peak inside the gym.
He has stayed away. They rarely saw each other at school, only catching glimpses of each other every once and a while in the halls or at lunch but he has not looked her way or stepped towards her since that day in the parking lot. Her longing could be eased by just a brief look at him.
She walks towards the gym and looks through the glass window of the double doors. She spots him instantly. He is at the baseline, taking the ball out and tossing it back to Ethan who jogs down court. Ryan runs towards the other end of the court but hustles back, defending against Alex. He checks his hip and the momentum causes the ball to spring free from Alex’s hand and roll across the floor towards the doors.
Ryan turns and jogs to retrieve it and Tay backpeddles but it’s too late. He already got the slightest hint of her form in the doorway, her blonde hair and bangs distinct even in the brief glance.
She turns to rush away from the door and Ryan shouts back across the gym.
“Coach! Water!” He yells and the coach nods.
Ryan turns and races full speed, pushing through the door. She tries to hurry away but he is far too fast and catches up with her, gripping her elbow gently and turning her towards him.
“Tay,” he says breathless. Sweat rolls off his temples and his chest and shoulders rise and fall with his heavy breathing. He is in shorts and a sleeveless Cherryfield t-shirt. His wet hair is slicked back from his face. “Wait!” he pants, he takes in a gulp of air, trying to regain his breath, his face pleading with hers.
“What are you doing here?” He asks her.
“I…” she stammers and frowns. She looks down at his hand grasping her elbow and pulls free. “I just….I heard noises in the gym and thought I would check it out,” she says shaking her head quickly.
Ryan looks at her, seeing straight through the lie.
“Tay,” he repeats.
“What?” She scoffs.
“How long are you going to keep doing this?” He says looking into her eyes.
“I’m sorry what is it exactly that I’m doing?” she asks defensively.
“You know what,” he snaps back. He throws his hand out. “Avoiding me! Acting like you don’t care one minute then letting me know you miss me the next. Telling me we shouldn’t hang out but then coming to watch me practice!”
“I mean what I said Ryan, we shouldn’t hang out,” Tay nods, a hand on her hip.
“Why?”
She opens her mouth to speak but the words are not there.
“Why?” he shouts, frowning deeply. “Are you really that scared?”
“Excuse me, scared?” she says through narrowed eyes.
“Yes!” his voice rising and echoing in the hall. “Scared! That’s all this is! You have feelings for me and that scares the hell out of you! Admit it!”
She lets out an irritated huff. “Wow, pretty full of yourself aren’t you?”
“Stop!” He yells.
“Stop?”
“Stop trying to make this about me and some issue I have. The only issue I have right now is that I like a girl who is too fucking terrified to admit she likes me back and that she wants to be with me just like I want to be with her!” Ryan yells.
Tay is startled. The loudness of his voice, the pain on his face as he speaks and the admission itself leave her stunned and silent.
He pants again, but not from basketball practice. His heart is racing now and he feels something building in him he can’t contain.
“I can’t do this with you,” she shakes her head and spins on her heels to walk away from him but Ryan stops her, pushing her back up against the wall, he puts his hands on either side of her head, his lips flying to hers. Her hands lift as the shock sets in, but instead of pushing him away, she slowly sinks into him, her lips parting to accept his kiss, her raised hands clasping around his face and gripping his wet hair.
Ryan presses her into the wall with his hips, his hands sliding around her waist, pulling her into him as his lips work against hers, his tongue hungrily meeting hers. He feels her tug his hair and let out a deep groan into his mouth.
He pulls back just enough to place a soft kiss against her lips as she breathes hard, her eyes wide. He keeps his arms around her waist.
“Tell me…tell me you didn’t feel what I just felt?” He squints as he looks at her. “If I really don’t mean anything to you, if I’m wrong, I’ll go back in there and I’ll leave you alone for good.” He whispers his mouth hovering near hers.
He can see her collecting her breath and her thoughts as she licks her lips. She glances down the hall away from him before her eyes connect with his.
She shakes her head. “I can’t tell you that because…all I know right now is I want you to do that again.”
***
Ray provides Ethan and Chris with what he calls the best seat in the house, a table for two right next to the front window of the North Street Café. From this special view, diners can watch the passing cars out on the highway. That’s about the only thing that makes the seating special.
There is an unseasonable break in the winter cold and it is a nice night to venture out. There is barely a chill in the air, the temperatures not nearly as frigid as the relentless cold the people of Cherryfield have endured since November.
Ethan and Chris decided to make a pizza run, and with Ray, pizza is usually on the house for the state champion captains.
Chris needed out of his house. Jo and Kyle were at war over a broken light saber, each pointing the finger at the other for the blame. Their snippiness with each other was driving him up the wall. He called Ethan and asked if he wanted to hang and his red-haired friend was happy to oblige.
He had reached out to Ryan as well, but he had vaguely declined the invite saying he had a few things he needed to take care of and would not be around that night. Chris shrugged it off, assuming it was homework and that Ryan was elbow deep in his assignments.
“I’m so ready for our spring break trip,” Chris says, fiddling with the salt shaker on the table.
“The trip, the beach, warm weather, sunlight,” Ethan lists and Chris laughs.
“All of the above, yes,” Chris nods. “I’m glad my mom trusts us three to go without a ‘chaperone,’” he says curling his fingers and making quotation marks in the air.
“Mine too, I was kind of surprised they agreed but, my mom said I was getting ready to head to college soon, might as well start doing things on my own,” Ethan shrugs.
A waiter walks over to the table and slides a piping hot pizza down in front of them. Ethan and Chris thank him, grabbing their plates and pulling slices away with long strands of melted cheese breaking from the tray.
“No parents…girls at the beach…Ryan is probably going to lose his mind, we might have to sedate him,” Chris jokes. Ethan laughs.
The approach of bright headlights draws their attention to the parking lot. A pickup truck swerves into an open spot diagonally. The lights on the truck cut off, sending most of the lot into darkness except for a small portion illuminated under a lamp outside the café.
Ethan and Chris watch as Matt Moore steps out of the truck, a cigarette bouncing on his lips as he walks towards the door of the café. He takes a long drag from it and tosses it into the lot, not bothering to put it out and opens the door to the café.
“Great,” Chris mumbles to Ethan. They both watch him from narrowed eyes. Matt walks to the counter and orders a large pepperoni pizza to go. As he waits, hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket, his eyes canvas the occupants of the café and he spots Ethan and Chris.
“Oh hey, it’s the boy scouts,” Matt smirks. “Out on a school night?”
Ethan takes a bite of his pizza, choosing to eat rather than respond.
“Hey Matt,” Chris says not hiding his irritation.
“Powell,” Matt says. “My sister dumps you and you are now out on a date with Clark, huh?” he says referencing their seating. “What a turn of events.”
Ethan rolls his eyes, wiping at the corners of his mouth. Matt’s presence sets him on edge.
“Must be an evening for romance,” Matt grins.
Chris looks at him, frowning but his curiosity peaked by the remark.
Matt turns his attention back to the kitchen that is completing his order. The waiter steps out a few minutes later and puts the boxed pizza down in front of him. “$10.78,” the waiter says.
Matt pulls out his wallet, paying in cash at the register and getting his change and the pizza before heading towards the door.
“Hope you fellas have a lovely night,” he winks at them, a light laugh escaping his lips and he heads back to the parking lot.
Ethan and Chris watch from the window and Ethan groans. “I really can’t stand that guy.”
“That makes two of us,” Chris says.
They expect Matt to drive away but instead as he moves towards the truck, he flips down the tailgate on the back. His passenger side door opens and Chris and Ethan both freeze when they see Morgan hop up onto the flipped down tailgate and take a seat. Matt sits beside her and places the boxed pizza between them.
“You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Ethan says flabbergasted.
Chris says nothing, his head leaning closer to the glass of the window, watching Morgan as she laughs at something Matt says. She opens the box of pizza and grabs a slice, taking a bite and swinging her legs that dangle off the back of the truck. Chris is so close to the window, his breath begins to cause a humid, wet fog on the glass.
“Isn’t he like 20 now or something?” Ethan asks still astounded.
“Exactly 20,” Chris says in almost a growl, a deep frown forming. He forgets about the pizza in front of him as he watches the odd pair through the window.
Ethan breaks his focus from Morgan and Matt and stares at Chris. He is not sure if his friend’s current demeanor is a reflection of the disdain he feels for Matt or possibly jealousy at the sight of Morgan with him. He cocks his head to the side as he studies him. Somehow, Ethan knows it’s a combination of both.
“Hey man, don’t let that get to you, let’s just eat,” Ethan says trying to bring Chris back the present with him.
Chris lets out a breath, shaking his head and looks down at the pizza in front of him. He grabs another slice and chews slowly, but after another minute, his eyes wander back to the window.
Outside in the warm air, Morgan laughs again as Matt shares a story about a prank he and his buddies at UConn pulled on some of the basketball players at the athletic dorm.
“Walked into the tape?” Morgan questions.
“Right into it. That packing tape is tough stuff too. It was stuck on their hair, clothes. Somebody said one of the guys was pulling out pieces of his hair and screaming when he took it off,” Matt laughs.
“That is terrible!” Morgan pretends to scold him. “But at the same time, pretty funny too!” She laughs again.
Matt smiles at her.
“So you don’t miss college?”
“Eh,” he shrugs. “I miss the freedom I had there but college itself, no. Just going to take the next few months, figure out what I want.”
“Yeah, but at college you got to do all those crazy things you told me about. You sure you don’t want to go back?” Morgan asks. She finishes her second slice of pizza and smiles at him.
“If I went back then I wouldn’t be able to hang out with you, now would I?” Matt lifts an eyebrow.
“Morgan blushes slightly. “Well…no…..”
“Maybe I’m into hanging out with you,” he tilts his head and the corner of his lips lift.
“Yeah, but Nicole-“ Morgan begins shaking her head.
“Stop worrying about my sister. She doesn’t have any say in what I do or who I spend my time with,” Matt says.
“I just don’t want there to be any drama,” she says. “There’s been enough already this year,” reflect briefly on the events since October when Nicole and Chris’s relationship ended and so did her friendship.
Matt hops down, his boots clomp as he steps over the pavement and opens the door to his truck. He retrieves a few items and slides them onto the bed of the truck before returning to his seat. Morgan glances back and notices two bottles, one tall and filled with a clear liquid, the other a smaller brown, glass bottle.
It’s just her second time to see Matt since he has been home from the college he has no plans to return to. The first night, the night of the state championship celebration, he had gotten her number “just to keep in touch.” She didn’t hear from him for a few days but it wasn’t long before he began to sporadically send her texts, usually with a meme or a funny gif to make her laugh. Every once and a while he would ask how she was or what she was up to, but the messages usually stopped there.
She had been leaving the school at the end of the day, just after dance practice, when a voice shouted out over the school parking lot.
“Hey Price!” he called to her. Dance bag over her shoulder, she spotted him, leaning out of the window of his truck, an arm hanging over the side, his other hand on the steering wheel.
“Hey!” She smiled and jogged over to the truck. “What are you doing here?”
“My sister had the portable PA system the cheerleaders use at the house. Teacher needed it back for something. She called bugging me to bring and,” he made a grand sweep with his arm, “voila! Here I am. Have you seen her?”
Morgan shook her head no. “Nope.”
“Eh, I’ll call her I guess,” he said and looked Morgan up and down. She was wearing her dance leggings and sneakers, a headband kept her long hair pushed back away from her face. Her hair was slightly damp with sweat. She wore a sweatshirt that hung slightly off her shoulder, not having to wear her coat on a rare warm day.
“What are you up to later Price?” Matt asked casually.
She shrugged. “Homework I guess. Why?”
He licked at his teeth and tossed his head from side to side. “What if we grabbed some food later? Just to hang out and catch up. I know you aren’t talking to my sister but, no reason you can’t talk to me now is there?” He smiled at her, a slow grin creeping across his face.
Morgan had some reservations about spending time with Nicole’s brother. She liked Matt and he had always been nice to her, flirting on occasion and showering her with compliments. That was not her concern. Her concern was that he was Nicole’s brother and she saw all signs to any time spent with him leading to drama with his sibling.
“Matt, I don’t know,” Morgan paused.
“Because of Nicole?” He asked. He licked his lips and sighed. “Well, that’s up to you Morgan,” he said softening his tone to sound disappointed. “I just thought it would be fun.”
Morgan huffed and thought about it a minute longer. “You know what? Why not, sure, that sounds good.”
“Sweet,” he nodded and smiled. “I’ll text you later. I can swing through, pick you up? Cool?”
“Cool.” She agreed.
He had shown up in front of her house later that evening and she had rushed outside before her parents could pry into where she was going and who she would be with.
They cruised around town before he offered to stop and get a pizza that they could sit and enjoy, taking in the rare warm night.
Matt has kept her laughing most of the evening and she has let any worries she had about being with him fall to the wayside. Morgan looks around at the parking lot and suddenly the blood rushes to her feet. She spots a familiar red jeep. Parked next to it is also another familiar-looking truck. Her head swivels around as she looks around but sees no direct sign of Chris or Ethan. She assumes they must be inside and she is grateful that she and Matt are outside.
Her eyes turn to the front of the café and seated right by the window she can see Ethan and Chris. They are both staring in her direction. Her back straightens.
Matt looks over at the change in her posture and her sudden stoic facial expression.
“You okay?” He asks.
“Yeah,” is her curt reply.
“You seem kind of tense or something all of a sudden,” he says eyes widening.
“I’m fine,” she says staring back towards the window. When Chris realizes she is looking their way, he turns his attention to his plate and takes a bite of pizza. She lets out a slow breath, remembering the conversation Chris had last had with her about Matt.
“No, definitely tense,” Matt says. He snaps his fingers. “I brought just the thing to take care of that,” he turns and reaches for the two bottles he sat in the bed of the truck earlier.
He holds them up to her. “I was able to swipe some tequila and this was the only beer I could get without my Pops noticing but at least it’s something,” he chuckles.
Morgan blinks. “Oh, no, that’s fine, I don’t want any,” she says.
“Oh come on now Price, it’s not polite to let me drink alone,” he teases and twists the cap on the tequila. He sits the cap down beside him and takes a swig from the bottle, wincing just a bit but letting out a satisfied sigh. “Not as smooth as I’d normally like but pretty good….” He looks over at her, holding out the bottle, “Here.”
“No thanks,” she shakes her head quickly.
He keeps the bottle pushed in her direction. “Why not?”
“I don’t drink,” she explains and looks him directly in the eyes. He lets out a laugh and she looks down.
“Seriously? All those times you hung out with my sister, never? Not even once?”
She shakes her head no and he begins to laugh.
“Wow, count me surprised,” he says and takes a swig from the bottle. He winces a bit again and blows out a breath. “Whoa. But seriously, all those parties with Nicole? I know she came home plastered more than once,” Matt says nudging her with his elbow.
“Yeah and I usually was the one who drove her home. I never drank and I never did anything just because Nicole did it,” Morgan frowns.
“Alright, alright,” Matt puts a hand up defensively. “No need to get your panties in a wad.”
“Matt…” she says looking over at him. “Since you’re driving me around, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t drink. I’ve got to get home.”
“And I will take you home,” he nods. “It’s two swigs Morgan, that’s not going to get me three sheets…not yet.”
She looks down at her feet, her anxiety growing.
“If you would just have one drink, you’d loosen up, have a good time, I promise,” he says edging her on.
Morgan still looks down at her feet, shaking her head no.
“Okay so tequila isn’t your thing, how about a beer,” he reaches back and grabs the beer. He sits the tequila bottle down behind him and grabs his keys out of his pocket and uses a bottle opener to flip the top off. It hits the pavement in front of them with a clack.
“Try it,” he says holding it out towards her.
“Matt, I said no, okay, I don’t want to drink and I asked you not to,” Morgan says keeping her eyes on the ground.
“Morgan, I really think you just need to lighten up sweetness,” Matt says. “Nicole always said you were so uptight about everything.”
He sees her frown but she will not look at him. He reaches over and tickles her side. “Morgan.”
She swats his hand away, becoming irritated and more anxious.
“Morgan,” he says tickling her side again. “Moooorgan,” he sings tickling her harder.
She flinches and jerks, pushing his hand away but he keeps coming right back, his fingers working into her side. “Matt quit!” She shouts forcefully and glares at him.
He stops for a minute and looks at her, smirking as his eyes signal he’s not done yet.
He scoots over beside her, curving one arm around her waist, holding her tightly. His fingers pull at her sweater, lifting it slightly, his fingers working their way underneath and tickling around her navel.
“Matt!” she shouts flinching again and trying to free herself from his strong grasp. Beer in his other hand, as he tickles her and holds her hip against his, his fingers assault her flesh more and she lets out a yelp, tilting her head back. When she does, he lets go of her waist and instantly seizes her chin in his grasp.
“Ma-“ she tries to say but can’t close her mouth as his fingers squeeze her cheeks, forcing her mouth open as she gasps for a breath.
He laughs as she struggles to free her face, using his other hand to tilt the beer bottle up over her mouth, pouring some in and causing her to gage. Beer sputters from her mouth and rolls down the sides of her cheeks, onto his hand still holding her face tightly and into her hair.
Matt laughs and is about to pour more of the beverage down her throat when suddenly he is airborne. A force lifts him up off the truck, gripping his jacket and shirt around his chest and suddenly he is flat on his back. His head slams back against the concrete and the beer bottle in his grip sails through the air, bursting in a cloud of fuzz on the pavement. Dazed, Matt’s eyes squint and he winces as the impact to his back and head registers and a searing pain shoots through his body.
Through half shut eyes, his vision is temporarily blurred from the impact but slowly he focuses and peers up. A shadowy figure hovers over him, backlit by the one glowing lamp in the parking lot. He blinks and winces, the pain hitting his head again. He squints as he realizes the massive, dark form towering over him is Chris Powell.
***