Chapter 22

I stretched out across my bed, happy to be back home in our real house. 

Sure, I loved the White House, but there was just something about being home in my bed that I loved. 

I wasn’t meeting the guys in the weight room until 4 this afternoon, and it was 2 right now. 

So I had the entire afternoon to just sleep. 

Well technically, knowing me, even though I live less than 5 minutes from the school, I’ll be so eager to get to the team that I’ll probably leave at 3:30. And I still need to change into some athletic clothes, which will take 15 minutes because I’m just in one of those moods where I need to look perfect. 

Damn. A few months in DC and I’m already acting like Annabelle and Jessica. 

I rolled over, wrapping my arms around my pillow as my eyes fluttered shut. 

I could take a small nap before working out... 

I’d surely wake up in time...

******************************

“Oi! Sam!” 

I jumped awake, startled. “What?” I mumbled, straining my eyes to adjust to the bright room as I sat up. 

“Did you sleep through our practice?” Nate asked in shock, standing next to me bed with arms crossed. 

“Oh shit, I must have...” I muttered, pushing my messy hair back from my face. “What time is it?” 

“It’s 6.” Nate raised his eyebrows at me. 

“What?” I frowned, wiping drool from my chin. “Oh my God...” I groaned, swinging my legs over the side of my bed. 

“We’ve come to collect you for dinner. The guys are waiting upstairs in my car.” Nate laughed, scratching the back of his head. 

“I’m not wearing pants.” I groaned as I stood up from my bed. 

“It’s cool, go get dressed. Nothing fancy, just Joe’s Pizza.” Nate told me. 

I sleepily nodded as I walked towards my closet. 

“Nice underwear.” Nate teased. 

I groaned and looked down. I was wearing Hello Kitty underwear. 

“Okay! I don’t have anyone to impress! So screw off!” I groaned, pulling a pair of athletic shorts on. I was wearing a t-shirt from a football tournament a few years ago, so there was no reason for me to change it. 

“Who’s going to dinner?” I asked, walking back out of my closet. My eyes were still blurry from sleep. 

“The usual, minus the seniors of course.” Nate replied as he sat down on my bed. 

“Who’s in your car?” I asked curiously, running a brush through my hair. I hadn’t gotten a haircut in a while, and my hair was straightened, so it reached just barely to my waist. I was in desperate need of a trim. 

“Uh, the usual too I guess. Luke’s there, Matt’s there, oh and Coach’s son.” Nate told me. 

“Dylan?” I asked, trying not to show how hopeful I was. 

“Nah, he drove himself and a few other guys.” Nate shook his head. 

I sighed. “You said Coach’s son?” I raised my eyebrows. 

“Yea, Andrew. He’s cool.” Nate nodded. 

“He any good?” I asked. 

Nate hesitated. 

“Nathan.” 

“Damn, full name card.” Nate laughed, leaning back on his hands. 

I glared at him while I rummaged through my suitcase for some socks. 

“Okay okay, yea he’s good. Like really good.” 

I raised my eyebrows at Nate. 

“Don’t give me that look! Sam you know I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true! He’s good!” Nate laughed, ducking as I threw a pair of socks at him. 

“But hey, not as good as you. He makes easy mistakes, and he gets flustered easily. But when he’s in the zone, he’s good. It’s like Coach’s family has some football magic.” Nate teased. 

I rolled my eyes, pulling the socks on my feet. 

“When was the last time you talked to Dylan?” Nate asked curiously. 

“What kind of question is that?” I laughed. 

“No I don’t know he’s been weird lately.” 

I bit my lip, turning away from Nate as I stepped into some Adidas slides. 

“Samantha? What are you hiding?” Nate teased. 

“Nothing! Honestly. I haven’t talked to him in a few weeks, we got into a bit of an argument...” I muttered. 

“Over what?” 

“Us.” 

“What about you?” 

“What is this? 20 questions?” 

“Sam.” 

I sighed, running my fingers through my hair as I picked my phone up from the table next to my bed. 

“He’s just been going through a lot with his family and everything, and I may or may not have hooked up with someone from my school, and I may or may not have drunkenly told Dylan, and he may or may not have gotten upset.” I sighed, turning off the lights behind us. 

“You hooked up with a random guy?” Nate raised his eyebrows in shock. 

“Yea it was at an end of the year party, I was drunk, it didn’t go any farther than first base, maybe second base.” I shrugged. 

“You were drunk?” 

“Yea? Why’s that a big deal?” I laughed, giving him a weird look. 

“I didn’t know you drank.” 

“Occasionally.” I shrugged, making sure the front door was locked behind us. 

“So that’s why Dylan’s been so weird?” Nate asked. 

I hesitated, wondering whether or not I should tell him more. 

“Yep, totally, that’s why.” I said quickly, looking down at my feet. 

“Samantha...” Nate sighed. 

“And him getting mad at me might have followed a particularly intimate conversation between us?” I mumbled, looking up at the sky. “Just a guess, I’m not quite sure really.” I added, biting my lip. 

“Oh my God...” Nate groaned. 

“I’m sorry! I get horny when I’m drunk!” I protested, opening up the rear door to his car. 

“Why is this conversation taking place?” Matt raised his eyebrows as I scooted in next to him. 

“Dylan and Sam had phone sex then he found out she hooked up with someone else which is why he’s been so weird lately.” Nate smirked as he got into the drivers seat. 

“Dude! You’re not supposed to tell people that!” I gasped, buckling up my seatbelt. 

“Oh whatever. You’re basically one of us anyways.” Luke laughed from the front seat. 

“Hi I’m Sam, you must be coach’s son.” I smiled, leaning forwards to look past Matt at the new kid sitting next to him. 

“Hiya.” Andrew smiled. “Nice to meet you.” 

“Likewise.” I grinned. 

“Who the hell says likewise?” Nate scoffed from the front. 

“Who the hell makes fun of someone who says likewise?” I giggled. 

“Oh God if you’re going to be sarcastic all night you can go right back home!” Nate groaned. 

“Aw come on Nathan, you know you love me.” 

“The full name card twice already? Uh oh.” Nate teased, shaking his head. 

“I miss you guys.” I sighed, resting my head on Matt’s shoulder. 

“Nah what you mean is, you miss making us do sprints because you have no power over us anymore!” Matt laughed, shrugging his shoulder to push me away. 

“Oh trust me, if I wanted you to do sprints, I so could make you do sprints.” I winked. 

“I’d like to see you try.” 

“Who’s head captain now?” I asked. 

“We don’t know yet. We’ll find out when the actual season starts in August.” Nate replied. 

“Nate’s hoping he gets it.” 

“I’ll tell coach to give it to you, don’t worry Nate.” I smiled. 

“So are you going to come workout with us ever?” Nate asked. 

“Yea, dude what happened to you today? We were all pumped to see you!” 

“She fell asleep in Hello Kitty underwear!” Nate called loudly from the front seat, causing all of the guys to crack up. 

“Oh my God! It is totally normal for a girl to sleep in just underwear and a t-shirt and my hello kitty underwear just happened to be the underwear that I put on this morning! It’s not like I have anyone to impress! Gosh!” 

“Nah but you’ve got Dylan to impress.” Nate teased. 

“Yea like he cares what underwear I’m wearing.” I rolled my eyes. 

“But seriously, you coming to practice soon?” Nate asked hopefully. 

“Yea I guess. I mean I’m here for another 4 days. Obviously one of them is the wedding, but other than that, I’ll come.” I smiled. “I miss you guys...” 

“And we miss you! Dude there’s no one to make fun of in the locker room!” Nate laughed. 

“Oh my God don’t even start or I’ll-” 

“Nobody else gets my jokes. Period.” Nate teased. 

“Nathan!” 

“Aw come on Nate, I would’ve thought your jokes would have been more padded...” Luke sighed. 

“Don’t!” 

“Guys come on, I’m laughing so hard, I’m cramping.” Matt added from next to me. 

“You’re not funny...” I whined. 

Nate just laughed as he pulled into a parking spot outside of Joe’s. 

“Remember after Nationals?” I asked excitedly. This place had stayed open all night just for the celebration that took place. 

“How could we forget?” Nate laughed, throwing his arm around my shoulder as we walked into the restaurant. 

I felt my stomach flip with anticipation of seeing Dylan. To say I was excited was an understatement. 

My smile dropped when I didn’t see him. 

“Where’s Dylan?” I frowned, looking around. 

“He had to go home for something.” One of the other teammates spoke up. 

I sighed, crossing my arms as I sat down in between Andrew and Nate. 

“Obviously that’s the only person Sam’s excited to see.” Justin rolled his eyes. 

“Oi shut up! I’m excited to see all of you and you know that!” 

“Mmhmm totally because you’d much rather be sleeping than practicing with us?” Nate raised his eyebrows, playfully shoving my shoulder. 

I rolled my eyes at him, looking around the table. 

I felt a smile cross my face as I realized how much I loved this team. I missed them so much, that I couldn’t even put in words how happy I was to be with them. 

“Oi! Sam you coming with us to Hannah’s party?” Someone called down the table. 

I raised my eyebrows at Nate. 

“Your girlfriend’s having a party and I wasn’t invited?” I laughed, giving him a look. 

“I didn’t know parties were your scene now. I mean yea sure you can come if you want.” Nate shrugged. “We’re going after this.”

“Can we stop by my house so I can change?” I asked hopefully. 

“Yea for sure.” Nate nodded. 

“Alright so what pizzas are we getting?” Somebody asked, basically announcing themselves designated food person. 

“The usual, just minus the hawaiian because Sam’s here, she’s allergic to pineapple.” Nate suggested, glancing down at his phone. 

“You’re allergic to pineapple? Me too!” Andrew laughed from next to me. 

“No way oh my God twinning!” I giggled, turning to look at him. 

Andrew laughed. “I’ve never met someone with that allergy before.” 

“Me neither!” I agreed. “But anyways, guys you can get hawaiian, Andrew and I just won’t have any.” 

“Sam, we all know you’ll plow through all of the food just as fast as Matt when he’s trying to put on weight.” Nate said, giving me a look. 

I stuck my tongue out at him. 

“Oi, order something for Dylan too. He just texted me that he’s on his way.” Nate called down the table. 

I felt my stomach flip, and a flutter of excitement grew in my abdomen. 

I mentally scolded myself. This was not the time to get excited in that way to see him, no way. I felt my heart rate speed up as I thought about getting excited in that way, and what that would lead to. 

I closed my eyes, momentarily letting myself drift off into an imaginary world where Dylan would actually be happy to see me and we’d kiss and make up and end up having really hot sex in his car. 

“Sam? You totally just zoned out on us. You cool?” Luke asked, giving me a weird look. 

I gasped, snapping back to reality. 

I just nodded, wiping my sweaty palms on my knees. “I’m cool.” I muttered, crossing my legs to attempt to put an end to the throbbing that had started between my legs. 

“What’d Dylan have to go home for?” Luke asked Nate. 

“Had to shower or something lame like that.” Nate shrugged. 

“Oh fuck.” I whispered, resting my head in my hands as my elbows landed on the table. Now I had the image of Dylan in the shower, and way more things popped into my mind. 

“Sam you okay?” 

“Shh.” I hissed, rubbing my eyes. A tightness started to form in my lower abdomen and I silently cursed at my hormones. 

“Do you need water or something?” Nate asked. 

“I have to go to the bathroom.” I muttered, standing up quickly. I left my phone at the table as I quickly walked down the small hall to the girls bathroom. 

My heart was racing and I could feet a sweat starting to form at the back of my neck. 

Damn Dylan and his stupid attractiveness. 

Maybe going to a party tonight and getting drunk was a bad idea. If I was like this sober, there’s no telling what will happen when there’s alcohol in my system. 

I splashed some cold water on my face and took a moment to cool myself down. Before heading back to the table, I attempted to fix my hair to make myself not look so a mess, but I failed miserably. 

I was just walking back to the table as Dylan walked through the door of the restaurant, the bell dinging as he stepped inside. 

My heart jumped inside my chest as I laid eyes on him. He’d gotten a hair cut, and his hair was wet and tousled. He’d obviously been working out a lot more, as there was much more muscle on him than last time. And he was wearing a tank top. A fucking tank top. It’s like he knew how to fuck with my hormones tonight. 

My breath caught in my throat as we made eye contact. 

I saw his lips form my name as my pulse went absolutely insane. 

We both just stood there for a moment, looking at each other. 

Then his face broke into the most adorable smile as he walked towards me with his arms wide open. 

I think I stopped breathing when he wrapped his arms tightly around me, because a few moments later, I felt myself relax as I exhaled and hugged him tightly back. 

“Holy shit I missed you...” Dylan whispered. 

I felt a sigh escape my lips as I rested my head in the crook of his neck. 

Dylan pulled back with a grin. 

“You going to Hannah’s?” He asked hopefully. 

“Yea but I-” 

“Excellent! I guess I’ll just have to get you drunk and see where that takes us.” Dylan winked before walking away to sit on the other side of Nate. 

I’d been about to say that I didn’t think I’d be going, but now that Dylan was going to be there, I was definitely going. 

“You alright?” Nate asked me with a weird look. 

“Headache.” I lied, reaching for my water. 

The noise level noticeably picked up as dinner went on, and I’m pretty sure everybody at the table ate at least a whole pizza on their own. It was insane. 

We all put our money together to pay for the bill, which was massive. It had been a tough explanation to my parents after Nationals when I’d bought everyone the food... 

“So who’s driving who?” Dylan asked as we all walked outside of the pizza shop. We were walking with our usual group, minus Ryan (he’d graduated) and plus Andrew (I guess he was part of our group now). 

“Uh I guess we’re making a detour to Sam’s place so she can change, then we’re heading over to Hannah’s.” Nate told him. 

“Oh I can give Sam a lift.” Dylan said with a grin. “It’s no problem at all.” 

“Are you sure? Nate can just-” 

“Sam don’t be silly of course I’ll drive you.” Dylan laughed, giving me a smile. “Come on, Nate we’ll see you there!” 

“Sam you cool?” Nate raised his eyebrows. 

“Yea I’ll meet you at Hannah’s.” I nodded, walking behind Dylan to his truck. 

“So! Samantha Carson! How’ve you been?” Dylan asked happily as he pulled out of the parking spot. 

“You know we literally just talked on the phone like a month ago?” I laughed, raising my eyebrows. 

“Yea well in the last month, how’ve you been?” Dylan shrugged, reaching to turn up the air conditioning. 

“I’ve been good. We got out of school like, 2 weeks ago. Finals were shit.” I rolled my eyes. “And uh, I guess it’s just been lots of pool parties and stuff.” 

“That’s cool. You playing anything right now?” 

“Nah, I’m not allowed to play football at Johnson Academy, and I’m awful at any other sports. I might do cross country in the fall but I’m not sure yet.” I replied. 

“Aw that really sucks about football.” Dylan frowned. 

“So do you think Andrew is as amazing as Nate says he is?” I asked nonchalantly, secretly hoping to find out how big my competition was. 

Dylan shrugged, glancing over at me. “He’s alright. He’s excellent, yea I’ll give you that. But he just doesn’t have the same chemistry with the rest of the team as you did.” Dylan shook his head. 

I smirked. “You mean not as much as chemistry with you?” I giggled. 

Dylan let out a laugh. “You could say that.” He winked. 

I smiled, looking at the window as we pulled into my driveway. 

“So! Am I allowed to come in and see Sam’s famous lair?” Dylan laughed. 

“Why of course.” I replied as we got out of the car. “I’m just warning you though, it’s not that clean right now. We just got here this morning, and my suitcase is kind of spread out across the floor.” 

Dylan laughed as we walked inside my house. “Where’s the family tonight?” 

“No idea. Probably out or something.” I shrugged, jogging down my stairs in front of him. 

I switched on the lights and headed towards my closet. 

“Oi, Sam.” Dylan said softly, catching my arm as I went to walk away. 

I turned around to face him, my eyebrows raised expectantly. 

But one look at the expression on his face and I knew what was on his mind. 

“Oh thank God.” I breathed, wrapping my hands around the back of his neck as I pulled his head close to mine. 

Dylan reacted immediately, wrapping his hands around the back of my legs as he pulled my legs around his waist. I let out a groan when our hips collided with each other as we fell back against my bed. 

“I fucking love you.” Dylan breathed as he pushed my shirt up, exposing the bare skin of my stomach. 

******************************

“Hello kitty underwear?” Dylan whispered as we walked up the front walk of Hannah’s house. 

“Shush.” I whined, playfully whacking his arm. “I didn’t think anybody else would see.” 

Dylan just laughed, kissing the side of my head. “I think it’s adorable.” 

I felt my cheeks turn pink as we walked inside. 

“Where were you guys?! It’s been like 45 minutes!” Nate exclaimed, walking towards us with a beer in one hand and Hannah wrapped around his other arm. 

“Where do you think they’ve been?” Hannah scolded her boyfriend. 

“Hey Han.” I smiled, pulling her into a hug. 

“Sam want a beer?” Dylan asked. 

“Oh God yes please.” I laughed. Dylan nodded and walked away. 

“So I totally don’t mean to be butting into your business...” Nate started with a smile. “But... You and Dylan?” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

I felt my cheeks turn pink as I looked around the room. “So this is what a high school party is really like?” I asked, quickly changing the subject. 

“You’ve seriously never been to one?” Nate raised his eyebrows. 

“Uh until a few months ago, I was just some loser that nobody knew.” I laughed. “Now I’m Sam Carson, the QB who won us nationals.” 

“Oh yea, damn girl you’ve got four years of parties to make up.” Hannah giggled. 

“Uh, I’ll pass on that.” I shook my head, smiling at Dylan as he handed me a plastic cup. 

“Beer?” I asked. Dylan nodded, wrapping his arm around my waist. 

I felt comfortable in his grip, and as I took a step closer to him, I realized that I didn’t want this feeling to ever go away. 

“Want to dance?” Dylan asked, glancing in the direction of the area that must be serving as the dance floor. 

“With you, nah.” I teased, taking a sip of my beer. 

“I’ve never seen you drink in public.” Dylan told me, sliding his hand into mine as we walked towards the dance floor. 

“There’s really no difference between us getting plastered in your bedroom while your parents are out of town.” I laughed, taking another big sip of my beer. 

I finished it quickly, tossing aside the empty cup. 

Dylan raised his eyebrows at me. 

“Planning on getting very drunk are we?” Dylan raised his eyebrows. 

“Oh yea.” I winked, wrapping my arms around his neck as I pulled him closer to me. 

“Fuck.” Dylan whispered as I pushed my hips against his. 

“Get drunk with me?” I asked, my lips against his neck. 

“You don’t have to ask twice.” Dylan breathed, his hands firmly holding my waist. 

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Yay cute Sam and Dylan moments :)

I found time to update today yay! I literally have to leave in like 5 minutes though oops

Update: Monday (tomorrow)

-Panda