Chapter Six

For my awesome Blogger crew!! You get 3 chapters today for the simple fact that I was unable to post the chapters on here over the weekend due to me being forgetful and what-not.  Anyway, enjoy!!!

Ch. 6

I woke up around noon, Sunday morning, hung-over and sore from last night’s after game festivities in Georgetown.  Sam, I and some of our boys went out and partied after the win.  It had been a while since I had partied that hard, to the point that Sam asked me if I was drinking to forget something or someone.

“You’re hitting it hard tonight…” he commented after I did my 10^th shot of Vodka.

“I’m Russian.  Vodka is my water,” I laughed, brushing him off.  Maybe I was drinking to forget.  My game was still not back to where I wanted it to be.  I wanted to start this season off on fire and once again I had to answer questions during the press-time after the game, about being kept off the box score.  In my mind, things needed to change.  Of course this constituted as leaving it all behind with a night out on the town and bringing a girl back to my bed.  I immediately reminded of this girl when her voice brought me back to the real world and reminded me that she wasn’t the one I was just dreaming about before I opened my eyes.  No, that girl was probably waking up in Alzner’s bed this morning.

…

I was actually shocked to see her at the bar when we walked in.  She didn’t seem like the Georgetown party-r, but then again, I knew very little about her and it was probably unfair of me to make judgments on someone I barely knew.

“Isn’t that Lana?” I asked Mike who was already eyeing up a group of girls standing at the other end of the bar.

He looked and instead of answering my question with a simple, “Yes,” he made a bee-line right over to her and the all familiar blonde standing next to her.

Lana left out a squeak when Mike wrapped an arm around her shoulder and whispered into her ear.  I watched her smack him and curse at him for scaring her.  My feet moved me over to them and I got there just in time for her to introduce us to Dawn.  In the matter of a few short moments, the other guys were crowded around us and greeting Lana.  At first she looked shy, biting her lip nervously but she eased up once Carly and Nicky began bargaining with her to make them cupcakes for the up-coming road-trip.

Before we knew it, an hour went by, the guys had drinks in them and Lana was out on the dance floor shaking her ass.  Despite just being in a pair of jeans, fashionable brown leather boots and dark blue long sleeved t-shirt while everyone else around her was dressed to the nines for their Saturday night out, Lana didn’t seem to mind.  She was laughing non-stop at the guys, acting as if she was having the time of her life.  When I looked over again, she was slow dancing with Karl Alzner to the Dirt Road Anthem remix with Ludacris.  He was holding her close and she was holding tight while they belted out the words together.  Karl was a good kid, but he was not me. 

Not quite sure why I was so worried about what Lana was doing because I had the beautiful blonde Dawn dancing up on me the way I had been hoping she would after meeting her for the first time.

An hour later, Dawn disappeared for a bit and in my alcohol induced haze; I cut off Lana before she headed back to the middle of the dance floor to Karl and some of the other guys.

“Where do you think you are going?” I asked, my accent coming through thicker than normal due to the heavy amount of alcohol consumption.  I slipped an arm down between her arm and torso, grabbing firmly onto her waist.

My quick movement almost knocked her off balance, so she had no choice but to hold onto my arm and place a soft hand on chest to steady herself.  She looked up at me with a surprised smile and laughed.  “I was headed back out to the dance floor, but this Russian guy has totally blocked my route.”

“Dance with me?”

“I don’t know…you’re dancing skills didn’t really seem that safe,” she joked.  “I’m not such the crazy dancer as you seem to be.”

I chuckled and pulled her against me.  “I do know how to move,” I whispered heavily into her ear.  She shivered in my arms and I’m fairly sure her breath caught in her throat.  She didn’t say anything more as I held her.  Instead she just moved with me and bit her lip.  A few pieces errant pieces of her hair were strewn wildly on her face; her eye-liner was now smudged around her eyes, giving her that sexy smoky look with her raven eyes.  It probably was the alcohol, but I suddenly felt like everything was fuzzy.  I was lost in my own world with her until Dawn came back and began chirping Lana about stealing her dance partner.

Lana left out a nervous laugh, looked up at me with a look that I couldn’t decipher and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me with Dawn.  I didn’t really see her the rest of the night, but her image was imprinted in my brain for the rest of the night.

Obviously my weekend roller-coaster was not quite at the end.  While standing out on the sidewalk of the Verizon Center waiting for an available taxi, my phone vibrated with a text message from Dawn.

“What are you up to? I need someone to hang with…”

I furrowed my brow and stared at the screen for a moment.  Dawn was supposed to be with Travis in the Outerbanks.  In fact, she was hoping he was going to propose to her this weekend.  I looked at my watch and then back at the phone.  It was 9:45 on a Saturday night.  The night was young and after the date I just had, I was all for having a couple drinks.

“Where do you want to meet?”

A few moments later I was in Georgetown and heading into a bar/club.  The streets felt like home.  Many a weekend I spent here while in college and at the moment, it felt like college was so long ago.  I wasn’t quite dressed for the occasion, but I shoved the hockey jersey in my oversized purse, smoothed out my shirt and walked into the loud bar.

Dawn was already at the bar drinking a large glass of Long Island Iced Tea, dressed in a tight black dress and sulking.  Turned out, when she arrived at Travis’s apartment to leave for North Carolina, his car was already packed to the gills, but none of it was her stuff.  Instead the luggage was from some girl in his Psychology class.  He told her he needed a break and left her standing in the street watching him drive away.  She was devastated and suddenly I was even gladder that Garrett had “dumped” me.

We had only been sitting at the bar for a little over a half hour when Mike threw his arm on my shoulder.  I was shocked to see them.  What dumb luck.  Despite being a little put-out at all the attention the guys gave me, they made me feel as if I had known them forever, just like the other night.  Of course this didn’t make me any less nervous when Alex walked over to say hi.  Despite the crush I was starting to realize I had on him, I was actually relieved when Dawn captured his attention.  This allowed me to act like myself with the rest of the guys without feeling self-conscious about how I looked. 

Suddenly, the lack of club clothing on my body made me feel really out of place when Alex joined our group at the bar.  He looked like a million bucks in his black suit with white dress shirt that was unbuttoned to probably show off his thick gold chained necklace with crosses.  It was as if he was on a whole other playing field and I was just another spectator.  Boys like that don’t raise the self-esteem meter for girls like me.

One person I found myself clicking easily with was Karl.  I had seen him the night of the party, but never got to talk with him until tonight.  His friendly, down to earth personality was a nice pace for a southern girl like me.  It didn’t take long to find myself dancing with him exclusively.

I was on my way back from the bathroom when Alex stopped me towards the edge of the dance floor.  It was obvious he had more than his fair share of alcohol.  His English was more broken than I remembered and I would bet some of the vodka smell was coming from his pores.

“Where do you go?” he asked me, abruptly putting a hand on my waist.  I had no choice but to hold onto him.  He was warm and hard. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.  “Dance with me,” he said.

I joked with him about seeing his dance moves, in hopes to get out of the situation I was in.  The wrecklessness I felt with him, worried me.  When he whispered, “I do now how to move,” His warm breath in my ear instantly persuaded me that despite the silly moves I had seen earlier, he was telling the truth.  Something in my brain also told me that he probably knew how to move in ways that would not be appropriate for the public place we were in.  Lana! What the hell has gotten into you?!

I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.  I was just too afraid that I would blush like a silly school girl.  His toned down dance moves took me along for a ride and I was lost in translation somewhere when Dawn came back.  Her remarks about stealing her dance partner gave me the perfect chance to walk away.

My heart was still pounding when Karl found me wandering aimlessly on the dance floor.

“Lana, you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“Yup,” I smiled.

“Do you need a ride home?  I’m thinking of heading home…”

I smiled and nodded.  Home sounded like a perfect idea.  I was now realizing how tired I was.  I attempted to look for Dawn, but I didn’t make too much of an effort because I didn’t really want to see Alex again for the fear of looking like a loser or something.

Karl was a complete gentleman.  He offered me his arm and we easily walked down the street to where he had parked his truck.  When I saw it, my eyes flew open.

“Holy Hell that is one kick-ass truck!” I exclaimed.  It was a black Dodge Ram, completely tricked out and lifted.  Black rims, custom grille…it was every southern girl’s dream.  “Did you ever take it mudding?” I asked, giving it the walk-around look.

He laughed at my hickish geek-out.  “You are totally a southern girl!”

“Not sure what gave that away,” I grinned.

He opened up the passenger side door and helped me up into the truck.  Before I knew it, we were blaring some Eric Church and heading back to my house.

“Good morning,” she cooed.  I turned my head and looked over to find her looking not as pretty as I had remembered her to be when meeting her at the coffee shop.  Of course she was beautiful, but after being wrapped up in the long legs I had drooled over the other week and being caged in by her long blonde hair, the shine of the penny didn’t seem to be there anymore. 

After my impromptu dance with Lana, everything else seemed to be a blur and now I was here with a just another morning dilemma to deal with. 

“Dawn,” I acknowledged hoarsely.

“Want me to make some breakfast?” she asked sweetly.  She was lying on her stomach, the sheet just covering her bare ass.  Her legs were bent so that when she wiggled her toes I could see them above her head.

I never had breakfast with any of my one night-stand’s.  This morning wouldn’t be any different.  I got what I wanted and she got what she wanted, or at least what she had wanted last night.  Today was a new day and in my mind, long term was not the option here.

“How about I take you home?” I asked, but making it sound more like a statement so that she didn’t feel like she had a choice.  I quickly got up, walked into my closet and pulled a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from what I hoped to be a pile of clean laundry and threw it on.  By the time I came back out, I found her dressed and pouting.  They are all the same.

The ride to the address she gave me was a quiet one, which suited me fine with the headache I was carrying around.  Luckily the tinted windows in my car helped keep the most obnoxious sun rays out of my face.  Unfortunately, it didn’t help much when I pulled up at the address and saw a familiar brunette and two other girls dancing around in the driveway while washing a car.

“You live here?” I turned to Dawn, my eyebrows raised up in surprise.

“No, this is Lana’s house.  I have some things I need to talk to her about,” Dawn snapped.

Oh great.