Stone Creek by Davis, Lainey (reading diary .TXT) 📕

"So everyone will find out then if they don't know already." Alissa grins. "Now. You have like three days to tell me everything there is to know about football so I don't sound like an idiot on Sunday."

As I begin to explain what I know about the game, a group of girls walks over. Embarrassed, I stop talking, but Alissa knows them from her psych class. One of them introduces herself to me, saying, "We overheard you explaining football and wondered if we could sit in?"

I flush, but Alissa grabs my arm and says, "My girl Serena works in the stat booth for the Otters games. She knows her shit." She winks.

One of the girls named Erin asks if I spend a lot of time with the football team. I shake my head at first, but admit that Talon Kelly is my research partner in one of my classes. Erin sits down across from me and starts talking. "I heard he's been totally different since he hurt his knee. My roommate kind of knows him from high school, and he used to sleep with anyone with a pulse. Now, she says he doesn't even get wasted at parties."

Alissa gives me a knowing look. I shrug and Alissa says, "Well, I'm dating his roommate, and I have about 3 days to learn the game so I don't look like an idiot watching the Super Bowl with them." I start to explain the different positions and tell them the names of the SCU guys who play those positions. Eventually someone suggests we move to the bar and before I know it, the five of us are closing down the place.

It usually takes me awhile to open up to people. I've been so scared to trust anyone since my parents died. I never had another woman around to hold my hand through social situations, and after my dad died, I felt like all anyone at school wanted to talk to me about was my dramatic orphan tale. I'd spent the last 2.5 years of college just burying my nose in my books. As we walk home, I tell Alissa, "I'm really glad housing services stuck me with you freshman year."

She gives me a hug. "Same, Serena," she says, squeezing my arm.

Sunday afternoon, Alissa and I make a 7-layer dip and get ready to go to the guys' apartment for the Super Bowl. She follows my lead for once and agrees to wear a football jersey and jeans, even if it's a bit baggy. "Look," I tell her. "Most people there are probably going to be rooting for the Giants, but we are going to cheer for the Steelers." For as long as I'd been alive, my dad was a Pittsburgh fan, and even in my moments of greatest loathing about football, I still at least followed the Steelers' progress in the news.

I feel pretty good wearing my old Troy Polamalu jersey. I'd gotten it in middle school, so it fit pretty tightly and seemed like a good compromise for Alissa's insistence that I needed to just remind Talon that I had a sexy body beneath my big stats brain. She swats my butt approvingly and we set off for the party.

CJ opens the door and Alissa immediately stretches up to kiss him. "It feels good to just do that!" she shouts, thrusting the bowl of dip into his arms and pulling me into the apartment. We hang up our coats and I see CJ's eyes widen when he notices what we were wearing. As I'd predicted, everyone else in the room is decked out in Giants gear.

"Dude, Smith, who let in those Pittsburgh fans?" Brandon Ream, who plays safety for SCU, shakes his head disapprovingly at us, but Talon makes everyone move around until there is space for us on the couch. Brandon sees my Polamalu shirt and his face softens. "I guess I can agree to sit beside a Troy fan."

"Shut up, Ream," Talon says handing me a beer. "You know Serena--from the stats booth? I told you she was coming."

The other guys nod and gesture with their beers. CJ and Alissa are too busy cuddling and greeting each other, but Brandon asks me, "Care to join our pool for the game? Twenty bucks to enter, winner takes all."

Talon shakes his head. "No way, man. She's, like, running the numbers about all these guys. Totally unfair if Serena enters. I'm telling you."

Brandon slides the clipboard toward me and I rush to defend myself. "Player stats don't predict the score, of the game, so it's not like I have any kind of advantage. Plus I haven't been paying a ton of attention lately, as you know. I'm not in top form." I look up and Brandon is staring while Talon is laughing at me. I feel my whole body relax as I make my guesses about the score for each quarter and toss in a wild bet that Pittsburgh will get a safety before the end of the first half.

As the game starts, the guys quiet down and I feel Talon's arm slip around the back of the couch. He doesn't drape it around my shoulder, but his palm rests, open and warm, at the base of my neck. I stare around the room, full of his friends and teammates. Alissa and I are the only ladies present, and she has clearly declared herself to be CJ's girlfriend.

There is quiet chatter around me as the guys pass snacks around and open beers, but nobody is looking at me as if I don't belong. I see CJ and Alissa cuddling, watching the game, and I realize how badly I want things to be that way with Talon. I want all that we've been doing, and I want so much more. I want him to ease the throbbing ache between my legs. I want to nibble on his neck