In the peace of his dimly lit bedroom, teenaged TJ studied the large silver ring on his right ring finger, stroking the dark patch of hair on his chin. The name Detweiler glistened up at him over a football helmet with his number in the center. He rotated it on his finger and admired the red stone on top and wrestlers under his graduation year engraved on the opposite side. Gently tugging it off, TJ strung a petite golden necklace through it and held it up for only him to see. He took in a deep concentrated breath. "You never know if you don't try. I am going to do this. I am going to make her mine." He wrapped it around his hand and tucked it away in his blue jeans pocket, slipped on his letterman and climbed out of his bedroom window. Like so many times before, TJ slithered down the street and up to Spinelli's window. He peaked in to make sure she was alone in the room before tapping his knuckles on the glass. Spinelli slid the window open, allowing him into the room, taking his lips onto hers as he climbed through the window.
TJ let it happen a moment before gently pushing her away, earning him a strange look from her. "What's your deal?"
"I wanna talk."
"You come over, we have our fun, you leave before morning. No emotions, no regrets, just physical. What is there to talk about?"
"That's just it though. I have somethin' I feel I need to do but I couldn't get the courage to do it in front the guys."
"You couldn't do it in front of the guys, huh? This oughtta be good."
TJ was slightly hurt by her skepticism, but proceeded anyway. "Close your eyes."
"Why?" Spinelli questioned, her frustration growing with each passing moment.
"It's a surprise."
"Oh, fine," she huffed folding her arms across her voluptuous chest. He pulled the ring and necklace out of his pocket, unraveling it. TJ maneuvered behind her as he wrapped the chain loosely around her neck and latched it.
"Now you can look," he said upon releasing it.
She looked down at what he had placed around her neck, a look of great confusion came across her face. "But Teej, it's your class ring."
"Yeah."
She stared down at the ring and back up at him, "But that would mean… Are you… Teej?" She took a moment to breathe. "Are you sure you want this? Want me?"
"I like what we've got, Spin. But doing this and then going to school and acting like nothing happened. It's like dangling a ticket to paradise in front of my face everytime I see you and telling me I can't have it. I'm ready to scream to the world that you, Ashley Spinelli, are mine, God damnit." The name sounded so strange yet strangely familiar coming across the young man's lips. He was the only one that she would ever dream of allowing to call her by her first name. It still took special situation for him to use it, though. The fact that he used it would help drive home how serious he was.
"Teej, I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of commitment between us. I mean why did you think I was so willing for what we do have? There's so much that could happen. I've seen all those girls hangin' 'round you and goin' all goo-goo for you."
"And I've seen how those guys look at you," He cut her off. "I hear what they say about you. How they try to flirt and you just brush 'em off like it's nothing new. I want to slap the shit out of 'em and claim what's mine. But I keep my mouth shut every God damn day so I don't let our secret out, cause I know what that would do to your rep. I'm already a player, but you're the untouchable tough girl. I want so bad to be able to say you're spoken for. That I'm spoken for. To show those sluts what a real relationship is, 'cause I know they'll never have one. Not with me."
His reference to the Ashleys and their constant pursuits of a short lived fling forced her into a moment of silence. "If I made that commitment and then one of the Ashleys found a way to weasel her way between us, I'm just not sure I could handle it." At that moment, she sounded so small, so vulnerable. TJ saw this and felt himself break a little inside.
"Spin, if there is one thing you should've learned about me by now, it's that I'm the most loyal towards the people I care about the most. The Ashleys are just trying to sleep with me so they can say they did. I don't mean shit to them. They don't mean shit to me. You are the one I would want with me every night. You are the one I would give everything to and everything for. I would spend the rest of my life with you if I could and I'm ready to take that next step to seal the deal. So, what do you say?"
She gradually closed the distance between them, entwining his much larger hands into hers and placing a small kiss on his lips. She continued to close the distance until they met in an embrace. "I say we've been best friends since kindergarten, Teej. I would trust you to the ends of the earth and back. If you say it's gonna work, we're gonna make it work."