Unbalanced - Chapter 7

Tim sat at the booth rapidly trying to come to grips with what just went down. Julie Taylor kissed him. Julie Taylor licked him. Tim Riggins discovered that he wanted Julie Taylor in more than a 'let's get it on' way. He didn't know what was more staggering. Actually he did, the lick, he was only male after all. He liked her, he really liked her. In that stomach turning, using girly words, blushing, sweaty palms way. Hell he was even smiling every day.

Julie had run straight out of the Alamo Freeze the moment her tongue had left his face. Tim had just sat there, way to go Rigs. By the time he had broken out of his day dream she had left the immediate area. Matt stood at the counter looking resigned. He definitely would have seen Julie's display. Tim felt a rush of bad sportsmanship, absolute glee in knowing that Julie had kissed him in front of her ex. Yep, she really liked him, not Matt. His chest puffed out and he resisted the temptation to swagger out of the store. Someone had chosen him, not just someone, his Jules.

Tim stepped outside the store's entrance. His glee dissipated into concern in the blink of an eye. The sky was moody – grey, heavy clouds and a heaviness in the air. It was going to bucket down rain. He looked wildly around and could see no sign of her. He'd imagined that after she had fled the store she'd be in his truck waiting to talk again. There was no sign of her. A feeling of dread began welling in his chest. He raced to the truck and decided to track her down. She was angry at him so she wouldn't walk the direct way home. He'd have to check all the detour routes and hope he'd come across her.

After thirty minutes he decided to give up the alternative routes plan and try the main one home. The thought of explaining to the Coach that Julie hadn't come home terrified him. Explaining why he'd allowed her to leave the store without him would be near impossible to explain. More than that, he was beginning to get really worried. The possibilities began to rack his brain – maybe she'd hitchhiked and been picked up by some psychotic stranger, maybe she'd been hit by a car and laying by the road alone and in pain, etc He couldn't do it to himself anymore. Driving the main way home he saw neither hide nor hair of her. He pulled up at the Taylor's and sat down on the couch. He was a mess. He wanted to speak to her, shake her and call her stupid for running. He wanted to discuss the kiss. He wanted to kiss her. He put his head in his hands and moaned. Rigs – you couldn't have handled this worse if you tried.

He needed to get his mind off her and possible death. When had he gotten so morbid? He began thinking about that small darting tongue and the ripples of awareness that trailed from its touch. He thought about what she had done in that booth. She had made the first move. Julie Taylor liked him. She wasn't going to reject him because she liked him. Tim tried to hold onto that feeling to reassure himself. She was probably holed up with Lois somewhere. He really should have paid more attention when Julie had pointed out her house on the way to school.

Another ten minutes passed by and he was still on the couch with his head in his hands. His hair looked like the Coach's after a particularly tough game, mussed and way beyond help. His foot was tapping uncontrollably on the carpet and his eyes kept darting to the window. Still no sign of Julie. This was excruciating.

A rust bucket of a car pulled up in the driveway behind his. He stood up, he didn't recognise the car. He got closer to the window, his nose nearly pushed up to its pane. Tim spotted a blonde mane of hair and blew out a giant sigh of relief, she was home. The relief trickled away in an instant and then the anger came. He was seriously going to kill Jules and then rip the Good Samaritan to bits. He thought he was going to have a coronary.

Staring out the window Tim saw Matt exit the driver's seat of the car and walk around to the passenger side. It was Matt! The Good Samaritan was actually Saracen. The anger turned to jealousy in a blink, how had he gotten to her before him? He no longer felt that he might have some hold on her, the ex was definitely stepping up his game. Matt helped her out of her seat and wrapped his arm around her waist as she rose from the seat. Julie leaned against him. They were back together, Tim had faced rejection before but this was heart shredding agony. He saw Julie look up at Matt with a sweet smile and he felt any homicidal urges he possessed reach up from the pit of his belly.

"Enough," he said and rushed for the door. He ran out, his face cleared of all anger, he didn't want to scare her and besides Rigs didn't get angry as far as anyone knew. He then realised that she was hopping, leaning against Matt to take some weight off of her foot. Maybe he'd been wrong. Didn't matter, Matt was going to get his hands off her pronto.

"What happened? I looked everywhere for you. What did you do?" He purposefully wormed his arm around her, supplanting Matt.

"Hey Matt. Look man I've got her, thanks for your help," he was deliberately dismissive, it was time for the QB to leave. He resisted the temptation to sweep her up in his arms, he settled for taking most of her miniscule weight on and getting her inside the house.

"Oww oww Tim, take it easy okay?" He realised he'd been so focused on getting her away from Matt that he was hurting her with his efforts. He shook his head and directed his attention on her.

"Oh yeah sure, sorry," he slowed down. She turned her head, looking at Matt. He had to stop while she called out

"Thanks Matt." Tim couldn't help himself, he threw a dark look Saracen's way, one that Julie didn't catch. He was staking his claim. Her attention snapped back to him instantaneously.

"I doubt very much that you looked everywhere for me. I was walking on the side of the road. Are you blind?" she snarked. He breathed in deeply, she was majorly pissed off and most importantly okay. It wasn't time to relive their relationship woes. Time to lighten it up Rigs.

"I see your bad hair day got worse." It was an easy target, she looked like a seal. All water logged and sleek. She didn't look too bad at all. Tim even caught a glimpse of her clothing that was transparent from the rain. He felt desire shoot through him and then he realised Matt had probably seen this too, he growled internally.

"You are such a bitch!" Julie cried. Gosh she was cute when she was irritable.

"I think I like ass better," he sure did like thinking about her ass better too. She was okay, some levity might help him calm down. They were inching their way through the hall. Julie's head rose and a matronly expression crossed her face.

"Just get me to my room already. I think I broke my toe" he looked disbelieving at her, there was no way she had broken her toe "well maybe sprained it or something" she muttered "it hurts okay?" He tried to hide his smile at her sulkiness. She was okay. He resisted the temptation to sweep her into a bear hug.

He walked her to her bedroom and sat her on her bed. They have to talk about what happened at the Freeze before her parent got home. Tim decided he'd have to take a leaf out of her book and be proactive on this one. As he was leaving, he paused staring at the empty hall and spoke

"We're going to have to talk about it sometime. When you're cleaned up, we'll talk." He left the room. He sat down on the couch waiting for her to get ready. Unsure of what to say or what was going on. He felt tense all over.

Julie shuffled out into the living room. She paused at the doorway, sitting down on the couch beside him. Now Rig you need to be the one who talks this time.

"So..." he started "you kinda kissed me." Great start.

Still looking at her hands she simply responded "yes". O-kay this could be more difficult than he anticipated. Clear the air. Find out what the hell Saracen was doing there.

"And then you kinda ran to Matt," she glanced up sharply at his slightly accusatory tone "Did you do it to make him jealous?" he changed his tone, never breaking his glance from her.

"Tim no," she took a deep breath "I didn't do it to make Matt jealous. Matt just asked me that too. I wanted to. You see me as a sister, I see you as kissable."

She was so wrong. He didn't see her as a sister at all. If anyone had felt this way about their sister that was totally wrong. She saw him as kissable, did she just want him to kiss? Or something else?

"Tim – let's just forget it happened, let's pretend that I never kissed you and that I am your little sister and we can go on our merry way, it was a horrible kiss anyway, I sort of rushed it, normally I am better, you could ask Matt, wait, now I am rambling and not making sense and let's just pretend I didn't do it and my parents won't know and we'll put it all behind us." It was one of her talky, rushed speeches that he liked so much. She was trying to make the events of the Alamo Freeze disappear and he couldn't have that. Time for the old standby – humour her Rigs.

"Okay then," he paused "what about the lick then?" he smiled saucily at her waiting for the fireworks. He actually was intrigued about the lick. It was completely unexpected from a girl like Jules.

"You want to be my kind-of-de facto-brother and then you say things like that. It's confusing. It's not fair,' she said. Okay the humour thing wasn't working too well, she wasn't smiling. And neither was he anymore for that fact. Tim felt guilty for making her more confused, especially when she was injured, maybe more her pride than her toe but injured nevertheless.

"You're right. I can't help myself these things just fly out of my mouth." The both sat silently next to one another, he was unsure what to say next. He thought about her little speech about the kiss being bad. It wasn't great, just smooshed.

"It wasn't that bad," he threw her way. Maybe she would consider his mountain of experience and believe him.

"Are you kidding me? It was like kissing my grandma's cheek. It was horrible. Are you trying to get me to feel worse?" she retorted. Only Jules could turn on a dime like that. He liked that she had an in-built bullshit detector. He laughed from his belly up, the force immense. It was like all the anger, tension and jealousy that had built up in him over the past hour just flew away via his laugh. He felt relieved. Time to speak some truth of his own.

"Truthfully?" she nodded, she wanted honesty. He would give it to her. "It surprised me. The venue I mean. It's not like I hadn't thought about it but I am living with your family," she looked at him blankly, he had voiced the truth. He liked her... a lot but living with her family complicated the situation a hell of a lot.

"If you weren't living with my family would this be an issue?" she asked the hard question. Should he answer this?

"Probably. Your father's my coach. Matt got a hard time and he didn't even have my reputation," he responded. It was as though she hadn't even considered he would be interested in her. The realisation that he was crossed her face and he wanted to kiss her even more.

"Oh," the situation was summarised in that one tiny word. He kept talking though, once you're on a roll and all that.

"Yeah. I think that's why I ignored you at first. It kept me from really having to talk to you. That's what I meant. The reason why I was ignoring you," she looked at him encouragingly and he wanted to keep talking for her.

"When I worked out that ignoring you wasn't working I sorta threw caution out the window and just had fun. Fighting with you is a blast." He turned a full beam smile on her, he left out the part that she looked super cute when she was irate.

"What about the kiss?" she asked.

"I wasn't sure if you kissed me for Matt or for me. I froze. You didn't give me long and then you licked me and ran away. You licked me!" he laughed. Okay so he had breezed over the truth of his reaction. It was too soon to be talking about the emotions he had felt in that moment. He didn't want to overwhelm her.

"I am so embarrassed," she spoke into her hands. He wanted to see her face, he reached out and gently pulled her hands away from her face.

"Don't," he laughed again "it was like the best and most bizarre first date ever." And it had been, he could have done without the stress and worry at the end but it was nice.

"Date?" she gulped. She hadn't thought of it as a date and he experienced a moment of doubt. He pushed through the doubt and moved closer to her. He could smell her hair and see the uncertainty in her eyes. Time to go for broke.

"Except I really didn't get a kiss goodnight. Well not a proper one anyway,"

"No you didn't,' she breathed. She was looking straight ahead which gave him an unhindered view of her lovely face. He moved closer to her, his breath causing her hair to move slightly. He fixed his attention on her ear, he bet Saracen had never done this. He traced the whorl of her ear with the tip of his tongue. It was all he could do to keep his breathing somewhat normal. Being this close to her was exhilarating. He gently moved his fingers, stroking her arm. He moved his fingers from her soft and fragile wrist to the inside of her elbow and up her arm. He felt the ripples of awareness through her skin. Her breathing had sped up and he was finding his pants growing tighter with every second. He couldn't believe this was happening.

Author's Note – I got a glorious twelve hours of sleep, I obviously needed it. Warning - some serious nookie happening in the next chapter.