disclaimer: i own nothing.
Take Care.
chapter eleven
lay your cards out
The sun was barley coming up over the tree line when Tim pulled in front of the athletics. He sat there for a moment and took in the silence. He was getting deeper and deeper into trouble and couldn't see a direct way out. What made things even worse for him was having Julie involved. He knew from the get go that it wasn't a good idea for them to sell drugs together, but he let her anyway. He had to protect her and had plans after practice with Jordan, to do just that.
Tim looked over to the passengers side of the cab. She'd been sitting right there, not even twelve hours ago, when he took her back home. He remembered touching her cheek and the way she smiled at him before she got out. He didn't know if what he was feeling was love, but it was something he had never felt before.
The sound of a car door slamming stirred him from his thoughts of sleeping with Julie last night. During regular school hours the lot was full of cars, belonging to staff and students, but right now it was just the football players and Coach. He got out and went straight to his locker. He'd gotten a new one that happened to be directly in front of Coach Taylor's office.
"Riggins, get in here!" Eric called when he saw him.
"Shit." Tim mumbled to himself just as he got to his locker. Coach was not the person he wanted to deal with right now. It was too early, he just wanted to get changed out and on the field. He hesitantly walked into the office and closed the door behind him. "Yeah, Coach?"
"Go on, sit down." He carried on after Tim did so. "So, what's all this about you and Julie I've been hearing? People around here are talking about the two of you and now, I've got my wife in my ear about it at home."
Tim shut his eyes tightly for a moment. He knew this was coming. "Um..." There were literally no words he could think of to say. He just looked at his Coach with uneasy eyes.
"It's true then? Look, I just wanna know what's going on in my little girl's life. She's been so distant towards me since I gave you the boot and I'm tired of it." He took his hat off and tossed it onto the desk in front of him. "So, what is it? 'Cause I can tell you what it isn't. This ain't a game, son. You are not going to hurt my daughter in any way, do you understand that?"
Coach's voice was firm and sharp. "Yes, sir. I do." He reminisced on his night with Julie again and cracked a small smile. Their experience had been so different from any other time he'd been with someone. For him, it had actually meant something, it wasn't just another meaningless night with another meaningless girl.
"The heck you smilin' about?"
"N-Nothing, Coach." He shifted in his seat.
"I'm not sayin' that I'm happy with the situation. I didn't raise that precious girl for her to be used and washed up, you hear?"
"What's that mean?" Tim asked.
Eric glared at Tim, he knew what was meant. "Do I really need to say it? Fine, you're not going to have sex with Julie. Clear?"
Tim smirked. It was too late for that, but he didn't need to know just yet. Eric Taylor would be heartbroken on the day he would find out Julie was no longer innocent. Tim didn't have the guts to make today that day. "Crystal. It's different with her, sir. Yeah, I know, bullshit, right? I won't hurt her. I'd never disrespect you like that."
Eric didn't mind that he cursed. It didn't phase him. "I appreciate that."
"Okay, I'm gonna go change, Coach."
"A'ight. We'll talk later." Eric put his hat back on and started getting ready to head out to the field with his boys. He piled up some paperwork he was going over last night and grabbed the playbook from underneath. Tim hadn't shut the door all the way on his way out and he heard some chatter from the guys.
"I call bullshit. I just don't think Riggins' even has the balls to pop that cherry." A voice spoke up but he couldn't pin it to a person. He continued to listen with them unaware he was doing so.
"What and you think you do?" Smash's laughter boomed in the confined space. "I'm not even lying, guys. That's what she said."
"Smash, can you just shut up!" Matt suddenly called from his locker. "All you do is talk, can't you ever just shut up?"
"Yeah, yeah. Mind your business over there, Matty." Smash barked before turning back to the guys that were near his locker.
"You're telling me to mind my own business? Smash, have you even met yourself? You're the one over there spreading gossip about Julie and Riggins, like a girl."
Tim listened to the conversation from his locker. He really couldn't believe that Smash was going on about him when he was right there. It also confused him as to how a rumor of him and Julie was already spreading to this extent. Somebody was talking and he wanted to know who.
Smash walked closer to Matt. Now, most the guys in the locker room were focused on the two arguing. "Look, Matt. Just 'cause you couldn't get the virginity out of little Ms. Taylor, ain't no reason to start hating. Don't look so mad, you'll get yours but now she'll be getting hers from big Rigg." Smash laughed.
Tim looked over to Coach Taylor's office and he was glaring right at him. Damn. He'd heard everything. Just as Tim was going to attempt to put an end to the conversation the group of players started hollering. Matt had Smash on the ground when he finally saw what was going on.
"Hey, Smash! Matt!" Coach yelled as he darted out of his office door. "I don't know what the hell y'all are bitching about out here, but it's done!" He lied. "Done!" He pulled them up by their jerseys and shoved them away from one another. "The hell's the matter with you, huh?"
"Coach, I was jus-"
"Save it, Bryan! You'll have plenty of time to think about it when you and Matt are doing extra up downs after practice this afternoon."
"C'mon, Coach."
He turned to Matt. "You can save it, too, Saracen. Would you rather I went and tattled to the principal about your little tussle? I sure don't think either of you would be playing Friday night, do you? No!" Coach looked around and the watchful eyes that were on him. "Now, c'mon, let's hit the field, ladies!"
When lunchtime finally rolled around, Julie jetted straight for the cafeteria to look for her best friend. When she got home last night, they talked before Tyra had to go to work. They were seeing each other this weekend, but Julie was trying to find her now. She wasn't ready to talk about it right after it happened but now, after sleeping on it, she was to tell someone about her and Tim.
Then, Julie remembered how destroyed Tyra was when her and Tim finally broke up last year. It wasn't pretty. It took sometime for her to pull herself together and that made Julie feel incredibly guilty. She knew that they had started seeing each other when she let herself intervene. It wasn't something she wanted to let come in between her and Tyra's friendship but it was going to be a sensitive subject.
She didn't really want to tell Shelly either, on the chance that she'd let it slip to her mother, who was definitely out of the question. Why did Shelly have such a big mouth? That was her cool aunts only downfall.
Kids poured into the lunch room but she couldn't find Tyra anywhere. She then started to look for Tim and smiled a little when she thought about seeing his face. Together they shared her most intimate moments as a woman last night. She was no longer a virgin.
It wasn't at all like what they show in the movies, with all the romance and passion when the virgin finally has sex. It was uncomfortable and it hurt, even though Tim had been delicate and patient with her as they did what they did. Then when it started to hurt less and feel sort of good, Tim finished in the condom soon after. That was the reality of her first time. Afterward, she had to clean blood from herself and Tim had to change the sheets, but she didn't regret a thing. She felt closer to him more than ever.
The crowd had mostly dispersed and there was no sign of Tyra, but Tim finally emerged with a couple of his teammates. He saw her and parted with the guys.
"Hey, Jules!"
He walked over with a smile on his face, which caused her to blush and smile, too. "Hey." She hugged him back when he leaned in.
"Oh, uh, so, your dad kinda knows we're seeing each other now. People have been talking." He said then laughed awkwardly, as they stood outside the lunchroom.
"Should we just make it official?" Julie asked. There were already a few people looking at them and they weren't even inside the double doors yet. That wasn't enough, she wanted to shut everybody up. Yesterday at school, Lois, told her about the rumor that was going around about them. People just needed someone else to talk about to blind them from their own sad realities.
"You think we should? I mean, we pretty much cemented our relationship last night." Tim smiled and looked down at Julie's hand. He let her slip her fingers into his and they walked together into the lunch room.
A few heads turned and then a few more. Soon, most of the student body was glancing over in their direction. Tim looked over to where his fellow team members usually sat, they too were looking at the pair. Smash was laughing and shaking his head. He'd probably been the one doing most of the jaw flapping to the general population, that's just what Smash Williams did.
Julie's eyes caught a glimpse of Matt and Landry, who were sitting together in the far corner. When her eyes caught Matt's, he turned the other direction, but Landry kept staring with curious look on his face. "Geez, you'd think we we're famous by they way everybody's staring."
Tim laughed. It was true, people were looking and whispering, then looking back again. It was so high school that he couldn't help but laugh. "Whatever, let's just grab some grub."
Tyra felt like shit. She'd thrown up at work last night and had to be sent home early. School was out of the question when she woke up at five in the morning to vomit again. Hanging around the house with nothing to do all day was making her restless and now, time seemed to be passing at a snails pace. There was still a few hours until school would let out for the day, so she couldn't even call Landry. Her mom was gone and Mindy was still sleeping. She was pretty much completely alone. It wasn't a comforting feeling after what's been happening the last few weeks.
She was finally able to talk to Julie yesterday before work, after what seemed like a lifetime for them. She tried to bring up the Tim subject but Julie shot her down, so Tyra left it alone for the time being. They planned to go to the game together then spend the night together since she was off. Hopefully she'd be feeling better by then.
She heard her notification tone go off and walked over to her phone on the kitchen counter. It was from Landry. Something was attached to the text he sent and she clicked on it. Tyra froze and felt her body become numb. She was going to be sick all over again. He sent her a photo he'd taken of Tim and Julie in the cafeteria, holding hands. What the hell was going on? Tim was sleeping with her one day and dating her best friend the next, so to speak. What did she have to do to wake up Tim from his alternate reality and bring him back to the real world? Julie wasn't the answer to any of his problems. Was she? Was anybody?
Her stomach suddenly felt uneasy and she darted into the restroom. She hadn't eaten anything all day but she managed to vomit like she ate a three course meal. What was wrong with her? Had she eaten something bad at work last night? Her and a few of the other waitresses snacked on some appetizers the cooks made for them, but it wasn't anything she hadn't had before. She got off the floor and brushed the bad taste out of her mouth.
Could she be in a more messed up situation then the one she was currently in? Probably not. Her best friend was in love with her man. Her man was in love with her best friend. That wasn't exactly a winning situation for Tyra. She cuddled up in her bed and let herself cry a little. She was kicking herself for letting Tim back in, after doing so well without him. Did she really think anything would be different with him this time around?
'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' Tyra thought of that quote since it fit so well. He fooled her many more times then twice but it wasn't just so easy to let him go, no matter how much she wished she could. He meant a great deal to her, as a friend and more, but so did Julie.
Julie complicated the situation. Tyra used to have a little posse of bitches that would follow her around last year, but they weren't real friends. She wasn't real herself when she was hanging out with them. Besides, Tim and Landry now, Julie was the only other person she'd let through her walls she'd spent years building up. She was not looking forward to confronting her friend, but she might just have to.
"Aw, man. There's Riggins'." Smash pointed to him as he rounded the corner to his locker.
"Hey, Riggins, how was it, man? Ten out of ten?" Tyronn Baxter laughed with his fellow players, whose lockers were on the same block as Tim's.
A few of his teammates were laughing and heckling him about being sweet on Coach's daughter. He remembered doing the same thing when Matt finally got the guts to ask Julie out last year. Things were different being on the other side of the teasing and taunting. "Shut up, Bax." Tim called back in a sarcastic tone. He didn't need another Matt and Smash scenario to play out.
"Nah, man, you have to tell us. How was Coach's daughter? Everybody knows you're hittin' that."
Tim slammed the door to his locker in frustration. "Just drop it! Is that too much to ask for? Do you want a repeat of this morning?"
Baxter laughed. "It won't go down quite the same way, if you know what I mean." He high-fived one of his friends before turning back to his locker.
Tim slipped off his snug black tee. He threw it on the floor before advancing toward Baxter. "What? You wanna find out?"
"Hey!" Smash called, interrupting the guys from a tense altercation. "Damn, Riggs, causing drama all day today, huh? C'mon, guys, we gotta game tomorrow night."
"Says Mr. Williams who caused a fight this morning. Could you be anymore hypercritical?" Tim called out Smash in front of everybody in a similar way to how Matt did earlier. True, him and Julie purposefully made a scene at lunch, but that was their decision to make. "Why don't you mind your business this time, Williams?"
Smash rolled his eyes. "I liked you better when you were always drunk. That's when you knew how to keep your mouth shut."
Tim was fuming, on the edge of boiling over but he had to control himself. Another fight for Smash today and he would definitely not be playing in tomorrows game. The team needed Smash, that was just the reality of things with the way Coach Taylor built the offence.
"Walk away, Williams." Tim turned his back on him and went back to his locker. The guy he was last year would have acted without thinking and probably been a little wasted. Somehow, who he was back then seemed like another person entirely. He wasn't trying to justify himself and say he was a better person now, just different.
"Yeah, whatever." Smash said, shaking his head after getting dismissed.
Julie called Tyra to see why she wasn't in school today. When she found out Tyra was sick, Julie offered to go out there and keep her company, but Tyra declined. She was just going to rest and watch television. If she felt better tomorrow, they would still go through with their plans. Tim dropped her off at the apartment and left with Jordan right after.
"Hey, so, do you know where they were going?" Julie asked Brianna, curious as to why the guys left in such a hurry. Tim told her it wasn't a drug deal and that they were just going to get Jordan's car but she didn't believe him. He didn't even get out of his truck when he dropped her off. She went up and told Jordan that Tim was here and they were gone.
"No. C'mon, I'm gonna break up some weed. You down to smoke?"
Julie noticed how quickly Brianna answered her question. "Yeah, that sounds good." She went quiet for a few moments as her friend ground up some pot. "I know, you know."
Brianna sighed. "Look, Jules, you really don't wanna know where they went. Jordan said it was just something Tim really had to do and he had to be there, too."
At this point in their relationship, she wondered what he was hiding from her now. Julie figured she would find out soon enough, so she left it alone. When the bowl was passed to her, Julie hit it and let the smoke fill her lungs. She remembered the first time she'd came over here and smoked. It felt much more natural now, then from when she'd started. Sort of how lying was playing out in her life. She'd started out nervous, now lies could pour from her mouth without hesitation.
"You love him, don't you?" Brianna asked, when Julie passed the pipe back.
Julie didn't have to think about the answer but she didn't respond right away. Instead, she thought about her relationship with Matt. He'd been a great friend and seemed to really love her, but he didn't make her feel the way she was feeling for Tim. He'd brought out her sense of desire. She wanted him, craved him. She knew she'd never felt like that with anybody else, not even The Swede. "Yeah." She smiled. "I do."
"He talks about you, ya know. Him and Jordan are sometimes up really early together and they'll talk. I don't hear them, but Jordan tells me what they talk about." Brianna took her hit then continued with smoke in her lungs. "He's not at all how I thought he'd be." She let out her hit with a gush of smoke.
That was true for her, too. She knew Tim Riggins, the careless sophomore from last year, but now he seemed to care more then he didn't. "I know what you mean. I can't explain it, he's just... different."
Tim stared down at the cold, metal gun that was sitting on top of a wrinkled paper sack in his lap. After dropping off Julie at the apartment, he took Jordan to pick up his car. It was finally done getting the windows and headlights replaced. There was still damage to the body, but now that it was street legal, everything else could wait.
After they got the car, he followed his friend out to I-35, the main highway he'd used before to get to Austin. There was a gas station in the middle of nowhere and they met a guy Jordan knew for the gun. It cost him a pretty penny since it was a 10mm Semi-Automatic Pistol and he also bought a cleaning kit for it. The money didn't matter, he had enough to manage the expense. He was just glad that he now had protection with a complementary box of ammo.
Jordan had to split after the deal with his guy, so now Tim was sitting in the parking lot of his apartment. He wasn't quite ready to go inside and be forced to explain himself just yet. His thoughts kept going back to the same thing each time he looked at it. Could he really shoot someone? Even if they were threatening him, it was a scary position to be in. Beating someone up was different then possibly killing them. Life would never be the same, regardless of the outcome.
He took a deep breath and wrapped the gun back up in the bag it came in. The guys who'd sold it to them were professionals. The vin numbers had been scratched off and they tampered with the barrel so it wouldn't be traceable. It was some serious shit. There was one of his button down shirts stuffed behind the seat and he wrapped the bag up in that. He got out and walked up the stairs to the apartment. Brianna and Julie were sitting on the couch watching something on TV.
"Hey, where's Jordan?" Brianna asked when she noticed he came back alone.
Tim closed the door. "I think he was going to meet up with Stormy. He's got this new guy he's doing business with and stuff." He shuffled over to where they were sitting and squeezed in next to Julie so that she was in the middle. "How you doing, babe?"
"Good. Uh, can we go to your room for a minuet?" Julie asked, the suspense was killing her. She needed to know what he had been up to.
"Yeah." Tim sighed as he got right back up after sitting down. "What's up?" He asked, after they were alone.
"Where were you?" She eyed him suspiciously as he shifted his weight back and forth between feet. He was still wearing his black shirt, but in his hand he had another shirt that was balled up. "What's that?"
"Alright. Lower your voice, please." Tim looked toward the door as he spoke. "I got some protection."
"Like condoms?" Julie said, then chuckled.
Tim laughed, too. "What? No, I've got those." His face then turned serious. He unraveled the shirt to reveal a brown paper bag. "Don't freak out, okay?"
Julie nodded without taking her eyes off what was in his hand. "What's in there, Tim?"
The box of ammo came out first, then the small kit for cleaning. He tossed them onto the bed before letting the gun slide out next to them.
"Tim!" Julie stared in awe at the tiny black gun. "What the hell do you need that for?" She moved next to him.
"Protection. For both of us." Tim grabbed her hand. "That... guy, he freaked me out. I'll be ready if anything happens again."
"You're gonna kill him?" Julie whispered in disbelief.
"No, that's crazy. I probably won't even load it. I could just threaten him with it if he tries anything, and that might be enough." Tim dropped her hand and picked up the gun. It was heavier then it looked. He aimed it at his pillows and looked down the sight. "Yeah, I don't think I could shoot somebody for real."
Julie moved cautiously closer to him. "That's nice. Maybe, you should just put it up for now." She didn't like the idea of him having to use a gun. "Let's go back out there and hang out, baby."
Tim stuffed the gun under the pillow and turned to his girlfriend. "I like the way that sounds." He smiled and took her in his arms. "Say it again."
"Say what, baby?" Julie smirked and let him kiss her. She was already turned on by him in a matter of seconds. "No, c'mon." She broke apart from his grasp and walked toward the door.
Tim shook his sinful thoughts and followed her out of the room. He wanted her body again, but he could control himself. He considered himself lucky to have the chance to be with Julie Taylor. She was going to do great things when she got out of this town, hopefully he'd be apart of whatever that was. Unsure of what his future held if he stayed in this little town, he needed to get serious about school, so he too could leave it behind.
thanks for reading.
