A/N: Bet you didn't think to see another update from me this soon did you?! You can thank my fabulous beta Brophy for that considering how quickly she got it back to me!
Thanks to everyone who took the time to review last time, hopefully this update will give you plenty to think about, so don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts :D
Oh, and just a quick warning, bad language ahead guys!
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Chapter 11
"Right…we need to get chicken, butter, yoghurt, juice and milk." Julie said, reeling off the remaining items on the list to Tim. "Could you grab a bag of potatoes, please?" She asked, indicating to the display where the vegetables were stacked.
Standing up from where he'd been leaning over the cart as he pushed it through the store behind Julie, Tim dutifully picked up a bag off of the display and placed them in the cart.
Pushing the cart forward, he halted it as he drew in line just behind Julie and peered over her shoulder at the list she was studiously reading.
The familiar sound of Matt Saracens voice filtered through his brain and he glanced up to catch sight of the QB1 and his nurse flirting at the end of the aisle, oblivious to his and Julie's presence.
A quick glance back to Julie (where she was still crossing lines through the items they'd already collected) assured him that she'd not seen or heard her ex-boyfriend.
"C'mon." He said, wrapping his arm about Julie's shoulder and turning her around to face the opposite direction. "Let's go this way instead. Rally girls ahead." He lied.
Spinning the cart around he positioned it in front of the pair of them and took hold of the handle from behind Julie, blocking her in with an arm either side of her body.
Nudging her forward, Tim directed them over to the next aisle, Julie instinctively trusting him as he guided them past several display stands and other shoppers.
"Are they out of sight now?" She asked, quietly surprising him.
Frowning, Tim dropped his chin down onto her shoulder, firmly refusing to sneak a peek down the front of her top that the position allowed. "You saw them?" He murmured back to her.
"Kinda hard not to." Julie responded, leaning back against his chest.
A small stretch of silence sounded before Tim drove the conversation forward and away the from QB1 and his current squeeze. "So what's next on the list?"
"Milk."
"Right." Tim said, reluctantly straightening but making no move to let Julie escape from between the cart and himself as he began pushing the cart onto the milk section.
Smiling to herself, Julie couldn't stop the amusement she felt from spreading across her face. For all his hard man front, Tim really was a big softie underneath it all.
She didn't know anyone who wouldn't make a big deal about her sleeping problems, or the catastrophe of her 'abduction' and support in the face of Matt.
He really was a good friend. And if he got it together enough to settle down with one girl in a committed relationship, she didn't doubt that he'd make a good boyfriend as well. It was such a shame that Lyla couldn't see that and had so cruelly kicked him to the curb, enforcing the notion that he was good enough to fuck, but not good enough for anything else.
His screwed up relationships with Tyra (who had as many issues as he did, as loathed as Julie was to admit them) and Jackie hadn't helped matters either.
But, at the end of the day, when the time came, despite the fact he was bound to make mistakes, his heart would be in the right place and Julie just hoped that whoever the lucky girl was, that she was smart enough to see that.
As they came to a stop in the dairy section, Julie faulted as she felt a heated glare being cast in her direction.
Dragging her attention away from her thoughts and Tim, she glanced around to see whose attention she'd managed to catch.
Her heart dropped. Missy Sutton. The brunette Tim had been flirting with in the hallway yesterday before he'd brushed her off, and if she was reading the situation correctly, the girl he'd slept with after the football game.
Out of all the Cheerleaders and Rally Girls, why did it have to be her? Julie groaned internally. The girl was a first class bitch and possessive to boot.
Perfect. Just perfect.
"Which milk do we need?" Tim asked from his position behind her.
Feeling increasingly intimidated by Missy and her two lackeys despite the fact that she was doing nothing wrong, Julie tried to appear unaffected and allowed her gaze to continue past them as if she'd not registered their presence.
This would have been so much better if Tyra was there; Julie couldn't help but get caught up in her tough girl, take no prisoners attitude when she was on a roll.
But as it was…
As unobtrusively as possible, she tried to slide out from between Tim and the cart as she glanced down at the grocery list needlessly. "Whole and skimmed." She replied crossing the items off their list.
As soon as she was out of his arm reach, the Rally Girls swarmed in with the planned precision of a military operation.
"Hey Tim!" They chirped, Missy pressing her breasts against the side of Tim's body as she clutched his arm.
Obviously 'we' was becoming 'I.' Julie thought, resigned to the fact that she was going to be continuing the rest of the grocery shopping by herself.
Without a backward glance she pulled out the required milk cartons and placed them into the cart, listening with half an ear as the girls gushed over last nights game.
"Butter. Yoghurt." She murmured to herself, fetching the items and then crossing them off of her list.
The fresh fruit juice was a few aisles over, and then the chicken a few more past that. Deciding to kill time, Julie left the half full grocery cart with Tim who was still occupied with the Rally Girls.
But something about it was off.
Glancing back over her shoulder as she headed off for the fruit juice, Julie realized what it was. It wasn't her Tim back there. It was someone completely different.
There was no easy smile, no lazy smirk.
Instead, there was a stone-faced fullback who'd answered their greetings with a bored 'yeah?' and from what she'd heard since, hadn't spoken another word; hadn't made a sound except for some unintelligible grunts.
It wasn't the Tim that she'd hung out with on the sofa and who'd beaten the shit out of Bradley for daring to touch her.
It was unnerving.
It wasn't the Tim that made Gracie coo and played ping pong in the garage with her Dad, each of them egging the other on until her Mom had to break it up.
Collecting the last few items that they needed, Julie slowly made her way back to where she'd left Tim and his adorning fans.
As she'd expected, they hadn't moved.
Taking a deep breath and collecting her courage, Julie paused until there was a break in the conversation fawning over the skills Tim had displayed in last nights game before speaking. "Tim?" She asked, catching his attention and that of the Rally Girls as well as they all swung around to look at her. "Are you going to come with me to pay or do you want to meet up with me out front in a bit?"
Tim broke away from the Rally Girls but didn't get the chance to respond though, before Missy broke into their conversation scathingly. "Well obviously he's not going to waste time with you when he has us, is he? Doesn't take much to work that out does it?" She continued with a sneer. "But then again, what do you expect from the girl that dumped Matt Saracen?"
"Excuse me?" Julie retorted bitingly. She might not have wanted to get into this situation but she sure wasn't going to let the Rally Girl walk all over her. "What I have or have not done is none of your business! Just because you've slept with half the football team, doesn't mean you're better than me; it just means your easy!"
"At least I'm not a tease." Missy hissed back with an ugly smirk on her face, while her friends tittered. "Everyone knows that you told Matt you'd sleep with him only to back out last minute. Maybe it's just as well you dumped him, so a real woman can take care of his needs."
"What the hell is your problem?" Tim growled, and for one horrible second Julie thought he was talking to her and wanted the floor to open up with a dark hole beneath her feet. "Jules wasn't speaking to you, but you're right. It is obvious that I'd much rather be in her presence than yours. And if I ever hear you repeating anything that went on between her and Seven again, that little three-way home video of yours will get heavily broadcasted."
Silence surrounded them as Tim's threat sank in. Nearby, a few Dillon residents glanced over, slowing down the speed of their carts in curiosity.
Not satisfied with leaving things as they were, Tim bent his head down near Missy's ear. "Just for the record too," he said quietly, "better a virgin than a slut. At least it shows she has values and stands by them. Nobody wants what everybody has had, at least not for long. That's why the term 'girlfriend' has never been used next to your name." Tim said cruelly, knowing exactly where to hit to cause the most damage. So he'd slept with the girl the night before. That gave her no right to speak to Julie as she'd just done. "So just keep your mouth shut and bother some other poor bastard."
Missy's eyes narrowed and a red flush covered her cheeks. Next to her, the girls she'd been hanging out with were silent, their faces pale with shock and stunned into such silence that not even a titter could escape.
Her hand clenched around the milkshake she was holding as Missy glared defiantly up at him. "That's not what you said last night."
Tim shrugged, unconcerned, and tried to ignore the knot clenching in the pit of his stomach. He was used to locker room talk. He was on the football team. He was Tim Riggins for fucks sake! But shit, this was in front of Jules. Hell, he hoped her name did begin with R. "Look, Rebecca-"
"My name is Missy!" The Rally Girl screeched.
Huh. He must have got stuck on her name beginning with an R because she was a Rally Girl.
"My name's Rebecca." The girl to the left of Missy offered with a shy grin.
As if things could get any worse, Tim thought. He probably looked like a first class bastard in front on Julie now. He'd not known the name of the girl he'd slept with, but the stupid bitch was throwing the fact that he had slept with her in Julie's face.
Although it was kinda funny, he admitted to himself. That the girl he'd slept with was shouting it loud and clear to the girl he'd had to fantasize about so he could get off. Pretty damn funny. Except it wasn't.
A glance at Julie's face assured him that it wasn't something that they would be joking about on the way back home.
"Whatever." Tim drawled in a bored voice. "Just go find someone else who's interested, 'cause I sure ain't."
"Bastard!" She hissed, venom spitting from her eyes at him before whirling round. If looks could kill he'd have been six feet under.
Catching sight of the vindictive look in Missy's eye, Julie tried to move to the side, out of the way of the Rally Girl before something akin to a cat fight broke out.
She wasn't quick enough though.
Deliberately Missy knocked into Julie, the strawberry milkshake she'd been drinking splashing all over the front of Julie's white t-shirt and soaking the denim of the skirt she was wearing. Pink rivets of milk ran down her shins and onto the new gladiator sandals that she'd brought on her last shopping trip with Tyra.
"Oops." Missy said with sarcastic smile, "Silly me. It was an accident. Sorry."
Behind Missy, her friends giggled in horrified amazement, their hands covering their mouths while other people in the aisle remained stock still as though they couldn't believe the scene they were witnessing.
Knowing that she couldn't let Missy get away with it, and her Daddy's temper bubbling beneath her skin, Julie's arm came up and her palm crashed into the side of Missy Sutton's face.
She'd never been in a cat fight before and she didn't want to start now, especially as it would be perceived that they were fighting over Tim, but if she didn't, the Rally Girls and Cheerleaders would make her life hell at Dillon High for the rest of her school years.
Not something she particularly wanted to experience.
"You bitch!" Missy screeched as she lunged forward.
She was stopped though as an arm wrapped itself around Missy's waist and held her in place.
Instinctively, Julie leant back out of reach, but Tim's prevention made the action unnecessary.
While she might not have needed to back up, she couldn't control the response, especially when she caught sight of the ugly look on Tim's face.
Firmly holding onto the squirming Rally Girl who was busy hurling threats in Julie's direction, Tim spun around so that he was positioned in front of Julie before thrusting the girl away from his body.
Whether she was unprepared for the sudden action, or he'd unintentionally pushed her harder that he'd realized, he didn't know. Either way she did stumble back, colliding with one of the shopping carts belonging to old Mrs Harrington (who was also watching the scene avidly).
Tim was so angry that it was difficult to speak, but nonetheless he managed to grit the words out. "Don't you ever, ever, go near her again. I don't know what you problem is, and I don't give a damn, but you leave Jules the hell out of it."
"My problem! My problem?!" Missy shouted at him as she found her balance. "She's the one that slapped me! I didn't do anything!"
"Bullshit." Tim snarled, every muscle in his body tense with rage.
Swallowing nervously as the situation escalated, Julie shuffled her feet and glanced down at the once white t-shirt. She cursed under her breath; the thin fabric had become see-through nowand was wet as well as her bra. Crap.
She clutched at the bottom of her top and pulled it away from her body in an attempt to lessen the free for all.
Screw Missy Sutton, her jealousy, her petty friends and her strawberry milkshake! She just wanted to go home and get changed out of her milk encrusted clothes before it soured in the heat.
Tentatively, she reached out and placed a hand on Tim's elbow, sliding it down over his forearm to catch his attention. "Tim." She said quietly, trying not to add fuel to the fire. "C'mon."
The muscles relaxed a little under her fingers and Julie breathed a sigh of relief.
This Tim was as strange to her as the one she'd seen earlier and she didn't like it. She wanted her Tim back.
While her action calmed Tim, however, it had the opposite effect on Missy.
The brunette snorted derisively as she verbally attacked Julie in much the same way Lois had. "You're a fool, you stupid girl, if you think for one second that someone like Tim Riggins would be interested in you. You're nothing! You're not the smartest girl in the school! You're not the prettiest! The only reason people know who you are is because you're Coach Taylor's daughter! You're just pathetically cashing in on that! It's the only reason that people try to become your friend."
Shaking her head in disgust, Julie's nose wrinkled in distaste. "I'm not the one shouting and screaming at the grocery store like a child." She retorted.
"No, you're just the girl he's sleeping with on the side. Your so pathetic that you don't even care Tim slept with me because your so desperate to keep him that you'll look the other way! He wanted me!" Missy said jabbing a finger into her chest to emphasis her point.
"I wanted you?" Tim laughed sarcastically, the tone of his voice actually causing Julie to flinch even though it wasn't directed at her. "What did I do to give you that impression?"
"You slept with me!"
Tim shrugged. "I've slept with lots of girls. What makes you so special?"
"I'm Missy Sutton! All the girls want to be me! All the guys want to date me!"
"And yet the only way I could bring myself to screw you was by bending you over the bed and fucking you from behind." Tim drawled with a lazy smirk. "I didn't want to look at your face as I fucked you and I sure as hell didn't want to look at it as I came."
"You bastard!" Missy shouted, lunging at him this time instead of Julie. She tried to slap at him, but her strength was no match for the Fullback who held her off easily enough. Her fingernails did manage to claw at his face though, scratching along his jaw.
Julie jumped back, unable to believe what was happening.
Tim has just announced to the whole of Dillon how he'd slept with Missy without any shame.
Was this going to happen to her?
When Tim was no longer living with her family, when he no longer needed to be nice to her or anything else, was she going to be treated in the same way?
Dismissed without a second glance?
Treated with the cold shoulder until she got the hint, and then worse if she refused to accept it?
Would he turn on her as callously as he'd done with Missy?
Was this the Tim that Tyra and Lyla had seen?
Was this the reason that they were so against her getting involved with him? Even if it was just as friends?
He wouldn't treat her like that though, would he?
As though she was nothing?
As though their friendship was nothing?
"I don't care what you say! You wanted me! I bet you never came so hard in your life!"
"Well that's true." Tim agreed, releasing Missy from his grasp as she calmed at his words. "All the credit can't go to you though, it took fantasizing about someone else before I could get off. Why do you think I shoved your face into bed covers? All the racket you happened to be making was spoiling it." He reached out and grabbed hold of her upper arm and tugged Missy towards him.
He bent down so they were face to face before he began speaking. "You were nothing but an easy lay, one I didn't have to put any effort into. You think I wanted you? I didn't bother speaking to you until it was all over, and then it was only to tell you to get dressed. You were the one to seek me out. You were the one to put the condom in my hand. You are the one causing a scene now." Vaguely, he heard someone saying his name, trying to attract his attention but he didn't let them. "You are the one making yourself look pathetic and desperate. You are the one everyone is going to be talking about. You are the one that everyone is going to be laughing about. You, not me. You go near me or my friends again, and by that, I specifically mean Julie Taylor, then this will seem like a walk in the park."
"Riggins. C'mon, let go of her. That's enough." One of the assistant Coaches, Mac had approached him and was prying Tim's fingers off of Missy's upper arm.
Abruptly, he released his white knuckled grip on her and swung around.
Another story for the Dillon gossip mill, he thought sarcastically, anger still bubbling away beneath the surface.
He strode away, knocking in Mac but not paying the slightest bit of attention to the assistant Coach or the surrounding crowd as he grabbed hold Julie's hand in one of his while snatching up the cart with the other.
Wide eyed, Julie followed along after Tim quietly. Now was not the time to rock the boat.
She didn't know what she'd say to him anyway.
She looked up in surprise as they came to a halt and Tim released his hold on her. She looked over at the Fullback and caught sight of Tim raking his hands through his hair and down his face.
Chewing on her bottom lip, Julie glanced away, her hand still clutching at the sodden mass of paper in her hand which had once been their shopping list.
"Jules."
Julie looked back over at Tim. Wordlessly, he held his shirt out to her, the one he'd put on over his t-shirt earlier that morning.
Reflectively, she glanced down at her own see through top and sighed. She was wet and sticky and her bra was starting to chafe against her skin.
Mumbling something along the lines of thanks, she took hold of the proffered shirt and darted into the ladies toilets.
Entering the rest room, Julie caught sight of herself in the full length mirror and cringed.
She headed for the mother and baby cubicle at the end and locked the door behind herself. She hung Tim's shirt up on the peg attached to the back of the door and then stripped out of her wet t-shirt and attempted to wipe herself off with some dampened paper towels.
Raking her fingers through her hair, Julie hissed in pain as she yanked on a tangle encrusted in strawberry milkshake. It was everywhere. There wasn't one bit of her that hadn't been splashed in it.
It was actually beginning to soak through her panties.
Twisting her head around, Julie eyed the shirt that Tim had lent her.
She was short, or petite as her Mom liked to call it. But either way, at the end of the day, it didn't change things. Julie was short.
Taking into consideration the size of Tim, and therefore the size of his shirt, the hem would probably end around mid thigh. Maybe a little higher. But nothing too obscene.
She could totally do this.
She was Julie Taylor and she could pull this off.
Unfastening her brown belt, Julie pulled it out of the belt loops on her mini skirt and placed in on the counter. Next, she chucked off the wet shirt itself, tossing the fabric on top of her t-shirt draped over the edge of the sink. It was quickly followed by her bra and then she finished cleaning herself off as quickly as possible.
The cubicle door might have been locked, but there was still something unnerving about standing in a public toilet in just her panties and gladiator sandals.
Digging around in her bag she pulled out a spare hair tie and scrapped her hair back into a messy bun.
That done she tugged Tim's shirt off the peg and put it on. As she did up the buttons, leaving the top couple open, she contemplated the length.
Ok, so her Dad might freak out. But if it was a choice between showing a little more leg than usual instead of her chest, she figured that her parents would deal with it.
Rolling the sleeves up so they were at her elbows, Julie wiped off her belt and then put it back on.
The shirt was loose on her body, except where it was cinched in at the waist, so hopefully no one would notice that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath it. She really couldn't face it. The damp panties she was stuck with were bad enough.
The fabric of the shirt was soft, so it was easy to see that the shirt had been worn and washed multiple times in the past.
Fingers crossed it would look like some kind of tunic that was so often featured in fashion magazines.
Gathering up her wet clothing, Julie unlocked the cubicle door.
Steeping out of the enclosed space, she headed for the full length mirror positioned by the door and looked herself over.
It wasn't that bad…but it certainly was scandalous.
She'd definitely be providing Dillon with more gossip.
The door behind her swung open and Julie twisted round to come face to face with Matt's nurse.
As if things couldn't get any worse.
The woman, (because Julie was certain she couldn't refer to her as a girl) looked as put together as she always did. Whereas she happened to be covered in strawberry milkshake, clutching her wet clothing in her hands and desperately trying to pull off Tim Riggins shirt as a fashionable tunic.
So not happening.
"Excuse me." She muttered, unable to meet Carlotta's eyes as she squeezed past, fighting with herself to keep her head held high.
She blinked furiously to keep the tears at bay.
This was the last time she was ever going grocery shopping with Tim.
If he had just kept it in his pants she wouldn't have gotten into a fight with Missy. She wouldn't have ended up covered in strawberry milkshake. She wouldn't have provided the Dillon Gossip mill with further ammunition.
And she wouldn't have seen a side of Tim that she wouldn't have thought possible before today.
Turning the corner, Julie faltered briefly before finding her stride again at the sight of Matt standing next to Tim.
She saw Matt stop talking mid sentence, and then Tim rotated round to see what had caught his QB1's attention.
Julie's face flushed a little at the way Tim's eyes raked up and down her body, lingering on the smooth expanse of skin exposed on her legs.
Refusing to comply with the urge of yanking the top further down her legs, Julie continued towards the pair of them.
"You ready?" Tim asked as she arrived next to him.
Julie nodded. "Yeah. You?" She checked, her eyes glancing across to Matt momentarily.
"Yeah, we're done." Tim replied, his hand coming up to cup the nape of her neck in a comforting gesture and then sliding down her spine to settle on the small of her back over the belt she was wearing.
Well, Julie thought. If he'd been wondering whether she was wearing a bra or not when she'd approached him, now he knew for sure.
"Seven." Tim said, parting with a nod in Matt's direction. Julie remained silent, tucking her body in as close to Tim as her dignity would allow.
They made their way to the checkout point in silence, and Julie was certain that more than one person was looking their way and dissecting her new clothing.
She wished that she could put it down to being overly paranoid but she knew that wasn't the case.
Oh, the benefits of living in a small southern town.
Once the groceries were paid for and loaded into bags they made their way across the parking lot and put them in the back of the pickup truck and then headed for home.
She wanted to open the door to the passenger side and climb in herself, but she didn't know whether or not Tim had fixed it yet and she really wasn't in the mood for further humiliation.
The heat of his hands burnt through the shirt he'd loaned her as he grasped hold of her hips to boost her into the truck in the same manner as he'd done earlier the morning. As had become their habit.
But it was different now.
She didn't know what, but something about it was different.
Instead of sitting in the middle seat as she usually did, Julie shuffled over until she could lean against the passenger door and stared stubbornly out of the window.
She made no effort to turn on the radio and pick up their banter from where they'd left off earlier that morning, and neither did Tim.
The condom packets scattering the floor of the cab which had been so funny earlier were now just a disgusting reminder of what had happened in the grocery store.
It hurt so badly.
She didn't want to have these doubting thoughts and feelings about Tim.
She wanted to be able to trust him as she had done before now.
She wanted to be able to prove to him that she would be there for him no matter what.
That it was still him and her.
But what if she was reading too much into the friendship that had developed between them?
Because that could easily be the case.
Just because she felt the way she did about him, didn't mean that Tim felt the same way about her.
Sure, he'd been protective of her, and had beaten up Bradley for kidnapping her.
But what did that mean, really?
She was Coach Taylor's daughter; that was how so many people saw her. Of course he was going to look out for her while he was living with her family.
She knew that he wasn't manipulating her like Lois had so callously told her and as people at school had mentioned. She knew that. It simply wasn't in Tim's nature.
But it didn't stop the could feeling in the pit of her stomach, and the self doubt she held close to her heart that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't as important to him as he was to her.
It tore her apart to think that one day he might treat her in the same manner as Missy.
She sighed heavily, fingers tracing invisible patterns along the window.
Painfully, Tim glanced across at Julie, retuning his eyes to the road a moment later.
The desolate look on her face was awful, and only enhanced his guilt.
The whole thing was his fault. If only he'd handled it better. If he'd just gotten rid of the mindless girls straight away. If he'd simply stepped in between Julie and Missy a few seconds sooner. If he'd just…
What the hell did he say to her now? Huh? What could he possibly say to make up for this?
He was a first class screw up and now it was affecting Julie as well.
Bradley would never have even looked at her if it wasn't for him.
Lois would still be talking to her if it wasn't for him.
Tyra, and Lyla wouldn't have both been bothering her if it wasn't for him.
She wouldn't have been humiliated in that grocery store if it wasn't for him.
She'd found panties in the glove box of his fucking truck! What the hell was she doing wasting her time with him?
He was only going to hurt her. Cause her further embarrassment.
He should cut ties with her. End this friendship between them before things got worse for her.
But the thought of actually doing it was unbearable.
She saw him.
She saw him.
No one had ever done that before.
No one had ever placed the amount of trust in him that she had.
No one had ever had the kind of faith in him that she had.
Not that it was probably there any longer.
He'd managed to disgust her so much that she couldn't even look in his direction. He hadn't failed to notice how quickly Julie had pulled away from his touch when he'd boosted her up into the truck.
It was driving him crazy.
Seeing it, feeling her withdraw from him.
She was amazing. Absolutely amazing; and because, of course, his name was Tim Riggins, he was fucking it up.
It was karma. And karma was obviously a bitch.
This was payback for all the shit he'd pulled in the past.
His spine had tingled (she'd made him tingle for Gods sake!) when she'd walked up to him, dressed in his shirt as though it was the most natural thing in the world, that slight blush on her face which he knew was because of him.
He knew it was because Julie had felt his eyes burning their own pathway across her body, as he'd imagined running his hands up those golden colored thighs, those slim limbs wrapped around his body.
He'd made her look like that. That blush wasn't because of Saracen. It was because of him.
Just when things started to get back on track for him, he did something else to screw it up.
But then, what did he expect with his surname?
He couldn't let it go though.
He needed to find some of the guts he had on the football field and use them to confront Julie; to try and make things right.
Pulling into the Taylor's driveway, Tim parked the truck and remained seated for a few moments before getting out.
He waited by the door for Julie to slide across the seating so she could get out before he made his move.
Just as she was about to descend he stepped forward, trapping her on the edge of the seat and blocking her in so that she was unable to go backwards or forwards.
"Tim-"
"No. Would you just look at me, Jules? I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you ended up in yet another fight because of me. I'm sorry that you got coated in strawberry milkshake. I'm sorry that she brought up your relationship with Matt. I'm sorry that you were forced to walk around the grocery store in my shirt. I'm sorry, alright? Damn it Julie, would you just look at me!?" Tim exploded, his fist slamming against the side of his truck before he grabbed her face.
Cradling Julie's face between his hands, Tim tilted her head back so that he could look her in the eye.
God knew his attempts at apologies were usually half assed, but this wasn't the case and she needed to see that. She had too.
Her teeth biting down on her bottom lip, Julie couldn't help the tears welling up in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Jules. You gotta believe me." Tim whispered harshly as he leant down, his forehead pressing against Julie's.
"I do." She whispered in response, her hands rising up to cup Tim's face as he was doing to hers. "I do. But…"
"But?"
Trembling, she asked, "What if one day you decide that I'm not worth the effort? That you can't be bothered with me any longer? Just like Missy?"
"Jules." Tim said, breathing her name out in surprise.
"I mean, y-you just tore into her! And I get that it was because of me! I get that! B-but…"
"Don't you ever think that." Tim responded, his hands sliding back into her hair and Julie ignored the pain he accidentally caused as he tugged on tangled strands of hair to listen to his words. "You are nothing like her. You're…you." He tried to explain with a shrug. How else could he put it? He wasn't one for flowery speeches. She was Julie. As far as he was concerned, that explained everything.
Silence stretched between them before Tim tried again. "I don't know what you want me to say." He admitted quietly.
"I-" Julie started saying only to break off. Taking a deep breath she gave it another go. "It scared me." She confessed.
As if her words had physically burnt him, Tim ripped his hands out of her hair and backed away. His face was pale and lined with betrayal at her words.
"Don't!" Julie scolded as she caught hold of his hands and followed his retreat. "I'm not saying it to hurt you. But you weren't my Tim anymore." She struggled to explain, hands rising to cup either side of his face. "You ripped her to shreds without any compunction. I understand why you did it. I do!"
Wishing that he could rewind everything back to that morning, Tim avoided Julie's eyes, choosing to focus his attention on the collar of his shirt that she was wearing instead.
"But it hurts me here," Julie continued resting her palm over her heart, "to think that one day I might be that unimportant to you."
"You will never be that unimportant to me, Jules." Tim stated with certainty, locking eyes with her. "It's you and me, right? You and me."
"You and me." Julie agreed with a watery smile, rolling her eyes as she tipped her head back to try and lessen the emotions.
Hauling her up against his chest, Tim wrapped her up in a hug to try and disguise his own feelings. "C'mere."
Julie buried her head in the crook of his neck, uncaring of the fact that Tim was holding her so tightly that it hurt to breathe.
"Thanks for defending me about the whole Matt thing. Even if I am a tease." Julie said, her words muffled. It was unfair of her to have led Matt on like she had, but she honestly hadn't been ready to sleep with him and knew she'd regret it if she had done. And Matt had known too, he hadn't pushed her at all.
"You're not a tease, Jules." Tim told her. "You were right to stop if you weren't ready."
Giggling against his chest, Julie joked, "Tim Riggins giving sex advice! I'd have thought you'd have been all for it."
"Nah. It's different for girls." He retorted, lips brushing across the top of her head.
"Pig."
"Anyway, Seven shouldn't have brought it up at training." Tim informed her, knowing that Julie already knew it had been a hot topic of conversation for a while.
"Please! Like you've never made locker room talk."
"I ain't saying that." Pulling back slightly so he could look at her, Tim struggled to find the words that he needed. "But y'know, that sorta talk is for girls like Missy Sutton, dime a dozen kinda girls. You ain't like that. That's all I'm tryin' to say." He finished awkwardly.
Julie was staring at him in surprise and then her lips curled in a smile. "Tim Riggins, I do believe you are a bit of a romantic!"
He chuckled. "Nah, you repeat that and I'll deny everything."
"But I'll still know."
"Well you're an exception to the rule, Jules; an exception to the rule." He tugged her in for another squeeze. "C'mon, we better get those groceries in."
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A/N: A few fireworks there for you or what?!