Chapter 14: Coaches and Students

The heat of the complex felt good against Becky's cold face as she ran up the steps to the 3rd floor. November had brought a great chill to the relatively mild autumnal weather, and she realized that she'd gotten rather used to the nonstop sunshine of Florida. She was breathing heavily when she walked through the door to find Finn reading the paper with his right arm resting on the kitchen table.

"Hey," she said breathily, pulling out her ear buds as her lungs gasped for air.

"Told ya it was too cold," he didn't even glance up from the paper.

"Yeah, yeah." She tugged at the thermal sweatshirt that was sticking to her body. "I hate these heavy layers, it gets sweaty."

"You need to splurge for that wicking stuff. Where'd you buy that, H&M?"

" 'Ey you leave H&M alone."

He chuckled and glanced up at her as she pulled the thermal half zip up over her sports bra. His gaze froze, and she couldn't help but smile. Admittedly, the time home had given her some room to focus on her training and diet. On any given day her abs would be anywhere from a 2-6 pack, but this had given her several great days in a row. Plus, Tapout had been sending samples to every female wrestler on the roster, and she'd come around to the low cut sports bra that arrived to her doorstep. It made her feel good to have his eyes following her into the kitchen.

"Tryin' tempt 'im are you?" He was behind her in an instant.

"It worked." She laughed as he ran his hands over her stomach and pulled her towards him.

The thought passed through her mind that she had the upper hand, and that maybe she often did, but gave it up to him for some reason. She spun around and shook her hair out of its bun. The Demon had that firey look in his eye again as she leaned in to kiss him hard.

She felt his left hand grabbing at the backside of her tight athletic pants and she pushed herself onto the counter, wrapping her legs around his waist. He let out a soft moan as she pulled him in closer. Her hands were running up and down his chest and stomach, and his fingerswere tangled in her hair, at least. She had found her way to the waistband of his sweat pants when he pulled away.

"Uh Becky?" He glanced down at the countertop she was positioned on.

"You're kiddin' me."

"We make food on here!"

"Finn!" She looked up at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Don't pout at me." He scooped his left arm underneath her legs but hesitated before lifting her off the counter. "This would be more impressive if I had both arms."

She pushed him away and slid off the counter, walking passed him towards her bedroom.

"I'll make it worth your while," he said closing her door behind him.

She slumped onto the pillows of her bed, propped up on her elbows, and watching his eyes on her and his devilish smile. Climbing on top, he struggled with the cast for a moment before pushing her down to the sheet. Her fingertips found the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it off, catching on his right wrist.

"This bloody thing…" he grumbled to himself, trying to find a position over her where it'd be safely out of the way.

But Becky wasn't paying attention to him struggling. She was running her hands over the bruises on his chest with a solemn look on her face. They were starting to fade, in comparison to earlier in the week, but still were distinctively black and blue. He noticed where she was looking and said softly,

"Hey. Don't be worried about those, they'll go away"

"I know…jus' hate seeing them." She ran her fingers down his torso, hovering on a particularly bad one across his lower abdominal muscle. "That one's nasty."

He flexed again, it was clear the time on the bench hadn't softened him. She laughed and met his gaze.

"You love to do that."

"You love it when I do that."

"Show off."

"I aim to please." He pushed her hips back against the bed, lowering himself down on his arm. She let out a gasp as his body came in contact with hers. "Am I hurting you?"

"No, no I," she took a deep breath, feeling his weight on her. "This is good."

"Good," he whispered, "I think we left off with your hands…"

He looked down as she ran them to the waistband of his sweat pants.

"riiight 'bout there." He turned back to her, eyes twinkling. "What was your next move?"

She didn't say anything, just began to run her fingers along the inside of his boxer shorts. He let out a murmur, and she could feel his heart beating fast against her chest.

"I don't have a lot of patience, love." He said after a few moments of her teasing.

"That's somethin' we have in common."

He kissed her collarbone softly, making her giggle and gasp.

"Just like that?" He whispered in her ear before returning to it.

She had tried to say a breathy "yes," but it was swallowed up by a moan as he pushed against her. Her fingers found themselves pulling at his waistband, and he kept his eyes on her as he grinned that toothy Finn grin that she loved so much.

xxxxxxxxx

"Yeah Becky's here, she's making eggs." Finn sat at the kitchen table Monday morning, facetiming with his mom. "Becky say hi."

He lifted his phone up to her standing at the stove, and she smiled over her shoulder.

"Hi Mrs. Devitt."

"Hi Becky, sweetheart."

"Apparently I'm not allowed to cook my own eggs," he said returning the phone down to his face.

"You're gonna burn yourself," she responded, not even glancing back at him.

He mumbled something to himself, but his mom had already moved on.

"What'd you two do this weekend?"

"Oh uh, just hung out really," something in his voice sounded nervous. "Nothin' special."

"That's nice. Oh, Fergal I'm sorry, I have to get goin', I just really wanted to tell you about the wedding."

"Thanks mom, I'll put it on my calendar. I love you."

"I love you too. Bye Becky!"

"Bye Mrs. Devitt." She smiled as she walked past Finn and placed an egg sandwich in front of him. "Wow everyone's gettin' married, huh?"

He put his phone back in his pocket. "Seems that way. I don't even remember that cousin. Don't tell her, yeah?"

She laughed and picked up her own sandwich. "Yeah I won't tell her you're such a bad son."

"Thanks." He took a slow bite and twisted the corner of his mouth. "Okay this is pretty good."

"And it's not on fire."

"It wasn't on fire! It just set off the smoke alarm…" He looked sheepishly down, "Hey uh, this is a really weird question but uh…"

"What?"

"What…what did we do this weekend?"

"Sorry?" She felt her heart speeding up.

"I don't actually remember much 'bout the weekend…what'd we do?"

She knew exactly what they'd done all weekend. The Demon had been rather active since the shower on Tuesday. Maybe it was because Finn was having a hard time, or maybe he was just taking advantage of having her around so much. Regardless, he seemed to be restless. They'd hardly gone a day without him pulling her into a deep kiss or onto his lap. Then the weekend came, and she'd mentioned on a lazy morning that she only had another week left off the road. The Demon came out instantly. Thinking about it now, they'd spent most of the two days it in a steamy haze. Finn hadn't seemed to notice at the time, and she was suspicious that the days were starting to melt together for him in general.

"Like you said, just kinda hung out."

"Huh."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, but there was obviously something running through his mind.

"Does he ever say anythin' to you?"

"Sorry?"

"The Demon I mean. Does he say anythin'?"

"No uh…he doesn't seem to say much at all. Honestly I don't really notice it's him, unless you're jumping off of walls o' course. We don't really…interact." Her stomach dropped. That lie tasted terrible in her mouth as she said it.

"I just wish I knew why he was spendin' so much time these days."

"We watched that movie you really hate, the one about girl's football team? Maybe he came out so you wouldn't have to sit through it again."

"Oh god, again?"

"Shush. It's great."

"The music is good, but the bloody ending!"

"What?"

"I'm just sayin', I don't care how dreamy he is, coaches shouldn't date students."

"Yeah, you don't say." She raised an eyebrow and moved to the couch, not making eye contact. "You can clean up."

"Bex…" He sat down next to her. "I didn't mean to bring that up."

"Nah it's fine." She opened her book and buried her face into it. "Me neither."

"Becky…"

That wound had never fully healed. She thought back to that night all the time. It wasn't the first time they'd sat by the edge of the water together, or the first that he'd brought a six-pack of beer with him and told her not to tell 'd sit and talk and drink for hours, it's how they became friends in the first place. Somehow she'd had some unique courage that night as she listened to him talk about his big plans with a sweet smile on his face.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed."

"It's in the past, Finn."

"You go for what you want, it's not a bad thing. You're so fearless."

Or at least she had been that night. It was still a mystery to her where she'd found the bravery at that age to lean in and kiss his smiling, chapped lips. For a moment he'd kissed back, an arm sliding around her waist. That was the moment she relived in her dreams for years and years. Then he came to his senses, and pulled away from her like he'd been electrocuted. She felt her eyes welling up with tears as she began to apologize, but he'd insisted the blame was on him. That part stung the most, when he'd told her all the reasons why he wished she had never done that. Bex, I'm your trainer, I own the gym, I'm in a position of power, and Becky you're fantastic but you, you're...17. His eyes were wide as he said it aloud, Oh my god you're 17. How could I do this?

"Didn't we make a deal about this?"

He smiled a bit and said, "yeah, you went for what you wanted then too."

Finn had been incessant after that night. Outside of the ring he'd treat her like she was made of glass, constantly apologizing for the smallest things. She could see the guilt all over his face every time he spoke to her, and any time they found themselves alone he'd apologize, again, for kissing her. One day she'd had enough, slammed her locker closed and told him they'd settle it the only way they knew how, in the ring. If you win, you shut your mouth and we don't interact outside of training. I win, you shut your mouth and we go back to how things were before. That wasn't really what she had wanted, but it was good enough, and 15 years of his friendship proved it was worth it.

"I let you win, you know that right?"

She snapped out of the memory.

"Excuse me?"

"That match, where we made that deal? Hey, it's not that I didn't think ya could beat me fair and square, in fact I knew you could. I just wasn't willin' to take that risk."

"Why?" She looked at him puzzled, he was looking down at the cast on his wrist, refusing to meet her eyes.

"I realized how much I didn't wanna stop havin' you around, or spendin' time with you. So I threw the match."