It’s hot as fuck.
“You’ve got a bit of drool on you, Gator,” the one they called Bass chuckles as he knocks his shoulder into Gator, breaking me out of my staring once again.
I’m not sure if he was the one who was drooling or I was, but I smile at the man with the longer hair in gratitude. He just winks, and I swear to Christ I hear Gator growl in irritation. But when I look up at him, his face is clear of any signs of anger.
“Come on, let’s get checked in,” Bass says with a smack on Gator’s back, who takes an extra three seconds to keep eyes with me before following his friend. Jules and Flint follow them over to the registration booth. The rest of us sit back down.
Well, Mad Max sits, and his Fairy sits on him. He takes up half the bench seat with his bulk, so it’s probably wise that his girl is willing to use him as her chair.
“You aren’t going to do the mud run?” Again, Captain Obvious is here. They’re both in jeans while everyone else showed up in running shorts.
She shakes her head. “I’ve never been that coordinated. I can throw a knife and run in heels if being chased, but that’s about it. And Beast doesn’t want to break anything.”
I can see why. I worry about the picnic table we’re at.
“Thought your name was Mad Max?” Meekail chimes in, and I also tilt my head in confusion.
“It is.” His deep growl has me not wanting to ask him anything at all. Thankfully, Fairy says more than he does.
“It’s my nickname for him. Makes him mine, just like him calling me Fairy makes me his.” She smiles wide as her guy just huffs, which might be a laugh from the way his lip twitches and he pulls her closer into him. He likes being hers, and I’ve got to admit, having someone claim you as theirs sounds appealing.
I’m sure I should be all against it. But as soon as Jules had that with Flint, I knew I wanted it. Funny how you don’t know what you want till you see someone else with it. Not saying I want a biker as my guy, just the possessive nature.
Liar, liar.
For the love of God, please shut up.
“These shirts are awesome.” I turn my head at the sound of Jules bouncing over with a new shirt in her hand. I kind of like them too. A simple design, but it’s the words that make them special. The girls get ones that say “I’m a dirty girl,” and the guys’ say “If you aren’t dirty, you’re doing it wrong.” It’s cute when you see them on a couple.
I open my mouth to talk more about them and just let out a squeak as I watch Gator take off his shirt. He just whips it off like he’s going to bed in that hand-behind-the-head way that every girl dreams about. I’m not sure if everyone else is staring and not talking, too, or if my mind has officially gone off the ledge and I hear and see nothing but color. Tan skin shines between the tats that decorate his body. Not every inch of him is covered, but he has large pieces, and without the shirt on, everything just looks better. Like the tattoo that covers his entire neck and his arm sleeves. His side piece of an old American battle flag coming out of his ripped flesh, as if a giant claw tore through him and he bleeds red, white, and blue. I rub my hand across my mouth because I know I’m drooling.
It isn’t till he pulls on the mud run T-shirt that I’m able to get back on track and notice Bass has also changed. I look at Meekail, and he’s silently laughing at me. I just shrug. It is what it is. I want the man, but I don’t want the man. I’m complicated like that, and he probably knows it.
Flint and Jules didn’t change shirts, like me. I think the shirt is too cool to get mud on it, and I want the full effect of this run, so I wore a white shirt that I hope comes out brown in the end. I fully back the saying that if you ain’t dirty, you did it wrong.
A bell rings around us, and Jules is the first to ask, “What’s that for?”
“It’s their way of saying the next wave can make it to the start line. They do it three times to help get people lined up. They have these things going at certain times so not too many people are on one obstacle at a time,” I say with a shrug as I see Jordan run over to us.
He goes directly to his man, giving him a kiss and a hug before he looks at the rest of us. I love that.I want that. To be the person someone sees first and greets first before anything else. There’s just something special about it that has me longing for that type of attention from another person.
“Our group is up next. We should start heading over,” Jordan tells us.
I nod as I move away from the picnic table, Mad Max, Fairy, and Meekail wishing us well as we go. I start to get nervous again as we walk to the start line, so nervous that I don’t even notice Gator is standing beside me.
“You okay?” he asks, but before I can answer, I hear a group of people yelling, “Hey, Ms. B!”
I turn around quickly and watch my entire class run over to me. One of them even gives me a side hug.
They came. I don’t know why I doubted they would, but I never expected them to actually show. I was going to bring the pictures Meekail said he plans to take to show them I actually did this.
“Hey, guys. Wow, I should run more often if it gets you all up. Even Shane made it. How was the date?” I tease him, but I really shouldn’t ask my students about things like that. Not that it’s against the rules to be friends, but I usually regret the answers.
“Good. Still asleep in my bed. Told her I would be back.”
Yeesh, even seventeen-year-olds are getting more action than me these days.
I should probably tell him to make sure he wraps it or something, but self-preservation from what he might say in return keeps me from doing anything but nodding.
