A Tantalizing Kiss

“How did the first game go? What was the score? Did you kick ass?” She asked, not bothering with a hello.

I sat down on the curb outside of the restaurant, phone pressed to my ear. I was soaked in sweat. The cool breeze picked up slightly, blowing gently against my bare back. It felt amazing at the moment.

The first game of the tournament had just finished up, and as promised, I called Joey to inform her. She wouldn’t be arriving until thirty minutes before the second game, when we would begin warm-ups. The next game wasn’t until 8 in the evening. We had two hours.

We were getting a small snack to pass the time.

“We won.” I said. That alone sufficed.

I could practically hear Joey grinning, “Good job, kiddo. Let’s keep winning. What was the final score?”

“4-1.”

“Oh, damn.” She whistled softly.

I chuckled, running a hand through my damp hair. “It was a tough beginning, but the second half we completely owned them.”

“Doesn’t matter how you own them as long as you do.”

“Yeah,”

There was some shuffling in the background. Joey was silent for a few seconds as she moved things around.

She cussed quietly before turning back to the conversation, “So what are you kids up to now between games?”

“We’re at McDonald’s.”

“Junk food?” She groaned, “You have another game in a few hours! Do you guys really think you want to eat junk food before?”

“We’re not eating a lot.” I defended. “Coach is with us. He’s not letting anyone get a full meal. We’re doing dinner afterwards. Everyone is getting ice cream or French fries. And no one’s getting a large.”

“Good. I don’t need to see any of you boys throwing up out on the field.”

“No one’s going to throw up.” I laughed, leaning back. I propped myself up on my elbows, the hard concrete scraping painfully underneath.

“I swear, Mase, now that you said that…” She groaned dramatically.

“Please, Joey, you never have any faith in us.” I grinned into the phone, “Rodger’s excited for you to get here.”

“Fantastic.” She said flatly.

I chuckled softly, “I mean, now that Caden’s out of the picture… I told him to fuck off, don’t worry.”

“Yeah…” She trailed off, sounding distracted.

Another moment of silence passed between us. In the background I could hear her moving things around again. Something crashed, causing me to raise my eyebrows in surprise.

“What are you doing?” I asked cautiously.

“I’m trying to pack a suitcase.” She mumbled, clearly frustrated “with one hand. You’d think it’d be easier than this…”

“You’re special, you know that?”

“Shut up, Mason. I’m gonna beat your ass one of these days.”

I smirked, “Someone’s getting pissy…”

“Watch it.”

I laughed.

“Mason?” A masculine voice said behind me. I turned my head, pressing the phone against my shoulder as my eyes landed on Rodger. He took a few steps towards me, holding out his container of French fries.

I grabbed a few gratefully, “Thanks bro.”

“What’re you doing?”

“Talking to Joey.”

Rodger grinned, reaching for my phone, “Let me say something to her real quick.”

Quickly, I held the phone back. I could hear Joey’s voice squeaking faintly from the phone, but I ignored it, keeping Rodger away.

“Awh, come on, man, I just want to say hello!” He groaned, pouting.

I grinned, pressing the phone to my ear, “Joey, I gotta go. Text me when you leave. I’ll see you at the fields at 7:30.”

“What’re you—”

“Rodger.”

“Alright, bye Mason.”

I closed the phone, tucking it into my pocket. Rodger shot me a dirty look, crossing his arms over his chest. He pushed out his bottom lip, furrowing his eyebrows. I chuckled, giving him a playful shove as I sat upright.

“You’re such a dork.”

“I want to talk to your sister.”

“I’m sorry, I just can’t stand hearing my best friend flirt with my only sister.” I made a face, “It’s disgusting.”

“She can’t resist my charm.” He smirked proudly. Rodger flexed his biceps, “These babies are irresistible.”

“That’s what you call your ‘charm’?”

“What the hell else is charm?”

I rolled my eyes, “You’re such a loser.”

“Dick.”

“Prick.”

“Oh, hello Dr. Seuss.”

“Good one.” I laughed, “That wounded me deep, man.”

He chuckled.

I grabbed another handful of fries, cramming them into my mouth.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Rodger said, pulling the container back against his chest protectively, “Who said you could have any more?”

“You offered me before!”

“Yeah, once!”

“Whatever man.” I grabbed two more, shoving them in my mouth quickly. Rodger punched my arm. “I’m full. I don’t want a whole lot of food before I go running. I don’t know why you guys are eating.”

“Maybe because we haven’t eaten since 11:30. That’s six hours ago.”

“We’ve got another important fucking game coming up!”

“So? Starving!”

I rolled my eyes, “Eh, I can’t eat. The nerves are really beginning to get to me now. I’m realizing just how important winning is now.”

Rodger slung an arm around my shoulder, laughing, “You, bro, are acting like a drama queen. We can still lose this game and win the entire tournament.”

“But after this game, we can’t lose any.”

“Relax. We’ll win them all.”

I shook my head, rubbing my eyes, “I sure as hell hope so.”

~*~

The second game was a success.

But just barely.

It was a tie score of 1-1 for most of the game. Only at the very end did we manage to score one more than the opposing team, taking the victory. A unanimous sigh of relief resonated throughout our team.

Joey showed up right before the game began, catching my eye at the last minute. And she wasn’t alone.

I pushed away all thoughts from my mind, focusing on the game. It was the most important thing in my world at the moment, and I needed to give this tournament my complete and undivided attention.

Only after my team dispersed into the cars to meet up at the McDonald’s for a real meal did I confront Joey and the man with her.

“Joey! Jason!” I lightly jogged over to the two chatting adults at the opposite end of the field I was on. Joey grinned towards me, her hand caressing her belly just slightly. There wasn’t a noticeable bump yet.

“Hey, Mase!” She smiled,

I moved to give her a hug when she pressed a hand against my chest. I pulled back, frowning slightly.

“Wha—”

“I do not want your sweaty self all over me.”

I rolled my eyes chuckling.

Jason sneezed next to us, wiping his hand on the back of his jeans. I mumbled a ‘bless you’ quickly before greeting him officially.

“Hey, man.” I nodded towards him.

“Damn, Mase, you get bigger every time I see you.”

Joey nudged his side.

“What?”

“Language.”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Please, Joey, the kid probably says worse at school than you did when you went.”

I shrugged casually, “It’s probably true.”

“Shut up, boys.” She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

We chuckled.

Jason looked worse than he had ever before. His eyes were sunken in, yellow and brown staining his teeth. He was complete skin and bones. His hair was cut short to his scalp, much shorter than his normal length. The clothes on him bagged greatly. He had stuffed his shaking hands in his pockets.

Jason had always been a part of my life. He was the son of my father’s second wife. Joey and Jason had an inseparable bond since the moment that they met. Even while Joey was dating Caden, she would still go out of her way to see Jason.

Jason had gotten into drugs around sophomore year of high school. It started off with marijuana, quickly escalating to pills. Joey once confided in me that she had smoked with Jason many times in their sophomore year, even daring to try a few pills. She had gotten busted for having paraphernalia, and on top of six months probation, she was sentenced to attend a rehabilitation center by a judge.

She was clean by her first year out of high school, but no college would accept her once they read she had a criminal record. By the time she took custody of me from our mother, she was unable to pay for her own community college.

Jason, on the other hand, never truly got clean. He continued to inject Meth into his system daily. Jason had a complete addiction to meth and refused to try to get clean. He simply didn’t care anymore.

Joey had tried to convince him to get clean, but he never listened.

It was a surprise to me that he was here with her. She had dropped him once she realized how heavily into drugs he was.

“So how are you, Jason?” I asked as we walked towards the car. I lightly kicked the practice soccer ball as we moved.

“I’m alright.” He shrugged, “You’ve gotten really good at soccer, Mason. Joey, here, told me that the score of your last game was 4-1?”

“Yeah,”

“That’s impressive.” He said.

“Thanks.” I smiled weakly.

“Where are the boys going for dinner?” Joey asked as we left the stadium. The three of us walked towards where all the cars were parked. I trailed behind slightly, letting Joey lead the way to our car.

“The guys are going to McDonald’s.” I said, “But if you guys want to go somewhere else to eat instead, that’s fine.”

“We can drop you off if you want to hang with your friends.” Joey said as she fished her keys out of her purse. Jason trailed silently on her other side, watching everything that happened. His hands were forcefully tucked into his pants pockets.

I shook my head softly, “Nah, I’ll go with you guys.”

“What’s around here, did you see?”

“There’s an Applebee’s near the McDonald’s actually.”

“Can you get us there?”
I nodded, “Yep.”

She tossed me the keys. I grinned, catching them gently. I looped the key ring around my index finger, tightening my grip as we walked.

The car was parked in a fairly convenient place for exiting the lot. I backed out gently, more careful now that I was in the nicer car. Joey was still driving the one that Caden had bought. Her excuse was that I needed a car as well.

My conclusion was that no matter how much she didn’t like Caden, she would still like the things he bought her.

Joey sat in the passenger seat by force after insisting that Jason could have it. While he may have been a huge druggie, he at least still used his manners.

Had to give him credit for that.

The Applebee’s ended up being closer to the hotel that we were staying at. It was packed, being as it was a Friday evening. Joey walked into get us onto the list while Jason and I waited outside along with a dozen other people.

Jason sat down on one of the benches set out, leaning back.

I sat next to him, running a hand through my sweaty hair.

It was silent for a moment between the two of us.

Jason sighed, leaning forward. He propped his forearms on his thighs, tilting his head down, “You have such a wonderful sister, you know?”

“Yeah, Joey’s the best.” I commented.

“She got me into rehab a year ago.”

I raised an eyebrow, turning to face him, “You went to rehab?”

He nodded. “I would’ve thought she would have told you by now.”

“She didn’t.” I shook my head softly.

“Weird.” He mumbled. He leaned back, staring off into the distance. “I’ve been clean for twelve months and eleven days.”

“Congrats, man.” I grinned.

“Thanks.” He smiled gently. “I’m never going to be back to normal, but I really am trying. Your sister helped me get a hold of my life again.”

“I didn’t realize she was still talking to you, honestly.”

“Yeah, neither did I.”

“Then…?” I trailed off, confused.

“I got a very…” He cleared his throat awkwardly, “a very… detailed message from her that basically ended in an ultimatum. I figured I had to get clean. So I called her and told her that I got it and two days later she went with me to check into the rehab center.”

I grinned, slapping him on the back approvingly, “I’m proud of you man. I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been for you.”

He looked at me with empty eyes, “Every single day I want to quit. I know exactly where to get it, how much it will cost, how easily I could fall back into my old life. The only reason I’ve not given in yet is because of your sister.”

He turned his face away, taking in a deep breath.

“Just be good to her, Mase.”

“I will.”

“And Mason?” He asked softly, his voice getting harder to hear with each word, “Don’t tell Joey that I told you about this.”

“I won’t.”