Jeah, Whatever

[Ryan]

Natalie joined me at swim practice the next morning. She was certainly trying to win this little game we had going but I was going to beat her.

But she was good at the game. This morning she wore a shorter, bouncy little dress. It wasn’t anything unusual but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t wearing any underwear. She was doing enough to keep me guessing.

I was distracted in the pool thinking about it. The coach was already yelling at me, telling me my strokes were sucking and asked if I really wanted to be here.

I hit the wall and came up to breathe, Natalie was seductively looking at me, eating a lollipop.

What 24 year old eats a freaking lollipop?

She was getting in my head.

“Lochte! I’ll make the girl leave if that what it takes for you to move your ass! 500 meters backstroke now!” The coach shouted at me, I groaned and grabbed onto the bars and took off.

Not only was she causing intense sexual frustration but I was now getting into trouble with my coach. I was in for the training session from hell.

“Faster! Move! Come on, son!” He kept yelling as I kept pushing myself to swim, trying to keep my mind free from Natalie and the thoughts of just how bare she was under that dress.

I couldn’t help but think about touching her skin, caressing her breasts with my hands, the feelings it brought me.

As I was thinking, I seemed to have stopped holding my chin up and end up sinking into the water. I came up and smacked the water.

“Damnit!” I screamed, I saw Natalie make her way down from her seat and to my lane.

“You’re disgusting me, Lochte!” The coach walked with her towards my lane as he yelled how pathetic I was looking this morning.

“I just need a moment,” I growled, Natalie sat on the board in my lane.

She definitely wasn’t wearing any underwear.

“Ry, you just need to focus, think about competition and how fun it is to win, the reward you get in winning,” she smiled, putting the lollipop back in her mouth. I hit my head on the concrete.

“Think like your girlfriend, Lochte, she seems to know how to win,” my coach said.

“Yeah, Ry, I know how to win,” she smiled even more, biting her lower lip like she always did, I pushed off the wall hard, making sure to splash them both with water out of anger and swam as hard as I could.

“Now that’s what I like to see!” My coach clapped. Natalie continued to sit on my board and watch in delight. I liked having her here to watch me, my ego began to boost up a little more as I found my line and swam faster and faster.

I did a 500 free and came up to see her clapping a little.

“Well done, my little fish,” she smiled.

“It was better, Lochte, be ready for dry land 6am sharp,” the coach told me before walking away.

“What’s on your mind there Ry-Ry?” Natalie asked still sitting. I rubbed her leg with my wet hand.

“Just thinking of how much it would suck to be you if I pulled you in the water,” I smirked. I saw her face drop a little.

“It would suck to be you more because you would see what’s underneath the dress and fall completely,” she grinned, I thought about it. I pulled off my swim caps and tossed my goggles aside with them and got out of the water.

Getting behind her, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me.

“Yeah, it would only suck if I saw, but if I walk away,” I said as I pushed her off the block and into the pool. She tried to catch herself but failed. I watched her come up for air.

“Then it only sucks to be you because now you’re the girl in a see through dress with no underwear,” I finished stating as I walked away from the pool.

I was going to win this bet.

I waited outside the training center for Natalie to come out. After about forty five minutes, she emerged with her hair tossed up and she was in men’s shorts and a v-neck. She seemed to have found her way into someones sports bra as well.

“It’s a good thing other people swim here besides you, dummy,” she smirked, throwing her wet dress at my head.

“So you’re wearing people’s clothes who you don’t even know? New low, Nat, new low,” I said, taking her hand as I led us to the car.

“No, these clothes belong to your brother and I ran into a girl in the locker room who I talked to for a while before borrowing her sports bra. So, when you think about it, I got into your brothers pants and you’re still very, very frustrated,” she smiled. I opened the door for her to let her in the car.

“You’re cruel,” I said when I got in on the other side.

“No, Ryan, I’m a winner,” she said matter-of-factly. I sped off and took us to my favorite spot to eat after a hard training session.

“And now you have to eat food in public with me, dressed in boy’s clothes,” I smiled, knowing she would not be a fan of that. She just shrugged.

“Great, more reason to withhold from you,” she said as she got out and walked away, not even bothering to wait for me.

“You know I fly out tomorrow,” she said as she ate her waffles.

“Yeah, I know,” I replied.

“So you’re really going to let me leave, knowing we won’t be seeing each other for another two and a half weeks, without having sex with me?” She asked as she bit down on her fork. I moved in closer to her, our faces inches apart.

“Yup,” I simply stated before sitting back in my seat.

“You won’t,” she put simply as she continued to eat. I just stared down at my food the whole time so I didn’t have to look at her and get aroused. We ate in silence and I paid for the meal.

We ended the weekend sex-free. Both of us clearly frustrated and annoyed.

As I took her to the airport, she gave me a final look.

“See you in two and a half weeks,” she said in a monotone voice before giving me a firm kiss and walking out to her terminal. I walked back to my car, more frustrated than before.

[swim meet:Detroit]

“Dude, Andrea’s hotter than she was in London,” Conor said to me as we were gearing up for the meet.

“Whatever,” I grumbled.

“Okay, I really hate this moody Ryan that has been around all week,” he confronted.

“Look, I haven’t had sex in almost a month, okay?!” I shouted at him in frustrated, everyone looked over at me, in shock.

“Dang, Ryan, you need to fix that,” one of the guys laughed at me.

“Welcome to the life of having a girlfriend,” Matt said, patting me on the shoulder.

“It’s a stupid competition and I intend to win tonight,” I said, putting on shorts over my jammer.

“Can we get back to talking about Andrea?” Conor asked, clearly not caring about my sex life right now.

“Dude, she’s not here for you,” I said point blank.

“Who would she be here for then?” He asked.

“Oh hey, you didn’t know, Andrea and I are talking,” Nathan spoke up, smiling.

“You’re lying,” Conor said. Nathan shook his head.

“Whatever, I still have her virginity,” Conor smirked at Nathan before walking out. Nathan didn’t seemed phased by what Conor said before walking out himself.

I put on my swim cap and goggles on top of my head and took a deep breath.

Let’s hope this anger transfers to the pool.

As I went out, I had my headphones in, letting the rap song overtake my thoughts and get me in the zone. I looked out to the crowd and saw my mom and youngest brother sitting together. I looked over and saw Natalie sitting with her sister and Michael, who showed up to watch the meet instead of swimming himself.

I would be swimming on a team with Conor, my brother, and others from the Gator club while Nathan and my other teammates from the Olympics would be our competition. As I pulled my headphones out, I could hear the giggling Crenshaw girls from above me, but I couldn’t turn around, I would get distracted and mess up.

“Let’s go Lochte!” I heard Natalie yell down to me as she laughed with someone next to her.

I was swimming the 4x100 with my brother and teammates and I would be our anchor.

“Don’t screw up like London,” I kept telling myself mentally. The beep went off and Conor was the first to dive in. I watched nervously, only focusing on the race, not on anything or anyone who was in the crowd. We were in first place as my brother dove in right before it was my turn. I needed to just keep the pace. I quickly jumped in and rode my line for as long as I could before I had to come up to breathe.

I didn’t think about anything, I just remembered to count my strokes and breathe. I swam hard and kicked harder, allowing my mind to wander slightly on what winning would do to Natalie. Soon I was at the wall and looked to the scoreboard.

First place. My brother bent down and pulled me into a hug. This was the first race we had ever done together, it was nice to share this with him.

I got out of the water and saw that Natalie had made her way to the pool deck.

“Hey fishy,” She grinned at me. I smiled and held her against a wall.

“Are you down here to taunt me?” I asked. She looked up at me.

“I’m here to congratulate you on your win, and to wish you luck on your next event. Who knows, maybe you’ll get even more lucky tonight,” she said to me, planting a kiss on my lips.

I pressed her even more against the wall.

“Are you caving?” She asked. I kissed her neck and lightly grazed her breasts with my hands and walked back into the locker room.

She looked after me, confused on what just happened.

No, I wasn’t going to let her win.

The rest of the meet for today was just prelims. I was qualified for two more events that I would swim tomorrow. When we were done for the day, all of us London alumni wanted to go out for a drink or two.

Natalie of course took this as a time to taunt me once more. She got ready in our room, staying in a towel as she put on her make-up and fixed her hair. I laid back on the bed and watched TV as she got ready in front of me. She slowly slipped into a black lacy pair of underwear and a matching see through bra. She stood there for a while, staring at what she had packed and looked over at me.

“I don’t know what to wear,” she said in a defeated voice.

I went over to her suitcase and pressed myself against her. Her skin felt warm against mine. I felt her shudder a little bit.

“You could just stay in this, with me,” I whispered into her ear. She turned around and kissed me, wrapping her legs around my middle.

“Oh yeah? Take me,” she said, looking straight into my eyes. The ability to resist began to get harder as I got more and more turned on.

“Natalie,” I breathed, looking away from her. She began to kiss my neck.

“Come on, Ry, I know you want me,” she said. I stumbled back a little bit but set her down on the bed.

“No,” I said firmly, sticking to my competitive side, I couldn’t lose.

I heard her begin to sniffle. I sighed looking down at the floor before I turned and saw her crying.

“Please don’t cry, Nat,” I said, sitting down to her, the guilt setting in me.

“I know that we’re doing this as a game, and it’s fine but I throw myself out you and still get defeated. Ryan, please, I need you,” she cried.

Suddenly winning didn’t matter. No, it was her feelings and confidence that mattered to me. To let her know that I wanted her.

I showed Natalie just how special she was, how much she mattered to me through my physical means. She had tears in her eyes as I made my way inside her, I knew she wasn’t crying because she was hurt or because she didn’t want to have sex, it was because there was feeling to it. Real actual feeling.

And for a rare moment, Natalie let her guard down to me again. And all I could think about was not how good it all felt (and it felt good) but how much care I had for Natalie and how scary it was.

But how right it all felt.