I Feel More With Everyday That Goes By

****Flashback****
“Morgan Elizabeth Pierce shut the hell up before I punch you in the face,” I shouted out of the hotel bathroom where I was attempting to control my hair and make it look decent. I had a four inch ‘U” shaped scar on my head. Didn’t seem like it should disrupt my hair this much, but it made an unattractive bump appear in my hair and it frequently pissed me off. Today I decided to make a few small braids to look like I put forth effort instead of simply putting my head under the sink and wetting my hair so it would air dry into its natural straightness without the bed head.
Morgan had been teasing me all morning about the fact that Mike and I were ‘official’ now.

“So?” She asked as soon as she was awake enough to think straight.
I looked over at Morgan for a brief second before looking back at my computer screen to continue typing my newest attempt at a novel. “So?” I asked her back.

She let out an annoyed huff and I knew she was rolling her eyes at me, “How did it go?”

I stopped typing again before lifting an eyebrow, “How did what go?”

“Your date with Mike!” she nearly screamed with excitement. Okay maybe not screamed, but she did have this thing where her voice went higher in pitch whenever she was excited or offended. Being the terrible friend I was, I frequently pointed it out to her.

“Oh…it was good.”

“Just good? What did you guys do?”

I might have been a little short with her and by short I mean like I left about 99.9% short with the details by saying it was just good. In truth, it was fucking awesome. Mike was so sweet and such a good man that once I got out of my own way I actually realized how good we were together. Last night I had more fun with him than I have had in quite a long time. He was just reserved enough to make me feel incredibly comfortable with him, and outgoing enough that he got me out of my comfort zone without pushing too far. He was an incredibly good man and I was so lucky that he wanted to put up with all my shit. He was so getting a kick ass birthday present, he deserved that much at the very least.
“Fine, it was great. We went out to a nice restaurant with Brooks and Meghan and got frozen yogurt after. When those two left we took a short walk around the mall.”

She smiled encouragingly at me. She knew how hard it was for me to include someone else in my life. I had been incredibly independent since I was born and had to fend for myself in the incubator and I just didn’t think anyone was worth the effort because I was so used to being by myself. I mean I barely relied on my family. “That’s cool. Did you guys have fun?”

“Yeah,” I admitted with a sheepish smile. “We had a blast and actually have a lot in common.”

“Are you hanging out again?”

“I’m going to the charity arcade event thing with him today. He said Alex was going to ask you so I said yes because I figured you would. He should be here in like twenty minutes.”
I stood from my bed and stretched my arms over my head before bending over to touch my feet for a second before heading over to my suitcase to pick out some clothes for today. Morgan was silent for a few moments before she asked, “Has he kissed you again?”

My head snapped in her direction and I could feel my face heating up against my will. She smiled smugly before she said, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“That’s not all,” I said quietly. I intended for that to be to myself, but as I walked into the bathroom, I heard her gasp.

“Jennifer Ann!”

“Calm down he just asked me to be his girlfriend.”
I heard her rush over to the door before she screamed, “Wait what! What did you say? Tell me you said yes Jennifer!”

“Of course I said yes. I mean I argued with him about it for a half an hour but I did say yes.”
****End Flashback****

So here we were now, getting ready and her taking shots at me. She was a great friend. Some friends would just keep going on and on about how cute Mike and I were as a couple, but Morgan and I were way past that stage in our friendship that now she just made fun of me.

Shockingly her cracks did not make me all frazzled and embarrassed that Mike and I were together. It didn’t make me feel like I needed to break up with Mike to gain my independence back; I liked him too much to do that. I had already put him through too much shit to do that to him. I suppose I had put him through all of that because I didn’t believe in dating just for the fun of it. I wanted to date someone with the idea that I might marry them. It was stupid to me to date someone I knew I didn’t have a future with.

Truth was, Mike had handled my bitchiness and process of feeling him out so well that I could really see myself falling for him. He was a great man and I was lucky he had stuck around. It was way too early to be thinking of marriage of course, I wasn’t a lunatic that wanted him to propose or anything. I just wanted to know we had the potential to spend our lives together instead of dating some guy I knew I would get tired of after a while.

I had apparently been fiddling with my hair while deep in though so long that Mike, Alex, and Morgan had been shooting the shit for quite a while before I walked out of the bathroom. I apologized for keeping them. I walked up to Mike and gave him a soft peck on the cheek to which he grinned down at me.

That was the first time I had ever shown him affection without him prompting me too in front of our friends. He deserved a nice girl for all the effort he was exerting. Mike was worth letting myself care as strongly as I tended to and it was past time that he reaped the benefits of that. “Hey babe,” I greeted him softly.

He took my hand and the four of us walked to Mike’s and Alex’s cars. I clambered up into the familiar Escalade and buckled my seatbelt before he drove off to the arcade the charity event was taking place in.

It was a short drive and was spent in pleasant conversation where Mike and I got to know each other better. Once we parked beside Alex and Morgan, the four of us walked into the arcade. Can I just tell you that this place was huge. I mean HUGE.

It had every game system available, every random arcade game you could ever think of and it even had a space for kids to play board games. This was pretty much a virtual gaming heaven that even I, who sucked at board games and video games alike, could appreciate. The Capitals organization was classy enough to make a space for the young girls who did not wish to play video games for the whole time. In this large back room there was a stereo set up to play the latest boy band tunes and for the girls to play dress up or do their nails and make up. All in all this was a very impressive event and whoever planned it should have gotten like five promotions based on how smooth everything seemed to be going.

At first I stayed with Mike and met some of the boys in the arcade. Mike and I volunteered to be the feet for two eight year olds that wanted to play the race car games. Mike and Brian won the race even when I tried to help Christian drive with my hands over his much smaller ones on the steering wheel. Turns out I was no better driving a virtual car than an eight year old. With my tail between my legs, I retreated to the girls’ haven only to let out a really girly ‘eeep!’ when I heard the familiar tune of Where Do Broken Hearts Go by One Direction. I immediately joined in the crazy dance party in the middle of the floor with the girls of all ages. Most of the older girls in the group thought it was rather funny that one of the event staff was dancing crazily with them who knew every word to ever song.

The best part of the day had to be when a little girl in a snow white dress hung on to my legs until I picked her up and started dancing with her in my arms as she giggled happily with small arms in the air. She was pretty darn adorable. Most of the wives and girlfriends had vacated the room with smiles on their faces. All the girls in the room were very well behaved and appeared to be content to stay close to the dance party so most of them visited the arcade area but did not venture too far in case back up was needed to take the younger girls on their potty breaks.

As the strand of Night Changes sounded, movement caught my eye and I turned to see Mike leaning against the door jam with his muscular arms crossed over his chest and a soft smile on his face. I smiled back at him before I returned the little girl to her feet and walked over to my incredibly handsome man and gave him a soft peck on the lips. I dragged my hand down from his neck to his abs before I took hold of his hand and dragged him into the middle of the room and put the other hand on his shoulder since I was too short to wrap my arms around his neck and connect them. He got the hint and wrapped his arm around my waist.

His and my height difference made it very difficult to dance together. Either that or I was having trouble following his lead. All that I knew was that it was probably me messing us up like always. After an awkward moment, Mike tightened his grip on my waist and lifted me so my feet were on his. From there we were able to move with much more grace and synchronization. It went from awkward and uncoordinated to being completely wonderful. “You’re an incredible dancer Green Bean.”

I looked up at him to see him smiling down at me, “Thank you. My mom taught me before a dance. It was the first and only high school dance I could make without hockey getting in the way. I had asked a girl that I really liked to go with me and she said yes. I don’t particularly enjoy sucking at anything so I got my mom to teach me to dance so I didn’t make a fool of myself.”

“You’re like a real life Prince Charming. I don’t even know what to do with you. I’m like an evil stepsister bitchy and yet you’re still with me.”

“Yeah, you were a bitch, but its in more of a rough around the edges thing I think.”

“And so perceptive too. I don’t deserve you.”

“It’s not about deserving so much as earning,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll show you your faith wasn’t misplaced.”

He kissed my cheek with a lingering peck and replied, “I look forward to it.”

Suddenly my phone vibrated in the pocket of my jeans that were pressed against Mike. I lent out a startled, “Son of a biscuit eating bull dog!” before pulling my phone out of my pocket, sliding the answer button, and answering with a, “Hello?” After a short conversation on speaker phone, the four of us agreed to go to Olive Garden.

Dinner went by without much consequence. I followed Mike’s advice and was friendly towards Alex, and we got along surprisingly well outside of hockey bias. He was completely goofy and actually really funny once I started to understand his thick Russian accent better. His manner toward me was not forced nor did it seem like he was trying to impress me to be in my favor because he was smitten with my best friend. Yeah, as much as my hockey loyalties wanted it to be true, Alex was in fact not an asshole. Damn. Actually not damn because Morgan should have nothing but the best in life. As we were eating we decided to catch a movie. Morgan looked up movie times as we paid the bill and luckily we were able to fit one in without an awkward amount of time to waste or rushing to the theater.

I don’t even remember what movie we were supposed to be watching because as soon as we sat down two tweens that were not ever going to be old enough for Mike or Alex started ragging on us. I thought puck sluts who were in their mid-twenties were annoying but these eighteen year olds were immature and too young for the boys even if they were legal. It would be like they were dating their younger sisters or some shit.

As I was mentally tsk-ing at how these girls were acting, Mike grabbed my hand and verging on roughly pulled me up and dragged me out of the isle. I say dragged just because he was walking really fast and he had way longer of legs than I did. It was only then that I realized that I missed some sort of confrontation while I was judging these girls in my head. It was also then that I glanced over at Morgan and saw that she was covered in pop. It finally clicked that we were going outside because Morgan fully intended to teach these girls a lesson. Go her.

Morgan, Alex, Mike, and I all walked out of the dark movie theater. The lights in the hall temporarily blinded me, but I blinked a couple times and continued to walk towards the exit. The two asshole girls were in front of us, strutting like they were on a runway. I rolled my eyes. Did these girls seriously think they were going to be able to take Morgan? She’s tall, like super tall and they were both short shits. Plus I guess I was the only one out of the whole group that knew Morgan had experience in self defense. I suppose no one else was there to hear her rant after karate class about how disrespectful she thought that fighting style was.

In short, these girls were going to get their asses kicked. I just hoped this wouldn’t get Morgan into trouble. Morgan had much more to lose than any other one of us. She was going to be a teacher and I didn’t think parents would like to know that their kids’ teacher has an assault on her record.

Mike was standing off to the side watching with an apprehensive expression. His arms were crossed and his hands were tight on his biceps. He looked like he was ready to pounce and help Morgan if she needed back up. Which was making him swoon worthy and I had a hard time focusing on the scene at hand when all I really wanted to do was make out with my man who was adorably protective of my best friend.

I stood next to Alex as we were behind Morgan. He looked like he was having a pretty good freak out up in that head of his as Morgan and the girl that spilled the pop on her. “Relax Ovechkin, she’s got this. This ‘fight’ will be over before you blink,” I told him confidently using air quotes to demonstrate that this fight was not a fight at all because Morgan could kick this girl’s ass if she really wanted to.

Sure enough, the little girl threw the first punch and it was all down hill from there for her. Morgan had her in a cradle hold, and I was kind of pissed that I blinked and missed all the action. Seriously, that’s how fast it was over. Morgan looked up at me (first time that probably ever happened due to that she’s ridiculously taller than me) and asked me to call the police. I pulled out my iPhone and dialed the police and told them that we were being harassed and we wanted to press changes with regards to an assault.

As I was on the phone with the nice emergency lady, I saw the other teeny bopper was glaring at Morgan and looking like she wanted to engage Morgan in order to get Morgan to release her friend. Morgan gave the girl a glare. She looked like she was going to back off until Morgan looked back down to the girl she was restraining to make sure she wasn’t causing her harm and only restraining her. The other little bitch started to storm up to Morgan and catch her unawares, but I put an end to that. I thrust my phone into Alex’s hands and promptly power walked behind Morgan and blocked her low kick by lifting my leg so that her shin made contact with mine. I quickly placed my foot back on the ground so I would have a more solid base before throwing a punch to the girl’s abdomen so she would get the wind knocked out of her.

I wasn’t going to be that asshole that punched a girl in the face so she had a black eye for days on end. Instead I knocked the wind out of her so she would crumple on the ground and no longer be a threat. Without all the makeup she caked on her face, she would have been extremely pretty. Now she just looked easy. After all the commotion was relatively over the manager came out looking at the brunette Morgan was restraining and the blond that I had knocked the wind from who had yet to get up and was practically trying to seem like she was dying. Morgan calmly let the girl she was retraining go because she figured the younger girl wouldn’t try anything because the manager was now present. Morgan explained what had happened and upon seeing that Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green were standing with us and backed what Morgan explained, he apologized for our inconvenience and refunded our tickets. He promised Alex, who assured him that he would still come to the movie theater, that the next visit would go much more smoothly for the four of us.

It took about an hour to deal with the whole fiasco with the girls, the manager, and the police so we decided that we really didn’t want to spend any more time at the theater today. Morgan and Alex decided that they wanted some more alone time so we all went to our respective cars. Mike held the door of his escalade, but before I could attempt to get in, Mike wrapped an arm around my waist and gave me a searing kiss on the lips.

When he broke of he commented, “You know I never understood why women told me I was sexy when I laid someone out or fought, but seeing you drop that girl I understand now. That was hot. We should enroll in couples boxing or something.”

“I would totally join couples boxing with you if I didn’t have to travel five hours to train.”

“Well we can try it when you come here for law school.”

I shook my head in mock disappointment before giving him a light scuff on the head, which I was able to achieve by standing on my tiptoes. “Idiot,” I said with a small smile before getting into the car.

Later that night, Mike and I lie in his bed watching a playlist of Ridiculousness on his giant computer screen that really should have been considered a small television. We had found a whole bunch of pillows to prop our heads up so we could see the computer screen that was on the desk directly in front of the bed. My head rested on Mike’s shoulder and his right arm was around my shoulders. The fingers of that hand softly played with my hair in an absent minded manner.

All in all it was a damn good way to spend the evening. Just Mike and I snuggling and binge watching my favorite show. I tried not to remember that I would be leaving in a few days which was one of the reasons I didn’t want to get involved with Mike.

I would miss him. I barely knew him but I would miss seeing him constantly. Although this was good for us in a way. We could focus on getting to know each other better when I was back in Pennsylvania. There wouldn’t be much else we could do but talk or text on the phone and get to know what made the other tick.

I was distracted from my thoughts of the future when one of my favorite Ridiculousness clips came on. It was in the episode where Tyga was guest starring and a brunette teenager sat on the couch, in what I assumed was her home, drawing and crying. The person with the camera asked her why she was crying and the girl wailed something unintelligible. When played back the host, Rob Dyrdek, interpreted that she was crying because Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were back together officially. Funny in and of itself, it got worse when the girl was asked if she liked Harry Styles. She nodded and then wailed “But I hate Taylor Swift!” followed by, “Why can’t it be me?”

Now I can see the appeal of Harry Styles. Though he was a couple years younger than I am, I still would have to be blind not to think that he wasn’t attractive even with all his poor tattoo choices. I was also a fan of One Direction. But I practiced the healthy way of thinking that I was never going to meet him so I shouldn’t overthink his attractiveness. I completely understood that my practical thinking was not the mindset of other girls which was fine. In truth, I kind of felt like an asshole for laughing so hard at this girl’s pain, but the way she had said what she did was just so incredibly funny that even if I tried not to, I’d still end up laughing for twenty minutes which is exactly what I did.

Mike was laughing just as hard as I was, but he was mostly laughing because I was laughing so hard. I was laughing so hard my stomach definitely hurt as well as my cheeks and tears leaked out of my eyes. I was trying desperately to calm down because I was starting to lack sufficient oxygen, but every time I would take a breath I would just start cackling like a hyena which would set Mike off again.

All the sudden without really feeling the mattress shift underneath me, Mike’s lips covered my own. I instantly shut up and almost as quickly threaded my left fingers through his hair. The previous laughing fiasco was forgotten as I began to kiss him in earnest. The kiss was slow and sensual. It wasn’t filled with sexual tension, but pure contentment. It was also a brief kiss because we were both trying to catch our breaths already. “That was unexpected which shouldn’t be all that surprising because I think maybe one of our kisses I expected.”

“I had to shut you up or I was going to suffocate myself laughing so hard,” Mike told me as he looked down at me with a small smile on his face. This smile was quickly becoming my favorite. It wasn’t his full grin when he was completely amused—also a killer smile—but it was an almost shy expression like he wasn’t sure if he should be smiling or not but he just couldn’t help but let a little grin tug his pink lips up. My boyfriend was quite the looker especially when he let his almost bashful smile out.

He was hovering over me, our hips pressed together as he held up his top half by his strong arms on either side of my head. It had to be tiring to hold yourself up like that so with a smile of my own I took his face in both of my hands and brought his lips back down to my own. Within a minute of two as his tongue slid across my bottom lip, he gave up his effort to hold himself up and essentially covered my body with his. Previously I would have thought that this would be uncomfortable. Mike wasn’t fat, but he was muscular and I thought his weight would make me feel like he was crushing me. That wasn’t the case whether it be just because the position wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought it would be or the fact that Mike’s tongue was currently tangling with my own. All the I knew was that if Mike broke our kiss, I would be more distraught.

Despite how intense the position would look to anybody that walked in on us the kiss remained fairly innocent. Both he and I were perfectly happy just making out like teenagers. I had never made out with someone just for the sake of making out. It was a completely awesome experience and I simply enjoyed being close to him without being worried that things would go too far. I had no reason to because I trusted Mike and I knew he was gentleman enough to respect my wishes whether they be to take things farther or not. He was such a good man and despite all my ‘rough edges’ as he called them he still chose to pursue a relationship with me and for that I was incredibly lucky.

The doorbell ringing startled us apart. He let out a disgruntled groan and flopped down next to me. “Are you expecting someone?” I asked.

I was a little peeved that we had been interrupted, but we had a quality make out session so it wasn’t all the disruptive to the night.

“Yeah, I invited Brooks and Meghan over since we were just hanging out here. I know she wanted to see you again before you left.” He paused as he let a frown appear in his expression, “I didn’t anticipate being interrupted doing anything.”

I beamed at him and gave him a peck on the lips. I stood as the doorbell rung again and straightened my shirt. “Do I look okay?” I asked him.

He looked at me and the way he was positioned made him look like he was looking at me with half lidded eyes which was sexy as hell and made me want to get back in bed with him for a different reason than watching Ridiculousness.

“Your hair is a little messed up, but other than that you don’t look like you were up to anything naughty.” He said as a sexy smile graced those perfect lips of his. God he was making my ovaries want to burst. I hurriedly exited from his room at the same time I was throwing my hair up in a ponytail.

I opened the door and Brooks smirked down at me, “Did we interrupt?”

My cheeks tinged pink as I grinned back at him. I didn’t give a flying fuck what Brooks thought, not that he was judging me going by the kind look in his eyes, I had just had a wonderful time with my man and Brooks wasn’t going to dampen it with some light teasing. “Nah he doesn’t last long.”

Brooks looked at me with wide eyes for a split second before he started howling with laughter.

Mike appeared behind me as Meghan pulled her fiancé into the apartment. “Well it seems you broke Brooksy today too,” Mike told me as he placed an arm around my waist and pulled me into him.

Seeing Mike and his comment just made Brooks lose his shit again, but also compared to us he calmed down quite quickly. “Oh shit,” Brooks said breathlessly. He took a deep breath to fully calm himself before continuing, “I was not expecting that. You better keep her around Greenie.”

Meghan just shook her head at our antics before holding up what was in her hands. “Game night?” she asked hopefully with a bright smile.

“”Course, “ I told her with a smile of my own. I took the games from her hands.

“I brought beer,” Brooks offered holding up the case of Labatt Blue.

“Jesus,” I huffed, “I didn’t realize you were holding beer. Now I feel like an asshole for keeping you in the entryway.”

I shoved the board games into Mike’s hand and went to take the case of beer from Brooks. He wasn’t having it, however, because he evaded my grasp and held the case to his chest protectively, “My beer. I will only share with you if you don’t insult my manhood again.” Without another word, he led the rest of us farther into the apartment.

Brooks veered off into the kitchen and Mike led Meghan and I to the living room. He set the games on there coffee table. I took the time to analyze what games Meghan had brought with her. Charades, Scene It Disney, Twister… “You really expect me to play Twister with two men that weight lift and stretch regularly?” I said in a voice that said I was totally against the idea.

Mike smirked as he sat down next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “You scared babe?”

“I know when to pick a fight that’s for sure,” I shot back.

“Well I’m not playing Scene It with you and Meghan because Brooks and I will sit there and let you two hash it out,” Mike told me deadpanned just exactly as I had shot down Twister he had shot down Scene It Disney.

“Charades kind of sucks too because I haven’t known any of you as long as you have known each other.”

Mike gave Meghan an apologetic look, “Well it looks like my girlfriend and I just ruined all your fun.”

Meghan waved her hand dismissively, “That’s okay. Brooks told me you two would be like this. I brought cards as a back up,” she said as she dug through her purse next to her and triumphantly pulled a package go playing cards out.

“I vote we play spoons,” I said with a wicked grin. Yeah it was probably going to get violent but it was really fun. I was bound to pounce over a table in order to wrestle a spoon from someone.

“I punched Brooks in the face last time we played that,” Mike told the two of us thoughtfully. He was looking down at his lap as he brushed his hands against his jean clad thighs. He looked up to see both Meghan and I looking at him like he had lost his damn mind because it sure sounded like he did. He cracked a grin, “Kidding.”

Meghan and I looked at each other before glancing back at Mike, “That wasn’t funny,” I said flatly and very unamused.

“Neither was saying Mike had no stamina in bed,” Brooks said coming into the room. He handed Meghan and I glasses of Jack and Coke before handing Mike a beer.

Mike’s head whipped sideways to my direction and shot me a glare. I grinned sheepishly, “It was a joke!” I defended myself. “I didn’t mean it Green Bean and you should be angry with Brooks too because he laughed.”

“Oh I see how it is,” Brooks said.

I shot him a glare before replying curtly, “You threw me under the bus first. You also wanted to make awkward remarks about why it took so long for me to get the door so don’t blame this on me.”

“All right shut up. We aren’t talking about whether I last long in bed or not,” Mike said with a roll of his eyes. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You’ll find out the truth eventually.” We simultaneously moved our faces away from each other, him giving me that sexy smile that said he would like nothing more than to ravage me on the floor which in turn made my entire body flush with embarrassment since we were having a private moment in front of two innocent bystanders.

“Secrets don’t make friends!” Brooks yelled effectively getting off that topic.

We never ended up playing any games. The four of us just light heartedly bickered at each other for most of the night while drinking and laughing way too loud. All in all, it ended up being a fantastic night. We did keep ourselves in check because the boys had a game tomorrow and Meghan and I didn’t want to be responsible for them not playing up to par. I was taken back to my hotel at a relatively respectable hour.