Sliding (The Stone Series) (15 page)

At Wendy’s that night we all sing and dance to “I Want to Dance with
Somebody” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” while we all have a few beers and pass a
joint around. Tate promises not to overdo it and get drunk or stoned. When he
takes a hit off the joint he holds it out to me and I decide to try it. I start
coughing and I can barely breathe. I don’t think I even inhale it correctly.
I’m feeling a little tipsy or maybe I’m stoned by the time Whitesnake’s “Here I
Go Again” comes on and I start dancing around like the girl in the video. I
even pretend the sofa is the car from the video and I flip off of it. All eyes
are on me and I can see some of the boys slapping Tate on the back. I hear one
of them say, “You’re a lucky man, Taylor” when I saunter up to Tate and kiss
him on the lips while everyone watches. Tate takes me by the hand and starts to
lead me to the bedroom as he says, “Let’s go to bed”. All the guys start
chanting, “Tay-lor, Tay-lor, Tay-lor” as we walk down the hall and close and
lock the bedroom door.

When I sit down on the bed the room is spinning around me and I fall back
and close my eyes to make it stop. Tate looks around and finds a garbage can,
dumps the garbage in a small pile on the floor and places it next to the bed.
He smiles at me, “In case you puke”. I don’t want to puke and I beg Tate to
help keep me from throwing up.

“Well, maybe if I distract you, you know, keep your mind off puking,
focus on something else, maybe that’ll work.”

I nod yes and lay back down. Tate takes off his shirt and shoes and
climbs onto the bed wearing his shorts and lays next to me. He kisses me softly
on the lips then moves to my neck where he gently sucks and nips it with his
teeth.

“You smell so good. I can’t believe I’m not going to be able to smell you
for six weeks.”

Mmmm…this is working perfectly. I’m not thinking about anything other
than the sweet sensations traveling through my body.

Tate’s breathe catches and he says, “You look flawless. My God, you are so
gorgeous, Brooklynn. I can’t believe your all mine.”

I must look nervous because Tate looks at me with this kind, tender stare
and says, “I’m not going to try to have sex with you tonight Brooklynn. We need
to talk about that before we do it. I think we need to talk about it when you
get back from camp but not tonight, I promise” Tate says.

He takes my face in his hands and kisses me deeper making me cry his name
into his mouth. He breaks the kiss and smiles at me.

“I’m going to miss you more than you know Brooklynn. I can’t believe I
have to be away from you for six fucking weeks when all I want to do now is
make love to you” he says as he turns me facing away from him and wraps his
body around me.

“Sleep with me like always, baby?” he asks but I can’t respond because I
already am.
 

************

Tate and I return to the hotel suite and Tate says he needs to get some
work done before we go out tonight. He has been invited to attend a movie
premiere and he claims it’s good for business so we’ll be attending with Bobby
and Kate. I ask him about the therapist we need to find as well as a doctor and
he gives me his secretary for help in finding people in the area. Allison is
young and efficient and honestly quite helpful. She is very understanding but
at the same time professional. She tries not to ask too many personal questions
but some can’t be avoided. Allison and I are able to secure several
appointments within a few hours. Tate and I each have separate sessions
scheduled tomorrow with a therapist as well as a session together the following
day, if we feel the therapist is a good match for us we’ll schedule more
appointments. I have an appointment with an OB-GYN who specializes in high risk
conceptions at the end of the month and an appointment with a hair stylist and
colorist in one hour. While I’m at it I also schedule a waxing appointment for
later today.

I start to panic because I realize I will never have time to have my hair
done and buy a dress for tonight as Tate enters the room carrying a dress bag.

“For my lady in red” Tate says as he hands it to me.

It is a stunning Calvin Klein red sheath dress, plain and elegant with
tiny silver buckles at the shoulder.

“Only the best for my lady and before you ask yes I checked and no Kate
is not wearing red tonight or the same style. See, I have learned something
over the years.”

Tate also hands me a bag that contains a red push up lace bra and a red
lace G-string. In his other hand he has a shoe box that contains a little pair
of very sexy red soled Christian Louboutin open toed high heels. I thank Tate
with a kiss on the lips and a pat on his firm ass. I tell him that I might not
need the G-string tonight eluding that I may attend this event without any
panties on at all. Tate’s face lights up with anticipation.

Tate asks about the appointments and I tell him that Allison was a huge
help then I kiss him good-bye and run out the door to the salon promising
details later.

I jump in the elevator and ride it to the lobby. I wave to Lucas at the
front desk and he comes over to me asking how he can be of assistance. I tell
him that I need my car and he promptly waves to one of his men to get it for
me. When I climb in the front seat I enter the address of the salon into the
car’s GPS system then I turn on the radio to find “Can’t We Try” playing and it
brings me back to that first summer at camp.

************

Tate and I say good-bye that next morning at Wendy’s before she brings me
home. Tate looks sad but when he kisses me and looks into my eyes he smiles and
says, “Brooklynn, I love you” and it makes me cry even more than I already am.

“I love you too Taters and I don’t want to leave you. I never should have
decided to do this.”

Tate kisses me again this time full on the mouth to make me stop talking
and when he breaks the kiss he tells me, “Go before I start crying in front of
the guys and never hear the end of it.”

I am crying as I walk away leaving Tate there with his friends. I cry the
whole way home, run to my bedroom and turn the radio up. “Can’t We Try” is on
and I think I know how it feels to love someone so much that it hurts inside. I
can’t believe I am not going to see him or touch him for six weeks. We plan to
send each other letters every day but Tate is off to basketball camp tomorrow
for two weeks and then football training begins when he gets back so he’ll be
as busy as I am. Once he’s back from camp he’s planning on doing nothing but
football training and working out while I’m gone. He claims it’s the only thing
“to help with the sexual frustration” he says will be unbearable in my absence.

My dad packs my stuff into the trunk of the minivan and we all pile in.
I’m not sure why Katrina and Michael have to come along. We are just going to
the airport an hour away, there’s no reason they can’t stay home alone, they
are going into sixth and seventh grade. When I was Katrina’s age my mom practically
had me watching the two of them around the clock.

We listen to music and play silly car games and I realize that they are
around the age I was when I first met Tate and I wonder if they’ll have a
boyfriend and girlfriend soon. It hits me that I’m not the only one growing up,
they are too. I feel a pang in my chest when I glance over at my sister. Should
I be helping her more with boy stuff? I remember not knowing so much when Tate
and I first started. If it hadn’t been for Wendy and the other girls I don’t
know what I would have done. I make a promise to myself to have a girl to girl
talk with her when I get home. I might even ask Tate to take Michael under his
wing like Eric did for him and Bobby. Well, maybe not exactly like Eric did, I
don’t want him showing my baby brother porn and teaching him how to have sex!

When my flight is called I get a sick feeling in my stomach. I don’t want
to leave my family for six weeks anymore than I want to leave Tate. But at the
same time I am excited to be going to the camps. I hug them all goodbye and
when I get to Katrina she tells me that Tate made me a mixed tape and asked her
to put it in my walkman so I would be surprised. I thank her and give her a
kiss on the cheek. I board the plane, wait for takeoff and then put my
headphones on.

Tate’s voice comes on first, “Hey Brooklynn. I miss you already, baby. I
hope you like the songs I put on here for you. They all remind me of times with
you and I hope they make you not forget me while you’re gone. Remember to write
to me every day and I want to know if this guy partner of yours is a homo or
not ASAP. I love you…”

I’m able to listen to the tape the entire flight. Tate has started with
“Little Red Corvette” and included so many of the songs that remind me of him,
us or times we’ve spent together too. Songs like “We’ve Got Tonight” and
“Sexual Healing”. Tate can be so sweet and romantic when he wants to and it
makes me wish I had thought to leave something for him, the fact that I didn’t
weighs heavily on me. I vow to myself to make it up to him somehow.

As soon as I arrive at camp and get settled into my room I write Tate a
letter.

Dear
Tate,

I
have arrived safely at the cheer training in Florida. It’s so hot here I think
I’m going to die! A whole bunch of us arrived at the airport together and were
shuttled to the hotel in this huge minivan. We got our roommates who we’ll stay
with for this week and you’ll never believe this but mine is a guy and he’s not
gay at all, quite the opposite really. He’s got huge muscles in this arms and
chest and he’s in college. I don’t know what they were thinking when they put
us together in a room with only one bed but he said we’ll find a way to make it
work even though he sleeps naked!

Ha…gotcha!
You know I’m totally busting them off on you, right?

I’m
really rooming with a cheerleader from New York who is in high school and very
much a girl. I know you’d probably like to hear about us sharing a bed naked
but that’s not going to happen. We both have our own beds and we plan to sleep
with our clothes on.

I
showed her your picture and she says you are “smoking hot”. She asked if you
had a brother and when I told her you didn’t so she asked me to give you her
number if we ever break up. I’m not sure if I like her anymore but I do love
you!

Brooklynn

I anxiously awake for a letter back from Tate and a few days after I sent
mine it arrives.

Brooklynn,

I’m
glad to hear you have arrived safely in Florida and it would be such a shame
for you to die at this young an age from the heat. I always thought you would
die when you were 99 years old because I had just died in your arms and you
couldn’t stand to be without me for even 1 second. I have to die first because
I could never watch you die. I take that back now that I have read the rest of
your letter. I think I may just have to strangle you myself when I see you. Or
better yet maybe what you need is a good spanking for being such a naughty
girl. Stop playing tricks on me silly rabbit and stop making me picture you
naked in bed with some chick…I can’t spend the next six weeks with a boner!
Tell her we are never breaking up.

Taters

PS-
You are the smoking hot one in this relationship and because of that not one
guy at basketball camp will ever see a picture of you!

Before I have a chance to respond and mail Tate another letter arrives
from him.

Brook,

I
haven’t gotten another letter from you yet but I had time tonight so I thought
I’d write. Basketball camp is really hard. They have me playing up with the
Varsity group so I’m with all these older guys who are over 6 feet tall and
pure muscle. I have been fouled so much and knocked around I’m black and blue all
over. When I get home I am going to lift weights day and night to get huge so I
won’t have to take this shit on the court anymore.

A
few of the coaches have asked me where I’m thinking about going for college and
I told them I hadn’t thought about it yet. Two of them even asked me to send
them my schedule so they can come and watch me play during the season. That’s
great, right?

I
hope you’re having a good time and by the way, every time I dribble the ball I
picture it being some unknown guy’s face…you know that partner of yours who
might not be gay but I wouldn’t know that because my girlfriend has not written
to me about him yet!

Tater
Tot

(Believe
it or not some of the older guys came up with this nickname for me too…because
I’m so much smaller than them. I like it much better when you call me that)

I don’t have time after reading Tate’s letter to write back. We have
cheer practice and then we are all having dinner together as a “getting to know
you” activity. It’s a beach theme so we’re all going in bathing suits. Later
that night before I climb into bed I have a chance to write to Tate. I just
wish I was able to write to him alone, instead I have Molly looking over my
shoulder.