The Hardest Fall

Never in my life had I held someone through the entire night. Snuggling, yes, but even that only lasted for a short while. I closed my eyes and dropped my head on hers, inhaling her scent and just feeling her chest rise and drop against me. Trying my best not to jolt her, I grabbed the light blanket from the back of the couch and pulled it over us. Zoe shifted, and I froze. Then she snuggled even closer and rubbed her face against my neck, her parted lips grazing my skin.

Awareness flooded my body. All of a sudden, I was wide awake, and so were all my body parts.

I sat on that couch for another thirty minutes, just holding on to her, memorizing how she felt in my arms. When I had to get up and leave, I gently slid out from under her and tucked the blanket more securely around her, hoping it’d keep her warm, though not as warm as I could.

Chapter Fourteen

Zoe

We had just finished our photography class in the lab and I was packing away my lenses when our professor, Jin Ae, caught my attention and said, “Zoe and Miriam, I need you two to stay behind, please.”

When I was done packing up my bag, she was still answering questions from other students.

Miriam met my eye. “You know what this is about?”

I shook my head. “No idea.”

“Maybe the assignment?”

I gathered all my equipment up and carried it over to Miriam’s station. “Probably.”

After everyone left the room, Jin Ae came over to us.

“Okay girls, are you two available to travel for a weekend?”

Miriam and I glanced at each other with a frown. “Ummm, I should be,” Miriam replied, still unsure.

Jin Ae looked at me. “And you, Zoe?”

“I’m sorry, I have a job scheduled this weekend, and I don’t think I can cancel it.” Not if I didn’t want to lose the job and the money that would come with it.

“It’s not for this weekend. Are you available next weekend?”

I thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I think I can do that. Is it a job you want us to do?”

“No, not a job, exactly. The school paper needs two students to follow the football team around at their away game next weekend. Their usual guys can’t make it, so Mr. Taylor asked me if I could recommend anyone.”

Football team? Following them? I didn’t think that was a good idea at all, and I’d have bet Mark wouldn’t think so either.

“That’s a great opportunity, thank you so much for asking me!” exclaimed Miriam.

I couldn’t exactly share her joy, though she was right—it was a great opportunity. “Uh…what are we supposed to do exactly?” I asked. “To be honest, I’m not sure I’d be any good at sports photography. I’ve never tried it—too much movement, not to mention I know practically nothing about football.”

Even if I wanted to go, I didn’t think Mark would appreciate me being around him or around any of his players, Chris in particular.

“This will be great for both of you,” Jin Ae continued. “If you have no other objections than not knowing about sports, Zoe, I’d like you to take a chance and accept the assignment. The school paper is planning on writing an article, and I didn’t get all the details, but I know they need photos of the players and the coaching staff, and not just when they’re on the field. You’ll need to be around them for the remainder of the time, too—at the hotel, on the plane, at practice, and I think even at the meetings.”

Maybe it would be okay if I asked Mark first, but I’d been avoiding all his calls and texts since our last conversation in his office, so asking him anything wasn’t something I was interested in doing.

Miriam was the first to speak up after she clapped her hands twice and did a small jump in place. “Okay. I like the challenge. I won’t disappoint you.”

Geez. You’d think we’d been invited to photograph the royal wedding with the smile she was beaming—not that photographing however many football players would be bad, especially if I could take a few (or a hundred) shots of Dylan while he was working out and get away with it by saying, Oh, I’m having a terrible time looking at your half-naked body, but…it’s for the paper, so what can I do? I’ll just have to suffer through it.

Jin Ae nodded at Miriam then turned her expectant eyes to me.

“Sure. I’ll be there, too. Thank you.”

“Good.” Turning on her heels, she walked back to her desk to grab her phone. “I told Mr. Taylor I’d let him know after class, and I’ll text him your information so he can get in touch to coordinate everything. He’ll want to talk to you sometime this week, so make sure to be available so he can let you know exactly what he wants you to do while you’re with the team.”

“Is it just the two of us or will someone else be going as well?” I asked.

“I think another student will be joining to conduct the interview part of the piece. You’ll have to discuss the details with Mr. Taylor when you talk to him.”

“Okay, one question: do we know where they’re going? For the game I mean.”

Jin Ae put her phone away and sat down in front of her laptop. “I think he mentions the location in the email, let me check.”

“Good question,” Miriam whispered as we waited in the doorway.

“Arizona. It says the game will be in Tucson, Arizona.”

* * *

“You lucky bitch. If I knew this kind of thing would happen, I’d take up photography too. Can you find out if they need someone to sketch the players? Oil them up? I can do that too—both, if needed.”

“I’m pretty sure there are no oils involved, but for you…I’ll ask. I wouldn’t get my hopes up though.”

“Bitch,” Jared muttered.

As soon as I’d gotten out of class, I’d called my dad to let him know I’d be seeing him in eight or nine days. When that conversation was over, my next call had been to Kayla because the three of us were supposed to meet for lunch. The moment she answered, I knew she wouldn’t make it, which wasn’t surprising anymore. So, that left me and Jared.

I stabbed my fork into my salad and gave him a long look. “I don’t think it’ll be as glamorous as you think it will. I’m gonna have to do my best to stay out of Mark’s way.”

“So? Just don’t tell him you’re coming along. Crisis averted.”

“Yeah? And how exactly do you suggest I get on the plane without him noticing? Or let’s say I managed that—how am I supposed to make sure he doesn’t see me at the hotel or on the field as I’m trying to photograph his players?”

He took a bite of his sandwich and nodded. “You make a good point.”

“Yeah. Still, it wasn’t my idea, so it should be okay, and anyway, I promised not to tell Chris anything. If we need to take any one-on-one shots, I’ll make sure Miriam covers Chris, that way Mark can’t complain any more than he probably already will.”

“If he says anything, please don’t just sit there and take it.”

I dropped my fork and rubbed my forehead. “If he was anybody else, yeah, I would have stopped taking shit from him a long time ago, but he is my…”

“Your dad—yeah, I know.”

“I wouldn’t call him that exactly.”

“I don’t know what your mom was thinking when she called to let him know he had a daughter. Didn’t she already know what kind of guy he was?”