Jett by Honey Palomino

was pulling when he was pushing, and his leg was going forward while mine was still backwards.
    The crowd was filled with teachers, students, and a few parent volunteers, and they cheered us on as we made our way past them.  
    The finish line seemed so far away and I looked up for an instant to measure the distance, surprised to see it was actually approaching quickly.  I looked over our shoulder and saw everyone else behind us.  We were winning!
    Unfortunately, the act of me looking backwards messed up our rhythm so badly that I stumbled, mere inches away from the finish line.  We both went down. By the time we got back up, two other couples had crossed the line.
    Colt was pissed. I kept apologizing, but he ignored me, sulking.  
    When it came time for the tether ball event, he was almost starting to forgive me, if only out of the hope that I would shut up.  
    A huge crowd stood in a circle watching the matches.  When it was our turn, my hands started sweating.  I was nervous.  I had never liked tether ball, and had rarely played it.  I barely knew what to do.  I hated that the school forced us into doing stuff we didn’t like, for the sake of promoting ‘team spirit’.  It was team humiliation, as far as I was concerned.
    Colt stood on one side of the pole and I stood on the other.  He looked at me, nodded and hit the ball hard.  It spun around the pole, the string almost hitting me in the head as it flew over me.  By the time it came around again, I jumped, attempting to hit it, but missing by a foot.  This happened time and again, until the one time I finally did hit it, and it flew back in Colt’s direction.  I surprised him, and that made me happy.  He hit it again, swinging it back my direction and I ducked to miss it hitting me in the head once more.  
    Over and over, we repeated this pattern, getting nowhere.  I didn’t even understand how a winner was determined, but I assumed someone was keeping score or something somewhere.  I was confused, but since everyone was watching, and Colt looked so intent on playing well, and because I had felt so badly about ruining the race earlier, I kept going, mindlessly hitting the ball, running around the pole aimlessly as I tried to hit it.
    Colt was a master, though.  He hit it every time, and it seemed that with each slap of the ball, he hit it harder and harder.  I was getting a little scared, and I panicked.  I kept flailing my body around, jumping up in the air, and not paying any attention to where I had traveled to.
    Before I knew it, I was right next to Colt.  He didn’t see me, and he turned around fast to keep his eye on the ball, running right smack into me, our faces smashing together because I was in mid-jump.  Our lips touched, our noses touched, our foreheads smacked together painfully, and the crowd around us roared with laughter as we tumbled to the ground and landed hard on our butts.
    Our eyes met for the briefest of seconds, disbelief registering on both of our faces, before we both turned bright red and jumped up and ran in opposite directions through the crowd.
    The sound of laughter and taunting voices followed me as I ran into the school, locking myself in a stall in the girl’s bathroom, knowing something terrible had happened, but not understanding exactly why.
    Colt didn’t look or talk to me for a year, but Ciara and I ended up getting much closer during the next school year, and he was forced to hang out with me.  Eventually, we became friends on our own, and after that, we pretended nothing ever happened, and never spoke about it again.
    And now? Here he was. And he was fucking hot as hell, there was no other way to say it.  Every single time I looked at him, it took all my concentration and willpower not to undress and beg him to take me.
    But this morning?  Seeing him sleeping, practically naked, the outline of his huge package straining against his underwear?  It fucking slayed me.  
    Too bad he had adopted