Loving Kinnick (Rewritten)

If You Want A Hug, All You Gotta Do Is Ask!

As rain clouds rolled over the evening sky, drizzle began misting Kinnick's windshield. A blanket of fog settled over the road, but the golden lights lined on the sidewalks made the pavement glow. Kinnick's lights shined through the rain, giving us a passageway of light. He drove as if it didn't bother him while he kept a steady pace on the highway.

Shortly into our drive, he asked me if I wanted to stop by a diner to grab something to eat. He said he didn't want me going home on an empty stomach, but he left the idea of going up to me. There wasn't an ounce of pressure in his question. He didn't repeat it more than once either.

I wasn't sure if he enjoyed my company, but if he didn't, he never said anything. I thought quite the opposite, though. Kinnick wouldn't have offered to take me to dinner if he didn't like me. Plus, the boxer never had an issue speaking his mind. And it isn't like he asked Luke. So, I assumed he enjoyed my company.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

I let my gaze leave the road to look at him. "Would you invite Luke out to dinner?"

The sound of his fingers drumming against the steering wheel came to a halt. I can assume the way his jaw clenched; he didn't expect me to ask that question. Honestly, I wasn't sure why I did. I could have quickly asked if he liked me, but my mouth blurts out different words sometimes. It is never my intention; it's just who I am.

"Fuck no," he scoffs. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I am trying to figure out if you like me or not."

I fiddled with my hands as a smile crossed his face. I couldn't understand why he began chuckling. I meant what I said. I like him, and I enjoyed his company. For once, I had someone I could talk about anything with. He never yawned during our conversations as everyone else did. When he looked at me, he watched me with concentration as if he were genuinely listening.

My eyes darted to look at the boxer, who stared at me with a grin. "Of course, I like you. I wouldn't train you or asked you out to dinner if I didn't."

"I guess so," I mumbled.

The feeling of his hand pressing down on my thigh enthralled me and sent anxiety soaring through my chest at the same time. "You are different -"

He noticed the way I rolled my eyes and pulled back with amusement gleaming in his eyes. "What?"

"That is what every guy says."

"So what?" He shrugged, clearly upset with the way I dismissed his words. "If you weren't different, then you wouldn't mean anything to anybody. If you weren't different, then you could be replaced, but I like you, and I couldn't replace you with anybody. So, yeah. You are different."

"How am I different to you, though?"

He sucked in a deep breath. "My whole life, I struggled to find people who enjoyed my company. No one knows my life story, but they judge me based on how I dress and the tattoos on my skin. They judge my bloody knuckles and the scar under my eye. As you have witnessed, I am the one everyone in this town fears -"

"You've done nothing but laugh at everything I've said. When you look at me, I don't know what you see, but it isn't the same criminal everyone views me as. People ask me why I made the decisions I did in life. You have taken no interest in my past life. It is as if you don't care about the person I used to be. People do, though. They think I am broken, and everyone tries to fix me."

"So, you like me because I am not interested in you?"

He did a double-take as he glanced in my direction. "Out of everything I said, that is what you take from that?"