flightless ━ kevin day

II. Miss Congeniality

two                      miss congeniality 

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It would have been easier to say that Ali didn't know how she ended up in an empty parking lot, staring at the carpeted ceiling of Jonah's car as his fingers trailed over the tattoo on her ribcage, but she knew exactly how she ended up in that situation.

She had been restless for days before Abby finally said she could go to the hospital to get cortisone shots, which had immediately prompted more restlessness, because Ali had spent nearly her entire summer at the court watching from the bleachers while Kevin played Exy by himself and she couldn't start with her tumbling drills before the Vixens came back from summer break.

So Andrew dropped her off at the hospital to get the cortisone shots while he went to pick up Neil Josten at the airport, and he wouldn't be able to stop there again before they dropped his things off at Wymack's apartment, so Ali needed a ride.

"Hey," she greeted. She dropped her bag in the car through the open window, swinging the door wide open before she hopped inside. "Thanks for picking me up. My cousins' got a thing."

When he looked at her, one arm propped out the window and the other casually resting on the stick shift, she knew where this was going.

"It's no problem. Do you have anything important to do?"

And she didn't. The doctor said she was supposed to give it at least a day before starting her cheer practice (because he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't be able to wait much longer than that), and there was nothing more interesting for her to do. Which was how she wound up laying on his backseat, her head bent at an uncomfortable angle while the door handle jammed into her neck.

He had asked her what the horses on her ribcage meant, and she remembered that he had asked the same question on the first night they hooked up, long before she had judged herself to be miserable enough to hook up with him again. The horses didn't mean anything, she said, but that was not the answer he wanted. It was very clear that he thought she was one of those girls who would do anything for a boy's attention, and she had gotten bored of him months ago.

Ali's shoulder and knee still stung in the places where the needle had pierced her skin, injecting a few weeks' worth of relief into her muscles and joints. It wasn't a strong enough dose to kill the pain completely, but it should have been enough to get her to stop thinking about it.

It wasn't working very well.

Through the window, she saw the sky fading from the bright blue of the summer afternoon into the pinks and oranges of the evening. Andrew had probably already arrived from the airport with the new addition to the Palmetto State Foxes. They had probably already shown him the stadium and were now heading to Abby's house for dinner.

And this guy had his mouth between her thighs and all she could think about was that she had missed an entire day in which she could have been practicing. Ali could feel her heartbeat everywhere beneath her skin, her hands and feet begging for the roughness of the mat, her muscles aching for the heat of effort. Even the thought of it was more intense than what that guy was doing in the backseat of his car.

Ali moved her leg, prompting him to stop and look up at her. She propped herself up on her elbows and stared at him, unimpressed.