“Hey beautiful.  It’s been so long Maddy.”  Shawn Edwards leans in to me.

“You just saw me last year at your brother’s wedding.”  I remind him.  I know why he didn’t see me then, he was with some tall blond with huge breasts, his usual type.

“Oh yeah!  Sorry about that.  You still with Little Basso?”  He asks moving closer to me than I would like.

“I guess I would be hard to see past your dates breasts.”  I sneer only making him laugh.

“Funny and hot.  What a great combination.”  He leans closer to my ear.  “I can’t wait to find out your other attributes.”

“You will be waiting a long time Shawn.”

“So, you are still seeing Little Basso.”

“No”

“Then why don’t you give an Edwards a chance.  Your friend seems deliriously happy with my brother and I share the same genes with him.”  He puts his arm around my chair leaning so far over I can feel his breath on my neck.

“Shawn, my brother would kill you if you touched one hair on my head.”  I move forward eyeing my brother down at the end of the table.

“Who said he had to know?”  He puts his hand on my knee.

“Shawn, I suggest you take your hand off my leg before I stab it.”  I pick up my fork aiming towards his hand.

“Man, you got the Jennings temper huh?”  He quickly pulls his hand off.

“You think Jack’s bad, you should see my girl’s” I could place that voice anywhere.  The raspy tone has given me goose bumps my whole life.

I already know who it is before turning around but the smirk on his face makes me laugh.  He knows I’m not his girl but right now he can say whatever he wants because he is my savior.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late.”  Trent asks the girl next to me to scoot over which she happily obliges after looking him up and down a few times.  Probably imagining him naked.  I have seen this scenario more times than I can count.  Trent smiles coyly at her giving her hopes she will never see.

“Hey Trent,” most of the table announce in unison.

“So, Edwards.  Mind moving your arm off my girl now.”  He leans back picking up Shawn’s arm pushing it towards him.

“According to Little Jennings, she isn’t your girl anymore soccer stud.  Which means its open play.”  Shawn firms his arm around me tighter.

“Listen boys, I’m not a piece of meat you can fork your claim to.”  I look at them both but on my way to meet Shawn’s eyes, I meet Gabe’s instead.  He is attentively watching what is going on.  I can’t decipher his face, angry or amused.

“Just because you are some soccer superstar doesn’t mean you will always get the girl.”  Shawn says over to Trent.

“It’s not because of my ‘soccer’ skills that she’s my girl believe me.”  Trent returns making me look at him in disgust.

“If you don’t both stop I will be leaving.”  I say.

“Well, we don’t want that.”  Shawn says removing his arm.  “If I can’t touch it’s still nice to look at.”

“What the fuck Edwards?”  Trent says half laughing half pissed off.

Finally the waitress comes around taking everyone’s orders.  Shawn’s attention starts steering towards the blonde bimbo instead of mine thank goodness.  Unfortunately, for me she is also interested in Trent and Trent is never one to turn attention away.

So, I sit there watching Caroline hang all over Gabe and the waitress hang all over Trent.  While Caroline keeps putting her hand on Gabe’s arm, the waitress is practically in Trent’s lap, which neither Basso seems to mind what these women are doing.  Shawn is looking better every minute.

I did my bridesmaids duty, I went to the dress fitting and out to lunch with everyone and now is my time to go home and lounge until my mom comes home.  I assume Ian is going crazy by himself.  I signal Gabe to give me the keys but he is pretending he doesn’t understand.  So I keep making a fool of myself motioning in the air like I am starting a car with the keys in my hands.  He just looks confused mouthing what?  He doesn’t fool me, I see the smirk on his face.  Due to his pathetic tactics I walk myself over to him and the red headed floozy.

“Can I have the keys?”  I whisper in his ear opposite Caroline.  She gives me a dirty look but I could care less at this point.  What does she want from me?  I told her we weren’t together and that’s the truth.

“I will drive you back home.”  Gabe scoots his chair back getting ready to stand up.

“No, I am sure Trent or Doug can drive you home.  Just let me know when you want the car and I can bring it over.”  I stop him by putting my hand on his shoulder keeping him down in his chair.  This whole sharing a car thing is really starting to get on my nerves.

“It’s no problem and I need the car later on anyway.  This way you don’t have to be bothered.”  He stands raising my arm while he stands.   “See you guys tomorrow.”  He waves off to everyone throwing some money on the table.

“Gabe, I am sure someone else can take Madeline home.”  Caroline whines next to him.

“Yeah, I’ll take her.”  Trent chimes in moving the waitress off the arm of his chair.

“I can take her since my hands aren’t all over someone’s ass.”  Shawn chimes in sneering at Trent.

“We don’t want any fights so I will take her, it’s no problem.”  Gabe says moving his hand on the small of my back having me lead the way out.

“I’m sure it isn’t a problem, brother.”  Trent murmurs.

We both ignore Trent’s comment.  Why did he think he could express feelings on who takes me home after ignoring me the whole lunch for Tammy, our waitress?  Gabe leads me out of Taps down the road opening the door for me to the Blue Machine.

Chapter 9 – 17 years – Senior year

It was the State Soccer Championship and thanks to Trent, Belcrest was in the finals.  We all traveled up to Madison together and since we were all looking at colleges to attend the next year our parents agreed to let us stay with Gabe at his house.

He shared a house with four other football players and none of them minded having us crash in their family room for the weekend.  We drove up in Trent’s truck on Friday and since Gabe’s football team had an off week he was there to meet us.

The bright yellow two story house appeared more suited for a family home than a group of college guys.  There were two worn out plaid couches on each side of the cement front porch.  The screen door squeaked when we entered announcing our arrival but no one came out.  It was surprisingly clean except for some soda cans and magazines sprawled across the coffee table.  Mismatched couches, chairs and tables filled the living room with dark shag carpet.  The house had a smell of sweat and beer, which started making me nauseous after only five minutes.

Bryan and Trent flopped on opposite couches making themselves at home while Kenna and I looked around. Peering into the kitchen I notice paint peeling off the white cabinets.  Next to the window is a table with more nicks in it than not and six different chairs settled around it.

“Hey if it isn’t Ricky, Lucy, Ethel and Fred.”  Gabe jogs down the stairs.  He is shirtless with a pair of faded jeans that hung at his hips.

We had started to be referred to as the I Love Lucy gang after Trent and I started dating last year.  With Kenna and Bryan already a couple it made us even more inseparable.  This past summer Trent and I decided to end things.  I couldn’t explain it if I tried, we were just better at being friends.  Trent started dating Chloe again but that only lasted a month.  Since Trent and I are still close friends a lot of girls have a hard time dealing with it causing a lot of fights between them and Trent making breaking up inevitable.  I wasn’t naïve though, I have heard of more than one occasion how Trent would hook up with girls from the neighboring towns when he went out with the guys from his indoor soccer team.  At first I was jealous, as though he was mine but when I needed him he was always there for me and that’s all that mattered.