Friday Night Lights - "Upward Over The Mountain", Tim/Julie, R
Title: Upward Over The Mountain - 8/15
Author: lindentree
Rating: R
Character(s): Tim/Julie
Word Count: 4,043
Summary: AU after 3x13 "Tomorrow Blues", this story takes place in the summer of 2010 when Tim returns home from his first year away at college, Julie graduates from her last year of high school, and they find themselves meeting somewhere in the middle.
I've been getting a fair bit of writing done lately. Thanks to ishie for always being there to read my fic whenever I ask, and to offer constructive advice and loads of cheerleading. Especially since I apparently need a strong drink, a cigarette, a Valium, and an aggressive pep talk every time I have to write a sex scene. ILU BB. ♥
Julie woke up late Saturday morning, blinking blearily up at the sunshine stretching across her ceiling. She squeezed her eyes shut and rolled over, moaning as her head began to pound. Everything that had happened the night before was still, unfortunately, very real. Seven Senoritas. The beer. The tequila.
Tim.
Julie buried her face in her pillow and groaned. What on earth had she been thinking? Sure, the tequila had muddied things up a bit and maybe made certain things seem like good ideas when they probably weren’t, but she hadn’t been that drunk. They’d both been eager and coherent participants the whole time.
It would have been easier to write the whole thing off as a drunken mistake.
After eventually dragging herself out of bed, Julie moped around the house for several hours, snapping at her parents and Gracie until they finally all gave up and left her alone. She got herself to work for her shift, distractedly passing through the busy dinner rush, grateful that, for once, no one she knew came through the doors.
Tyra picked her up late in the morning the next day, after Julie returned home from church with her family. They wanted to get in one last visit before Tyra had to drive back to Austin.
“Are you okay?” Tyra asked, glancing over at her. The girls had picked up lunch and driven out to the lake. They were sitting on the end of an unused dock, their feet in the water. “You’ve been weird all weekend.”
Julie sighed, taking a sip of her smoothie. She wanted someone to confide in, but she could already picture the look on Tyra’s face if she told her what had happened. Tyra was barely tolerant of Tim at the best of times. They were family now, and Julie had a feeling that Tyra attempting to kill him with her bare hands would make the Riggins-Collette family Thanksgiving a little awkward.
“Nothing, really,” Julie replied finally, idly swishing her feet through the cool water. “I guess I’m just sort of feeling weird about this whole in-between thing this summer.”
“Graduation’s kinda anti-climactic, huh?” Tyra asked, sliding her sunglasses up her nose and squinting up at the hot sun.
“Pretty much,” Julie agreed.
Tyra watched Julie for a moment, sipping her own smoothie. “That’s understandable,” she said after a pause, “but I kinda thought you’d be more excited to see me.”
Julie looked up to see Tyra turning away to look over the lake. “I am excited to see you! I’m just... preoccupied.”
“Preoccupied,” Tyra repeated sceptically. “Sure.”
Julie looked at the side of Tyra’s head for a moment before clearing her throat. “So what’s up with you and Landry?”
“Nice change of subject,” Tyra muttered, removing the straw from her smoothie and chewing on it contemplatively. “I don’t know. We’re playing it by ear.”
“Gotcha. So does that mean you had sex with him this weekend, or...?”
“Guttermind,” Tyra sniffed, tossing her shoulder-length hair over her shoulder in mock insult. She looked down at the water, which rippled outwards in rings from her ankles. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet and serious. “I don’t know what to do about Landry. He’s one of my very best friends. Sometimes I can picture us getting back together in the future, maybe getting a place together, doing all those couple things. But sometimes...” she looked up at Julie and shrugged, smiling sadly. “Sometimes I can’t.”
Julie shifted closer to Tyra on the dock, their arms brushing against one another. “I really am glad you decided to come up to visit, you know.”
“Me too.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to come again before school starts?”
“I’m not sure. Probably not. Think your parents would let you come down for a weekend?”
“Let me? I’m eighteen.”
“I’m aware. I’m also aware that your parents are still Coach and Tami Taylor.”
Julie smiled. “I’m sure I could talk them into it.”
“The good news is that once school starts, we’re only going to be like three hours away from each other. I can come down to Houston all the time and cramp your style.”
“Cramp my style?”
“Sure. You can introduce me to all your vegan hipster college buddies as Tyra, your trashy friend from your hometown. I’ll show them that thing I can do with a beer can.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Julie laughed.
“Yeah,” Tyra wheedled, “but, you know... You’re going to love college.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“You’re going to love it, and it’s going to love you, and you’re going to have the time of your life. I just don’t want you to, you know, outgrow me.”
Julie turned and stared at Tyra’s downturned head. Didn’t Tyra have any idea how much Julie had always looked up to her? She shifted her hips and bumped her shoulder against Tyra’s.
“Don’t be crazy,” she said. “We’re gonna go to college and keep in touch like we did this year, and then in a couple years we’re going to get an apartment together in Austin. We’ll get six cats and watch marathons of Gene Simmons Family Jewels and never leave the apartment.”
Tyra laughed. “Right.”
“We’ll be friends. We will.”
“Okay,” Tyra conceded. She eyed Julie for a moment, her eyes sharp. Julie tried not to squirm; sometimes Tyra was way too perceptive. “You know, whatever it is that’s making you frown like you just found out that veggie burgers have been banned in the state of Texas, you can tell me about it, right?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Julie insisted. “I promise.”
“All right. You’ll tell me what’s going on eventually. No pressure.” Tyra looked down at her wristwatch and sighed. “I’d better hit the road.”
“I guess so,” Julie agreed reluctantly, lifting her feet up out of the water and collecting her shoes.
“Want me to drop you off at home, or do you have somewhere more exciting to be?” Tyra asked, stretching and slipping her feet back into their flip flops.
Julie squinted up at the wide, cloudless sky, and shrugged.
“Nope. I don’t have anywhere more exciting to be.”
***
It wasn’t news to Tim that sex complicated things, but that had never stopped him in the past. He’d never really thought of himself as one of those guys who went looking for trouble; it just seemed to find him. Sex complicated things. Tim liked sex. Trouble followed.
For Tim, sex was just sex. Aside from Lyla and Tyra, it was always more or less the same. Maybe it was ‘cause it had been a while, but he couldn’t seem to get sex with Julie out of his head.
From the moment he woke up on Saturday morning to find himself alone (three perfectly straight, long golden hairs on his sheets and a pair of dark blue striped underwear the only signs that she’d been there at all,) Tim found he could not stop thinking about Julie.
It wasn’t a surprise to Tim that he was attracted to her; he’d always thought she was cute. But there used to be something about her that made her seem untouchable. Lyla had been out of his league, but that hadn’t made her out of his reach. Julie was Coach’s daughter, and she and Seven had their whole thing going on, and Tim hadn’t been really interested in anyone except Lyla for a long time, anyway. They were acquaintances and sometimes-friends, and that was fine with Tim.
But things were different now. High school was behind them, and Tim had found that once they were both away from the circus of football and rally girls and first loves, all he could see was the hot, smart, funny, available girl sitting right there in his own living room.
The surprising thing about it was that Julie seemed to be interested in him, too. After Friday night, he guessed that “interested” was putting it lightly.
Tim didn’t hear from her on Saturday or Sunday, which he thought was probably for the best. Girls never seemed to know what to do with themselves afterward, and it was usually awkward. Best to give each other some space. Tim knew she had his number, though, so when Monday rolled around and he still hadn’t heard from her, he began to get a little annoyed.
Monday was a terrible day. He knew Julie had a job and all, but it wasn’t all day, and she still had her cell phone. She could send a text or something, at least. Even worse, Mindy didn’t work Mondays, so when he got home, Julie wasn’t even there to greet him with a smile and a wisecrack. Just Mindy wandering from room to room with Jordyn balanced on one hip and the cordless phone cradled in her shoulder, talking to someone named Cherish.
Tuesday was even worse. By Tuesday, Tim had gone past annoyed and back to horny again. He liked to think he had a healthy sex drive, but this was ridiculous. He couldn’t seem to go thirty seconds without thinking about Julie. Specifically, sex with Julie.
He thought about her all day. He thought about her while he burned the eggs he made for breakfast. He thought about her while he drove to the garage. He thought about her while he fed Chop Block. He thought about her so hard, in fact, that he smashed his finger with a wrench while he was working on Mrs. Werner’s Buick.
The sex in his memory became exaggerated to sex of legendary proportions, and by 5 PM, Tim was convinced that his life would be over if he didn’t get his hands on Julie again immediately.
Which is how he ended up with a speeding ticket on his way home from work that night.
***
Julie tapped the end of her pen against the notebook on the coffee table in front of her, trying to get herself to focus. She was perusing her information from Rice, attempting to sort out her schedule so she could register for classes, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate.
This was unsurprising, given that she had returned to the scene of the crime.
Nervously she glanced up at the clock on the microwave. Not much longer now and Tim would be home from work; time to put her escape plan in action.
Julie stood up and gathered her things, cramming them into her messenger bag. She checked on Jordyn (who was down for her nap) and, satisfied that the baby was still fast asleep, palmed her keys and stood four feet away from the front door, ready to bolt the minute Tim arrived.
The plan was going smoothly until she heard the rumble of Tim’s Chevy as he turned the corner onto the street.
Her palms began to sweat. Her pulse began to pound. She went weak at the knees. She actually went weak at the knees.
Unbelievable! Julie marveled, glaring at the front door as though it was Tim’s stupid face.
She heard the truck pull into the driveway and the engine turn off. She steeled herself, ready to make a break for it, when the door suddenly swung open. Julie stepped back, surprised. Tim must have nearly leaped out of the truck to make it up to the house that fast.
Before she could say a word, he slammed the door shut behind him and reached for her, pinning her against it and pressing his lips to hers in one smooth motion.
Julie was well aware that this was a bad idea, but as Tim pushed her against the closed door and eased a thigh up between her legs to hold her there, she was having a hard time remembering precisely why.
Shifting his hips back, Tim slid a hand up under her skirt. Julie gasped, her face reddening. It was a bit embarrassing how turned on she was already. Tim didn’t seem to think anything of it, leaning into her and burying his face against her shoulder.
"Bedroom?" he mumbled.
"Wherever," Julie replied breathlessly as his teeth scraped against her neck.
"Hold on," he said, running his hands down her thighs to hook her legs around his waist. He carried her to his room and dropped her on the bed like she weighed nothing. Julie barely had time to catch her breath before Tim was yanking her underwear down her thighs and reaching next to his bed for a condom.
Moving between her thighs, he thrust into her, hard. Julie slid across the mattress with a gasp, her head about to tip back over the edge, but his hand was behind it, his fingers tangling in her hair.
"Oh my god," Julie groaned, reaching up and grabbing his shoulders, her fingernails digging into his skin. She gripped his hips as hard as she could with her thighs, sure she was going to have bruises the next day.
"Uh huh," Tim agreed, grinding his hips against hers and catching her bottom lip between his teeth.
Julie couldn’t speak, could barely breathe; this wasn’t like anything she’d ever experienced before. Sex with Matt had been wonderful, but it hadn’t been anything like this. She suddenly understood why her mother called it “making love” - calling both this and what she had with Matt sex was rather like calling both avocados and oranges fruit. Generally accurate, but not nearly precise enough.
This, she thought as Tim hitched her leg up higher on his hip, must be fucking.
“You okay?” Tim panted, leaning up on his forearms to look at her. He must have noticed the look of shock on her face.
“Fine!” Julie reassured him breathlessly, her voice a little too bright.
Tim watched her closely for a moment before leaning in and kissing her, his mouth a gentle counterpoint to the roughness of his thrusts. Holding her tightly to him, he turned them both suddenly, switching positions so Julie was on top of him.
Julie braced her hands on the mattress next to his head, shifting to get the right angle. Tim let out a strange sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper as she leaned forward, his hands gripping her hips tightly as he thrust up into her. She was glad she hadn’t removed her shirt; she felt incredibly exposed as it was.
Tim frowned, shoving her skirt out of his way to ease a hand down between them to find her clit, which he rolled between two fingers.
Julie groaned, leaning back and scraping her fingernails against his chest through his shirt.
“Jesus, Jules,” Tim moaned, pressing his thumb firmly against her. Julie gasped in shocked pleasure, her orgasm swift and almost painfully good.
His fingers digging bruises into her hips, Tim twisted them both again so that Julie was on her back. He pressed her knees almost up to her shoulders, fucking her hard and panting like the effort was killing him.
“Come on,” Julie said breathlessly, tugging his hair between her fingers. He opened his eyes and stared at her, both their faces flushed and sweaty in the afternoon light. He came then, groaning as his body shuddered against hers.
Holding his weight off of her, he moved aside and stretched out on his back. For several minutes there was no sound but their laboured breathing. Tim was the first to break the relative silence.
"I’ve been thinkin' about that all damn day," he breathed.
Julie couldn't reply; she was too busy trying to piece her world back together again.
Tim exhaled heavily, sitting up slowly and stretching. "You hungry?" he asked. He stood up and left the room, stripping his shirt off and tossing it aside as he did so.
Hungry? All Julie wanted to do was lie there and sleep forever. Forcing her boneless limbs into action, she pushed her skirt back down over her legs and sat up.
Taking a shaky breath in, she looked around her and took stock of her situation. She was on Tim Riggins's bed, barely conscious, underwear... somewhere, recovering from just about the best sex of her young life. She almost laughed; she had officially become the thing she hated and disdained most in her world - a rally girl.
Julie groaned. This was stupid. This was a terrible, horrible path they were starting down, but all logic seemed to fail in the face of Riggins. She wondered if her dignity would benefit or suffer if she were to climb out the window and sneak off right now, albeit sans underwear.
She was prevented from finding out by Tim, who appeared in the doorway, wearing only his low-slung jeans and holding a take-out menu in one hand.
“I’m thinking pizza,” he said. “You?”
“Um, sure,” Julie replied, bewildered.
“Vegetarian with extra cheese, no onions?” he asked over his shoulder as he turned back into the other room, presumably to find the phone. Julie stared, growing more confused by the moment. Apparently Tim had a crystal ball that told him what girls liked on their pizza.
“Yeah,” she replied, looking around on the floor for her underwear while he was occupied. Julie spotted them and snatched them up, shimmying them back up her legs and running a hand over her messy hair to steady herself.
Julie heard Tim talking on the phone to the pizza place, so she took the opportunity to sneak out of his bedroom and into the bathroom. After using the facilities and splashing some cold water on her face, she stood at the sink and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t like the question she saw in her dark eyes, didn’t like that she didn’t have an answer for it.
When she couldn’t look at herself any longer, she turned and left the bathroom. Tim was standing in the middle of the room, watching the bathroom door. They stared at one another.
“Pizza’s gonna be here in about half an hour,” Tim said.
Julie nodded wordlessly.
Tim looked away, clearing his throat awkwardly. “You look...” he trailed off.
“I look what?”
“Kinda scared,” he replied, a smile quirking his lips but not quite reaching his eyes.
“Oh,” Julie said, blushing. “I’m not scared, I’ve just never... You know.”
Tim blinked at her, apprehension entering his expression. “You’ve never...?”
“Oh, no!” Julie exclaimed, shaking her head. “No, I’ve - yeah, I’ve done that before, I’ve just never... I mean, I was only with Matt before. Ever. You know?”
Tim nodded, then cleared his throat again. “You want something to drink?”
“Sure,” she said.
Wordlessly, Tim turned and retrieved two beers from the fridge before sitting down on one end of the couch. The invitation was obvious. Swallowing, Julie followed him, silently taking the proffered beer and sitting down on the other end of the couch.
Silence fell between them and lasted for so long that when Tim finally spoke, his voice was husky and it surprised Julie out of her anxious thoughts.
“Sorry if I scared you.”
“What? You didn’t scare me.”
“Yeah,” Tim said, “it’s just you keep on running for the door.”
“It’s not... I’m not scared of you, Tim.”
“Do you regret what happened?” Julie glanced up to find him watching her closely.
“I... I don’t know. That’s a hard question to answer,” she said softly, looking away.
“No it’s not. It’s pretty simple, actually.”
“It is so hard to answer,” Julie argued. “Am I confused right now? Yes. Does it freak me out that this is happening? Yes. Do I know what to do next? No. Was the sex fantastic? Yes. Do I want to jump you every time I look at you now? Yes. So yeah, it is a hard question to answer, okay?”
“Jump me, huh?”
“Yeah,” Julie replied, clearing her throat and looking away. There was a protracted pause during which neither of them spoke. Tim watched her for what felt like ages before turning his gaze to the floor.
“I think this is the part where I’m supposed to ask you what we’re doing,” Julie said softly.
Tim shrugged, uncomfortable.
“It’s okay,” Julie said, after a brief silence. “I don’t really want to try to label this. I don’t have a label for this, actually.”
Another pause followed. Julie wanted to reach over and shove him or smack him, anything to make him say something. They were interrupted then by a knock at the door.
“Pizza,” Tim mumbled, standing up and retrieving several crumpled bills from the kitchen counter.
Julie stayed on the couch, staring blankly at the dusty, duct-taped TV. Tim returned with their pizza, and two more cold beers.
“We never finished watching Terminator,” Tim pointed out.
“No, we didn’t.”
“Want to?”
Julie blinked at him. So that was the extent of the conversation they were going to have about what was going on between them?
“Sure,” she replied finally, reaching for a slice of pizza. She wasn’t going to force more awkward discussions if he wasn’t.
They ate and watched the rest of the movie in silence, Tim periodically getting up and fetching more from his seemingly endless supply of beer. When Terminator ended, Tim stood and switched another disc into the DVD player, this time a comedy Julie had seen before. She was full, and exhausted, and the beer was making her head tired and heavy. The picture kept blurring before her eyes as she struggled to stay awake.
Julie shivered hard, frowning in confusion to find herself curled up on the couch, her cheek resting on something that felt like denim. She was just realising that she must have fallen asleep during the movie when she felt something warm cover her body.
“Huh?” she mumbled, blinking. The living room was dark except for the blue light of the TV, and her head was resting on Tim’s thigh.
“You awake?”
“Yeah,” Julie grumbled, sitting up and rubbing at her face. “Did I fall asleep?”
“Yeah,” Tim replied, watching her somewhat warily. “You started shivering, so I got a blanket.”
“Thanks,” she said, putting her feet down on the floor and yawning tiredly. “What time is it?”
“Almost 10,” Tim replied.
“Seriously? I must have fallen asleep hours ago.”
“Yeah, you did.”
“I should go.” She stood up, embarrassed for falling asleep in his lap.
“You don’t have to,” Tim replied, standing up as well.
“No, I really should. It’s late.”
Julie gathered up her things, trying not to be bothered by the way Tim stood back, just watching her. She found her keys and he followed her to the door.
“So,” he said, standing in the open doorway with her. Julie paused on the front stoop and looked up at him. She was oddly reminded of the first time she ever saw his house, when she had Lois drive her there to apologise for being too cowardly to tell her parents the truth. Julie sighed.
"My parents are having a Fourth of July barbecue at our place. They wanted me to make sure you guys knew you were welcome, so..."
"Sure," Tim said. "We'll be there."
“Listen, maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone,” she said softly, glancing up at him to gauge his reaction.
He didn’t reply for a moment, but it was hard to read his face, which was half obscured by shadow.
“Probably not,” he agreed finally. “Coach’d kill me.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Julie replied. “Well... Goodnight.”
Another long pause followed before Tim nodded. “Night, Jules.”
Julie turned and walked to her car, which was parked out on the street. She got in and started the engine. Before pulling out to drive away, she looked back up at the house.
The door was closed. Tim had already gone back inside.
On the way home, Julie thought about the completely unspoken agreement they’d apparently come to. This was going to be a relationship based purely on sex. Fine. Julie could deal with that. Sex was good. She liked sex. She had missed it when Matt went away to college. Besides, she needed something to pass the time until August, and if she could take advantage of Tim's complete lack of sexual impulse control, she was going to. It was perfect, really.
Really. Things were just totally, completely perfect.
Chapter 9
Author: lindentree
Rating: R
Character(s): Tim/Julie
Word Count: 4,043
Summary: AU after 3x13 "Tomorrow Blues", this story takes place in the summer of 2010 when Tim returns home from his first year away at college, Julie graduates from her last year of high school, and they find themselves meeting somewhere in the middle.
I've been getting a fair bit of writing done lately. Thanks to ishie for always being there to read my fic whenever I ask, and to offer constructive advice and loads of cheerleading. Especially since I apparently need a strong drink, a cigarette, a Valium, and an aggressive pep talk every time I have to write a sex scene. ILU BB. ♥
Julie woke up late Saturday morning, blinking blearily up at the sunshine stretching across her ceiling. She squeezed her eyes shut and rolled over, moaning as her head began to pound. Everything that had happened the night before was still, unfortunately, very real. Seven Senoritas. The beer. The tequila.
Tim.
Julie buried her face in her pillow and groaned. What on earth had she been thinking? Sure, the tequila had muddied things up a bit and maybe made certain things seem like good ideas when they probably weren’t, but she hadn’t been that drunk. They’d both been eager and coherent participants the whole time.
It would have been easier to write the whole thing off as a drunken mistake.
After eventually dragging herself out of bed, Julie moped around the house for several hours, snapping at her parents and Gracie until they finally all gave up and left her alone. She got herself to work for her shift, distractedly passing through the busy dinner rush, grateful that, for once, no one she knew came through the doors.
Tyra picked her up late in the morning the next day, after Julie returned home from church with her family. They wanted to get in one last visit before Tyra had to drive back to Austin.
“Are you okay?” Tyra asked, glancing over at her. The girls had picked up lunch and driven out to the lake. They were sitting on the end of an unused dock, their feet in the water. “You’ve been weird all weekend.”
Julie sighed, taking a sip of her smoothie. She wanted someone to confide in, but she could already picture the look on Tyra’s face if she told her what had happened. Tyra was barely tolerant of Tim at the best of times. They were family now, and Julie had a feeling that Tyra attempting to kill him with her bare hands would make the Riggins-Collette family Thanksgiving a little awkward.
“Nothing, really,” Julie replied finally, idly swishing her feet through the cool water. “I guess I’m just sort of feeling weird about this whole in-between thing this summer.”
“Graduation’s kinda anti-climactic, huh?” Tyra asked, sliding her sunglasses up her nose and squinting up at the hot sun.
“Pretty much,” Julie agreed.
Tyra watched Julie for a moment, sipping her own smoothie. “That’s understandable,” she said after a pause, “but I kinda thought you’d be more excited to see me.”
Julie looked up to see Tyra turning away to look over the lake. “I am excited to see you! I’m just... preoccupied.”
“Preoccupied,” Tyra repeated sceptically. “Sure.”
Julie looked at the side of Tyra’s head for a moment before clearing her throat. “So what’s up with you and Landry?”
“Nice change of subject,” Tyra muttered, removing the straw from her smoothie and chewing on it contemplatively. “I don’t know. We’re playing it by ear.”
“Gotcha. So does that mean you had sex with him this weekend, or...?”
“Guttermind,” Tyra sniffed, tossing her shoulder-length hair over her shoulder in mock insult. She looked down at the water, which rippled outwards in rings from her ankles. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet and serious. “I don’t know what to do about Landry. He’s one of my very best friends. Sometimes I can picture us getting back together in the future, maybe getting a place together, doing all those couple things. But sometimes...” she looked up at Julie and shrugged, smiling sadly. “Sometimes I can’t.”
Julie shifted closer to Tyra on the dock, their arms brushing against one another. “I really am glad you decided to come up to visit, you know.”
“Me too.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to come again before school starts?”
“I’m not sure. Probably not. Think your parents would let you come down for a weekend?”
“Let me? I’m eighteen.”
“I’m aware. I’m also aware that your parents are still Coach and Tami Taylor.”
Julie smiled. “I’m sure I could talk them into it.”
“The good news is that once school starts, we’re only going to be like three hours away from each other. I can come down to Houston all the time and cramp your style.”
“Cramp my style?”
“Sure. You can introduce me to all your vegan hipster college buddies as Tyra, your trashy friend from your hometown. I’ll show them that thing I can do with a beer can.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Julie laughed.
“Yeah,” Tyra wheedled, “but, you know... You’re going to love college.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“You’re going to love it, and it’s going to love you, and you’re going to have the time of your life. I just don’t want you to, you know, outgrow me.”
Julie turned and stared at Tyra’s downturned head. Didn’t Tyra have any idea how much Julie had always looked up to her? She shifted her hips and bumped her shoulder against Tyra’s.
“Don’t be crazy,” she said. “We’re gonna go to college and keep in touch like we did this year, and then in a couple years we’re going to get an apartment together in Austin. We’ll get six cats and watch marathons of Gene Simmons Family Jewels and never leave the apartment.”
Tyra laughed. “Right.”
“We’ll be friends. We will.”
“Okay,” Tyra conceded. She eyed Julie for a moment, her eyes sharp. Julie tried not to squirm; sometimes Tyra was way too perceptive. “You know, whatever it is that’s making you frown like you just found out that veggie burgers have been banned in the state of Texas, you can tell me about it, right?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Julie insisted. “I promise.”
“All right. You’ll tell me what’s going on eventually. No pressure.” Tyra looked down at her wristwatch and sighed. “I’d better hit the road.”
“I guess so,” Julie agreed reluctantly, lifting her feet up out of the water and collecting her shoes.
“Want me to drop you off at home, or do you have somewhere more exciting to be?” Tyra asked, stretching and slipping her feet back into their flip flops.
Julie squinted up at the wide, cloudless sky, and shrugged.
“Nope. I don’t have anywhere more exciting to be.”
***
It wasn’t news to Tim that sex complicated things, but that had never stopped him in the past. He’d never really thought of himself as one of those guys who went looking for trouble; it just seemed to find him. Sex complicated things. Tim liked sex. Trouble followed.
For Tim, sex was just sex. Aside from Lyla and Tyra, it was always more or less the same. Maybe it was ‘cause it had been a while, but he couldn’t seem to get sex with Julie out of his head.
From the moment he woke up on Saturday morning to find himself alone (three perfectly straight, long golden hairs on his sheets and a pair of dark blue striped underwear the only signs that she’d been there at all,) Tim found he could not stop thinking about Julie.
It wasn’t a surprise to Tim that he was attracted to her; he’d always thought she was cute. But there used to be something about her that made her seem untouchable. Lyla had been out of his league, but that hadn’t made her out of his reach. Julie was Coach’s daughter, and she and Seven had their whole thing going on, and Tim hadn’t been really interested in anyone except Lyla for a long time, anyway. They were acquaintances and sometimes-friends, and that was fine with Tim.
But things were different now. High school was behind them, and Tim had found that once they were both away from the circus of football and rally girls and first loves, all he could see was the hot, smart, funny, available girl sitting right there in his own living room.
The surprising thing about it was that Julie seemed to be interested in him, too. After Friday night, he guessed that “interested” was putting it lightly.
Tim didn’t hear from her on Saturday or Sunday, which he thought was probably for the best. Girls never seemed to know what to do with themselves afterward, and it was usually awkward. Best to give each other some space. Tim knew she had his number, though, so when Monday rolled around and he still hadn’t heard from her, he began to get a little annoyed.
Monday was a terrible day. He knew Julie had a job and all, but it wasn’t all day, and she still had her cell phone. She could send a text or something, at least. Even worse, Mindy didn’t work Mondays, so when he got home, Julie wasn’t even there to greet him with a smile and a wisecrack. Just Mindy wandering from room to room with Jordyn balanced on one hip and the cordless phone cradled in her shoulder, talking to someone named Cherish.
Tuesday was even worse. By Tuesday, Tim had gone past annoyed and back to horny again. He liked to think he had a healthy sex drive, but this was ridiculous. He couldn’t seem to go thirty seconds without thinking about Julie. Specifically, sex with Julie.
He thought about her all day. He thought about her while he burned the eggs he made for breakfast. He thought about her while he drove to the garage. He thought about her while he fed Chop Block. He thought about her so hard, in fact, that he smashed his finger with a wrench while he was working on Mrs. Werner’s Buick.
The sex in his memory became exaggerated to sex of legendary proportions, and by 5 PM, Tim was convinced that his life would be over if he didn’t get his hands on Julie again immediately.
Which is how he ended up with a speeding ticket on his way home from work that night.
***
Julie tapped the end of her pen against the notebook on the coffee table in front of her, trying to get herself to focus. She was perusing her information from Rice, attempting to sort out her schedule so she could register for classes, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate.
This was unsurprising, given that she had returned to the scene of the crime.
Nervously she glanced up at the clock on the microwave. Not much longer now and Tim would be home from work; time to put her escape plan in action.
Julie stood up and gathered her things, cramming them into her messenger bag. She checked on Jordyn (who was down for her nap) and, satisfied that the baby was still fast asleep, palmed her keys and stood four feet away from the front door, ready to bolt the minute Tim arrived.
The plan was going smoothly until she heard the rumble of Tim’s Chevy as he turned the corner onto the street.
Her palms began to sweat. Her pulse began to pound. She went weak at the knees. She actually went weak at the knees.
Unbelievable! Julie marveled, glaring at the front door as though it was Tim’s stupid face.
She heard the truck pull into the driveway and the engine turn off. She steeled herself, ready to make a break for it, when the door suddenly swung open. Julie stepped back, surprised. Tim must have nearly leaped out of the truck to make it up to the house that fast.
Before she could say a word, he slammed the door shut behind him and reached for her, pinning her against it and pressing his lips to hers in one smooth motion.
Julie was well aware that this was a bad idea, but as Tim pushed her against the closed door and eased a thigh up between her legs to hold her there, she was having a hard time remembering precisely why.
Shifting his hips back, Tim slid a hand up under her skirt. Julie gasped, her face reddening. It was a bit embarrassing how turned on she was already. Tim didn’t seem to think anything of it, leaning into her and burying his face against her shoulder.
"Bedroom?" he mumbled.
"Wherever," Julie replied breathlessly as his teeth scraped against her neck.
"Hold on," he said, running his hands down her thighs to hook her legs around his waist. He carried her to his room and dropped her on the bed like she weighed nothing. Julie barely had time to catch her breath before Tim was yanking her underwear down her thighs and reaching next to his bed for a condom.
Moving between her thighs, he thrust into her, hard. Julie slid across the mattress with a gasp, her head about to tip back over the edge, but his hand was behind it, his fingers tangling in her hair.
"Oh my god," Julie groaned, reaching up and grabbing his shoulders, her fingernails digging into his skin. She gripped his hips as hard as she could with her thighs, sure she was going to have bruises the next day.
"Uh huh," Tim agreed, grinding his hips against hers and catching her bottom lip between his teeth.
Julie couldn’t speak, could barely breathe; this wasn’t like anything she’d ever experienced before. Sex with Matt had been wonderful, but it hadn’t been anything like this. She suddenly understood why her mother called it “making love” - calling both this and what she had with Matt sex was rather like calling both avocados and oranges fruit. Generally accurate, but not nearly precise enough.
This, she thought as Tim hitched her leg up higher on his hip, must be fucking.
“You okay?” Tim panted, leaning up on his forearms to look at her. He must have noticed the look of shock on her face.
“Fine!” Julie reassured him breathlessly, her voice a little too bright.
Tim watched her closely for a moment before leaning in and kissing her, his mouth a gentle counterpoint to the roughness of his thrusts. Holding her tightly to him, he turned them both suddenly, switching positions so Julie was on top of him.
Julie braced her hands on the mattress next to his head, shifting to get the right angle. Tim let out a strange sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper as she leaned forward, his hands gripping her hips tightly as he thrust up into her. She was glad she hadn’t removed her shirt; she felt incredibly exposed as it was.
Tim frowned, shoving her skirt out of his way to ease a hand down between them to find her clit, which he rolled between two fingers.
Julie groaned, leaning back and scraping her fingernails against his chest through his shirt.
“Jesus, Jules,” Tim moaned, pressing his thumb firmly against her. Julie gasped in shocked pleasure, her orgasm swift and almost painfully good.
His fingers digging bruises into her hips, Tim twisted them both again so that Julie was on her back. He pressed her knees almost up to her shoulders, fucking her hard and panting like the effort was killing him.
“Come on,” Julie said breathlessly, tugging his hair between her fingers. He opened his eyes and stared at her, both their faces flushed and sweaty in the afternoon light. He came then, groaning as his body shuddered against hers.
Holding his weight off of her, he moved aside and stretched out on his back. For several minutes there was no sound but their laboured breathing. Tim was the first to break the relative silence.
"I’ve been thinkin' about that all damn day," he breathed.
Julie couldn't reply; she was too busy trying to piece her world back together again.
Tim exhaled heavily, sitting up slowly and stretching. "You hungry?" he asked. He stood up and left the room, stripping his shirt off and tossing it aside as he did so.
Hungry? All Julie wanted to do was lie there and sleep forever. Forcing her boneless limbs into action, she pushed her skirt back down over her legs and sat up.
Taking a shaky breath in, she looked around her and took stock of her situation. She was on Tim Riggins's bed, barely conscious, underwear... somewhere, recovering from just about the best sex of her young life. She almost laughed; she had officially become the thing she hated and disdained most in her world - a rally girl.
Julie groaned. This was stupid. This was a terrible, horrible path they were starting down, but all logic seemed to fail in the face of Riggins. She wondered if her dignity would benefit or suffer if she were to climb out the window and sneak off right now, albeit sans underwear.
She was prevented from finding out by Tim, who appeared in the doorway, wearing only his low-slung jeans and holding a take-out menu in one hand.
“I’m thinking pizza,” he said. “You?”
“Um, sure,” Julie replied, bewildered.
“Vegetarian with extra cheese, no onions?” he asked over his shoulder as he turned back into the other room, presumably to find the phone. Julie stared, growing more confused by the moment. Apparently Tim had a crystal ball that told him what girls liked on their pizza.
“Yeah,” she replied, looking around on the floor for her underwear while he was occupied. Julie spotted them and snatched them up, shimmying them back up her legs and running a hand over her messy hair to steady herself.
Julie heard Tim talking on the phone to the pizza place, so she took the opportunity to sneak out of his bedroom and into the bathroom. After using the facilities and splashing some cold water on her face, she stood at the sink and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t like the question she saw in her dark eyes, didn’t like that she didn’t have an answer for it.
When she couldn’t look at herself any longer, she turned and left the bathroom. Tim was standing in the middle of the room, watching the bathroom door. They stared at one another.
“Pizza’s gonna be here in about half an hour,” Tim said.
Julie nodded wordlessly.
Tim looked away, clearing his throat awkwardly. “You look...” he trailed off.
“I look what?”
“Kinda scared,” he replied, a smile quirking his lips but not quite reaching his eyes.
“Oh,” Julie said, blushing. “I’m not scared, I’ve just never... You know.”
Tim blinked at her, apprehension entering his expression. “You’ve never...?”
“Oh, no!” Julie exclaimed, shaking her head. “No, I’ve - yeah, I’ve done that before, I’ve just never... I mean, I was only with Matt before. Ever. You know?”
Tim nodded, then cleared his throat again. “You want something to drink?”
“Sure,” she said.
Wordlessly, Tim turned and retrieved two beers from the fridge before sitting down on one end of the couch. The invitation was obvious. Swallowing, Julie followed him, silently taking the proffered beer and sitting down on the other end of the couch.
Silence fell between them and lasted for so long that when Tim finally spoke, his voice was husky and it surprised Julie out of her anxious thoughts.
“Sorry if I scared you.”
“What? You didn’t scare me.”
“Yeah,” Tim said, “it’s just you keep on running for the door.”
“It’s not... I’m not scared of you, Tim.”
“Do you regret what happened?” Julie glanced up to find him watching her closely.
“I... I don’t know. That’s a hard question to answer,” she said softly, looking away.
“No it’s not. It’s pretty simple, actually.”
“It is so hard to answer,” Julie argued. “Am I confused right now? Yes. Does it freak me out that this is happening? Yes. Do I know what to do next? No. Was the sex fantastic? Yes. Do I want to jump you every time I look at you now? Yes. So yeah, it is a hard question to answer, okay?”
“Jump me, huh?”
“Yeah,” Julie replied, clearing her throat and looking away. There was a protracted pause during which neither of them spoke. Tim watched her for what felt like ages before turning his gaze to the floor.
“I think this is the part where I’m supposed to ask you what we’re doing,” Julie said softly.
Tim shrugged, uncomfortable.
“It’s okay,” Julie said, after a brief silence. “I don’t really want to try to label this. I don’t have a label for this, actually.”
Another pause followed. Julie wanted to reach over and shove him or smack him, anything to make him say something. They were interrupted then by a knock at the door.
“Pizza,” Tim mumbled, standing up and retrieving several crumpled bills from the kitchen counter.
Julie stayed on the couch, staring blankly at the dusty, duct-taped TV. Tim returned with their pizza, and two more cold beers.
“We never finished watching Terminator,” Tim pointed out.
“No, we didn’t.”
“Want to?”
Julie blinked at him. So that was the extent of the conversation they were going to have about what was going on between them?
“Sure,” she replied finally, reaching for a slice of pizza. She wasn’t going to force more awkward discussions if he wasn’t.
They ate and watched the rest of the movie in silence, Tim periodically getting up and fetching more from his seemingly endless supply of beer. When Terminator ended, Tim stood and switched another disc into the DVD player, this time a comedy Julie had seen before. She was full, and exhausted, and the beer was making her head tired and heavy. The picture kept blurring before her eyes as she struggled to stay awake.
Julie shivered hard, frowning in confusion to find herself curled up on the couch, her cheek resting on something that felt like denim. She was just realising that she must have fallen asleep during the movie when she felt something warm cover her body.
“Huh?” she mumbled, blinking. The living room was dark except for the blue light of the TV, and her head was resting on Tim’s thigh.
“You awake?”
“Yeah,” Julie grumbled, sitting up and rubbing at her face. “Did I fall asleep?”
“Yeah,” Tim replied, watching her somewhat warily. “You started shivering, so I got a blanket.”
“Thanks,” she said, putting her feet down on the floor and yawning tiredly. “What time is it?”
“Almost 10,” Tim replied.
“Seriously? I must have fallen asleep hours ago.”
“Yeah, you did.”
“I should go.” She stood up, embarrassed for falling asleep in his lap.
“You don’t have to,” Tim replied, standing up as well.
“No, I really should. It’s late.”
Julie gathered up her things, trying not to be bothered by the way Tim stood back, just watching her. She found her keys and he followed her to the door.
“So,” he said, standing in the open doorway with her. Julie paused on the front stoop and looked up at him. She was oddly reminded of the first time she ever saw his house, when she had Lois drive her there to apologise for being too cowardly to tell her parents the truth. Julie sighed.
"My parents are having a Fourth of July barbecue at our place. They wanted me to make sure you guys knew you were welcome, so..."
"Sure," Tim said. "We'll be there."
“Listen, maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone,” she said softly, glancing up at him to gauge his reaction.
He didn’t reply for a moment, but it was hard to read his face, which was half obscured by shadow.
“Probably not,” he agreed finally. “Coach’d kill me.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Julie replied. “Well... Goodnight.”
Another long pause followed before Tim nodded. “Night, Jules.”
Julie turned and walked to her car, which was parked out on the street. She got in and started the engine. Before pulling out to drive away, she looked back up at the house.
The door was closed. Tim had already gone back inside.
On the way home, Julie thought about the completely unspoken agreement they’d apparently come to. This was going to be a relationship based purely on sex. Fine. Julie could deal with that. Sex was good. She liked sex. She had missed it when Matt went away to college. Besides, she needed something to pass the time until August, and if she could take advantage of Tim's complete lack of sexual impulse control, she was going to. It was perfect, really.
Really. Things were just totally, completely perfect.
Chapter 9