Tina

It was a little after four-thirty when I woke up. I was so comfortable, lying on top of Luke. He still had an arm around me and was holding my hand from earlier, even though he was asleep. Resting my chin on my hand on his chest and watching him, he had a little smile on his face and was at peace. I looked at the new scratches and the bruise I had given him and wondered what had come over me this weekend. It was less than a week ago we were still playing silly buggers and being too nervous to move our relationship forward.

Exactly a week ago we had our first date, that ended in a tentative, but charged kiss. Before that just getting to know him better was all wishful thinking. I was not sure if I was interested in sex. Here I was now acting like some sexual animal, scratching and biting him in the throes of some of the best feelings I have had.

While I was thinking of the what, the question of why jumped at me. I think the answer lay in how I was feeling now, it was that same feeling I had since entering the house on Friday night. The way they all joked with me, how they had taken both me and Diane under their wings, made me feel so welcome. There was also an unspoken message that said if you need us, we are here. I saw that when Matt and Andy had sat with me at the club last week. I also saw it in how they treated Cara and Rachel. There was no snide comment about Matt and Rachel not playing last night, nothing even about them staying and watching. When Cara was naked, of course people looked, we all did. We all looked at Rob too, but there was no lecherous staring or smutty comments. Finally, when Luke had saved my embarrassment, there was no ill feeling from anyone. Rob was even active in the charade that was played out and happily showed me what Luke had done.

I had been looked after, respected and made to feel safe. After the summer I had been hurting so badly. Idiot was a charmer, he was handsome, outwardly he had lots going for him. Then I discovered what he was really like. Luke was pretty much the opposite; he had no suave charm. Luke's charm was just from a kind heart. Until you saw him let go with his friends and that damned smile spread across his face, you wouldn’t have called him handsome, rugged or battered would be better descriptions. He was shorter than Idiot and with his clothes on looked like he would be fatter. He had a gentle voice when he spoke to people in general yet spoke with authority and confidence when he had to.

All this was very nice and very positive, but the greatest thing about him was how he loved his friends and they loved him. Diane’s words came back to me about taming the beast. I knew I never could and would never want to. It was the fire that drove his passion. To tame him, would be to kill the man that he was. I had already seen a brief look at the man that was left when the flame flickered and I would do everything in my power to stop it going out. She had been so right after that first rugby match; I loved the big oaf.

Leaning down and kissing him, I whispered, “Luke, Luke baby, I think you should wake up.”

Luke

I opened my eyes upon a countenance divine, “Tell me I’ve died and you are the angel sent to greet me.”

Tina kissed my nose, “Come on, sweetie we can’t spend all afternoon in here.”

“Says who?”

“Both of us! I have to get back to halls and you were going to explain something to me.”

“Five more minutes, mum.”

Tina pushed herself up off my chest, “Eww, actually, no code this time, back in a minute.” Grabbing my dressing gown off the door, someone felt really at home, I smiled as she disappeared.

As I sat and swung my legs out of bed, I realised what she meant, everything was getting a bit dry. While she was washing, I got some clothes out and another pair of boxers for her, which I threw at her when she came back in.

“Catch.”

“What? What are these for?”

“I know they will drown you, but they are clean and better than nothing. Well, when I say better, I don’t actually mean better. Of course, nothing is better than nothing.”

She threw them back, “I’m good, your shirt covers enough and I can put my jeans on to go back to halls in.”

Tina had made us both a coffee while I cleaned up and put on my jeans. I must visit Brighton and grab one of the ‘Clothing Optional Beyond This Point’ signs to put in the entrance hall. I sat on the sofa with my drink on the arm and my arm around this wonderful person I was learning about. Tina was leaning on me, cradling her cup, with her feet curled up behind her in the way that only women can.

“Comfortable?”

“Uhuh.” I pressed play on the remote control and the video lit up the screen.

Tina

About ninety minutes later, after plenty of foot tapping and Luke singing along and reciting most of the dialogue. I wasn’t sure what to think. The antics they got up to in the clubhouse was one thing, but this was a different kettle of fish. The club was spontaneous, this was a video he kept in his room. All said, it was catchy and I was tapping my foot along too.

“Well?” Luke said as he started rewinding the tape.

“It was… different.”

“Diane likes this too?”

I shrugged, “You know as much as me. I had no idea what she was going on about this morning. And the others all like it too?”

Luke looked into his lap for a second before looking at me with a grin, “I’m sort of guilty for that. I brainwashed them and I’ll do the same to you if you’ll let me.”

“Let’s park that one.” The truth was it was weird but no worse than I’d seen over the last couple of months. Okay, maybe that wasn’t quite accurate, it was totally different to anything I had seen, but it was fully on the spectrum of what I’d experienced since the term started. Diane liked it, that was evident from her reaction, Luke and his friends did too, at the very worst I could tolerate it.

“Fair enough, brainwashing is a slow process,” he laughed. Waving his fingers around my head he continued, “Little by little I’ll draw you into my web. Welcome to my parlour said the spider to the fly.”

I let his misquote of one of my secret pleasures drop and replied,
“Oh, no, no! said the little Fly; to ask me is in vain:
For who goes up that winding stair shall never come down again.”

Luke

I couldn’t believe it, one of the first poems I knew by heart and Tina was quoting it to me.

“Dear friend, what can I do,
To prove the warm affection I have ever felt for you?”

I put my finger under her chin and closed her mouth,
“The trouble Miss Croft,
Was Spider the girl and Fly the boy?
I am ensconced in your web,
You’ve filled my heart with joy”

She jumped around kissed me hard on the lips, hugging me closely.

“Now, I do believe you have a friend waiting for you.”

“But…” I put a finger on her lips.

“Two things. First and most important, do not ever drop your friends for me, especially those that have been in your life longer than me. If this all crashes and burns, we will both need them more than ever.” Tina looked sad but was nodding.

“Second, the sooner we get you back, the sooner we can start dreaming of the next time we spend time together.”

She put and hand on my cheek and kissed the bruise, “Can we walk?”

“You trying to stretch out time?”

“Bloody right I am!”

I returned her kiss, “Works for me.”

It was about two miles to her halls. We were both young and pretty fit. If we pushed it, we could jog there in a little over ten minutes. We somehow dragged it out to an hour.

“How do you know The Spider and the Fly?” Tina asked.

“How or why?

“How? I read and re-read it, recited it line by line until I got it, just the same as Eskimo Nell.

“Why? I just love rhymes and poems. I can’t sing for shite, but I do like the beat. My dad introduced me to a book called Verse and Worse when I was a kid. It was full of nonsense poems. Spider and the Fly was one of the first proper poems I learnt in my early teens. Then I discovered rugby songs and the rest is history.”

“You do know you’re wrong though? The spider was male trying to seduce the lady fly.”

“Oh, dear, did you not study biology? Male spiders are generally eaten by the female after doing their duty, it only stands to reason the spider so cunning and seductive is a woman.”

We talked back and forth for about ten minutes, stopping often to argue points, before calling a truce and agreeing that without Mary Howitt’s original, we wouldn’t know and it didn’t change the morals and observations.

“I bet I can guess your favourite poem.”

I let go of her hand and put it on the crook of my arm, “Go on then,” I challenged.

“From what I know of you and how I’ve seen you act and react, ‘If’ by Kipling.”

“It’s a great poem and a favourite, but I doubt you would ever guess correct, Sick Leave by Siegfried Sassoon”

“Yes, no, I would never have guessed. I’ve not even heard of him.” And so, we talked and laughed all the way back to the halls. Tina had done some war poems at school but didn’t like them as she found them quite depressing.

We kissed outside Diane’s door, “Don’t forget to ask her. Lunch tomorrow?”

“Yes, though the study group is getting together for the last time this term in the evening.”

I banged on Diane’s door, “We’ll stand here all night if I didn’t.”

“Ahem, you have a room over there, baby girl,” Diane said, interrupting our last kiss.

“See you tomorrow, hi Di...ane,” sticking my tongue out to Diane, I brushed Tina’s cheek, winked, turned and left.

As I stepped out into the fresh air, I thought I had lost a limb. I had had a great weekend, make that the best weekend. I should be fulfilled, satisfied, but instead, there was something missing. I needed some time to think about all that had happened. I walked down to the seafront and got some fish and chips and went and sat on the dock. This time of the evening the ships were rolling in, very few tourists were about this time of year. It was peaceful sitting just wasting my time and mulling things over.

I was always comfortable with my teammates and in the house. I don’t ever remember being this comfortable with a girl. Tina had just slipped into my life, as if she had a non-stick coating. Other girls I had had any type of relationship with, some drinks at the club or several dates and a roll in the hay, there was some sort of friction.  One got the arse because I got naked after first seeing me, naked. Another got the arse because Cara lost at poker as usual and I looked at her tits, they are nice tits. Distracted, again. None had ever given any of the guys any lip but seemed to rub them up the wrong way. It was easy to see why we would rub a partner up the wrong way. Yet Tina, the quietest of any I had been with, gave as good as she got. They seemed to accept her and Diane like they were meant to be there.

I got up and put my papers in the bin. Smiling I headed for home. Yes, it was good to have Tina in my life.

Tina

“I hope the sex was memorable because I promise I will hurt him!”

Diane laughed as she pulled me into her room. We gathered some ingredients and headed along to the kitchenette. I threw together a quick and dirty, chicken and rice dish.

“How was your afternoon?”

“Fine, Rob dropped me off here then headed off to meet up with some guys from his course to get some project work done. I came back and did some studying for my tests next week.

“How was yours? I’m guessing you and Luke didn’t do much course work.”

“Well, we did do some work with numbers.”

I gave her a brief outline of my afternoon. She stopped me almost straight away, “And he trusted you?”

I nodded and carried on, “Wow! Where’s Tina? What have you done with my baby girl?”

“Don't ask because I don't know!

"Anyway, it’s silly, just the simple things like after we woke up and sat on the sofa, my shoulder just seemed to fit into his armpit. Does that sound daft? With some things, like when I showed him the blood I had drawn, he was almost blasé, with others he looks like he would take on the world. Then this afternoon, you will never believe what I found out.”

It was a strange look on Diane’s face, she must have known I was excited, but within our shared joy there was a curiosity that bordered on worry, “Go on.”

“He likes poetry. It sort of makes sense when he explained it, but not only did he quote some,” I hesitated feeling a little shy, for some reason, this felt worse than if I was telling Diane about the intimate details of our lovemaking. “He also took a little bit and weaved it into a verse about us.”

“He is so like Rob and yet so different. Rob, what you see is what you get, he’ll fight for his friends to his last and love with all his might and then some, but life is simple. It’s made for living not analysing. Luke seems to have layers upon layers. It was these layers that slowed him down to start. I bet he would never volunteer to me that he likes poetry, I wonder if Rob knows. I think you’ve got under his skin, baby girl and he’s getting under yours.”

“I think you’re right. I think I want to go up that winding stair, never to come down again.”

Diane pulled me into a hug, “Promise me something, honey?”

“Of course.”

“Two somethings actually, I want an invite to the wedding and don’t ever forget me.”

I hugged her then told her what Luke had said about friends. I then felt tears on my cheek.

“Tell me?”

“I suddenly got scared. What if I do need you, you know, like Luke said, if this all falls apart?”

 She hugged me back and kissed me, “Then I promise I will be there for you. Though it’s a promise I don’t think I will have to keep.”

It was as if she had spoken a universal truth and my fears were gone. “Maybe we could have a joint wedding, with you and Rob.”

She barked out a laugh, “Ha! Honey, me and Rob will never get married, we’re just not together like that. But if he’s still about, I might shag him under the table at yours.”

“And Luke calls me brazen.”

“You are and wanton. Now tell me what you thought about what he was going to explain.”

I did and Diane told me that the music is the type that you get in your head and just can’t shake, which I could see, but I just couldn’t get my head around the weirdness of it all. Diane got the mischief-maker look on her face but said no more.

“When do your lectures finish, is it Wednesday too?” I asked.

“Yes, I think everyone is finished by then, some earlier but none later, typical. Why?”

“Luke said he could give us a lift back. He plans to leave in the afternoon. Daddy was coming down on Saturday, so it works for me unless you had plans for later in the week.”

Friday night and Saturday, I had no trouble sleeping. Part was nervous exhaustion; part was being tired from the exercise and fresh air. But now, back in my own bed, I was struggling to sleep. His scent wasn’t on the pillow, his arms weren’t around me, I had nowhere to sit, I wasn’t cocooned by him. It would be bad not having Luke in my life.

Luke

“Evening, lover boy.”

“Robert.”

“So serious, everything okay?”

“I fucking miss her already.”

“Shit man, you got it bad! I think a beautiful enchantress did put a spell on you. You thinking of moving her in?”

“Can’t, the university would be pissed at a first year not being in halls, all their...” I waved two fingers in the air, “well-being shit. Plus, I doubt she’d want to leave Diane in the lurch and you two aren’t in that sort of relationship, are you?”

“No, sorry bud. And it would also break the terms of our lease. Hate to sound like a cunt, but if you decide to get a place together next year, give us as much notice as possible so we can find someone else that can cook.”

Rob smiled and held out his hand, I slapped it, “I’m happy for you,” he said, “she’s a nice girl, could do with some more tits, but if you keep pumping you might inflate them.”

“Now. Now, you sound like a cunt.” We both laughed.

“One thing I’ve noticed, she’s changed since the first time I met her. Diane was pretty self-assured from when I talked to her about winding you up. Tina was the opposite, timid, shy. The prick she was with got all possessive and she tried to shrug him off once, then tolerated it. Yesterday a different girl came out of your bedroom, she was walking around half naked and was willing to play strip poker with us. Though you ruined our fun, I would have…whoa, only messing man, I was just going to say I would liked to have seen her cute underwear.” Rob held his hands up.

“What?”

“The look that just came over your face, it looked like you were ready to kill me.”

“Shit, sorry, you know I wouldn’t, well, unless you really pissed me off.”

“We’re good. Apparently, she also told some creep to piss off at the match yesterday, Diane was saying. Well as much as Tina would say piss off.”

“News to me.”

“Some geezer came sniffing about the pair of them during the match and Tina got all assertive on his arse, ‘no means no, now leave us alone’. Stuff like that. Here’s the funny bit, rumours are spreading that you’re a psycho.”

Rob retailed what Diane had told him about the incident in the clubhouse. Before long I would have thrown the whole university out on my own, got to love rumours. I did wonder why Tina hadn’t mentioned it. I wasn’t going to let it worry me, I’d just ask about it tomorrow at lunch.

“The big psycho,” Rob continued, “that comes home and whines about missing his girl.”

I patted Rob on the cheek, “Yeah? Well you know I’m just a big softy at heart. Goodnight.”

He was still laughing as I shut my door. I shucked off my clothes and slipped into bed. I shuffled over to Tina’s side cuddling the pillow she had slept on the last two nights. There was the subtle hint of cinnamon and coconut that seemed to be the foundation for her smell and it was with this in my nostrils and the face I saw when I awoke that afternoon in mind, I slipped into a peaceful sleep.”

The following morning, I was sat watching the news while I had my breakfast and Matt walked in with his.

“Anything of interest?”

“They started fixing Hubble yesterday.”

Matt laughed, “Fucking idiots, how could they polish the mirror wrong? Rob told us about last night.” He paused for a reaction, though should have known better, I did usually try to hold myself back until I had all the information I needed.

“She seems like a lovely girl. If she makes you feel that good, hang on to her. When you heading home?”

“I was planning tomorrow straight after the exams, Tina’s going to ask Diane if she wants to come with me. They live off of junction eighteen. But it’s Tina’s dad that’s supposed to be giving them a lift, so if Diane’s got plans, I might hang about a bit longer.”

Tina

Monday morning dragged, it didn’t help I tossed and turned all night and was still tired when my alarm went off this morning. I was just about to step outside when Paula came running up.

“Tina, do you want to get some lunch?”

“Oh, sorry Paula, I’ve already got plans.”

“Oh, okay, maybe we can get something to eat after study tonight?”

“Sure, that sounds nice.”

As we stepped outside, I saw Luke waiting and ran up and gave him a kiss. He lifted me off the floor as he kissed me back. When he put me down, I turned and said goodbye to Paula and got a gruff response.

“She alright?”

“She was, wanted to go to lunch, but I told her we had plans, so promised to go after study tonight. Don’t know why her mood changed.” I could feel myself nearly skipping along arm in arm with Luke.

“I get the feeling she doesn’t like me. Not sure what I’ve done wrong, but she has only ever given me filthy looks.”

“She can be a bit funny. Hey, she’s not here, it’s just us.”

We talked about our mornings, both of us thought that lectures were very low key. We had tests tomorrow and Wednesday, but that was it for the term. We went to one of the on-campus canteens and got our food. Luke looked like he was getting food for both of us, plus some spare. I chuckled at the amount on his tray.

“I’m a growing lad,” he said as we sat down.

Before I had a chance to say more, “Did you ask Diane about the lift home?”

“Yes, she did ask if you’re sure, it’s out of your way.”

“As I said, it’s only two junctions up the motorway and if your mum and dad live where I think, it’ll only take twenty or thirty minutes cross country to get home. It’s funny I had friends from primary school who went to school over there and even had a girlfriend from your school. But it takes us to move a hundred miles from home to meet.

“Rob mentioned that there was an issue at the game on Saturday, some wanker sniffing around.”

I really should have guessed he would find out. I must remember that they will talk. It’s not like I did anything wrong, just didn’t want to upset him.

“Yes, but it was dealt with.” I went on and explained and told him of the rumour.

“Why didn’t you mention it?”

“I just didn’t want you to get upset when it had all been dealt with. Especially after…”

“The trouble on the pitch?” I nodded. He took my hand and continued, “Okay, Miss Croft, remember what I said about leaving stuff on the pitch?” I nodded again, “It’s rare that it doesn’t happen. More importantly, if you don’t tell me things how can I help you, maybe protect you.”

He turned almost shy as he finished. This was the sweetest most caring thing anyone had ever said and he appeared embarrassed to be saying it. I took his hand in both of mine and kissed it.

“Also, I would like to have bought the other guy a drink to say thanks.”

Suitably admonished we carried on our lunch happily. The only fly in the ointment was we both needed to do quite a bit of work for our last two days so would only see each other at lunch and briefly in the evenings until Wednesday.

“You were staying until Saturday, weren’t you? Is that the soonest someone could get down?”

“Yes, mummy prefers not to drive too far, though she brought me to all the open days and interviews during the week. I said we could wait until the weekend when daddy could drive down. It’ll be a nice surprise when I arrive home on Wednesday.” I smiled at the thought of the looks on their faces when I got there.

Luke

I’m not sure why I suddenly felt daft when I told Tina I wanted to protect her. It was the instinctive thing to do, I would do it for all my friends and family. This felt different though, she was the first girlfriend I had wanted to put ahead of everyone else.

It was a crap couple of days, filthy looks from that Paula girl in the library on Monday. If it was a friend of mine being so openly hostile to Tina, they would have been slapped hard then kicked to the curb harder. That wasn’t Tina’s style though and I doubt I would have fallen for her so hard and fast if it was. She was one-hundred per-cent kind-hearted. She would dig and root about until she found something good in someone and hold onto that as long as she could. I just hoped she wouldn’t get hurt again because of it. I already knew better than to ask her to cancel on Paula on Monday night, once she made a commitment, she stuck with it.

Tuesday lunch was relaxed and in the evening it was just us, without our groups, studying together in the library. We said very little as we were studying, but it was a comfortable silence. Then we went for a quick bite to eat after. I went in for a coffee, we held each other and kissed for a while, but there were exams the next day and we both knew to be sensible. It didn’t stop me banging on Diane’s door as I left.

“Night Diane!” I shouted to her closed door.

As I got outside, I heard, “You will live in a world of pain.” Looking up, I waved to Diane as she smiled and closed her window.

Tina

A three-hour exam, to end the term, wonderful. They called it a test, but the results would go toward the unit grade, so in my mind, it was an exam. It wasn’t too bad and once I got going on it, the time flew. The ten minutes to collect papers and such seemed to take an eternity. I was running through my to-do list in my head, back to my room, have a quick shower to freshen up for the journey, then I could pack my washing kit and would be ready to go. I was barely paying attention when I walked out of the building, Luke was stood there, leaning against a tree, reading a book.

I was just about to call him when Paula came running up, asking how I had got on and what my plans were. Unusually for her, she didn’t seem to react when I mentioned Luke.

“Well you have a wonderful Christmas and I’ll see you next term, next year,” she giggled. She leant in to give me a kiss and if I had not turned my face would have planted it on my lips. I noticed she had been drinking. She then said bye and ran off. I shook my head and looked over; Luke was watching all of this.

I ran down the steps across the grass and just launched myself at him. I didn’t worry about him catching me, I knew I could support myself and he was strong enough to take me doing it. That said, after I had left the ground, I had a picture of him sidestepping and me flying into the tree. As my legs went around his waist and my arms around his neck, he brought a hand under me and just held me while we kissed. I didn’t want to let go.

“Carry me home, pwease,” I fluttered my eyelids.

“Fuck that shit! I’ll drive as agreed”

“So eloquent,” I giggled, then asked, “My room then?”

“Giddiup works too.” It still amazes me how casual he was with my weight. I know I wasn’t heavy, especially then at a little over seven stone. I had watched him lifting twice my weight in the gym and doing a number of repetitions. This somehow was different, all the same, he could hold me and manoeuvre me as if I weighed nothing.

We were still laughing when we got back to the halls. Luke knocked on Diane’s door to let her know we were back. She was packed and ready, so I said that I would grab a shower and finish while they put her things in Luke’s car. Ten minutes later I was back in my room and had just dropped my towel when I heard the door being unlocked. Only Diane had a key and it would either be her or Luke, yet I still panicked a little. When they entered, I started laughing, they just stopped and looked at each other, then back at me.

I walked over, brazen as could be and gave them both a kiss before putting on my underwear and finishing dressing. I put the last few things into my bags and we picked them up and headed to Luke’s car.

Luke

I had done the drive in ninety minutes before, that was at two in the morning. Now, ten days before Christmas I was hoping to miss the worst of the traffic but was still expecting close to three hours. As it turned out there was a bad accident on the motorway and it was close to seven in the evening when we finally pulled into Tina’s parents' drive.

“Looks like they have visitors,” Tina said pointing to one of the parked cars.

I don’t know if it was the lights or the hole in my exhaust that alerted them to our arrival. We were getting Tina’s bags from the boot when the front door opened and what must have been her parents came out. She was so excited to see them; she dropped her bag and ran over.

“Mummy, daddy!” Then stopped in her tracks, “What are you doing here?”

I looked over and saw a younger guy had come out behind her parents.

“Oh, fuck!” Diane said under her breath.

A special thanks to Mary Howitt author of the poem The Spider and the Fly published in 1828

Thanks to cbears52 for proofreading

Thank you to the moderators helping me getting this published

And thank you to everyone that reads, comments and/or votes.

All feedback is welcome, either in the comments or via a direct message.