Cover attached was sent in by FutureWriterLA Thanks so much!

Also, this is a LONG chapter to make up for taking so long to update :)

Chapters 19-20 were updated

His Game: Chapter Nineteen

After a confirmation from Joey on times, I ride over to her house. There has been obvious progress with her and this relationship; the first week of the game she wasn't the one asking for me to come over or hang out. Now she's taken the reigns, which they usually do when it gets to the last half of the month.

Joey never told me what exactly we were going to be doing tonight. She left it at an ominous "I have a better idea," and that is not something a hot girl should be saying to a guy who's crazy about her.

Body.

Crazy about her body.

And because of my craziness with her stunning figure, thoughts are zooming through my head about what her "better idea" is. While the logical part of my brain is telling me that this is Joey and she isn't going to suddenly take me into her room and have her wicked way with me, the horny teenage boy side of me is much stronger and thoughts of being in her bed won't leave me alone.

So, I made sure to shave.

You always want to be prepared.

As I shut my bike off, Joey appears in her doorway with a small backpack in her hands. She sends me a smile as she slings it over her shoulders, dancing down her steps as I get off of my motorcycle.

"You've got to calm my thoughts, Joey," I say while I walk towards her.

"Oh? And what have your thoughts been?"

"Would you like the PG or R version?"

She tilts her head as she reaches me, "Is there even a PG version?"

"With the innuendos attached?" I clarify, and then smirk, "Nope."

Joey rolls her eyes and keeps walking towards her bike parked outside of her garage, "I thought we could go for a ride."

I quirk a brow, "A ride? Did you forget I already took us on one?"

She laughs and places her helmet on, lifting the lid to look at me. I stare at her, looking at her hair spilling out from underneath the helmet, her body fitting perfectly on top of her bike, and her brown eyes shining.

"I did some research," she says, "I found a nice secluded route I think you'll really enjoy."

I smile and walk over to her, "All that work just for little old me? Is that love I'm hearing in your voice?"

"Only if that's love I see in your eyes," she winks, shutting her lid and starting her bike up before I can even think of what to say.

She backs up her bike, positioning it better to pull out of her driveway, and I jog over to my own to get ready to follow her.

As we drive, I find myself enjoying the route she found much more than I anticipated. She was right when she said it was going to be secluded; we are the only bikes I even see on the path. But she did fail to mention how beautiful it was going to be. The leaves on the trees are all finally turning orange and red, outlining the narrow road and falling gently onto the path in front of us. We drive up through the mountains, speeding along curves and passing a few scenic views that Joey doesn't bother to slow down or stop at.

After nearly an hour of the beautiful, scenic ride, we suddenly turn onto a small, dirt path for another ten minutes of driving. The woods become thicker as we drive along this path, but I don't question Joey as to if we're going the right way since her posture still screams confidence.

Suddenly we come into a clearing and my jaw drops. In 18 years of living in Mountain View, I don't know how I never discovered this place on my own.

Joey somehow found a breathtaking lake shimmering in the center of an orange poppy flower-filled field in the mountains. I stare at the place in awe as we shut off our motorcycles, seemingly so out of place in such a pristine nature setting.

The orange flowers expand across hundreds of yards of softly rolling terrain, leading into the beautifully blue lake. The lake has sunlight bouncing off of it, making everything that much more spectacular.

"So, better than the ride you took me on?" She asks, lifting the lid to her helmet as she glances over at me.

I tear my eyes away from the lake to her and I let out a shocked chuckle, "Joey, this is amazing. How did you find this place?"

"I told you, I did my research."

I look back at the view in front of us and shake my head as I take my helmet off. "You really outdid yourself, Joey. This is beautiful."

"I know this isn't exactly what you had in mind for hanging out tonight, but I hope you and Punk Jr. aren't too disappointed," she teases as she gets off of her bike.

I could laugh at her teasing statement and admit this may be even better than going straight to the bedroom, but I'm too caught up on the horrendous nickname she attached to her statement.

"Yeah, no. That is not going to become a thing." I say quickly, shaking my head adamantly against it.

She reaches up to her helmet to take it off and glances at me from the corner of her eye, "No? I like it."

"No, you don't."

"Yeah, I do."

"Nope. You can't like it, because it isn't a thing."

She doesn't say anything as she starts walking into the field of flowers.

"Joey." I emphasize, jogging after her, "You are not calling my thing..." then I glance around and speak through my teeth from how badly I don't want to say it, "Punk Jr."

She turns to look at me and I see the smirk in her eyes, "What was that? Don't want me to call it what?"

I scowl at her, "I'm not saying it again."

"If you don't, I will. Maybe in front of Dino and Roger," she contemplates.

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, but I would."

The scary thing is, I have no clue if she's joking or not. I would not put anything past this girl.

And she confirms my doubts by grabbing her phone from her pocket and dialing Dino's number. My eyes widen to the size of golf balls when she hits the call button and it begins to ring. I lunge forward and try to take the phone from her, but she pulls back the second I make a move.

And then runs away from me. Into the field of flowers.

"Joey!" I shout as she sprints away. "Give me the phone!" I yell, instantly sprinting after her.

"I think he picked up!" She quips cheerfully over her shoulder.

"Hang up!" I yell, trying to catch up to her as she runs effortlessly through

She leaps over a random patch of bushes on the outskirts of the field to get away from me, and I let out an inhuman growl as she stands on the other side of them.

"Joey?" I hear from the phone, and her eyes sparkle with mischief.

"Dino! Guess what?" She teases.

"Don't you dare!" I growl, trying to trap her from my end of the bushes.

"Rhett and I were just talking, and we both decided on a new nickname," Joey continues. "We're going to call his-"

I pounce across the bushes to stop her, nearly falling on my face, but it does the trick since she has to stop her sentence to get away.

She squeaks and sprints away again, barely avoiding my grip. She leaps back over the bushes and into the field of Poppy Flowers, effortlessly running up the small hills and away from me.

"Are you...panting? Oh my god what are you and Rhett doing right now?!" I hear Dino groan from his end of the phone as I try to keep pace with her.

I realize the advantage this gives me since Joey is a lot faster than I ever would have thought and catching her may be out of the question.

"Hang up Dino!" I yell through a few heavy breaths, "You don't want to be on the phone when I-"

"Stop! Stop! Nope, stop!" He says, cutting me off. "Goodbye you two, please be using protection." Then I hear his line go dead as he hangs up.

"Ha!" I yell as I stop running, leaning over with my hands on my knees as I pant. "You..." I trail off and hold up my hand as I catch my breath, "you lose."

But of course she's Joey. She doesn't lose.

She quirks a brow at me, not even out of breath. "No, I don't." Then she wiggles the phone in front of my face, showing Roger's contact already being dialed before skipping away.

"You've got to be kidding me," I breathe under my breath, using all of my energy to run after her again.

Please don't pick up.

Please don't pick up.

Please don't pick up.

"Roger! Hey!"

Of course.

"How are you?" Joey asks, sending me a look over her shoulder.

She must think I'm even more exhausted than I am, because she stops running and turns her back to me as she talks to Roger, so I force myself to sprint the last few yards. But of course the universe hates me, so I trip on a flower, a flower, and fall just before reaching her.

I groan as I get a face full of poppy flowers and grass, and slowly lift my head to see her casually turning around and looking down at me.

"What did you want to tell me?" Roger asks over speaker.

Joey grins at me, and I realize I'm so, so screwed. She kneels down right next to me, keeping her eyes locked on mine as she replies.

"I just called to let you know that Rhett wanted to say hello. See ya!"

"Oh, um, okay tell him I say hey-" But Joey hangs up before he finishes while still grinning at me.

She was bluffing

I just sprinted across, and face-planted, in a field full of flowers for a bluff.

"Why do you do these things to me?" I question, spitting grass off of my lip.

She laughs at me, and something in the sound takes away a part of my sour mood. 

"Because you make it so easy."

Then she stands up, dusting some grass and pollen from her knees, and reaches her hand down to me as a truce. I stare at her hand for a second or two, and then a perfect idea flashes into my head.

I take her hand and pretend to accept the offering.

But we all know I'm Rhett Calvetti and I need my revenge.

Instead of letting her pull me up, the second she gets a strong grip on my hand, I yank her down with me and catch her flailing body in my arms. She squeals as I roll over so that she's laying in the flowers with me over top, using my hands to keep from crushing her.

My words get stuck in my throat as I smile down at her. There's never been any question to how attractive Joey is, and though she looks good every day...she looks better than words could describe right now.

Her strawberry hair is sprawled out in waves along the grass, and the orange flowers outlining her figure make the brown of her eyes stand out even more, and suddenly I wonder if I'm truly a brown-eyed girl kind of guy.

"You didn't really think I'd just let you get away with a trick like that, did you?" I question as I snap out of my daze.

She smiles at me, and I nearly hitch my breath from how much such a simple action lights her features.

"I was hoping you wouldn't."

My lips melt into a smile and I dip my head, softly touching her lips with mine as she slides her hands onto my chest. I kiss her again, and again, and again until our lips start to feel numb. We lose track of time, and neither one of us tries to push the kiss any further, we just get lost in each other.

Eventually we pull apart, mainly once my arms got tired of supporting me, but I keep my forehead resting on hers and endure the fiery pain in my arms for a few seconds longer.

"You ran away just so we would end up like this, didn't you?" I teasingly ask.

She softly bites her lip with a sheepish smile, "Guilty."

I grin and pull away, sitting up and gently pulling her with me to look at the lake in front of us. A breeze whips past, blowing through the flowers and sending a slight chill through the air.

Joey leans into me, resting her head in my shoulder, and I wrap my arm around her as she does so. And, though I want to deny it, I can't help but notice how natural this feels.

"Pretty beautiful, huh?" Joey asks, staring out at the vast lake ahead.

"I think I'd find the flowers a little prettier if I didn't have to sprint through them thinking my entire reputation was on the line," I joke.

Joey snorts, "Entire reputation? Don't you think that's a little dramatic?"

"If Dino thought you nicknamed my...ya know, that? Yeah, my reputation would be ruined and I'd have to switch schools."

"Switching schools isn't so bad," Joey murmurs, and my heart drops a little.

I glance down at her, curled into my side, and I frown. "You know, it's okay to admit moving around is difficult. I don't expect you to be an expert at leaving people. It sucks, Joey."

She lets out a sigh, "It does suck. But you learn to have thick skin, stay alert, because you never know when you have to leave again."

"Sounds like that could make someone hold back," I say.

Joey is quiet for a few moments, and I worry I went too far, but then she speaks up.

"I try not to. I try to open myself up to making close friends. But...that's not so easy to do when I know I'm just going to leave them."

I stay quiet as she sorts through her thoughts. I hold her a little tighter, letting my thumb draw soothing circles into her skin. Anything to let her know I'm here to listen. 

"When I was little, I could make friends easily. I got so attached to people that I'd cry after leaving them the first time we met. Then my family started moving, but my parents told me to see it as a way to make as many friends and meet as many people as I could. So I did, for as long as I could at least," she says quietly.

"Then my mom left, and I guess a lot of my insecurities about people leaving really shined through. I don't know if I had been keeping them hidden for a long time, or if I was just ignoring them best I could, but when she left...I thought people leaving was because of who I was. Maybe if I were different, if I had thicker skin, things would be different."

"Joey... that's not-"

She chuckles slightly and glances up at me, "I know, that's not it," but then she looks away again, snuggling her head further into me. "Friends never left me in the first place, I left them. I moved, which I couldn't help. But I cut off the ties with all of my friends from the place before, because trying to live in the past was too difficult when I was constantly forced to start over. I have to be confident to avoid the heartbreak, it helps keep that wall up." Then she sighs heavily again and looks out at the lake, "I just want something in my life to be constant, you know?"

And here I am, playing a temporary game with a girl that guards her heart in fear of people leaving.

"Yeah," I say quietly.

"And if you're feeling guilty about this game not being a constant thing," she starts, "Don't. I agreed to play."

"Why?" I suddenly ask before I can help myself. "Why play when you have such a strong insecurity about people leaving?" 

I worry I went too far once again from how silent she goes. But she pulls away and looks at me, and I can see that vulnerable Joey is gone from the teasing smile that slips onto her lips.

"You're too cute to deny."

I narrow my eyes for a split second at her obvious avoidance of the topic. I've never put much thought into why she's playing this game if she's not trying to sleep with me or fall in love, but her decision to avoid that question makes me curious.

But, she clearly isn't going to give me an honest answer today, so I chuckle at her, "You deny me over and over again, Joey."

She smiles, "Like I said on our first date, the chase is all the fun. I give myself up, this game is no longer really being played."

Then she reaches over to her backpack sitting next to her, sifting through it before pulling out something I couldn't have guessed.

A Polaroid camera.

"So you're one of those girls," I smirk. "Think you're quirky because of the Polaroid?"

She smirks as she fidgets with it, "Just smile, Punk."

I raise a brow and go to say something instead of smiling, but she rolls her eyes and leans forward to randomly kiss me. My brows raise in surprise as her soft lips mesmerize, but I happily accept the kiss before she pulls away.

Next thing I know, I see a small flash followed by the sound of the Polaroid printing a picture.

"Perfect," Joey grins as the picture comes out of her camera. She delicately takes it from the bottom and shifts her eyes to me, "Now we just wait for it to develop."

Seconds later, once the picture develops and Joey shows it to me, I suddenly see what Dino and Roger are constantly getting on me for. I look like she's my reason to smile. 

"Aren't you just the cutest," Joey squeals, pinching my cheeks.

I scowl and swat her away, "No, I'm a man with burly and chiseled features."

She snorts as she stuffs the picture into her backpack, "Mhm, that why you drive a motorcycle? To prove you're a man?"

"Well what's your excuse?"

"Now who's asking questions to avoid giving answers," she muses with a small smirk.

Then she rests her head on my shoulder and holds the camera in front of us, "Okay, smile as big as you can! One, two, three...Cheese!"

I do as I'm told and smile as big as I can, but the truth is that it wasn't that hard to get a smile to form.

She watches the photo form and I see her features brighten. "I was right, this is cute," she says as she hands it to me.

And as I look at it, I can't help but grin; Joey is smiling so big that her eyes are nearly shut, but she still looks beautiful, and I look...well I look happier than I have in a while. Though I'm forcing my smile to be as big as I can per Joey's request, even I can't deny the happiness dancing across my eyes or the genuine nature of my smile.

"You can keep that one," she says suddenly and I snap my eyes to her.

She's watching me closely, a small smile shining in her eyes. I start to hand it back to her and open my mouth to explain that I don't really want it, but I stop myself.

Instead I smile at her, "Thanks," I say as I take out my wallet and slide it in.

I don't think a girl has ever done something like this for me before. No girl has gone to these lengths to find a place as beautiful as this to take me, or force me to take a Polaroid with them, or do any of the things Joey has.

I rest my head on hers as I stare out at the lake, and I realize something I probably should have a while ago.

I do have feelings for Joey.

And having feelings for someone can lead to falling in love.

And I should be a lot more concerned of that possibility. 

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