I made a show of rolling my eyes. “Okay, fine, one game.” Mitch responded with a huge smile and a big smacking kiss that made me laugh.
I’d gone to football and basketball games in high school. Everyone did, it was the scene on Friday nights. I never actually watched any of the games, though. It wasn’t like I didn’t know the rules, or anything. My dad and brother were casual fans, and the fate of local teams was a regular topic of conversation growing up.
Our football games were small town things, a few hundred people at the most with a fifteen to twenty person band, depending on how many students signed up that year. Musical talent not required. One thing was for sure, though, nothing had prepared me for what was in store for me that Saturday. Now, I’ll never be the level of psycho fanatic that Mitch is, but the pageantry, the people, the relentless energy, it was nothing like I’d expected. And to think it had all been happening just blocks away from me for the last two years.
By halftime everyone was having a rollicking good time, seeing as we were up by three touchdowns and the beer people had snuck in was flowing pseudo-freely. Mitch had her arm around me and I was getting closer and closer to not being nervous about it. I really shouldn’t have been, as there was rampant hugging, arm around singing, and other random contact happening everywhere.
“Hey, Kirkpatrick! You get my text?” We turned around to see Jimmy coming down the concrete steps to our row.
“Yeah, you know I’m not supposed to be doing that.”
“C’mon, we need you.”
“Seriously? There are a lot of girls in your dorm. Ask one of them.”
“You haven’t seen what I have to work with. Besides, you owe me.”
“No, I don’t.” Mitch took a deep breath. “Fine, one time.”
“Awesome! Tomorrow at three. Intramural field C.”
He took off and Mitch groaned and buried her head into my shoulder. I grinned and looked at her. “What was that about?”
“He wants me to play Ultimate tomorrow for his team.”
“And he can’t find anyone else?” We weren’t supposed to play intramural sports, even in the offseason. The coaches didn’t want us getting ourselves injured playing weekend warrior.
“It’s a Co-ed league, so they have to have three women on the field at all times. I’m the most athletic woman he knows. And Jimmy has a bit of a competitive side. If I play they’ll probably win. You could come play.”
“Ultimate. That’s the one with the Frisbees, right?”
Mitch laughed at me. “You’re adorable. You could come watch, cheer for me.”
“Maybe, if you’re nice to me.” I was grinning ear to ear now, staring up into her beautiful blue eyes. She leaned forward, and my eyes fluttered closed as we kissed, literally in front of ninety thousand people. And I didn’t care for a second.
I’ll always remember that being the day I became a Georgia Bulldogs Football fan. Standing with thousands of my fellow students, one arm around Mitch and the other around some guy I didn’t know standing on my other side, swaying together singing the school song after our resounding victory, listening to the Chapel Bell ringing in the distance.
We went out into the evening singing and cheering. My arm was around Mitch’s waist, and hers around my shoulder, my hand up holding hers. “So what now?” I asked.
“Well, the Resource Center is having a mixer, after party thing. If you’re up for something like that. There’ll be food.”
“That’s the LGBTQ group right?”
Mitch nodded. “Yeah.”
It was odd. I’d spent the last two weeks with Mitch, I mean, really with her. Having sex every night. That was going to get interesting in a couple of nights, when Aunt Flo arrived for her monthly visit, but yeah. I wonder how lesbians deal with that?
Anyway, I loved Mitch. Not just loved, but I was in love with her, definitely, without question. Even so, I still didn’t think of myself as gay. Logically, that made no sense. I mean, clearly I wasn’t straight. And the thought of ever being with a man again made me a bit queasy, so that should have told me something, but even so, as we made it to the party, I felt like an outsider.
I clung to Mitch, terrified, as she introduced me around, confidently calling me her girlfriend. Here I was, in the belly of the beast, surrounded by people who could not have been more different than those I grew up with. My pastor would have called them demon possessed, unnatural hedonists given over to their depraved lusts and carnal appetites.
If that were the case, they were the nicest group of depraved, lust-filled heathens I’d ever met. Every one of them was unwaveringly kind and welcoming, the only mild exception being one pretty redhead who I think was more than a little disappointed Mitch hadn’t shown up alone. But still I got hugged and welcomed a dozen times over. A soft drink was pressed into my hand, and I found myself standing with a group of people talking about the game and being teased that it had been my first one. Inside ten minutes I was laughing and holding my own in the conversation.
There was music, and eventually people were dancing. Most of the couples were same sex, but not all. I watched two young men dancing together, their arms around each other, each gazing into his partner’s eyes. They shared a tender kiss, before the shorter one rested his head onto the other’s shoulder.
I couldn’t take my eyes off them, and eventually Mitch wrapped me in her arms from behind. “What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful. They’re beautiful.” My voice was thick with emotion. Man, I wasn’t the weepy kind.
“Not what you expected, huh?”
I put my arms over hers, lowering my voice to a whisper. “I was always told it was ugly. Unnatural. Wrong. But it isn’t, is it?”
“No. Just like you and me.”
I leaned back against Mitch. “I love you.”
She kissed my temple. “I know. You wanna dance?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
I turned in Mitch’s embrace and wrapped my arms around her neck, resting in her strength as we began to sway to the music. I don’t think we stopped touching the rest of the night, right up to the moment Mitch lay me down in our bed, stripping me gently before kissing her way down my body and taking me to heaven. It took a little convincing, but eventually Mitch let me do the same for her. We finished under the covers, my back to her front as I reclined against her so we could kiss as Mitch’s talented fingers gently brought me to another orgasm.
As I fell asleep in her arms I thought about today. It had been wonderful, one of the best days of my life. I’d had a lot of those in the last two weeks, and somehow I knew it was only starting.
***
I snuck out early in the morning. I knew from experience that Mitch would sleep for a while if I let her, and I needed to get some work done if I was going to make it out to Mitch’s game. I sent her a text when I finished breakfast, letting her know where I’d gone. Sure enough, she didn’t respond until almost eleven.
Mitch — Missed you waking up. I was cold.
Me – Poor thing. I was warm.
Mitch — Brat. Will I see you this afternoon?
Me – I don’t know. I have a lot to do. We’ll see.
Mitch — Okay. I love you.
Me – Love you, too.
I had every intention of getting to the game, but I didn’t want to promise anything in case things went sideways. But, tucked away in my favorite corner of Main Library, I was able to make it through both my Diffy-Q and Econ problems, and even made a go at an outline for my International Banking term paper.
When I made it to the intramural fields I saw Mitch immediately. She was huddled up with her teammates, wearing purple, knee-length basketball shorts with a white stripe, along with a loose tank top over a black sports bra, along with a visor and sunglasses. She looked amazing.
I found a shady spot and sat down in the grass near a few other girls who were watching and giggling.
The one nearest me smiled. “Hi, you have a boyfriend on one of the teams?”
I could have just said yeah, or that I was here to see a friend, but I didn’t. “No, girlfriend. In the purple shorts.”
“Really? She’s something.”
I giggled. “You have no idea. How about you?”
She scooted closer and pointed to a tall guy in the other huddle wearing green and yellow. “We’re not actually dating yet. We talked at a party Friday and he told me about this, but I had to go before I could give him my number.” Her face looked worried. “I hope showing up comes across as interested, instead of stalker-ish.”
I looked back across the field. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.” I nodded toward the object of her desire, who had noticed she was there and was now jogging across the field. I smiled as she jumped to her feet, completely forgetting I existed. That was fine.
My eyes found Mitch, almost on their own, I think. I was going to be patient, and let her figure out for herself that I was here. That took about five minutes, and I’m not sure which of us had a bigger smile when she finally saw me, but there was definitely an extra bounce in her step as the players ran out onto the field.
Before today I was vaguely aware that Ultimate was a sport. I could have told you it was that one with the Frisbees, but that would have been about it. To be honest, this afternoon that was an advantage. When I watched Mitch play tennis my brain was always working, analyzing her form, her opponent’s tendencies, searching for strategies. But I really couldn’t do that now; I barely knew the object of the game. So instead I got to just watch her. The way she moved, decisive, powerful, but with a grace the boys lacked.
She wasn’t the only girl on the field, of course, and I noticed the others too. The way they ran, the way their breasts bounced on their chest. The boys, they were fine looking, but the women seemed to just glow.
Up until that moment I think I still thought of myself as straight, or mostly straight, with an odd attraction to one rather butchy tennis player. But that was a lie. I was drawn to the women. My eyes found them on the field, because they were beautiful in a way the others weren’t.