A basketball

Your eyes confirmed what your fingers told you. The ball was bigger than your hand and had a familiar texture. It was a bright orange. It was a basketball.

“You okay?” Linda asked. She bent over you and stared intently. You tasted blood as you ran your tongue over your teeth and lips. Your left hand grabbed your nose and moved it back and forth. While the blow had split your lip, it had not broken your nose.

“Of course he is,” a rich baritone called out. You glanced over to see the face of Marcus Freeman smiling down on you. He extended a large hand towards you. You didn’t hesitate to take the offered hand. His tight cheerleader sweater showed more strain than the well muscled arm Marcus used to help you to your feet. Even standing, you were looking up at the dark skinned man. Marcus stood over six and a half feet tall. His cheerleader’s outfit showed off his broad shoulders and barrel chest. His dark bald pate gave is rugged features a fearsome appearance. He was not someone you wanted to meet in some dark and lonely alley. However, all that fierceness disappeared as his smile grew into a full toothy smile.

“I don’t know…” Cindy started. She was peeking out from behind the big man. “He looks a little…”

“Well, you did just hit him in the face with a basketball.” another voice chimed in. You turned to see Tom Simmons approach. Tom was a tall redhead. Although Tom didn’t match Marcus in either height or girth, he was close. Of course, you were paying a lot more attention to girl he had his arm around. At a fraction over six foot, she couldn’t match either of the guys in height. However, her sweater was far more strained than that of either of the guys as it tried to contain her well endowed chest. “He’s bound to look…I don’t know…”

“Maybe if ye kissed it and made it better,” the gal in Tom’s arm suggested. Her voice was melodic, but heavy with a thick Irish brogue.

“SHANNON!” Cindy exclaimed. You automatic turned to face the blonde.

“Dinna’ worry.” Shannon answered, “Lae dis.” Strong hands grabbed your face. Shannon turned you to face her. She pressed lips that were as full and red as her hair against yours. It wasn’t the warmth of her mouth against yours that held your attention, but the sparkling green eyes that were inches from yours.

“Hrrumf!” Cindy snorted derisively when the two of you finally separated.

“Trae it fer yeself.” Shannon suggested as she stepped aside. Cindy glared at the bigger woman. However, she followed Shannon’s example. She pressed her lips against yours. Not to be outdone, Cindy slipped her tongue between your lips as well. You were breathless when she broke off the kiss.

“Nope,” Cindy said with a sigh, “Didn’t help.”

“Maybe this will,” Tom suggested. He held out a water bottle. It was half filled with a blue liquid that reminded you of Gatorade. Tom held it out to you, but Cindy snatched it before your could grab it. She took a healthy pull from it.

“Ah, much better.” Cindy started. The look Tom gave her left no doubt that he had meant it for you. Cindy took another drink from it before passing it on. “What do you think Linda?”

“It definitely helps.” Linda agreed after taking a drink from the bottle. She handed it to you. You drank from it as well. You gasped. From the others reaction, you had been expecting the bottle to have been spiked. However, the way it burned as it went down showed it to be far stronger than expected. Both Shannon and Cindy laughed. Even Linda couldn’t suppress the snicker that came to her lips. To hide your embarrassment, you took a second swig and turned to the big man.

“So what’s going on?” you asked.

“You’re blushing.” Linda observed. Despite Marcus’ dark complexion, it was obvious that he was flushed.

“Well…” Marcus started. He took the bottle from you and drank deeply from it. “We were celebrating the end of the end of classes Friday and started to talk about what we were going to do. Normally we hold practice at this time. But Coach Hendricks cancelled it because of finals.”

“Several of us decided to get together anyway.” Tom interjected, “However since not all of us could make it, we wouldn’t be able to practice our routines.”

“So we decided to play something else.” Marcus continued.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re blushing.” Linda pushed. Marcus stammered for several moments before Cindy finally stepped up.

“We’d been drinking…heavily,” Cindy started, “And we decided that we needed to do something to spice things up. So we decided to add a twist to the game we would play.”

“What sort of twist?” you asked. This time it was Cindy who hesitated, but not for long.

“Uh, stripping.” Cindy answered. There were several protests about how they were drunk.

“Yer nae goin’ to tell, are ye?” Shannon asked.

“Well there’s one way to make sure they don’t,” Marcus said, “Insist they participate.” Cindy opened her mouth to protest.

“You’re the one who insisted that we make it open to anyone who comes.” Tom reminded the blonde.

“I was referring to anyone on the squad.” Cindy protested. After a moment she sighed. “Alright, are you going to play?” Linda looked at you to gauge your reaction.

“That depends,” she said, “What are you planning to play?”

“We haven’t decided.” Marcus admitted, “What do you suggest?” All eyes turned to you.