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“Really guys?” You said as you rolled your eyes. You watched as Rob, Rich, Billy, Mike, Stephen, and Chris rolled into the green room; baseball gear in hand as they excitedly talked among themselves.
“What?” Rob asked in surprise. “Green room baseball is tradition.”
“Yeah, tradition that always ends with property damage and yelling,” you chuckled in return. You turned your focus back to your magazine as you kept yourself comfortable on the lone couch.
“You might wanna move,” Billy said as he and some of the guys began to scoot the couch aside, not even giving you a chance to get off of it.
“Come on,” you whined as they set you off to the side of the room and moved to set up their little game. “I’m just trying to have a nice, peaceful break here.”
“I suggest moving to the other room then,” Rob grinned.
You watched them as they took their places, intrigued still by the fact that they were all pretty much big kids who would find any excuse to play a game and possibly get into some trouble. Secretly, you loved to sit back and watch their shenanigans; and this time, you pulled your phone out, ready to Snapchat them.
You shared Snap after Snap; mostly of one of the guys being struck out, giving bad throws, or swearing and insisting that someone else was cheating. You had moved a little closer to the action during their intense game, trying to get better views.
As Rob stepped up with the bat for his turn to hit, he noticed you and made a point of letting you know that maybe you were better off moving.
“You might wanna back up for this,” he insisted.
“Really?” You laughed. “Because I’ve seen the way you’ve been hitting, and I’m really not that worried.”
He frowned at you, a little hurt that you were calling him out on how badly he was playing.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Rob prepared himself and you stood there to watch, amused at their antics even if they were slightly annoying. Billy had pitched finally and you saw Rob swing, and you readied yourself to heckle him again. The next thing you knew though, the ball that you had expected Rob to completely miss was already making its way straight for your face. “Shit,” you muttered when you realized you didn’t have time to move.
You saw stars for a moment after the ball made contact with your face. The pain set in shortly after. You had dropped your phone to cover your face with your hands, already feeling the warm gush of blood from your nose.
“What the shit?!” You cried out as your eyes began to water. You let out a slew of more curse words as you tried to find something to sop up the blood before you made a mess of the convention room carpet.
The guys were huddled around you in no time, but you most certainly weren’t in the mood for them right now.
“Holy shit!” Rob cried out. “Y/N! I’m so sorry!”
“Jeez Rob,” Rich said. “Were you aiming for her face?”
“No I wasn’t aiming for her face! Why would I do that?”
“That was really messed up, man,” Stephen chimed in as he quickly removed his hoodie and handed it over to you.
“No- I can’t use that,” you choked out, your voice nasally as you had your fingers clamped down on your nose to try to stop the bleeding.
“It’s fine,” he insisted.
You sighed as you took the hoodie and immediately covered your nose with it. Despite the amount of pain you were in, you were now more embarrassed than anything else. Leave it to you to be the one to get injured during a game that usually ended in the guys breaking something that wasn’t a face.
“I didn’t mean to,” Rob continued. “You were just heckling me and I guess it made me perform better.”
“So, you subconsciously aimed for her face?” Chris asked as he gave Rob a disapproving look.
“No!”
“It’s fine,” you mumbled, waving Rob off as you could tell that he was getting really upset. “I’ll be fine.”
You could tell that the bleeding was slowing down; and the only thing left was the ache in your face and the damage to your ego. Maybe you should have been a little nicer to Rob.
“We better make sure it’s not broken,” Chris insisted. He kneeled down and encouraged you to move your hands away so that he could get a better look. He poked and prodded at you for a minute and you cringed at how much it hurt. All in all, you were sure it was fine.
“Doesn’t look broken,” Mike said as he watched Chris work.
“Nah, she’ll be just fine,” Chris replied. “It’s definitely going to bruise though.”
“Oh good, I can’t have a broken nose at a convention.”
“That was pretty wicked though,” Stephen chuckled. “”Did you hear it when it hit her face?”
Rob rolled his eyes at Stephen, indicating that it wasn’t funny to joke about it yet.
You covered your face with Stephens hoodie again, no longer feeling bad that you had ruined it.
“Can someone help me?” You asked, annoyed that they were all just standing around. Rob made the move first, holding onto your arm as he helped you stand. He didn’t let go of you as he helped you walk back to the couch. The only time he let you go was when you were seated comfortably, holding your head back as you were still attempting to stop the bleeding.
“I’ll be right back, okay?”
You raised a brow at him as he hurried out of the room, leaving you with the other men who were still getting a kick out of the entire incident.
“Should we just play without him?” Rich asked the other guys as he picked up the ball that had literally just smashed your face in.
“Don’t you even dare,” you warned them. “I let you have your fun in my space and look where that got me. Green room baseball is officially over. Please leave.”
The men pouted as they picked up their gear. You watched them as they left, relieved that you finally had a moment of quiet again. You closed your eyes and kept your head back, now focusing on the pain you were feeling.
Some time later, you heard someone come into the room. You opened one eye and peered toward the door only to see Rob coming toward you. You couldn’t help but smile at how he still looked so guilty.
“Here, I got you some things,” he began as he sat next to you.
“What’s all this?” You asked as you removed the hoodie from your face, taking a moment to pause until you were sure that the bleeding had stopped.
“Uh, ice pack, ibuprofen for the pain, and one of those mini bottles of Jack from the hotel.”
“I think I’m going to need a lot more whiskey than this,” you grinned as you opened the bottle and shot the entire thing. You then moved on to the ibuprofen, followed by the ice pack.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Rob chuckled. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s nothing,” you replied as you leaned back again, now just trying to relax. You focused on the throbbing pain in your nose, already feeling a headache coming on.
“I swear I wasn’t aiming for you.”
“I hope not,” you grinned. “Otherwise, I’d have to retaliate.”
“No way I would ever try to damage that beautiful face of yours.”
You glanced over at him, taking note of how red he had turned as he realized he had just called you beautiful.
“Oh, you think my face is beautiful?”
He shrugged, suddenly becoming painfully shy.
“I’ve always thought you were beautiful,” he admitted.
“Well, I think you’ve ruined that. The one good thing I had going for me, and now look at me,” you joked.
“Come on,” he replied as he scooted a bit closer to you. Your breath hitched as he moved his arm to wrap around your shoulders. You were staring into those bright blue eyes and you suddenly forgot that you were in pain. “You’re still stunning. Even with a busted nose.”
You began to feel brave now that he seemed to be just as flirty as you always had been with him. For so long you wondered if his flirtations actually meant something, and right now it seemed as if he might like you; so you decided to make a move, just to see if you were reading him right.
“You know, generally, it’s best to have someone kiss boo-boos better.”
“Did you just say ‘boo-boo’?” He asked, his mouth turning up in an amused smirk.
“Yeah, I did.”
“Just checking,” he chuckled. “But, you’re right.”
He leaned in closer to you, and your heart began to race. That is until you realized he was moving in to place a kiss to your nose. You stopped him short, shaking your head at him.
“No, you can’t kiss my nose. It hurts too much.”
“Oh?” He asked playfully. “What if I kiss you on the lips? Would that make it better?”
You nodded, pleased that he had caught on quickly. He leaned in again, this time, taking care to gently find your lips with his. You reached up to hold his face as he kissed you slowly. The action itself still made your face hurt, but you weren’t about to make him stop. Instead, you pushed the pain from your mind and focused only on him. This certainly wasn’t how you imagined your first kiss with Rob would go, but you decided to take it anyway.