“It’s a little cliché, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” He swept the cape around and let me in. “But chicks are big on vampires now. It’s the surest way to get laid.”
I gave him a look and he laughed.
“I figured it was the surest way to blend in,” he said.
“Got it.”
I got my costume on and Trish came over to get ready with a huge garment bag.
“You know, if you want to move in with me, you can just pay me a couple hundred bucks a month and the couch is yours,” Stryker said.
“The only reason I’m here is because my roommate is having a party and I can’t stand the horrible music she’s playing.”
“Well hello to you too,” Stryker said, mussing her hair.
She punched him on her way to the bathroom. “Asshole.”
“You’d better not be in there for three hours,” he called after her.
“Bite me,” she answered back.
“Don’t antagonize the vampire,” he yelled.
***
When Charlotte opened the door wearing a vintage red dress, her hair curled and pinned up in the back and a single string of pearls around her neck, I didn’t know what to say. Words couldn’t do her justice.
She spun in a slow circle, revealing the low-cut back that showcased her gorgeous skin.
“I’m hoping the fact that you’re not saying anything is good, and not because I look hideous.”
“You’re stunning, Charlotte. I’m afraid to take you anywhere.”
She pursed her bright red lips.
“And why is that?”
“Because you’re so beautiful I don’t think I’ll be your only suitor tonight.”
“What if I want multiple suitors?” She leaned against the door, and my eyes skimmed her figure, accented by the tight nature of the dress.
“Then I might have to get in a lot of fights.”
“You’d fight for me?”
I took her hand and twirled her around. “Charlotte. I’m always fighting for you.”
She smiled.
“You look worth fighting for too, Ponyboy.”
My costume consisted of a leather jacket I’d borrowed from Stryker, ripped jeans and a T-shirt that said GREASER on it. I’d slicked my hair back, too.
And I felt like a jackass standing next to her.
“Although, I’m not sure how fast I’d be in this thing. It’s a little tight.” She tugged on the hem of the dress.
Of course that drew my attention to just exactly how tight it was. I wondered if she was wearing anything underneath it.
“You could always split the sides,” I suggested.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Are you trying to get me naked, Alex?”
Who wouldn’t try to get her naked?
“If I say yes, are you going to slap me dramatically like in one of those classic movies?”
She flushed and ducked her head.
“I know we’re sort of going public, but I still don’t know if this is something I want. You and me. It’s been wonderful so far. I just feel like I’m still waiting for the sky to fall, and the longer it doesn’t, the more scared I get.”
I’d been so careful not to push her, but it seemed I’d have to be even more cautious. Why did she have to talk to me when she was wearing the sexiest dress I’d ever seen? Well, it wasn’t the dress that was the sexy part. The dress was nothing without her in it.
“We don’t have to talk about it tonight,” I said. “We can go to the party and have a good time and then we’ll talk tomorrow. Tea and Pop Tarts?”
“How can you be so patient with me? I keep asking myself if I should just call it off so I don’t tie you down.”
Dear sweet Charlotte, never thinking about herself.
“Pretty girl, I will wait for you until the stars burn out, but if you want to end it, you can. You’re calling the shots.”
She laughed softly.
“For a guy who has a reputation of a player, you certainly don’t act like it.”
“Being with you and having meaningless sex are two different things.”
“Do you miss the meaningless sex?”
Honestly, yes. Sometimes.
“I used it as an escape. A way to not be me for a while. Now that I have you, I don’t need it anymore. That’s not to say I don’t want to escape with you. I’m just not going to push you into it.”
“You’re my escape, too.”
“Are you coming?” Trish poked her head down the hallway, her hat still in place. “Everyone’s ready, but I was the only one brave enough to come and see if you two were knocking boots or not.”
Charlotte grabbed her coat and put it on. I worried about her bare legs in the cold, but she could always have my coat if need be.
“Knocking boots?” she said, tucking her lanyard in the pocket of her coat.
“What? It’s an expression. Holy shit, you look fabulous,” Trish said to Charlotte.
“So do you. Badass.” Charlotte tapped Trish’s top hat. “Totally sick.”
“That dress is pretty sick.”
It was. I hoped there would be enough girls in lingerie for the pushier of the guys to go after. Not that Charlotte had a problem with saying no to anyone. That made me smile to myself.
“What are you smiling about?”
“Nothing. Just you.”
I wanted to take her hand, but I didn’t want to do it front of Will. He’d said he was amenable to our relationship, that didn’t mean I wanted to rock the boat.
“What do you think, William?” Charlotte said when we met our group in the lobby of our building.
Will had on an ugly striped sweater, a black wig, orange face paint, and was holding rubber duck, and it wasn’t until I saw Simon with his similar shirt and yellow face paint that I made the connection.
Burt and Ernie.
“Jesus, Lot. Little risqué, don’t you think?” Will slash Ernie said.
“What’s wrong with it?” Trish said.
“It’s just… kinda tight,” Will said. Simon slash Burt gave her a thumbs up.
“Bellissima,” he said.
“Am I the only one that thinks it’s tight?” Will said.
“This is so typical. Why doesn’t she just cover her entire body and live in a cave?” Trish said, giving him an icy look.
“Christ, Trish, relax. Just because I don’t care if you dress like a tart, doesn’t mean someone else’s brother doesn’t care,” Stryker lisped around his fangs.
“So you’re saying she’s dressed like a tart?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Stryker said to her. “You would never dress like that, Lottie.”
“Even if I did, it would be no one’s business but mine. Not even yours, William,” Charlotte said, pinching Will’s ear with her fingernails as if he was a little boy who’d snuck a cookie out of the jar. She didn’t let go until he begged for mercy. I was completely confident in her ability to hold off any unwanted suitors.
“Okay, okay. Are we ready? I texted Aud and she’s going to meet us out front,” Will said, rubbing his ear and opening the door for the rest of us.
“Is it that tight?” Charlotte said, looking down.
“Just right,” I said, reaching to take her hand. She slipped her fingers into mine and we swung our arms as Trish and Stryker continued to argue about women wearing tight clothing.
Chapter Thirty
Lottie
I was really glad I took Katie’s suggestion to wear pantyhose because it was quite nippy outside. Holding Zan’s hand helped, too.
Audrey had her coat on, but opened it to show us her costume. A thin button-up shirt that showed her belly button, a short pencil skirt, sexy pumps and a set of sensible glasses. Her hair was twisted back, revealing her cheekbones.
“Wow,” Will breathed. “You look –” He couldn’t continue.
“Damn, girl. You are going to make one sexy lawyer,” Trish said.
Will was still trying to put his eyes back in his head.
“Close your mouth, Ernie,” I hissed at him. Zan looked like he wanted to laugh. Stryker coughed and Trish rolled her eyes.
***
The noise from the party was so loud you could hear it far up the street. Since the house was just off campus, we’d decided to walk.
“You sure about this?” Zan said looking at the pounding house that was practically bouncing on its foundation from the music and the gyrating bodies.
“You only live once.” The dress gave me more confidence than I normally would have had. “Hopefully the sky will wait until tomorrow to fall.”
“I’ll make sure we at least get one dance in beforehand,” he said, taking my hand and giving me a twirl.
We all entered the party together, but quickly split off. Zan and I ended up in a corner by a window out of the way of a lot of the action. Trish had gone to get a drink, Stryker went out for a smoke, and Will and Audrey found their own corner.
“You see Katie?” I had to pull his ear down and yell so he could hear me.
“There,” he said, pointing. There she was, my roommate in a pink cleavage-showing, hip-hugging pinstriped dress, doing the mouth tango with Zack. The fedora was on her head, and his hands were all over her.
I flashed back to the night of the bonfire, and how Zack had done that with Lexie. I turned away.
“Are you okay?” Zan sensed my distress.
“Fine. It just… reminds me. Of that night.”
“I understand. Do you want to go outside?”
I nodded. He took my hand and led me out of the large living room where most of the party was, but he didn’t take me out the front door.
“Where are we going?” I yelled.
“You’ll see.”
He pulled me up the stairs, which were crowded with people and opened several doors before finding one that wasn’t occupied. He tried to pull me in, but I jerked his hand back. I was not hooking up with him in a strange frat guy’s bedroom.
“Zan!”
“Just hold on,” he said, tugging me along as if I offered no resistance. We didn’t stop at the bed, but he went to the window, which he pushed open. He stuck his head out, looked around and then hoisted himself through.
“Come on,” he said, holding his hand out. “Outside is this way.”
Somehow I was able to get myself out of the window, even though it was much more difficult than it would have been in jeans.
“That was an act of congress,” I said when we were finally out on a little landing that doubled as a fire escape.
“Here we go,” he said, taking my hand and leading me onto the roof. It was sloped, but not enough that I was scared of sliding off.
The sound of the party was muffled, as if we’d stuck our fingers in our ears.
“Better?” he said once I’d gotten myself into a sitting position.
“Much.” I pulled my coat tighter. It was effing freezing up there. Zan put his arm around me and tucked me into his chest. He blocked a lot of the wind, and he was always warm.
“Do you want to go?”
“We can’t leave yet. We came all the way down here, and I didn’t wear this dress for nothing.”
“What did you wear it for?”
“I don’t know. I just felt sexy and grown-up when I put it on. Is that dumb?” A triumphant yell sounded from the house below. Someone probably won the Beer Pong Championships.
“Not at all.”
He took my hands and put them inside his coat.
“Just in case they get cold.”
We sat for a while, not talking. If only we could see the stars and had some hot tea, it would have been perfect.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” I asked.
“Mad at you for what?”
“For not knowing what I want.”
“The fact that you’re even sitting next to me is more than I thought I’d ever have, so no.” He kissed my cheek.
“It just isn’t you. It’s like I’ve known these two different Zans. The one that wrecked everything and then the guy who put everything back together.”
“Oh, Charlotte.”
I moved so I could look at him. “What?”
He paused for a long time before he spoke. Choosing the right words. “Would you come somewhere with me tomorrow? You’ll need to drive.”
“I have the day off. I was going to hang out with Audrey and Trish.”
“Please.” He’d never asked me for anything.
“Sure. Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. I just… I need a place where we can talk. A private place.”
If he were any other guy, I would have said it was some sort of covert plan to get me to have sex with him. With Zan, things were different. I knew when he said he wanted to talk, it meant just that.
“Do you want to go back down?” he said a few minutes later.
“We probably should. Trish and Stryker are probably still arguing.” Zan helped me get to my feet and back through the window without any issues.
“And I didn’t even rip the dress,” he said as he set me down.
“Good boy,” I said, patting his cheek.
The party seemed even more raucous when we got back to the heart of it. Above the music and the laugher, I heard someone yelling.
“I believe no means no, you insensitive douchebag!” Zan and I glanced at each other and followed the voice.
A crowd had assembled in the large living room quicker than you could say ‘fistfight.’
Zan shoved his way through as someone yelled back at the guy who had yelled first. Stryker.
“Zack,” Zan breathed. “I’ll be right back.”
“You can get the fuck out of my way, fang boy,” Zack said, trying to shove Stryker backward. My eyes searched and found a sobbing Katie being comforted by Trish and Audrey in the corner. Will was standing just beside Stryker, as if he was waiting for a good moment to step in.
Zan waded into the situation with the grim determination of someone who had been there before.
“Zack, come outside with me,” he said, trying to pull him away from the fracas.
“No way, man. This guy was trying to tell me what I can do with my girl,” Zack said, trying to get to Stryker, who held his hands up, as if to say that he didn’t want any part of a fight. The crowd was getting restless, itching for someone to throw a punch. People tried to shove me aside, but I threw out my elbows and handed out a few bruises.
“Let’s just go outside and get some air and we can deal with it, okay?” Zan said, trying to take one of Zack’s arms and remove him from the situation.
“Fuck you, Zan. Fuck you.” Zack jerked away from Zan’s grasp and tried to punch him, but Zan was too fast. Unbalanced from the thwarted punch, Zack went down.
“Need a hand?” Will said, leaning down to help Zan.
“I’ve got it,” Zan said, his voice sharp. I’d never heard him be sharp with anyone. “I’ve got it,” he said again, heaving a swearing and thrashing Zack to his feet and starting to drag him out of the house. The crowd parted like the Red Sea for Moses.
I wanted to follow, but Will beat me to it.
“I’ll make sure they’re okay. You check on Katie.”
“Thanks, Will.”
Shoving my way through the crowd, I finally reached my friends.
“What happened?” I said, as someone turned the music back up. Audrey was busy holding Katie up and dabbing at her running mascara.
“Zack started groping her and she told him no, and he didn’t like it. Stryker was just getting a drink and happened to be walking by, so he told Zack he should listen to Katie, and then their testosterone exploded,” Trish said.
“The penis effect?”
“Exactly.”
; “Stryker was about to beat the shit out of him when you came down.”
“Zan should have let him.”
Trish nodded.
“Hey, Katie,” I said, wishing the dress allowed me to carry a purse. I couldn’t shove any tissues in the tiny little phone holster I had strapped to my leg.
“It was so stupid, Lot. He just got a little handsy. That was all.”
“Katie.”
“I know! I know you hate him!” She chucked her now-black tissue on the floor. It was already littered with cups and wrappers and God knew what else.
“Katie,” I said as she started to walk away.
“I just want to go home.”
She’d been so excited about tonight, and just like that, it was ruined. By none other than Zack Goddamn Parker.
Zan
I got Zack outside even though he didn’t make it easy on me. He kept saying that he was going to beat the shit out of Stryker. Yeah, that was going to happen. Stryker was a black belt in Jujitsu, and even though he hadn’t practiced in a while, he could still take out my drunk brother.
“I’d beat the shit out of that pussy-ass loser,” Zack said as I dragged him to a bench on the lawn of the frat house.
“Sure you would, bud.” Steve had always called Zack bud when he was younger and he was still trying to kiss up to my mother.
“Everything okay?” Will was striding across the lawn to check on us.
“We’re good,” I said. I’d done this enough times. I could take care of my damn brother.
“Anything I can do?”
“Call a cab? I’d rather not drag his ass all the way across campus.”
“No prob.” Will pulled out his phone and found the number for the local cab company. “Done,” he said when he hung up. “Should be here in a few minutes.”
“Where is he?” Zack tried to stand up and I shoved him back down. “I just wanted to have a good time with my girl.”
“I know, I know,” I said, wishing Will would go the hell away.
I glanced up at him, and he nodded at me, his hands in his pockets.
“Some party.”
Deeper We Fall Page 24
