by Kahlen Aymes
“Yeah,” Ellie muttered and shook her head again. “This is not good.”
I watched Julia’s head fall back as she laughed at something the man next to her said, her hair tumbling down almost to her waist. Then he handed her a shot. Julia took it, clinked her glass with his, and threw it back before setting the glass back down on the tray.
“Ryan!” Ellie waved her hand in front of my face until I looked at her again. She pointed toward my date. “Go on! You’re being rude to that girl.”
My chest felt weird; curiously tight, and my heart was thudding sickeningly in my chest, like a tennis ball that’d been caged inside a tin can and kicked down a steep hill. It was strangely painful and completely foreign. I was used to feeling protective, and I didn’t usually like the guys who were with her, but this was starting to hurt. Physically hurt.
I’d known Julia over two years, and this wasn’t the first time I’d seen her dressed up. I knew she was hot. I had eyes, and my dick had a mind of its own, despite my attempts to quell it since the second we met. But what was fucking me up was that she was here without me, and she was having a great time. In this steaming den of hormonal college guys just looking for their next conquest, all of them leering at her legs and the soft curves swelling under the clingy fabric that sparkled softly in all the right places. She was a prime target. It didn’t hurt that her face was so beautiful, and her hair was long and screaming to be touched. I glanced at the men near her and the ones lounging on the couches openly ogling her legs, and my chest was ready to explode and my face felt hot. I felt like every male eye in the place was trained on her. It would only be a matter of time before one of those jackasses tried to touch her in a way I wouldn’t like.
Ellie shoved me gently in the chest with both hands, and I dragged my eyes away from Julia back down to her face. “Can you just be cool? Ryan?”
“What? Who are those guys?” I didn’t recognize them, but the taller of the two, the dark-haired one who’d bought the tray of shots, was leaning in to speak to her, and his hand settled lightly on her hip.
“They’re just guys to dance with. They’re students at Stanford, too.”
My eyes honed in on the one touching Julia. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“Yeah, well it’s a big campus. So, we good?”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. But if something happens… come and get me.”
“Ryan.” Ellie rolled her eyes in reproach.
“It’s either that or Leah and I can just join the party right now.” She looked pissed, and I didn’t give a fuck. “That’s the best I got. Take it or leave it.”
“I’m sure your date would appreciate that, Ryan. God!”
“I barely know her, Ellie. Julia comes first.”
She looked me square in the eye. “Would it matter if you’d known her for ten years?”
“Probably not,” I said without thinking, still watching what was going on at the table across the club.
Ellie sighed, her chest visibly heaving. “Well, at least that’s honest.”
I ignored her and turned away toward my date; who was bouncing around as she did some ridiculous chair dance. Fucking embarrassing, I thought. She looked ridiculous. No doubt, she’d probably drag me to dance, which would shoot Ellie’s request I keep a low profile, all to hell. I did a mental shrug as I handed Leah her beer. This place was small, so it was likely Julia would see me anyway. I wasn’t exactly sure I didn’t want her to. I wanted her to know I was here if she needed me, but it felt strange to be around her when we were each with other people. It was uncomfortable, and I continually found myself wishing it were just the two of us. I had an overwhelming urge to storm across the bar and make sure that dude knew he’d better keep it on the up and up with Julia, but that would only be awkward and embarrassing. I couldn’t do that to my date, or my best friend. Instead, I settled down and bored holes in his back with my eyes.
The couch was too low for me. The thing was maybe 18 inches off the floor, and my legs felt cramped between the edge of the seat and the table. Leah smiled and rested her hand on my chest in an awkward attempt to re-establish my attention on her. I smiled weakly, pulled out my cell phone, and fiddled with it, fighting the desire to send Julia a text. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been out with a woman and sought out opportunities to check up on her. Right now, I didn’t stand on pretense or formality. My fingers itched to type out a text.
“Ryan, do you want to dance?”
My brows furrowed at Leah’s words while my thumbs hammered the keys of my phone. “Maybe in a while,” I threw out offhandedly; distracted between my phone and watching what Julia was doing. Ellie was seated at the table, and Julia was still standing next to it. Her companion leaned in and whispered something into her ear. It was way more intimate than I wanted to witness, his hand skirting up her bare thigh toward the hem of her dress. I hesitated half a second before I pushed send. I pulled at the front of my shirt as my chest tightened painfully.
What are you doing?
When she found out I was here and already knew exactly what she was doing, she’d be pissed that I’d ask, but I wasn’t thinking much beyond needing to see if she’d tell me the truth.
The music changed to a slow pulse with more of a melody. I watched the guy take Julia’s slender hand in his and tug her slowly toward the middle of the dance floor, closer to me. My eyes roamed over them both; jealousy took a tighter grip deep down in my gut and my muscles coiled. At the bar, I’d barely glanced in his direction, but now with Julia, he had my undivided attention.
“I really like this song,” Leah murmured, her fingers now worming their way in between two of the buttons on my shirt to scratch lightly on my bare chest. “Mmmm… you feel nice.” Her voice was beguiling, and I realized she was trying desperately to get me to pay attention to her. I chugged the last couple ounces of the beer from my bottle and waved the empty bottle at the waitress. I held up two fingers, and she nodded in understanding.
It took every ounce of strength I had to pull my eyes away from Julia, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from doing something I had no right to do. I turned to Leah, pulling her fingers from my shirt to enfold them with my own. I smiled at her, trying to concentrate on her dark brown eyes and not the asshole wrapped around Julia less than twenty feet in front of me. Leah was babbling on endlessly about a trip to Europe she took with a group of friends over Christmas break, when the waitress brought us our beers. She set them both in front of me and I grabbed the closest one, wanting to get hammered but knowing I wouldn’t. How could I take care of Julia if I was wasted?
The music changed again, and I raised my head away from Leah, letting myself glance toward the dance floor and the table where Julia had been. She wasn’t there. The guy wasn’t either. My breath left in a rush as panic washed over me and I sat up straighter, trying to untangle Leah, who was halfway draped across my chest by now, with one of her legs hitched over my knee.
“Ryan, let’s go back to my place,” she said, her voice low and dripping with sex. Too bad it didn’t do a goddamned thing to distract me. Her hand roaming high on my thigh was only pissing me off when I wanted to be free of her. Her fingers squeezed suggestively as her hand inched closer to my crotch, and her lips nudged my jaw. “If you don’t want to dance, maybe we can find something else to do.”
My beer slipped from my fingers, and I scrambled to catch it but it was being lifted by another set of slender fingers without the blazing red nails. By the time my eyes shifted up and focused, Julia was leisurely taking a drink from my bottle. Her hooded green eyes appraised me, with my date almost on my lap. I barely noticed Leah because my attention was on Julia, and then her eyes shifted twelve inches right, landing on Leah. Julia hated beer, but still here she was, stamping her ownership with something as simple as a pull on my beer bottle. She probably didn’t even know the effect it had on me at such a base level, but I fucking loved it. Something tightened deep inside my chest,
and my dick twitched inside my jeans.
“Ryan! Are you gonna let her do that?” Leah demanded indignantly, her eyes flashing haughtily up at Julia.
My lips raised in the slightest smirk. Julia echoed it when her eyes locked with mine.
“Yeah, she… uh, she can do that,” I confirmed without emphasis. Amusement at Julia’s confidence made me want to laugh out loud. I felt fucking elated.
Leah huffed beside me and angrily flung herself back against the cushions of the couch, removing her leg from mine. “Well, do you know her?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know her.” Boy, do I know her.
Julia wobbled a little, and I could see she’d had more to drink than she needed. Still, she grinned at me, her arm bent at the elbow as she curled my beer close to her chest, not drinking, just holding it in place. My instinct was to reach out or stand up to steady her.
Angrily, Leah pushed on my shoulder and spewed venom in Julia’s direction. “Are you going to introduce us? Is she your sister?”
Julia started to giggle. “Pffft! Do I look like his sister?”
“Then who are you?” my date demanded, her expression hard. I watched the exchange, anxious to see what Julia would say.
“Oh, we’re….” She handed back my beer and walked behind me to sit on the top edge of the back of the couch and slid her hand over the shoulder Leah had shoved. “Well, let’s see… we’re… mmmm...” Her words were nonchalant but her eyes widened, waiting for me to finish the sentence. “What exactly are we, Ryan?”
“This is my best friend Julia. Jules, this is Leah.” I said the words carefully, but couldn’t tear my eyes from Julia’s face. Her features were filled with laughter and devilry.
“His date,” Leah spat.
“Congratulations.” Julia focused on Leah and wagged a finger in her direction. She was clearly tipsy. “You need a donut.”
A laugh burst from my chest because I couldn’t help myself. You need a donut. I thought it was fucking hilarious, but Leah was clearly pissed.
“What did you say?”
“You seriously need a donut.”
Leah looked indignant and furious, but my shoulders were visibly shaking with laughter when Julia turned her attention to me. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”
“Excuse me,” I murmured to Leah then immediately rose to follow Julia a few feet away. “Are you being careful?”
“Is it just a coincidence that you and Twiggy are here tonight?”
I swallowed at the accusation in her tone. She was tipsy, but her eyes still burned into mine. “Yeah. I had no idea you were even going out, but I’m glad I’m here. Who is that guy?” I wanted to ask why she let him touch her in such a familiar way but clamped my jaw shut.
“He’s a guy. Collin, I think? No big deal.” She shrugged nonchalantly, and her hand came to rest on the front of my shirt. I should have been reassured as her deep green eyes looked up imploringly. “Don’t worry, Ryan.”
It was all I could do not to cover her fingers with my own. “I worry.”
“I know.” She leaned in and wrapped her arms around my waist in a brief hug and the scent of her perfume engulfed me. “I’m glad to see you. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
I wanted to wrap my arms around her and hold her close. I wanted to tell her to be careful, to stop drinking so much, especially around people she didn’t know, but my hands fell away, and I shut my mouth as she left me and walked back to Ellie and the two guys sitting at her table.
Over the course of the next two hours, I tried to soothe Leah’s ruffled feathers, dancing with her when absolutely required and buying her enough cocktails to allow me to ultimately remain parked on the couch as much as possible. I’d switched to Jack and Coke, and my mood got worse as the guy became more emboldened with Julia. When Leah accepted another man’s invitation to dance, I couldn’t blame her, and I couldn’t care less. I thought I’d inadvertently screwed myself when I told Leah the reason I didn’t feel like dancing much was because my head hurt. Thank God she was too selfish to suggest leaving.
It was a blessing in disguise when Leah trotted off after she was asked to dance, and I was beyond caring about the friend-zone boundaries Julia and I had firmly established. I watched Ellie accompany Julia, who was visibly wobbling on her way to the ladies room and took the opportunity to find out what the dickhead, now known to me as Collin, was up to. I had a slight buzz but nothing like I should have had with the amount of alcohol I’d consumed. I approached where he was talking to yet another of his friends at the bar. He must troll here often, I thought. His back was to me as I took a seat near the end of the bar. He was laughing with his friend, who was patting him hard on the back.
“Oh, yeah. This is in the bag. She’s really wasted, and I just slipped her an X. Dude, she’s gonna be sucking my dick in an hour and thanking me for it. Maybe yours too.” They both burst out laughing, and I could barely contain myself from grabbing them both and smashing their skulls together.
I paused, blinking. I needed to be certain I’d heard him correctly. Did he say he’d just given Julia Ecstasy? I turned around slowly, hoping he hadn’t seen Julia talking to Leah and me earlier.
“Excuse me; did you say you had some X?” I asked lazily, my eyes hooded.
“Oh, yeah!” He was obviously an idiot, saying it so loudly. “Want some?” He moved his shoulder closer to mine so he could hide his hand behind our bodies then opened it revealing five little white pills. “Twenty bucks each.”
I regarded the two men carefully, gritting my teeth as my fist closed. I huffed, wanting to lay the fucker out on the spot. “No, thanks. I don’t need that shit to get my girl hot and bothered,” I goaded, part of me hoping this prick would take a swing at me. Nothing would make me happier than to pummel that smug grin off his face, but I also knew I had to get Jules out of the club before that shit started fucking her up. Christ!
“I don’t either. But it just makes inhibitions fly away.” The prick leaned into the bar and smirked. “Poof. It makes bitches do some incredible shit.”
I inhaled deeply, struggling to keep control as anger exploded deep in my chest. Fuck, I wanted to rip him limb from limb.
Julia would be pissed when I hauled her little ass out, but that was exactly what I was going to do.
I glanced toward the bathrooms, and Ellie and Julia were just emerging from the ladies room and heading back to the table. Collin straightened and started to walk around me. “Let me know if you change your mind, man. But make it quick, we’re leaving soon.”
I contemplated what my next move would be. Leah was happily dancing with another guy. I strode to the middle of the dance floor just as Collin wrapped his arms around Julia, his hands roaming her ass and back. No doubt, the drug was already working because she was clinging to him while he buried his face in her neck and reached up the back hem of her dress.
“Leah.” I tapped her on the shoulder, and she glanced my way. “We’re leaving.”
She scowled at me, indignant. “I don’t want to leave. I’m just starting to have fun. You go.”
“I wouldn’t feel right leaving you here.”
“I can take care of myself. Rodney will take me home.” She batted her lashes at the scrawny blond dude who was pretending to dance with her. “Right, Rodney?”
“Yeah.” He nodded and looked me straight in the eye. “Yeah, sure. I can take her home.”
I felt uneasy about leaving her there, but Julia was going to be a hot mess in a few minutes if she wasn’t already.
“Whatever.” I didn’t have time to fuck around, and I turned and headed toward Julia. From behind, I tugged her arms from around Collin’s neck and pulled her back against me, my right arm sliding around her waist, and pushing him away. “Let go, asshole. Time to go, Julia.”
She fought my hold. “I don’t want to go! I’m feeling great! I’m staying!”
“We gotta go!”
“Who the fuck are you, anyway, pretty boy? Her dad?”
/> “Fuck off.” I easily dismissed him. “Ellie, where’s Julia’s coat?” Julia was pulling my arm that held her fast. My muscles flexed, but I refused to let her go. “We have to get her out of here. Now.”
“Why?” she asked, confused.
“Just get her coat. I’ll explain later.”
Collin grabbed Julia and tried to help her get free. Ellie disappeared into the crowd then returned with Julia’s coat. I used my free hand to shove hard against the cocksucker’s shoulder, making him stumble back. “I said, fuck off, asshole! You can let me leave with her, or I can call the cops, after I pound your ass into the ground.” I pulled out my phone. “Your choice.”
By now, Julia wasn’t struggling as much. “I feel strange.” She was moving her hand around in front of her face, staring at it like she was in a trance, and she kept pulling her arms away so she could stare at her hands. “My hand. Everything is trailing glow-y rainbows.”
“How much did she have to drink?” I asked Ellie as I tried to get Julia to put on her coat. She was too busy watching her hand to cooperate.
“Six or seven shots, maybe? But that was over like three hours, Ryan.”
“Couldn’t you have waited to get trashed until the rest of us were with you? Oh, screw this!” I gave up with the coat and lobbed it over my shoulder, taking a firm hold on Julia’s upper arm.
“I feel so warm. Everything is so nice,” Julia murmured, trying to pull away from me. “Collin! I love you! I love you, Collin.”
“See? She wants to stay with me, asshole,” Collin sneered. “Mind your own fucking business!” He reached for Julia again.
“Don’t touch her again!” I turned around and let loose, slamming my right fist as hard as I could into his jaw. My hand slid across his mouth and his teeth gnashed across two of my knuckles. He fell flat on his ass. Most of the patrons of the bar were too inebriated to care, but a bouncer from the other side of the bar started to come toward us. My hand started to sting, and I flexed my fingers. I must have cut the skin on his teeth.
“Ryan! How could you?” Julia shrieked and tried to scramble to his side on the floor. “Collin!”
