by Ava Alise
“One Code: No stripping in common area, like in the living room for example. Two Code: No fucking in the common area. Three Code: No fucking a girl another guy brings home unless she starts it and it doesn’t break the universal Bro Code. Four Code: Clean up your own shit,” he recites.
“Wait… what’s wrong with stripping. You guys are strippers?” Ros asks with a slight grin.
“That was the problem, we had to make that a rule because one time a roommate named Tommy brought home a girl who was a fan of Paul. She kept flirting with Paul after watching him dance, and he ended up fucking her; it caused an issue with the boys for a while.”
“She was kind of a whore, huh? How do you come with one guy but fuck another?”
“Aye, shit happens, plus, a lot of times the boys would bring multiple girls home to party, but it just so happened that Tommy was really into the girl that Paul ended up sleeping with, but one reason it happened was because Paul was routine for doing a bunch of girls in the living room, and Tommy’s girl got all into it.”
“Okay, I see,” Ros says, nodding.
“Now I get two code, self-explanatory, but three code, explain.”
“Okay, three code. For instance you and Ros. Ros is into Ty, right? So if Ros decides to come over with you one day and fuck Ty it wouldn’t be breaking three code because even though she came with me she’s into him. If she decides she wants to fuck him it’s not breaking bro code because Ty wouldn’t be stealing my girl, but at the same time, she’s protected under three code. So if she got completely fucking wasted and decided to walk around here butt ass naked she’s off limits UNLESS she starts some shit with one of the guys. It’s like a hands-off rule. Make sense?”
“Interesting, okay. What if one of the guys tries to fuck me?” I ask.
“It would be breaking bro code. You don’t fuck another guys date, it’s a dick move.”
“Okay, got it. What’s the penalty for breaking the code? You get kicked out?” I ask.
“If you keep breaking code eventually you’ll get kicked out, but the penalty for breaking the codes is you have to do laundry for all four guys for two weeks, which includes Ty because even though he moved out he’s here all the damn time,” Chris chuckles. “One time Paul got drunk and broke two code with this girl and started fucking her in the kitchen. We had all left but came home and caught them. We FILLED his room up with dirty clothes every day. I mean, all over his bed, dresser, just rude shit; some of us had laundry backed up for weeks, and he had to do it ALL. He was PISSED.”
“Ewwww, draws and all?”
“Fuck yeah, draws and all!”
We all laugh, and Chris pours another shot for each of us.
“Damn, y’all got this roommate shit down,” Ros says.
“Yup, it might sound crazy, but it works.”
After we finish our shots, we get up to join the party. The patio is packed and holds two kegs and a few tables with it seems like thirty conversations going on at once. Some people are playing drinking games, some smoking weed, and a bunch of people are in the yard dancing near huge speakers that sit about ten feet or so from the house.
“Hey, Ros!” Ty says, smiling, looking up from the card table. “You play? It’s for shots, though,” he adds.
“Yeah, I can play few hands.” Ros smiles at him then up at me as Chris and I continue our stride toward the grass.
Three hours later, after we roasted hot dogs on the fire, drank too much, and danced ourselves to exhaustion, Chris and I stumble back into the house and flop down on the couch.
“Wait, where’s Rossie?” I say somewhere between a slur and a mumble.
“Uhh, there.” Chris drunkenly drags his hand upward, pointing across the living room.
I focus my eyes on his hand which almost looks like it’s vibrating with the music and then follow it to where I think he’s pointing. Ros is sitting on the couch across the room talking to Ty. Chris and I stay on the couch listening to music and watching people dance, too tired to move.
After a while I see Ty get up and head down the hall, and I go over to check on Ros.
“Hey, girl! Having fun?”
“Yes, lots,” she slurs a bit and smiles.
“Where’s Ty going?” I ask, falling onto the couch beside her.
“To the bathroom,” she sighs. “Ohhh, he’s just so hot… and so funny,” she adds.
I nod and give her a knowing look.
Ros’ eyes drag slowly over the room. “Look at the way Chris is looking at you, though,” she whispers.
I don’t know why she’s whispering, with the music and the distance, Chris can’t hear us at all.
I look over at Chris.
“You might be dinner,” Ros says, chuckling.
“Mmm, I do love it when he gets that look in his eyes.”
I wonder what type of dirty things he’s thinking. I should yell Yes! Do whatever you want to me just keep looking at me like that.
I see Ty coming back so I get up out of his seat, flash Ros a smile, and head back to the couch with Chris.
“Hey, y’all,” a booming voice echoes through the living room, and I look over to see Paul.
“I got this important interview tomorrow, so can y’all take it outside; I’m about to hit the bed,” he says.
Chris told me earlier that Paul had just graduated college last semester and has been trying to land a job in the finance field with no luck, but he was able to set up a Sunday brunch with some stuffed shirt corporate executive tomorrow and has been practicing interview questions all week.
“No problem, man,” one voice says.
“Aye, good luck!” another says.
Everyone leaves the house but Ros, Ty, Chris, and me. Ros and Ty keep their spot on their couch across the room, and Chris and I stay seated as well.
Chris tells me more about his roommates. It sounds like JJ is the goofball, Paul is the more serious one, Nard never goes to bed alone, and Casey really doesn’t hang out with them. I did notice I didn’t get to meet her tonight. The music outside blares and though it's a little muffled, we can hear it clearly.
“Oohh, Chris! We got to do this dance! I use to LOVE this song!” I say, eyes wide as I hear the song change to Soulja Boy Tell’em’s ‘Crank That’.
I excitedly look over to where Ros is sitting but notice she and Ty are both passed out, so I turn back to Chris and force him to get up to do the “Soulja Boy” with me. We get through the whole song before we collapse back onto the couch again, laughing at our drunken attempt at the dance.
We must have looked so crazy, but damn it was fun!
Chris lays his head back on the couch, looking at the ceiling and laughing then turns his head toward me. I sit against the arm of the couch facing him.
“So, Red,” he says, smile fading and a sultry glint in his eye.
“Yeah…” I say, still half grinning.
He sits up and faces me. He drops his eyes from mine for a second and then meets them again.
“When are you going to kiss me, sexy?”
My smile fades, and I realize he’s serious. He wears that alluring look in his eyes that makes me want to just tear his clothes off. I lean back against the arm of the chair, smile, and curve my finger at him in the come here gesture.
Chris moves in, returning my slight smile and meeting me more than halfway. I lean forward and touch my lips to his. I kiss him soft and slow; he tastes like fruit juice and spice. His tongue gently grazes my bottom lip, and I open my mouth for him. His lips are soft like I imagined, his tongue is skilled, and our kiss moves from slow and soft to deep and heavy. Our bodies move from him leaning toward me to us sitting upright. My hands begin their possession as I caress his biceps and shoulders, lightly scraping my nails across his skin. I feel a vibrating in his chest.
“Mmmmmm,” I hear him groan deep as he sucks on my bottom lip, and our kiss becomes more frantic. The electricity that has been building between us explodes as we lose control right there on th
e couch. Most first kisses I’ve had have always gone one of two ways. You kiss the person, smile, and decide you like it. Or you kiss the person, feel nothing, and then things get awkward. This first kiss wasn’t anything like either because as soon as our lips touched we never stopped.
I don’t even remember moving, but somehow I have now found myself straddling his lap, pushing him against the back of the couch. When I finally break our kiss and come up for air, he immediately moves his lips to my neck teasing it with his tongue and nibbling on the sensitive area above my collarbone. My heart pounds, my eyes cross a bit, and a moan escapes me. I find my possessed hands under his shirt, rubbing and teasing his chest and down his stomach, memorizing every muscle. He slides his hands under my dress and lightly palms my ass.
I forget where we are, I don’t hear any music, or remember that Ros and Ty are sitting a few feet away from the room. All I’m aware of is the fast rise and fall of our chests and his lips on my neck… damn.
I moan again as he continues to tease me with his lips and tongue and my mouth finds his. Chris scoots forward slightly allowing me to wrap my legs around his waist as our kisses gain more passion and our breaths come faster. Suddenly, he grabs my ass and pulls me forward on to him. He is rock hard and the way he presses into me feels so good that we both moan into each other’s mouths. He opens his legs a bit, and I feel my ass slide down onto the couch beneath us, and he leans forward pressing me into the couch and adding pressure in the most amazing way.
God, I can’t think, I can’t breathe, everything has become Chris, and I can’t stop kissing him.
Then I slowly begin hearing voices from far away.
It only takes a few seconds for my brain to register that the voices are not far away but coming from right behind me.
“Is he, man?”
“Uh…nah I don’t think so… don’t look like it.”
“Fuck!”
“Damn, Chris, two code, man, two code.”
Chris pulls away from me, but his eyes stay locked on mine.
“Not breaking code,” Chris says.
I turn to see Nard and JJ standing behind us holding two cups of ice. Chris finally looks up at them.
“Shit! I have about two weeks of laundry I’m behind in doing,” JJ says, smiling as he and Nard walk away.
“We shouldn’t have said anything, I bet you in five minutes they would have …” I hear Nard say to JJ until his voice fades as they leave, shutting the patio door behind them.
I roll off of Chris’ lap and both of us lean back and try to catch our breaths, staring at each other.
“Damn,” he says, flashing that smile I love.
I smile at him. I feel embarrassed, why do I feel embarrassed? How in the hell did we lose control so fast? I want to blame the alcohol, but I know this magnet has been building momentum for a while now. That was intense, I felt it everywhere. I’ve never had a kiss feel like that. So carnal, so explosive. Maybe it is the alcohol.
We sit for a minute in silence, me trying gain control of my heart rate, him probably trying to gain control of other parts of his body.
“Looks like Ros is asleep,” he says after a beat.
“Yeah, we should probably help her to bed,” I say.
Lazily, Chris rises from the couch. “Probably not the best idea to leave her out here.”
“Why do you say that?” I ask following him across the room.
“Don't get me wrong, I trust Ty with her, but mix a bunch of good looking people with a bunch of alcohol and shit happens. Plus, she might try to seduce Ty, and he's not protected under code,” Chris laughs.
I glance over at Ros, asleep and cradled under one of Ty’s arms. Ty is snoring with his head thrown back and is pretty much stretched out besides that one arm that’s holding Ros.
“Uhhhh, hell no, I don’t trust her,” I say lightheartedly.
Chris reaches their couch but trips over Ty’s foot once he gets there and lands directly on Ros.
“Uhhh… what’s going on?” Ros says sleepily once she feels the impact.
“Fuck, Ros…I’m sorry,” Chris says, rolling off her and falling onto the floor.
“BAHAHAHAHAHA!” I burst into laughter and fall to the floor myself. “Wait…HAHA…Wait… are… you okay?” I ask in a fit of laughter.
The look on her face… the look on his face… and Ty is still asleep.
Ros is now sitting up looking at us. Chris still hasn’t gotten up off the floor because my laughing has caused him to laugh, and I’m still on my knees.
“Oh, Rossie, you have to get up. We came to help you up, but you might need to help us up!” I say to her as Chris and I struggle to get off the floor. Finally in control of our laughter, we reach Ros, both grab an arm and become her drunken duo trying to lead her toward the bedroom.
“Okay, she’s good,” I say, meeting Chris in the hallway.
Chris is leaning against the wall, but it looks like the wall is holding him up.
“You good?” I ask, smiling at him.
“Yeah, just really buzzed. Want to go back to the party?”
I stagger over, and lean against the wall, then slide down to the floor. He joins me.
“Man, I still can’t believe you’re a stripper. I would’ve never guessed,” I say, not answering his question.
He smiles.
“Yeah, I was for a long time. It was fun.”
I smile, meeting his eyes.
“But you don’t dance like a stripper,” I say, leaning my head against the wall, still holding his gaze.
“Well, baby, that’s because I wasn’t stripping,” he says with a gleam in his eyes.
“Oh… okay?” I ask wanting him to go on.
“I mean, I got to be in mode.”
“Like, stripper mode?” I chuckle.
“Kind of… yeah.”
“Hmmm…” I pause.
Stripper mode? The hell?
“Let me show you, but we gotta go in my room. One code and all. I think I owe you a dance anyway.”
I beam.
“YES! I want to see this MODE!”
Chris and I crawl up off the floor, but before we head to his room we grab two more shots. Since we aren’t going back to the party, we’ll have our last shot of the night in his room.
I fall onto Chris’ bed while he fumbles at his computer looking for a song. He chooses D’Angelo “Untitled.”
“Mmmm, love this song!” I say.
Chris stands on unsteady feet in front of me, looking down at the floor when the song starts. As the first few chords come through the speakers, Chris slowly raises his head, looks at me, then looks down at his body; eyes completely darkened, demanding my full attention.
A sexy smirk plays on his face as he looks at me and slowly runs his hand down his hard chest. Chris locks his eyes onto mine and bites down on his lip, then slowly unbuttons his shirt. He looks down at his partly exposed chest that my eyes are now glued to.
Damn, I thought this would be sort of funny, but he has me in a trance. His chest… I mean I could feel how smooth and muscular it was, but holy shit.
Looking up at me through his eyelashes with that sexy little smirk again, but my eyes are still fixated on his six-pack. The muscles I’ve been feeling up at every opportunity are now completely exposed, and I see hints of the V…God, the V.
I take a deep breath and look up at him, but his sexy look is gone and he just looks confused. My eyes linger on his exposed skin for just a moment before I notice he’s fumbling with the last button of his shirt. Chris laughs.
“Fuck, I can’t do it, Red.” He falls face first onto the bed next to me.
“Too drunk,” I hear him say, voice muffled from the blankets.
I was starting to get turned on and now I can’t help but laugh.
“Damn, it started off good,” I say, smiling with a very present slur.
He rolls on his side, looking at me and still laughing at himself as he sits upright.
�
��Shit… last shot of the night?”
“Sure, last shot of the night.”
I reach over and grab the shots, almost spilling them all over his bed. Somehow I manage to hand him his, and we take our last shot.
“Hey let me show you something,” he says even though his eyes are closed.
“What?”
He lazily crawls across his bed and opens his curtains. Behind the curtains lays a huge bay window and a large window seat.
“Oooooohhh pretty!!!” I crawl into the window seat and look up. Even though the party is still going on outside, it’s on the other side of the house and though you can hear the music and the muffled sounds of laughter, the window seat is peaceful. He crawls in next to me, and we lay flat on our backs looking up at the stars; granted the stars are a bit out of focus, but it’s still beautiful.
No more drinking for me tonight, even though I made sure to eat and drink water with my alcohol. At this point I’m dangerously close to that ‘you will be puking your guts out’ line.
We sit quietly staring at the stars for a while, and my eyelids grow heavy. I look over at Chris, and he’s already fast asleep. Pulling the blanket from his bed, I cover us and fall asleep with him.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Uhh… somebody turn off the fucking sun!
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Fuck, I know as soon as I open my eyes this throbbing is going to hurt like hell.
“Red!” I feel my body being nudged.
“Red, sexy, wake up.”
“Uhhhh,” I respond.
I slowly become aware that the thumping I’m feeling is not from a throbbing headache, but I’m actually hearing it. I crack my eyes open, but immediately turn from the sun and feel something hard.
Why am I so cold?
When I realize why I’m so cold, my eyes pop open and I immediately raise my head off his chest. Chris lays beneath me, eyes in complete shock, face in complete confusion, our bodies completely naked.
