by Magan Vernon
I shook my head. “No, it seems like this just is going to happen more and more.”
He raised his eyebrows, then reached his hand across the table and placed it on mine. “Libby, come on. My sweet petite. You know none of these old girls mean anything to me. I wouldn’t have introduced you as my girlfriend if I cared what they thought about us. You know I’m yours. No one else’s.”
I tucked a fallen curl behind my ear. “Some days I think that, and some days I wonder how many of your exes I’m going to have to face.”
“Hey, it wasn’t much of a picnic for me to meet that guy at Kristi’s wedding either.”
I rolled my eyes. When he showed up to Kristi’s wedding, he got to meet my ex, Beau, and promptly punched him in the face. “Yeah, one ex. That’s all I’ve got. You seem to have slept with half the town.”
He pulled his hand back. “Hey, baby, that ain’t fair. I thought we agreed that was in the past is the past, and the future is now.”
“It doesn’t help when your past keeps showing up in a pair of short shorts.”
He growled, clenching his fists. “Libby, I don’t know how many times I’ve got to tell you that these girls meant nothing to me back then, and they mean nothing to me now. They were all just flings. You’re my sweet petite. No one else.”
“So that’s all I was? A stupid fling?”
I whipped my head to see Raelynn standing next to our table with two foam cups in her hands.
Blaine turned toward her, holding his hands up, palms out. “Hey, you knew we was just having some fun when we got together. You were just getting over Butch Sinclair, and I was just getting over Julie.”
“You take me muddin’, fuck me, and then never call me again! If that’s what you call a fling then fuck you Blaine Crabtree, because you were nothing but a ride in the truck for me, too!” With that, she took both of the foam cups and dumped them over his head. He gasped as the cool, brown liquid streamed over his face and down his shirt. He wiped his face as Raelynn turned on her boots and stormed out.
I looked around the room, and people tried not to stare, but I could see their eyes shifting over to our table. “I think it’s time to go,” I whispered.
Blaine nodded as sweet tea dripped everywhere. “I think that’s probably a good idea.”
***
There were tons of random ponds and creeks all throughout Elsbury. Since there wasn’t exactly a bathroom for Blaine to clean up in at the restaurant and we had high-tailed it out of there pretty quick, he pulled on to the side of the road, and we took a small pathway down to a little pond not far from Aunt Dee’s.
It was surrounded by weeping willows, like our own personal lagoon with just the light of the moon shining down on the water in front of us. We sat at the edge and dangled our feet in the water, while Blaine dipped his hands in and out of the water, splashing the sweet tea off of his face.
“Baby, I’m really sorry you had to witness any of that,” he spoke in a voice barely above a whisper after he splashed one last layer on his face.
I could feel the tears pricking at my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them budge, instead I just drew circles in the water with my foot.“Yeah, I wish I didn’t either.”
“I wish there was some way I could prove to you that was the old Blaine. I wish that none of these girls would show up, or that I could get some sort of time machine and go back to stop myself from messing around with all those girls before you came.”
I sighed and finally turned to face him. “It’s a small town, surrounded by other small towns, did you really think you’d never run into any of them again?”
“I wasn’t really thinking with my head. Well, not the head on my shoulders.”
I groaned. “That’s really reassuring.”
He reached down into the pond, taking a handful of water and splashing it onto my legs. “Come on, my petite, you know you’re the only girl for me. Hell, I barely talked to any of those other girls. They all came after me. You were the first girl I actually sought out, even though you rejected me.”
“I didn’t reject you!” I kicked a small wave of water in his direction, splashing his pants.
Technically I didn’t. I remembered exactly when I met him. We fought, because he thought I was dancing too sexy at a party, then I had to take a very messed up Britt home. I saw him the next day, and again he confronted me about teasing some guys on the road crew. I didn’t know at the time that he was such a big playboy, or that he’d show up at Aunt Dee’s shop with flowers and ask me out on a date.
“As I recall, you sat there and just gave me that sexy smile before you said you’d think about letting me take you out.” He scooped another big glop of water in his hands, then pushed it at me, soaking the bottoms of my capris.
I squealed, as the warm water hit my body. “Hey, that’s not fair!”
“What? That you rejected me, or this...” He let his hand back and then pushed another huge wave of water onto me that reached up to my shirt.
I screamed. “Blaine Crabtree, stop it!”
I reached into the water and splashed continuously until I had soaked his jeans.
“Oh hell no. This means war!”
Just as he bent down to scoop another load of water on me, I pushed at his back, causing him to stumble forward and fall into the water. He came up, shaking his head like a wet dog and running his hands over his face. He stood up, the water only reaching to his waist. Then he pulled his shirt over his head and threw it on the shore. “Oh you asked for this, baby.”
He moved in slow, methodical steps, and before I could move, he picked me off the ledge and dragged me into the water with him. It wasn’t cold like I might have expected, but almost as warm as a Jacuzzi. That didn’t stop me from screaming, since it soaked through my pants and shirt, causing my body to feel like it weighed a million pounds.
“Ah! Blaine!” I swatted at his bare chest with my wet hand as he moved his arms around my waist, pulling me tighter against him.
“Hey, you started this.”
“But now my clothes are soaked!”
A large grin spread on his face. “Well, then take them off.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Ew, here? Aren’t there like fish in the water.”
He shook his head, blowing the air through his nose and onto my face like a silent laugh. “Some days I forget how much of a city girl you are.” He pushed back my hair from my neck, his fingers tracing the lines of my jaw before his lips replaced his fingers, and he trailed warm kisses from my jaw down my neck.
I gasped at the sensation of the water flowing around us combined with his soft lips. He moved his mouth from my neck to my lips, tilting my head back and letting his tongue in. He deepened our kiss, pulling me against his bare chest, while I reached my hands up, running my fingers through his hair and down the curved muscles of his back.
He broke the kiss, but his lips still trailed down my neck before he moved his hands to the hem of my shirt pulling it over my head, then tossed it next to his on the shore. Once that was gone his lips returned back to my body, moving my bra straps so he could kiss my bare shoulders.
Blaine then kissed his way back up to my lips, but before I could kiss him back, he leaned his forehead against mine. His blue eyes glimmering in the moonlight. “This is where I want to be. Anywhere that you are. I love the feel of your skin on mine, and the way your heart beats to the same rhythm of my own. I belong to you and only you.”
My lips said what words couldn’t as I pulled him in for another kiss, getting lost in him. We may not have been perfect and I knew it wouldn’t be the last of his exes that I would run into, but for now, he was mine and that was all that mattered.
Chapter 6
Cotillion. I had only seen it on movies and TV shows, but apparently it was a pretty big deal in the south. Maize Thibodaux, the grocer’s wife, ran it every year for all the girls who were turning sixteen in town. They were supposed to make their debut in southern society. Though Elsbury wasn�
�t a big southern metropolis, the way Maize carried herself, all probably 300 pounds of her, you would think she was running some big Cotillion in Atlanta.
Not that I would have done any better. I’d never been to any sort of cotillion or debutante all, But Maize said I could be Britt’s sponsor, because I think she had some sort of girl crush on me. She always said I dressed like I was about to go out and make my debut, and gushed about my appearance, when Britt would be standing right there in her awful basketball shorts. It was embarrassing, really. Maybe if Britt ditched the shorts, she would be better at the whole ‘Southern lady’ thing, or at least try to be.
There was only one country club in Elsbury and it was used for every prom and wedding in the area. And of course, cotillion. We drove down the weeping willow-lined path until the grand, white structure came into view. I had to admit that it was one of the prettiest buildings in Elsbury complete with a garden of magnolia trees. At one time, it had to have been a southern plantation with its large white columns and balconies overlooking the garden, but nobody could tell me that for sure.
I parked the car in one of the side parking lots and followed Britt through the front door into a lobby where a grand, golden staircase faced us, and a crystal chandelier hung over our heads, gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. This was just the first meeting to talk about the cotillion, but I was already nervous. I never went to any school dances, as I wasn’t exactly the most popular girl in my large high school, and the last time I went to any formal event was my sorority formal, at which my ex boyfriend got drunk and got us kicked out after he peed on the buffet.
“So, where do we go from here?” I asked Britt, staring at the maroon and gold surroundings. The place looked like it was going for some old antique charm, but it also looked like it hadn’t been updated since the seventies.
“Probably the ballroom,” Britt muttered.
“And that is where?”
Britt rolled her eyes and stomped off past the staircase and into a large open room where a row of French doors with long maroon curtains faced us. There were gold tables with white linen tablecloths set up on each side of a marble dance floor. That was where Maize stood wearing a powder blue dress that was almost the same color as her large, puffed up, curly hair.
She smiled, fluttering her chubby hands as soon as she saw us walk in, completely ignoring the other girls that were standing around the dance floor. “If it isn’t Libby Gentry! I’m so glad you could make it.”
I practically had to drag Britt over to Maize, keeping a smile pasted on my face. “Hi, Maize.”
“And don’t you just look pretty as a picture!” She smiled as her eyes trailed over my dress and boots. I would have dressed up more, but I wasn’t even sure what fit me in my closet. All the purging, and I still felt like a giant whale. I didn’t even want to think about what fit me.
“Thanks, ma’am.”
She smiled, clasping her hands together. “We are just so happy that you decided to be Brittany’s sponsor. We usually don’t have girls help out that haven’t done this before, but I think you make a great exception.”
I nodded. “Uh, gee, thanks Maize.”
She patted my back. “Well, we better get this started before the other girls get restless. Why don’t you two take a seat?”
“Fine with me.” Britt didn’t even look at me or Maize and just stomped over to one of the tables toward the back.
I raised an eyebrow at her brashness, but followed anyway. It’s not like I expected her to be excited by dressing up or doing a dance, but she could at least be polite. Something was up. I took the seat next to her and scanned the room. I expected her friend Sarah would be joining us, or at least someone she knew, but as everyone took their seats, it was just us at the back table.
“Is Sarah not making her debut?” I leaned over and whispered as Maize passed around a packet of information.
“Yeah, she is.”
“Oh, I didn’t see her. Did you want to go sit with her?”
Britt huffed, crossing her arms tighter around her chest. “I doubt she would want to sit with me.”
I tilted my head. What? “I thought you two were best friends?”
Britt jutted her chin forward. “Yeah, that was before she started going out with Shane DeFleur.”
I looked in the direction of Britt’s chin and saw Sarah’s head of blond curly hair sitting and whispering back and forth with two skinny brunettes. On the back of each of their chairs was a letterman jacket.
“They started talking when school started, and when the LSU coach came to watch him play, that’s when both their popularity took off.”
I couldn’t help but stare at Sarah. The girl was just as big as Britt, but she carried herself just like Maize, a southern belle. But Sarah had always been nice to Britt. They were practically inseparable. Sarah’s laughter stopped when she was elbowed in the side. That was when my gaze drifted to the owner of the elbow, and I saw Nikki Sinclair in all her white trash glory propped up next to Sarah.
I gasped, trying to cover my mouth and hoped people weren’t staring before I leaned over to Britt. Maize had already started talking about the history of the cotillion and what was to be expected, but this was more important. “What is Nikki doing here?”
Britt shrugged. “I’m guessing she’s Sarah’s sponsor, if she’s sitting next to her.”
Just then Nikki turned slightly, her eyes meeting mine before she smirked, then turned back, as if it never happened. Nikki knew exactly what she was doing. I didn’t know if she planned to be Sarah’s sponsor just to get a rise out of me, or if it was purely coincidental. Either way, I wasn’t going to just give in to Nikki Sinclair without a fight.
***
“This chick just seems to be everywhere I go! Why is this place not big enough for me to miss her?”
Classes were over for Monday, and Sawyer was walking me to my car. He had become a permanent fixture at my side the past month and even helped me with my homework. Even though classes were a lot easier the second time around. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t have the distraction of my sorority, Aunt Dee always making me sit and do homework after classes, or because they just seemed easier since I’d done it all before.
“At least Elsbury is a little bigger than DuPont,” Sawyer mumbled, downing the rest of his coffee before putting the empty cup in a nearby trashcan. Sawyer had a coffee addiction, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
“I know to you Elsbury is like a big metropolis, but my high school was bigger than that entire town.”
“Whoa!” He waved his hands in the air in front of him. “I didn’t say I thought Elsbury was that great, it’s still the boondocks, but at least you have ways of avoiding her. You did it for months.”
I groaned. “Yeah, that was before I knew about her, or had class with her. Now she gives me the stink eye every day in Biology.”
“Well, darlin’, there ain’t much else you can do about her. This ain’t the old west, so you can’t just go and challenge her to a duel.” He glanced at me from the side of his large aviator sunglasses. “No offense, but I think she could take you.”
“Point taken. It just sucks. It seems like all of these freaking girls that Blaine fooled around with are coming out of the woodwork, and they’re all after me like some big anti-Libby hate club.”
“From where I stand, you have two choices, you can either chose to ignore all of them and move on with your life, or you can break up with that hot piece of southern man candy.”
I shook my head. “Breaking up with Blaine is not an option. Though sometimes he gets on my nerves, I still love him.” I sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to keep hoping that this all blows over soon.”
“Speaking of blow over.” Sawyer stopped at my car and bent down, examining a giant dent in my passenger door that I never noticed. “Did you go and hit something with this beautiful car?”
My eyes widened, and I couldn’t keep the panic out of my voice as I kneeled
down next to him, examining the softball size dent in my door. “No! I’m actually a very good driver! What the hell?”
I rubbed at the dent, wishing that would have done something to rub it out.
“You better call your daddy, or your insurance company, or something.”
I shook my head, trying to push the tears back. “I can’t call my dad. He’ll freak out on me and want me to move back to Chicago, and call me irresponsible.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
I whipped my phone out of my purse and texted Blaine as fast as my fingers would allow. “Hope that my boyfriend is good for something other than having a string of flings.”
***
I rushed over to Blaine’s house as fast as my car could carry me, without going too fast that I would crash my car and cause even more problems. Luckily, it was another day that he started working early and was out by one, so he had enough time to actually help me instead of just talking on his lunch break.
I pulled up to the house, where he was sitting on the front porch swing, a large glass of sweet tea in his hands. He smiled, sauntering over to the car as soon as he saw me. But I wasn’t in the mood, for the slow talking, charming Blaine. I wanted him to fix my car problem.
I burst out of the car and before he could even open his mouth to say anything, I stomped over to the passenger side of the car and framed the giant dent with my hands. “Look at this! What the hell is this?”
He slowly circled the car and then let out a silent laugh through his nose after taking a big gulp of his sweet tea. “It looks like you might need to do a better job of not parking next to big cars so you get door dings.”
I glared at him. “Seriously? My high school was bigger than St. Joseph, even bigger than Elsbury. I drove around the Chicago suburbs and never once had anything happen to this car. I think this was personal like some bitch in combat boots kicked it.”
He groaned. “Baby, I think you are overreacting.” He crouched down near the car, running his fingers over the dent. “It looks like someone might have just hit it with their door and didn’t leave a note. I can call Bubba Sinclair, and we can have him take this out real quick.”
