by C. A. Harms
I reached up above my door and felt for the small notch cut out of the trim that was just large enough to hold the key. When I reached out for the handle and it gave just a little, my heart felt like it lurched in my chest. Being unlocked was not good; it only meant one thing.
Shoving open my door, I was greeted with what looked like hundreds of balloons. From floor to at least waist high, blown up balloons were everywhere. My bed was covered, my desk, hell everything had colorful balloons on it.
In that moment I wondered what the fuck I was thinking when I foolishly agreed to give in and get drunk last night. This shit was going to take forever to pop.
***
I hadn’t forgotten about the tattoo, or the mountains of balloons around my room. But the moment I closed my eyes to fall asleep, the only thing I dreamed of was Catherine. Those kisses that were shared when I was supposed to be accepting the lime instead. It was a bold move and I knew it, but the inviting look in her eyes snared me when I hovered over her lips after that first shot.
The only thing I wanted in that moment was to feel her lips pressed to mine and I didn’t want a damn lime in the way. I just wished I could remember more of our night after that.
Was there more after that?
I could hear the guys all moving around outside my room, the laughter and continuous rowdy behavior that was a daily thing. The last thing I wanted was to face the smug assholes who would surely love seeing all that Clayton was able to accomplish.
I still had no clue where my phone was.
Climbing from my bed I slowly stepped over the balloons around my room, fearful I’d end up falling and break my fucking neck in the process. It seemed fitting as the final step in my night of the most humiliating events.
Once I was to my desk I powered up my computer and opened the search window. Exfoliating scrub, lemon juice, baking soda, hell even Crest toothpaste were some of the recommendations to clear off this crazy brown head syndrome I had going on. The problem was all those things had to be purchased at a store and there was no way I was going out looking like this.
I need my damn phone.
The sound of a woman’s laughter just outside my room got my attention. It had me spinning around in my chair, watching with caution. “He was so pissed,” Clayton’s amused voice came right through my door. I was up out of my chair and moving quickly through the balloons as they scattered out to my sides.
I yanked open the door, fully intending to tackle him when I found myself face to face with Catherine. I froze; she stepped back and her eyes grew wide just before her mouth fell open in shock and she quickly lifted her hand to cover it. Then I remembered what I looked like.
“What happened to you?”
Clayton stood behind her, his arms crossed over his chest and wearing a smug grin.
“He happened.” I pointed toward Clay.
“Is this what you dragged me up here for?” she spun around to ask Clayton. “I just came to get my car.”
“I couldn’t let you leave without seeing this.” Clayton chuckled again when I stepped forward, fully intending to tackle his ass and beat the snot out of him.
“Hey now, in my defense it wasn’t all me.” He uncrossed his arms and stepped forward, still using Cat as a shield from me. “Okay, so the gluing you to a chair, that was me. But this girl came to your rescue and helped you find a new set of pants after your ass was bared to the party.” He placed his hands on Catherine’s shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze. “By the way that shit went viral, everyone loved it.”
I am going to fucking kill him.
“Yet how do you repay the poor girl?” I saw the embarrassed look take over Cat’s earlier surprised one. “You go and cock slap her right in the face.”
My stomach dropped. “I did what?”
It was more of a question for her yet Clayton jumped right in.
“You managed to slap her in the face with your cock, and all she was trying to do was help you cover your ass. But she got her revenge.” Now I was heavily intrigued. “She helped me gather all these balloons and fill up your room. And she did it with a smile on her face. It was like handing an alcoholic a bottle of Tequila. This girl went crazy.”
“You had a part in the balloon event?”
Catherine looked at me and offered a shrug. “Yeah, it was kinda fun.”
The innocent way she said that made me laugh.
I’d say we were even but we weren’t.
“Oh yeah, what is it I owe you?” She looked almost hopeful.
“I’m gonna need you to help me get this shit off my face.” She covers her mouth once again, only in an attempt to cover her laughter.
“Ha ha, real funny.” I reached out and pulled her toward me. A loud squeal escaped her just before she stumbled forward into my arms and I shut the door behind me in Clayton’s face.
“What are we doing?”
“First you’re gonna help me get my face to match the rest of my body.” I guide her to my computer desk and nudge her to take a seat. “After that you and I are gonna have a balloon popping party. Then I’ve got a few other things to figure out since you enjoy tormenting others.” She arched a brow, but I clearly saw the smile tugging at her lips. “You can help me come up with a few ways to get back at Clayton.”
She almost seemed eager to do that last item on the list as she quickly slid closer to the screen and together we attempted to come up with the best solution to remedy this sunless tanner fiasco.
Chapter Eight
Catherine
“Where are you going?” I whipped around to see Morgan standing in the entryway to the living room. Xavier stood at her side.
“Making a run to Walgreens.” I held up the two twenties Elijah had just given me. “His face is so dark.” I tried not to smile but I had never in my life seen anything like it. “At this point I think he’s written down every home remedy that is proven to remove this tanner, and some that haven’t. He’s desperate.”
“Want company?”
Xavier hooked her around the waist and pulled her backward, her back flush with his chest. “Why the hurry to run off?”
“I’m not running off, I asked Catherine if I could go with her. It would be rude of me to make her go alone.”
I was just about to tell her I was okay to go alone when she gave me the look one girl gives to another when they are in desperate need of an escape and are relying on your help.
“It would make it easier to have a second set of eyes while trying to locate some of this stuff.”
Once we were in the car she turned to me with a smile. “So you and Red, huh?”
“I wouldn’t consider us a we or anything, just two friends.” I started the car and ignored the way she was watching me close.
“I was there last night. I think everyone was able to see and feel the attraction between the two of you.”
To say I was shocked at my actions from the night before was an understatement. I’m not a prude by any means, but making out with a guy I’d just officially met in front of a room full of people wasn’t something I’d normally do.
“I got duped into this because Clayton decided it would be fun to throw me to the dragon.” Turning onto the main highway, I looked over at Morgan and found her watching me with confusion. “Last night Clayton asked me to help him; I had no idea it was helping him load hundreds of balloons into Eli’s room.”
“By the way, I think it is cute that you call him Eli.”
“That’s his name.”
“Yeah, but everyone calls him Red.”
“I don’t get that.” I didn’t see the connection.
“I’m still a little curious about it myself but his hair used to be shorter and red.”
I still couldn’t see it.
“Anyway, I followed Clayton upstairs and when Eli opened the door, I saw his face. I could tell he didn’t really like that I had but it was too late to change it.” I can still picture his shocked expression when he found me
standing in the hall next to Clayton. “That twin has a big mouth and proceeded to tell Eli that I’d helped, so now I’m being recruited to help clean up the mess.”
“Doesn’t he think after what he did to you, he deserved just a little bit of payback?” This dick in the face thing I think would follow me forever with this group. “But I do have one question.”
“What’s that?” I shouldn’t have asked. But it was too late.
“Did you see the Prince?”
It was my turn to be confused. I pulled into the parking lot of Walgreens and took the first available spot. With the car in park and the keys pulled from the ignition I finally looked over at Morgan.
“Prince?”
“Don’t know if you heard about the video yet, but apparently after Red passed out they were able to rouse him enough to convince him to wax.” My eyes grew wide and she laughed. “Yep, they videoed it and everything. But what surprised them all was that Red has a piercing.”
“As in…” I pointed downward.
“Yes,” with a nod she continued. “Of course Xavier covered my eyes and led me from the room but I heard enough to know what the guys were referring to. So I was wondering if you saw it up close and personal.”
“I was turned to the side,” I replied, but I did remember feeling something hard and unfleshlike against my cheek.
I climbed out of my car and moved toward the store quickly. It was embarrassing enough that every person in the house and probably out of it were talking about my mishap. I didn’t want to relive it with Morgan too.
“He’s had an interest in you since he first saw you at Pete’s.” I looked over at her while standing in front of the exfoliator sponges. “That day they all came in and he openly flirted with you—he doesn’t normally do that. Red is a private guy and rarely do the guys see him act as he did that day.”
I looked away from her, not really knowing what to say.
“I just thought you should know that he isn’t one of the guys from the house that makes his rounds. He’s hard to follow, hard to figure out, but he’s not a player.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know these things. Had I thought of him? Yes. I’d thought of him every single minute since our time together the previous night but my life was already complicated enough. Adding a guy like Eli would only make things harder.
***
Morgan and I entered the house and froze in the entryway. There was a mixture of hands and feet, arms and legs bound around one another, mixed with a lot of vulgarities.
“You challenged me,” somebody from the bottom of the pile said. Actually it came out in more of a grunt. “You said I couldn’t out do you.”
“You fucking tattooed me.” It was Elijah, he was hard to miss with his brown head. “With a dude’s name, you dick.”
“It’s universal.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Eli hooked his arm around the other guy’s neck and at that point I saw it was Clayton.
“It means it can be for a guy or a girl.”
Clayton wiggled free and Eli rolled over onto his back, noticing that Morgan and I are standing there. His arms are out at his sides, wrists up, and I see it. In big bold letters…
Blake.
My throat feels tight and I know I’m staring but I can’t stop myself.
“All you talked about last night was Catherine this and Cat that. So I branded you.” Clayton stood back attempting to right his shirt.
“Then why the fuck tattoo me with the name Blake?”
“That’s my name,” I mumbled as I stared.
The room grew quiet and suddenly I felt stupid for even opening my mouth. I nervously twisted the plastic bag from the store in my hand.
“Is that the stuff?” The topic of the tattoo quickly forgotten, Eli pushed up off the floor and stopped only a few feet away from me. I nodded in reply, looking up at him. It was almost impossible not to smile when he looked so hilarious.
“You look ridiculous.” He grinned at my words. “Let’s go get to work so that when I look at you the first reaction won’t be for me to laugh.”
I knew the tattoo would come up again. Right then I needed a distraction.
Chapter Nine
Elijah
“Hold still.” Cat continued to scrub my forehead. It felt like my skin was being ripped off as she rubbed some type of exfoliating sponge back and forth. The entire time I was internally cursing Clayton and planning his demise. A slow torturous death seemed like it wasn’t enough. “I’ve almost got it.”
“You said that ten minutes ago.”
Catherine laughed, yet didn’t pause. “That was not ten minutes ago, it was more like two. Are you always this cranky?”
“Yes.” I looked up as she her bit her lip, trying not to laugh again. “Okay not always, but this shit hurts. Is there going to be any skin left when you’re done?”
“Not making any promises.”
It would seem she was a bit of a smart ass too.
“Why do you all do this to yourselves anyway?”
“Do what?”
“Set yourselves up for punishment. I mean you get drunk with a group of guys you already know are going to torment you, yet you do it anyway.”
“I normally don’t do it, but last night I made the dumb ass mistake of thinking even Clayton couldn’t outdo me. I blame this on you.”
“Me?” Her voice squeaked with surprise when she leaned back looking down at me. The fact that she had finally taken a break from scrubbing was the biggest relief. “Yes, I helped with the balloons, but other than that I did nothing.” She paused and wrinkled her nose up in the cutest way. “Okay, so I did help you get dressed after you got your ass glued to a chair, and I did allow you to pass out on me, but that was it.
I noticed she left out the part where I apparently shoved my dick in her face.
Smooth move, Eli.
“You allowed me to use you for body shots.”
“It was either that or stand back and watch Holly McHooters crawl up on the counter and take my place.”
The moment she finished the sentence her cheeks reddened in that familiar way they had a time or two before when I’d hit on her at Porter’s. I found it exciting that the idea of me with another girl sparked jealousy in her.
“What about that makes you irritated?”
“It doesn’t,” she lied. I knew this because she was still unable to look me in the eyes. “I was just—”
“Showing your jealousy.”
“I barely know you, what is there to be jealous about?” Still holding the sponge in her hand she attempted to move closer and go back to scrubbing my face. I lifted my hand and wrapped it around her wrist, holding the exfoliator only a few inches from my face.
“You could get to know me. We’ve already moved past the first kiss, so that awkwardness is gone.”
“It was far from awkward.”
I found it funny how whenever she spoke she quickly looked around and appeared embarrassed, as if her mouth got away from her and said things without fully thinking them through.
“No, it wasn’t awkward at all. Which is why I think we should do it again.”
“Now?”
This time I chuckled as I watched her eyes grow wide with curiosity, or maybe fear.
“I was thinking we should go out, talk, hang out a bit. After that we could definitely do some more body shots.” She closed her eyes and I could already tell she was thinking about that part of our night as the smallest trace of a smile tugged at her lips. I’d thought of it so many times myself since. Drunk or not, I dreamed of that part of my night. It was before I was drunk and everything grew hazy.
“I have to work tonight.”
“Then tomorrow.” I wasn’t going to let her out of this that easily. “You know you like me.”
“You’re pretty confident, aren’t you?” I nod. “Sunday.”
I’d felt like I’d just won the lottery. I wanted to reach out and pull her closer but i
nstead lifted her hand and placed the sponge to my forehead. “Now let’s get this shit off, otherwise you’ll be embarrassed to be seen with me.”
Cat slowly began to move it back and forth, fitting her smile. “I’m not embarrassed, I still think you’re handsome.”
I could have said so many things right then. I could have told her that from the moment I first saw her that sweet innocence about her made my knees weak. I could have told her that though I’d barely met her I felt like I’d known her for years.
I was a quarterback for the University of Florida. A full scholarship, a free ride. With that came the girls, the expectations, but I didn’t want them. I never had, I just wanted to play the game I loved; I didn’t want the fame that went with it.
I was a private guy; most of my brothers didn’t even know about the life I’d lived. They didn’t know that Aunt Meg and Uncle Miles weren’t my parents. They didn’t know that my mother loved her drugs and men more than she loved me. I was dispensable.
Cat wasn’t like the girls who came in and out of this house. She wasn’t like the cheerleaders and groupies; she didn’t care who I was. She was fun and I looked forward to getting to know her.
“So Blake?” I said with my eyes closed as she continues to work on my face. “I thought your name was Catherine.”
She was silent for a moment and I noticed the way she paused, the sponge pressed to my cheek.
“My first name is Blake.” She began to move the sponge again only much softer this time. “It was my father’s name.”
“Was?”
“He died when I was twelve.” I opened my eyes when she removed the sponge from my face. “My parents were never together, though he’d always tried to convince her they should try. My mother was…” she paused as if trying her best to come up with an explanation, “…is difficult. She’s always been that way.”
Cat took a seat next to me on the bed and held the sponge in her hand as she looked down at it.
