by Lexi Archer
Not that I’d get a chance. Taking that advice would involve actually getting close enough to Madison to talk to her. Somehow I didn’t think that was very likely.
“Sean! You made it!”
I turned and smiled as Mark came through the crowd with Dan close behind him. Both of them had huge smiles on their faces and both of them were carrying a drink for me. I looked down at the two beers they offered me at the same time and then looked up and locked eyes with them.
“Why gentlemen. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to get a girl drunk. Is that the real reason you wanted to get me to one of these parties?”
“Ha. Very funny man,” Mark said. “This is probably the only time we’re going to get you to one of these, so we want to make sure you make it memorable! Now drink up!”
What could I say to that? So I took the beer Mark offered and kicked it back. Despite them giving me a hard time about not coming to these parties with the in crowd, I wasn’t a stranger to partying or drinking. So I moved the cup back and a moment later I’d swallowed the whole thing. A moment later I was hit with the familiar kick that I loved so much. That lightheaded wobbliness that told me the alcohol was doing its dirty work deep in my system.
“Damn,” Dan said. “That was impressive! Sean can pack it away!”
“You bet your ass I can!” I said.
I took the drink in Dan’s hand, but I didn’t chug this one down. I wanted to make sure I was feeling good, but I didn’t want to get completely wasted. Besides, I still had to think about practice for the college team over the summer. One of the reasons why I didn’t go out drinking all that often was because it played hell with my athletic ability, though I figured I could relax just a little bit. I’d already won my state title, after all, and one night of drinking wasn’t going to hurt my performance at practice in a couple of weeks one way or another.
“So what’s the plan for tonight?” I asked.
“Actually we were wondering who your buddy was,” Dan said. “You didn’t say you were bringing a plus one to this thing.”
I sighed. “That was my friend Kyle. One of the guys I game with.”
“You mean one of the dorks you’re always leaving us for every Saturday night?” Mark asked.
“Don’t worry. We don’t mean that in a bad way,” Dan continued. “After all, you’re a huge dork too for hanging out and doing that stuff, but we still love you for it.”
“Yeah, well I don’t think he’s adjusting to the party lifestyle quite as much as I thought he would,” I said.
I took a deep drink. I needed one thinking about him out there doing who knows what at this party. Probably making a huge fool of himself. I just hoped he didn’t tell anyone that I was the one he came with. I felt ashamed for feeling that way, but after the way he’d just got pissed at me for laying some honest truth at his feet I wasn’t in a mood to put up with his mood swings any more.
“So what was he so pissed about?” Dan asked.
I rolled my eyes. “He hit on Madison and got shot down.”
Mark let out a long low whistle that I could barely hear over the music pumping through the house. Still, the look on his face said it all. That wasn’t territory where men tread lightly, and everyone knew it. Everyone but Kyle, that is.
“Well if he’s going to do something stupid like that then tonight’s the night to do it,” Dan said.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Didn’t you hear? Madison broke up with her boyfriend. Or he dumped her. Not really sure which way it went.”
“Yeah right. I’m sure she was the one who dumped him. What guy in his right mind would give up getting with her? She’s a goddess!” I said.
“Yeah, well remember the wisdom of the ancients,” Mark said. “No matter how hot she is, someone somewhere is sick of her shit.”
“I don’t think that’s the wisdom of the ancients, Mark,” I said.
“Sure it is. I remember translating it in Latin class. I think Caesar said it when he was talking about killing a bunch of French people or something.”
My mouth hung open for a moment. What could I say to that? There were times when Mark could be staggeringly intellectual in his pure stupidity.
“The point I’m trying to make,” Dan continued, deftly ignoring Mark and his idiocy. “Is that if someone were to make a move on Madison then tonight would be the night. Y’know? Not that any of us have a chance in hell with her.”
“Speak for yourself!” Mark said.
He started going on about all the things he would do to woo Madison away, but I ignored it. My beer was empty and I could use another one. Particularly if that was going to be the level of conversation for the rest of the evening. So I headed off in the direction of the keg. At least what I assumed was the direction of the keg. There was a steady stream of people with cups of beer in hand moving away from that direction so it seemed a good guess.
“What idiots,” I muttered, thinking of Kyle, Dan, and Mark in equal measure. “As though anyone at this party has a chance with Madison.”
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
I turned and my mouth fell open. That voice. That face. That body. I felt like I was staring directly at the sun without any eye protection. I felt like her beauty was going to reduce me to a pile of ash where I stood. Because I’d been muttering about no one having a chance with Madison while she was standing right behind me heading towards the keg to top off her drink.
And she was smiling at me. The same smile I’d seen earlier when she was staring at me from across the room right after Kyle failed so spectacularly.
I weighed my options. I’d already seen one person fail spectacularly trying to hit on her tonight, but that was Kyle. Not me. He had about as much game as an NBA player trying out for the NHL. I could take the advice I’d given him. I could at least talk to her. Sure she was unattainable, but it’s not like a simple conversation was going to hurt anything.
So I got bold. I took the pump and held it out to her cup.
“Need some help there?”
She looked away then back to me. Was that a blush on her cheeks? Was she really blushing? It’s not like I’d said anything all that flirtatious. I just offered to help her out. I’m sure the goddess whose face and body launched a thousand jerk-off fantasies at our school was more than used to guys falling all over themselves to help her out.
Something weird was going on here.
“Such a gentleman,” she said.
“I try,” I said. “My name’s Sean, by the way. I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said, then blushed again.
I reeled. Madison knew my name? We really hadn’t ever spoken before. How could she know my name? Of course I knew her name because what guy in our school didn’t know her name?
I finished filling her cup and then did my own. I raised my plastic cup in salute and we both took a drink. Then we stood there awkwardly staring at one another, neither one of us seeming to want to move. I felt like this was a moment I should take advantage of. It seemed crazy that the moment even existed in the first place, but at the same time a voice in the back of my head was screaming at me to stop over analyzing things and just seize what the universe had thrown my way.
“So, um, would you want to go somewhere and maybe talk?”
The smile widened. God she was gorgeous. Easily the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. She even beat the girls I’d seen modeling in magazines or doing certain videos online. She was just that fucking hot.
“I’d love to!” she said.
Madison reached a hand out and I took it. Electric fire danced up and down my nerve endings at that touch. I looked down in disbelief. I was touching Madison’s hand. She was holding my hand. If someone had told me this would happen at the beginning of the evening I would’ve thought they were crazy. If I’d known something like this was possible then I would’ve come to one of these parties a hell of a lot sooner!
And so hand in hand we moved off to find a quiet place where we could talk, and I was trying to keep my pulse under control. I was trying to hold back the happy dance that threatened to spontaneously erupt. I needed to be cool. I needed to be the opposite of whatever Kyle would do in this situation.
The opportunity of a lifetime had just landed in my lap, and I did not want to screw this up!
4
Madison
“Oh my god, you’re serious?”
“Totally serious. Everyone else was asleep but I made the coach get up in the morning and open up the pool so I could swim for an hour or two in the morning. I don’t think he liked getting up that early, but he did like winning so it’s not like he could talk much.”
I giggled and leaned in closer to Sean. I don’t know what it was about him, but it was fun talking to him. It didn’t hurt that he was good looking too. He was the total package in a way that none of the other guys I’d dated had ever been.
They all looked good, but they couldn’t hold a conversation to save their lives.
“So that’s how you got the state title?”
Sean shrugged. He was pretty laid back about being the best guy in the state at the breast stroke. Other guys I’d dated had crowed to the skies when they just won a game, and our basketball and football team was nowhere near good enough to get close to winning a state title. Now here was a guy who actually was good enough to win that title in his sport and he was acting like it wasn’t a big deal.
Talk about refreshing. And more than a little weird.
“What can I say? I wanted to have that before I got done, and it’s not like I’m going to be good enough to do that at the college level.”
“You never know,” I said. “What school are you going off to anyways? Did you get a scholarship or anything?”
“I had a couple of scholarship offers, but the only school who was willing to give me a full ride was State just down the road. So that’s where I’ll be. A small fish in a big pond!”
“I don’t know about that. Maybe you’ll be a big fish. They’re giving you a full ride, after all. That seems like a pretty big deal!
“Yeah, I suppose. I guess I’ve just always been so focused on getting in shape and staying good that I never stopped to think about all that stuff,” he said. “Waking up early to hit the pool and then the weight room and also keeping my GPA up was a real pain in the ass.”
“Well whatever you were doing in that weight room, it worked for you!” I said with a giggle.
I reached out and grabbed at one of his biceps. I felt weak in the knees as I gave him a squeeze. This guy was ripped. I guess I never stopped to think about someone having the whole swimmer’s body. Sure Valerie had tried to tell me, but I’d never listened. Well that was the last time I ignored one of her recommendations!
“So what about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“Any cheerleading scholarship in the works for you?” he asked.
I smiled and shook my head. “Nothing like that. I’m actually going full ride for academics.”
“Really?”
I gave his arm a playful slap. “You don’t have to sound so surprised at that. Is it so weird to think that I get good grades?”
He had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. Not that I was a stranger to people assuming I was some sort of empty-headed bimbo just because I was a cheerleader and spent a lot of time going to parties like this. I suppose on balance it was a pretty minor annoyance in life. Right up there with getting annoyed at all the guys who were always checking me out.
First world problems right there.
“So are you going to be on the squad?” he asked.
“Yup. How did you know?”
“I just know you’re a natural at it. I bet you could go pro if you wanted to!”
I giggled again and leaned against him. We were off in a quiet corner of the party where people couldn’t interrupt us. At least it was as quiet as you could get with the music blasting and bass thumping loud enough to rattle pictures on the walls. He put his arm around me and I sighed. That felt good.
“So does that mean you were creeping on me at games or something?”
Sean grinned down at me. “To be fair, I don’t think there’s a single guy at this school who hasn’t ‘creeped on you’ to one degree or another. Your body and those short skirts? Forget about it!”
It was weird. In the past guys saying things like that had annoyed me. Knowing they were looking at me always got me a little hot, but at the same time there was that annoyance. Having one guy coming up to me talking about how hot I was could be flattering, but dealing with it day in and day out over the course of years? It quickly went from flattering to annoying.
Only with Sean it seemed different. There was something about the tone of his voice when he talked about me that made me think he meant it. That I wasn’t just a pretty piece of ass for him to stare at. I wasn’t just a piece of meat.
However much fun it might be to treat him like a piece of meat for a night. Maybe even tonight, if he played his cards right. I was still feeling in the mood for a little revenge against Derek, after all.
I looked up at Sean and it seemed like we were about to have a moment. He was moving in closer. My lips parted and I felt my blood pumping. My nipples grew hard and I was soaking my panties. I really wish I’d met this guy earlier, but it sounded like we were going to the same school so maybe we could make up for lost time once we got out there.
Was it silly to think something could be developing that quickly? Maybe, but I decided to go with it.
We were close. So close. I felt his body pressing against me. The tips of my nipples brushed against his chest. His hand moved up to cup my cheek and I could smell his breath and whatever cologne he wore and it was filling me with an insatiable desire. Maybe it was because I was technically on the rebound, maybe it was because he was so hot and so unexpected. Whatever it was, the moment was perfect.
Until someone crashed into us and the beer in my hands went splashing all over me. Even more beer soaked my hair from somewhere. I looked down at the mess that had been created. I was soaked and I smelled like booze.
My parents were going to kill me when I got home. Damn it! I was going to kill whoever did this!
I looked up at the person who crashed into us with murder in my eyes. I really was in deep shit because of this beer all over me. It was hard enough to hide the stuff when it was on my breath, let alone having it soaking through my clothes.
“What the hell?” I shouted.
“Yeah! What the hell is going on here?” the person shouted.
I looked closer and realized that I recognized this asshole. It was none other than the guy who’d hit on me earlier that night. Sean’s friend. What was he doing over here, and why did he look so pissed off?
“Kyle? What on earth are you doing?” Sean asked.
“What am I doing? I could ask you the same thing, you fucking traitor!” Kyle shouted. At least I assumed that’s what his name was. It wouldn’t make much sense for Sean to be calling him Kyle if that wasn’t his name, after all.
“Traitor? What are you talking about Kyle?”
“You know I had dibs on Madison. She’s mine! We agreed to it before we came here tonight!”
I looked between the two of them and suddenly Sean running into me at that keg seemed a little different. Some of that was probably the booze doing the talking, but I was pissed off. Was that meeting really just a happy chance of fate, or was he over there on purpose because he had some competition going with his friend?
I didn’t want to think that was the case. That he was just like every other asshole I’d ever run into at one of these parties. I thought he was supposed to be different, damn it.
“Dibs? You can’t call dibs on a girl!” Sean said.
“Well I can and I did! She’s mine!”
“I didn’t see her wanting to talk to your lame ass earli
er! She chose me and you can fuck off man,” Sean said.
They were starting to gather a crowd. I looked through the sea of people staring in disbelief at the argument breaking out and saw Derek moving towards us. Damn it. That was the last thing I wanted. Derek seeing a couple of guys fighting over which one of them had a chance with me. Having any guys fighting over me wasn’t something I was in the mood with.
In short, I was so over this night. I was so over guys preening and posturing and trying to get my attention. It seemed like Sean might be different, and it’s possible he was, but I couldn’t deal with him arguing with his friend like this. Not tonight. It was just too damn much.
So I turned and left. I didn’t bother to look for Valerie. I didn’t tell Sean that I was leaving. I definitely didn’t wait around for Derek to show up and see what all the commotion was all about.
I stepped into the cool air outside the party and took in a deep breath. After the smell of alcohol in there it was nice to breathe in nice clean. Well, except for the booze smell that was rising off of me. I frowned. I’d have to hope both of my parents were in bed for the evening. Sure I was eighteen and all, but they wouldn’t care about that when the drinking age was twenty-one.
I was also going to have to be careful driving through town. It’s not like I had a lot to drink, but again, any cop who pulled me over smelling like this was going to toss me into the drunk tank and let my parents sort it out in the morning. That would have me right back at square one when it came to the whole trying to keep my parents from finding out I’d been drinking thing.
Damn it. Why did the evening have to go so bad? Why couldn’t I listen to my instincts that told me not to go to the party tonight? Why did I even talk to that first creepy guy?
It was a pity. That Sean guy was pretty hot. He seemed like a nice enough guy. I’d just reached my bullshit tolerance and enough was enough. Then again he was going to the same school I was. There was still a chance I might run into him again sometime in the future. Then again maybe not. It was a big school.
