by Autumn Brown
“You’re such a brat, Zane!” she called to him and stamped her foot.
All the guys were looking up at her. I looked up too. “Can I help you get down?” I called to her.
“I’m jumping, Zane!” she threatened.
I watched her. Was she serious? Dwayne grabbed both of my wrists. “We’ll catch you, Taylor. Jump.”
What the hell was he doing? This looked dangerous. “I don’t know how to do this.” I told Dwayne quickly.
“We just catch her butt between our arms. It’s easy. Go Taylor.” Dwayne called to her.
Taylor jumped out and came down perfectly in our arms. It was just like one of her cheerleading moves I’d seen her do several times over the last few months. “Thanks, guys.” She said as she stepped out of our arms onto the grass.
Damn that was smooth.
She punched Zane in the stomach when she walked under the roof again. I thought about how close she was with all of her ex-boyfriends. Dwayne was catching her, and she was punching Zane. She talked to Jose sometimes. Honestly I wasn’t sure I could handle how friendly she was with all of her exes, if we were to ever get together.
Taylor POV.
We won our game against Glendale. I watched as Spencer played football. He was pretty good. Zane did really well too. As always Jose did too. He was one of the best on the team. After the game, all the cheerleaders made their way to the field to hug the players. Everyone formed a line and just hugged everyone in the line. It was a ritual after every game. Funny that I hadn’t bumped into Spencer before doing this, but this was only our third game, and maybe the second string players didn’t do this.
Since it was a home game, everyone made their way to the parking lot to talk about where tonight’s party would be. Every Friday night after a home game, all the kids would go somewhere to drink and talk and make out. I usually went, but I didn’t drink. I’d made my parents a promise last year when I bought my car, that I’d never drink a single drop of alcohol. I’d kept that promise. And, lately I hadn’t been making out with anyone. My last boyfriend was a few months ago. I didn’t go for the random hookup thing. Every Friday, girls would pretend that they were too drunk to know what they were doing, then go off with some guy, any guy who asked them, and make out.
Mary, Spencer, Zane, Dwayne, Shelly, and Jose were all waiting in a group in the parking lot. Sandy and I walked up to them. “Where’s the party at tonight?” Sandy asked.
She was always game for drinking. I was her designated driver. She could drink all she wanted. Her parents didn’t seem to mind that she showed up drunk as long as she didn’t wake them up. Her parents were way different than my parents.
“It’s at the Hole.” Jose answered her in a yell over the multitude of conversations that were going on.
We had nicknames for all of the party spots. “Are we ready to go?” I asked. I wanted to ask Spencer to ride with me, but it looked like he already had plans to ride with Zane.
We drove down the windy roads to the Hole. The guys already had the campfire going. We all loved a fire. It was great for marshmallows and hotdogs, which were also brought by someone. About two hundred high school kids attended these parties every Friday night. I only attended the ones after a home game though. Sandy and I walked up to Zane and Spencer.
“Hey guys.” Sandy said to them, then made her rounds. She talked to every one of the unattached guys at the party. She was funny. She also made her way to the keg and pulled herself a plastic cup full of beer. She downed it immediately, then pulled herself another one. I never knew who supplied the kegs at these parties, or the food.
Mary arrived and stood by Zane. She wasn’t clingy at all. “So we did pretty good tonight. Didn’t we?” she asked the group.
“We did. Spencer is better than Brian.” I said. I was so proud of him.
Zane and Spencer laughed. Zane had a beer and was downing it in no time flat. Spencer wasn’t drinking beer. He was drinking a Coke. I was drinking a Pepsi. Zane and Mary walked off together hand in hand. They were going to make out. That left Spencer and me alone.
“You don’t drink?” I asked Spencer.
“I drive.” He stated flatly.
“So you don’t drink when you drive?” I asked. I wanted him to clarify it for me.
“I always drive. Zane always drinks. He needs a ride home. He usually stays the night at my house after these.”
“How have I not seen you before? You hang out with Zane, my best friend, and you play football, and you’re his designated driver apparently.”
“I usually duck out when you come around.” He confessed.
“Why?” I asked.
“Shy I guess.” He answered with a smile.
I looked at him puzzled. “I don’t buy that. You don’t seem that shy any more to me.”
“Now that I’ve been around you I’m not so shy any more.” He smiled at me when he’d finished his self analysis.
I smiled at him. Gosh I really liked him. If he asked me out right now, I’d go.
About that time, Dale walked up. He was a friend that I’d dated last year for two weeks. He found out that I didn’t put out and he dumped me. It was the story of my life. “Hey, Taylor.” He said to me as he stopped next to the two of us. “Hey, dude. What’s up with your face?” he cocked his head to look at Spencer’s face.
What a jackass. I wanted to slap the crap out of him. I restrained myself.
“Birthmark.” Spencer said easily, as if he’d answered the question a thousand times already. It didn’t seem to bother him as much as it did with Terri the other day. He was really nice about Cheryl’s comments this morning though. I was so embarrassed about that, but what could I do?
Dale nodded but kept looking at his face as if studying it. “Taylor. Do you want to go check out the dunes with me?” he asked.
That was code for “Do you want to go make out?”
Not only no, but hell no. I wouldn’t think twice about it. “No thanks. I’m happy here talking to Spencer.” I let him down easily, even though I still wanted to slap him.
“You don’t know what you’re missing.” He said. He was slurring a bit. I knew he’d been drinking for a little while.
“Yes, I do. We dated. Remember?” I acted like I was joking. I wasn’t. He was a horrible kisser. Way too slobbery. Call me a snob, but I didn’t want someone else’s spit all over me even if I was kissing him. That was disgusting.
Spencer smiled at me. It was more of a silent chuckle. Dale walked off. He knew I wouldn’t budge on my decision. We were friends a long time before we dated last year. We were still friends. He came over every once in a while to go out in the dune buggy, or go riding motorcycles.
“So you used to date him?” Spencer asked.
“Everyone’s entitled to a few mistakes. Right?” I asked trying to joke it off. I was sure that he was tallying up the number of boyfriends I’d had.
“I don’t think I know him.”
“I’m sorry. I should have introduced you. He was a senior last year. But he’s here at every party. He likes beer.” I said. I could easily imagine him here until he turned forty. We had a few of those guys coming to the parties. Free beer and pretty young girls that liked to make out and sometimes more than that.
About that time, Sandy showed up with Dwayne on her arm. It was pretty clear that they’d been out looking at the dunes if you know what I mean. Sandy’s hair was all messed up with stickers in it, and she had a fresh hickey on her neck. Hold it! Dwayne was dating Vicky. I had no clue what was going on there. Well actually I did. Dwayne was one of those guys who was really faithful to his girlfriend as long as she was on his arm.
“Taylor! Girlfriend! How’s it going?” Sandy slurred her words out to me as she placed her arm around my shoulders. She always got too friendly when she’d been drinking too much. Sometimes it was worse than others. She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, then whispered in my ear. “He’s really rough.”
“Tell me about
it.” I whispered back to her, as I plucked the stickers out of her hair. She’d poke herself in the eye on her next trip to the dunes if I didn’t help her out. I glanced up at Spencer, who was watching with intense interest, as if expecting something. Or suspecting something. I suddenly realized that Sandy and I looked a little too friendly.
She started laughing uncontrollably while she clung to me, and put her face in mine. She always got too giddy when she drank too much. That wasn’t helping my case much with Spencer. He was definitely going to think we had something going here. I pulled Sandy to my side, holding her up. She didn’t need complete help standing yet, but it was coming in another two or three beers.
I looked at Dwayne questioning him. “Where’s Vicky?” I asked.
“She couldn’t make it tonight. She was grounded.” Dwayne answered as if there was nothing wrong with this situation.
The two of them finally walked off to the dunes again. Jerk!
“Nice guy.” Spencer said sarcastically.
“Yes. But I don’t care for Vicky too much anyway.” I said to him.
He raised his eyebrows as if saying that I had a point there. I was sure he didn’t like her too much, but he didn’t mention anything mean or nasty about her.
“Hey, we’re not bisexual or anything like that. She just gets too friendly when she drinks too much.” I told him, then laughed.
He laughed. “I was wondering if I was about to see some girl on girl action.”
I laughed at him. “She hasn’t gotten that drunk yet.”
I laughed at him again. Spencer and I stood there alone, talking about school, his life back in California, and football. I think he figured out quickly that I wasn’t as into football as the rest of the cheerleaders were, but he was polite and didn’t mention that fact. I teased him about joining me at the dairy tomorrow. It would be fun showing him everything, if nothing else.
About that time, I looked up to see Vicky walking toward us. Oh crap. My best friend, Sandy, was making out with her boyfriend. I could tell by the way she was walking that she was onto him. She was there to bust him. The only thing missing from this picture was the camera from that reality show. Spencer looked at me.
“We should go find Sandy before Vicky does.” I said to him.
“That might be a good idea.” He said then walked off quickly with me to the dunes.
We looked everywhere for Sandy and Dwayne. There were so many couples sitting on the dunes making out. There were a few on the top of the dunes. I tried to walk up, but it was so sandy that I had trouble. Spencer went first and pulled me up. He lifted me completely off my feet a few times, with one arm. He was really strong. That was something else that really turned me on about a guy. Finally we made it to the top. We found Sandy, but she was with someone else. She’d hooked up with a guy named Alan, another football player.
“Way to go, Spencer!” Alan called out to him, in a very drunken slur.
Spencer didn’t say anything to Alan. “I guess we’re safe now, as long as your friend isn’t in her direct path.”
“Thanks for helping me. I’d hate to see Vicky beat her up.” I joked.
“She’s a big girl.” Spencer laughed at my joke.
That was the closest thing to a snide comment that I’d heard him say all night long. I laughed at it. We made our way back down toward the campfire, slowly. Climbing down the dunes was really tricky. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve slid down these things on my ass. I was glad that I didn’t climb these too often.
As we were carefully stepping down, some sand slid out from under my feet and I went down. Spencer caught me, but that caused him to fall down on his ass. We slid all the way down the dune on his butt. He was holding me on his lap all the way down. I was so glad he was, because I was still wearing my cheerleading uniform. That would have been cute, a big hole in the butt of my bloomers.
“Thanks.” I said to him when we stopped safely at the bottom.
“Ouch!” he said, laughing at our mishap. We stood up and he set me on the ground.
“Did you get goat heads?” I asked him, as I turned him around to check out his butt and back. Goat heads were horrible stickers that really hurt when you stepped on them. And, if you ever got one in your butt, oh boy it hurt for weeks. I ran my hand up and down his backside. No stickers, but man he had a nice ass, and great legs. I could feel his leg muscles through his jeans. “None. You’re safe.”
“Thanks.” He said. I could tell he wasn’t used to people touching him. I rubbed his back. He’d have to get used to being touched. I touched everyone. “These parties are the weirdest thing I’ve seen here.”
“Really?” I asked. “You guys don’t have parties in California.”
“Yes, but at the beach where you can swim. It helps sober the guys up.”
“That’s funny. Did you drink out there?” I asked, wanting more history on this guy.
“No.” he confessed.
“Why don’t you drink?” I asked him. I cornered him.
“My parents were killed by a drunk driver. I’ll never drink, even when I’m old enough to do it legally.”
“Damn. I’m so sorry.” I exclaimed, feeling like I had just put my foot in my mouth.
Spencer told me that he was eleven when they were killed, and he remembered every detail of that day. He told me how the cops showed up at his aunt’s house to tell them about it. His aunt was hysterical. She even had to be sedated. That same aunt and his uncle took him in. He lived with them now. His uncle got a better job here at the nuclear plant so they moved here last year. They didn’t have their own kids, so he was an only child still.
I listened as he told me about his childhood. I felt like he was letting me in when he told me the sad details. I lost an aunt once, but that had been the only person in my family to die. We adopted one of my cousins after she died. I now had a brother that I didn’t have before then. I had five sisters, but didn’t have a brother until then. The poor guy still didn’t fit in with all the girls in my family. He always felt out of place, even though we tried to make him feel like part of the family.
When the party started dying down, Zane came over to us and asked Spencer to drive him home. Spencer was taking him to his house to stay the night. It was a ritual for them apparently. I found Sandy and drove her to her house. I helped her in the door and to her bedroom as I always did. Another ritual. I felt like Spencer and I had so much in common. We didn’t drink but had best friends who did, and we were the responsible ones.
--
I didn’t wake up until almost noon the next day. I was so glad Daddy didn’t wake me up at four this morning to go milk the cows. I don’t think I would have made it. He must have taken one of my sisters. They’d be mad at me for a while.
I walked in the living room where Mom was sitting on her recliner watching television. Daddy came in the front door, ready for lunch. I ran to make him a sandwich. As I returned with the sandwich, I told my dad about Spencer and how he was coming to the barn today to learn how to milk. I thought I’d better warn my dad so he’d be ready to see Spencer. I wanted him to know what he looked like, before he saw him. My dad sometimes made comments that weren’t too nice even though he never intended to be mean. I also wanted my dad to be on his best behavior. Sometimes the cows caused quite a cussing fit from Daddy. They were irritating sometimes.
I pulled into Spencer’s driveway at four o’clock sharp. He came running outside to meet me, so I didn’t have to get out of my car. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He jumped into the passenger’s side of my car.
“Hi.” I said to him.
“Hi.” He said to me. “I wasn’t sure what to wear to milk cows, but I didn’t want to take a chance on ruining any good jeans.”
“The cows will love you still.” I joked with him.
When we arrived at the dairy, I showed Spencer the entire setup from cow to milk. We stepped into our boots. Daddy had placed a pair of his boots for Spencer ne
xt to the barn door. I always looked pretty stupid in my shorts with irrigation boots on, but over the years, I found that it was the best clothing option for milking cows. I stayed cool, and I dried off quicker.
“So, this is where milk comes from?” Spencer acted surprised.
“You’re a city boy. Aren’t you?” My dad asked him, walking up to us.
Spencer turned around to face him. “Yes sir. I’ve lived in the city all my life.”
“We’re going to make a milker out of you today, boy.” My dad said to him, joking with him. He held his hand out to shake.
“Oh. Daddy, this is Spencer. Spencer, this is my dad, Earl.” I butted in. I was glad to see them getting along already. A few of my boyfriends weren’t really polite to my dad for some reason.
