More Than This

by Jay McLean

  Then we realize we’re still locked in each others arms and we both abruptly let go. I’m a bit more hesitant than she is though, and I can’t help but try to look down the back of her dress, to her ass, to see if she really isn’t wearing any underwear.

  I’m an asshole.

  “Let’s go, I’m bored,” Cam says as Logan comes back to the group with disheveled hair and his tux all out of sorts.

  “I’m ready,” Logan says, as we all stare at him. “What? I just gave some band geek a night they’ll never forget.”

  ***

  We’re all in the limo and driving through some heavy woods. I can tell Mikayla is getting worried because her eyes keep darting out the window, then to her phone.

  I nudge her, “Don’t worry, I told you, I’m not a psycho, I’m not going to kill you. We can drop these guys off and you can take the limo home if you want.”

  “It’s okay,” she smiles. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”

  ***

  *Mikayla*

  The limo stops at a clearing in the middle of nowhere and we all file out. There’s an old truck that surely doesn’t run anymore, and a bonfire. Logan and Dylan start lighting the fire and Cam and Jake jump into the bed of the truck and pull down a couple chairs and a cooler full of beers. They start passing the beers around while the girls set up the chairs.

  Cam and Lucy take up the seating on the bed of the truck and there are three chairs around the fire. Dylan’s on one with Heidi on his lap, Logan in the other. Jake is holding the back of the left over chair, “Here, take a seat, I’ll stand.”

  “Sorry,” Heidi holds up her beer, “we weren’t expecting extra, not that you haven’t been a great surprise though.”

  I face Jake. “It’s fine, I’ll stand, it’s your chair, your bonfire, you-"

  “I gotta place for you right here, sweetheart,” Logan says from behind me, patting his lap. I scrunch my nose at him. Lucy notices and laughs. Logan is a good looking kid, don’t get me wrong. If I was any other girl I’d be swooning over him. But the fact he spilt beer on me, was an ass, and then most likely just screwed some innocent girl at their prom and left her there, well, it kinda downplays his swoon-worth.

  Before I know it, an arm is wrapped around my waist and my ass lands on Jake’s lap with both my legs to one side. My side is to his front. “I think she’d rather not.” His accent makes it sound like ‘I think she’d ruhthuh not’.

  I admit to myself, accents turn me on. James had a sexy accent, it was a nice Texan drawl, not too ‘dirty’, it was perfect. I used to love how he’d dip his cap forward a little and say, ‘yes ma-am’ when I asked him to do things. It was cute, and sexy, and he knew it turned me on, so he used it as often as possible. Fuck James, I really did love him.

  Before I can react, two hands are wiping away tears I hadn’t realized were falling. Jake placing his hands on either side of my face, looking into my eyes. He must see so much sadness, and hurt, and anger, and regret, and all I see in his, are comfort and understanding. He nods his head once and uses his hand to pull my head to his lips, he gives me one short, sweet kiss to my temple, and it’s everything I need to make the world keep spinning around me.

  Chatter goes on around us and I realize I’ve totally spaced out.

  “I can’t wait to hit the bars around UNC,” one of the boys says. I don’t know which one.

  “Huh?” I look up. “Who’s going to UNC?”

  Cam laughs, “We all are. Why? Are you?”

  “Yeah, I am,” I say wide-eyed. “What? All of you are?”

  Cam eyes Jake for a second then back to me, “Yeah, your boy Jake there’s got a full ride, athletic scholarship,” he smiles like a proud dad, “he’ll probably be starting pitcher as a freshman.”

  I whip my head to Jake and see him nodding shyly. “No shit?”

  “Shit,” he deadpans.

  “And what about the rest of you?” I eye Lucy in particular, because I think were probably heading towards the same thing.

  “Partial academic scholarship, majoring in either creative writing or journalism, haven’t decided yet,” she shrugs.

  “No effing way!” I say, my voice laced with disbelief. “Me too. Like, exactly. Partial scholarship and all.”

  “No shit?” she says.

  “Shit,” I return.

  “Jake and I are the only ones lucky enough to get scholarships,” she states. “Cam and Dylan will be sharing a dorm, Heidi and Logan will be majoring in The Greek system.” She laughs and the rest join her. I see her glance at Jake and feel his body move behind me.

  “What about you?” I ask him.

  He shrugs, “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

  ***

  The rest of the night is completed by beer drinking and shit talking. I’m feeling slightly buzzed, okay, maybe a little beyond it, but I seem to be smiling and having a good time. The ache in my heart from earlier tonight is a fraction less painful.

  Lucy starts shuffling through her bag to get her e-reader.

  “Seriously, Luce?” Heidi says.

  “No, let her read,” Cam says with an evil smirk. His eyes are hazy, he’s definitely drunk.

  “Shut up…” Lucy mumbles under hear breath.

  “What… what’s going on?” Logan looks up from his phone.

  Cam starts laughing, “Oh, I love it when she reads.” He turns to Lucy who’s face is starting to contort and turn to a bright shade of red, “She reads these smutty books, like full on dirty shit, full of sex and like… bdsm shit.”

  “Oh my god, Cameron. Shut the hell up!” She reaches her hand to cover his mouth but he’s too quick and jumps off the truck bed and starts walking around.

  He continues, “Sometimes when we’re in bed she’ll be reading and she’ll make these little moaning sounds…” he’s trying not to laugh and were all cackling with him.

  Lucy jumps off the truck, takes her heels off, and starts stalking him like he’s her pray. “I swear to god, Cameron Aladdin Gordon! You better shut your mouth or I won’t put out for the next year!”

  “ALADDIN!!” we all yell and erupt in fits of laughter.

  For some reason Cam thinks it’s a good idea to keep talking… “She reads these books right…” he keeps walking backwards around us while she follows, occasionally reaching her hand out to cover his mouth, but he keeps slapping her hands away. She’s fuming, but behind that, a smile is trying not to slip. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “I’m not joking boys, they’re like, full on pornographic. Talking about silky shafts and veiny dicks and shit,” Logan is now on the ground holding his side from the pain of laughing too hard.

  “Sometimes she’ll be reading, then all of sudden she’ll put her book down and look at me like she wants to eat me, literally eat me!” he yells, laughing harder, still swatting away her hands that are trying to shut him up, “I mean, I don’t mind it, not at all. It’s hot as fuck. And she wants to try everything she reads in these books. Like… everything. She learns everything from these books… so I don’t give a shit when, or how much she reads, I get the rewards.”

  My face is buried in Jake’s neck to stop the hyena laugh bubbling up my throat. Logan’s still rolling around on the ground. Heidi is wiping tears from her eyes. Even Dylan has his head thrown back, his body convulsing with silent laughter. Jake’s deep rumble chuckles are so close to my ear, I can feel his breath.

  Cam continues, running faster away from her, “The other week she even let me do her in the a-"

  Lucy squeals.

  We burst out laughing even harder. Her face is red now and she’s given up trying to catch him, she stands defeated. He strolls over to her and she slaps him hard across the face. We all quieten, but the giggles are still there. We stare at them… waiting… then Cam says, “Yeah, baby! You know I like it rough!” and throws her over his shoulder and heads into the bushes with her screaming, upside down, punching his back.

  *
**

  30 minutes later they’re back and changed out of their prom clothes. It’s obvious what just happened.

  Where the fuck did they go? I look over in the direction they came from and see lights on in a little wooden cabin.

  “Where the fuck are we?” I ask. They all chuckle.

  “This is my families property,” Lucy says, sitting back down on the truck bed. “We live on like, a billion acres or something. My dad built that cabin for when I wanted to escape. I have 6 younger brothers and my mom passed a few years back, so it’s just me. They can’t hear shit from the main house. I practically live there, Cam too.”

  “Your dad doesn’t mind you out here by yourself… or with Cam?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow at them.

  “My dad acts naive, he thinks Cam leaves every night. I’m his only daughter, as far as he’s concerned all I do is study and read books. He probably doesn’t want to think too much about it. It’s not like I’m a crack head, tattooed and pierced goth or anything,” she shrugs. “Would you worry if I were your daughter?”

  “Probably not,” I say, “but if I knew you were a lady in the street and a freak in the bed, I’d have my doubts.”

  They all crack up.

  Logan goes to an iPod dock that’s sitting in the truck and plays ‘Yeah’ by Usher, when Ludacris says the ‘lady in the street…’ line during his rap, we all yell it. Logan knows the entire rap word for word. We all stand up and dance around like fools, thinking we actually have moves like Usher, trying to pop lock, but looking like were having epileptic fits, even Dylan gets in on it.

  The songs fades to an end and were standing in a circle, Heidi raises her beer, “To good friends, and new ones,” she says, winking at me. We all take a sip.

  “To finding the perfect girl of your dreams and having your entire future to spend with them,” Dylan says, hugging her waist and kissing her on the cheek. The girls swoon and the guys make gagging noises. And we drink.

  “To easy, loose, college chicks,” Logan practically pants. We drink.

  “To whoever wrote Fifty Shades of Grey,” Cam eyes the sky like he’s thanking the Lord. We all laugh and drink.

  Lucy playfully smacks him on the chest, probably harder than he expected because he actually flinches in legit pain. “To Josh Bennett,” she says, clinking her beer with mine. We’re the only ones that drink, Cam rolls his eyes.

  Everyone eyes Jake next to me, “To baseball,” he says quietly. They all moan.

  “You’re a pretty shit kid, you know that, Jacob,” Logan says. It’s the first time anyone has called him that. He shrugs and they all take a reluctant gulp of beer. “What about you, Mikayla?” Logan eyes me.

  I think for a bit, then smile, “To not letting bad people dictate what ended up being a good time.”

  It’s quiet for a while and then, “Holllaaaaa..” Cam yells, bringing out his inner black chick. We laugh and drink.

  “Ooooooh,” Logan says in a high voice, neck snapping, fingers clicking in the air, mimicking a girl, but he’s looking directly at Heidi, “We, like, totally need to play my jaayam, like, right fucking now!” he continues and Heidi laughs with him.

  He moves to his iPod and searches for a song.

  I know what it is from the first note.

  ‘Baby’ - By Justin Bieber. I shake my head in amusement.

  Now the group splits and the boys start boy band serenading us girls. They surround us, Logan has the Ludacris rap down, again. We’re in fits of giggles, tears are streaming down our faces. I can’t wait to tell Emily and my parents about tonight, they’ll love it.

  Minus the cheating ex boy/friends.

  It turns out they all planned on finishing the night at Lucy’s cabin, everyone but Jake. Apparently he gets up at 5 every morning regardless, to run and work out and do whatever it is he does.

  After exchanging numbers with everyone and saying ‘see you soons’ instead of goodbyes, Jake and I get in the limo and head home.

  Chapter 7

  *Jake*

  It’s just the two of us in the limo heading back to her house. We’re both buzzed. Well, I think she’s buzzed, I know I definitely am. Having her sit on my lap the whole night didn’t help. I needed something to calm me down. It was a bad idea to sit her there, but it was either that or Logan's lap, and Logan sure as shit would’ve gotten her wasted and done god knows what with her.

  I sit on one bench seat and she sits on the other, it’s the furthest we’ve been from each other since the restaurant.

  “Jake, just get the limo to drive you home first. I’ll be okay. It’s like forty minutes to my house, and then you have to drive back around here to yours… it’s stupid.”

  My head is tilted back on the seat, my eyes are closed, trying to steady the spinning of everything around me. I open one eye to look at her. She’s laying down, her whole body sprawled across the bench seat. “I’d rather make sure you get home safe.”

  She doesn’t say anything, just smiles.

  A few minutes of quiet passes, where I think were both replaying the night in our heads. I bet our adaptations are completely different.

  The limo driver swears, and slams the breaks abruptly causing Mikayla to fall to the floorboard with a thud.

  “Sorry,” the driver waves his hand in the air, “goddamn rabbits!”

  I kneel on the floorboard to check on Mikayla, but she’s giggling to herself. She may not hurt now but she sure is shit will be hurting tomorrow.

  “Hey… Mikayla. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I lightly shake her. She starts to sit up but she’s struggling, more than likely from the alcohol. She puts her hands around my neck and I start to lift her back onto the chair.

  “Call me Kayla,” she says into my chest.

  “Uh… okay… your friends, or whatever… they called you Micky, right?”

  She looks up at me, Bambi eyes, “Yeah, Jake,” she sighs. “They did, but you-" she shoves a finger into my chest, “you can call me Kayla… all right?”

  I nod my head once, stupid goofy grin plastered on my face.

  I begin to put her down on the seat but her grip tightens around my neck, “Just hold me, Jake. Please?” She doesn’t need to ask. I get comfortable on the seat and position her sideways on my lap, cradling her. Her arms around my shoulders and her face on the crook of my neck. “Thank you, for tonight I mean, god, if you hadn’t of been there… I don’t know what I would have done. And your friends… they just accepted that I was there and didn’t ask questions… or…” She takes a breath and sniffs and I can feel the wetness from her tears on my neck. “Just, thank you… so much…” and then she kisses my neck. I freeze, but she keeps going. Soft gentle kisses, up my jaw, looking for my mouth. I shouldn’t be letting her do this, she’s a mess, emotionally and physically. I turn to face her to tell her to stop but my mouth accidentally brushes against hers. Her lips are soft on mine as she kisses me once, twice, the third time is a little longer, more intimate. My eyes drift closed. She moves her lips a few times, then opens them and darts her tongue out to taste my lips, so softy, I would have missed it if I wasn’t trying so hard to take this all in, so I can remember it forever.

  She pulls away and smiles. “Mmmm,” she coos before resuming her position with her face on my neck.

  What. The. Fuck.

  And now I’m hard and she’s sitting on me.

  Shit.

  ***

  She’s fallen asleep on my lap, me cradling her in my arms. She’s snoring gently and it’s pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.

  The limo driver lowers the glass that separates the two areas, “We’re in the street, but I can’t get any further. Which house number is it?”

  “What do you mean you can’t go any further?” I ask as a start to wake her up. “Kayla, what number’s your house?”

  She wakes up drowsily and takes a second to get her bearings, looking around the limo.

  “Have a look outside,” the driver says. “I don’t kno
w what’s happening but I’m blocked.”

  I press the button to lower the window and look outside. There are police cars, fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. There are so many people in the street I can’t see much past the window. Kayla looks out the window too and her eyes bug out of her head.

  “What the fuck?” she mutters as she fumbles to open the door and rush outside.

  She’s out of the car so fast I don’t have time to comprehend what’s happening. I jump out of the car and follow her. She’s trying to push past all the people looking at the house, her tiny frame doesn’t make it far before she turns around to me. There are tears in her eyes and panic all over her face. “This is my house, Jake. What the fuck is going on?”

  Shit.

  I grab her hand and start pushing through the people. I’m not nice about it and people start getting pissed. I clear enough space so that we’re at the front of the crowd. The house has been blocked off by police tape, and cops are swarming all over the place.

  She looks at me like she’s four years old and can’t understand what’s happening. I pull up the police tape and duck under it, towards the house.

  “You kids can’t be past that line.” An overly fat cop with a clip board yells, as he makes his way toward us.

  “I live here, please tell what’s going on? Where are my mom and dad, and sister?” She starts to sob and I hold her in my arms. She looks back at the cop, her voice breaking. “Just please, tell me what’s happening, I need to see them.”

  The fat cop looks at her, sadness and pity consume his features. “Sweetheart, just give us a minute, okay? We just need to do our jobs.” He pats her on the head like she’s a fucking dog. “Mendoza!” he yells to a younger cop talking to people in the crowd and taking notes. He comes over to us. “This is Miss…?”