by Karla Luna
“Oh… come on!” I continued to whine. “All the girls will drool over you!” I knew I always had. “I promise it’ll be fun! I’ll make sure to make it fun, please?” No, I wasn’t even close to giving up on this kid!
“Fun?” He frowned at me, and then grabbed hold of another book while faking a laugh. “Evelyn, high school parties are basically just teens groping each other and doing the nasty on the dance floor, puking up all contents in their stomach, and having an immense hangover the day after. That, I personally think, is not my idea of fun.” He threw the book on the shelf, just like he did the other one. “Please, don’t make me go.”
“I can’t believe you’re making me go!”
All I did was grin wickedly at his words, as we both looked ourselves in the mirror that Stormy put up in the hall downstairs. I wore a tight, black, strapless mini-dress that hugged my waist and showed off my curves. Zavier wore a white V-neck, a black jacket (that would look as if it were a leather jacket from afar), some dark skinny jeans, and white Vans. To put it simply, he looked gorgeous and delicious. I could just eat him up.
I fixed my hair by curling the tips, and when I turned to Zavier to mess his hair up, he frowned at me and tried to fix his hair.
“Hey!”
“Oh, stop whining. You look great.” I winked at him, seeing him flush as he turned to hide. The doorbell ringing saved him, and Jesse and Ethan soon greeted us at the porch, since Jesse was our ride because Zavier really didn’t want to ride my motorcycle, like, ever again. He made that pretty clear.
The party wasn’t too far away, but walking seemed exhausting to me. Sometimes, I didn’t know how I kept my body sane and in shape.
“All right. So how do we get in?” Jesse asked once we were at the front door of the house the party was being held at. The music could obviously be heard, and I even felt the vibrations in my chest. “We’ve, uh, actually never gotten invited to a high school party. Neither have we snuck into one.” He paused to hit Ethan on the chest with the back of his hand. “This guy here only managed to do it in middle school once. How are we gonna pull this one off?”
“Calm down, guys. As long as you’re with me, you won’t have to worry about a single thing,” I said with a smirk.
•Zavier•
After some of Evelyn’s rather interesting techniques on how to get into a high school party (which mostly consisted of her flirting with some random drunk guy that had opened the door, and then punching him square in the face), I definitely felt even more odd.
Meanwhile, Jesse and Ethan seemed to feel even more alive, as if they actually belonged to this type of crowd.
But never in my life had I ever witnessed this type of party. And honestly, call me a wimp, but I was scared. All these heated bodies were almost crushing me, and all the making out and puking were really not appealing. Why did I agree to come again?
“I feel really weird, Evelyn,” I admitted, looking at her with hopeful eyes so that she would know I truly and honestly didn’t want to be here with these people. This wasn’t like me at all. I mean, the clothes were cool and all, I admit, but still, it kind of gave me that ‘bad boy’ vibe, and I definitely didn’t want that. Plus, the drunken girls were starting to stare at me as if I was a piece of meat. It got me nervous as I scratched the back of my neck and looked around.
“Just have a drink and dance. Maybe talk to a few guys or gals.” I moved aside when this couple tried to grind themselves close to me. “Or have a threesome.”
I grumbled disgustingly and covered my face with my hands.
All of a sudden, I felt movement close to me and I was about to step back and possibly leave this house for good now, when two arms wrapped themselves around my neck, trapping me in.
I uncovered my face to lock gazes with Evelyn, who was swaying her hips from side to side so close to mine. I looked down at the closeness of our bodies and swallowed a huge lump in my throat, blushing and trying to look at something else besides her gleaming eyes.
“Evelyn…”
“Just move to the beat,” she said, still staring right at me while getting closer and closer. “Put your hands on my hips,” she whispered.
“W-what?” I stuttered, suddenly remembering that one time this week when she was drugged. She was so close to doing the same thing again, but now, she was completely sober.
“Put…”
“No, don’t say it again!” I hissed under my breath as I took a look around the living room. People were all around us as different colored lights shone on everyone. It even gave Evelyn’s face a special glow.
“Why are you whispering? No one else can hear you but me. Now, do it.”
Clearing my throat and staring deeply into her mesmerizing eyes, I slowly placed my hands on her hips. It clearly wasn’t enough, since she rolled her eyes and firmly pressed the palms of my hands to tightly grip her hips.
My breathing hitched as she put her arms back around my neck to draw us closer to each other, making our noses touch.
Looking into her eyes just made me want to draw her closer to me and keep her forever. She looked amazingly innocent and just beautifully exquisite. It was weird how she was the first girl I felt comfortable with so quickly. I didn’t know how she managed to do it, honestly, but I loved it.
I loved the way she smiled, the way she would irritate me but nevertheless still make me laugh afterwards. Deep down inside, I was glad she was living with me, because I was easily making a new friend.
Smiling, Evelyn dug her fingertips into my hair, causing me to shiver. By now, we weren’t even dancing in time with the hip-hop music. Instead, we were slow dancing. We even went from staring into each other’s eyes to staring at each other’s lips.
I never kissed a girl before obviously. But her lips just looked rather sweet and delicious being so close. The vanilla and cocoa that radiated off her body made me want to lean in just a little bit closer, just to get a simple taste of her.
Her next words caught me off guard and caused my heart to thump harder against my chest. “What would you do if I kissed you right now, teddy bear?”
“Uh… I-I’d um…” What would I do? Kiss her back? But what if I majorly sucked at kissing? Would I pull away because I was saving it for Joss? Run away and avoid her for the rest of my life?
No, that seemed extremely harsh, and absurd. I would never do something like that.
Without even thinking twice about it, I responded, “I’d let you.”
All she did was stare at me in astonishment.
“Whoa! Holy damn!”
Evelyn and I swiftly tore apart from each other and turned at the sound of an overly excited girly voice heard over the loud music.
That’s when a bunch of eyes were set on us, making me want to hide away from everyone. I loathed attention.
After that girl yelled something out, a bunch of the others started to shout out things I could barely keep up with.
“Is that Zavier? Zavier Coin?”
“No. Freaking. Way! That is him!”
“He looks fiiiine. Can’t believe I never noticed that.”
“Is that the new girl? Are they dating!?”
“Sure looks like it, huh?”
Oh no, not the gossipers. I really needed to get out of there.
“Well, hello there, sexy ass.”
My eyes went wide at hearing a manly voice say that. I almost thought that, for a second, a guy would actually hit on me. But when I turned to face Evelyn, a gross, bulky guy was trying to grind his hips with hers.
I was fuming.
How dare he treat a lady like that? Even if he was drunk, it was just pathetic, unnecessary and utterly repulsive. I wanted to tear him apart from her. My fists clenched at my sides as I glared at him. But he didn’t even seem to notice me standing there.
“I would appreciate if you let me go,” Evelyn said in the calmest tone ever. “I’m here with someone else.” It was then that the guy noticed me, and he looked me over with a scowl
on his face.
He viciously laughed next. “He’s just a damn, stupid dork. A boy. He ain’t a man like me at all. Fuckin’ nerd is all he is, and all he ever will be.”
That’s when Evelyn gasped and pushed him away while standing right in front of me as if to protect me.
“Don’t talk about him like that,” she hissed. I felt something in the pit of my stomach from being defended by someone right then. Words like those always hurt, but I grew accustomed to them over the years. Still, his words stung just a bit more.
The guy seemed to ignore her as he got all up in my face and gripped my neck. I just glared at him, even though deep down inside I was scared for my life. I have never been in a fight before, and I didn’t want to die at a high school party. I had so many things I wanted to do in life.
“What’s the nerd boy gonna do, huh? Come on then, geek, let’s fight for ‘your’ girl.”
Next thing I knew, we were outside by a huge pool that no one seemed to be occupying, and everyone was already staring at us. Even most of the teens inside the house came outside, and the music died down.
All I heard after was chanting, and my heart almost coming out of my chest.
My neck was painfully hurting because of his strong grip, and I was so sure that there were going to be obvious hand marks there later. I tried to look around for Evelyn, but it seemed to me that she couldn’t get through the large crowd in time.
The guy put me down, and before I knew it, he roughly punched me straight to my cheekbone, making me fall over and cough. I didn’t even get to open my eyes before I was lifted up by my shirt collar.
“No!” I heard Evelyn yell, right as I was being thrown to the pool.
I weakly tried to pry my eyes open once I was deep in the water, and when I spotted my glasses falling further down, I swam over and grabbed them before finally swimming up to the surface.
I breathed in once my head was out, and I shook my head to get rid of some of the water droplets on my face. Then I pulled my wet hair back and looked around to notice a bunch of girls jumping in now.
“Obviously you lose, sucker,” the guy yelled, making me glare at him once again as I swam over to the edge of the pool. I was about to get out when I noticed Evelyn shaking with fury as she got all up in his face.
“You’re a little shit,” she spat, making almost the whole crowd go into ohhh’s.
I really wanted to go up and help her, but she seemed so rebellious, so ruthless, and fearless. Everything I definitely didn’t have or wasn’t. I knew I would’ve lost right away, but her?
“Oh, baby, I did you a favor. You see that kid? He’s just a dorky nerd boy, and you’re a hot piece of ass. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“That ‘kid’ is a better man than you will ever be. I’d prefer a sweet nerd than a nasty asshole. And he’s bound to live a better life, too. So suck shit.”
Next thing I knew, she was kneeing him right between the legs (even hurting me and all the other guys watching).
When he went down on his knees, she twirled and did a karate move, which consisted of her kicking him right on the neck, taking most of his breath away that I thought he’d die right then and there.
People all around us went wild and gaped at Evelyn as she walked over to me. I looked up at her and she held out her hand for me to grab.
“Come on, teddy,” she said, helping me out of the pool. We ignored everyone cheering and patting us on the back as Evelyn led me all the way upstairs to an empty bedroom. It was locked, but being her, she picked the lock fast. I was impressed.
She made me sit down on the bed right in the middle of the room, and we were so close that our thighs touched. I was still drenched but took off my jacket and pulled my wet shirt off my torso since it was practically see-through.
Evelyn ended up putting a frozen beer bottle on my bruised up cheekbone, making me chuckle. I hadn’t noticed her grabbing it, and I wasn’t really surprised that it was beer instead of an actual bag of ice or even frozen peas.
“I’m sorry,” she guiltily said. “I didn’t want all of this fucked up shit to happen.”
I winced when she put too much pressure on the beer placed over my bruise, making her pull it away a little apologetically. “It’s all right.”
“No, it’s not. That dickhead shouldn’t have treated you that way.”
“The most important thing was the way he was treating you. But you gave him a lesson.” That made her smirk. Then, she deeply sighed and looked at my bruise, which was most likely turning red and purple.
“Just try to hide the bruise. If not, Stormy will freak. Hell, I’ll lend you my concealer if I have to. Don’t worry about wearing makeup, as long as it’s hidden.”
I nodded, understanding. But one thought kept bothering me. I really needed to ask her this.
“Evelyn…” I started, as I nervously nibbled on my lower lip.
“Yes, Zavier?”
“Would you… would you have really kissed me back there?” I finally asked, making her drop the beer to her lap as she skeptically looked at me.
Leaning in, she softly placed her warm lips on my cheek, giving me a simple little answer.
Then, she stood up and grabbed my hand.
“Come on, let’s go. The mood is over because of that douche. Let’s just go home and get you cleaned up.” As we walked downstairs, people seemed to forget about the fight and about us, which I was eternally grateful for.
“Where are Jesse and Ethan?” I asked as we reached the living room.
“Oh, they heard about what happened. I think they’re outside already, and if they’re the least bit drunk, I’m driving.”
That scared me right away. Evelyn on a motorcycle, pee-my-pants scary. Evelyn on an actual car? Yep, I was a dead man.
“Know what? I think I’ll drive.”
“Oh no, you’re injured. We wanna keep that boo-boo sane,” she said as she winked and led me toward the front door except we ended up bumping hard into some other guy on the way there.
Oh no. I did not want to get into another fight. Why did this have to happen to me? Wasn’t I a good person?
“Watch it.”
I froze up, and my heart practically stopped beating all at once when I came face to face with the person that always made my life miserable as a younger kid.
My face went pale and all emotions drained from my system, except for one that never seemed to go away – fear.
“Zavier?” he asked as he smirked and looked me over. Or more like looked Evelyn and I over.
“D-Davne?”
12: Lost In Stereo
•Evelyn•
When we spotted the so-called Davne Conrad, even my own body went rigid as I felt Zavier tense up right next to me. Goddammit, he freaked out and nearly had a panic attack when he found out about his worst enemy coming out of juvie and entering his life again. But seeing him face to face after years? That really had to scare him to death.
He seemed to keep his gaze right on Davne, and the whole place died down again just to stare at all of us. I noticed I was still holding Zavier’s hand. He was shaking, and very badly, so I gave him a reassuring squeeze. Davne seemed to like the idea of people being this scared of him. But luckily, I didn’t personally know the guy, and I’ve met bad boys like him. What could possibly be the worst thing he’s ever done?
Just remember rule #1: Never, ever, ask a bad boy what he did to get locked up in a cell for who knows how many years. It was the touchiest subject for them, and I would know that from personal experience. Drake told me his story, and it was most definitely a touchy subject for him. So he warned me not to do it with other guys we knew.
“You missed me so much you became speechless, eh?” Davne asked, his voice husky and deep as he grinned at Zavier. He even seemed to lose control of his own breathing since I saw how his chest rose up and down so fast.
Davne then turned his full attention back to me. He looked me over and seemed to like what he saw
, but all I did was glare at him. Though, I had to admit, this guy was hella gorgeous. He had short dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and slightly tanned skin. He had all the right muscles and such a sexy, strong jaw. Overall, he seemed more like he belonged on Broadway or in a damn model institute and not a small town in New Jersey.
He really chose to stay here, huh? What the fuck was wrong with this guy?
This… this was really the infamous Davne Conrad. I just couldn’t believe my own eyes. All bad boys I’ve met were sexy, but they all lacked bits of humanity. I knew it was hard for them, but it wouldn’t kill for them to try.
Davne smiled at me and then bit his lip, indicating he indeed liked what he saw. I then parted my lips to give him a damn piece of my mind, when he spoke up, completely interrupting some of the cuss words I was about to throw at him.
“And who might you be? I don’t think I’ve ever noticed you around here before.”
Smirking, I wittily replied to him, “Really, well, you were in juvie for about six years, so there’s no way you would’ve known.”
Chuckling, he looked down at the ground, then back up at me. “I like you already.” When he took his hand out, I immediately pushed Zavier behind me as he continued to stare daggers at Davne. I really thought he’d run out of here already and leave me alone with his enemy, but he was being so brave right now. I was proud. “Don’t worry, I won’t bite. Unless…”
“Don’t even go there, buddy,” I said, holding my hand up to show him I wasn’t interested. He was extremely attractive and I loved bad boys, but something told me he was very, very bad news and I just didn’t want to leave Zavier for some guy that hurt him so much in the past. He didn’t deserve that. I found myself very clingy to Zavier and I wanted to become his protector, so to speak. Davne wasn’t going to hurt him anymore as long as I was around.
“I’m Davne. But judging by the stares, and by Zavier hiding behind you, I’m sure you’ve already found out about me from these people,” he said with a smirk, as his hazel eyes turned darker than they already were.
