Fully Automatic (Bullet) (8 page)

“Nice to meet you, Valerie.  I’m Barbara.  Now, Brad, there’s some leftover turkey and mashed potatoes in the fridge.  I wouldn’t complain if you all ate it.  Just put the dishes in the dishwasher, please.”

Ethan said,
“Thanks, Mrs. P.”

“I need to hurry.  Apparently, there are already three women checked in who will probably give birth tonight during my shift.  So don’t worry if I’m home later than usual.”

“I won’t, mom.”

“Have fun.  Oh, and there are some DVDs in the living room if you want to watch a movie.”

Brad’s mother leaving was their cue to head out of the garage and let the party begin.  They’d worked hard and now it was time to have fun.  Brad hoped he’d be able to spend a little more time getting to know Valerie before Ethan whisked her back off to college and out of his sight.

Chapter Nine

AFTER EATING DINNER
, the five of them went in the living room to watch a horror movie.  It was partially just background noise, because they continued to talk while it was playing.  Brad decided it was time to get the party started and asked Nick to help.  Brad fetched the Coke and rum, while Nick brought in five glasses filled with ice.  Brad poured rum in four glasses, but before pouring any in the fifth, he made eye contact with Val and asked, “Sure you don’t want just a little?  Just enough to get a little buzz?”

Ethan, sitting next to Val on the couch, pried his eyes off the TV and said to her, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

She smiled at Ethan as though to humor him, but Brad couldn’t help but notice that when her eyes returned to him, she seemed to be giving him a huge green light.  “Sure…just a little, though.  I’m the driver, remember?”

Brad laughed and said, “Okay.”  Then he poured a small amount in Val’s glass, just so she wouldn’t feel left out.  It was barely a quarter of an inch, and if she even got a buzz off it, he’d be surprised.  Then he topped them all off with Coke and slid the glasses so that each person had one in front of him…or her.  “Bottoms up.”

All the guys didn’t hesitate, downing most of their drinks in the first try.  Ethan looked irritated.  “You shouldn’t have put ice in ‘em, Bradley.  It’s harder to drink.”

His friend had no idea that oftentimes Brad did what he could to slow Ethan down, but he said, “I thought, since we were in the company of a lady, that we should show a little restraint.”  He looked over at Val.

“Yeah.  Whatever.  Top me off, pussy.”

Brad handed the bottle to Ethan.  “Do it yourself, cocksucker.”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

The tension started to dissipate as they all turned their eyes toward the movie.  Brad finally took a place on the couch on the other side of Val.  How could he help it that it was
n’t such a big couch, and his leg just so happened to touch hers?

God, he had it bad, and he needed to chill the fuck out.  If he couldn’t rein himself in, he’d scare her off for good.

The guys kept passing the bottle, but Val had only had a sip or two of her drink.  Brad was going to give her a while and then offer her a straight Coke.  She might have simply wanted to take her time, fearing an insane buzz, especially since she planned to drive, so he didn’t want to push her.

Ethan kept saying things quietly to Val, causing her to giggle.  Brad couldn’t catch it all at first, but then he realized Ethan was making fun of the movie.  Brad poured another shot and closed his eyes, letting it make its way to his belly.  He could see that Val and Ethan already had a pretty solid friendship, but he could tell just by looking at his friend that he had no romantic tendencies toward the girl.  Brad would never say it, but he knew his friend well, and Ethan tended to prefer girls who put off a slutty vibe.  Val was the exact opposite.  She felt pure and sweet, nothing like the girls Ethan liked to date.

Maybe that was lucky for Brad.

He heard Ethan say, “Academy Award winning performance right there.”  Both Val and Nick, sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, started laughing.  That’s when Brad realized he
hadn’t been paying any attention to the movie.

After the laughter died down, Ethan leaned forward and grabbed a Coke out of the soda box on the coffee table.  He popped it open and turned to Val.
  “How about you trade me your drink for a straight Coke?”  She smiled and handed him her glass, taking the can of Coke from him.  Ethan slammed her drink down and said something else to Val, something Brad couldn’t understand, and that’s when he felt the first pangs of jealousy.  He knew he had no right to feel anything for this girl, but he did, and he felt like Ethan was just leading her on.  Surely, his friend knew Val was sick in love with him.  How could he not see it?

Nick let out a long drunk giggle. 
“Oh, shit.  This girl’s gonna get killed.”

Zane
joined in.  “Yeah…we saw her tits five minutes ago.  Of course, she’s gonna die.”

Even though
Brad hadn’t been paying attention to the movie, he knew the formula of which they spoke.  Val sat up and Brad loved the look on her face.  “Why is it that they always make these girls so dumb?  Why does she have to trip and act stupid?  Instead of going back the way she came or following the trail, she’s disappearing deeper into the woods where she’s going to die.”

That
simply made Nick laugh harder.  “You have a problem with that?”

Zane said, “I don’t, as long as I get to see her goodies.”

Val was beginning to act genuinely upset.  “Real girls aren’t like that.”

It was just a movie, and Brad wanted Val to enjoy herself.  She was hating the movie, and so he wanted to pull her attention away from it. 
Well, that and he had other motives.  He got closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders.  Yeah, so maybe the rum was helping his boldness.  He didn’t care.  It was now or never.  “Know what, Val?  You’re cool.  Ethan has class when it comes to women.”  So that wasn’t exactly true.  In this case it was, but he wasn’t about to tell Val about his friend’s track record.

Zane overheard, though, and had to add his two cents’ worth.  
“Correction.  Remember Mary…
the mouth
?”

“Oh, fuck, yeah!”  Nick lost it, lying on the carpet and holding his stomach.  He broke out into an unstoppable gale of laughter.

Ethan’s eyes looked like those of a Rottweiler ready to bite.  “Can we change the subject?”

Zane, however, couldn’t help himself.  “I kinda liked her mouth.”

Brad was feeling too good to be pissed that they were fucking up his moves.  He wasn’t about to give up, though, and maybe he could take some heat off Ethan too.  “I just wanted to say Val was cool.  I didn’t want to get you guys started talking about Ethan’s old girlfriends.”

Ethan slammed
the rum in his glass and poured more.  Zane just couldn’t let it go. “I want a girlfriend like that.”

“Shut the fuck up, man.”

Zane returned his attention to his drink, and Brad decided to try another tactic.  Everyone seemed ready to watch the movie again, so Brad dropped his voice so that no one else could jump on whatever it was he wanted to tell Val next.  “I’m glad you and Ethan are friends.”

Finally.
  She looked over at him.  At first, she simply looked like her sweet self, but then he saw something in her face change.  That’s when he knew the attraction was mutual.  It
wasn’t
just him.  If he’d thought he could get away with it, he would have lowered his lips to hers right there and started kissing her, but he knew that couldn’t happen.  Besides, a girl like Val might not be able to handle a guy coming on that strongly, and he didn’t want to scare her off.

Nick started laughing again and yelling something else at the TV, but Brad tried to tune him out.  Now that he had Val’s attention, he wasn’t going to let her off the hook so easily.  He made sure his voice was quiet enough so no one else would hear. 
“So…are you and Ethan dating or not?  Are you boyfriend and girlfriend?  He won’t say dick about it, and I can’t tell.”  Granted, he hadn’t outright asked his friend, but he could tell by looking at Ethan how his friend felt about Val.  He wanted to know if Ethan was stringing her along, though, and the only way to do that was to ask her.

He felt even more encouraged when she spoke
.  “I…uh…don’t think he considers us that.”  That’s when he knew he had a solid chance.  What was killing him was that he knew Val was as attracted to him as he was to her, but she felt some kind of weird loyalty to his best friend.  He’d thought maybe if…but no.  She had eyes for Ethan.  So when she stood up, he let her go.  “I…um…need a glass of water.  Can I get anyone anything?”

No one answered, but Brad shook his head.  God, that was disappointing.  Maybe he
had
been coming on strong, but he’d always been so good at reading signals.  She
was
interested—he was certain of that.  So why was she running?

He sat there for a few moments, feeling empty.  He must have been losing his touch.  And he felt like this was his only chance with this girl.  His
only
chance.  When she and Ethan would leave tonight, Brad might never see her again.

So he took in a deep breath.  He looked around the room.  All the guys were enrapt in the stupid movie, and they were well on their
way to getting wasted.  He stood up, and no one noticed.  He was going to talk to Val.  He had no idea what he was going to say, but this was his one shot, and he wasn’t going to fuck it up by just letting it slip through his fingers.  If she told him to fuck off or showed no signs of any interest whatsoever, he’d let it go, but there was something there—he was sure of it—and he’d be a fool to not at least try.

He headed toward the kitchen, not sure what he was going to say, and when he got to the doorway, he paused.  Val was standing in front of the refrigerator and had just turned around.  Their eyes locked, and that was when he knew for certain.  He could see it in her eyes.  It wasn’t just his imagination running wild.  There
was
something there between them, something inexplicable.  Yet it was strong.  They looked at each other for several long moments until Brad felt like he had his bearings again and forced himself to walk over to her.

It was as if his instincts had taken over.  He was slow, methodical, and he didn’t stop until he was almost touching her.  Their eyes were locked
, and her breathing was deeper than it should have been.  There it was—he could
feel
it, whatever
it
was, and he wasn’t regretting his decision.  He decided at that point to continue following his gut—unlike the rational part of his brain, his gut hadn’t let him down yet when it came to this girl.

He wanted to pull her into his arms, recite the lyrics of his sweetest love song to her, taste her lips, but it felt too soon.  He lowered his head, though, getting closer.  She closed her eyes and tilted her head.  At first, he thought maybe that was her way of spurning him, but that didn’t make sense.  She was still there, still close, and so he realized maybe she wanted him to kiss her there.

It was too soon, though, and he knew it.  She might have had a strong attraction to Brad—he
knew
she did, because he felt it too—but her heart was still with Ethan, no matter how ridiculous that was.  He’d be just a statistic if he tried moving in now when he’d barely known her for a day.  He brought his face closer, though, and breathed in her scent, envisioned himself kissing her there.  She seemed to tense up but she continued to stand there, and then…then she put her hands on his neck, pushing her fingers into his hair.  It felt so possessive, so needy, and he forced himself to maintain his cool.  He was not going to blow this.

Instead of wrapping his arms around her and shoving his tongue down her throa
t, he held himself back and lowered his lips to her ear.  He was going to say one thing and one thing only.  “I know you’re into Ethan, and as long as you are, nothing’s gonna happen between us.  But I want you to know I’ll wait.”

After what seemed like forever—because he knew she was processing it, thinking it, feeling it—she loosened her fingers in his hair where they’d been clinging for dear life.  And that was his cue.  He backed away, their eyes still locked, and once he got to the doorway, he turned and left.

As he took one slow step after another heading back to the living room, he let it sink in.  That had been an out-of-this-world experience, unlike anything he’d ever lived through before.  It was like they’d been talking without words.  He knew what she’d been feeling—that she loved Ethan and couldn’t explain whatever was drawing her to Brad, but she couldn’t
not
acknowledge it, weird or not—and he could tell she knew what he’d been feeling too.  He’d never felt that way with another living soul before, and it was going to be hard to let her go.  He knew, though, that he must.  She wasn’t his.

He made his way back to the living room, feeling like he was in a daze
—confused, unsure, wanting something he knew he could probably never have.  Zane and Nick were where they’d been when he’d left, but Ethan was nowhere to be found.  Brad shook his head and sat back down, pouring himself a swig of rum.  He could use a shot.  Not long after he poured it, though, Ethan came back in the living room.  He must have gone to the bathroom, but that would have meant one thing—he’d walked past the kitchen.  What had he seen?

Brad wasn’t going to say a word.
  And maybe the fact that Ethan hadn’t said anything, either earlier when Brad was in the kitchen or now, meant that he was cool with Brad making a move.

But s
o much for that.

Ethan said, “Come on, Zane. We gotta hit the road.”

“What?”

“Time to go.”

“We just started watching the movie, man.”

Brad saw Ethan’s jaw clench. 
Fuck.
  So he’d have to talk to him sometime next week with the girl out of the picture.  Ethan didn’t have the hots for this girl, so what was the problem?  Had Brad stolen some of her admiration?  Was that it?  But now wasn’t the time to ask, not while Ethan was acting pissy.