Lingus (11 page)

He nodded with a smile on his face, swallowing his beer. "Yeah, I have an internship there until I pass the bar."

"You're studying law?" It seemed so weird to me that he did something else besides his porn crap. Did he not get paid enough? Zoey just did her scenes for a living, but I could faintly remember hearing her mention that women got paid a lot more than guys did.

"One more semester left until I'm done," he answered me.

I felt a bump on the back of my stool as I was opening my mouth to tell him that, that was great when I felt cold liquid spill down the front of my dress. I was pretty sure I yelped and pulled the front of my dress away from my body as the stream of cold flowed down my chest.

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry!" a masculine voice said from behind and started passing me napkins from the bar.

I patted down my skin with the napkins to soak up whatever shit was in his drink. "It's okay," I said between drying myself and looking up at the guy who held a half empty glass of something brown. "I'm fine."

The guy finally walked away once I was done but I caught Tristan's eyes running over my chest again. He reached out and swept his finger over my collarbone, wiping off a spot I'd missed. His finger was warm and calloused on my skin. I couldn't control the goosebumps that spread out over my arms in reaction.

He gave me a soft smile, taking his sweet time to pull his hand back. "I really did want to see you."

I really wanted to believe him, but it was hard.

Chapter 14

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUUU!" Half of the lounge sang along, it was more screaming than singing, which was followed by deafening cheers as Josh blew out the candles on his cake. We had kept it to two sparkling candles at his insistence; he claimed that he didn't want anyone to know his real age.

I was standing between Zoey and Tristan, as we watched the birthday boy try to drunkenly cut his cake into squares, but instead made the slices come out like sloppy looking geometric shapes. The guy he had started talking to earlier was helping pass out slices, which I thought was sweet. A sharp elbow jabbed into my rib cage out of nowhere.

"Kitty Kaaaaaat..." Zoey moaned in a sing-song voice. Her gray eyes were wide and glazed over, hinting at the fact that she was hammered. "Kaaaaaat..."

"Yes?" I asked, trying my best not to snort.

Her bird-like arm wrapped around my waist as she snuggled into my side, resting her head against the top of my chest; her date, Eva, looked at us with an amused smile. "My little kitty cat goes meow, meow, meow. Allllll over town!"

I could see Eva start cracking up, and heard Tristan snicker from his spot right next to me. "I think it's time for you to get home," I told her, stroking her back while trying not to laugh.

She was a silly drunk, my Zoey, like I was, but I'd stopped drinking hours ago when she had just gotten started. I knew she was going to be disappointed tomorrow when she couldn't remember the facial expression on Josh's face when he opened up his box. Ryan had been taking pictures randomly, so I made a mental note to ask him if he took one of the presents. Nicole got him anal beads as well as tickets to see his idol, Adam Lambert. I couldn't remember what Ryan got him, but the big surprise was that Calum and Tristan got him something too. Zoey had been trying to climb on top of the bar then, and Eva and I were too busy trying to get her down to see what it was.

"I'm gonna go find Ryan and see if he'll take us home," Eva said, before heading to look for Zoey's brother.

"Heading home after this?" Tristan asked, coming to stand in front of me and a drunk Zoey.

I nodded at him before shifting my arm to rest against my best friend's shoulders. "Yeah, I'm pooped. You?"

"Definitely, it's past my bedtime. I'm usually asleep by midnight," he said with a grin. I made a really unladylike noise from my nose, which sounded like a mutated snort that made his green eyes go wide. "How many times do I have to tell you that I won't lie to you?"

I watched his face to see if he looked amused but he didn't. I was starting to believe he was being serious. "Okay, okay," I said, my voice much softer than before.

Zoey started making some sort of grumbling noise from her face plant between my boobs that sounded like, "Buhday to jew."

"Hear that? She's still singing happy birthday to Josh," he chuckled, looking down at the baby koala I had wrapped around me.

"I'd rather her do this than when she starts trying to stick her hands up me and Nikki's skirts, making really loud honking noises," I told him, remembering the many times Zoey had gotten piss drunk and molested our asses and breasts.

"Kaaaaaat...." Zoey started moaning again but squeezed her arms tighter around me. "Member that video? Jour puss..." and I knew the road she was going down when she started bringing up a video. Sober Zoey would never, ever bring up the video, but drunk Zoey had less of a verbal filter than normal, so I slapped a hand over her mouth and coughed.

Tristan raised an eyebrow. "What was she talking about?"

"No clue," I told him, and knew I need to change the subject so he'd forget anything he had heard. "So, uh, Robby Lingus? Huh? Who came up with that one?"

He made a face that lasted for two split seconds before he smiled, looking very forced. I was starting to think he didn't really feel comfortable talking about that side of his life with me for some reason. "Robert is my middle name so I got Robby from that, and Calum actually came up with Lingus. He thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard."

I wanted to ask him if he was good at cunnilingus but I didn't. If I were at least a little tipsy there would have been a huge risk of actually asking, but Ryan and Eva appeared a moment later. Ryan was huffing about Zoey's inebriated state as he tucked his little sister close to him.

"Remind her she owes me tomorrow," he whined with a shake of his wavy, black hair. His beauty equaled that of Zoey, his build thin, tall, and extremely attractive. "You need a ride, beautiful?"

"No, I'm good. From the looks of it I'm driving Josh's car home," I said, and pointed to where Josh was standing with his new friend while getting fed cake.

He simply nodded and gave me a tender kiss to the cheek, said bye to Tristan, and left. "Your husband doesn't mind you getting kisses from guy friends?" he asked with a bit of a smile.

"Nah." I told him, but refrained from winking like my inner whore suggested. I wanted to ask him if he had a girlfriend. I doubted he did. I was sure Nikki would have mentioned it if she knew, but you could never be too sure. There was no really suave way of asking that question indifferently so I just jumped for it. I'd look like more an idiot if I tried to be slick and ask. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

The words sounded harsh against the air, but he just smiled, shaking his head. "No. It's hard enough to have friends," he almost sounded a little sad saying that. "I've tried having a girlfriend, but I just can't. It's not... a good idea to be attached to someone and then go and have sex with other people, you know?"

I got it. I'd seen what it did to Zoey and her past relationship. When they first got together, he thought having a porn star for a girlfriend was the hottest thing ever. He bragged to anyone who would listen that he was dating Zoey Star, vag-eating champion of the world. Then slowly, it stopped being so awesome for him. He started getting jealous as well as frustrated with the idea of Zoey being with other women. Imagine if she was with men? I couldn't bear the thought of it.

I knew what he was trying to tell me even though my disappointment reached a level that hadn't been seen since I was ten when I didn't get that pony I wanted for Christmas. He didn't want a girlfriend. He was not interested in me in that way because he did porn. I gave myself an internal cheer, screaming at my self-esteem to get up because if I really wanted to be in a relationship, or to have sex with someone, I wouldn't have a problem finding a person to do that with. I was pretty, smart, and funny, I told myself.

I nodded, forcing a smile because I knew I wouldn't gain anything but loser points by letting him see that his words had bothered me. The awful thing was, I knew I was a terrible actress. Nikki and Josh had drilled that reality in my head forever, but I couldn’t care less. "That makes a ton of sense," I said with an even voice.

By the look on his face, I could tell he sensed my discomfort because his smile was a mix of sweet and sad. He started pulling at his wild brown hair and sighed. "Kat, I don't have any friends besides Calum, but he's more like a brother to me."

Josh decided in that moment to start hollering my name across the bar where he stood with his newest friend. I put my index finger up to let him know he needed to give me a second. My stomach didn't know whether to drop or do flip flops because obviously, he wasn't going to be asking me out with this speech, but the anticipation was quickly killing me.

Tristan continued pulling at his hair, rocking back and forth on his heels like a nervous kid. "Back at the convention I was just trying to tell you that I'd hope we could try to be friends?"

I wanted to give him the finger.

But I also wanted to hug him and tell him I'd take whatever he was willing to give me, like a fool.

But fuck.

Shit
.

"Yeah," I told him with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

Should I tell him that my three friends had all seen me naked multiple times and vice-versa? Probably not.

He gave me a happy smile, nodding at my acceptance of our possible friendship. "Okay."

I still wanted to give him the finger.

Twice.

A deeper urge made me want to yell in frustration because
really
? I had three great friends already, and I was more about quality than quantity, but my heart was weak and unable to say no to Tristan's request. He was too hot and that's what was terrible about it. He was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen, more so than any movie star or model, and I really couldn't put my finger on what set him apart. I think it was because I had a suspicion that he may have been a reformed nerd, or something along those lines. He was too goofy to have been a well-adjusted person his entire life.

"I'm gonna go get Josh's keys so I can drive home. It looks like he's going home with his new buddy," I told him, not really knowing whether or not I was asking him to stay and wait for me.

Tristan nodded. "I'll wait for you here then," he answered, tucking those big hands into his front pockets.

Josh was hanging off the bar, standing way too close to his new blonde buddy. As soon as he saw me approaching he stepped away from his friend, holding his arms out to wrap me in a hug. "Thank you so much for everything," he said, squeezing me so tightly against him I ran the risk of letting out gas.

"You're welcome. I hope you had a good party," I mumbled against his neck while he clung to me. "Are you gonna butter your roll tonight?" I asked, poking him in the belly.

Josh laughed against my hair. "Hell yeah. Have you seen his ass? Those buns were baked to perfection."

"Oh lord," I snorted.

Pulling me away just a bit, he dipped his head to look me in the eye. "You're fine to drive my car home, right?"

I used to roll my eyes at him when he'd assume the role of an over-protective parent, but now I indulged the lad. I asked Nikki and Zoey to call me when they got home whenever they'd leave my apartment, so I wasn’t much better than Josh. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Alright, Booger Bear," he said, pulling even further away from me before dropping his car keys into my up-turned palm. "Want me to walk you out?"

I tried to hook my thumb in Tristan's direction as discreetly as possible, and I guessed Josh took the hint because his heavy-lidded eyes went wide. "I'm covered."

"Are you two...?" Josh started saying before making awful noises. I knew him well enough to get that he was trying to replicate music from porn movies made in the 70s.

The sigh that slipped out of my lips was heavy and dramatic, I even grimaced at my best friend. "He just asked me if we could be friends. He says he doesn't have girlfriends," I spat out, like the words were venomous.

"At least he's being honest with you," he started to say before pausing, and then wiggling his ash blonde eyebrows. "I think," he leaned down toward me with a devilish look in his eye. "I think you should be the best fucking friend he's ever had."

"I think you're drunk."

Josh rolled his eyes at me as he pushed me toward Tristan. "Think about that, okay? Remember what I told you on the phone, too. I love you!"

"Love you too," I told him as I tried to let the confusing words sink in. What could he mean by being his best friend? All he conveyed over the phone were compliments. I clenched Josh's electronic key fob in my hand while I made the trek back to Tristan, who looked at me wearily with his hands down the front pockets of his pants. I knew that I probably looked like a mess after the amount I'd sweated. My eyeliner had to be runny, and I was sure my hair was frizzier than a lion's mane, but I was really too tired to care. "Will you walk me to the car?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't want you to get lost on your way over there," he joked with a smile as he followed me out of the lounge. He was only a few steps behind as we made our way out, and I secretly hoped he was checking out my ass.