Smoky eyes, black mascara, nude lip gloss and a light blush.
All teamed with platinum hooped earrings.
Raven left her hair out and smoothed it down. It was so shiny it looked like glass.
Done. Now to get my legs to work.
She slipped on her plain black heeled shoes, and picked up her purse.
Ava wore skin tight black pants with a white gypsy top showing her midriff and shoulders. Kerry wore a red dress, similar style to Raven’s but a little longer, with a thigh split and spaghetti straps. Leila wore deep black shorts and a sparkling silver batwing top that hung off one shoulder. No straps, which meant no bra. All of them stood at least two inches taller in their shoes.
“Are you ready?” Ava smiled.
No.
“Yes.”
Leila called the campus taxi -the bar was at the other end of the huge campus, and they wouldn’t make in their heels- and they left the dorms.
Once at the Green Bridge, they saw that the bar was already busy. Live music was coming from inside and blared as the doors opened.
Some of the music majors were playing on the small stage at the back of the bar. The spotlights on them as the lead singer, Finn Kelly, belted out a cover of Aerosmith’s ‘Love In An Elevator’.
The girls walked towards the back of the bar, and Raven looked up at Finn as he sang. He smiled and winked at her. She smiled back politely, and carried on her way with the girls. As they passed other students, they received appreciative looks, and low whistles as they passed.
“This is exciting!” Leila bounced on her toes with a huge smile on her face.
It had been a long while since the girls had gone to the bar. They’d been to the orienteering party, and some others in the past, but this was just for the ‘adults’ of the students.
There were only so many ‘this is totally awesome’ and ‘like, I know!’ that they could handle from the younger ones.
“We need drinks and lots of them.” Ava shouted over the music.
The girls nodded and made their way to the bar. They ordered a round of shots and cocktails.
“Ok,” Kerry held up her shot glass. “Let’s down this, and knock back our first drink. Let’s get this night going!”
“Woo!” the girls chorused, banging on the bar.
“Three…two…one…” Ava counted. “Shoot!”
The four girls knocked back the strong shots and then gulped down the cocktail in their glasses.
Raven’s face twisted with the sour taste from the mix.
“More!” Leila shouted, ordering another round of drinks. They left out the shots and only sipped the next cocktail. “Dancing!” she called out, ushering the girls to the dance floor in front of the stage.
The girls moved to the music, their arms in the air, and Raven was enjoying herself. They were having a great time, and she was glad to be letting her hair down and relaxing instead of feeling like she had to look over her shoulder.
A few minutes later, the band took a break and the usual music played.
A dance remix of Lady Gaga’s ‘Do what U want’ started and the girls threw their arms in the air cheering.
“Do what you want with my body!” Ava yelled as she sang along to the lyrics.
Raven laughed hard as Ava began to rub her hands over her body and moved her hips in a playful fashion. The other girls joined in.
Why not? When in Rome…
Raven lifted her hands and stroked down her own body from the sides of her breasts, down her waist and her hips as she wiggled side-to-side. She pouted her lips as she and Kerry shimmied towards each other, then spun around.
“Hi Raven,” A male voice said into her ear from behind her. She quickly turned to see who it was.
“Oh, Finn, hi.” She said nervously. She hadn’t expected him to approach her.
“I saw you watching the band. What do you think?” he asked, getting too close. The music was loud so he stepped even closer. Raven took half a step back.
“The band’s great,” she nodded. “Excellent covers.” She turned back to the girls who were all smiling widely.
Oh my God, just help already!
“Do you want to get a drink? Our table’s just over there,” he asked, as thumbed over to where the rest of the band were sitting.
“Oh no thanks, I’ve had a drink,” she replied, turning away again.
“Do you want come over anyway?”
Ava put her hand over her mouth and turned away from Raven. She could see her shoulders shaking as she laughed.
You’re going to pay for that!
“Thanks Finn, but no. I’m here with my friends, and we’ll be leaving soon anyway.”
Finn’s eyebrows pinched down to his brown eyes, and he smiled.
“Ok, maybe next time.” Without waiting for Raven to answer, he walked away.
“Bitch!” Raven said, holding back a smile as she poked Ava in her back.
“I’m sorry,” she laughed. “I could see him making a beeline for you. I couldn’t resist.”
“Besides…” Kerry moved closer and turned so her back was to the rest of the students at the bar. “…Beck saw the whole thing. Don’t look!” she added as Raven began to turn.
Raven’s stomach bottomed out. The last time he’d seen one of the more popular students ask her out, he'd found it amusing, but he was also serious. It had her baffled and she’d lost her concentration for the rest of the day.
“I have to study for my assignment, and I need to call my mom to arrange my ride home,” Raven lied. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time.”
Neil Jeffries, a senior, had asked Raven out near the end of junior year.
“We don’t have to go far, Raven. Just to the Green Bridge. We can go back to my dorm afterwards,” he grinned.
I don’t think so.
“No, Neil. Thanks, but like I said, I have things to do and I don’t want to go to your dorm anyway.”
“We could go to yours?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I said no!” she said sternly. “I don’t want to, so please stop asking!”
“Suit yourself,” he sneered and left.
“Doesn’t Neil do it for you, Raven?” Beck asked after she’d said goodbye to Ava.
Typical Beck waiting for her to be alone before he started on her.
“No. Not that that’s any of your business,” she spat as she headed to E-studies.
The hairs on her arms stood on end when Beck approached, but her spine tingled when he walked alongside her.
“True, but I was just asking. You weren’t happy with him asking you out.”
“How the fuck do you know what he said? We’re you
spying
on me? Just waiting for something to happen so you can throw it back in my face?” she cried.
“I wasn’t spying, Raven. I’d just come out of Stats class. If anything,
you
were where
I
already
was; not the other way around.”
Raven clenched her teeth so she wouldn’t scream at him. The smug look on his face needed wiping off, but the way his eyes sparkled when he looked at her had her melting on the spot.
She looked away quickly, her face flaming.
“So… no to Neil?”
“Oh dear God,” she groaned. “Yes.”
“Yes, meaning no to Neil? Or yes meaning yes to Neil?” he asked, trying not to smile at his own question.
“It means no to Neil! What is
wrong
with you Beck?” she whisper shouted as students walked by.
“Nothing,” he looked around, then back to her. “Don’t do anything you don’t want to,” he growled, stepping closer as he lowered his voice further. “Ok?”
“I won’t.”
“I mean it, Raven. There are people worse than me here, and don’t let them pressure you into doing something you don’t want to do.”
“Ha! Says you.”
“Seriously? Do I ask you to do things with me? Do I ask you to go places with me? No I don’t. Suggesting is not the same as asking. You have options, Raven. Just make sure you choose the options that
you
pick, not somebody else.”
Raven took a shaky breath when she felt his heat radiating from his body to hers. Her nipples stood to attention, and she was grateful of his nearness because he was unable to see them protruding from where he stood.
“You’re a goody-goody for a reason,” he breathed into her ear. His lips grazed the shell of her ear, making her squeak.
Raven watched Beck’s back as he disappeared out of the building, checking out his ass as he went.
It was a few minutes before she found the use of her legs to go into the lecture room.
*****
“Don’t you like Finn?” Kerry asked when the song came to an end, and they left the dance floor.
“He’s good-looking, yes, but I don’t feel anything for him,” Raven explained, sipping her fruit cocktail through her straw.
“Did you feel anything for Cole?” Ava pumped her eyebrows.
“
Ava!” she almost choked. “He was nice. I’ve known him for a while, and he’s also good-looking.”
“So the sex put you off?”
“Not just that.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. Everything seemed to be ok. We got along, as usual, but I thought that going to that next step would improve things. It really didn’t.”
“So how did he get you going? He must have done it for you at first.” Leila asked, listening intently.
I thought about Beck, and I was ready.
Raven took the straw out of her drink and gulped the rest as she finally realized how she’d managed to get aroused with Cole.
“Raven? Are you ok?”
“Yeah,” she mumbled, wiping her mouth. She quickly applied another coating of gloss in place of the one she’d wiped and took a calming breath.
“Shit,” Kerry muttered, lowering her head.
“What?” Raven turned and saw Kato walking towards her. His eyes fixed on her.
She’d told the girls about Kato asking her out again, but she didn’t expect him to want to speak to her after the show in Economics class.
“Can I talk to you?” he asked, annoyed.
“What about?” she asked, not wanting to leave the safety of the girls. She could already feel her hands shaking, but it wasn’t from nervousness. It was from anger.
“Away from an audience,” he said in a clipped tone as his eyes darted quickly to the girls.
As he did that, Raven looked over his shoulder. Beck was looking right at her.
Their eyes locked, and she couldn’t look away.
He didn’t smile or wink, as he usually did. Instead, she could see the muscles in his jaw flexing with pressure.
“
Him
again?” Kato asked, snapping Raven out of her trance. Kato had looked to see what her eyes were glued to.
“What?”
“Beck. Every fucking time, he gets in my way.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She narrowed her eyes.
“Yeah you do, Raven. I asked you out a while ago, and all you could do was look at him. Yesterday, I asked you out, then when you said no, there he was again. In class…”
Oh no. Here we go.
Raven could feel her anger rising. It was reaching a crucial point, and she didn’t want it to spill over. Especially with an audience in the small bar.
“…He rubbed it in my face that he was doing it too.”
“Kato, Beck hasn’t been in your way; I have,” she explained. “
I
said no.
I’m
the one who made the decision. That had
nothing
to do with Beck.”
“Really? So showing me up like that in class had nothing to do with him?”
“He wasn’t showing you up! He was talking to me, and he saw you looking. He commented, yes, but he never did anything else.”
“
You’re
sticking up for him now? After everything he’s done to
you
?”
“He’s done
nothing
to me, Kato,” she snarled between her teeth.
Raven was furious. She glanced over his shoulder and sure enough; Beck was
pissed
. He wasn’t making a move to approach them, but somehow, Raven knew that if Kato laid a finger on her, Beck would wipe the floor with his ass. He’d rescued her from Bobby who was just fresh from high school, but Kato was a senior. Beck wouldn’t hold back.
“You know what, Raven?” Kato sneered as he saw her looking to Beck again. “I think you want to fuck him, badly.”
Raven’s eyes widened, and a white hot flash ran through her. Her eyes burned into him, and she used every ounce of control she had to remain still.
“He’s already fucked you hasn’t he?” he laughed. “That’s it. He’s fucked you good.”
Raven lost the tiny scrap of restraint she had and raised her hand. She pulled back, clenched her fist and let it fly. It connected with Kato’s nose, which crunched under her knuckles. His head flew back, and he howled in pain, blood running out of his nostrils.
She didn’t stop there.
She lifted her leg and kicked her heel into his shin, making him scream out. He lifted his leg up to cradle it.
“Bitch!” he spat through the blood and tears.
“Don’t you
ever
speak to me like that again! In fact, don’t ever speak to me at all!” she screamed.
“Jeez, Raven,” Ava gripped her arm and pulled her back away from Kato
“I’ll rip off your balls and ram them down your throat you
fucking
asshole!” she added.
Ava pulled Raven back, with the help of Kerry and Leila who were looking at her as though she was crazy.
For those few seconds, she was. Kato had not only accused Beck of coming between them, but then his jealousy filled comment had sent her over the edge. She’d seen red.
“Take deep breaths, Ray-Ray,” Ava said softly, smoothing her hand over her hair. “That idiot’s gone now.”
“You did a number on him there, Ray,” Kerry said, a worried look in her eyes.
“That was one hell of a punch, girl,” Leila added, nodding her head.
“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” Raven apologized, her head in her hands. “He went too far, and I couldn’t stop myself. He got me so mad that I…Oh God.” She groaned.
It had happened in front of everybody. The close ones would’ve heard everything, but she was positive the whole place had turned to see the ‘fight’.
Raven looked up in time to see Ava shift her eyes back to her. She looked over her shoulder to see what she’d been looking at.