I groaned. He was right.
About that time a set of twins,
freaking twins
walked up to us. They had black hair, blue eyes and curvy little bodies that I suddenly really, really wanted to get to know better. “Wow, how did we miss you ladies all night?” I took a step closer, eagerness making my pulse rock out.
“I was wondering the same thing,” Jaden said from beside me.
“I’m Abby,” the taller one who stood across from Jaden said. “And this is my sister, Crystal.”
“Do you want to dance?” I asked in my most suave voice. Yeah, I knew it was lame, this whole game guys and girls played, but what could I do about it? People had been doing it way before The Hook-up Doctor was around and they’d do it long after as well.
“I’d love to,” she replied. I looked over to see Jaden and whatever her name was already locked in an embrace. I slid my hands to her waist as she wrapped hers around my neck. The song was fast, but we didn’t care. Her body slinked against mine and for a minute, all I could think was, “hell yes”, but then I remembered I hadn’t checked my phone for a while. What if Aspen or Pris had texted and I didn’t hear it?
Let me tell you, it’s not easy to slip your cell phone out of your pocket all incognito with a girl slinking her body as close to you as she can. Somehow, I managed it. While she was distracted, rubbing her hand though my hair, which annoyed the crap out of me, I checked my phone for messages behind her back.
Nothing.
Instead of being all mopey like I had for most of the night, I tried to get into what I was doing. I had a pretty girl in my arms. A guy definitely shouldn’t have to talk himself into enjoying that. “Do you live around here?” I asked close to her ear, inhaling a deep breath.
Damn.
Flowers. I hated that crap.
“No. My sister and I are staying with my cousin for the summer. It’s her house.”
“That sucks. I’d love to get out of this place for the summer and you’re stuck here.”
Her hand traveled up my back. “I don’t know… I think I’m starting to enjoy it.”
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Every warning bell in my body erupted. I was pretty sure she just told me I’m the reason she was starting to enjoy herself. “Me--” too I tried to say, but just about that time, Aspen caught my eye on the other side of the room. She stood with some guy, her arms flailing around as she spoke animatedly. She cracked me up when she got excited like that, talking with her body just as much as she did her mouth. I chuckled.
The guy pulled her close to him and they started to sway to the music just like I was doing with Crystal, but all of a sudden, I wasn’t laughing any more. The muscles in my body tightened, like I’d worked them out too hard and got a cramp. I was sweating and felt like I’d had too much to drink when I hadn’t.
“You what?”
“Huh?” I asked, startled. I couldn’t believe I almost forgot I was dancing with this girl.
“You said ‘me’, but then you stopped.”
Get it together, Bastian. What’s wrong with you?
“Nothing. I guess I’m pretty lucky you decided to come for a visit, huh?”
I could hear the smile in her voice when she replied, “Maybe.”
I tried to focus on the girl in my arms, I really did, but my eyes kept darting to the other side of the room. The guy dancing with Aspen tried to slide his hand under the back of her shirt, and I stiffened, immediately pulling away from Crystal. Aspen did the same with hand boy over there, turning her nose up at him in a playful way and walking away.
That’s my girl.
“Are you okay?” Crystal stepped back and looked at me. The girl was beautiful. There was no reason in the world I should be so distracted, but I was.
“Want to just chill for a minute?” As much as I wanted to be into her, I wasn’t right now and I didn’t want to lead her on.
She bit her bottom lip and then smiled. I found the quietest corner of the room that I could, but one that still gave me vision to scope out the living room in case I was needed. I stood in the corner, with Crystal in front of me. She showed a lot of skin. Way more than Aspen, but not quite as much as Alex did, which was nice. “So, I think it must have been your cousin who met this guy I work with. He’s the one who told me about the party.”
Crystal ran her hands down her shirt as if she was trying to smooth it out. “Matt or something like that? Paula told me about him.”
“They hooking up?” I asked, not sure why I cared. Okay, so that’s a lie, if they were hooking up, I knew he couldn’t have Aspen because she wouldn’t be down for that. Which meant she couldn’t get hurt and I could go back to being my normal self.
“I don’t think so. They didn’t, yet at least. Who knows what will happen tonight though.”
Great. There went that plan.
We talked for a little while. She was pretty cool, liked to laugh and I found out her boyfriend dumped her when she told him she was leaving for the summer. “That sucks. Sounds like a jerk, but it’s probably better, anyway.” It was pretty obvious I wasn’t going to hook-up with this girl tonight and I was okay with that. I wasn’t feelin’ this whole thing and she seemed to still be caught up on her ex. My night of epicness was turning out to be anything but. She was pretty fun to talk to though, so I didn’t mind.
“Why?” she asked.
“What’s the point? Relationships never last anyway. Better to end them quick rather than drag things out.” I didn’t care how jaded I sounded, it was how I felt. Anyone who had seen what I had would feel the same.
“A guy who doesn’t believe in love? Wow, I don’t run across that every day.” We’d never see eye to eye on this, so I just shrugged, scanning the room for my friends. I saw Pris standing alone in a corner, her mouth tight. She obviously wasn’t having a good time. Just as I was about to tell Crystal I needed to go check on my friend, I saw Aspen with another dude. He had this cocky smirk on his face and she was looking up at him batting her eyelashes in a way I’d never seen her do before.
What was she doing? She put an arm around the guy’s shoulders and he did the same to her. They were laughing. With each passing second that they stood there, him looking at her like she was his perfect score for the night, my gut started to squeeze tighter. Was she flirting with this guy? And if she was, which was super freakin’ weird because I’d never seen Aspen flirt before, but why couldn’t I take my eyes off her?
“Aw, so she’s the reason you’ve been distracted all night?”
I glanced at Crystal, back over at Aspen and then at Crystal again. “I haven’t been distracted.”
Yeah right.
“It’s okay.” She sighed. “I think I was using you to get my mind off Will, so we’re even.”
This time, my vision jerked toward her. “What? I’m not into her. She’s my B--” I groaned. Why did I keep saying BFF? I swear, it was like Paris Hilton took me over. “She’s my friend. I watch out for her. That’s all.”
In the sea of people, I found Aspen again. She stood up on her tip-toes and whispered in the guy’s ear. “Dude, what’s she doing?”
I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud until Crystal answered me. “Flirting.” Aspen stumbled. “She looks a little drunk.”
“Nah, we have a three drink rule in the PPP.”
“PPP?”
“Pre-party plan. She doesn’t drink much anyway. I don’t think she’s ever gone past one drink.” A memory popped into my head. “Oh! There was this one time Pris’s parents were out of town. I dared her to drink this fierce drink Jaden made and she was gone. Stumbling all over the place like--” Holy hell. Like she was doing now. “I gotta go.”
Crystal grabbed my arm as I tried to walk away. “I guess I was wrong, you do believe in love.”
“Pfft.” I tried not to roll my eyes. I didn’t do love and if I did, it wouldn’t be with my best friend. “It’s not that. She’s just a friend.” My mouth felt all sticky. As I looked over, a hand grabbed onto Aspen’s arm and started leading her down the hall.
Not going to happen, dumbass.
I pushed my way through the crowd, grabbing him right before they made it to a door. “Thanks, bro. I got her from here.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “Who the hell are you?”
I ignored him. “Come on, Woodstock. Let’s get you out of here.” Standing this close to her, I could see she was definitely trashed. Her big, green eyes were droopy, with pink tinting the white part.
“I’m okay, Baaaasssstian. Tad’s just helping me find a bathroom.” She patted his chest.
“Well, now I am. You can go,” I told him. About then, Aspen grabbed her stomach. “Oh, crap. I think I’m going to get sick.” She swayed a little. About that time,
Tad
took off and I pushed the door open. Bathroom my ass, it was a bedroom with a big empty bed. I’d have to remember his face so I could kick his ass next time I saw him.
“Uggg.” Aspen groaned.
“We’ll get you to the bathroom.” She stumbled so I picked her up, pushing doors open until I found the bathroom. When she was on her feet, I locked the door behind us and that’s when it happened. Instead of aiming for the toilet, Aspen faced me. Green puke flew all over my not-so-lucky-anymore shirt.
Ugh!
She freaking owed me for this. I turned her toward the toilet and let her finish. With her hair in my hands, she emptied her stomach. I kept feeling it threaten to bubble up in my throat, but I held it down. Puke and I didn’t go well together. The last thing we needed was one of us up-chucking in the toilet while the other took the bathtub.
When she finally finished, I helped her to her knees, rubbing her back.
Please don’t puke. Please don’t puke.
What was it with girls and alcohol? Boys always get the bad name, but I’d never drank so much I blew chunks. “It’s okay,” I told her when she started to cry.
“I hate being sick,” Aspen mumbled. I kept smoothing her hair down and sliding my hand over her back.
“You okay?”
“No…” her eyes were starting to close, but she kept popping them open again.
“I’m here, Woodstock. Are you going to be sick again?”
She shook her head. I grabbed some tissue, wet it and wiped her face. I felt like an idiot, but I knew she wouldn’t want to go out there like this. I pulled off both my shirts, and tossed my puke covered, Beastie Boys shirt in the trash, before putting the other one back on. I wanted to cry myself. That was a nice shirt. “I’m going to pick you up.” She mumbled something which I assumed was an okay. Bending down, I pulled her into my arms. “Let’s get you home.” Her reply was to wrap her arms around my neck.
Everywhere that she touched me, it was like little currents of electricity sparked beneath my skin. It was weird as hell, but kind of felt good, too. As soon as I hit the front door, both Jaden and Pris were by my side.
“What happened?” Pris asked. At the same time, Jaden said, “Is she okay?”
“We’re good. Just a little too much to drink.”
When we got to the car, Jaden somehow made sure Aspen was strapped in, while she was still lying down with her head in my lap.
“I don’t know how I’m going to get her into my house like that, Bastian. My parents will freak,” Pris said from the front seat.
I pushed her soft hair away from her face. “She can come home with me. I’m pretty sure my mom’s out.”
Pris dropped us all off at my place. Jaden stayed downstairs, planning to sleep on the couch, and I carried Aspen up to my room. After I had her all tucked in, I started to walk away.
“Bastian… Don’t go.” Her voice was hardly over a whisper.
I closed my door and locked it. “I’m right here.”
A smile curved her lips and then she was out. There was nothing I could do but fall into my torn-up computer chair and wonder how I got myself into this mess. The goal for the night had been freedom. To find a girl who was interested, listen to music, dance and get my mind off of all this other heavy stuff: to forget mom and the loser, to forget my Aspen confusion, to help Jaden block out whatever was going on at home. Instead, I ended up with green vomit on my not-so-lucky shirt and sitting in my cramped chair while I watched a girl sleep in my bed.
Here was my epicness, because despite how things turned out, I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I wouldn’t want anyone else to take care of her. To watch her sleep. To hold her hair. To carry her to the car. Of course, I could have done without the puke part for both of our sakes, but besides that, I’d rather be with her than anyone else. I’d rather be here than dancing with Crystal or any other girl.
That’s when it hit me. How had I been so dumb? How could I be such an idiot? And when the hell did it happen? When had things changed or had they always been like this, but I didn’t realize it?