Текст книги "More Than This"
Автор книги: Jay McLean
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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 16 страниц)
I nod my head slowly, glancing at all of them.
“uh-ohhh” Heidi coos.
“Operation Mayhem!” Dylan declares loudly, as he pulls Heidi off his lap and places her to his side. It’s the most I’ve heard him say.
In two seconds flat the boys have somehow repositioned the girls to one side of the limo while they discuss whatever it is they’re discussing on the other side.
“What are they doing?” I ask Heidi, but its Lucy that answers. “Trust us, it’s better you don’t know. It’s more fun this way.”
Chapter 4
*Mikayla*
“You guys…” I say, trying to catch up to the boys as we walk towards the 24 hour Walmart, “you’re gonna miss your senior prom.”
“No one cares, as long as we’re there at end when they declare little miss Heidi Prom Queen, we’re all good, and that’s hours away,” Logan says as he taps Heidi on the ass. She squeals and hides behind Dylan.
“Touch her again and I’ll break your arms, asshole,” Dylan glares at Logan, who throws his hands up in surrender. Dylan’s one of those guys that doesn’t say much, so when he does, you listen. Now that I see him at full height, he’s huge. Bigger than all the other guys. He seems loyal and protective, willing to give his all to his girl. I can see why Heidi loves that kind of a guy. I would to. I thought I did.
We walk into the store.
“What are we doing here? I mean, what are we getting here?” I ask no one in particular.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little face,” Logan coos while his hand rubs down my back, lower and lower, until his hand is cupping my ass.
“Get your hands off me, before I get Dylan to break your arms.” It’s said as a joke, but I’m serious.
“I don’t think it’s Dylan I have to worry about,” he mutters as Jake gets between us and shoves him to the side.
“Leave her alone you asshole,” he holds his hand out, “come with me?”
I take his hand, “Um, okay. What about the others?” I ask.
I really want to know what their plan is, what this ‘Operation Mayhem’ is. Shit, I hope its nothing permanent, or illegal. I don’t know these guys at all, they could be buying stuff to bomb his truck, or his house. Oh my god, what if they’re going to ki-
“Relax,” Jake laughs. “Shit, Mikayla, we’re not gonna do anything crazy. It’s just a bit of fun, trust me okay?” He must have seen the internal meltdown I was having.
I smile and nod. Because I do. Trust him.
“Now, help me choose please, I don’t know anything about this stuff,” he says, pointing his finger in the air and motioning around us.
“Huh?” I take a look around and see that we’re in the mens formal wear section, “Oh, okay.” I look over at him. He’s still wearing his suit pants and the plain white tank. His broad chest and muscled back defined behind the material.
“What’s wrong with what you’re wearing?” I ask with a raised eyebrow, mocking him.
“Ha Ha” he says flatly, “It would be fine if I wanted to look like Eminem circa 2001.” We both laugh. “I’m thinking black shirt, to go with your dress, and blue tie, the same as the flower at the front.” He starts going through the racks.
I look down at myself. I’d forgotten what I was wearing. My mind is still a little hazy. He pulls out a black dress shirt, tries it on, shrugs it off, rips the tag off, puts the tag in his pocket, shrugs the shirt back on and starts buttoning it up. I look away because it feels too intimate, watching him get dressed. Plus, I think he might be stealing, and I don’t want to be an accomplice, or whatever.
I head over to the ties, two dollar ties galore. I find a blue one that matches the flower of my dress, it’s a little dahlia planted in the middle just under my breasts. “Um, here, this one should do.”
He saunters over to me and smiles, “Perfect.” He grabs the tie from me and then frowns. “Shit, my mom’s gonna be so disappointed.” He laughs once. “I have no idea how to knot a tie,” he says, looking at the tie in his hand.
“I can totally help you with that.” I grab the tie from his hands and begin to knot it the way mom’s shown me. She said one day I’d meet a man that would appreciate this random skill. Who knew she’d be so right. I start to do up the tie around his collar when I realize how close we are. My heart thumps in my chest, and my brain goes fuzzy. I can feel his breath on the top of my head. Im surrounded by his cologne, it’s only a small amount, but it’s enough to make my head swim. I close my eyes for a second to calm my nerves. I can feel his eyes on me.
I take a small step back before opening my eyes, and force a smile. “There, now you’re more Eminem circa 2005.” I tap his chest. He laughs as we head to the front of the store.
Everyone else is already waiting. Whatever they bought, is now secured in plastic bags so I can’t tell what it is. Jake walks through the only aisle open and then stops abruptly in front of the cashier, forcing me to bump into him from behind, and lose my balance. He turns quickly and steadies me with his hands on my elbows. Once I’m settled, he pulls two tags out of his pocket and gives them to the cashier. She’s a few years older than we are but she has no shame in eyeing Jake up and down and winking at him.
“I uh, need to pay for these,” Jake says, adjusting his tie and looking past her.
She doesn’t say anything, just keeps eye licking him. He seems uncomfortable.
After the transaction, we make our way back to the group and walk towards the limo.
“Dude,” Logan says, “that chick would’ve totally banged you in the store room.”
“Not everyone’s a pig like you, Logan,” Heidi huffs as we settle back into the Limo.
“I can’t stand girls like that,” Jake shakes his head, “I mean, I’m not saying we are…” He looks over at me quickly then back to face Heidi. “But I mean, what if Mikayla was my girl, and we were on a date. It’s obvious we were kind of together, I mean, we walked up together. I don’t know,” he shrugs. “It just seems disrespectful to Mikayla, you know, I mean, if she was my girl.”
I blush and look to the floor. I can sense Heidi staring at me but say nothing.
“Awwwwe, Jakey, always the gentleman,” Cam coos.
“Whatever,” Dylan huffs, “let’s cause some Mayhem.”
***
A bottle of food dye, hundreds of post-its, a death metal c.d, a bag of sugar, 5 garbage bags full of popcorn and one roll of serene warp later, and we’re standing, admiring our masterpiece, laughing to ourselves.
To the outside world, we’re just a group of crazy kids, playing an innocent prank on one of our friends. Even the limo driver has a chuckle to himself.
“How much do I owe you guys? I mean… money… this couldn’t have been cheap… and it’s… I mean, I’m the reason we’re here, right?”
Logan looks to Jake, who clears his throat, “It’s nothing, Mikayla. We have a Mayhem fund. We all put in and do stupid shit like this. It just happens that this time it’s not happening to someone we know. These assholes love this shit, don’t even worry about it.”
I look to Logan and he just smiles and nods enthusiastically. I feel Jake bending down to place his mouth near my ear, “All good, Mikayla?” he asks.
I nod once and smile up at him.
And then I make the mistake of looking next door. To the single light that’s on in the bedroom window, with the silhouette of a girl watching us. To the bedroom where my boyfriend, or ex boyfriend, has probably had sex with my ex best friend hundreds of times. I feel a sob coming but I cover my mouth, I know tears will fall the second I close my eyes. Jake notices and follows my eyes to the girl in the window. Logan must too, because he asks, “Is she going to be a problem?”
I shake my head no, “That’s Megan.”
“Fuck.” I hear Jake mutter under his breath. A sob takes over, and his arms are around me as he envelopes my body with his and I bury my head in his chest. He holds me.
“Umm guys,” it’s Heidi. I don’t look up from Jake’s chest, “they’re announcing prom king and queen in twenty minutes.”
Chapter 5
*Mikayla*
***
Megan and I were not at all what you would imagine best friends to be. We were polar opposites in almost every way. She was the head cheerleader with the smokin’ hot body, shiny long blond hair and sparkly blue eyes. She played boys, and boys were all for it. Megan knew who she was, and she used it to her advantage. People tended not to take her seriously, she played the airhead role to perfection but she was so much more than that, and I was one of the lucky few to see that side of her.
I met her when we were in fifth grade. She had just moved here for her mom’s job. I remember sitting in front of her in class while she chatted with everyone around us. All I could hear was her talking about her stationary. Girls love stationary. I was facing the front of the class trying to concentrate on the puzzles we were meant to be doing while she was giggling along, talking to whoever would listen about how she had two of everything. Emergency things she called them, emergency ruler, emergency eraser, emergency sharpener , etc. By that point I had lost focus and turned in my seat to glare at her. She just looked at me and smiled, a full teeth baring smile. I huffed and turned back to face the front fishing through my pencil case for a ruler to mark the margins of my next page, only to find that I didn’t have one, I must have left it in the book I was reading during lunch. I raised my hand, “Miss Spencer?” The teacher looked at me from her desk, over the frames of her glasses. “I uh… I don’t have my ruler… Can I um… May I please go to my locker to get it?” Before she could answer, there was a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a ruler inches from my face. I looked at Megan questioningly, she just smiled back. “For emergencies,” she shrugged.
We became best friends.
***
The summer before freshman year, we were hanging out eating popsicles on Megan’s roof, that lead to her bedroom window. We were working on our tans, apparently that’s what high school girls did.
“Do you think people will make fun of us because we don’t have boyfriends?” she asked out of nowhere.
I hadn’t even thought about boys that way, I guess I was a late developer. I shrugged.
“I’m going to have a boyfriend within a month,” she declared, more to herself that anyone else. Then nodded once as if agreeing to it.
“Ok Meg, just don’t go dragging me into any of that, I’m happy with the way things are,” I said, rolling my eyes at her.
She snickered, “As if I’d even consider it. Do you think I don’t know you at all?” she mocked hurt in her voice and held her hand to her heart.
“I just don’t want to be one of those girls that has serious relationships through all of high school. It’s so not my thing, and when it’s over, I don’t want to do that whole… ‘where are you going to college? Should we go to college together? Who’s hopes and dreams are more important?’ blah yatta blah.”
She looked at me for a second then shook her hand, standing up, she started prancing around the roof dreamily, “Well, Miss ’15 going to 50’… I want to fall in love…LOTS… and I want to break hearts… LOTS, I want to have so many awkward first dates and first kisses at my front door, with lots and LOTS of boys. I want to chase and be chased. I want to hold hands down the hall with some amazingly gorgeous guy and have girls jealous because that guy only has eyes for me. I want to live high school. And I want to love in high school. And I want to have sex. Oh my god, like… so much sex!”
I stared at her, my mouth open in shock. She looked at me and broke out in a fit of laughter. It was a joyous sound that to this day still has me cracking up whenever I hear it. We sat on that roof and giggled like the innocent girls we were for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only minutes. Our laughter broke off when we heard a beeping noise. We both looked over to where the sound was coming from, over to the house next door and the U-haul truck reversing into the driveway.
“Oh, god,” Megan sighed, “The house has finally sold. I hope they’re not sucky neighbors. I couldn’t think of anything worse! Like old people that collect random shit to hoard, and they have to call the fire department to clear the house, only to find like,” she looks to the sky as if thinking “…a 5 billion pound woman stuck under a pile of empty snack sized chocolate pudding tubs, and then a crane has to come to lift her body out of the house like on ‘Gilbert Grape’, and they take her to a hospital so they can pump all the fat out of her body. Then 3 years later, some random kid emerges from that house, knocks on our door and asks, ‘have you seen my baseball?’”
I look at her for a second, then burst out laughing. Uncontrollable laughter that has the sides of body aching. I laugh so hard I’m pretty sure colored snot from my popsicle is oozing out of my nose. Hot right? I hear her quietly laughing with me, and then, “Holy shit, Mick… what the hell is that?”
I stop laughing abruptly and follow her eyes to see what the heck she’s talking about, and then I see him, and I think, “What the hell is that?”
It’s a boy. A boy better than any other boy I’ve ever seen before. He could be our age but he’s built bigger. Like, not an “I work out, I’m a jock” big, but like, I work… lifting heavy shit, kinda big. Farm boy big? I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about boys and big before.
“Let’s go introduce ourselves,” Megan states, already climbing through the window back into her room.
I sit frozen staring at him, as he slowly makes his way up to the front door, taking in his surroundings, like he hasn’t seen the house before. Maybe he hasn’t. Dark blond hair hidden under a baseball cap, dark jeans and plain grey shirt. I find myself wondering what color his eyes are, when he looks up suddenly and catches me mid stare. Kill me. Kill me now. I’m sure the blush has crept up to my face and I’m even more sure that he can see it. A slow smile lifts at the corner of his mouth and he raises his right hand in a small wave. I force a smile, which I'm sure looks more like I’m constipated than an actual smile. I start to lift my hand to wave back…
“Mikayla… Come onnnn!!” Meg screams at me like a banshee.
I stand up suddenly and hurl myself through the window, tripping on the eave and falling so unladylike, flat on my ass. “What is wrong with you?” She looks at me like I’ve grown a second head.
“Big boy farm.” WHAT? Please, Kill. Me. Now.
By the time I’ve calmed my rapidly beating heart and convinced Megan that I’m not completely insane, I find myself stumbling down her driveway and onto the driveway next door. We’re greeted by a lady who looks to be in her late 30’s, wearing sweats and unloading boxes from a cherry red truck. She sees us and instantly smiles. “Hi, you young ladies must be our neighbors?” she says, wiping sweat from her brow.
“I am, my name’s Megan,” she reaches out to shake the ladies hand. “This is my best friend Mikayla,” she nudges me.
“Uh. Hi, I’m… um Mikayla,” I say, shaking her hand. My eyes are cast downwards. I don’t want to look too much at the ladies face. She’s more than likely the mother of the boy whom I’ve just been eye licking.
“Well, you girls are just the prettiest picture,” she drawls in a thick Texan accent. “I’m Sam,” she faces the house, “Henry! Boys!”
Im still looking at the concrete of the driveway when I hear the front screen door open and close a couple times.
“Yeah, Ma?” says a male voice. I jerk my head up and see him, like, really see him. Brown, like the color of syrup, his eyes. He recognizes me and stands in front of me with a smile.
“Honey, this is Megan, she’s our neighbor.” He takes his cap off and shakes Megan's hand, never taking his eyes off me. “And this is her best friend Mikayla.” We shake hands, and I swear, sparks fly and my hand tingles with a sensation that roots me to the floor, something I have never felt before. “Girls, this is my son James, I have another one somewhere, much younger. I’m sure you’ll see him soon.”
“Nice to meet you.” James finally lets go of my hand and I weep internally.
Megan’s looking at me like she’s watching the third head ooze from the second head I’ve just grown. Luckily, she saves the day by actually talking to this James kid. I’m still trying to get over the physical shocks that have just sparked my body into life. They talk about school and sports and why they moved here, what there is to do in our small town, and everything else small talk might consist of.
From this, I get that he’s a freshman and will be going to our school. Great. I’ll be a struck dumb and mute for the next four years.
I hear my name, but I don’t know what was said.
Megan nudges my side, I look up at her, her eyebrows raised and head jerking towards James. I slowly look over to him. “Huh?” Im so fricken eloquent I can’t even handle it.
He clears his throat, “It was nice meeting you Mikayla, I have to get back to helping unpack. Hopefully I’ll see you around school or something.” He says it more like a question than a statement.
Before I get to answer a kid comes barreling toward us, he can’t be more than 8 years old. He runs straight to Meg and me so fast I don’t think he can stop in time. Both Meg and I put our hands out to stop him from crashing into us, but his legs save him and he stops mere inches from us. He glares at Megan, then at me. Seconds which feel like minutes pass, neither saying anything. Then he smiles, “Hey, have you seen my baseball?”
We can’t help it. We laugh.
2 weeks later, James and I are dating.
***
“You okay there, Miss Mikayla?” Heidi asks from across the limo.
I must’ve zoned out.
“Yeah…” I huff. “I just… I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming,” I say, as I pick imaginary lint of my dress.
“No one suspects the people they love of douchebaggery,” Heidi looks at me sympathetically.
“Or slutbaggery,” Lucy adds.
Chapter 6
*Jake*
We get to prom within seconds of the announcement. Heidi goes from the girl we know to the girl everyone expects her to be. She prances on stage, smiles and says a few words. Prom King is Doug, the quarterback. Of course he is.
They pose for photos but it’s awkward as hell because Doug knows Dylan’s watching and you don’t fuck with Dylan. Doesn’t matter that physically, they’d be a decent match up. There’s only one thing Dylan loves more than basketball and that’s his girl. And there’s a huge difference between basketball and Heidi. We’d give him shit if he weren’t so serious about her. He’s not the hearts and flowers kind of guy, but he’s the heart and soul kind, and fuck if every girl would rather that than flowers.
***
We’re all watching the stage when I see Casey sauntering towards me, I panic and step closer to Mikayla. It’s a dick move but I didn’t know I was doing it until it was done. Mikayla looks up at me, eyebrows drawn in and I guess she must sense my panic because she follows my eyes to Casey and I think she understands. She wraps her tiny little arms around my waist and her side presses against mine, her head getting comfortable in the crook of my arm as I put my arm around her shoulders.
“Hey, Jake,” Casey coos inches away from us. “Who’s your little friend? I haven’t seen this one around before.”
I flinch at he words and I feel Mikayla tense next to me, but only for a second before she recovers herself.
“Casey, this is Mikayla.” Mikayla laughs once, “Baby, you don’t have to be so formal.” She reaches a hand out to Casey. “Jake calls me Kayla. Do you go to school here, Lacey?”
“It’s Casey.”
“Oh.” Mikayla nods once, smiling at Casey. Then she looks up at me. Big brown eyes like Bambi. She rubs her hands up and down my chest. “I’m thirsty, babe. Let’s get a drink then head to the hotel,” she says loud enough for Casey to hear. Then she gets on her toes and whispers in my ear, “I’m not wearing any underwear.” I don’t know if Casey can hear her, but I know she can see my eyes widen in surprise. What she can’t see is my dick twitch at the thought.
Fuck, I’m such a guy.
I look down at her, and she’s smirking back at me.
“Well, have a good night,” Casey interrupts, and then backs away.
Heidi comes back from the stage, “Was that Casey? What did she do to you this time?” she asks, watching Casey walk back into the dance floor. She turns to us and motions her finger between us, “And what the fuck is going on here?”
Then we realize we’re still locked in each others arms and we both abruptly let go. I’m a bit more hesitant than she is though, and I can’t help but try to look down the back of her dress, to her ass, to see if she really isn’t wearing any underwear.
I’m an asshole.
“Let’s go, I’m bored,” Cam says as Logan comes back to the group with disheveled hair and his tux all out of sorts.
“I’m ready,” Logan says, as we all stare at him. “What? I just gave some band geek a night they’ll never forget.”
***
We’re all in the limo and driving through some heavy woods. I can tell Mikayla is getting worried because her eyes keep darting out the window, then to her phone.
I nudge her, “Don’t worry, I told you, I’m not a psycho, I’m not going to kill you. We can drop these guys off and you can take the limo home if you want.”
“It’s okay,” she smiles. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”
***
*Mikayla*
The limo stops at a clearing in the middle of nowhere and we all file out. There’s an old truck that surely doesn’t run anymore, and a bonfire. Logan and Dylan start lighting the fire and Cam and Jake jump into the bed of the truck and pull down a couple chairs and a cooler full of beers. They start passing the beers around while the girls set up the chairs.
Cam and Lucy take up the seating on the bed of the truck and there are three chairs around the fire. Dylan’s on one with Heidi on his lap, Logan in the other. Jake is holding the back of the left over chair, “Here, take a seat, I’ll stand.”
“Sorry,” Heidi holds up her beer, “we weren’t expecting extra, not that you haven’t been a great surprise though.”
I face Jake. “It’s fine, I’ll stand, it’s your chair, your bonfire, you-"
“I gotta place for you right here, sweetheart,” Logan says from behind me, patting his lap. I scrunch my nose at him. Lucy notices and laughs. Logan is a good looking kid, don’t get me wrong. If I was any other girl I’d be swooning over him. But the fact he spilt beer on me, was an ass, and then most likely just screwed some innocent girl at their prom and left her there, well, it kinda downplays his swoon-worth.
Before I know it, an arm is wrapped around my waist and my ass lands on Jake’s lap with both my legs to one side. My side is to his front. “I think she’d rather not.” His accent makes it sound like ‘I think she’d ruhthuh not’.
I admit to myself, accents turn me on. James had a sexy accent, it was a nice Texan drawl, not too ‘dirty’, it was perfect. I used to love how he’d dip his cap forward a little and say, ‘yes ma-am’ when I asked him to do things. It was cute, and sexy, and he knew it turned me on, so he used it as often as possible. Fuck James, I really did love him.
Before I can react, two hands are wiping away tears I hadn’t realized were falling. Jake placing his hands on either side of my face, looking into my eyes. He must see so much sadness, and hurt, and anger, and regret, and all I see in his, are comfort and understanding. He nods his head once and uses his hand to pull my head to his lips, he gives me one short, sweet kiss to my temple, and it’s everything I need to make the world keep spinning around me.
Chatter goes on around us and I realize I’ve totally spaced out.
“I can’t wait to hit the bars around UNC,” one of the boys says. I don’t know which one.
“Huh?” I look up. “Who’s going to UNC?”
Cam laughs, “We all are. Why? Are you?”
“Yeah, I am,” I say wide-eyed. “What? All of you are?”
Cam eyes Jake for a second then back to me, “Yeah, your boy Jake there’s got a full ride, athletic scholarship,” he smiles like a proud dad, “he’ll probably be starting pitcher as a freshman.”
I whip my head to Jake and see him nodding shyly. “No shit?”
“Shit,” he deadpans.
“And what about the rest of you?” I eye Lucy in particular, because I think were probably heading towards the same thing.
“Partial academic scholarship, majoring in either creative writing or journalism, haven’t decided yet,” she shrugs.
“No effing way!” I say, my voice laced with disbelief. “Me too. Like, exactly. Partial scholarship and all.”
“No shit?” she says.
“Shit,” I return.
“Jake and I are the only ones lucky enough to get scholarships,” she states. “Cam and Dylan will be sharing a dorm, Heidi and Logan will be majoring in The Greek system.” She laughs and the rest join her. I see her glance at Jake and feel his body move behind me.
“What about you?” I ask him.
He shrugs, “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
***
The rest of the night is completed by beer drinking and shit talking. I’m feeling slightly buzzed, okay, maybe a little beyond it, but I seem to be smiling and having a good time. The ache in my heart from earlier tonight is a fraction less painful.
Lucy starts shuffling through her bag to get her e-reader.
“Seriously, Luce?” Heidi says.
“No, let her read,” Cam says with an evil smirk. His eyes are hazy, he’s definitely drunk.
“Shut up…” Lucy mumbles under hear breath.
“What… what’s going on?” Logan looks up from his phone.
Cam starts laughing, “Oh, I love it when she reads.” He turns to Lucy who’s face is starting to contort and turn to a bright shade of red, “She reads these smutty books, like full on dirty shit, full of sex and like… bdsm shit.”
“Oh my god, Cameron. Shut the hell up!” She reaches her hand to cover his mouth but he’s too quick and jumps off the truck bed and starts walking around.
He continues, “Sometimes when we’re in bed she’ll be reading and she’ll make these little moaning sounds…” he’s trying not to laugh and were all cackling with him.
Lucy jumps off the truck, takes her heels off, and starts stalking him like he’s her pray. “I swear to god, Cameron Aladdin Gordon! You better shut your mouth or I won’t put out for the next year!”
“ALADDIN!!” we all yell and erupt in fits of laughter.
For some reason Cam thinks it’s a good idea to keep talking… “She reads these books right…” he keeps walking backwards around us while she follows, occasionally reaching her hand out to cover his mouth, but he keeps slapping her hands away. She’s fuming, but behind that, a smile is trying not to slip. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“I’m not joking boys, they’re like, full on pornographic. Talking about silky shafts and veiny dicks and shit,” Logan is now on the ground holding his side from the pain of laughing too hard.
“Sometimes she’ll be reading, then all of sudden she’ll put her book down and look at me like she wants to eat me, literally eat me!” he yells, laughing harder, still swatting away her hands that are trying to shut him up, “I mean, I don’t mind it, not at all. It’s hot as fuck. And she wants to try everything she reads in these books. Like… everything. She learns everything from these books… so I don’t give a shit when, or how much she reads, I get the rewards.”
My face is buried in Jake’s neck to stop the hyena laugh bubbling up my throat. Logan’s still rolling around on the ground. Heidi is wiping tears from her eyes. Even Dylan has his head thrown back, his body convulsing with silent laughter. Jake’s deep rumble chuckles are so close to my ear, I can feel his breath.
Cam continues, running faster away from her, “The other week she even let me do her in the a-"
Lucy squeals.
We burst out laughing even harder. Her face is red now and she’s given up trying to catch him, she stands defeated. He strolls over to her and she slaps him hard across the face. We all quieten, but the giggles are still there. We stare at them… waiting… then Cam says, “Yeah, baby! You know I like it rough!” and throws her over his shoulder and heads into the bushes with her screaming, upside down, punching his back.
***
30 minutes later they’re back and changed out of their prom clothes. It’s obvious what just happened.
Where the fuck did they go? I look over in the direction they came from and see lights on in a little wooden cabin.
“Where the fuck are we?” I ask. They all chuckle.
“This is my families property,” Lucy says, sitting back down on the truck bed. “We live on like, a billion acres or something. My dad built that cabin for when I wanted to escape. I have 6 younger brothers and my mom passed a few years back, so it’s just me. They can’t hear shit from the main house. I practically live there, Cam too.”
“Your dad doesn’t mind you out here by yourself… or with Cam?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow at them.
“My dad acts naive, he thinks Cam leaves every night. I’m his only daughter, as far as he’s concerned all I do is study and read books. He probably doesn’t want to think too much about it. It’s not like I’m a crack head, tattooed and pierced goth or anything,” she shrugs. “Would you worry if I were your daughter?”
“Probably not,” I say, “but if I knew you were a lady in the street and a freak in the bed, I’d have my doubts.”
They all crack up.
Logan goes to an iPod dock that’s sitting in the truck and plays ‘Yeah’ by Usher, when Ludacris says the ‘lady in the street…’ line during his rap, we all yell it. Logan knows the entire rap word for word. We all stand up and dance around like fools, thinking we actually have moves like Usher, trying to pop lock, but looking like were having epileptic fits, even Dylan gets in on it.
The songs fades to an end and were standing in a circle, Heidi raises her beer, “To good friends, and new ones,” she says, winking at me. We all take a sip.
“To finding the perfect girl of your dreams and having your entire future to spend with them,” Dylan says, hugging her waist and kissing her on the cheek. The girls swoon and the guys make gagging noises. And we drink.
“To easy, loose, college chicks,” Logan practically pants. We drink.
“To whoever wrote Fifty Shades of Grey,” Cam eyes the sky like he’s thanking the Lord. We all laugh and drink.
Lucy playfully smacks him on the chest, probably harder than he expected because he actually flinches in legit pain. “To Josh Bennett,” she says, clinking her beer with mine. We’re the only ones that drink, Cam rolls his eyes.
