***
That evening, Kate had serious doubts about her choice of attire. She wasn’t sure if a very short and snug-fitting dress was appropriate for a dive bar in town. She might be sending out the wrong message. Kate wasn’t planning to have a one-night stand—the thought actually sent a wave of nausea through her. Her experience level with guys was pathetically low and she wasn’t ready to expand her horizons with some random dude. However, she wasn’t opposed to a make-out session with a hot guy. It could be just the thing to forget about damn Jared and his damn duck feeding.
“Katie, Julie’s here,” her mother called up as she finished dressing in her bedroom.
“Send her up,” she yelled down.
A minute later, Julie burst into her bedroom. She was dressed in a strapless A-line dress with a floral design. Her tan was perfected and Kate lamented on how her own porcelain skin always burned with even the slightest of sun exposure. Julie had straightened her hair and used moderate amounts of make-up to highlight her blue eyes.
“Holy shit, Kate! You look freaking hot! If I was a dude, I’d want to tap that right now!” she exclaimed, breaking out in a huge grin as she looked her up and down.
Her previous bravado was fading and she asked in an unsure voice, “Is it too much? It doesn’t really feel like me.”
“No, you look perfect, Kate. We’re going out, what are you going to wear? Your normal sweats and oversized tee? Half of the time, I can’t even tell you have boobs,” Julie cracked. She reached into a shopping bag she had brought into the room. With mock seriousness, she stated, “And to complete your fabulousness, I’m lending you one of my prized pairs of black heels.”
Kate looked at the shoes and gasped. “Julie, these are Jimmy Choos! I can’t borrow these. If anything happens I’ll have to give you two weeks of my meager salary.”
“They’ll be fine, I trust you. Besides, they weren’t that much, I got a great deal on them online.” She waved her off and Kate began to slip the heels on.
They fit like a glove and Kate had to admit she had nothing so luxurious in her closet. Kate vowed to start dieting in order to start swiping some of Julie’s amazing clothing as well. It was hard to not be envious of the endless supply of money Julie received from her father. Kate’s father made a good living, but her parents expected her to be responsible and pay for her own bills. They kept swearing she would thank them one day for instilling in her a sense of fiscal responsibility. Julie held out her hand. “Here’s some lipstick, too.”
“Russian Red from MAC? Julie, we’re going to have to totally sneak past my mother. She might make me wash my face and put on pantyhose before we’re able to leave.”
Julie laughed. “Before you get your panties all in a bunch, just take a look in the mirror.”
Kate walked over to her full-sized mirror. She was barely recognizable. She looked confident and sexy—very unlike the scared virginal kid she usually felt like. The dress highlighted her curves while the black and metallic design seemed to diminish the extra five pounds she wished she could drop. It was short enough where bending over might provide the view of a gynecological exam.
After almost blinding herself with the eyeliner pencil and mascara wand, she was finally able to give her eyes a smoky appearance. Her hair was smooth and soft with the help of the Moroccan oil she had picked up from the mall. Besides the bangles, she wore a pair of silver dangly earrings. A part of her wished Jared would be able to see her tonight. She doubted he would be referring to her as kiddo in this outfit.
Spinning back around, she addressed Julie. “What’s the deal for tonight? Is Gage meeting us at the bar?”
“Yes, and he’s bringing a friend along. A very cute friend, I might add.” Julie gave her a sly smile. Kate only imagined what this friend would be like. If he was anything like Gage, she might end up seeing Jared after all—when she went to the station to file sexual assault charges.
“Sounds epic, let’s go,” she said and grabbed her purse.
She tiptoed down the stairs and made a beeline for the front door. “Bye Mom,” she yelled and hurried outside without waiting for a reply. She heard her mother’s muffled response through the front door.
“You are twenty-one, Kate. I don’t think your mother will care what you wear. I mean what are you going to tell me next, you have a curfew?” Julie was shaking her head at her with an amused smile playing on her lips.
“You wouldn’t understand. You have a brother and a sister. I suffer from only child syndrome. Science has proven we are maladjusted and lack any social skills. Plus, since Dad took off with the home wrecker, I feel a certain responsibility towards her,” she admitted.
Come to think of it, she was pretty hypocritical to categorize her father’s girlfriend as a home wrecker. Wasn’t she one for thinking illicit thoughts about Jared? If Jared had made a move on her while they were inside the gazebo, Kate wasn’t sure she would have had the self-restraint to stop it.
Julie drove them to a bar on Main Street, located in the more commercialized section of town. Julie explained if the band playing at Ryan’s Pub turned out to be lame, they could always hit one of the other bars in the area. However, the packed parking lot of the bar made Kate suspect the band might be halfway decent.
As they made their way through the crowd inside the bar, she definitely noticed some head turns. She was secretly pleased since she normally felt like a social misfit. They found Gage easily across the bar. It wasn’t hard since he was over six feet and had a hulking form. Kate wasn’t surprised when she found out Gage had been a wrestler in high school.
“Hey ladies, looking good.” Gage did his best impression of a loser lothario by undressing them both with his eyes. Honestly, Kate had no idea what Julie saw in him.
Julie giggled and smacked his arm. After Julie smiled at the guy standing next to Gage, Kate took a swift inventory. He was good-looking in a bland sort of way. His light brown hair was cropped closely and his brown eyes peeped at her with interest. He was also blessed with the ability to tan well. Maybe she should have experimented with a bronzer before heading out of the house.
The guy stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Sebastian.”
She shook his hand awkwardly. “Nice to meet you, I’m Kate.”
“Well, me and Gage are going to round up some refreshments while you two get acquainted,” Julie said and elbowed Gage hard in the ribs. Without waiting for a response, she pulled Gage towards the bar counter. Gage gave Sebastian a wink and a nod as he walked by and she suddenly felt like a sacrificial offering to Gage’s horny friend.
Kate gave a nervous laugh. “That’s Julie for you, subtle as a heart attack.”
He gave a polite laugh. “Why have I never seen you before? I go out almost every weekend with Julie and Gage.”
“I’m sort of a loner, so I don’t go out much. Julie’s been trying to coerce me out for a while and I figured I’d finally take her up on her offer,” she explained with a shrug.
After a minute of discomfited silence she ventured, “Sebastian is an interesting name.”
“Yeah, my parents gave me it because apparently I was conceived after a Skid Row concert.” He took a long sip of his beer.
She gave him a look of revulsion. “Ugh, vomit. I still image myself being a product of immaculate conception.”
“Are you in college?” he asked as his eyes moved down to her chest.
She fought the urge to scream, “Eyes up here, buddy.” His gaze lingered there a minute too long before returning to her face. She must have passed his boob test because he gave her a pleasurable smile.
“I do courses online, sort of the college version of a homeschooler.”
Giving a fake little laugh, she was relieved when Gage and Julie returned. Maybe this had been a bad idea, Kate thought, and cursed Jared again. Inadvertently, he ruined every other guy for her. Who would be able to live up to him? She doubted Sebastian fed the ducks and had some sort of tragic backstory to me
lt her heart. Julie handed her a shot and a questionable looking mixed drink concoction. Kate didn’t think twice about downing the shot and taking a huge gulp of the drink. Her only hope was that the alcohol would quell her anxieties.
“Slow down there, champ! Don’t want you passing out before the band even comes on.” Gage laughed heartily at her and slapped her on the back.
Spilling a portion of her drink onto the floor, Kate shot him an irritated look. Gage seemed unfazed and addressed his friend. “Hey, Banks, did you know Kate here is somewhat of a local celebrity?” Gage seemed to participate in the grating habit of calling his friends by their last names.
“Gage, really, I’m sure Sebastian wouldn’t want to be bored with that story…” Kate attempted to stop him.
“She helped the cops find a kidnapped boy a couple of years ago. She’s psychic, so you better watch what you think in her presence. Keep everything PG if you know what I mean.” Gage chuckled as if he was the wittiest Neanderthal in the room.
“Ignore him, Kate,” Julie advised.
“What, do you read palms or something?” Sebastian gave her an interested look.
“No, I don’t read palms,” she said tersely and gave Gage a dirty look, hopefully conveying what a complete douche she thought he was.
She turned back to Sebastian. “It was just a fluke that happened when I was really sick. I saw a flash of the boy and that was that.”
The band took the stage and thankfully the conversation ended. Julie shot her an apologetic look, but Kate gave her a wide smile. She wasn’t going to let Gage ruin her night out.
The band turned out to be marginally talented and played plenty of crowd-pleasing cover songs. While hitting the dance floor with Julie, she was able to break out some of the booty shaking moves she’d been practicing the other day. After the two friends had both consumed seemingly exorbitant amounts of alcohol, Julie ended up in a dark corner making out with Gage. Sebastian wasn’t a dancer, something Kate was actually grateful for. Most of the guys at the bar considered dancing just dry humping a girl from behind. More than once, she had to walk off the dance floor to ward off guys trying to feel her up.
“Julie’s pretty wasted,” Sebastian remarked a couple of hours later when she walked over to him.
Kate glanced over and noticed the clothed sex had stopped between Julie and Gage and she was slumped over with her head in her hands. She walked over and asked Julie with concern, “What’s wrong?”
“Besides my desperate need to puke up the contents of my stomach—nothing,” she mumbled.
She turned to Gage who, surprisingly, looked sober. “Can you drive, Gage? We should probably head out if Julie’s sick.”
Julie shook her head empathetically. “No, you should stay. You look sexy as hell and you’re having a good time. Gage can take my car. Sebastian, do you mind driving Kate home?” She noticed Sebastian had crept up behind her.
“Oh no, I wouldn’t want to impose,” Kate protested.
She was torn and the alcohol was making her thinking fuzzy. A part of her knew she didn’t want anything to happen with Sebastian. However, another part of her argued that maybe a few chaste kisses with him wouldn’t be so bad. Although chaste kisses didn’t seem to be on Sebastian’s mind. She knew he was probably thinking something that involved him taking off his pants.
“I’m cool with that. It’s barely midnight, I wouldn’t mind hanging,” Sebastian remarked.
“Good, it’s settled. Lates, bro,” Gage replied and stuck his hand out for a fist pump with Sebastian.
Apparently it didn’t seem to matter if Kate approved of this arrangement. Gage gave Kate a wave and cracked while raising his eyebrows, “Bye Kate, wouldn’t mind seeing more of you again.”
Kate hugged Julie goodbye and fought the urge to chase after them for a ride home. The only thing that prevented her was the thought of being in Gage’s presence for a minute longer.
“Here’s to new friends,” Sebastian said holding up his beer bottle. She clinked her glass to his and gave a slight smile. He mirrored her expression and peered at her glass. “You’re looking low, what are you drinking? I’ll buy you another one.”
“Vodka and cranberry,” she replied. She probably should start switching to water, especially in the case Sebastian became too intoxicated to drive her home. There was no way she’d call her mother for a ride. She would never hear the end of it and her mother would likely be furious with Julie for leaving her alone at the bar.
An hour later, it was clear to Kate that Sebastian was ready to take things to the next level. He began to lean in much closer; his hands lingered on her longer. He’d been plying her with drinks and been keeping pace with her. Even if she was drunk, she was not intoxicated enough to take him up on his suggestion to go back to his place. She wasn’t about to become another drunk driving statistic or make the walk of shame tomorrow morning back to her mother’s.
“You seem really nice, but as cliché as this sounds I’m not that kind of girl. Maybe we could exchange numbers and see where things go from there.”
He countered her refusal of sex at his place with a kiss. She attempted to kiss him back, but found it hard to rally. He wasn’t a bad kisser per se, but he wasn’t exactly knocking her socks off. He made another go at it and tried to deepen the kiss. She was afraid any minute he was going to devour her face. His greedy search with his hands on her skin made her muse that if it was socially acceptable, he’d start ripping her clothes off then and there.
When he whispered, “You’re turning me on so bad right now,” she knew she had to untangle herself from the situation.
“Yeah, I’m totally feeling it too,” she said dryly. He began to kiss her neck and she realized he was too drunk to notice she wasn’t into him. Abruptly, she stated, “I actually need to go to the bathroom, be back in a few.”
“I’ll be waiting, baby,” he said in what she guessed was his sexy bedroom voice. To her it sounded more like he was suffering from a bad case of strep throat.
Darting towards the women’s restroom, she was grateful there was no line. She closed the stall door and sat on the toilet seat. Taking her phone out of her purse, she began to turn it in circles in her hands. She knew leaving the pub with Sebastian was not a safe or smart option. Julie looked like she was on death’s door when she left and Gage would likely flat out refuse and tell her to simply go with Sebastian if she called them to pick her up. Her mother would only be an absolute last resort. She imagined her pulling up to the bar in her robe and yelling at her about her irresponsibility the entire ride home.
Her stomach lurched as she hit the call button on her phone. Her heart stopped when he picked up and garbled a sleepy hello on the sixth ring. “Remember how you said you wanted us to be friends?”
First Visions: Second Sight Book One Page 20