by Lexi Archer
I waited for a moment to make sure she was good and gone. I figured if I was going to take the high road, though I had no idea why the hell I was considering what she'd just done to me, then the least I could do was be considerate enough to not make my appearance back at the beach at the same time as her.
Finally after what I figured was a suitable amount of time I stood and made my way out into the darkness. And nearly jumped as I saw a darker figure standing just outside of the light. A decidedly feminine figure.
Hope leapt up inside me despite everything that’d just happened, and I wanted to kick myself for feeling that hope. I couldn't believe that after everything Sarah had done to me I was still wishing she might've stopped and reconsidered.
Only as I looked at that pretty face in the darkness I realized it wasn't Sarah. No, it was her best friend and partner in crime. I'm pretty sure her name was Kylie, and she had a supremely sad look on her face, though I didn't see how anyone on this beach could be sadder than I was.
"How long were you standing there?" I asked. It felt clichéd even as I said it.
"Long enough," she said in the clichéd reply. "I'm so sorry Eric.”
"Don't be," I replied. “I don’t need Sarah, and I don’t need sympathy from someone like you.”
"What are you talking about?" she said. "I thought you two…"
"All Sarah did tonight is prove to me that the world works the way I thought it did," I said. "At least in this shithole of a town."
And with that parting shot I shouldered past her. I couldn't wait to get the hell away from this party. It’d been a horrible idea to come here despite how well everything had gone up until about five minutes ago.
I really couldn't wait to get the hell away from this town and off to college. If I had my way I was never coming back.
Sarah Burke had given me that gift, at least.
Present Day
8
Todd
I stopped and stared as I stepped through the door, and I was very nearly bowled over by somebody coming in behind us. I stepped to the side as an angry townie brushed past carrying a bowling bag.
"This is where they're having your five year reunion? Really?"
"What?" Sarah asked. "I told you it was going to be at a bowling alley. And here we are at the bowling alley."
I looked around. Sure enough there was a bowling alley, but everything looked so… Run down. Just like everything else in this town.
I knew my fiancée's hometown was a shithole from the times we had to drive through to see her family around the holidays, but I wasn't prepared for seeing it up close and personal like this. Her family always kept things nice even if they were cursed to live in a small town that’d been hit pretty hard by the unintended consequences of globalization and jobs going overseas.
It was another typical story from the Rust Belt. A town that’d quietly been dying over the past couple of decades as jobs went away and the younger generations graduated and went right along with.
And it was pretty damn obvious this bowling alley that looked like it’d been built back in the '50s was like the rest of the town. The best days were obviously behind it.
"Oh come on," Sarah said. "It's not all that bad… Not really."
Only I could tell she didn’t agree with what she was saying. It'd only been five years since she graduated and moved away from this place, never intending to move back, but it was obvious whenever we visited that she was looking around and finding things not quite as she remembered. Something about being away from the place made it clear how rundown everything was.
"We'll make the best of this," I said.
Sarah grinned, her face lighting up. She really was too beautiful to stay in a small town like this. No, a girl like her deserved to see the world. Or at the very least she deserved to live in the city where her talents wouldn't go to waste.
Sarah took my hand. We didn’t go to the actual bowling alley part of the bowling alley, but to a room off to the side. It looked to be of a more recent vintage then the bowling part, but when I say "more recent vintage" I meant that it looked like it’d been built maybe thirty or forty years ago rather than fifty or sixty years ago.
Folding tables had been set up and there were a few people already sitting at them, but not a huge crowd. Not that I expected a huge crowd considering how small Sarah's graduating class had been.
There was a small dance floor with a DJ setting up at one end of the room alongside a table filled with a sad finger sandwiches. A bar ran along the other end with a cute bartender with striking green eyes leaning against it on one elbow looking very bored.
There wasn't even an open bar. That’d been the first thing I’d asked about, hoping an open bar would provide at least a little bit of entertainment. I wasn't a huge fan of getting drunk, but I could appreciate the fun in watching a bunch of rednecks getting drunk off their asses and talking about the good old days.
"Oh my God Sarah!"
"Kylie!" Sarah shrieked.
And then she was enveloping a pretty girl with brown hair in a huge hug. The two of them twirled around, squealing that high-pitched squeal that was the natural call of hot young college-aged girls around the world.
Not that I minded. Sarah hugging her friend gave me a chance to enjoy the sight of the two of them pressing together. Not that I figured anything would happen along the lines my dirty mind was imagining, but a guy could fantasize.
No, this was probably a pretty good friend of hers which would rule that out, and on top of that I'd already gone down that road before and she hadn't been interested beyond some ill-advised drunk making out with another equally drunk girl at a frat party.
Still, the idea of her getting with someone else was hot. Especially an old friend from school. A cute thing with brown hair and a petite body that wouldn't quit with curves in all the…
I shook my head. I was supposed to be acting the part of the good fiancé meeting her friends, and that didn't include fantasizing about her fucking those friends. She'd been talking about how much she was looking forward to showing me off to everybody ever since she got that invitation, and I intended to look and act the part.
I shouldn't let my horniness distract me. Distraction was bad. I was supposed to be the good fiancé putting on a good face for all of her old friends.
When they finally separated the girl turned to me and smiled. I also didn't miss how her startlingly green eyes ran up and down my body, which didn't help with my already precariously horny situation. She looked familiar, though I couldn't exactly place where I'd seen her before. Probably some random beach album I'd creeped on back when Sarah and I first started dating.
"This must be Todd?" she asked.
"None other than!" Sarah said.
And then to my surprise Kylie jumped and wrapped her arms around me. Of course it was one hell of a pleasant surprise. Kylie was a pretty good looking young lady, and feeling her pressing that tight body against me was probably going to be one of the highlights of the evening, even if nothing was going to happen beyond that.
"It's so nice to finally meet you," Kylie said. "Sarah's told me so much about you."
I pulled back from the hug reluctantly and cocked an eyebrow, looking first to Kylie and then to my gorgeous wife to be. "Oh really? I hope they're all good?"
Kylie bit her lip and her eyes moved down again. There was no doubt she was focusing on my cock, which was already at half staff from all the attention she'd been giving my fiancée and then me.
"Don't worry," she said. "Everything has been very good!"
I turned to Sarah and grinned. "So do you have any other friends like this?"
I thought I was being sneaky, but from the look Sarah gave me she knew exactly what I was referring to when I asked if she had any more friends "like this." I grinned, but I wasn't going to apologize. We were pretty open with each other when we found someone of the opposite sex attractive. I figured it shouldn't matter if we were playing this game wit
h a girl that she happened to grow up with.
"Maybe," she said. "And you might even get to meet them if you're a good boy tonight and keep the complaining to a minimum!"
I held my hands up in a defensive gesture. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Kylie rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to Sarah. She's been gone long enough that she doesn't remember what a shithole this place is!"
My face lit up. "Really now? Someone else who lives here and doesn't think it's the next best thing to Mayberry?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Don't encourage him!"
Only I was already well and thoroughly encouraged. I was intrigued by this young brown-haired beauty who was far from singing the praises of her hometown the way Sarah always insisted. I had a feeling part of that was simply Sarah leaping to the defense of her hometown just because I was putting it down, but that didn't make it any less refreshing to talk to someone who didn't instinctively jump in to tell me why I was wrong about something I was so obviously right about.
I gestured towards an empty table. "Would you care to join me and we can talk more about how horrible this place is?"
Sarah looked like she was about to join us, or at the very least she was about to say something, but then there was another squeal and another girl who was far less fetching than the lovely Kylie appeared and wrapped her arms around my fiancée. And so I was left alone with Kylie to discuss how rundown the town was, and how bad it had gotten even in just the twenty years that she'd been living here.
It was far more interesting than being forced to deal with the string of introductions that no doubt would've followed every time someone squealed and ran up to my fiancée as the reception started really getting into full swing.
9
Kylie
"No she didn't!"
Todd leaned forward, a huge smile on his face as he slapped the table laughing. I glanced over towards Sarah and saw that she was looking over to us with a worried expression. Like she was wondering what secrets I was giving up to her fiancé, but she was also trapped in a conversation with Tiffany Morgan, so it's not like she was going to be getting away from that any time soon.
In short, I had my best friend's future husband all to myself, and that was just the way I liked it. Sure I knew there wasn't a chance of anything actually happening. He was my best friend's future husband after all. Still, it was nice to talk to a guy this hot. A guy who was into something beyond the small-town life.
If I got stuck in one more conversation with a guy about how well the crops were coming in I was going to scream.
It was almost enough to make me regret the decision not to go to a traditional college. Not that it’d really been my decision. Or if it was my decision then it was a decision before I knew I was making it by screwing around instead of studying. No, money and grades had sank any academic ambitions I might’ve had well before I even decided it might be a good way to get the hell out of town.
"You'd better believe it, because I was there, that was a wild summer after graduation, and I won't have you calling me a liar!"
"I can't believe Sarah would flash a group of guys!"
I giggled and rolled my eyes. "How well do you know the woman you're marrying? Because the girl you're talking about and the girl I knew don't sound like the same person at all."
He grinned. It was a sudden conspiratorial grin that was very wide and very mischievous.
"I'd say I know her pretty damn well, all things considered," he said.
I shook my head and took a sip from my beer. "I can't believe she never told you about the dare game, or how wild it got that last summer before she disappeared for college."
He took a drink of his own beer. He looked over to Sarah who was still Stuck with Tiffany Morgan. I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. A conversation with her was a lot like a conversation with a supermassive black hole. Once you were in her pull there was no escape.
Like there was no escape from this town. That fear of being stuck here forever had led to me starting a degree in business administration at the local community college. Sure I’d started a little later than everyone else, but I'd studied hard and worked my ass off, along with some help from dad supporting me in the meantime, to graduate at right about the same time as everyone else who started on the usual schedule.
I was proud of that, even if I still hadn't found something to do with that degree and I was left hanging out at the lake house trying to figure out what to do with my life.
There were worse ways to figure out what to do with your life though. It was a damn nice house, after all, and I had it all to myself for half the year while the parents were down in Florida doing the snow bird thing.
"No, she never told me about any of that," he said. "But if I'd known…"
I cocked an eyebrow. "What? Would you take advantage of your wife-to-be?"
He looked at me and grinned. Then he shrugged. "Who's to say?"
Interesting. Very interesting. This guy seemed like a goody two shoes type at first glance with his polo shirt and that gelled hair and the easy smile and the way his muscles... No. I wasn't going to get distracted by the sexy when the sexy was attached to my old best friend's fiancé!
Still, the idea that he'd be interested in something like the dare game and some of the fun adventures Sarah and I got up to that fateful summer was a surprise. Then again I suppose it shouldn't have been a major surprise. He was a man after all. What man wouldn't like the idea of being able to get his girl to do something a little wild?
"So what's the craziest thing you ever had her do? The wildest?" he asked.
Oh yeah. I definitely had him. Hook, line, and sinker. He was hanging on my every word, and I was loving it. Of course at some point Sarah would break free from Tiffany and then all the fun would be over, but I could enjoy myself in the meantime.
Besides, it's not like I was going to try and steal him away. I wasn't that crazy. I just wanted to enjoy some time with a guy who was from out of town. That's all it was. Nice and innocent.
"The craziest thing she ever did was with Eric Thomas," I said.
I smiled as I thought back to that crazy and unexpected night. Sarah had been furious when she realized what I intended to do with that particular dare. Thinking back on it still made me want to laugh.
"Eric Thomas? Who's he?"
I rolled my eyes. "Did Sarah tell you nothing about where she grew up?"
Once again Todd shrugged. "Apparently not?"
I leaned forward, glancing over to Sarah. If she hadn't told Todd about Eric Thomas then I had a feeling there was a good reason why she didn't want him to know. Still, the cat was halfway out of the bag and he was going to find out by the end of the night anyway. It's not like Eric wasn't going to show.
At least I figured he wouldn't miss this. Sure he was still listed as a maybe online, but I figured there wasn't a chance he was going to miss this gathering once he saw that Sarah was going to be here.
"Eric had the biggest crush on Sarah back in the day," I said. "He was cute in his own way, but he was also kind of the school nerd in a major way. Sarah wouldn't give him the time of day. It's not like she was trying to be mean or anything, it's just that she had much better offers so why bother?"
Todd leaned back and smiled. "So the nerd had a huge crush on my girl?"
"Yup," I said, taking another pull from my beer.
"Interesting," Todd said. "So did he go on to create some sort of huge business? Is he some sort of Silicon Valley millionaire?"
I grinned. "No, but that would be the cliché wouldn't it? Last I knew he graduated with a nursing degree and was doing pretty well for himself."
"Oh," Todd said.
His reaction was interesting. He seemed almost disappointed that the nerd hadn't made good. He also seemed a little more interested in the idea of another man having a crush on his future wife than I would’ve thought possible for a guy who was about to be married.
"So what was the dare involving
this Eric guy?" he asked.
I glanced over to Sarah to make sure she was still stuck. By the time they were done with that conversation Sarah was going to be caught up on everything that’d happened to everyone in our small town over the last five years. Tiffany was a never-ending fount of gossip.
"Well you know how I had her flash that group of guys?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"Well this was like that, only I had her flash Eric."
Todd sighed. His shoulders slumped. "That's it?"
I giggled. And then I decided to take a chance. I decided to see just how interested he was in other men being interested in his girl. I'd seen a glimmer of something there, and I suddenly thought of one hell of a way to confirm my suspicions.
"Just think about it," I said. "He'd been fantasizing about her for so long. Your future wife was his dream girl, the only woman he ever thought of, a girl he asked out to prom three times, and he got to see her tits just before we all went off to college! Can you imagine what must've been running through his head when he got to see that? Something he never thought he'd ever get to see?"
I was laying it on pretty thick while not telling the whole truth, and I was getting exactly the kind of reaction I'd expected. It wasn't the kind of reaction I would've believed. Todd was leaning forward in his seat, hanging on my every word. I had his undivided attention as I spun a picture of the class nerd getting an eyeful of Sarah's tits.
Well then. I'd learned something interesting about my best friend's fiancé and what he was into. Now the question was would I do anything with this new information? Todd shrugged, trying to look indifferent, but I'd seen that interest.
"Well that's kind of hot I guess, but really that's it? He just saw her tits?"
Oh my. He wasn't just trying to seem indifferent. He was on a fishing expedition! He wanted to hear more about how naughty Sarah had been that summer, and that one night down at the lake in particular.