by Lux Carmine
Melissa came over and slapped my hands away. “Yes way. You look so good! I’m so jealous you got all the great boob genes in the family. I think I got mine from my dad’s side.”
I wrinkled my nose and shook my head; it wasn’t an image I wanted to think of. “Melissa, I’ll be so uncomfortable.”
“And hot,” she added. “The boys won’t be able to resist you.”
The boys... There were only five boys I wanted to attract the attention of. And I was pretty sure none of them would be interested. Except maybe Steven, since he’d already tried to kiss me. Kind of. Maybe tonight would be the night. I stared at myself again and tried to take my head off of my body. The dress did look good. I turned around and gasped. The lower back had a cutout, it was exposed.
“Boys love seeing a little skin...” Melissa cooed.
I shook my head and turned around. The boys wouldn’t want to see me like this. None of them would. It was crazy. I was going to be walking around talking to girls about filling the girl roles for the play, not flirting with boys.
The doorbell rang and Melissa jumped, clapping her hands again in excitement.
“Party time!” she said and ran down the hallway.
I paused. I was screwed.
By ten the party was in full swing and I had narrowed the girls down to a select handful. It had been kind of fun wandering around the party, meeting new people and trying to squeeze information out of them about their fellow classmates. Now it was time to move onto phase two.
I hadn’t seen the Lone Wolves enter the party. I had a feeling that if they’d shown up, I would’ve felt their presence. Now and then I swore I felt eyes on me but when I turned and looked I saw nothing but dancing, flirting, laughing teens. I needed to get a move on with my plan, the evening and the sobriety level of my peers was quickly getting away.
I spotted my first contact by the back door and grabbed a couple of cups filled with beer from the keg in the kitchen. The girl, her name was Sadie, smiled at me as our eyes met. I smiled back and was almost to my target when a hand grabbed one of the cups from my grasp. With a frown I turned around. My frown fell away when I saw that it was Mike who’d taken the drink.
“Hey.” I took in every inch of him, I loved that he was only slightly taller than I was. I didn’t have to crane my neck to take in his killer dimpled smile or his sparkling green eyes.
“Hey. Where are you going?” he asked, taking a sip of the beer, his eyes leaving mine after a moment to scan the crowd behind me, but quickly returning.
“I was going to go talk to someone.”
“Who? Joey?” he asked, covering his emotion with the cup as he took a sip from it.
Now I frowned at him. “Joey? Why would I be going to talk to that jerk?”
Mike forced a grin as he lowered his cup, trying to cover up his surprise at being wrong. “No reason. Thanks for the beer.”
He was about to walk away when I reached out and grabbed onto his wrist. I don’t know if he felt it too, but there was a jolt of attraction that moved through my arm, freezing me momentarily. He stopped and then turned around, his eyes staring down at my touch on his skin.
I removed my hand and crossed it under my other arm, trying to lessen the sparks. “Do you know Sadie Barnes?”
He nodded, his eyes flicking to her behind me. “We had AP Calc together last year.”
I swallowed a little. Hot and smart. These foster brothers were nothing short of amazing. I wondered what Mike’s story was. I wondered if his past was as sad as Steven’s had been.
“Could you introduce me?”
“Why?” he asked with a chuckle, sipping the beer.
“I want to talk to her. She seems nice.”
“Well, she’s not so you should move along.” He started to turn away again.
“I saw Steven talking to her earlier. I thought that maybe she would make a good Frenchie. For the play, you know?”
My words froze him in place. I smiled at my little victory and he coughed slightly. “You want to try to get Sadie to play Frenchie?”
I nodded. “I know you guys are short on girls for the play so I thought I’d help.”
“What role will you be trying out for?”
I’d been listening intently to them talk about their own parts. I knew exactly who was playing who. I also remembered Steven telling me never to lie to them. It would be a deal-breaker. Part of me wanted to honor that, I really liked hanging out with them. But another part of me wanted that excuse to break the ties with them. They were just hanging out with me for fun, to pass the time. They would hurt me eventually so I would choose the way it would go down. I was used to people disappointing me and I had a feeling they were used to it too. It wouldn’t hurt them in the long run. Pretty soon after they found out about my little lie they would forget all about me and life would go back to normal.
“Um...Marty? She doesn’t have that many lines, right?”
Mike wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in tight against his side, a satisfied grin on his lips. “We do need more chicks in the play. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”
“If we want this to work, you’ll have to play the part, too. We need to convince her. I heard from Julia Gates that Sadie has a mad crush on Steven so it should be a breeze.” I bit back my grin as he was playing right into my plan.
We spoke with Sadie and it was obvious that we weren’t going to have to twist her arm to make her agree to play Frenchie especially since Steven would be her T-bird in the play.
One set up, four more to go. “Well, that was easy,” I said, turning away, Mike still holding me to his side. I glanced up and when our gazes met, I knew it was a mistake. The sparks I’d felt were there in his eyes too.
“Did you have anyone else you wanted me to introduce you to?” he asked, his lips nearly grazing my ear because it was so loud in the party.
I nodded and told him another name. He steered me around and headed for Wendy Hamm. After we secured her to play opposite of Billy, we went to Tina Long. She was a bit shyer than I’d been told, but with the promise of kissing practice with Kevin she agreed to try out for the role. The only one left was Victoria Blithe. I was about to utter her name when Mike and I were stonewalled by four male bodies, the rest of his foster brothers.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” Mike asked, casually, a huge grin on his lips, his hand still firmly planted on my hip.
The scowl coming from Jason was crippling. I felt the flush in my cheeks as I pried myself from Mike’s grasp. “I should probably go refill the chips.”
“I took care of that,” Steven said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back around to face them. “Why have you and Mike been roaming the party together?”
I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest, which Kevin repeatedly stared at. “Why, Steven? Are you jealous?”
His cheeks turned slightly pink, and I quickly dropped my arms. He was jealous? I had no idea.
“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you...” I looked at all the other eyes on me and I stopped talking. It didn’t feel right saying that in front of all of them.
“I’m not jealous. I’m angry that you’re choosing girl leads. You’re not even in the club yet and already you’re acting like the casting director.”
“Oh.” I felt the embarrassment color my cheeks and burn in my guts. He didn’t have feelings for me. He was just protecting his club. Of course. I glanced at all of their faces and it was obvious they were all upset, and probably for the same reason. I put a hand to my neck, trying to soothe away the tension I was feeling there. It was suddenly feeling harder to breathe. “I’m sorry. I...I won’t overstep again. I didn’t know you guys took it so seriously.”
“Come on, she was trying to help. Lighten up,” Mike interjected. The other four glared at him and all at once they started arguing with each other. I slipped out of there as quickly as possible and headed for the front door. I needed to be alone and to get some air.
The par
ty inside was in full force. The bass was pumping so loudly that the panes in the windows were shaking. The late summer evening was still warm but a cool breeze brushed over my clammy skin. I felt slightly bad for making the foster brothers argue with each other. All I had wanted to do was get myself out of drama club, I hadn’t meant to cause more drama.
I set my elbows on my knees and put my chin into my hands. It was funny that I’d been sitting exactly like this a few days ago when I was trying to avoid thinking of Melissa and her V-card. And yet my world had changed so much since then. Instead of running away from Melissa I was running away from the coveted Lone Wolves. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? If Melissa were in my shoes, I’d tell her she was crazy to run away from them. Five hot guys who seemed to want to befriend her? Why not?
But being on this side of things I wondered what exactly was going on. I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was waiting for the Carrie moment, for the pig’s blood to fall from the ceiling at the prom as I was being crowned the queen.
But were they really bad guys? I had to admit that I didn’t actually think so. They were misfits. Perhaps that’s why I could connect to them so easily. They felt like misfits in the same way that I did. They were new to this life. I was new to this town, this school. I wasn’t used to such relaxed parenting either. There was no way my mom would’ve left me home alone with a wad of cash.
As much as I wanted to let myself fall away, to lose myself into being someone different, I couldn’t. I wasn’t that girl. I wasn’t the girl who dressed like a slutty Sookie Stackhouse. I wasn’t the popular girl. I wasn’t the easy girl. I was the girl who got good grades, who was president of the chess club. I was the girl who played video games and sneezed when she was in the sun too long.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, the music blasting through, shaking my hair, and then closing. I didn’t bother looking behind me; it was probably another couple coming outside on the porch to make out.
“Hey.” I glanced over my shoulder as Mike came to sit down beside me. He put his hands on his knees and smiled at me softly. “I’m glad you’re sitting here. We were afraid we’d scared you off.”
I looked back to the street, avoiding his eye contact. I didn’t deserve any of the attention that they gave to me. I was a big nobody trying to mess up the thing they had together. “Why?”
“Because we were being total pricks, fighting like a bunch of cocks in a cage.”
I shook my head. “No, I get it. I came in and tried to mess with the whole drama club vibe.” I paused and dared to glance at him. His gaze was glued to me. I looked away before I started imagining the way he looking at me meant he wanted to kiss me. “I just don’t get it though. Why are you guys even talking to me? Why are you trying so hard to get me to be in the drama club? Why me?” I turned and met his gaze again.
It was serious. His green eyes studied me. He looked to the street and inhaled sharply. “You should ask Steven. That’s a question for him.”
I was getting really tired of that answer. Why was he the one who had all the answers? Was he the leader of the pack? Was he the alpha dog? I needed to stop thinking about friggin’ werewolves. This wasn’t a Sookie Stackhouse novel! “He’s not here. You are.”
One side of his lips quirked up into a smile. He turned his head, looking at me again. “That’s one reason right there. Your sass.”
I looked away, not satisfied with that answer. “Lots of girls have sass. And when you all brought me into the fold, you didn’t know I had it.”
“Jason told us. There is a fine line between sass and bitchiness. The pretty ones usually have bitchiness. They think they’re owed something because they won the genetic lottery and starve themselves. Not you. You’re different. You’re actually smart. You have opinions about things and you don’t give a damn if they’re different from ours. You don’t say things just to impress us. You don’t play games.”
I felt my cheeks burn, and I pushed myself up to my feet. “I’m not who you think I am, Mike.” I took a step away and crossed my arms over my chest before turning to face him. “I wasn’t looking for girls to play the other parts because I wanted the part of your girlfriend in Grease. I was doing it because I don’t want to be in drama club. I don’t want my first kiss to be in front of a bunch of strangers.”
He stood up too and shoved his hands in his pockets, forcing me to take another step back. “You’ve never been kissed before?”
My brows flickered with confusion. All of what I said, and that was what he took away from it? “It doesn’t matter. Everything you just said was a lie.”
“No, not all of it. Maybe just the playing games part. But I think we can work on that. You deceived me an hour ago and already you’re coming clean because you can’t stand to sit with it on your chest.”
I opened my mouth to tell him he was wrong, but I couldn’t. He was right. I was not a good liar. I had a conscience, a very strong moral compass when it came to lying.
“Ruby,” he held up his hands in surrender. “If you don’t want to be in the drama club, that’s totally cool. We just thought it would be a good way to spend time with you and get to know you.”
I shook my head, which was starting to hurt. “But I still don’t understand why.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Why do you feel chemistry with one person but not with another? Who knows? The fact is that we saw you that first day in the cafeteria and we couldn’t stop thinking about you. We wanted to find out more about you.”
I was speechless. I still didn’t understand. I wasn’t sure that I ever would.
“I’m just going to sit here, Ruby. I won’t say a word. I just want to make sure you’re okay. I won’t be able to enjoy myself at the party if I know you’re out here all alone or that you might go for a walk at night, vulnerable.”
“It’s a free country, I guess...I’m just going to go up to my room and lie down.”
“Or I could take you back to my place. You could lie in my bed.”
The beating in my chest grew stronger. “What?”
Was he saying what I thought he was saying? Was he inviting me to lie down with him in his bed? Did he want to make out? This thing was turning into something really fast and I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.
He grinned. “Not like that. Unless you wanted to. You’re not going to be able to get any sleep in your bed until the party is over. And most likely two people are using your bed right now, anyway.”
I wrinkled my nose at the thought. I made a mental reminder that I needed to clean my sheets thoroughly in the morning.
“I’ll sleep on the couch tonight. Downstairs.”
I glanced up at the house where my bedroom window was. There was a soft glow of the lamp which sat on my nightstand. There probably were people up there. And it was loud. I glanced down at Mike. He was offering me solace and for whatever reason I trusted him to do as he said. The thought of a nice warm bed and a silent house was too nice to pass up. “Thanks, Mike.”
“Anything for you, Ruby. Let me go tell the others and then we can go.”
6
I hadn't expected all of them to leave the party when I decided I'd had enough. It was weird being escorted down the sidewalk surrounded by five guys. It was awkward because not less than an hour before they were all fighting because of me.
"I'm really sorry, you guys."
"It's alright, Ruby," Steven said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I felt the tingles zinging through my blood. "Mike explained why you did it. Never been kissed, huh?"
"That was a good movie. Though he totally should have kissed her before the end," I said, trying to move the topic away from my inexperience. It was embarrassing. They'd probably kissed tons of girls. They'd probably kissed every single girl in the school, at least.
Steven leaned down and whispered in my ear, sending more shivers through me. "Jason hasn't kissed anyone either. We picked Grease because w
e knew he'd have to stop being a pussy and get over his issues."
My eyes darted to Jason who was walking the farthest from us, his hands shoved into his pockets, his head bent, eyes on the ground. I wondered what issues those were exactly. What kept him from getting close to the opposite sex? I glanced at Steven and he nodded confirming the truth of his words, a grin on his lips.
But Jason was so... Hot. So very very hot. How could he never have kissed anyone? I felt a little less like a freak. "We were hoping that maybe you would be the one to break it," he said.
I scoffed and shook my head. "He doesn't like me."
Steven grinned. "He does, Ruby."
"Not as much as I do," Mike said, gently wrapping an arm around my waist and moving closer to my side. He nuzzled my neck, releasing a giggle that I quickly suppressed once Jason's eyes swung our way. He frowned and grumbled something before running up the front steps ahead of everyone else.
"Okay, you guys can stop now," I said with a nervous chuckle. "You don't need to embarrass him anymore, he's gone."
Steven and Mike glanced at each other before they both leaned in and pressed hot kisses to my neck. A little thing like their lips on the flesh of my neck was dizzying. When they moved away, heading into the house Billy and Kevin took their place and escorted me in and up the stairs.
They said hey to their foster dad who glanced up briefly from his iPad to say goodnight. Mike was sitting beside him, leaning in to have a look at whatever was on there. "Leave the door open!" Their foster dad called up the stairs after them.
Kevin and Billy chuckled and I joined in a little late. "Is this something you guys do for fun? Take girls up to your room and tease her?" I blushed and stammered when I replayed what I said. They both looked at each other and bust out laughing. "I didn't mean... I..." I stopped trying and grunted. "Pervs."