by Claire Adams
“Except when you were drunk,” I pointed out. “Then you made fun of me for walking like Hayrettin Barbosa, the pirate.”
“Yes, and then Lillie kept asking for like two hours who that was.” She laughed. “She thought it was the kid in our English class from Greece.”
We laughed so hard I thought I was going to cry. For the first time ever, I thought of a memory with Lillie in it and didn’t break down in grief and sorrow. It was like a gift that I never wanted to give back.
“In reality, though,” she said, still giggling. “I learned to enjoy the sport from all those games you forced me to go to.”
That was the best answer I could have possibly gotten.
Chapter 10
Elana
I carried the dishes from the living room into the kitchen and set them down on the counter. I turned on the water, and my legs felt a bit wobbly. I was a bit tipsy from all the beer I drank during the game. As my hands ran under the water, I giggled thinking about Barbosa and Ollie, something I hadn’t thought about in years. It was pretty impressive that we could share a memory with Lillie in it and not get all down and sad.
The tips of my fingers were all tingly, which was one of my telltale signs that I had drank too much, or in the right circumstances, not enough yet. I didn’t usually drink on what I considered a “school night,” but I had gotten into the spirit of the game with my mom and Ollie, and now, I was really starting to feel the effects of it. I didn’t regret it, though. I had a really good time, probably the best in recent memory. It was, however, going to be an interesting ride home on the bus. My mom had been drinking, too, so I wasn’t going to ask her to give me a lift home. In fact, there was no reason for any of us to drive anywhere, no matter how close Ollie parked his car to the house.
The thought of riding that bus, though, already made me nauseated and slightly freaked out since I was going to be alone and drunk on a public bus back into town. With my luck, I would be riding the same bus as the reverend that worked at my mom’s church. I turned and looked as footsteps approached, seeing Ollie turn the corner and fire another beer bottle into the recycling bin. He wobbled slightly and leaned up against the doorframe, looking over at me. I laughed, shaking my head as I finished rinsing the last of the dishes and put them haphazardly into the dishwasher. I didn’t like being anyone’s keeper, but after Lillie died in that accident, I was super anal retentive about anyone driving a car when they weren’t one hundred percent okay to do so. There was no alcohol involved in her crash, but that didn’t matter. Mistakes had been made.
“I’m going to be heading home soon,” I said, turning and leaning against the sink as I dried my hands on the towel. “I think it’s important you don’t drive. You can ride the bus back with me, or you can stay here. My mom has an extra bedroom. In the morning, she can take you to wherever you parked your car. Either way, I don’t want you getting behind the wheel. You know how I am with cars, or at least, now you know.”
Ollie put his hand on the doorframe and pushed himself up, slipping once and catching himself. He smiled at me from across the room, and I laughed, realizing that he was just as drunk as I was. In fact, he may have been a little bit drunker than I was, seeing as he was having a hard time standing still without weaving back and forth. I rolled my eyes as I laughed, looking over at him as he stepped forward and cleared his throat, obviously wanting to say something to me. This should definitely be interesting.
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said, smiling. “I didn’t drive here. I walked.”
“I know you were jogging by my house when I found you, but surely you parked your car somewhere nearby,” I said, giggling. “Did you park at the front entrance to the neighborhood?”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “I walked.”
“Yes, dear, I know you walked the neighborhood, but where did you park the car you drove to get to the neighborhood?”
“Elana.” He laughed. “I’m seriously not that drunk. I didn’t drive here. I walked from my house to this neighborhood and eventually into your house.”
I stared at him for a minute, trying to decipher what he was saying. My eyes started to widen, thinking about the fact that he ran and jogged from campus all the way to my neighborhood. I knew he liked to jog, but seriously, that was a really long way, and the back roads, which I was assuming he took, were not very safe for him to be running on. I shook my head and swallowed hard, stepping forward and looking into his eyes. He smiled with charm, and I shook the laugh out of my throat.
“You mean to tell me you walked and jogged all the way from campus?”
“Yep,” he said, nodding his head. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“That is at least an eight-mile walk back to where you came from,” I said. “You know that right?”
“Eight-point-six miles to be exact,” he replied. “I have the app on my phone.”
“I don’t think I have ever walked that far at one time.” I laughed. “Maybe when I went to the zoo when I was a kid, but that was fueled by sugar and furry animals.”
“There was some of that on the way,” he said, smiling. “Though I’m not sure your neighbors would appreciate me referring to them as furry animals.”
I shook my head and turned back to the sink, hanging the towel over the edge of the counter. He must have really been hurting to walk all that way and not even think twice about it. If I had walked that distance, by the time I got where I was going, I would have worked every issue in my life out, and called a cab to meet me there to take me back home.
“Well, I guess it looks like you’re going to be taking the bus home with me then,” I said, slapping him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go say goodbye to my mother.”
We gathered our things, and I kissed my mom goodbye, smiling as Ollie leaned down and hugged her tightly, thanking her for such an awesome time. I could see a major difference in Ollie compared to when I found him wandering down the street, his heart torn to shreds. I promised my mom I would see her the following weekend, and we headed out of the house and started walking toward the bus stop. The stop was about four blocks away, so we walked quietly along next to each other, watching the cars pass us on the road. Along the way, he stopped and pointed out a corner bar with a neon sign advertising pool tables. I stared at him, not knowing if he wanted to go or he was just in the mood to point out landmarks along the way. It was never a bar him and I had been to. In fact, it wasn’t a bar I had ever been to, especially since it didn’t really seem like my kind of spot.
“You up for a nightcap and a rousing game of pool?” He elbowed me in the side and flirtatiously wagged his eyebrows up and down.
“You know that only works on girls you haven’t met before, right?”
“Come on,” he said, looking me in the eyes. “You know you can’t resist my boyish charms and huge muscles.”
He stood there on the sidewalk, posing like a bodybuilder and gritting his teeth. I shook my head and laughed, looking around to make sure no one was watching. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was still early, only around eight in the evening. I looked back up at Ollie, thinking hard on whether or not I should say yes. A car passed, honking their horn and whistling at Ollie.
“See? I’m irresistible,” He laughed.
“Fine,” I replied, pulling his arms down and pushing him toward the bar. “But I am terrible at pool.”
“Then I will make sure to not let you place any bets.” He laughed.
The real truth was I didn’t want the night to end. I was enjoying his company far too much. The alcohol gave me the courage to not jump on the bus and hide out, terrified of the feelings that I could feel batting around in my chest. When we got inside, I grabbed the beers while Ollie prepared for what would probably end up a completely disastrous pool game—on both ends of the spectrum. I shook my head as I brought over a pitcher and two glasses, deciding that if I was going to subject myself to pool, I better have enough fun i
n the pitcher to keep me interested in what I was doing.
Ollie started out confident, strutting around with his pool stick and puffing out his chest every time a ball went in the pocket. He measured every move before making it, trying to get the perfect setup for the next shot, or at least, that was what he told me. I, on the other hand, was struggling hardcore, never actually having played a real game of pool before. I pretty much took two shots every turn, the first missing the ball completely, and the second knocking it in the complete opposite direction of where it was supposed to go.
“Okay, stop,” he said as I leaned over and moved the stick back and forth on my fingers. “I need to help you before you hurt yourself. Let me show you how to work the stick.”
“Whoa.” I laughed. “I don’t think this is that kind of bar.”
He walked up behind me and caged me in with his body, putting his hands over mine and showing me how to hold the cue. I couldn’t stop giggling the whole time, though on the inside, the feeling of him that close was extremely intoxicating, and I had some very mixed emotions about that. He took in a deep breath and tried to keep a straight face.
“So, you slide the stick through your fingers like this,” he said, moving the stick up and down, causing me to shudder with contained laughter. “Then you aim at whatever hole you want to drop your ball.”
It was too much. I just couldn’t contain myself, and I could feel Ollie lean his head into my shoulder as we laughed hysterically at all of the innuendos flying around the room at that moment. At first, it was pure juvenile behavior, but as the beer flowed and the night progressed, there seemed to be some real sexual tension between the two of us, even if we were both trying to play it off with playful movements and comments. When the pitcher was done, I looked down at my watch and gasped.
“Damn it,” I said, setting my pool stick down.
“What?”
“We missed the last bus,” I replied with a sigh. “It left the stop like fifteen minutes ago. I forgot that they don’t run as late on Sunday nights.”
“Not a problem,” he said, pulling out his phone and pressing some buttons. “There, all taken care of. I used my Uber app, and they will be here in ten minutes. Done and done.”
“Awesome,” I said, giving him a high five. “I’ll grab this tab, and then we can head outside.”
“Alrighty,” he said, stumbling over to put the pool stick on the rack.
When I was done paying, we went outside and waited a couple of minutes before the blue sedan with an Uber sticker on the front came pulling up. We jumped in the back laughing, wishing we had Ubers when we went to college. I leaned up and told the driver my address and then sat back, smiling as we took off into the night.
Chapter 11
Ollie
I leaned back in the Uber’s seat and took in a deep breath, watching the bright lights pass me as we made our way toward Elana’s place. I hadn’t felt that good in a really long time, and it was like a weight had been lifted off of my chest, though I assumed the copious amounts of alcohol had something to do with that. Still, I was relaxed, open, and laughing more than I had in years. Everything felt like a normal night out, something I wanted desperately but had yet to find, until that night.
I reached my hands over my head and soaked in the good feeling. Even in Phoenix, miles and miles away from Madison and its dark shadow, I felt restrained. I was grieving, even when I didn’t realize I was, going to work, drinking way too much after work, and then going home and curling up in the darkness of my apartment. I wasn’t able to connect with anyone there because my heart wouldn’t allow it. I wasn’t sure if it was fear that kept me from making friends, or just the thought of the fact that Lillie wasn’t there with me, which was where she belonged. I went through phases of sadness, anger, depression, and even hopelessness. It was just as hard there that it was in Madison, but I didn’t see that until I was back.
My focus shifted all over the place when I first decided to settle down in Phoenix. I had planned on just moving through there, but the familiarity of a solid place, a job, and a steady income drew me from my original plans to travel the world. Once I was settled in though, I yearned for the open spaces, the places that somehow filled that hole inside of me that was torturing me so badly. But I had made a commitment, and I stood by every commitment that I’d made before. With the inability to make friends and the only other thing I was interested in being alcohol, I just threw myself into work, progressing forward in the company at lightning speed until I was one of their most prized assets.
But today, things felt… well, good. Really good, in fact. Sitting in Elana’s mom’s kitchen gave me the first feeling of home I’d had since Lillie was alive. Learning how to do normal, everyday things was comforting. I was craving comfortable and normal, even though the rest of the time, I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere. I had thought the only place I would ever find that was with Lillie, and with her gone, I had given in to the notion that I would spend the rest of my life wandering around, wanting her but never finding her again. The loneliness of it had been unbearable, and that was how I ended up at Elana’s house in the first place.
I turned and looked over at the woman sitting beside me, still in awe at how much I had never really seen her. Sure, I had considered her my friend, and I enjoyed spending time with her in college, but in the end, she was just Lillie’s best friend, and I never took the time to truly know who she was. Part of me felt terrible about that, especially now that I was getting a better idea of how absolutely amazing she was. The other part of me placated that guilt, chalking it up to being in love with someone else, not interested in what any other girl had to offer. Either way, my mind had been changed in a very short amount of time, and now I was sitting in a car with her, lost for words.
She hadn’t noticed that I was riding along, staring at her, and I took advantage of that, letting my eyes slip down her body, over her warm, supple curves, and down to her curvy hips, accentuated by the tight jeans and fur-topped, soft leather boots she was wearing. The smell of her lavender perfume wafted through the car, and it created an excitement in my chest that I was having a hard time shaking. I looked down at our thighs and realized that they were leaning against each other, our bodies touching. She didn’t seem to notice, and if she did, she was keeping it inside. I could feel my leg tingling at the contact, and I breathed deeply, trying to keep the excitement in my chest from tunneling farther down in my stomach. The attraction in the air was thick, and the tension between us had been there since we were at the bar, playing around and flirting with a purpose.
It had all started with innocent flirting and way too much alcohol, but now as I sat there looking down at her thigh, wanting so badly to touch her, I realized just how real that flirting was, at least on my end, and hopefully on hers. She hadn’t said a word in the car, but from the look of her grasped hands in her lap and her nervous foot tapping, I could tell she was thinking the same exact thing as me. Her pale skin looked so soft and beautiful in the light of the city as we moved closer to her place. Her eyes sparkled and reflected every ray of light along the route. Her shoulders were taut, and her breasts bounced up and down as we moved over bumps and turns in the road. She had to have been one of the most beautiful women I had ever met, inside and out. My cock grew inside my pants, and the desire in my stomach growled fiercely. Was I really going to be able to leave her without making a move? Should I even make a move? I took in a deep breath and let it out, deciding that this life was too short.
“Fuck it,” I whispered, watching Elana’s head turn toward me.
Immediately, I reached up, cupping her face in my hands and leaning forward, pressing my lips firmly against hers. I was unable to fight the sexual energy crackling between us in such a small space. Her lips were soft and plump, and they tasted like vanilla and cherry. The feeling of her heavy breathing into my mouth made me even more aroused. I wasn’t sure if what I was doing was right, but at that moment, I didn’t give a damn. I
just wanted to be with her, to hold her, to touch every part of her, starting with her lips.
At first, her shoulders were stiff, but as my lips moved softly against hers, she leaned into me, kissing me deeply. It was amazing, something that I didn’t expect her to do at all. She tilted her head to the side and opened her mouth, letting my tongue slide through and entangle with hers. She whimpered softly into my mouth, the sound vibrating into my throat. I took one hand and put it on her thigh, squeezing her leg hard and moving it up toward her hip. She reached down and reciprocated, grabbing my leg and massaging it as her hand moved toward my cock.
The car drove into the darker part of the city, the only lights shining down in the street from the lamps that lined the sidewalk. The darkness felt good, and I wanted so badly to feel more of her, but I had to restrain myself while I was in the car. As the car pulled up in front of the house, I handed the driver a cash tip and waited as Elana, with flushed cheeks, opened the door and climbed out. Still feeling drunk, I tumbled out of the car behind her, walking fast to keep up with her pace. I stood behind her as she looked for her keys, my hands running down her sides and across her ass. She put the key in the door and opened it up, and we hurried inside, not caring who might have seen us. The smell of her lavender perfume hit me in the face as I walked inside, and my cock got even harder.
She quietly shut the door behind her and locked all the locks before turning around to face me. My eyes darkened at the lust in her expression, and I stepped forward, putting both hands on her stomach and pushing her into the door. I pushed my face just inches from her lips and stared into her beautiful blue eyes, the passion palpable between us. We stayed like that for a moment as my hands began to explore her body, moving down her curves and lingering at her thighs, my fingers just inches from her warm, wet mound. Suddenly, she lunged forward, pressing her mouth against mine and kissing me furiously, her arms wrapped around my neck.