Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series)

by Cooksey, Jenn

  Reading it, I can understand why she thinks it’s funny. First, the condom is day-glow orange and written on the wrapper is the phrase: “I slept with Mike Foster.” Also included is the date of the party with a pumpkin next to it. Then I noticed it has a keychain through one corner of it.

  “Everyone who stayed the night got one and were also included in the judging panel…pretty funny, huh?” Melissa said.

  “OH! That’s what the box of condoms was about…when I saw Mike waving it around last night I was thinking Kristen and I were gonna have a really long night but for totally different reasons. That’s really funny! Who put it in my bag though? And what judging panel?” I asked while laughing about what I can now clearly see is a novelty condom keychain.

  “I think Mike did right before Jeff brought it up to you. He wanted to make sure you got one, especially after you and Tristan won this year’s most memorable party moment hands down... The awards ceremony will be at lunch on Monday. The people who slept over were the judges unless they happened to be nominated in whatever category was being voted on. Oh, and the four of us won first place for best costume…we think Pete should keep the trophy,” Kate chattered.

  “There was voting? So, not only did I get held prisoner all night and cried through the majority of it, but I missed voting and winning awards too…that totally sucks.”

  “Yeah, but you wouldn’t have been happy during the voting process…there was a lot of ‘well what about when’ kinds of things being thrown out because no one could choose which part was the most memorable and all the choices were you guys in some way or another, so, you probably would’ve felt kinda uncomfortable hearing like three or four dozen people relive their memories of the night. Mike actually halted the debate and called it a draw.

  “I was sorta leaning towards when you let Pete do the body shots and Tristan’s reaction to that, Jeff and Pete were pushing for when Tristan threw you over his shoulder and stormed away with you...they were really pleased with Tristan for that by the way, and I think Mike was liking when Tristan lost it and beat the shit outta Zack (That figures…it was his prediction and all.) who might have a broken nose...oh, there’s a bet going on about that now too…I think there were a few others… Melissa, do you remember any other moments that were nominated?” Kate asked while trying to remember the public highlights of my night.

  Okay, so there will be no preventing of rumors. I mean come on, there was freaking voting. Ugh.

  “Um, there was the call for room service that everyone thought was hysterical and someone said something about when you tried to leave and he dragged you back kicking and screaming, but not that many people who stayed the night saw that. Mike did say it was pretty funny though. The bathroom breaks were kind of popular…”

  Huh. I’m sort of surprised about that one. Although, it was kind of funny that no one in line seemed to mind that we would cut right to the front of it, almost like they knew what was going on and were just happy to be helpful. Oh hell. Yeah, everyone knew what was going on, there’s just no way I can delude myself any longer.

  “Oh, Kristen and a few girls mentioned how once you guys were inside how he carried you up the stairs…they said seeing it was pretty spectacular and totally romantic,” Melissa added and turned around to look at me for confirmation.

  Yeah, I think they all had the night pretty well covered…that’s just freaking great.

  “Okay, Mike’s an asshole, he did absolutely nothing to help me but that last one I’ll agree with. Personally, I was thinking it must’ve looked pretty similar to Moses parting the Red Sea, but then he took those stairs two at a time which was probably very romantic looking…” I said and then gave them a few details of what transpired directly after Tristan got me to the room. I wouldn’t have necessarily called it romantic at the time, but yeah, Kristen and the other girls were right; it was.

  We got to the restaurant and while we ate, we talked about the whole evening with me giving them a pretty comprehensive play by play but without giving up too many intimate details. I mean I did give them some, like the memorizing thing and what’d happened this morning, but overall, I left the specifics of what Tristan and I did pretty much out. And I wasn’t the only one who did some censoring in their re-cap of the night...

  Without getting into specifics either, Melissa told Kate and I how after they’d retired for the night, Keith had been a bit more amorous than usual and that’s why she was relieved when he eventually started puking from all the drinking he’d done earlier. Apparently the puking was followed by Keith passing out and Melissa getting a pressure free and peaceful night’s sleep...

  “You know on top of everything, I’m pretty irritated that he never actually apologized…I mean he didn’t once say he was sorry for any of it,” I told them as we were finishing up our post-party nourishment. Actually, Melissa was the only one who ate a real meal. I’d ordered fruit and I also picked at the French fries Kate had ordered but wasn’t really eating much of.

  Kate looked at me thoughtfully for a minute or two and I could tell she was onto something, but was reluctant to say what she was thinking. I’m not sure why she’d be hesitant, but I gave her the go ahead to spit it out anyway. I’m more than aware that I need some help in sorting through my feelings on this so whatever she’s thinking, I need to hear it.

  “Okay well, I’m wondering, do you really need him to say the words? I mean I never thought about it before but, Tristan is so not like Jeff or Mike in the way that he practically never says what’s on his mind.”

  She stopped and sighed when I just sat there giving her an “I don’t get what that has to do with anything” look.

  “Alright, lemme see if I can explain this…uh…Oh! It’s kinda like a book my parents have…I picked it up once when I was pissed at Jeff a long time ago and it’s all about something called love languages and how people give and receive love…not just romantic love, but you know what I mean…anyway, I found out that my love language is something called acts of service and Jeff’s is actually a combination of two of them, quality time and words of affirmation, and that’s why when I lecture him it bothers him so much, because when I talk at him like that, it’s like I’m taking one of the main ways he interprets love and use it to punish him without really meaning to.

  “I mean, I’ve been thinking back over everything, Camie, not just last night, and it’s obvious to me now that Tristan is not only pretty complicated, but he’s a very physical person (uh-huh…duh) and from what I’m hearing, it sounds like he spent the entire night trying to show you that he’s sorry. I’d be willing to bet anything that Tristan’s primary love language is physical touch with a big acts of service kicker and if that’s true, I don’t know how much you’re ever gonna actually hear come from his mouth on the stuff that’s important. If you decide to take him back, you might need to learn how to interpret the things he does instead of hearing the words, because he might never say them, you know what I mean?”

  “That actually makes a lot of sense, Camie. I already told you I’ve never seen him behave the way he does when he’s around you and I think Kate’s right. Little by little he’s been showing you how he feels for weeks and then last night was like a giant exclamation point.

  “I mean he wouldn’t even let you out of the room until he made sure you heard what he was trying to say. That in itself is pretty telling in my opinion…because he let you go this morning even though he knew he could’ve stopped you. If you think about it, he even told you in a round about way that he was fighting his gut instinct to give you what you said you need from him, which is time and space…and it was obviously really difficult for him to do because he knew you hadn’t heard him,” Melissa elucidated for me as we headed back to Kate’s car.

  “Huh. I guess I never thought of it like that. I mean I know he’s physical, sometimes in a scary way too, but I never realized it was his primary mode of communication. Now that you point it out though, I can totally see where you’re prob
ably right. And actually, that could explain why he hates it when girls throw themselves at him or hang on him…

  “If touch is how Tristan expresses love, then girls doing it in such a shallow way would be to him how Jeff feels punished when you lecture him. So if that’s really the case then, I guess it kinda says a lot that he let me hit him in anger last night too. I think he felt really bad about the boat stuff and calling me a bitch, which I was totally being, but he let me punish him because he felt like he deserved it, especially after everything else he’d done.

  “OH! Wait, he actually said something like that…oh crap what did he say…? Oh damn, it was something about how what he did last weekend was hurting him because he knew it’d cause me pain or something like that and that’s when he said he didn’t know how to make up for it and he couldn’t take back anything he’d already done and asked me if we could just start over…so I guess maybe that was the acts of service part of him trying to apologize...he just didn’t know what he could actually do though.” He kept asking what he could do or how he could prove himself so this acts of service thing lines up with why he actually gave me an answer on some of the sex stuff too…it was very clear he didn’t want to but he did it all the same.

  We left the restaurant and all the way to my house and into my room, we talked about every instance we could think of and how this new theory about how he works could explain the things he’s done. We’d decided during breakfast (or brunch, whatever…) that we’d come back here to hang out and just recoup. Kate and Melissa were positive that both Jeff and Keith would be sleeping most of the day anyway—not that Melissa was all that keen to see Keith today, but regardless... And I’d be surprised if Tristan hadn’t passed out shortly after I left because I don’t think he slept at all last night. I only got a couple hours myself, maybe, and since I’m like death warmed over I’m thinking if he’s not asleep by now, he’s gotta be like the walking dead.

  We filled a remotely interested Jillian in on our new theory and most of what happened, and the four of us were watching a movie—well, I was half asleep—when out of the blue, I remembered another point of contention I have.

  “What about the fact that Tristan totally side-stepped, or rather completely ignored what I said about me not being able to do the casual uncommitted relationship thing? Because that’s really kind of a big deal for me. Assuming I can get around everything else, I can’t go back to the way things were…not now, not after everything that’s happened. I kinda feel like he’s expecting me to be the one who does all the compromising here and that’s just not right.”

  “Mmm, I don’t really have an answer on that one. I totally get where you’re coming from though and if it was me, again, assuming I could get over everything else, I’d stick to my guns on that. But really, if what you heard when he was talking to Jeff is true, you know when Jeff told him that he’s gonna have to think of a way to prove he’s serious and if Jeff really does believe he’s that close to being in love with you…then I honestly think it’s a non-issue. If he decides to go for it, you just might have to do some interpreting of his actions like I said before for you to know what he means by whatever he comes up with doing,” Kate said with a contagious yawn.

  I was almost asleep again when Jillian’s phone startled me awake. I looked over at her and saw that she was sending a text, but I didn’t question it until the reply came back seconds later. She replied with another one and then stood up to leave.

  “What was that all about?” I asked out of pure curiosity.

  As a rule, Jillian doesn’t text like the rest of us do. Basically because she’s just not that into it yet, but mostly because she feels like if it’s important enough to say, you should just pick up the phone and say it…unless you simply can’t like the time she chastised me at school for hiding in the library.

  She shrugged. “Oh, just this stupid boy who needs help with something.”

  “A boy? This sounds promising…is he cute?” I asked, teasing her a little. On second thought, I wonder if I should warn her away from all involvement with boys—cute or not. The cute ones are even more troublesome.

  But then again, maybe I should be warning the boy...

  Looking bored as usual, she blandly replied, “Oh, he’s totally hot but he’s head over heels for someone else. Besides, I’m not helping him because I like him in that way.”

  “Oh, why are you gonna make the effort then?” I’m really curious now. Jill is usually kind of stingy with her time unless there’s something in it for her.

  “Well, he’s sorta calling in a favor, but mostly I’m helping him out so I won’t have to buy him the box of Twinkies I kinda owe him. Anyway, I’m gonna ride my bike over to the park and meet him there so I’ll see you all later,” she said simply and then left. Not having to buy a box of Twinkies for someone is totally good motivation for her to do something she wouldn’t necessarily do. Jill is even stingier with her money and junk food than she is with her time.

  Kate and Melissa both looked at me in question but it was Melissa, who I think is becoming dangerously fond of Jillian, who asked, “Is she telling the truth or is she up to no good? Because if she’s off to be stealthy, I wanna follow her!”

  “Totally telling the truth…she loves her money and junk food more than she loves me,” I said quite honestly.

  Okay, I might be stretching it a little, but I really don’t think she’d be the one to ask for a Ding Dong if you were starving or even worse, P.M.S.-ing because all you’d get is an uncompassionate look of “it’s not my problem.”

  “That sucks,” Melissa said, disappointed. “I can’t believe you guys didn’t follow her last weekend…I so would’ve trailed her just to see how she does it.”

  “Melissa, you would’ve never gotten past the front door…she’d smell a stalker a mile away,” I told her and laughed with Kate at the wounded look on Melissa’s face.

  The three of us talked some more and at one point we all napped, but I gotta say, having friends like Kate and Melissa has been really invaluable. Not just in my dilemma, but overall. I really do feel blessed to have them in my life. You might think that your best friends would just bash the guy who did you wrong as a means of supporting you, but they really helped me to see both sides of the coin in what’s been going on with me and Tristan, which I think proves what good people they are.

  I’m still not one hundred percent sure about what to do, though, because a lot of things hinge on him. I’m totally over the need to hear Tristan “say” he’s sorry, but like Jeff and Kate said, he needs to prove he’s serious and I’m not going to give him pointers on that. Also, I want a spoken—hell, I’d prefer written—commitment. I’m thinking if he can show me, then he can tell me too, and this is one thing I’m not going to budge on. And then there’s another thing I’m thinking I’m going to meet some pretty serious resistance on, but I’ll deal with that if and when I get past the other two things.

  So, I guess you could say I’m in a kind of holding pattern until he decides to prove himself to me. I’m not expecting much this next week, though, because, well…we’ll be at school. And since that’s not really a venue any of us thinks he’ll choose to lay his cards on the table at, I’m guessing it won’t be until next weekend at least before he really gives me anything to go on.

  I’ll admit I think it’d be nice if Tristan were a little more like Jeff so I don’t have to decipher his actions like a code. I told Kate what Jeff had said about her during my incarceration and it wasn’t news to her at all. Apparently he’s already said much the same thing to her. And repeatedly from what I gather. Kate actually agrees with him and told me that, yes she’ll most likely end up having his children and marrying him someday and that’s basically why it’s not the end of the world for either of them when they fight or break up. They both acknowledge and accept the fact that they’ll always get back together, and she also agrees with him about their relationship being more like a marriage than that of a boyfriend-girlfr
iend thing; even though they’re not actually married right now, they both know it’ll happen one day.

  Oh and since I was dying of curiosity, I also asked her if it was true about Jeff loving her since the second grade and I gotta say, Jeff may not be a romantic per se, but you will never-ever doubt the sincerity or dedication of his intentions. Here’s the story of how they came to be a couple:

  The three of them have known each other since birth, but when Kate was in first grade and the guys were in second, the extremely close-knit friendship started to change. Jeff would tease Kate relentlessly and then turn around and be colder than ice, but he also took Tristan away from her, which, from what she said, really hurt. It wasn’t until after the guys had to repeat a grade two years later and they were all in third grade together that Jeff finally worked up the nerve to walk up to her with Tristan in tow during their lunch recess and told her in no uncertain terms how he felt. Kate told me she remembers it like yesterday and she said this is what Jeff did: He confidently strode right up to her while she was sitting with a couple of girlfriends, pulled her to her feet, kissed her on the lips once and then said, “I love you, Katy, you belong to me and I’m gonna marry you someday, just so you know,” and then he turned around and walked away. Kate, even then having her super powers of being able to read people with frightful accuracy, of course had already figured out what his problem was a year or so before that, but she wanted him to be the one to admit it and so she’d patiently waited. They’ve been together ever since.

  Kind of amazing, isn’t it? I mean it’s not your typical storybook romance, but I think it’s almost better. Now, it’s my turn to wait patiently—Ugh—to see if I get the happy ending I’m looking for or not…

  22.

  A Definite First