by Terry Towers
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say.”
“Just to point out, I’m the one wearing the blue cummerbund and tie while you’re wearing the pink one, so who of the two of us is a punk ass bitch now?” Cocking a brow up at him, I waited for the smart-assed retort.
He huffed. “We will see won’t we. I have the room right beside yours. I’d better be hearing some hardcore fucking and moaning going on in your room tonight.”
“Sure.” Happy with the job I’d done on the shoes, I pulled them on and laced them up. “You about ready? The limo will be here in a few minutes to go pick up the girls.”
“Yeah.” He gave himself another look and then nodded. Grabbing his suit jacket, he slipped it on. “Handsome as I’ll ever be.”
Giving Keith a hard look, I had to admit he did look good despite the hot pink. Maybe it was the blond hair and blue eyes that pulled it off. He wasn’t quite as tall as I was, but considering I was 6’3 not too many people were. He had that boy next door look that girls seem to flock to and despite my ribbing him, I had to admit he did get the girls. It’s like all he had to do was snap his fingers and they came running.
“Passable,” I joked.
Grabbing my jacket, I slipped it over my shoulders. Stopping in front of the floor length mirror that Keith had been monopolizing, I gave myself a once over. I was tall and lanky. Ellie said she loved my eyes; she said that she liked how dark blue they were and that they gave me a look of mystery. Running a hand through my dark short hair, I messed with the front to make sure it was perfect before nodding my approval.
I just turned from the mirror when a car horn honked outside.
Our parents were already at the building where the prom was to be held. The school had arranged for the parents to attend the first half hour of the dance so they could get some pictures of their kids and dates before their asses were given the boot. Good luck to them if you ask me. Some parents were fanatical when it came to their kids and getting pictures. Being that Keith and I were on the football team, we got to experience it firsthand. The security would be lucky to get them all out within the first hour.
“Ready buddy?” Keith gave me a jab to the shoulder as he walked past me and towards the front door.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied, following behind.
~*~ TT ~*~
She looked beautiful. Ellie had insisted that I couldn’t see her dress until the prom. I’d informed her that was for weddings, not proms, but she stuck to her guns. The only information she gave me was that I had to get royal blue to match her.
I didn’t think royal blue could look hot, but I was sorely mistaken. Standing outside of the limo, I watched as she strode down the walkway from her house with Keith’s date in tow. My eyes drank in every inch of her from the way her brown hair, which she’d highlighted golden blonde for the prom, shone as the streetlight bounced off it, to the way her breasts pressed against the satin and lace fabric restraining, to the way her hips moved under the tight material that followed her figure all the way down to the ground, fitting her body like a glove. When the wind hit the silver train that flowed out behind her, it added a majestic look to the dress.
As she came closer, the conversation between them stopped and her eyes fixated on me. “Xander! You look so handsome!” She put her hands out and slipped them up my chest as she came in for a hug and brief kiss. The kiss wasn’t nearly as long or as passionate as I would have liked, but she was excited and there’d be time for that later in the night.
“You look…” Taking a step back but keeping her within arm’s length, I shook my head, releasing a low whistle. “You look incredible. Just… Wow.”
Giggling she did a twirl. The wind caught her hair, flipping it up and into her face. “Thank you.” Turning her backside to me, she shook her ass a little. “Do you like my train?”
“It’s stunning. You’re beautiful.” Stepping back into her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her tight to me, inhaling the scent of her apple shampoo. “I’ve got a surprise for you after the prom.”
“You do?” Pulling from my embrace she looked up into my eyes, but there was something a little off about the look in her eyes that I couldn’t quite place.
“Come on you two! We’re going to be late!” Keith yelled out from inside the car.
Shaking my head to clear the negativity, I took a step back and motioned to the open door. “After you baby.”
“Thank you, Sir!” She gave a little curtsey and ducked her head, getting into the car with me following behind her.
~*~ TT ~*~
The prom had started wonderfully. Just like I’d imagined, we danced, hung with friends, had photos taken by our parents, and had an all-around good time. But as things began to wind down, Ellie seemed to grow more distant. It didn’t make any sense; this was supposed to be our night together. By the time we were in the car heading to the hotel, I was definitely getting an off vibe from her.
“Are you okay?” I whispered as we sat in the back of the limo across from Keith and his date.
“Of course.” She smiled and gently squeezed my hand. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know. It feels like there’s something wrong.”
Frowning, she shook her head. “It’s fine.”
Fuck. The dreaded ‘it’s fine.’ I may only be 18, but I knew that when a woman said ‘it’s fine’ that the situation was anything but. Looking across from us, I quickly averted my eyes. Keith’s date was straddling his lap and they were practically fucking. Thank God they still had clothing on. Did he really have to do that right now when we were minutes away from the hotel?
Disgusted, I looked back at Ellie who was looking everywhere but at the make out session across from us. Maybe that was it. It was a big night and with us both being virgins, maybe she had a little jolt of the jitters?
We remained silent until we pulled up to the hotel. The last stop for the night.
Piling out of the limo, we bid the driver a good night and entered the hotel. Keith and I already had our room keys, so we went straight for the elevator. The ride up to the room was taken in silence and by the time we were alone in our room, I knew, without a doubt, there was an issue.
“This is so nice, Xander. Thank you.” Kicking off her silver heels she walked over to the desk and picked up the bundle of red roses. Bringing them to her nose, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as I watched her chest raise and slowly fall. Opening her eyes, she placed the roses back onto the desk and turned to look at the bed. “This is all too much. I don’t know what to say.”
Coming up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled the side of her neck, just below her earlobe the way she liked. She seemed to respond for a moment, but quickly her body became rigid against mine and she stepped out of my embrace.
When she turned to face me, tears lined her green eyes. “Xander. I think we need to talk.”
Wha- What the fuck? Need to talk? Now… On prom night?
My mouth opened to speak, but no words came out.
“Please. Just… Listen. Okay.” Taking my hand she led me over to the bed and sat down, patting the bed beside her. “Please.”
Feeling numb inside, I sat. “What do you mean we need to talk?”
She inhaled deeply, wringing her hands nervously on her lap. “I haven’t known how to tell you this, but I know that I have to tell you this now.”
“What now?” Anger began to simmer within me. Why in the fuck was she beating around the bush? How long had she had this thing to tell me, pretending everything was okay?
“Well, we’ve had plans to attend the same college all through high school and you’ve gotten into your school. It’s awesome. You’ve got a full scholarship and the whole nine. I’m so proud of you.”
“Okay. What’s the problem?”
She released a loud huff of air. “Well, I got accepted to a photography school in New York.”
“But you’re going to scho
ol here in California… With me. It’s already been done. It’s already been set. You got your acceptance.”
“I was on the waitlist for New York. I didn’t want to tell you because it was such a longshot, but I got in at the last second.”
My mind whirled with the information. There were so many questions that needed to be asked. She’d just hit me with a torpedo. “So… We’re going to do the long-distance thing then?”
A single tear escaped her eye, making its way down her cheek. “Xander… You know I love you, but…”
“But what!” Leaping to my feet, I spun to look down at her. “But what Ellie? I love you and you love me. So we make it work.”
“For four years?”
“For as long as it takes!” Raking a hand through my hair, I began to pace. Back and forth from one end of the room to the other, trying to process this surprising turn of events. We had it all planned. I was going to fucking propose on the last day of college. This couldn’t be happening. We would have the house, picket fence, dog and two children. That was how our story was supposed to end up.
“We’re going to be across the country from each other, Xander. We need to be practical.”
I stopped pacing to face her again, doing everything in my power to keep my pain and anger in check. Of all nights to spring this on me. “So what are you saying, Ellie?”
I knew what she was saying, but I wanted to hear it say it. Needed to hear her say it.
She looked down at the floor, beginning to softly tremble. “I think it would be for the best, for both of us if we went our separate ways. We’ve been together all through high school. I think we need to get out and experience other people. We’re kidding ourselves if we think that it’ll work long-distance for four years.”
“Then I’ll try to get into a New York school.”
“You know it’s too late and you’ve got a scholarship. You can’t throw that away for me.”
“But I want to.”
“I won’t let you, Xander.” She looked up and I could see the determination in her eyes. She had her mind made up; she’d had it made up for some time. Slowly, she stood and her eyes surveyed the room. “This is so beautiful. I’m so sorry. I felt I needed to tell you before…”
“Before you had sex with someone you don’t want to be with?” I supplied, as the anger I tried to suppress came to the surface.
“I just don’t want us making a mistake. I just wanted to be honest.” She looked back at me, her green eyes pleading for me to understand, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
“I think you should leave Ellie.”
“But…” She motioned to the bed. “We can still finish off the night. Maybe not have sex, but this doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”
As if on cue, soft moaning sounds along with the rapid thumping of a headboard against the wall commenced in the room adjacent to us – Keith’s room.
My fists clenched and unclenched at my sides. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. It was like salt being thrown onto the wound. The need to grab something and throw it was becoming unbearable. It took everything I had in me to keep my emotions under control.
“Leave Ellie. Leave now.” When she didn’t respond, I cursed under my breath and stormed past her. “Never mind, I’ll leave. Happy fucking graduation.” The nastiness in my voice was so strong that it even made me grimace as I opened the door, slamming it closed behind me with such force that the picture mounted on the wall next to the door in the hallway rattled.
Love. It’s a fucking crock of shit.
Well, never again.
Never again will I allow a woman to do to me what Ellie just did.
Never the fuck again!
Chapter 1
Xander
Damn. What a night.
Groaning, I carefully slipped my arm from under Becky's head, hoping not to wake her… Was it Becky? Maybe it was Brittney? Fuck it. Did it really matter? Slowly, I rolled over to my back and stretched, groaning a second time as the kinks and knots loosened in my lower back and legs.
Grabbing my phone from the nightside table, I turned it on and looked at the time. 8am. I’d had 4 hours of sleep tops. No wonder I was still fucking tired, the show last night had been wild and the one-on-one after party with the girl beside me had been vigorous.
But it was time to get up. I had work to do before tonight’s show. Saturday night was always the busiest night at the club and from my understanding, the owner of the strip joint that I danced at had a large bachelorette party coming. One of the girls in the group was supposed to be our photographer for the yearly calendar so he wanted her to get a feel for each of the guys in our group.
Whatever. A show was a show. It’s not like I could thrust my hips any harder than I normally did during our lap dances or I’d pull something. But I could at least be rested up so I didn’t look twice as old as I really am.
Sliding from the bed, I gathered my clothing and quickly threw them on. I was at her place, a small one-bedroom apartment just off the strip. It was cute but was much too claustrophobic for my liking. She had a lot of stuff and just not enough room to store it all, so it resulted in lots of clutter.
Crossing the living room, I entered the little kitchen and opened the fridge. Grabbing the carton of milk, I searched the cupboards until I found a glass and poured myself a full glass, drinking it down. Through my search for a glass, I came upon a box of pancake mix. Remembering I’d seen a container of blueberries in the fridge, I grabbed them and began to whip up a batch of blueberry pancakes large enough for both myself and the girl in the bedroom, while I waited for the skillet to heat up to the optimal temperature. While I waited on the skillet, I noticed some mail in a little metal magnetic holder on the side of the fridge. The name on the mail was Sonya Caine. Fuck, I was totally off on the name.
Guessing the skillet was heated up well enough, I poured a little of the mixture in the pan and waited on my test pancake to cook. It seemed to turn out decently enough so I poured enough for several more pancakes. I was nearly done with the batch when I heard her stirring in the bedroom. Moments later, she appeared with an oversized t-shirt on that I guess may have belonged to an ex, with her brown hair dishevelled and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Good morning Sonya, baby. How was your sleep?” I greeted with a smile on my face as I scooped up the last of the pancakes, placing them on the platter with the rest.
“Excuse me?” She went from barely functional to fully awake in an instant.
“Oh.” I looked down at the pancakes and cringed. “I’m sorry. I took the liberty of making us breakfast. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“No, I mean.” Her eyes narrowed and she stalked towards me as if I were prey. “What did you just call me?”
“Baby? Is that a problem? I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“No.” Her dark eyes flashed with annoyance. “I mean my name. What did you call me?”
Grimacing, I looked back at the mail. It did indeed say Sonya. “I’m confused.”
“My name is Becky. NOT Sonya.”
“Ahhh.” My brow creased. “I…”
“You don’t even know my fucking name!”
“Wait.” Placing the spatula on the countertop, I put my hands up in surrender and slowly backed away as she stalked closer to me. “I’m genuinely confused.”
“What do I do for a living, Xander?” She grabbed the spatula I’d just set down, waving it at me. I was not sure what she planned on doing with that spatula, but I suspected that getting kinky in the bedroom wasn’t it.
“I…” I had no fucking idea. It was worse than the name situation. Backing up a little more, I made my way to the door and my shoes.
“Get the fuck out of my house, Xander!”
“Whoa, wait. Just… I’m not great with details and in my defense we just met last night. It’s not like we did much talking.”
That’s when the spatula came sailing at my head. Her aim was terrible, not even comi
ng close to hitting me. “Get out!”
“But I made you good morning blueberry pancakes. That should account for something, shouldn’t it?” I protested, putting on my sneakers as quickly as possible not expecting that argument to sway her. Granted I made them because I was hungry, she’d been an afterthought.
“If you don’t get out of my house, I’ll shove those pancakes up your ass!”
“Fine. Okay.” Grabbing the door handle, I opened the door and started to leave but hesitated a moment. “One question?”
She stood perhaps ten feet from the door, her hands planted firmly on her hips as she glared at me. “What?”
“Who’s Sonya?” The moment I noticed her go for another kitchen utensil I knew I’d overstayed my welcome and there was no coming back from the fuckfest of a mess I’d just gotten myself into this morning. Ducking out the door, I closed it behind me and sighed a breath of relief as I leaned back against it. Lesson learned, don’t assume a woman’s mail is hers.
Pushing myself off the door, I made my way down the stairs and into the parking lot. Visitor parking was way the fuck at the back of the parking lot, so it took me several minutes to finally get to my Jeep. My black 4-door Jeep Wrangler was my pride and joy, fully customized to my likings. I’d saved and bought it in cash, but now I had bigger fish to fry. I was now saving for my dream, it’s just that my dream was much more expensive than a Jeep. Which is why I worked two jobs. The beauty of Las Vegas was that there was always employment to be had if you were willing to work hard.
Getting into the Jeep, I pulled the keys from my jeans pocket and thrust them into the ignition, bringing the vehicle to life. My stomach grumbled as I backed the Jeep out of the parking spot and flashes of the pancakes came to my mind. Damn they would have been good.