Dave: Junior Year (Three Daves #2)

by Nicki Elson

  “Come on, Jen. We agreed—five times and no more. Never, ever. Remember? You’re the one who said it.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” Jen shook her head back into reality and tried to act like she wasn’t completely mortified. She blessed Fred for coming up behind David with a pool cue. “I think it’s your turn.” She nodded toward Fred.

  David turned and took the stick from Fred. “I’ll be right back.” He went to the pool table. While he took his shot, Jen walked over to the big window at the front of the bar and stared out of it. She could see into Quarters across the street and wished she’d gone there with her friends instead of staying with David. Kate had been right to worry.

  David joined her at the window, but Jen didn’t want to talk about what had just happened. Her attention was caught by a frenetic movement in Quarters’ front window. “Look, I think that’s Chris.” She pointed toward a girl dancing on a table just inside the bar across the street.

  “Yep, that’s her,” David said.

  Jen made a spontaneous decision. “You know what—I’m going over there. I’ll get a ride home with Chris’s friends. It’ll be easier.”

  “You sure?” David asked, stinging Jen with the hopefulness in his voice.

  “Yep. Bye, guys,” she called to the others and flew out of the bar.

  She had to wait in line to get into the perpetually filled-to-capacity Quarters and chastised herself during the entire wait. So much for making a clean break from him over the summer. Why did she have to drink so much and act like such an idiot? A quote from high school English, maybe from Macbeth, drifted across her mind: That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold.

  Stupid Shakespeare. Stupid beer. Lessons were over, and it wasn’t okay for her to sleep around with anybody—not even David. The fact that he’d been the one to give her the lessons changed nothing. She’d just treated her friend like a piece of meat, like he was her personal, sexual playground. If the situation had been reversed and he’d propositioned her, she’d have been furious with him. Though she’d have preferred being the person who’d done the rejecting rather than the one who’d just been turned down flat.

  Chapter 2

  A few days after the embarrassing rejection, Jen saw David as she crossed the south quad. He was standing with a group of people she recognized from the poetry performance, including that Ellie girl. David glanced toward Jen and waved. She waved back but kept walking, keeping her distance so he wouldn’t worry about her making another move on him.

  When she saw him at the Halloween Romans party, she made sure to do her dancing at the opposite end of the room from him. Ellie was at the party, too, dressed as Michonne from The Walking Dead. David was a zombie. Couples costume or coincidence? Jen wondered.

  In mid-November, she saw David and Ellie eating together at the campus food court by the north quad. It was just the two of them, cozy together on a sofa rather than at one of the tables. She felt a pang at not being able to deny they’d become a couple. But at least now that he had a girlfriend, she wouldn’t have to feel awkward approaching him.

  “Hi.” She walked straight to them, wanting to make it clear she was cool with the new relationship.

  “Hi,” David said and introduced the girls. Soon after, Jen made a lame quip about preparing to venture into the blustery weather and got the hell out of there. As she pulled up her hood and faced the first blast of wind, she realized she’d probably always carry a tiny flame for David. But their friendship was something stronger than an unrequited crush, and she didn’t want to lose that. .

  Central Illinois eased into a mild December. Jen and her roommates strung festive colored lights on the now bare branches of the ficus tree they’d purchased together at the beginning of the semester. Jen sported a brand new “do” for the holidays. Her friend Marcy, from the business school, had told her about a guy on campus who gave five-dollar haircuts. Everyone called him Haircut Chris—HC for short. HC didn’t bother asking his customers how they wanted their hair cut; he simply did what he thought was best. If anyone complained, he shrugged and told them, “Hey, what do you expect for five bucks?”

  HC had lopped Jen’s hair into a short, asymmetrical bob. Although Marcy had insisted Jen’s new punky look was great, she’d refused to let HC near her own head.

  “I don’t have any clothes that go with this hair,” Jen whined as she got dressed for the December Romans party. She finally settled for a fitted, deep purple blouse with black skinny jeans and enormous hoop earrings.

  The dormered attic was extra crowded that night with CIU students. They all wanted to squeeze in one more Wednesday night party before holing in to study for final exams. The party hosts had draped gaudy gold and silver garland along the bar and wound it around the thin support pillars throughout the space. Someone had also had the ingenious idea to dye the beer red.

  Jen spotted David standing with a small group. She grabbed Maria’s hand, “Let’s go say hi to David.” They pressed their way through the mob of people to him, laughing all the way.

  “Nice hair,” David teased Jen the second they arrived.

  “Why, thank you.” She bounced the ends of the longer side on her palm.

  A tall guy in David’s group turned in Jen’s direction. She glanced up to see if she knew him and couldn’t look away. She’d never laid eyes on this beautiful boy ever before. His features were long and elegant, and he had a full, tasty-looking mouth. But it was his eyes that captivated her. Even in the dim lighting, she could see they were a brilliant green. Then he smiled. The smile made his eyes sparkle like layers of broken glass, drawing her further in.

  His eyelids drooped seductively, and one side of his perfect upper lip rose. Jen sincerely hoped she hadn’t just sighed out loud. His eyes locked onto her, and without averting his gaze, he asked with roguish confidence, “Who might this vision of loveliness be?”

  “That’s Jenny,” said Ellie, who’d been standing silently next to David until now. “David’s friend.”

  The guy extended his hand, and Jen took it. “It’s just Jen, actually.”

  “Hullo, just Jen,” he teased with another flash of that smile. His dirty-blond hair was arranged in short, haphazard spikes, and a silver cross dangled from his ear.

  The speakers boomed out the first beats of “Teenage Lobotomy,” the classic Ramones tune.

  The guy gripped Jen’s hand and punched the air with his other fist, shouting along with the opening lyrics. He leaned in close to Jen, saying above the noise, “You know what this means, don’t you?” Jen crinkled the corners of her eyes in question, and he explained, “We have to dance!”

  He stripped off his studded, black leather coat, revealing a lean, sinewy body under his tight, black T-shirt and charcoal-gray jeans. He reminded Jen of CIU’s mascot: a sleek, stealthy cougar. The guy tossed his coat to a friend and pulled Jen through the press of bodies onto the dance floor. She abandoned Maria without thinking twice about it. As she followed him, she noticed his height. He had at least a good three inches on David.

  The temperature rose as they moved to the center of the mass of jumping and gesticulating bodies. The guy released Jen’s hand, and they became part of the throbbing mass. Amid all the flailing, the guy managed to hold Jen close to him with one hand at her waist. His body heat added to the already sauna-like conditions. Balls of sweat rolled down Jen’s skin underneath her shirt, but there wasn’t a chance she’d move away from him. She lost her footing and caught herself by pressing her hand into his stomach…his taut, hard stomach. The second time she did it may have been on purpose.

  The song ended too soon, so they stayed out for another. When the crowd screamed at the first chords of a Violent Femmes song, the guy sniffed, “Posers.” and pulled Jen off the dance floor. He didn’t lead her back to David and Ellie. Instead, he took her to the opposite side of the room and lit a cigarette. Pressing it between his perfect lips, he smiled at Jen between puffs.

  He reached one of his hand
s into the short side of her sweat-damp hair. She self-consciously reached for the other side to smooth it. “You look good,” he said. His deep voice sounded almost like a growl. Leaning casually against the wall, he continued to examine Jen. Caught in his sparkling green gaze, she felt certain the wall had been built for no purpose other than to give him a place to recline so attractively.

  “Are you a CIU student?” Jen asked over the music, hoping speaking would prevent her from drooling.

  He took a puff of his cigarette. “Yeah, on the five-year plan. I’m what you call a super-senior.”

  “Oh, I’m a junior.”

  He gave a short nod of acknowledgement and kept looking at her with a small smile playing at his lips. Jen was totally out of her league with this guy. He made her nervous, and he seemed to enjoy that fact. She knew she should return his confident stare, but she wasn’t prepared for that level of flirtation. She became uneasy as their silence stretched and said the first thing that came to her. “What’s your major?”

  He didn’t answer. He simply smirked at her and took another puff on his cigarette. Jen smiled awkwardly back at him and clamped her mouth shut before she could say anything even more inane. As she racked her brain for a clever way to redeem herself, her eyes roamed the room.

  “Planning your escape?” he asked.

  “No, I was just wondering where my friends are.”

  “That’s all right—go find your little friends. You’ll be back.” He winked.

  Jen didn’t want to leave him so soon, but she could hardly stick around after such a direct dismissal. “Okay, well, see you. Thanks for the dance.” Turning to navigate through the thrashing on the dance floor, she saw Chris on the slightly elevated stage at the end of the room and went to her.

  “Oh my God!” Chris shouted the second Jen approached her. “Who was that sweet baby you were talking to?”

  Jen turned toward where she’d left him. Being a few inches higher than the main floor provided a comprehensive view of the crowd. His beautiful face stood out to her like a beacon above the sea of heads between them. She was both flattered and embarrassed to see he was still watching her. He shook two fingers in a mocking wave.

  Jen immediately flushed and turned to Chris. “Stop looking at him!”

  “I wasn’t looking at him—you were.”

  Jen calmed now that she was facing away from him. “I don’t know who he is. He knows David and Ellie.”

  Chris caned her neck, trying to peak over Jen’s shoulder.

  “Stop looking at him!” Jen shouted.

  Chris rolled her eyes. “Come on. Let’s get another beer and dance.”

  Jen passed the rest of the evening with her girlfriends, dancing to UB40, The B52s, and the Young Fresh Fellows. While she danced, she avoided looking in any direction where he might be. She hoped that if he were looking at her, he wouldn’t think she was a poser. At the end of the evening, she decided it would be a good idea to endure the endless line for the bathroom before piling into Tom’s car for the ride home.

  At the bottom of the stairs, she ran into him. He had his jacket back on over his tight body and beamed his confident, sneer-like smile on her. “Told ya you’d be back.”

  Jen looked into his dancing eyes and responded with a goofy grin. Apparently, his superpower was to make her feel and act like a complete idiot whenever he smiled at her.

  “You gonna give me your digits or what?” he asked. “You know you want to.” He nudged her with his elbow and stared her down with those gorgeous, green eyes.

  Jen felt a few brain cells snap and was relieved to know they were still in there. “You’re a clever boy. I’m sure you’ll be able to find a way to get my number if you really want it.” At last, at last! Something halfway intelligent had made its way through her lips.

  He raised his eyebrows in approval. Jen gave him a Take that! smile and walked away before his superpowers could revert her to idiocy.

  ***

  Three days after the Romans party, on Saturday, Jen’s phone buzzed. She glanced down to see the call was from David. “Hey there,” she said, picking up.

  “Hey. This is Dave.”

  Since when did he start going by Dave? she wondered, figuring it must be an Ellie thing. That girl seemed to like messing with names. “Your voice sounds weird. Do you have a cold or something?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe too much partying last night.”

  “Speaking of parties, I’ve been wanting to ask you—who was your friend the other night at Romans?”

  “Which friend?”

  “The one I was dancing with. The tall hottie with the bad boy leather coat—and the delicious abs.”

  A deep chuckle sounded from the other end. “That was me.”

  “What?”

  “I’m the guy you were dancing with. You thought this was Vid!” He laughed.

  Jen’s face warmed to what she was sure must be a bright red. “Why are you on David’s phone?”

  “When he pulled it out to read me your number, it seemed more efficient to just grab it and press.”

  “Oh.” The mix-up had put her brain into a fog. “Your name’s Dave?”

  “Yeah—Dave the bad boy with delicious abs.” Jen could hear his cocky grin through the phone and flushed even deeper. “So,” he continued, his growly voice pure temptation now that she knew who it belonged to. “You going to the Garage tonight to check out Brother Kitty?” The Garage was an empty warehouse that turned into a bar featuring punk bands on weekends. Jen had never been there before.

  “I don’t know.” She’d planned to stay in to study all weekend.

  “You should go,” Dave said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Well then, maybe I’ll see you there,” she said, knowing full well she couldn’t resist his overconfident “definitely.”

  Alone in her apartment, she let out a whoop of excitement the second she hung up. Then she madly scrolled through her contacts to beg someone to come with her to the Garage. Once securing Chris’s yes and an ID to borrow for the night, she dashed to her closet and groaned. Everything in there struck her as incredibly dorkified. She went to Kate’s closet and found a black Imagine Dragons concert shirt. Were Imagine Dragons cool enough? They’d have to be.

  Chapter 3

  Jen walked to Chris’s barn-shaped house, and they caught a ride with one of her roommates. They ditched their coats in the car and waited in line just inside the doors of the warehouse to pay the fifteen-dollar cover charge. The building was a huge, open space with beige, metal walls ribbed every few feet. At one end was a plywood stage loaded with microphones, equipment, and a maze of extension cords. A long folding table stood at the other end of the building, serving as the bar. Behind the table was a line of kegs and bartenders with Mohawks and facial piercings.

  The lighting was low, and a moderate-sized crowd populated the room. The line at the door had grown to extend outside by the time Jen and the other girls had gotten their hands stamped, so it promised to be a packed house. Jen’s eyes flicked around the warehouse, scanning for Dave.

  The situation reminded her too much of the time she’d met David to see that band last year. Their first date. She wasn’t sure whether Dave was thinking of this as a date or if he’d asked her to come tonight as a friend. She tried to convince herself that either way was fine—just as long as she didn’t end up running out of the place in horror like she had with David.

  As she and Chris walked toward the bar, she forced herself to stop looking around for Dave. If he wanted to be with her, he’d find her. Before she’d gotten across the building to the beer, she heard his now familiar growl from behind her.

  “Damn. You look good in black,” he said.

  Jen turned and saw Dave’s beautiful face smiling down on her—or rather, at her T-shirt. Kate was slim and about a B-cup, so the shirt Jen had borrowed stretched tight across her more ample breasts. Dave’s emerald eyes were firmly planted on
that particular strip of cotton.

  “You look really good in black.” He reached an arm around her waist, pulling her close.

  Jen felt starstruck in his presence. He was every bit as gorgeous as she’d idealized him in her memory. She gazed up at him as her body pressed into his. She had no words and didn’t need them. He bent his head and pressed his cool lips to hers, letting Jen know he wanted to be more than friends. Definitely. A jolt charged from her lips to the back of her knees, making her grateful for the support of his arm around her. The small, simple kiss was surprisingly powerful.

  As soon as Dave straightened, he released Jen and peeled off his studded leather jacket. “Try this on.”

  Jen didn’t hesitate to slide her arms into his warm coat. The sleeves were long on her, but the form-fitted jacket hugged her sides. She bit her bottom lip to stop from cringing at the fact that a guy’s coat fit her so well. When she glanced up at Dave, the wolfish way his eyes drank her in told her he was more than okay with it. He reached his arm over her shoulders and pulled her across the room to the side of the stage where David and Ellie stood.

  On the way, Jen looked around for Chris. She’d already disappeared into the thickening crowd. Jen knew her friend wouldn’t mind being ditched so soon. It wasn’t as if Chris hadn’t done the same thing to Jen a bazillion times before.

  “Look at your girl, Vid!” Dave announced once they’d reached David and Ellie. “Doesn’t she look amazing in leather?”

  David’s eyebrows rose, silently teasing Jen when she looked at him. She shook her head, giving her eyes a half roll. She tried to be chill but knew she must be blushing furiously.

  “Ooh, yeah,” Ellie said, stepping forward. “I’ve got a thing for leather. What do you say, Jenny?” She leaned her face toward Jen’s, looking very much as if she was going to kiss her. Jen jerked her head back, shooting a startled look at David.

  He grabbed Ellie’s arm, stopping her. “Knock it off, Ell,”

  Ellie turned a defiant glare onto David. “Guess she’s not into it.”