“Oh, like you shouldn’t know, girly? You said something in those long, rambling texts of yours about spending the night with Garrett before you flew out. And I think it’s time for the missing details.”
I feel my cheeks start to burn. “It’s not like that.”
“It’s not? You spent the night with your boyfriend, and you’re still holding onto your V-card?”
“Not exactly,” I admit.
“So was there penetration or not?” she asks with a giggle.
“I… I kind of went down on him.”
Natalie busts out laughing like I’ve just told her something hilarious. “You kind of went down on him? You either did or you didn’t!”
“I did,” I say, not wanting this to become a joke, cringing at even the idea Garrett would think I’d make fun.
“And how was it?”
I shrug. “Interesting? I don’t know. I just wasn’t ready for more.”
She lets out a sigh. “You ever going to be ready… with him I mean?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.”
“Or maybe you’re afraid. Sometimes you just have to dive into the deep end.”
“Sure,” I say, “Maybe next time.”
“You better hope you can hold out,” she says. “You get a taste, and you’re going to start fantasizing about him, and if you’re still going to the party with me tomorrow night, you better be careful.”
“About what?” I can’t believe how horrified I am at whatever she might be getting at.
“About getting drunk and sleeping with someone you shouldn’t. That’s what I did my first college party. I was still technically dating my last high school boyfriend, so you can imagine that ended pretty quick.”
“Well, that won’t happen to me,” I say, resolute, at least while I’m sitting safely in Natalie’s car.
“Famous last words,” she says with a laugh.
Other than a few texts back and forth about my Grandma’s condition, I haven’t really talked to Evan since he kissed me softly at the airport. But when Natalie drops me off at the apartment and I walk through the front door, I immediately see this giant bouquet of flowers on the coffee table with a balloon rising from them that says Welcome Home on it.
Home.
I leave my suitcase near the door and investigate further. There’s a note attached to the bouquet.
Paige,
Just in case I’m gone, I wanted to make sure you knew how glad I am you’re back. It’s actually crazy lonely sleeping in this place all by myself, and I’m glad your Grandma is better too!
Love,
Evan
I sit down on the couch and clutch the card to my heart. I didn’t expect nor did I imagine such a homecoming. And as I go through the apartment I find that he’s stocked the fridge and pantry with all my favorite foods. There’s a note attached to a bag of popcorn that says:
In case you didn’t have time to grocery shop before you got busy with things.
I call him to thank him, but it goes to voicemail, so I text him instead.
Me: Thanks for the flowers and the food… you’re adorable.
Two hours later, he replies:
Evan: You’re the adorable one. Can’t wait to see you.
While I was away, Evan started a job moving furniture like he did in Basin Lake—at least that’s what he tells me. I don’t think he really needs the money, but he apparently has a desire to prove he can support himself if he needs to. He was so exhausted Friday night that I could tell he was trying to stay awake for me, and after feeding him a dinner I made from all the groceries he’d bought, I sent him off to bed.
He’s up early and says he has to work again today. I remind him about the party tonight, and he promises he’ll be there. I certainly hope he will. Since I’ve gotten back, it feels like we might be reconnecting, and I really hope it lasts.
I do a quick four-hour shift at the coffee shop and try to get in a little studying before Natalie arrives at the apartment, two hours before the party is set to start.
“We need time to get ready,” she says and slings a garment bag over the couch.
“What is that for?” I ask, having already decided I’m going to be dressing pretty casually for this thing.
“That is for looking hot.” She unzips the bag, revealing three or four slinky dresses. “And please tell me you’ve got some heels to match these.”
“I’ve got a few,” I say.
“Perfect.”
It takes a fair amount of arguing on my part, but I at least keep Natalie from making me look like an entirely different person. I put on plenty of makeup and wear fake eyelashes like I did at prom, but I resist the extra layers of foundation and blush and eye makeup that she puts on her own face.
As far as clothing goes, I’m all for the red cocktail dress that covers only about a third of my thighs, but I tell her there’s no way I’ll be wearing the silver one she’s pushing on me that would barely even cover my ass. And while she’s almost begging me to wear the one pair of four-inch heels I have but have never worn, I opt for the slightly shorter three inch ones I’m confident I won’t teeter over in.
When the last clasps of our heels are tightened and the final dashes of fruity body spray applied, we check ourselves out in the mirror.
“Not bad,” I say, dragging my fingers along my flat-ironed, blonde locks, covering the cleavage that peeks out from my borrowed dress.
“We’re a couple of fine ass mamas,” Natalie says, her hair curled to perfection. “Let’s just hope Cara got my text and will be matching instead of showing up in one of those long sundresses she’s always wearing.”
“You’ve got this all planned out, don’t you?” I ask in a sort of wonder at how put together and sure of herself Natalie appears to be.
“It’s my thing,” she says, linking her arm into mine and leading me toward the door.
I’m hoping that the party will take my mind off of everything else and that I’ll be able to be a college girl having fun instead of worrying how my decisions are going to affect two nearly lifelong friendships. But, as I text Evan to remind him of the directions to the party, I know that will be impossible. Just the idea of seeing him again, of thinking about the flowers he gave me and the nice note, will make me reevaluate how to deal with my relationships all over again.
Natalie says we’re close when Evan texts to say he’ll be a little late, towing Marvin, Jason and the rest of his group of guy friends he’s quickly made along with him. I let him know I’ll keep an eye out for him and hope Natalie won’t somehow succeed in getting me drunk in the meantime.
When we drive up to the Silver Springs mansion, I feel like we’ve been transported into an old Hollywood movie, though I can’t be sure of the genre, definitely somewhere between a dramatic thriller and horror. It’s a giant brick house with intricate wood trim and dozens of shuttered windows. It looks to be in disrepair, one section of the railing up the large concrete steps in front missing, loose gutters and downspouts, and overgrown trees and bushes that were probably once ornate and well cared for.
“Don’t worry,” Natalie says as we enter the main reception area. “This place has electricity and running water.”
Without furniture, the house looks like a giant void, save for the people already congregating under the high cove ceilings and over the dull, stone floors.
“So, they’ll be renovating?” I ask, as we walk past a guy already doing a keg stand while his friends watch, his feet pressed against what I think are oak walls.
“That’s the plan,” Natalie says, “but I’ve heard they might tear it down too. Unless you can make it a tourist trap, nobody wants a place this big.”
No, I don’t suppose they would, and it’s a shame. As we walk further into the house, things getting noisier and the crowd growing larger, I can’t help but to imagine the people who might have lived here when it was first built and the parties they might have had, never having dreamed it wo
uld one day host a gathering for hormonal college students.
“There’s Cara.” Natalie points off toward the far corner of the ballroom we’ve just stepped into and pulls me along with her.
“Are you sure?” The girl we are moving closer to is in a pair of stilettos and a trapeze dress that doesn’t leave much of anything to the imagination.
“Yeah, it’s her,” Natalie says.
“She looks so different.” She’s nothing at all like the relaxed, sundress-loving girl I met the other day.
“Well, so do you! Until we turn twenty-one, this is our nightclub, and we won’t have much chance to dress up like this again until Halloween.”
And dressing up like this is apparently something the guys love because groups of them are watching us as we walk past. It gives me a creepy feeling, like I don’t want to end up as a statistic.
“Hey, girl!” Natalie is already hugging Cara who’s been chatting up a guy who turns his attention my way and just sort of stares, making me all kinds of uncomfortable.
“You look amazing ladies,” Cara says to us after she hugs me. “This is Chase by the way. Chase, you remember Natalie, right? And this is, ummm….”
“Paige,” I remind her.
“Paige! Ah, that’s right.” I can tell she’s already had a drink by the way she’s laughing.
“Nice to meet you.” Chase says. “Can I get you ladies a drink?” He’s tall, but not as tall as Garrett or Evan. He’s also pretty cute with his blond hair and crooked grin, but again, he doesn’t compare.
“I’ll have another one of these,” Cara says, tilting her see-through plastic cup that’s about a quarter full of an orange-red liquid.
“I’ll have the same,” Natalie adds.
When Chase looks at me, I just say, “I’m good for now.”
He shrugs and heads off, and Natalie turns to me. “I told you we’d grab an Uber after if we’re too drunk. You can totally let loose tonight.”
I haven’t had a drink in quite a while, but that’s not the reason I declined. “What if he puts something in it? Like a roofie.”
Natalie and Cara look at me like I’m insane. “A roofie?” Natalie mocks.
“Yes!” I can’t believe they aren’t taking this more seriously. “Having a guy I don’t even know get us a drink? He could put like a date-rape thing in there.”
“He won’t do that,” Natalie says.
“How do you know?”
“He’s my brother,” Cara says matter of fact.
Natalie laughs.
“Your brother?” Color me embarrassed.
“Yeah,” Cara says. “Didn’t I say that when I introduced you?”
“Nope,” I say, followed with, “Sorry, I didn’t know.”
“It’s cool,” Natalie says. “You were being smart. I mean, we know most of the guys here, but bad stuff can totally happen.”
“You were just looking out for us,” Cara adds as her brother approaches us.
“You sure you don’t want anything?” Chase asks me after dropping the drinks off with Natalie and his sister.
“I’m good for now.”
He offers a smile and begins to say something, but I don’t hear it because Natalie grabs my arm. “Let’s go mingle,” she says.
Cara and Natalie lead me through the mansion, introducing me to at least two dozen guys from all different backgrounds, some of them kind of nerdy, others with tattoos and piercings and some looking as though they’re dressed for church. What they all have in common is apparently their interest in our wardrobe because they keep looking up and down, from our legs to our cleavage and finally up to our faces. After an hour, I’ve had enough and make my escape while Natalie and Cara are both chatting up the same guy. I head into the next room, pump some beer out of a keg and text Evan to see if he’s here yet.
Me: It’s so crowded here. Where RU?
Evan: Not there yet. Just finishing up this job. Gonna pick guys up. See you soon.
Me: K.
I’m disappointed he isn’t already here but glad that he’s still coming. I sip on my beer, hating the current song the DJ is playing and consider waiting for Evan outside. But he might still be an hour off or so, and I’m not sure I want to wait in the dark by myself. With beer in hand, I retrace my steps back to the room I left Natalie and Cara in, but they’ve since moved on, leaving me alone to mill about. There’s nothing worse than being at a party with nobody to talk to and standing alone drinking. I’ve never been the kind of girl to just go up to people I don’t know and introduce myself, even if maybe I’ve seen them in a class or on the quad. So, I usually wait for them to come to me.
It doesn’t take long.
“Hey, it’s Paige, right?” Chase says, filling his cup from the keg I’d just returned to and topped my beer off from.
“Yep,” I say, checking my phone to see if it had been magically more than three minutes since Evan texted me back—it had not.
“I hear you’re from Washington State?” I didn’t notice it before, but Chase has the faintest of accents.
“Yeah, near Spokane, which is pretty much Idaho.”
“Oh, so not Seattle?” He looks at me like that’s the only city in Washington he’s ever heard of.
“I was born there,” I say, “but we moved east when I was about ten.”
“Oh, yeah? Cara and I have lived here all of our lives. It can be boring as shit, and I’m trying to talk her into going to Cali with me, but she’s scared.”
I answer Chase’s desire to move to California by reminding him of the earthquakes and wildfires and high cost of living, to which he seems undeterred. He seems as good as anyone to pass the time with while I wait for Evan or for Natalie and Cara to appear again, which seems more unlikely as the party grows larger and louder. The volume of the music had been much lower, instrumentals playing in the background, but now the guy DJing has moved on to Top 40 with the lyrics blasting and echoing through the mansion.
I finish one beer and then move on to the second. It’s too loud to really talk to Chase, and somehow in the course of the next hour I end up dancing with him instead. I’m three beers down now, making me more touchy-feely. I’ve got my arms hanging over Chase’s shoulders while he firmly holds my hips. He seems to know not to go any further than that, though I’m not sure how long that will last. I’m just really hoping to catch sight of Evan so he can cut in.
“I have a boyfriend,” I practically yell into Chase’s ear when his hand moves around to my ass.
He pulls back a bit and smiles. “Well, I have a girlfriend, but she’s at school in Chapel Hill, so you know, I can do whatever tonight. You?”
“Me what?”
“If your boyfriend isn’t here, I’m just saying I won’t tell if you don’t.”
I roll my eyes, but Chase isn’t one of those creepy, lecherous guys that tries to grind your ass on the dance floor when you’re drunk. He apparently just wants a guilt-free night of fun, but I won’t let him believe I’m after the same thing.
“I’m not going to cheat on him,” I say, “so dancing is as far as I’m going.”
He seems to think about that for a moment, then shrugs and shouts back, “That’s cool. We can just hang out.”
And then he tells me something funny, a joke about two girls and a guy without a left testicle. It’s something that would only get a rise out of me when I’ve had enough alcohol in my system to find it entertaining. And when I laugh I tilt my head to the side, and that’s when I see him.
Evan is not more than ten or fifteen feet away from me, watching me with intense scrutiny as Natalie drapes herself over him. There’s such disdain in his eyes, and I know then what he thinks he sees, but he’s wrong, so very wrong. I wave and smile so that he’ll see how innocent me dancing and laughing with Chase is, how it was only to pass the time until he arrived. But Evan doesn’t wave back. He just turns his head away from me and re-focuses his attention on Natalie.
Chase follows my eyes and takes
in the pair. “That isn’t your boyfriend, is it?” he asks.
I shake my head and say “no” so quietly that I’m not sure he can hear me.
“Because that would be really fucked up.”
Yes, to have another girl hanging all over my boyfriend would indeed be fucked up, and I’m beginning to wonder if I can ever trust Evan to be the man I’d break Garrett’s heart for. I can’t believe he’s being so childish, so reactionary, and it doesn’t sit well with me.
EVAN
“That’s Chase,” Natalie tells me, no doubt noticing the death stare I’m aiming at the guy who has his hands all over Paige.
“And who the fuck is he?” I’m still trying to recover from Natalie practically attacking me as soon as she saw me come in and then me seeing Paige nuzzled up to some jerk wad.
“Oh… he’s a guy…” She’s laughing and gripping hard to my shoulders, taking one of them off for a second just to turn my face back to her after my gaze veered to Paige.
“Just a guy?” Now I’m wondering if Paige knows him from school or just met him tonight. Either way, I’m unable to quell a feeling of jealousy.
“A cute one, right?” Natalie doesn’t even look at him, her eyes so focused on mine.
“Yeah, sure,” I say. To me, this Chase guy just looks like a tool, one of those frat, surfer wanna be guys that figures he can get laid with his decent looks. But that’s not going to happen tonight, not if I have anything to do with it. I keep an eye on Paige, not wanting to be the dick that rushes over and tears her away from another guy. She doesn’t seem to like my more protective side, so if I ever want to be more to her than just a friend, I have to chill.
I stay close to Natalie, figuring it’s not a bad idea to make sure one of Paige’s friends is taken care of. But I’m getting a little annoyed with her not so subtle hints that she’d like to leave the party, take me to her apartment and do things to me that I wouldn’t soon forget. I shrug them off, tell her she’s drunk and that she’d regret it in the morning.
She persists and kisses me. I kiss her back momentarily, maybe just to make Paige jealous—I don’t know—maybe I want to. There is no denying that Natalie is hot or that she arouses a certain physical interest in me. My relationship with Lexi had gone into a deep freeze after that first summer and early fall we had together, so I can’t lie to myself and say that I’m not tempted to do something more than just dance with a girl.
Between the Boys (The Basin Lake Series Book 1) Page 22