The Promise

by S. L. Jayne

  “Yep, got it! You didn’t give me your name or hers.” He said as he glanced at Rylee.

  “I’m Ava and that’s Rylee.” I smiled when I caught his eyebrow raise slightly.

  “Nice to meet you all, I’m Matt. What can I get you all to drink?”

  “I’ll have a vodka and cranberry please. What are you having, Rylee?”

  She looked up at Matt. “I’m not sure what I fancy tonight, but I do feel kind of ashamed that I let you give me an amazing screaming orgasm last time, and I didn’t even know your name!” She smirked.

  He looked at her and smirked back. “Well, now you know my name I could always give you another one so you stop feeling bad.”

  She shook her head. “Nah, I think I’ll go with wet panties this time please.”

  He opened his mouth to talk but closed it again.

  Laughing, I turned to face Rylee. “Have you finished your verbal foreplay with the guy now?!”

  I heard Sophie laugh behind me and Rylee shrugged at me.

  “Yeah, for now. You can’t blame me, Ava, he’s sexy as hell. I think he’s also one of those yes guys, the ones that if you let them look too deep into your eyes you lose all train of thought and find yourself nodding and agreeing to anything!” She smirked.

  After Matt gave us our drinks and gave Rylee a wink we all headed to the other side of the bar to the dance floor.

  “Do they have karaoke too?” Kelsie asked.

  My eyes lit up giving her a huge smile. “Yeah, that’s on the other side of the bar. Why, do you want to sing?”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “Hell yeah I do! Sophie and Rylee can join in too. Wait, we can all sing together, even the guys!” She beamed at her idea.

  We all followed behind each other through the crowd on the dance floor, it was filled wall to wall with people dancing. I looked behind me to find Sophie, I put my hand back for her to grab onto so we didn’t get lost.

  Adam’s voice boomed “This place is jumpin’!”

  We were all dancing and trying to talk over the music to each other. Lewis and Sophie were dancing together and Josh was trying to dance but was distracted by Rylee and Kelsie, they had their own little show going on with some sexy moves. Laughing, I walked over to dance closer to them when I felt Adam’s hands on my hips. He pulled me back closer to him and started dancing behind me, I wiggled my hips in time with his, dropping my head back on his chest. I feel comfortable dancing like this with Adam because I know he isn’t going to try anything, he may joke around but he’s never made a pass at me. I felt him move away from me and heard Josh laughing, turning to see where he went my mouth dropped open.

  “What the hell? He deserted me for a piece of ass!” I shook my head as I laughed, he had three girls dancing all over him.

  I turned to Josh. “He will never handle them all.”

  He shook his head and chuckled. “You’ll be surprised at what that boy can handle.”

  I made my way over to Rylee and Kelsie. “I need a drink, are you coming to the bar?”

  Rylee nodded and grabbed my hand pulling me back through the crowd, Sophie and Kelsie followed close behind us. We reached the bar and all sat on the stools.

  “We should do shots!” Rylee said in a raised voice.

  My face broke into a huge grin. “Yes!”

  Sophie and Kelsie nodded. “We’re up for that,” Kelsie said speaking for both of them.

  “We’ll need them to get Sophie on the karaoke,” I laughed.

  “Having fun girls? What drinks can I get you this time?” Matt said as he came over to serve us.

  Rylee sat up straight. “Yeah, loads of fun! We want shots this time, Tequila please.”

  Matt chuckled and shook his head, “You girls know how to have fun, don’t you?” He flashed his perfect smile. “Tequila shots coming up.”

  We had danced and drank more and more the last two hours. I turned hearing Kelsie’s voice. “Let’s find the karaoke!”

  Throwing my hands up in the air, I shouted. “Whoop, let’s go sing our hearts out!”

  We were waiting our turn deciding on songs. “We should do pink,” Kelsie suggested.

  “I don’t mind what we do, you can all choose and I’ll just sing whatever you pick,” I nodded.

  After we had belted out a few songs, Adam and Lewis and Josh joined us.

  “We want to sing too! Boys versus girls,” Adam said as he grabbed the microphone out of my hand.

  I turned to face him and frowned. “How can we do that? We are one guy short.”

  Rylee rushed over to us. “I have an idea! Hold on, I’ll be back.”

  She marched off in the direction of the bar. Less than five minutes later she made her way back, hand in hand with Matt and a huge smile on her face.

  I gave her a suspicious look. “What did you bribe him with?”

  She looked at me with a guilty look on her face. “I just told him that we needed an extra guy,” she shrugged one shoulder, “oh and I kind of added in that there may be a chance for him to have your number too,” she said laughing.

  My eyes went wide and my mouth fell open. “Oh my god, RYLEE!! Why would you do that?”

  “Well, I couldn’t offer mine because I don’t give guys my number, remember?” She said through her laughter and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

  “You’re so going to pay for this!” I said shaking my head.

  Kelsie asked Adam what song he had in mind for us all.

  “I think we should do Don’t Stop Believing,” he suggested.

  She shot him an amused look. “What, Glee style?”

  He smirked at her. “No, Adam style.”

  I pursed my lips to hold in my laugh. “Um, Adam, do you watch Glee?”

  “NO! I’ve seen it once!”

  He’s so full of shit.

  Josh’s laughter boomed from behind me.

  Adam turned to Josh. “Don’t laugh, dickwad. I know you’ve seen it too.”

  Josh shook his head and grinned. “Not for the same reason as you. You watch it because you like it, I only watched it because I was onto a winner with the girl!”

  That earned him a slap on the shoulder from Sophie.

  We all screamed and laughed our way through the song, I noticed Matt’s eyes kept wandering towards Rylee as he was singing his parts. I wondered if he agreed to have my number as a way to get into Rylee’s panties because you’d have to be blind to miss the look in his eyes.

  Lewis and Josh’s laughter echoed around catching our attention. We all spun around to see Adam up on a chair busting his moves to Rock DJ.

  I laughed and shouted. “Woohoo, show us what you’ve got, Adam!”

  He started bopping his head to the beat and singing along while undoing his shirt.

  Rylee gasped and burst out laughing beside me. “I can’t believe he’s doing a strip show! This song is perfect for him!”

  Adam had his shirt off by the middle of the song and was now starting on his jeans. I turned to the girls and started shouting “Off. Off. Off.” They joined in and he was laughing hard at our chants. By the end of the song he had his jeans off and had thrown them at a girl in the crowd that had gathered around to watch the Adam show. I watched as he gave a bow and then shouted over to Matt for shots.

  Matt laughed and shook his head. “I don’t think you need any shots, dude. I dread to think what you’d do after having those, you’ve already got your clothes off after a few beers!”

  I spotted Rylee being held up by Sophie and I knew it was time to get her home. “Right guys, I think we should head back to the apartment now. Ry looks like she’s had enough for one night, and I don’t want Adam getting arrested for indecent exposure!”

  Matt came over to me and grinned, he really is too hot for his own good. “You owe me something.”

  I raised my eyebrow. “I do?”

  “Yeah. Rylee said I could get your number if I sang with you all. I would brush it off seeing as I had a blast with you guys, but I
can’t because I know I have to find a way to talk to Rylee, and you’re my best shot,” he winked.

  I knew he liked her!

  I smiled my sweetest smile. “Okay. I’ll give you my number, but I’ll warn you now she doesn’t date and she doesn’t get close.

  He gave me a slight nod and grinned, “I’ll tread carefully. I don’t want to scare her off.”

  We exchanged numbers and I made my way back to the guys.

  “Come on, Ry, hold on to me,” Putting my arm around her waist she draped her arm over my far shoulder and rested her head on my other one. Lewis held open the door for us to walk through. I smiled at him. “Thanks. Let’s get her into that cab.”

  Rylee lifted her head slightly. “I’m sure I just saw Ryan heading to the bathrooms.”

  I could only just make out what she was saying through her mumbling. “You’re drunk, Ry. Ryan isn’t in San Diego.”

  I don’t want to talk about him with a drunk Rylee. “The guy had great hair like Ryan’s.”

  I shook my head knowing that drunk or not she had probably just had the same thought as I did from one of our movie nights when we were around ten years old.

  We walked out of the school gates together to meet our moms.

  Rylee turned to me. “Don’t forget its movie night, Ava. Remind your mom when we get out of here, and then Nate can’t stop me because it’s already planned with my mom and yours.”

  “I haven’t forgotten, I will remind her but I know she would have remembered too. You missed the last one, Rylee, he won’t make you miss another one.”

  I grabbed Rylee’s hand and pulled her through the crowd to get to the gates. I saw our moms standing next to each other and steered us towards them. “Hi, Mom. Its movie night, what time should Rylee come over?”

  My mom flashed me her nicest smile, “I know its movie night, sweetie. I was just talking to Lexi about it, she will bring Rylee round at 4:30 so she can have dinner with you too.”

  I smiled up at my mom and Lexi. “Thank you, Mom.”

  I turned to Rylee and saw her huge smile, I gave her one back. “See you soon. We will have macaroni and cheese for dinner.”

  “Okay, that’s my favorite. See you soon.”

  After dinner we settled on the couch with our chocolate fudge brownie ice-cream and started watching The Princess Diaries. It was Rylee’s favorite movie this month, she always changed her mind.

  Rylee whispered next to me. “Why did you tell Ryan to go away today at recess?”

  I shrugged. “Because he kept asking me why I go red when he smiles at me.”

  She giggled. “That’s because you think he has ‘the best hair ever’ and a cute smile.”

  I nudged her arm with my elbow. “Shhh, Rylee, don’t ever tell anyone that I said that. The boys will make fun of me if they find out.”

  She brought her fingers up to her mouth and swiped them across her lips. “My mouth is zipped, Ava. I won’t tell.”

  I held out my pinky finger. “Promise?” She hooked hers around mine and nodded. “Pinky Promise.”

  Chapter Five

  After waking up mid-morning, with very fragile heads we all gathered in the kitchen for coffee, speaking with hushed voices we planned our day ahead. Kelsie suggested shopping but that idea was frowned upon by the boys so Rylee suggested we check out the beach, that idea was a winner all round. We could sunbathe and the guys could chill out and enjoy the view of other girls pretty much wearing only their underwear. After a few coffees we all felt slightly more human so we got ready and headed to the beach for the afternoon.

  Adam and Josh were digging a hole in the sand to put Lewis in while the girls and I watched in amusement.

  Rylee turned to me. “This place is like heaven, it’s beautiful.”

  I sighed. “I totally agree, we have to come here more often.”

  I turned towards Sophie when I heard her giggle. “Look to your right, the sights aren’t all that bad either,” she winked.

  Turning my head looking around so I didn’t look obvious, my heart stopped at the sight of three shirtless guys that looked like they just stepped out of a magazine. They were all tall but two of them were blonde and one had dark blonde/brown hair, their bodies were tight with muscle and shiny from being in the water.

  Hot damn!

  I swallowed hard and turned back to face the girls. “Wow, they breed them well here don’t they? The one in the middle looks like a real life action man, the other two look pretty real though.”

  They all laughed. Kelsie put her hand in the air and started waving. I looked over to see who was there, my eyes went wide when I saw that she was in fact waving at the three guys, and they were waving back.

  “KELSIE! What are you thinking?!” I lowered my head and brought my hand up to my forehead, hiding my embarrassment.

  She looked at me innocently. “They waved first! It’s only polite to wave back. I think they caught you eye fucking them though.”

  “I was not eye fucking them! I was simply enjoying the view,” I giggled.

  Adam and Josh had Lewis at least four foot deep now. “How much deeper are you going to bury him?” I shouted to them.

  Josh turned to me. “I don’t know, he’s still talking so I guess when we can’t hear him anymore then we’ll know he’s deep enough.”

  I shook my head and laughed. “You two are evil to him, I’m surprised he even associates with you.”

  Adam laughed and shouted over Lewis’ protests. “His life would be boring without us and he knows it!”

  “I’m not sure I agree, dude. I would never have been mortified in the movie theatre that time you pantsed me in front of everyone! That has to be a friendship deal breaker right there!” Lewis said.

  Adam and Josh burst out laughing.

  Adam tried to talk. “That shit was hilarious! I’ve never- “

  Josh cut him off. “Dude, come on you have to admit it was the funniest ever. Especially when those girls asked you if you were cold!”

  Adam was bending over laughing. “It was your own fault for wearing sweatpants.”

  The girls and I were laughing so hard my stomach hurt. We turned over to soak up some sun, leaving the guys to their own devices.

  Adam came running over, I could tell by the huge smile on his face that he was excited about something. “You won’t BELIEVE the text I just got!”

  I looked up at him. “Don’t tell me, a girl has told you you’re the best she’s ever had?!”

  He cocked his head to the side. “Come on, Ava. We all know I’m the best every girl has had.”

  I burst out laughing shaking my head.

  “Anyway, the text I got was from Callum. He knows people who know people and has managed to hook us all up with tickets to get into a new club that is having their opening night here in Vista tomorrow night!” He was talking so fast I just about managed to keep up.

  I nodded. “Okay, cool. So that’s what has you almost peeing yourself with excitement?”

  He laughed. “No I’m almost peeing my pants because we have VIP tickets to meet Inside Noise, the band that are playing. They are my favorite!”

  My eyebrows shot up. “That’s awesome, but you know we’re not into rock music, right? So we can’t get excited with you.”

  He shook his head at me. “I thought all girls loved rock stars.”

  “We do. We love to look at them and fantasise about them rocking our worlds for one night. That doesn’t mean we have to listen to their music,” I gave him a big grin.

  “But you will come with us won’t you?” He gave me the puppy eyes and started to pout, “It will be a great night, I promise you.”

  Shaking my head smiling, I couldn’t say no to him when he gives me those eyes. “Yes we’ll come, but I’m warning you now, it better be a night worth remembering!”

  We soaked up the sun some more before we all decided to head back to the apartment and spend the evening with a few drinks and a movie. We were going to go back
to the bar but thought it would be best that we saved ourselves for the club tomorrow night.

  I walk through to the living room carrying the snacks and sit on the couch between Rylee and Adam making sure the bowl of pretzels was closest to me.

  “What did you guys decide on?” I asked.

  Sophie sat forward and turned towards me. “I suggested Pitch Perfect but these moody males said, and I quote “we aren’t watching a movie that will make us grow a pair of tits by the end credits.” So now we’re watching The Hangover Part III.”

  Laughing I sat back and got comfortable. My phone vibrated in my pocket alerting me I had a message. Lifting my butt up so I could reach it, I elbowed Adam by accident. “Sorry!” He didn’t realise, he was too engrossed in the movie. I looked at my screen and saw I had a text from Matt.

  Matt: Hey, Ava. It’s Matt from the bar, I thought I’d check in with you and see how you’re all feeling today. Any hangovers? Lol ;)

  Oh my god he even winks on text! I type a reply to him.

  Me: Hey, Matt. I knew it was you, you’re the only Matt in my phone lol. We felt like zombies this morning but we’re good now thanks. How are you? :)

  I glanced at Rylee to see if she was looking at my phone, she looked straight at me.

  Good one Ava, way to look discreet!

  She gave me her curious look. “Who’s that?”

  Grinning back at her, I winked. “Oh, it’s just Matt.”

  I heard her intake of breath. “What?! You didn’t tell me you had his number! When did you swap numbers?”

  She sat up straight but couldn’t hide her smile, no matter how much she bit her lip I could still see it.

  “Nosey much? Don’t act confused, you were the one that offered him my number because you won’t give guys yours.”

  She gasped. “Oh my god! I totally forgot that I did that, I’m so sorry, Ava. I didn’t think he would actually ask you for it.”

  I laughed. I can’t tell her he wanted it more for her sake than mine, he seems like a good guy and I don’t want her to ruin any chance of a friendship with him. She needs to learn she can trust guys even as friends.

  “It’s okay, Ry. I don’t mind, he seems like a cool guy to be friends with.”