The Importance of Getting Revenge

by Amanda Abram

  “Omigosh,” I gasped, bringing a hand up to my mouth in faux embarrassment, when all I was actually doing was hiding the fact I was laughing. “I am so sorry!”

  Kylie frowned and glanced down once again at the stain on her shirt. But then she managed to force a strained smile onto her face as she returned her gaze to me. “It's okay.”

  I could tell by the way she spoke that it was anything but “okay”. She'd probably spent a pretty penny on that shirt.

  She turned to leave, most likely to go try and wash out some of the stain in the bathroom, but I stopped her in her tracks with one simple question.

  “Are you sorry?”

  Slowly, she turned back around. Arching an eyebrow, she said, “Excuse me?”

  “Are you sorry?” I repeated. “For stealing my boyfriend away from me?”

  A look of disbelief emerged onto her face. Glancing around at all of the kids the room, she said, “Lexi, I don't think you really want to have this conversation right now.”

  “Actually, I do.” I set down the bottle of water and the empty cup onto the counter and placed my hands on my hips. Despite the fact there were a lot of people in the room with us, not one them was paying the least bit of attention to either Kylie or me.

  She set her jaw and shook her head.

  “Okay. You want to talk about this? Fine, then. No, I'm not sorry I stole your boyfriend, because Jase was never your boyfriend. He doesn't want you. He wants me. And I'm the one he's with now, not you. So you're just gonna have to get over it and move on, because he already has.”

  My hands dropped from their place on my hips and began to form into fists at my sides. Kylie was finally showing off her not-so-soft side. Even though what she said was undoubtedly true, she was still a thoughtless bitch for expressing it all in such an unapologetic manner.

  I wanted to hit her so bad.

  But I didn't.

  Mainly because after she was done being a bitch, she turned and left the kitchen in a huff.

  I stood perfectly still for a moment, listening to her words repeat in my head, over and over. He doesn't want you, he doesn't want you, he doesn't want you.

  The party was starting to revert back to being not fun.

  Grabbing the empty cup from the counter, I glanced over at the punch bowl.

  “Hey,” I said to the guy who was currently filling his own cup with the stuff. “What's this punch spiked with?”

  “I dunno.” The boy shrugged and walked off.

  My eyes returned to the bowl and I gave a shrug of my own. “Works for me.”

  I filled the cup up halfway, and then drank all the liquid in one big gulp.

  It burned going down, but it had an aftertaste consisting of grape.

  I loved grape aftertaste.

  “Hey, Lexi, where's my water?”

  Jessica. She was behind me, and she wanted her bottle of water.

  I turned and pointed to the bottles on the counter.

  “What was taking you so long?” she asked, grabbing both of them and then handing one off to me. “I was worried maybe you had passed out along the way.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. I just got distracted pouring spiked punch all over my ex-fake-boyfriend's new girlfriend's expensive white shirt.”

  She looked a little confused at first, most likely due to the “ex-fake-boyfriend” comment, but then burst out laughing. “For real? Holy hell, good going!”

  We high-fived each other again and then I opened up my bottle of water. I was about to take a swig when I saw Zach approaching us.

  “Hey,” he said with a grin, “what did I miss?”

  “Nothing,” Jessica replied. “Nothing at all. Lexi and I have just been hanging around and talking, drinking water.”

  I snorted and then we both began to giggle.

  “What's so funny?” asked Cory, who slid up behind Jessica and kissed her on the side of her neck.

  She pushed him away, but then immediately turned to him and kissed him hard on the mouth. “Let's go dance,” she said. She then glanced over at me with a smile. “It was nice meeting you, Lexi.”

  I nodded in agreement and gave her a wave as she pulled Cory out of the kitchen.

  “I take it you two got along okay?” Zach asked. “I had a feeling you might like her. She reminds me a little of you, but with a bit more attitude. And I have no idea why she is dating Cory. He doesn't seem like the type of guy she could tolerate on a regular basis.”

  “You can't always choose who you fall for,” I said glumly, thinking about Jase. But then that fun feeling I'd had earlier began to sink in again. “Hey, you want to go dance?”

  He seemed surprised that I'd suggested that. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

  “Awesome.” I set my bottle of water back onto the counter and grabbed his hand.

  Dancing was actually the last thing I felt like doing. I had already done enough of that with Jessica.

  No, I wanted to do something more adventurous. More interesting. I just didn't know what.

  “So, are you having a good time?” Zach yelled down to me as we pushed our way through the crowd.

  “I am.” But as usual, I spoke too soon.

  My line of vision landed near the fireplace, where Jase and Kylie stood, their arms around each other, Kylie smiling sweetly up at him. The skank had removed her stained blouse and now had on a rather skimpy white lacy tank top that she apparently had been wearing underneath the blouse. Somehow, the punch had failed to penetrate through to her underclothes, so she looked as good as new.

  If not better.

  And then, Jase kissed her. And she kissed back.

  I realized then what I wanted to do.

  I wanted to kiss someone, the way Jase was kissing Kylie. Hell, I wanted to engage in a full-on makeout session, and I didn't care who it was with.

  Of course, Zach was the most logical choice. Not only was he the one currently standing beside me, but he was also my date.

  So I turned to him, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Would it be okay if I kissed you?”

  He gaped at me, as though he couldn't believe I'd just asked him that. “Huh?”

  I gave him no time to think it over. I gave him no time to try and make sure he'd heard me right. Lifting myself up on my tiptoes, I firmly pressed my lips against his.

  He froze. So did I.

  Oh my God, what was I doing? I was kissing Zach O'Connor! Sorta. I mean, our lips were touching, but neither one of us made any attempt to actually start the kissing part.

  Do something, Lexi! a voice inside my head demanded. Either let go of him, or grab him by the back of the neck and proceed to kiss his brains out! You have do something. There's no going back now!

  The voice inside my head was absolutely right. I had to do something. And since letting go of him at this point would have been pretty lame, I decided to go with the “kissing his brains out” option, since it seemed like more fun.

  As soon as I wrapped my arms around his neck, Zach finally began to respond. Slipping his arms firmly around my back, he pulled me in closer and started to kiss me, much like he had during that Spin the Bottle game a couple of weeks ago. He had been a good kisser then, but he was even better now that he was sober.

  But sadly, it all ended a lot sooner than I'd hoped it would when Zach's hands moved to my shoulders and he pried me off of him.

  The first thing I did when we parted was glance back over in the direction of the fireplace. Jase, I was delighted to note, was staring over at us with a displeased expression on his face.

  “Lexi,” a stern voice said, causing me to break eye contact with Jase.

  I blinked up at Zach, who looked just as displeased as Jase did. “What?”

  “You've been drinking, haven't you?” he asked, although he sounded like he already knew the answer.

  To lie, or not to lie, that was the question. Since he was neither my mother nor my father, I decided not to bother lying. Besides, it's hard to fool someone who's ob
viously had a lot of experiencing with alcohol.

  “Yeah. So?”

  His face twisted into a look of panic. “Oh no. Lexi, what were you thinking?”

  I shrugged. “I was thinking I felt like drinking. What's the big deal? You do it all the time. Besides, I'm not even drunk.”

  He ran a nervous hand through his hair. “You just kissed me. Can you honestly tell me you would have done that if you were sober? Shit.”

  Now that I thought about it, maybe I did feel a little drunk. I mean, the room was spinning, and had been for quite some time. “Relax, Zach. I just had a couple of Jell-O shots, and whatever the heck was in that punch.”

  His eyes widened. “You drank the punch? Oh God.”

  “What?” I asked as he grabbed my wrist. “What's wrong?”

  “A couple of Jell-O shots and 'whatever the heck was in that punch' is most likely going to catch up to you at any moment now and you'll be lucky if you're still standing when that time comes.”

  I stared up at him. He looked so totally serious. I opened my mouth to tell him everything was going to be okay, that I apparently could hold my liquor quite well, but no words came out.

  Instead, all I did was laugh.

  I laughed. Harder than I had laughed in a long time. So hard that my sides were hurting and tears were pouring out of my eyes.

  And I couldn't stop.

  Zach muttered a few cuss words under his breath as he grabbed my arm and began to tug. He pulled me through the crowd of party goers with impressive speed. I almost couldn't keep up, especially since I was still laughing.

  Whatever the heck was in that punch was some good stuff.

  We ended up in a bedroom.

  I didn't realize it was a bedroom until he turned the light on, and then I saw the bed and I stopped laughing.

  Zach began to pace back and forth. “This is great. Just great. If anyone finds out you got yourself drunk, I'm a dead man.”

  “We're in a bedroom,” I informed him.

  Zach stopped pacing. “Yes, I know. I was the one who brought you here.”

  “Why did you bring me here?” I glanced over at the bed once again.

  “I can't let anyone see you like this,” he muttered as he started pacing again. “Has anyone seen you like this? Did anyone see you drinking?”

  “Jessica did.”

  “Right. Okay. What about Eric? Did he see you? Or Jase?”

  I thought about it. I couldn't recall anyone see me drink. “Uh...I have no idea.”

  “Then they probably didn't. If they had, they would have stopped you. Okay. This is good. That means there is a chance I can get you out of here before anyone notices you're wasted.”

  “But I'm not wasted!” I exclaimed, although it came out sounding more like, “Bumnutwasted!”

  He gave me a look that indicated he didn't believe me. “Oh yeah? Then recite the alphabet backwards.”

  That was easy. “A, b, c, d—”

  “I said backwards, Lexi.”

  “Oh.” Yeah, that wasn't as easy.

  “Okay, if you think you can act sober for, like, one whole minute, I can get us out of here with no problem, and then we can go somewhere else to sober you up. How does that sound?”

  I glanced around the room. “You want to leave? Now? But we've got this whole room to ourselves.”

  Zach's face fell as I began to saunter over to him. Reaching out, I traced a line down his chest with my finger and smiled up at him with what I was hoping was at least somewhat close to a seductive smile.

  “Um, Lexi...”

  “Shh.” I placed my finger lightly against his lips, indicating that I wanted him to stop talking.

  He took a step back, but I followed. He took another, and so did I. He kept going until his back was against the door. Until he was trapped.

  I reached up and ran my fingers through his dirty blond locks. My gaze lowered to his lips. “We don't have to leave. You can help sober me up in here.”

  And then, for the second time that night, I kissed him.

  He didn't last as long as he had for the first one.

  “No,” he said, lightly pushing me away. “I'm not going to...we're not going to...” His voice trailed off as he slipped away from my trap.

  “What's wrong?” I asked. “Is it because I'm not pretty?”

  He whipped his head around to look at me. “What? God, no. How could you say that? You're very pretty.”

  I wasn't sober enough to enjoy the compliment, even if it was just a pity compliment, anyway. “Then you have no excuse to be turning me down.”

  I made my way over to his new spot near the bed. “Zach, please. All I'm asking for is a kiss.” All I'm asking for is to feel wanted.

  “Look, I don't think—”

  But no matter how much he protested, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't take control of any of my actions. Reaching out, I placed the palm of my hands firmly on his chest and pushed. He fell back onto the bed and probably would have immediately removed himself from it, had I not jumped on top of him first, straddling his legs, trapping him once again, preventing him from moving.

  “Lexi,” he began to protest, but I shut him up by pressing my lips against his.

  He didn't fight it at first. He didn't exactly return the kiss either, but he didn't push me away. Instead, he just allowed me to kiss him. And when, slowly, he began to kiss me back, that's when his hands shot out, grabbing my arms and in one swift motion he maneuvered me so I was lying on my back and he was above me.

  He removed his lips from mine.

  “Lexi,” he said again. He pinned down my wrists at either side of my head and now I was the one who was trapped. “We're not going to do this.”

  I pushed out my lower lip in a pout. “Why not? Don't you want to?”

  He made a sound that was half-sigh, half-chuckle. “That's a stupid question. I always want to. I'm a guy.”

  “Oh.” My heart sank just a little. “So you just don't want to with me.”

  His face fell. “Aw, that's not it. Not at all. A guy would have to be a complete moron not to want to do this with you. But you're drunk. And despite my reputation, which I am sure you are well aware of, I'm not going to take advantage of that. Besides, I know you still want Holloway, and I know you're just doing this to get back at him. I won't take advantage of that, either.”

  Even in my drunken state, I recognized the sincerity in his rejection. And I knew he was absolutely right. In the past couple of days, I had come to learn that Zach was a decent guy. But this whole thing of wanting to make out with him so bad wasn't because I wanted to make out with him, but rather because I wanted to hurt Jase. And either way, I was completely and totally wasted, so any decision I made at the moment could be considered a bad one for that reason alone.

  Suddenly overcome with a overwhelming wave of gratitude, I managed to lift up my head just enough that our faces were so close I could feel his breath against my skin. “Thank you,” I said softly, and then I leaned in the remaining distance and pressed my lips to his once again in a simple “thank you” kiss.

  And that's when all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I didn't hear the door open. I guess Zach hadn't locked it. Silly him. He probably should have.

  I did, however, hear a voice. A very angry voice.

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  Zach removed himself from me immediately, but it didn't matter. The damage had been done. Whoever had walked into that room had walked in and seen something that Zach and I knew to be innocent, but to anyone else, well...

  “Jase,” Zach said. Even in my cloudy, drunken state, I could detect the fear in his voice. “I can explain.”

  Jase? I propped myself up on my elbows and glanced over at the doorway where he was standing, glaring daggers over at Zach.

  It was a good thing looks couldn't kill.

  “Lex,” Jase said, tearing his gaze away from Zach and directing it at m
e. His eyes instantly softened as he started toward me. “Are you okay?”

  “What? Yeah,” I mumbled. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and attempted to get up off it. However, as soon as I stood, I was overcome with a dizzy spell so overwhelming that all I managed to do once my feet were on solid ground was sway back and forth until I found myself being steadied and set back down on the bed by Jase himself.

  His features twisted into a scowl as he studied me. “Are you drunk?” He turned to Zach. “You got her drunk?”

  “No! I didn't, I swear. She did it on her own, when I was hanging out with Cory. I swear, I only left her alone for a few minutes, and I had no idea that—”

  Jase did not allow him to finish his sentence before swinging his fist out and connected it with Zach's face.

  “Jase, no!” I cried. I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him away from Zach, who was wiping a trickle of blood away from the corner of his mouth.

  “Dude,” Zach hissed, reaching out and giving Jase a shove with his free hand. “You need to step off. What you just walked in on—which was, by the way, not what you think you walked in on—is none of your concern. ”

  Jase shoved back. “The hell it isn't.”

  “Oh yeah? How do you figure?” Zach asked. Suddenly, he didn't seem so afraid of Jase anymore. “She's no longer your girlfriend. She's not even your friend. She wants nothing to do with you. You can't cheat on her and break her heart and still expect to be her knight in shining armor. It doesn't work that way.”

  Zach walked over to me and took my hand. “Now if you'll excuse us, I'm going to take Lexi home now.”

  He started leading me toward the door but stopped when Jase stepped in front of him, all tall and intimidating-like. “You're not taking her anywhere.”

  Zach let go of my hand and sighed. “Let us go.”

  I watched as a muscle in Jase's jaw began to twitch, but he made no attempt to move.

  “I'm warning you, Holloway. Either step aside and let us by, or I'll make you step aside.”