by Ava May
“Something wrong?” He popped the top on his beer and took a long swallow.
“N... no.” Her voice shook as she spoke.
“I just thought that maybe something was wrong. You’ve sat over here by yourself all night with that same beer.”
“I just... never go to these things.”
“Me neither.”
“Yeah right. I bet you go to two or three parties a week,” she scoffed and tried to take a drink of her beer, but the cap was still on. Her face flushed in embarrassment. That was a stupid move, she scolded herself.
“Here. Let me get that for you.” He took the beer, and using the edge of the table, popped the top off.
“Thanks.” She took the beer back and took a sip. He smiled when he saw her shiver at the bad taste. Sara noticed his grin and smiled weakly. “I don’t really even like beer.”
He laughed. “I hadn’t noticed. Let me get you something else to drink.”
The guy took her beer and headed for the kitchen. Sara couldn’t believe what was happening. She wondered if she should pinch herself just to make sure that she wasn’t asleep and in a dream. Moments later he came back with his beer and a red cup of something.
“Try this. It’s better tasting that a beer.”
She took a sip of the liquid and smiled. “It is good.”
“It’s called jungle juice.”
“Thank you...” She let the words hang in the hopes that he would tell her his name and he did.
“Dan. Dan Petrie.”
“I’m Sara.”
For the next two hours they talked about music, what metal bands they liked, and how school was going. It turned out that Dan was about to transfer to her school the following week. Sara couldn’t believe her luck. A while later, he asked her if she wanted another drink, and she almost said yes, but she happened to look at the clock. It was ten minutes until midnight and she was all of thirty minutes from home.
“I can’t. I’ve got to go. Have you seen Pam?”
“That girl you came in with?”
“Yeah, that’s her,” Sara said as she scanned the house for any sign of Pam.
“She left an hour before I came over her and started talking to you. Left with some guy named Mike or Mitch. I can’t remember which.”
“Oh shit.” Sara looked around the room for Pam one more time. “I’ve got to get home or my parents are gonna be worried sick. I wonder if Vince will let me use his phone so I can call them and they can come and pick me up?”
“No need. I’ll take you home.”
“Uh...”
“I’m good to drive. I swear. Watch. I’ll stand on one foot and touch the tip of my nose.” He leapt up off the coffee table and stood on one foot. With his left hand he reached out and touched her on the nose. “Did I touch your nose or mine?”
Sara laughed and instantly felt better. “Okay, but we have to leave now.”
“All right.”
Sara followed Dan outside and the walked toward a blue truck. She assumed the truck was his, but he veered around the bend. Maybe he has to take a leak, she thought and stood back so that she wouldn’t intrude. He walked around on the other side of the truck and looked over the bend at her.
“What are you waiting for? My bike’s right here.”
Sara’s heart dropped in her chest. Not only had she never been on a bike, she had never been on a bike with a boy she didn’t know that had been drinking. Good sense told her to turn around and go back inside so that she could call her parents, but another part of her felt that as long as she was with Dan she was safe.
She walked around the truck and saw his bike. It was a huge black and chrome thing with big pipes and a huge motor. He pushed the starter and the motorcycle roared to life. He motioned for her to climb on behind him, and to her surprise, she did. She took the helmet he offered her and placed it on her head. Once the straps were fastened, she told him that she was ready to go. He asked where she lived and she told him the directions.
“Got it!” he yelled over the sound of the motorcycles engine. “Put your arms around my waist and we’ll get going.”
She was glad for the helmet as she placed her arms around his waist. Her face blushed, and by the feel of it, she was sure that she looked something like Rudolph at the moment. His abs were hard against her hands as he gunned the bike and pulled out onto the highway. She had visions the whole ride home about what it would feel like to touch those abs without a shirt in between them and her hands. His hair was blown out behind him by the wind, and to Sara he looked the part of the bad boy. The wind was cool against her face, so she nuzzled into his shoulders and felt that she could live there for the rest of her life.
When they pulled into her driveway her heart dropped in her chest. She had hoped that the ride would go on forever. He shut off the motorcycle and put down the kick stand so she could climb off. She swung her leg over and got off the bike. For a moment, she stood there not knowing what to say, and then she realized that she still had his helmet on. She pulled it off with a nervous laugh and handed it to him.
“Thanks.” She said.
“Not a problem.”
“How much do I owe you for gas?” She dug into her jeans pocket for money.
“Not a damn thing.” He smiled. “I offered to take you home. If I would have wanted money I would have told you. What you can do to repay me is tell me how the hell I get to Scottsdale from here.”
She gave him the directions and he started his motorcycle up. As he pulled out of the driveway she stood and waved like an idiot. For a long time after he had left, she stood and stared off in the direction that he had went, thinking about what it would have been like for him to have kissed her. Her mother came out in her night gown and ushered her inside with a thousand different questions about how the night went and who her new friend was.
****
Dan started going to her school a few days later and for the first week she tried to keep her distance, but fate or something had another idea. No matter how hard she tried to avoid him, they always seemed to end up in the same place at the same time. It just happened to turn out that he had the same gym class as her. She pretended not to notice him at first, but he came right up to her with a smile on his face.
She wanted so badly for him to ask her out, but he never did. He would invite her over to his house to study or play video games; he would take her out so they could listen to music and cruise in his car. But he never once asked her on a date. Sure, they ate food when they were out and she would pretend that they were dating when other people looked at them, but deep down in her heart, she knew that she was just one of the boys to him. She wondered sometimes if he even saw her as a woman.
Over the next year of high school, she watched him take out girl after girl. All of the girls in school wanted him and many of them had him. He took Cindy Cantwell to the senior prom. Sara pretended to be sick and stayed home. When she didn’t go to the prom that night, Dan left his date alone and came to her house to see if she was alright. He told her that he thought she might have gotten into a wreck or something, and after some sweet-talking, he got her to go to the prom with him. His date was pissed when he got back, but he told her to buzz off. Sara’s heart soared when he said that, but his next words made it come crashing back down to reality. He told Cindy that his friend wasn’t feeling so hot and he’d chose friends over a woman anytime. Although she felt even worse than she had before she went to prom, Sara danced with Dan for a few of the songs and tried to put on a happy face. She knew that he wasn’t buying it, but she just didn’t have the energy to try any harder.
When they graduated, Dan didn’t go to college, so she didn’t have to bear with him leaving her. She knew that she would never have him in any way other than a friend, but she would be damned if she was going to let him out of her sight. Right away, he began to invent things. Things that changed the world—and seemingly overnight, he went from a bad boy with a motorcycle, to a millionaire with any
thing he ever wanted, with a different beautiful woman on his arm every night.
Through it all, Sara endured, and they stayed the best of friends. Sometimes, like now, she thinks back to the night that they met and wonders if life would have been simpler if they would have never met, if Pam wouldn’t have ditched her and left her with no way home. She is sure that life would have been simpler, but it wouldn’t have been as fun. Even with the years of torment, heartache, and wondering why he wouldn’t ask her out, she still wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Chapter 3
Sara can feel the drinks starting to hit her as she takes another sip of her Purple Thunder. Across from her, Dan is head-banging to the song blasting from the speakers. On a sudden whim, he grabs up the remote for the stereo and switches it off. The sudden quiet is almost as loud in her ears as the music had been.
“You know what I was just thinking about?” he asks her.
“I didn’t know you were capable of doing something so complicated.” She grins.
“Oh, very funny. No, I’m serious.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“I was thinking about the first night we met at that party. That was years ago, but I can still close my eyes and see you sitting in that chair in the corner all by yourself. What was the guy’s name that had the party? Chuck? Harold?”
“You’re very close. It was Vince.” She chuckles. “I remember that night quite well myself. You were the ugliest man there. Imagine the horror I felt when a shadow fell over me and I looked up to see your mug standing over me.”
“Sure. Sure, but as I recall if I wouldn’t have came over to talk to you that night, you wouldn’t of had a ride home.”
“True, but you were still ugly.”
“That’s it.” Dan jumps up and leaps over the small glass table between them. He throws his fists in the air and starts to move them about like an old Irish boxer while he shuffles his feet quickly back and forth. “Let’s do this.”
Sara aims a punch at him that misses on purpose. “Go sit down before you get hurt, Irishman.”
Using his best Irish accent he places his hands on his hips and speaks. “What do ya mean b’fore I get meself hurt? I’ll tear ya in half in the blink of an eye. Now what do ya say to a wee bit of food to take the sting from the devil’s nectar?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
“Good. Because I don’t know about you, but those drinks are starting to go to my head and I really don’t enjoy passing out this early in the evening.”
“Me neither,” agrees Sara as she stands from the couch. “I always try to make it a point not to pass out from drinking until the sun has set.”
“Good rule.”
They make their way to the kitchen, and even though Sara has been in it a thousand times, she once again can’t believe the space. Dan’s kitchen alone is nearly as big as the whole apartment that she lives in downtown. He has offered for her to move in here and take one of the floors that he doesn’t use for research and development, but she has refused every time. She has her feelings for him under control now, and she doesn’t want to know what would happen if she moved in with him.
He opens the fridge and looks around for a moment, his back to her. Even though she doesn’t want to, Sara checks out his butt, and finds that it is every bit as sculpted as it was the first night that she saw him. She bets that his abs are just as hard too. So deep is she in thought about how his body would feel under the touch of her hands that she doesn’t hear him when he speaks. She jerks when she realizes that he is speaking.
“What? I was zoned out.”
“I noticed,” he says. “I said that we might have a problem. I know I spoke big about what we could cook and have for supper, but it appears that I may have wrote a check with my mouth that my refrigerator can’t cash.”
He steps aside, and right away she can see what he is talking about. The only things inside his fridge are beer, various juices, four or five bottles of hard liquor, and a bottle of ketchup. Not exactly the ingredients for a great meal.
“I see what you mean. What do you have in your cabinets?”
He goes down through his line of cabinets and opens them one by one. In the end, the only food that he finds is a box of macaroni noodles with the cheese packet missing, and a can of dried tomatoes that are were well past the expiration date a few years ago.
“It would seem that I haven’t been shopping in some time, wouldn’t it?” He grins and holds up the box of macaroni noodles and the can of dried tomatoes. “These seem to be all I have and I don’t think anything in my fridge is going to help.”
“I believe you’re right on that one.” She takes the macaroni and looks it over. “Unless you like macaroni boiling in vodka with some ketchup for flavoring.”
“Yum, my favorite.” He takes he macaroni and tomatoes and throws them in the trash can. “How about instead of a fancy meal cooked here, I order out and get an even fancier—and let’s face the facts—better tasting one brought here?”
“Okay.”
“How does Italian sound?”
“I love pizza.”
“Me too. Will two large pizzas be enough?”
“I should hope so.”
Dan pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and hits a number. He didn’t dial, so Sara assumes that he has the pizza place on speed dial as she wanders off to look at some of his artifacts. She has always found them amazing to look at and she thinks that it might help her get her mind off of Dan and his toned body. Ever since she first came here, she has found the artifacts to be purely awesome. She likes to look at them and think about the people who used or made them. What were they like? Most scientists don’t think of the cultural artifacts in those terms. They merely want to know what it was used for and how it was made. For Sara, she wants to know about the people who used and made it. She stops in front of a mask hanging inside a glass case. The plaque at the bottom says that it is a Hopi Indian mask from the fourteenth century.
She wonders about what the people who used this mask were like, but seconds later, she finds herself wondering what Dan would look like without his clothes on. Dang, it Sara, she scolds herself. It has been nearly fourteen years since you felt anything for him other than a passing fancy. Why bring it up now? She isn’t sure why, but tonight, she can’t stop thinking about him. I’ll just eat some pizza and then make an excuse to leave early. I’ll say I’m having feminine problems. That usually works.
“Hey!” Dan calls from the living room. When she appears he continues. “What kind of toppings do you want?”
“Everything. Supreme, baby.”
Dan grins and uncovers the phone with his hand. “That’ll be one meat lovers and one supreme, baby. Yep. All right. See you then.” He hangs up the phone.
“Seems that you order from them quite often.” She observes.
“Not really.”
“You had them on speed dial and you didn’t even have to give them your address so they would know where to bring it.”
“I like pizza.” He shrugs his shoulders and they both laugh. “How about another drink? The pizza won’t be here for at least thirty minutes.”
“I could go for another of your Purple Thunders.”
“Coming right up.”
Sara sits back down on the couch and waits for Dan to come back with the drinks. When he returns from the kitchen, he hands her the drink, but instead of sitting down across from her, he sits down on the couch, right next to her. With him sitting this close to her, she begins to feel a little uncomfortable. Trying to play it off like nothing is wrong, she takes a long swallow of her drink before sitting it down on the table.
“I know that you’ve always had a thing for me.”
Chapter 4
Dan’s words come out of nowhere, and at first, Sara isn’t even sure that she heard him correctly. For a stunned moment, she sits quietly. She turns to him with as blank of an expression on her face as she can muster.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me, Sara. I said that I knew you’ve always had a thing for me. Didn’t you?”
“I...” She isn’t sure how to answer, so she decides to go with the truth. “I did. Once, but I’ve realized that you would never go for someone like me.”
“Maybe once.” He places his hand under her chin and turns her head so that she is facing him. “That was when I was young and stupid, Sara. I’ve been looking for love all this time, but I have just now realized that I could do no better than the one that is sitting right in front of me. You’ve always been there for me. Always.”
“You... you don’t know what you’re saying, Dan. You’re drunk.”
“No, I’m not. I’ve never been clearer in my whole life.”
“Is this some kind of joke? If it is, I’m not amused in the slightest.” She pulls away from him, but he grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her back around. Before she can say another word, he takes her by the sides of the face and kisses her. She resists at first because she is sure that somehow this is a joke at her expense, but after a second of his lips on hers, the feelings that she has felt for years overcome her and she kisses him back. Her tongue plays with his as they make out. Her hands rove over his sculpted body and she relishes the feel of his hard muscles. They feel exactly the same as they did the night she held onto him when they were younger and he drove her home.
As he kisses her, his hands move over her body and find their way to her ample breasts and he squeezes them gently. The squeeze brings a moan of pleasure to Sara's lips. Her tongue slips into his mouth and she tastes the drinks that they had been drinking all evening on his tongue. Her hands rove over his muscled body like they have a mind of their own. They move over his hard shoulders and down the front over his bulging pecks to his sculpted abs. Grabbing his shirt at the bottom, she pulls back from the kiss, and yanks it off in one smooth motion, baring his sculpted chest. He moves back in and she kisses him back with a hunger that she didn’t know she possessed. Her body seems to come alive, and for a moment they are almost one as their her tongue explores his mouth.