Pregame

by Taylor Wade

  “Arrrrcchhheerrr!” Gabe rose from the table a little too quickly and grabbed onto the side to keep himself steady.

  “Hey, I’m Archer. You must be Brookelyn. Gabe’s told me all about you.” I looked up at Archer who was now gripping Gabe’s arm to help hold him steady. “I’m one of Gabe’s roommates so I’ll take him home and let him sleep it off.” Archer pulled Gabe’s arm around his neck to hold him up and Colin got on his other side to ease some of the weight from Archer.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Archer. Thanks for helping out.” He smiled his acknowledgement and he and Colin made their way out of the house with Gabe slumped in between them, probably passed out.

  I turned to Elle with wide eyes, grabbed her arm and ushered her outside to the keg.

  “I cannot believe that. He called me Emmy twice!” Elle threw her head back laughing. I had caught her up to speed on the whole Emmy and Wes debacle when we were in line for the bathroom but apparently Colin had already filled her in on the tension. Elle had seen Emmy around last year with Gabe but had never met Wes before, and according to Colin, he was supposed to be a senior but had to take last year off for unknown reasons, setting him back a year as a junior.

  “I would have smacked that boy right across his pretty little face. It’s not like he’d remember it, anyways. Here.” She handed me a red solo cup filled with horrible tasting beer and then filled her own cup. “Did you check your phone? Savanna sent us a group text letting us know that she left with that guy she was telling us about.”

  I reached into my pocket wondering why I didn’t feel the vibration of a new text to find that my phone was dead, of course.

  “I definitely wont ever forget this party.” I groaned, to Elle’s amusement. We walked back to the house and I was thankful to pass by my reflection on a nearby mirror to see that my makeup hadn’t started to smear and my hair was mostly as it had been when we got here aside from a few strands tangled together from the wind.

  There were two large beruit tables set up in the living room with people gathered around cheering, girls trying to distract the guys who were throwing by leaning over the table to show off their cleavage. I stood back and watched from a distance sipping on my beer as Elle ran off to find Colin to partner up with on the next game. A few minutes later they returned and took over the second table facing off against a short Asian guy and a big beefy football player. Elle was missing every shot and getting drunker with each loss and I laughed as her most recent attempt landed the ping-pong ball in the other team’s cup forcing her to drink yet again.

  “We meet again.” My head snapped to my right to see Wes glide up beside me and take a long pull from his beer, his focus on the game in front of us.

  I grimaced, disgusted by what I knew of him now and started to walk away when I felt a large, soft yet slightly calloused hand circle my arm, preventing me from walking any further. His grip was loose and nonthreatening and I knew I could easily shrug out of his hold and walk away if I wanted to. Yet I turned back and leveled him with a glare that I’m sure he’s not used to getting from any female and waited for him to speak.

  “Ah, so Gabe is already putting bugs in your ears.” He noted, my hostile expression giving me away. Even in my disgust I couldn’t help but take in the way his jeans hung low on his hips perfectly and his navy blue V-neck stretched across his chest, showing off his toned body. He wore a white ball cap backwards on his head contrasting to the darkness of his hair but complementing the depth of his blue eyes.

  As if he could see my resolve wavering, he flashed me a crooked smile that only made me remember why I hated him.

  “No bugs, just the truth. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d rather be talking to just about anyone else at this party that isn’t you.” I spun on my heels and marched off towards the bathroom, the alcohol catching up to my bladder, and did a mental fist pump for not looking back at Wes.

  FIVE

  “Where the fuck am I?!” I shouted ignoring the throbbing pain in my skull as I shot up from the bed I was lying in.

  I was still dressed in my clothes from the party, which was a good sign, but I had no clue where I was or any recollection of getting here. I looked around the bedroom that obviously belonged to a guy judging from the poster of Jessica Alba on the back of the doorframe. I stood, feeling around my pockets for my phone and was relieved to find it on the nightstand beside the bed, plugged into a charger. I opened the lock to find six text messages from Elle, the group message that Savanna had sent out earlier in the night along with three missed calls and two new voicemails. All of Elle’s texts asked me where I was and I opened up my voicemail screen to find one from Elle and another from Gabe sent at six o’clock this morning. I looked at the clock to see it was only seven-thirty, wondering why the hell I was awake so early but then decided it was a good thing considering I had no idea where I was. I clicked on Elle’s message first which she had sent while she was still at the party from the sound of the music and chatter in the background. She slurred her words letting me know that she couldn’t find me and she was heading back to Colin’s but to call if I couldn’t get a ride home. I was pissed that she had ditched me to fend for myself but judging by the way she slurred her words and giggled on the message I figured she was too drunk to think properly. I was tempted to erase Gabe’s message but found myself listening to it out of curiosity. He sounded distraught but his only words were, “beautiful…fuck, call me.” I deleted the message and took a deep breath, bracing myself for whatever I might see when I opened the bedroom door. For all I knew the door was locked from the outside and I was being held hostage by a serial rapist/murderer. I shuddered at the thought and sighed in relief when the knob turned under my hand.

  The first thing I noticed was the smell of coffee. Across from the door I had exited was another door, slightly ajar, enough so that I could see it was another bedroom. The kitchen was to my right and as I followed the scent of coffee I was surprised to find a girl standing with her back to me. She was wearing a light pink nightgown and bunny slippers, her light brown hair thrown up in a messy bun. She was mixing her coffee and humming softly to herself.

  As if she could sense my presence, she turned around and my shock continued when I found Jade, one of the few friends I had acquired in any of my classes. We were assigned to work as partners on a Psychology report and I genuinely liked her. We frequently grabbed coffee together after class but that was about it.

  “Good morning, girly! How’d ya sleep?” Jade filled a mug with coffee and slid it over to me where I sat on one of the kitchen stools. She turned to the cabinets and pulled out a bottle of Advil and slid that over too along with sweetener and cream.

  “I’m sure after last night you’re gonna need at least three of those.” She nodded to the Advil, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

  I groaned. “Please tell me where I am and how I got here.”

  Jade chuckled softly and I saw her look over my shoulder at something before turning back to me.

  “You don’t remember? I guess I’m not too surprised considering the body shots and that keg stand.”

  I choked on my coffee and wiped at it with the back of my hand as it started to spill down my chin. Jade laughed again and handed me a paper towel, which I accepted with an appreciative, if not completely embarrassed, grin.

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  I scrolled back through my memory trying to piece together the night.

  “I went outside to refill my beer. I had been watching Elle and Colin play beer-pong but then that asshole Wes came over and started talking to me. That’s the last thing I remember.” I frowned as I watched Jade’s eyes widen and her eyebrows shoot up, her lips pressed together tightly to stop herself from laughing. I heard someone clear his throat from behind me and froze. At this point, Jade could no longer control herself and laughter broke through her concealed lips.

  I turned in my seat slowly and my mouth gaped open when I came face to face wit
h a very amused, very shirtless Wes who appeared to have just woken up.

  “Hmm, ‘that asshole Wes,’ huh?” he slid onto the stool beside me and mouthed a thank you to Jade who also handed him a cup of coffee. I watched as he sipped on it without adding anything to it. “If I remember correctly, which I do, ‘that asshole Wes’ let your drunk ass sleep in his bed when no one could reach Elle or Colin and you didn’t have the keys to your apartment.”

  I was embarrassed but too stubborn to apologize. “How did I even end up with you?”

  “You kept following me around asking me to take you to bed. It was charming, really.”

  I choked on my coffee for the second time within the past ten minutes, which only caused Wes to snicker.

  “Oh, stop it, Wes. Don’t give the poor girl a heart attack. He’s joking around with you, Brookelyn. You didn’t proposition him.” I sighed a long breathe of relief and glared at Wes over the top of my mug. He still wore an amused expression. “You did take turns doing body shots off of each other, though.”

  “Yeah, you enjoyed it, too.” Because this morning wasn’t humiliating enough, Luke strolled out of the other bedroom wearing dark green athletic shorts, stretching his arms above his head fighting off a yawn. He walked over to Jade and kissed her on the cheek. “Morning, baby.”

  My mind flashed back to yesterday in the parking lot when Luke had called over to Wes mentioning something about a girl named Jade being upset with him if he was late. It clicked, then, and I scolded myself for not putting two and two together. How many other Jade’s could there be?

  “Body shots?!” Luke let out an amused hoot at my hysterics and Jade grabbed her phone from the counter, unlocked the screen and handed it over.

  My mouth gaped open as I saw the pictures Jade had taken. In the first one Wes was lying on his back on a picnic table, a lime between his lips and an amused smile playing behind it. His eyes were shifted downwards at me, with my tongue out, licking salt from his chest and gazing back up at him. People were crowded around the table watching us, as well as two other couples who were doing the same. I flipped to the second picture, which wasn’t any better. I was clearly bending down to take the lime from Wes’ lips but my hair was like a veil over our faces. If someone didn’t know we had been taking body shots than it would just look like we were making out. I groaned again, and skipped to the next picture where I was now sitting at the table with a shot glass propped between my breasts with Wes’s face moving towards it, a seductive grin playing on his lips. I took a moment to admire his smile and his perfect teeth that appeared even white against his sun-kissed skin. The fourth and last picture of the two of us consisted of me, gripping to the edges of the keg, and Wes holding up my legs with his head thrown back in laughter while people seemed to be cheering around us.

  “This. Is. So. Bad.” I wiped my hands across my face processing what I had just seen. There was proof. They weren’t just kidding around with me, I had really been doing body shots with Wes, looking happy as ever, and even doing a keg stand, two things that I had never before done in my life.

  “Don’t worry, everyone was having a good time getting to know the new chick.” Jade winked at me before adding, “I’ll send you these in case you ever feel like reminiscing.”

  Before I could respond that I can’t reminisce what I don’t actually remember, my phone vibrated on the counter beside me. I looked down, hoping to see Elle’s name lit up so that I could scold her but unfortunately it was Gabe’s name that flashed across the screen. I pressed ignore, laying my head in my hands.

  “Uh oh, trouble in paradise? Don’t worry, I wont tell your boyfriend you slept in my bed last night.” I looked up at Wes who was smirking behind his coffee mug.

  “He’s not my boyfriend, anyways, so you can wipe that smirk off of your face.” I rolled my eyes, my stomach grumbling at the smell of the eggs and bacon Luke was preparing at the stove, grateful that I wasn’t nauseous from last night.

  “He know that?”

  “I’ve made it perfectly clear, and so did he when he kept calling me your girlfriend’s name last night before his roommate had to take his ass home.” The disdain in my tone was apparent. Jade turned away from where she had her arms wrapped around Colin’s waist and peered over at me questioningly.

  “What do you mean he kept calling you Wes’ girlfriend’s name? Wes doesn’t have a girlfriend.” Before I could respond I saw a flash of recognition flash in Jade’s eyes before she turned to Wes, anger emanating from her now narrowed eyes.

  Wes held his hands up in surrender, “I’m not dating her, Jade. Fuck, chill out.”

  “You know what she did, Wes. The fact you can even stand to hook up with her knowing that is disgusting!”

  “Baby!” Luke called out as Jade stormed off to the other bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her. I looked to Wes, confused but he was busy having a stare down with Luke. Turning his back to Wes, Luke shut the flames off of the stove and pushed the pans away from the burners and followed after Jade.

  Wes stood and grabbed two plates and two forks and piled food onto the plates. Luke had made enough food to feed an army, and in that moment I was extremely grateful. Hopefully some of the grease would soak up any alcohol still in my system. Wes handed me a plate and came to sit back over beside me. I thanked him and the two of us ate in an uncomfortable silence.

  I no longer cared about my hatred of Wes from the night before after what Gabe had told me. I couldn’t hate Wes when he made sure I got home safely and gave me his bed to sleep in while he took the couch. It was considerate, something I hadn’t expected from him considering how he manipulated Emmy into cheating on Gabe with him. The more I thought about it, and after Jade’s meltdown, I started to wonder if there was more to the story.

  “So what’d Harris tell you about me to make you hate me?” he paused and smirked, “ya know, before you were drunk enough to not care?”

  The mention of Gabe made me realize that what I had been considering a nice gesture was just Wes’s way of screwing with Gabe again. Ignoring his question, I turned to him, annoyance clear in my gaze.

  “Is that really why you brought me here? Not because you had actually cared that I was drunk, with no way to get home, but really you just wanted to hurt Gabe, again, right?”

  Wes didn’t answer me, but I noticed his jaw clench and his eyes tighten as he searched my face. Irritated by his silence I repeated myself. “Right, Wes?”

  In a flash, he pushed his plate from in front of him, dropping his fork onto the plate with a loud clang and turned his body so that he was facing me directly. I fought the urge to roam his naked chest and the tattoos that swirled around his body. I wanted to know what the scrawl on his left forearm read but damnit I would not give him that satisfaction.

  He leaned towards me, and the anger that filled his gaze made me look away. He reached out and touched my chin, firmly but not roughly forcing me to look back at him.

  “I don’t give a fuck about Gabe. I brought you back here because you had no where else to go, you were Jade’s friend, and when you’re not being a stuck up bitch, you’re actually fun to be around.”

  I flinched, feeling like I’d been slapped across the face by his words. I opened my mouth to respond but closed it, not knowing if I wanted to apologize for my assumption or yell at him for calling me a stuck up bitch. Still watching me, Wes just shook his head, disgust replaced the anger that I had seen just moments ago.

  “Since you think so poorly of me, why don’t you get the fuck out of my apartment?” his words were gentler this time but I could still hear the irritation behind them. He seemed more hurt than annoyed, which only made me feel worse. I decided I was in the wrong and should apologize but before I could speak, he looked back at me and raised his eyebrows like he was wondering why I was still sitting there when he’s just kicked me out.