by Taylor Wade
I grabbed a clean towel from my laundry basket, laughing at Elle’s enthusiasm. She was like a toddler begging her mother for a popsicle.
“Yes, Ellezabeth, we can order Chinese tonight but only if you finish your homework and don’t forget to brush your teeth before bed.”
She stuck her tongue out at me. “You think you’re so funny. We’ll see who acts like a baby when I steal your fortune cookie.”
She turned from me and skipped back to the living room where she was watching an old episode of One Tree Hill, so I yelled at her retreating frame, “you wouldn’t dare! Those things predict our futures, you know!”
I heard her snicker as I walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on hot, and finally let my tears fall down my face, crying for Jade, for the sister she lost, and for the girl that I used to be.
SEVEN
Dusty’s was just as busy as usual, college students lining the walls and crowding the dance floor. Jade had texted me to let me know that she was running a little late so I grabbed Elle’s hand and searched for an empty table, leading her with me over to the one that I found. Colin had come with a few of his fraternity brothers and so when he saw us he disbanded from his group and made his way over to the table, wrapping his arms around Elle.
“The bar is packed tonight, you can barely get the bartender’s attention. I’ll go grab what you girls want.”
“I’m sticking with water tonight,” Elle made a face, “I have a ton of work to do tomorrow! I can’t be dealing with a hangover.”
“Okay, fine! The usual, baby.” Colin chuckled. Elle always ordered the same drink when we went to out.
We gossiped for a few minutes as we waited for Colin to come back. I noticed Jade walk in and search around so I stood up and waved my arms until she noticed me. She said something to Luke who was plastered to her side and he nodded, making his way over to the packed bar. I contained my frown when I noticed that Wes wasn’t with them.
Colin got back to the table with Elle’s Sex On The Beach and my iced water at the same time that Jade maneuvered her way over to us.
“I swear, you’d think this was the only bar in town.” Jade sat down at an empty seat and brushed her hair over a shoulder, fanning herself with her hand.
“Did Wes come with you?” I kicked Elle under the table but unfortunately ended up getting Jade’s shin. She winced before turning to me with a grin, her eyes narrowed. I looked away, pretending to survey the crown as I sipped my water.
I heard her snicker, “He drove tonight. He’s just parking the car.”
I looked up when I heard Elle clapping, a goofy grin on her face. Colin sat beside her looking amused but shaking his head at his girlfriend’s matchmaking.
“Hey, Brooke, what did that fortune cookie say last night? I forget.” I glared at Elle, knowing she did not forget what it said considering she’s been repeating it to me all day. Jade and Colin looked confused but neither of us enlightened them. The fortune had said, ‘you will soon let your future overcome your past.’ Elle had been convinced that it was the universe’s way of telling me I needed to open up my heart but I wasn’t so sure.
Luke got back to the table with a couple of drinks and took a seat next to Jade. I had my attention on Luke as he told us a funny story about one of his professors and so I didn’t notice when Wes got to the table and took the last empty chair beside me. I looked at Elle, confused by her excited expression before getting a whiff of an amazing scent of cologne. I looked to my right and found Wes wearing a similar outfit to when I had first spotted him outside of Dusty’s a few weeks back. He finished typing out a message on his phone and let out a frustrating sigh before looking up at me and flashing me his signature grin.
“Water, tonight? Does that mean I’ll have to find a new partner for body shots?” Elle, who was listening closely to our conversation, choked on her beverage. I shot her a look telling her to cut it out so she reluctantly turned back to Luke’s story, with Colin pitching in his own stories of the same professor.
“Dance with me.”
“No way! I’m too sober to act like I like you,” I smiled, letting him know that I wasn’t serious. “Besides, I’ve been threatened to stay away from you.”
Jade, hearing the last part of our conversation turned to Wes and gave him a murderous glare but didn’t say anything.
“What? Are you talking about Emmy?” Neither of us said anything, which was all of the confirmation that Wes needed. He tensed, and I saw the muscles working under his jaw. “I’m not with her.” He looked to Jade and gave her a pointed look, “and I never will be.”
Jade seemed satisfied with his answer and gave him a single nod, turning back to Luke and nuzzling into his side.
A warm, slightly calloused hand took hold of mine and I felt myself being pulled up from the table.
“What are you doing?! Let me go, Wes.”
“C’mon, Brookelyn, just one dance.” He pleaded, excitement in the depths of his blue eyes. I wanted to pull away from him and tell him to find somebody else to dance with but I knew that I didn’t want to watch him dance with another girl, which was ridiculous thinking on my part. I stopped fighting myself and let him pull me to the dance floor. I couldn’t deny that I was looking forward to feeling his body against mine. There was something about being near Wes that made my heart do crazy things. I had never felt electrified when I was with Gabe, even when he kissed me, like I did when I was near Wes. It was something I couldn’t explain.
I shot a glance back at the table to find Elle giving me that excited grin. I rolled my eyes and flipped her off which only made her giggle in response.
The song was mild paced and Wes grabbed my hips pulling me into him so that our bodies were close. I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked up at him as we moved together. He smiled down at me and I found a sense of peacefulness in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before. I was captivated by the way that the blueness of his eyes lightened in color as he stared down at me. Our bodies fit together like they belonged and I shuddered at the feeling of his chest against mine. I bent my head and rested my forehead on his chest and he lowered his own head, so that it rested gently on mine.
We danced like this through the rest of the song until the music melted into a faster tempo. He pulled away from me and turned me around, his hands never leaving his firm grasp on my hips. Our rhythm picked up, my back to his chest, our hips moving together to the beat of the music. I laced my fingers through his and closed my eyes. It’d been so long since I had danced with anyone like this that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed feeling the closeness of another body as we moved together as one.
By the fourth song I could feel my skin start to glisten as sweat beaded on my skin. I could feel Wes’s reaction to our dancing as our hips grinded together and I found myself smiling that I could elicit that kind of reaction from him.
We continued to dance through another song when Wes bent his head down to my ear; his breathe created goose bumps on my skin as he whispered to me.
“I need a smoke. Come outside with me.”
I nodded and allowed him to interlace his fingers with mine as he leaded us to the front entrance of the bar. There were about a dozen other smokers lingering in conversation and a few of them acknowledged Wes. I was surprised that he stayed by me instead of joining his friends. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his pack, lighting a cigarette. He held the pack to me, offering me one but I shook my head. I had tried one freshman year upon Jesse’s insistence but I didn’t like the way the smoke in my lungs made me cough.
Watching him exhale the smoke through his mouth I decided to ask him the question that had been bothering me this past week.
“At the party you said something about Gabe putting bugs in my ears.” Wes visibly tensed at the mention of Gabe, but nodded, taking another drag.
“So, if what Gabe told me wasn’t what had really happened, what did?”
Wes was silent for a minute, clearly gatheri
ng his thoughts. He opened his mouth to speak but the moment was interrupted by an angry snarl to our left.
I froze, and we both turned to face Gabe.
“Get the fuck away from her, Walker.”
Wes’s body was like a statue. I could feel the tension radiating off of him and I hated seeing that his eyes darkened.
Gabe was heading towards us, and stopped in front of me, angling his body so that he was half shielding me from Wes. I instantly grew irritated at Gabe’s possessive behavior. I hadn’t spoken to him since the party, and even before that, we had never had a serious relationship. I pushed Gabe lightly so that he was no longer blocking me, and he looked down at me with his eyes narrowed. Before Wes or I cold speak he opened his mouth again, interrupting us both.
“Really, Brookelyn? After everything you now know, you’re out here with him?”
“What exactly does she know Gabe? What lies did you tell her, too?” Wes stepped forward and leaned into Gabe’s face but Gabe didn’t flinch.
“I told her the truth. That you’re a worthless piece of shit that does whatever the fuck you want not caring who you hurt in the process.” I had never heard Gabe speak with so much malice, not even when he had told me the story of what happened between Wes and Emmy at the fraternity party. I took a step back, distancing myself from the malevolence emanating from the two men.
Wes’s jaw clenched even tighter and he spoke evenly, his words clear yet haunting. “Walk away now, Harris, before I put my fist through that big mouth of yours.”
Gabe snickered in disgust and turned to look at me before refocusing on Wes. The look that he shot my way kept me frozen in place and a cold sweat broke out on my skin. His eyes reflected that same hatred that I saw every single night for the last eight months, every time that I closed my eyes.
He looked down at where I lied, crouched in the corner in a fetal position. He leveled me with a glare full of so much hatred that I whimpered, afraid of what might come next.
“You stupid bitch.” He inched closer to me and I tried to make myself as small as possible wishing that I could just disappear. “Get up.”
I whimpered again but my fear kept me frozen in place. I couldn’t have moved if I had wanted to.
“I said, GET UP!!”
The next instant I was being pulled from my place on the ground, a sob breaking through my lips, as I willed myself not to scream. Screaming only made it worse.
I snapped out of my thoughts and refocused on the two men in front of me, standing toe to toe. Wes had a couple of inches on Gabe but that didn’t cause him to back down.
“Tell her whatever you want. If she’s stupid enough to believe you than you two deserve each other.” I flinched as if I’d been slapped. I could tell by the slight slur to his words that Gabe was drunk again but I wouldn’t excuse his hurtful words because of it.
Wes took one last drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke into Gabe’s face. He blinked as he smoke touched his eyes but I could tell that he was trying his best to not let Wes see that he was affected.
Wes flicked the butt to the ground and crushed it with his shoe.
“I’d watch what comes out of your mouth next if I were you.” Wes’s words held a threat that Gabe only seemed to find amusing in his drunken state. He laughed once, harshly and took a step back from Wes. I let out a breath, relieved that he was walking away.
As soon as I felt myself relax a little bit, Gabe swung his gaze back to me, his eyes narrowed.
“If I had known that you’d wanted to be treated like a whore than I’d have pointed you in his direction weeks ago.”
I gasped at both the harshness of his words and the sudden flash of movement as Wes grabbed Gabe by the front of his shirt and pulled his face to his with his fist gripping the fabric of Gabe’s long sleeved t-shirt.
“You disrespectful sonovabitch!” Wes yelled in his face, the veins in his neck pulsing through his anger. Gabe now looked shocked, unsuspecting of Wes’s sudden attack.
As quickly as he had grabbed him, Wes let Gabe go and threw a fast punch to his jaw causing Gabe to fall backwards onto his backside. I flew my hands to my mouth at the scene. Wes shook his hand and winced from the impact. I saw a trickle of blood pour from Gabe’s lip where he sat on the pavement.
Wes backed away from him, satisfied, and I tensed again as I saw Gabe bring himself to a standing position, ready to fight back. At that same moment I saw Archer come through the doors and head towards Gabe, holding him back as Wes just smirked. Archer took in the scene and just shook his head, both annoyed and accustomed to the two men’s constant battling.
Gabe yelled back at Wes, promising retribution as Archer dragged him towards his Mercedes, with the help of another guy who had followed out of the bar after Archer.
Wes turned back to me once they were gone and placed both of his hands on each sides of my face, searching my eyes with his own.
“Are you okay?” He whispered. I was still too shocked by everything that had transpired to properly form words and so I just nodded my head, willing away the tears that I could feel forming behind my eyes. At the same time that I forced myself to calm down, I found my heart hammering in my chest at the closeness of our faces and the feeling of his hands on my face in a tender caress. I accepted the fact that I wanted Wes to kiss me.
Wes sighed and took a step back from me and I was surprised to see a remorseful expression on his face.
“I’m sorry I let him talk to you like that.”
I laughed once, disappointed by the space he had put between us. “Wes, you didn’t let him do anything. He’s a grown man. If he wants to speak to a woman like that than there’s nothing you can do to stop him.”
He smirked back at me and raised his hand to his face, inspecting his knuckles as he flexed his fingers.
“Except punch him, maybe.”
The tension started to fade but by now the night was ruined and all I wanted to do was go back to the apartment and sleep.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to do that?” He laughed, “Damn, that felt good.”
“You’ve never hit him before?” I asked, surprised. With the way the two felt about each other I would expect them to be in a brawl every time they were in sight of one another.
“Oh, no, I’ve hit him. Many times.” He paused, in thought, “just not since I got back to school.”
I remembered that Elle had told me that Wes had taken a year off, pushing him back to being a junior this year, and opened my mouth to ask why, but he interrupted me by taking my hand in his uninjured one, and leading me back into the bar.
We got back over to the table to find Elle and Colin in an animated conversation with Jade and Luke, and surprisingly, Savanna was there too. I glanced around the table but she was alone, so she must have ended things with her boy toy.
I sat back in my seat, ignoring Elle’s penetrating gaze and was surprised to see that Wes wasn’t rejoining us.
“I’m gonna go walk around. I saw some people I gotta talk to. Find me when you’re ready to leave.” He directed his statement at Jade and Luke who nodded in return.
He didn’t look back at me as he walked away and I knew that everyone at the table, except probably Savanna, probably wondered what had happened to make him start acting weird. But, as I glanced around, Colin and Luke appeared unfazed, and Elle was smiling like a Cheshire cat. The only person who had picked up on any weirdness had been Jade, who looked over at me and raised an eyebrow in question. I shook my head and mouthed that I’d fill her in later. She looked at me a moment longer, still somewhat curious, but finally focused her attention back to the conversation. I forced myself to smile and participate in the conversation but I couldn’t help the confusion that I felt about Wes’s sudden change in behavior.
EIGHT
I was in a sour mood all day trying to figure out what had happened to make Wes change his behavior so suddenly the night before. At first I had figured that the fight between he and Ga
be had pissed him off more than I had realized, but I started to wonder if there was more to it. He had seemed perfectly fine for the remainder of the night, laughing and talking with friends at other tables. He had never come back to the table and he never even looked my way. At one point he was talking to a guy that I recognized as one of Colin’s frat brothers when a busty blonde started flirting with him and touching his arm. I wanted to throw up, and then thought that I actually might when he let her lead him to the dance floor. I tried not to watch but I found myself staring at the two of them and wondering if he was dancing with her like he had danced with me. I knew that it was foolish of me to care at all, and I also knew that these feelings that I was forming for Wes were not in anyway reciprocated.