Pregame

by Taylor Wade

Elle and I cheered from our place on the grass and Savanna and Jade came over with the ball and placed it beside them as the joined us on the ground.

  “The stars look so pretty,” Elle slurred, pointing at one of many that lit up the night sky. “Those kind of look like Colin.”

  “I don’t see it,” Savanna told her, turning her head from side to side and squinting her eyes, trying to visualize Colin in the galaxy.

  “I might just be really drunk,” Jade proclaimed with a hiccup, “but there’s definitely a small child right next to the airplane.”

  We all focused on the blinking red light that moved through the sky trying to find a small child in its mist.

  “Wes sucks,” I grumbled and closed my eyes. My head was spinning and my limbs felt like jelly. “I’m drunk.”

  “Me too,” Elle claimed.

  “Me three,” Savanna and Jade stated at the same time, causing them to both giggle.

  “Jinx!” Jade shouted, punching Savanna in the arm.

  “Ow!” Savanna whined, rubbing her arm where Jade had hit her.

  “Oops, sorry,” Jade giggled. “Let’s take another shot!”

  “I don’t know if I can swallow anymore alcohol tonight,” Elle said, sitting up. “But let’s do it anyways.”

  We all stood, trying to regain a semblance of balance and headed inside.

  “Wait!” Savanna shouted causing us to all stop in our tracks. “The beach ball!”

  She ran back to where she had placed it, tripping over her own foot and face planting into the grass. Her dress rode up and her ass was on display.

  “Fuck.” She cursed, glaring at the three of us as we laughed in hysterics. Savanna grabbed the ball and pushed past us into the house. As we made our way back to the kitchen I was pleased to see that Wes and Jackie were no longer playing beer pong side by side. My happiness was short lived however when I noticed that they were instead standing beside each other in a line of five people on each side of the table playing a game of flip cup. Jackie cheered Wes on while he fumbled with the cup, trying to get it to flip over.

  “Asshole,” I muttered to myself and joined the girls in the kitchen. Someone had used up all of the Kettle One so Savanna searched through the cabinets of alcohol before she landed her sights on a half empty bottle of Patron Silver. I groaned, hating the taste of tequila.

  “Suck it up, Lane.” Elle teased, attempting to climb onto the counter. After a few attempts she finally got it and settled on the edge, her feet dangling in front of her.

  Savanna finished filling up the shot glasses and the liquid sloshed over the side a little bit as she handed one to each of us. We all held up our glasses, waiting on Savanna to make a toast like usual. She smiled wickedly, “To throwing this beach ball at the slutty seal!”

  “Here, here!” we cried out, tossing back the shot. I grimaced and coughed as the liquor burned my throat.

  “Brooke, you wanna do the honor?” Jade slurred as she placed her empty shot glass on the counter and hiccupped once more.

  “No, no, no!” I told them. “I just want to watch.”

  “I’ll do it!” Elle exclaimed, grabbing the beach ball from the tiled floor and tucking it under her arm unsuccessfully. The ball was too big so after a few attempts she cursed at it and held it against her chest.

  “We need a game plan…right?” Savanna asked, her words slow and garbled from the alcohol we had consumed.

  “I’m armed,” Elle proclaimed, “and ready!”

  “We’ll just, like, go in and throw it at her,” I shrugged, leaning against the wall in support.

  “Okay,” Savanna agreed, nodding her head vehemently. “I like it. Good thinking, Brookelyn.”

  “Let’s do this ladies!” Jade declared, pushing away from the counter and leading the way. I laughed at the drunken scene we were making, fully aware of our immaturity in the moment. Blame it on the a-a-alcohol, as Jamie Foxx said best.

  We followed Jade into the living room where the tables were set up and took a seat on the sofa facing the game. Savanna nudged aside a guy sitting on one of the cushions and squished herself in between him and Jade. I perched myself on the armrest beside Jade. Elle stood beside me watching the game, a determined look in her eyes. I stared at Wes and he looked up and flashed me a wide grin with a nod of his head. I kept my face neutral, pissed off at him. His eyebrows furrowed and he cocked his head to the side in question. I just stared at him unwavering, until his attention was turned back to the game as they restarted. I watched as three people on his team drank from the cup and flipped it before it was Wes’s turn. Jackie squeezed his arm as he downed the beer from the cup and I narrowed my eyes at the side of her head. He flipped the cup after three tries and Jackie, the last one in line, lifted the cup to her lips before it was her turn to get the cup to flip over. Everyone in the room was cheering for the two teams, focused on the game. No one noticed when Elle took that precise moment to throw the ball at Jackie’s head as hard as she could. It was a beach ball so it wasn’t going to do much damage but the cup fell from her hand and she choked on the beer in her mouth and it spilled down the front of her low cut blouse. The ball bounced away from her and someone picked it up tossing it in the air and hitting it towards people, ensuing a new game.

  “What the fuck?!” Jackie yelled, stomping towards Elle. Jade, Savanna and I couldn’t help contain our laughter at the scene. Elle somehow manage to hit her perfectly despite her level of intoxication. I looked back at Wes whose expression went from shocked to confused and then flashed to understanding. He looked back at me and frowned while I leveled him with a glare.

  He started to walk towards me but my focus shifted to Elle and Jackie who now stood toe to toe.

  “What the hell was that for, bitch?!” Jackie shouted in Elle’s face.

  “For being a disgusting skank!” Elle yelled back at her, pointing a finger in her face. Jackie moved forward to push her but Colin came up behind Elle and lifted her away just as Wes, of course, grabbed Jackie and pulled her from Elle. I looked over to where Elle stood with Colin talking to him heatedly while he pursed his lips together to keep from laughing. Wes was standing in front of Jackie as she started to sob and threw her arms around him for comfort. He didn’t make a move to hold her back but I didn’t care. I got up from the couch and glared at him walking away. I saw him push her away from him and start to follow after me but I kept walking, using the wall for support when I stumbled occasionally.

  “Brookelyn!” Wes called from behind me, catching up to me and grabbing my arm. I yanked away from him and continued walking back to the kitchen to retrieve my heels. I just wanted to go home.

  “Stop, Brookelyn!” Wes said, exasperated. I grabbed my heels from the corner on the floor of the kitchen and used my hand to hold onto the wall as I slipped on each shoe. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  I stood back up and balanced on my pumps, narrowing my eyes at him. “What is wrong with me? What’s wrong with me is that you spent the whole night with her!”

  Wes sighed, “You’re drunk Brookelyn. Let’s go home and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

  “No!” I yelled at him. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Why don’t you take her home since you’d clearly rather be around her anyways!”

  “Am I not allowed to have friends that are women, Brookelyn?! We were playing a game! That’s it!” He yelled back. We were warranting stares from other students but I was too pissed off to care.

  “She was hanging all over you, and you just let her!” I said, throwing my hands up. Wes opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off. “And no you can’t be friends with women. At least, not the one’s you’ve had sex with!”

  Wes was quiet as he sighed and closed his eyes. He leaned his head back and ran a hand over his face. I took that moment to turn away from him and meet up with Colin and Elle who were getting ready to leave. Savanna was standing beside them, still giggling over what happened with Jackie, her heels dangling from her fingertip
s.

  “Let’s go,” I told them, walking towards the door to the frat house.

  “Uh,” Colin muttered, looking to Wes as he strolled out of the kitchen towards me. He looked back at where Colin and Elle stood with Savanna and raised his eyebrows gesturing to leave. Colin shrugged and they headed towards us, Elle and Savanna both shooting venomous glares at Wes. He just shook he head and tried to grab my hand. I snatched my hand away from him and crossed my arms in front of my chest as we stumbled to Colin’s car. The two men didn’t seem to be intoxicated in the slightest. We took the same seats we had on the drive to the frat house except this time I scooted as far from Wes as possible.

  “Really, Brookelyn? How long are you going to keep acting like a child?” he asked. I didn’t reply, keeping my gaze focused in front of me, pretending to watch out of the windshield. I was all too aware of his usual smell and the heat of his body next to mine, no matter how far I tried to get away from him. Elle and Colin were talking quietly up front and Savanna was typing away on her phone leaving me stuck without a distraction from Wes.

  “I wasn’t thinking, okay?” he said.

  I snorted, “Clearly.”

  Wes rolled his eyes and released a long, exhausted breath. “I didn’t think it’d be a big deal. It was just a game.”

  “Not to her,” I sniffed.

  “Maybe not,” he told me, “But I wasn’t really paying attention to her, Brookelyn. I was focused on the game. And when I wasn’t paying attention to the game, I was looking for you since you seemed to just disappear!”

  I laughed once, “I’m surprised you noticed with Jackie’s boobs in your face.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Wes groaned. “I’m sorry, okay? I really didn’t think anything of it. I couldn’t care less about Jackie.”

  “No,” I replied shortly, “you just care about getting into her pants.”

  “That was before I ever met you!” he exclaimed, and Elle looked back from her seat, once again giving Wes a dirty look. At that moment we pulled into our apartment complex. I nudged Savanna to hurry up and get out of the car and ignored Wes as he followed after me. When I got into the apartment I went straight for my room and closed the door behind me. I ripped of my shoes and my dress, slipping on a pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt that I usually slept in. The door opened and Wes walked in, sitting on the edge of my bed. He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him but I didn’t pull away this time.

  “I’m sorry,” he told me gently. “I didn’t think it mattered because I thought you knew that you’re the only one that matters to me. She’s no one.”

  I opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off. “She’s no one,” he said again.

  I sighed and he pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me, placing a soft kiss to my lips. “Okay,” I whispered. “But I’m still kind of mad.”

  He laughed lightly, “That’s fine. I guess I deserve it.”

  I slid off of his lap and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I got back into my room Wes was undress, wearing only a pair of black boxers. As angry as I still was, I couldn’t help but stare at his body. He flashed me that boyish grin and got under the covers, inviting himself to stay the night. I joined him on the bed and he pulled me close to him so that we were facing one another. He suddenly chuckled and I raised an eyebrow in question.

  “Why did Elle throw a beach ball at Jackie?” he asked me and I grinned at him.

  “Because she kept clapping her hands like a seal,” I told him, my smile widening. He laughed loudly and shook his head, pulling me closer to him so that my head was on his bare chest, my arm wrapped around his chiseled stomach. As soon as I closed my eyes I fell into a peaceful sleep, wrapped in Wes’s arms.

  TWENTY-THREE

  I woke up the next morning to a pounding headache and light kisses feathered across my neck and collarbone. I smiled and turned towards the kisses, keeping my eyes closed. Wes’s lips traveled up my neck to my face, and he placed gentle kisses across my cheek before landing on my lips with a gentle peck. I could feel his hot breath on my face and opened my eyes to see his blue eyes staring back at me.

  “Good morning,” he whispered, pulling away from me. He was dressed in his jeans and t-shirt from yesterday, and his breath smelled like mint. He had kept an extra toothbrush here since Jesse showed up considering he spent a lot of nights here helping me feel safe. The smell brought me back to my senses and I could only imagine how horrible my mouth smelled after all of the alcohol I had consumed last night.

  “Get dressed, I made breakfast.” Wes told me, rising from the bed, taking my hand and pulling me up along with him. He picked up a glass of water from the nightstand as well as three little tablets for my hangover and I smiled gratefully as swallowed the Advil and the entire glass of water. I hated how parched I always was the day after drinking. I made my way over to the bathroom and squealed when Wes swatted my behind playfully. I decided a quick shower was necessary after getting a look at myself in the mirror. After showering and washing off all of last night’s makeup, I brushed my teeth and threaded my wet hair into a side braid. I slipped on a pair of Victoria Secret yoga pants and a white tank top before heading out to find Wes.

  I was assaulted with the mouthwatering aroma of eggs and bacon when I walked into the kitchen to find Wes flipping over pancakes. I couldn’t help my grin at how sexy he looked cooking breakfast. I perched on one of the kitchen stools at the island and placed my head in between my hands, resting my elbows on the tabletop as I watched him.

  Just then, Elle, Colin, and Savanna emerged from their rooms, fully dressed. Savanna had her purse slung over her shoulder, and Elle had her school bag on her back.

  “Hey, man,” Colin greeted Wes. Wes nodded back at him and continued what he was doing.

  “We’re headed to the library for the day, B.” Elle told me, slipping her sunglasses over her eyes as she grimaced. I smiled remembering the events of last night.

  “And I am going to indulge myself to a spa day to try and erase the hideous hangover I was greeted with this morning,” Savanna grumbled.

  “Seriously,” Elle agreed. “I feel like I was hit by a tractor trailer.”

  “It could be worse,” Colin teased, “You could’ve been hit with a beach ball.”

  We all laughed and even Elle couldn’t hide a smile, “Whatever…the bitch had it coming.”

  “Okay, I’m out of here,” Savanna said through her laughing. “Don’t let him off the hook too easily, Brooke.”

  “Hey! I’m tryin’ alright?” Wes joked back at her before she retreated through the apartment door. It was unusually sunny outside and I decided I would be spending the rest of the day inside with the shades drawn closed. Thankfully I had caught up on all of my schoolwork and didn’t have to worry about heading to the library as well.

  “See you later, B!” Elle blew me a kiss and Colin threw back a wave as they made their way outside.

  “So is this lovely breakfast your way of getting back on my good side?” I kidded as Wes slid a plate in front of me as well as a large mug of coffee, taking the seat beside me.

  “That depends…is it working?” he flashed a lazy smile in my direction and I laughed, taking a bite of my eggs.

  “You’re lucky you’re a good cook,” I told him, taking another bite of my food and sighing in delight. “Thanks, baby.”

  Wes winked and we continued to eat, chatting easily about schoolwork and the upcoming week. I went to grab our empty plates but Wes stopped me, taking them from my hands and placing them in the skin. He was really quite the charmer.

  Wes walked back over to me and stood in front of where I sat on the stool. He brushed the stray strands of hair out of my face and caressed my cheek as I tilted my face up to his for him to kiss me. I loved the feel of his soft, full lips against mine and I couldn’t get enough of him. Wes started to pull back but I wasn’t ready to end the kiss, so I grabbed the back of his head and pulled his lips back to mine. My
other hand gripped his t-shirt and pulled him closer to me. I suddenly felt the desire to give myself to him completely. After everything that we had gone through together, I had shared nearly every piece of myself with him. I wanted to erase my fears and let my present and future with Wes overcome my past.