by Sonya Jesus
“Next, a sexual act.”
Sexual action. “Lick?” I laugh, trying to buy time.
“Wait no someone said that already. They also said suck, grope, and blow.” Meg adds in, other words giving me some more time to think of something sort of safe.
No one said, “Kiss.”
“I need a body part.”
I answer safely, “Neck.”
“Another body part.”
“Toes.”
“Food?”
“I agree with the volunteer; you are playing this safe.” She sounds slightly irritated and pauses. Someone places a hand on my back and another around my waist, escorting me to the side. The hands are masculine and familiar, but I’m being thrown off by lack of vision and hearing. My other senses aren’t exactly kicking in yet.
“Okay, we can make this one exception. Since you did say, no rules apply to you.”
Robins. I laugh. “You would take advantage of this wouldn’t you, Robins?” I whisper softly to him as he pulls his hands away.
The irritation in Meg’s voice is even clearer when she starts again, “Okay fine. There’s been an addition to this Mad Lib, by the volunteer himself.” Pausing. “Lia?”
Meg’s voice distracts me from Robins’ actions. “What?” I ask Meg as Robins’ hand slips under my cheer top, and he glides his fingers along my back, his touch causing a heat that prickles my skin.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, before remembering I have a microphone next to my lips and everyone can hear me. “I’m so going to get you for this later.”
Robins’ hand continues up towards my bra and unhooks it in one smooth, fluid motion. “Ahh,” I scream out, as my hands grab my boobs before they have time to spring out. “That’s my bra, you ass," I growl as I swiftly angle my hands behind my back so I can hook it back up without bringing any more damn attention to myself.
Mid hooking the two ends together, he slides his hand under my skirt, making me blush as I have never blushed before. I abandon all hopes of hooking my bra up and swat away his hands scolding him, “You freaking jerk off!” I’m going to kill him. “Keep your- “
“And there we go everyone; we have our item of clothing, body part, and verb.” Meg interrupts my whispering. “Even though you have clearly been thinking about that one for a while, mister, we will let you get away with it.”
She is much too cheerful for this to be Robins.
“Here is your Mad Lib, Aiden. Aiden takes bidder to the bridge and kisses the bidder from neck to toe then she loses her bra as he touches his ass to jerk off.”
“Aiden?” My heart pounds hard against my chest, leaving me at a loss for words. Did Aiden Keys just unhook my bra and touch my… Whoa! I think I’m going to pass out. My inner Vixen did. Or maybe she’s dead. All those heart problems he’s been giving her for the last couple years finally culminated in a massive heart attack that killed my Vixen.
I am being ushered back to what I assume is the line, and my earphones are messed with again. I don’t hear anything, not even my own Mad Lib, not that it freaking matters! My mind is still reeling from Aiden Keys putting his hands up my skirt and unhooking my bra! I thought for sure it was Robins, never would I have thought Aiden would be here, especially since the soccer team is already represented. Forget being an ostrich; I need to crawl into a hole and never come out.
It takes way too long until the blindfolds are removed, and we are returned to the world of the hearing. The sudden rush of noises and roars freaks me out after being in near silence for almost, I look at the clock; fifteen minutes?
Ugh. Time goes slow when you are being humiliated and practically defiled in public. My eyes wander around the room, searching for the perpetrator, and hoping for his sake, he stays far away from me. Not that I would do anything. I mean, he did that to get the crowd riled up, not because it was me. As Meg said, he had that planned out. There is no way he knew it would be me up there saying those things. He would have stuck his hand up anyone’s skirt.
I hear the jealousy in my thoughts. Jealous? Ugh, Connor.
Open relationship or not, I don’t think he will be happy about this. Since they called him, I’m sure he witnessed Aiden’s theatrics. But why not tell me he was involved in the auction?
I find him on the side of the gym holding up a poster card with his Mad Lib written out in black sharpie. I can’t read it from where I stand, but I can pick out some of the words. Jaime takes his picture, and there is a line waiting. A line where Aiden also is.
My Vixen wakes from the dead at the Aiden sighting, but I look away. I’m just going to pretend like he didn’t touch me.
I focus on Cristina, who’s speaking into the microphone. “Like I said, we will be posting these on social media, #madlibauction, share and get this through campus so we can get a big show for the Auction. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite Knight, and how spicy their pictures will be.” The crowd laughs. “Please Knights, try to keep it porn free. Happy Mad Libbing.”
“What the freak?” The words escape me. I can’t even finish out the expletive. Taking the poster board from Meg, Cristina walks towards me. I quickly look at Avery for a rundown. “Yea, you have to take a picture doing the Mad Lib.” I shake my head in shock. “Then post it.” This isn’t happening. “Whomever gets the most votes, wins a one-thousand-dollar certificate to the Apple Store and some sort of plaque thing.” I didn’t want that.
Cristina holds up my poster board, words facing her and says, “Keep in mind, with this auction we will get new uniforms, enough money for the fees, and if we make fifty thousand, we get Student Affairs approval for competition.” She passes over my fate. “Now go over there and get your picture taken. We had you picked out since we thought of this.”
“Meg didn’t do this on purpose?” Who else would take pleasure in humiliating me?
“Sorry, honey. She was actually on your side for this. Saying you would hate it.” I am surprised she stood up for me. “For what it’s worth, we are sorry, but when we brought this up, we got some support if we put you in.”
“Who?” I ask. “Who would want me in this?”
“Sworn to secrecy, love.” Then she points in Jaime’s direction. “Make sure to take a picture with Aiden. The crowd fucking loved it.”
“I quit!” The words leak from my lips before I realize it. “I quit, Cristina.”
“No, you don’t,” Robins says, coming into the conversation and taking the poster board from me. “Forget what Lia is saying. She’s in shock. If I were you, I’d take the Captains and go deal with Student Affairs. They are killing this with their stupid rules. It got out of control with Aiden, and they aren’t pleased. Deacon and Preston are advocating to keep it going, but the board is ready to cancel the auction. Meg mentioned having donors for the school. I suggest you go and remind them of those donors.”
Cristina nods and quickly heads to the microphone. Soon she says, “Rules are posted online. Please read them. Now get out of here and tweet, share, and like, my little hashtag fiends.”
The crowd disperses and Robins wraps his arm around me. “I will bid on you, Pooh Bear.” With those words, my heart calms a little. “Don’t quit because of this.”
“Did you know about this?”
“Meg never told me anything. We only agreed to it last night.”
“You agreed to it last night?” I search Robins’ face for an answer. That didn’t sit well with me. “What do you mean?”
“Meg called me last night to discuss things.” His tone dipped low when he said discuss. “And um, after an extensive discussion, she told me about the auction.”
There it is again.
“By discussion you mean? A conversation between the sheets, don’t you?” He keeps going back to her. Can I just smack myself right now?
“She has excellent communication skills,” he jokes, but I wasn’t in the joking mode. “Irrefutable bargaining abilities.”
“I get it.” I must have been dreaming
last night. I can’t keep dreaming about Robins or being in his arms when it’s obvious no matter how many times Meg and he break-up, they will never actually part ways.
“Hey, don’t take your anger out on me.” His very light-hearted mannerisms are starting to annoy me.
“I thought it was you unhooking my bra.” I could say a million things more, but none would matter.
“Yea, about that.”
I study him, with deeply rooted hope, desperately wanting him to say something indicative of anything other than just a friendship, or a confirmation that he needs me more than Meg.
“He was out of line, want me to talk to him?”
“No. He got what he wanted. He would have done it to anyone.” I force a laugh. “Like I said, he’s an ass.”
I hear my name and realize I am holding my Mad Lib fate in my hands. I turn the card around and read the black sharpie. “Lia takes bidder to the soccer field, then strips then touches his earlobes while French kissing his abs.”
I laugh at how stupid it is. “What if he is a she? And doesn’t have abs?”
Robins laughs. “Then I guess you would win.” He pumps his eyebrows and leads me towards the photos. “But since I’m winning, I look forward to you stripping and tonguing my abs.”
“Yeah, I don’t think Meg would be too keen on me going anywhere near your abs.” I have to find the right time to talk to Robins. Right after his night with Meg is obviously not the right time.
“Well, I don’t really care what Meg has to say about any of it, and she has no say since we aren’t dating anymore.” He points towards the line. “Go ahead, Aiden is waiting to take a picture.”
“Ugh!” I roll my eyes and stroll over as Aiden watches me with no remorse in his expression, making me really want to slap him.
When I reach him, Jaime smiles in my direction. “So I figure we could get a few remakes of what you did? But without the blindfolds. Let’s start with one of you lifting up Lia’s skirt and her trying to slap you.”
I laugh at this. “Just trying?” I joke. I feel his eyes on me and avoid them completely.
Chapter 14: Water Girl
Lia
“Lia?” I blink one eye open to find Haley standing over me as I lay in bed. I scan the room, confused as to why she’s here looming over me like some psycho from a scary movie.
“What time is it and why are you here?” I rub at the soreness in my shoulders. These last couple of weeks have kicked my ass. I stretch my legs, hoping it will ease the strain of my muscles, before leaving the comfort of my bed and paying attention to my annoying neighbor.
“It’s like, two in the afternoon.” She disapproves of my sleep hours just as much as I disapprove of her interrupting them.
“And?” I roll my eyes towards the door, giving her a subliminal message to get the hell out.
My Vixen and Angel woke up in a shit mood, and that combination erupts the bitch in me.
“Here!” Haley shoves a phone in my face, ignoring my annoyance.
“Why do you have my phone?” I place the phone on my desk and roll my neck to stretch out the kinks. Her presence is making my muscles constrict even more than cheer practice.
“Aren’t you going to check it?”
“Maybe later,” I quip.
“Connor called me.”
Of course he did. “What did he want?”
“To talk to his girlfriend.” I guess we were still keeping the titles. “He said he called you a bunch of times.”
I really don’t want to check my cell, but I do and notice thirteen missed calls. I sigh and put the phone back on my desk. “I don’t feel like talking to him right now,” I say like a little child who didn’t get what she wanted for Christmas.
“I kind of thought he would flip out with what happened at the pep rally last night.”
Ugh don’t remind me and please don’t get my Vixen started. She seems to think it’s perfectly okay for someone to grab my ass and unsnap my bra without my permission just because he looks like a freaking god. My Angel had to remind her that his actions didn’t come from a place of carnal desire; they came from his inability to be a normal, decent, kind person. She now protests Aiden Keys with signs that say, “Say No to Turds.”
Not that the two usually agree, but I would rather have someone jackhammer through the memory of Aiden than hear the two of them bicker inside my head.
“When you do call Connor back, you should know he isn’t happy.” Haley’s voice makes my headache worse. She’s sitting on my computer chair, staring at me instead of leaving me alone. This is the problem with living in a suite: privacy is always limited.
I give up and almost stomp over to my bed. “It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know Aiden was going to do that.”
“Obviously,” she exclaims, happy I engage and give her the intel she’s looking for. “The look on your face when they took your blindfold off made that clear.”
“Try telling that to Connor. Did he tell you he confronted me after the whole Mad Lib thing?”
“No, he just told me he regretted a lot of things that went down between both of you yesterday. No specifics though.”
Hmm. She’s fishing for the details, so I test how much she actually knows. “I told him I had no idea that was going to happen. He didn’t believe me.”
“I’m sorry.” She seems surprised.
I skip the part where he blamed the whole non-exclusive thing on me wanting to… how did he put it? Experiment my way through campus? And focus on the more important things, “After he blew up in the middle of the soccer field about not liking Aiden touching me like that, he then informed me he was going to go to a party with Jaime.”
Her head jerks towards me, giving me her absolute attention. “With Jaime?”
The disgust in her voice provokes a laugh from me. At least the two of us share a mutual distaste for the girl.
“No one told me that.” Her eyes drop to the floor. Shaking her head, she utters, “Why did you let him go?”
“It isn’t my place to forbid him from going anywhere, Haley.” I’m shocked! My all-knowing spy is misinformed. She has no idea what happened between Connor and I yesterday. That has to be some kind of retribution for her shitty attitude towards me lately.
“If I were you I wouldn’t let him anywhere near Jaime.”
I would heed the advice if her sentence didn’t strike a nerve. “But you are not me.” I pronounce each of those words like they stood between me and the last cup of coffee on earth. The silence that follows tells me I have made myself abundantly clear. She can wear my clothes, curl her hair and hang out with my friends, but she will never be me. However, I’m not exactly sure if I’ve convinced her to stop trying, or pushed her to try harder.
We are interrupted by my phone ringing. I ignore it, distancing myself from it by heading to the fridge area. I turn my back towards her and grab a water bottle from the fridge.
“It’s Connor. You want to answer it?”
Why is she touching my phone? I dash to her side and snatch the phone from her hands, making my annoyance abundantly clear. “NO!”
“Jeesh! What has gotten into you?” she prods. “Is this about last night? About the pin?”
“No.” I take the phone with me to the closet and end the conversation. I’m too crazy to deal with her sort of crazy today. “Haley, I’m going to head out soon. I need food and the gym. I have some things I need to think about.” I switch out of my pajamas and put on some shorts and a tank top, then take a sweater off the hanger before stepping back into the room.
Haley doesn’t take the hint to skedaddle. She holds the teddy bear Connor gave me in her hands while she stares at my computer.
“Haley? I’m going to go.” She either doesn’t hear me or pretends not to. “Haley! Can you leave?” Testing my patience is not safe today.
“Did you turn your webcam on?” she asks with her back still mostly turned to me.
“Um, no I don’t think so. But I
threw my jacket on top of it yesterday. Maybe I accidentally turned it on.”
“Oh, I’ll shut it off.” She touches a few buttons on the computer. “It’s weird, because the red light is deactivated, but see this icon here?” She points to something on the lower right hand corner that I don’t care about. “It said the camera was open. I shut it down for you. You probably just hit the button on the keyboard that opened the window up.”
“Probably.” I didn’t even realize that there was webcam built into my computer.
She turns back around and faces me, teddy bear in hand. “Anyway, about Connor.”
Patience. “Haley, I really don’t want to talk about him.”
“Well, he wants to talk about you because I talked to him for about two hours this morning. Give the guy a chance and call him. He is freaking out and he likes you.”
“Well, I’ll call him later,” I say, grabbing a couple of waters and throwing them into my gym bag. I leave my phone in the closet because I have no intention of being reachable today, and exit my room, leaving Haley inside.
As soon as the soccer field comes into view, I wish I had stayed in my room. I forgot all about the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. Connor mentioned it at some point these last couple weeks, but come on! It’s Frisbee. Really, what was the joy of running after a flat disk and throwing it in the air? I didn’t think it was important enough to remember the date.
Guess I was wrong! There are so many people out here.
Connor sees me coming up the Walk of Pride and jogs towards me, cutting across the field. So much for avoiding him and people today. I should have just stayed in bed.
“Lia!” he says, too loudly for my liking. “You came to watch me play?”
I look down at my work out clothes and deliberate whether or not I should lie. He invades my personal space and kisses me. Stunned, I stare at him with squinted eyes. What did he think he was doing after all that happened yesterday… after what he said after the pep rally? What in the world makes him think kissing me is the smart thing to do? This isn’t a booboo he can kiss and make better.