by Erin Noelle
“But earlier you said if it was meant to be…” I whined.
“I know what I said,” she snapped at me. I drew back from her, stunned at the angry tone directed at me. “But damn it, Scarlett, this is going to end badly. I just know it! You’ve got to stay away from him, even if that means we stop going over there on Saturdays.”
I couldn’t believe she yelled at me. She had never raised her voice at me before. It felt awful. “We don’t have to stop going over there,” I said quietly, looking down at my hands. “Look… nothing happened. We are just going to try being friends.”
“Friends?” she barked. “Last Sunday, y’all were going to have no relationship whatsoever. This Sunday, you are going to be friends. Next Sunday, what? You’ll be friends who make out? How many Sundays until he’s fucking you, Scarlett?” She glared at me but obviously wasn’t finished with her rant. “That’s all he’s interested in. You know that, right?”
“That’s not true,” I tried to argue. “It’s different.” Tears welled up in my eyes, threatening to spill over in a waterfall.
“It’s different, because he wants you to think it’s different. He’s a self-absorbed asshole who sleeps with anything that walks, and you are just more appealing to him, because you’re an innocent little virgin he wants to corrupt. Once he gets what he wants, he won’t have any use for you, and he’ll move on to this next challenge.”
“Shut up!” I yelled back at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. It is different. Why can’t you just be supportive of me? You of all people should know that’s what I need.”
Evie didn’t respond. We pulled into the parking lot and we both got out of the car silently. Once inside the apartment, we each went into our own rooms, doors closed behind us. After a shower, I felt better physically, but my mind kept replaying the argument between Evie and me like a broken record. We had never been mad at each other before, and I just couldn’t take another minute of it. I marched out of my room and across the living area to hers. Without knocking, I barged in to find her hidden in her pillows. She looked up at me, her cheeks stained with tears.
“Look… I’m sorry and I love you,” I began my apology. “There isn’t a person or a thing on this earth that’s worth you being mad at me.”
Suddenly, Evie erupted from her pillow volcano like hot lava and lunged toward me. We held each other in a tight embrace. “I love you too” was the only thing she said, and I sighed in relief. We didn’t need to talk about it anymore, our mutual forgiveness was understood.
She climbed back in her bed and grabbed her book. “I’m not sure what the deal is, but it’s like every other book I’ve read since we’ve been here reminds me of you. First, the whole Taking Chances thing, and now I’m reading Ruining Me and I can’t help but notice the similarities between your situation and this chick’s. Have you read it?”
I shook my head, still just thankful we moved past our first disagreement. I hated thinking Evie was upset with me; I could not even fathom what my life would be like without her.
“So this girl in the book, Jay, she’s got these three guys she’s involved with… the good boy she knows is best for her, the mysterious guy she feels a weird connection with, and then a bad-boy rocker she uses as an escape.” Evie paused. “We both know which roles Dylan and Ash fill…”
“So, all I’m missing is my bad-boy rocker?” I lifted my eyebrows at her and smirked.
“That’s how I’m seeing it.” Her eyes glimmered with mischief and I could already see the wheels turning in her head. “That girl, Mina, in my PolySci class, mentioned her boyfriend was the drummer in some local rock band. I may need to find out where and when they’re playing next, so we can make an appearance. We may need to find you a Rhye.”
“A Rhye?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah, Rhye is the rocker boy in Ruining Me,” Evie explained. “But it can be any of our rocker book boyfriends… Kellan, Shane, Jake, Trey… whoever you fancy.”
“And I’m guessing you’ll be looking forward to this BB challenge as well?” I knew damn well that other than Travis Maddox, tattooed rocker boys were Evie’s weakness when it came to fictional boyfriends.
“Let’s just say I won’t be holding back for your sake,” she replied and winked at me.
When I returned to my room, I was still feeling a bit of regret over the argument. The guilt from that soon brought my thoughts to my parents, and before I could overanalyze what I was planning to do, I picked up my cell and dialed my mom.
The conversation didn’t go quite as good as I hoped. I was upset they hadn’t even attempted to contact me in ten days, and they were upset I hadn’t called to apologize and grovel for their forgiveness. We argued, neither side listening to the other, and in the end, not much changed with where our relationship stood, but I did agree to email at least once a week to let them know I was safe. I immediately called my brother to unload on him about how crazy our parents were, as if he didn’t already know. I also talked to my niece, Alyssa, which absolutely made my day. I couldn’t believe how big she sounded, and we made plans for a princess tea party when I visited at Thanksgiving. It would be the only reason I looked forward to going home.
Thirteen
The next couple of months continued on in similar fashion. School was… well, it was school. I wasn’t studying anything I felt particularly passionate about, so it was hard to get too excited about it. Evie helped to keep me focused and motivated, and we made it through the first round of exams with As and Bs. She finally went to the doctor about her headaches that increased in occurrences and learned she needed glasses. She pulled off the hot schoolgirl look amazingly.
Dylan and I continued to text and talk during the week. He began picking me up on Saturday afternoons so we could have a dinner date before going to the weekly get-together. Physically, he was taking things very slow—painfully slow, actually. When we kissed, it was passionate, and occasionally he would allow his hands to caress my body, but when I would respond by pressing up against him and moaning in want, he would separate us and tell me that I needed to stop before he couldn’t control himself. I didn’t want him to control himself, and when I told him as much, he would just chuckle and tell me I wasn’t ready. It was actually starting to piss me off, and combined with platonic, friend-only Saturday nights/ Sunday mornings I spent with Ash, my sexual frustration was building to an inevitable explosion.
During the one night a week Ash and I spent together, we had the best time talking and just hanging out. We discussed everything under the sun, played music for one another, and laughed at each other’s ridiculous jokes. The only physical contact we had was when we slept. Despite how we would fall asleep separated from one another, we would always wake up a tangled mess of limbs. Most mornings, his undeniable erection would be pressed against my belly or back, and it took all my resolve to not reach out and touch him, but I refrained, scared to screw up the comfortable relationship we had settled into. Instead, I would just slither my body out from under his and kiss his forehead goodbye. We would text occasionally during the week, nothing consistent though, and I never texted him unless he initiated the conversation. I was determined not to be the pathetic girl who pined for the boy she couldn’t have.
Evie and I never discussed my nights spent with Ash again. I didn’t flaunt that I was doing something she didn’t approve of in front of her face, and she refrained from chastising me for making a bad decision. I knew how she felt about the situation. She had made her concerns quite clear. But I also knew how I felt when I was around Ash. Our friendly arrangement seemed to be working. I got used to seeing him make out with a different blonde each week at Jacob and Nicholas’s, and I actually kind of liked that it was never the same girl. It would’ve bothered me more to know he was interested enough in a girl to bring her around a second time. He seemed to accept the idea of me being with Dylan as well. He never said otherwise if he didn’t. Neither of us asked each other about our romantic/sexual rel
ationships, past or present. It was the one subject we didn’t approach. Other than discussing Dylan, I wouldn’t have had too much to talk about anyway, and I was scared that he could’ve talked continuously for days and still missed some of the girls he’d been with.
While at the party, we would often catch each other staring at one another, but I always broke the gaze, afraid Dylan would catch us. He was already suspicious of Ash after the way he acted so possessive the first night I met them both, and even though Dylan and I weren’t exclusive—at least, not that we had discussed—I didn’t think he would appreciate the fact that each Saturday after spending the evening with him, I went straight to Ash’s bed. Even though it wasn’t like that, it probably still wouldn’t settle well.
One Thursday afternoon in early November, Evie came bouncing up to me on the sidewalk as we met after class to walk home. The weather had started cooling down and the oppressive humidity was dissipating; it had become quite pleasant and refreshing to walk around and spend time outside. She had a huge smile plastered across her face, and I knew she was dying to tell me her good news.
“Tomorrow night, we have a book boyfriend challenge and it’s going to be awesome,” she sang.
I raised my eyebrow in interest. “Go on, you’ve got my attention.”
“Mina invited us to go with her to listen to her boyfriend’s band play!” She squealed in excitement. “They are playing at some warehouse, where there’s supposed to be like three or four different local bands performing. I am so excited!”
Unable to contain her enthusiasm for a chance to meet a sexy musician, she then started doing a ridiculous dance on the sidewalk, and I pretended like I was trying to escape her embarrassing antics by running away. She chased after me and tackled me to the ground. People around us stopped to make sure we were just playing as we rolled around in the grass, but we soon couldn’t move due to our uncontrollable laughter. I laughed until tears were running down my face and my side hurt, and I had to walk the rest of the way hunched over on one side, with black streaks marking my face.
“You know, you really need to get laid,” I told her once I caught my breath. “How long has it been now?”
“Way too fucking long.” Evie snarled her lip up in disgust.
She had met a few guys around campus and at the Saturday night shindig, as we had started referring to it as, but no one she was interested in seeing more than a couple times. Her sexual encounters had been about the equivalent of mine since we had been in Houston, except for the fact that I slept in bed with Ash once a week. Even though there was never anything sexual going on when we did, it was rather intimate, and I knew it was something Evie missed.
“But don’t you worry. I plan to take care of that problem tomorrow night.” She gave me a wicked look and continued, “I’m just going ahead and letting you know now that unless you plan on giving up your V-card to an absolute stranger at this thing tomorrow, you have no chance in winning our contest. You may as well plan on buying me breakfast Sunday morning, because I will not be denied. I am going to strain a muscle in my wrist soon from gripping my damn vibrator so much. I went ahead and bought a multipack of those batteries it takes. The woman who checked me out kept looking at me like she knew what I was buying them for. Of course she knew. What else takes that damn size battery? Nothing, that’s what! They might as well just call them ‘vibrator batteries’ on the package and come with a sticker that says ‘Needs a Good Fuck.’”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the rant she had gone off on. “It’s okay, Evie. Calm down. We will go and find you a sex stud tomorrow. You really do need to get some and get it out of your system. I’ve noticed your book selection as of late have been moving further away from young adult and closer to pure erotica, so I figured you were looking for some good material.”
The following twenty-four hours crawled by as Evie and I anxiously awaited our big night out. I wasn’t quite sure what to wear to something like this, so I allowed Evie to dress me; however, I retained veto power over her selections.
She was finally getting to wear her red-and-black-striped hoochie momma dress, which she paired with knee-high black heeled boots. She looked even more amazing than usual with her jet-black hair piled in a messy bun held together with black chopsticks. I wanted to wear pants, so she dressed me in distressed skinny jeans paired with a sheer black top and my black-and-red lace bra underneath.
Evie and I argued over what shoes I was going to wear. I wanted flip-flops, and she wanted stilettos. We compromised with sparkly black ballet flats. I kept my hair down and straight. I felt a little less vulnerable when it was down, almost like it was a layer of protection of sorts. I was apprehensive about the rather provocative way in which I was dressed, but Evie assured me that I looked great and we would fit in just fine. I had no choice but to trust her.
At 9:00 p.m. sharp, we headed out the door and were off to pick up Mina.
Fourteen
Mina lived with her parents about twenty minutes from campus. Our picking her up and meeting her parents provided her an easy alibi, since she was planning on staying the night at her boyfriend Noah’s apartment. I was glad to see Mina was dressed similar to how Evie and I were. She wore black skinny jeans, a metallic silver top, and black stilettos. I had met Mina several times at the campus coffee shop and library, but I never realized how pretty she really was until then. Her naturally blonde hair laid in perfect curls just past her shoulder blades, and her stunning blue eyes shimmered against her top. After quick introductions with her parents, we rushed out the door, excited for what the night would bring.
A half an hour later, we were paying the doorman our twenty-dollar cover charge to get into the warehouse in the middle of nowhere. The doorman was Mina’s brother’s friend, who got us in as twenty-one, but couldn’t do anything about the entrance fee. Even though Mina bitched about it to him, I didn’t mind much, because I hoped we wouldn’t have to buy many of our own drinks throughout the night.
Based on the outer appearance of just a metal rectangular shaped warehouse, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we went inside, but surprisingly, the dimly lit space looked like what I assumed a regular club would look like. Bars lined the two walls to my left and right. A good-sized stage was centered against the back wall. The main area was filled with tables and chairs with the exception of the small open space directly in front of the stage that was currently being used as a dance floor. There was a door leading to what looked like a hallway on one side of the room, and there were several pool tables set off to the other side. The place was pretty full; all the pool tables were in use and there were only one or two open bar tables.
Before I had an opportunity to look around anymore, Mina grabbed Evie’s hands and my and dragged us off toward a group of people seated at some tables that had been pushed together. People stopped to look at the three of us as we made our way across the room; it was impossible not to notice. I thought we may have resembled Charlie’s Angels—the striking blonde, the bad-ass Asian, and the mysterious brunette. Even though I wasn’t really mysterious at all, it was the best I could come up with for myself. The ‘boring brunette’ just didn’t have the same ring.
As soon as we reached the table, Mina jumped in the lap of who I assumed was Noah and started making out with him wildly. The whole table cheered at them, which caused Mina to start laughing and break the kiss. She then introduced us to Noah, who was just as nice as he was good-looking.
“It’s so nice to meet you both,” he said as he shook our hands. He then looked over at Mina and told her, “I’m not sure I’m going to approve of you hanging out with the likes of these two ladies. The three of you beautiful women together will be nothing but trouble.”
“You know I don’t need any help finding trouble. I found you, didn’t I?” she teased while kissing his neck.
Noah laughed and moved her mouth to his. “Yes, you did, you naughty girl,” he said against her lips.
Seeing the two o
f them together made me so hopeful yet so envious too. I could see how much they truly enjoyed being with one another. They were adorable together.
“Hey, Mina, are you going to introduce your friends to the rest of us?” one of the other guys at the table called out. “I’m sure they didn’t come with you to watch you and funny boy there kiss and make goo-goo eyes all night.”
“Oh right! Sorry, guys,” she said as she jumped off Noah’s lap. She then walked us around the table, introducing us to the rest of Noah’s bandmates and friends. However, after the first or second introduction, I stopped processing the names and faces, because I caught sight of the lead singer of the band that was currently on stage.
In the excitement of our arrival, I had barely noticed the band on the stage and the group of people gathered in front of them, as well as the loud music that filled the room. My brain had been on such a sensory overload I had failed to notice just how incredibly hot the front man was.
I somehow made my way around the table. I think I met a Max, a Seth, and a Justin, but I couldn’t be sure about those and had no clue on the rest. Several of them had girls in their laps or by their sides, and I didn’t remember any of their names either.
When we got back to where Noah was sitting, he had beers and stools waiting for us and explained to us the setup for the night. This was only 32 Leaves’s fourth time playing here, but Noah explained it was quickly becoming one of their preferred spots, because of the older crowd and the overall chillness of the place.
I tried very hard to pay attention to the conversation that was going on around me, but I kept finding my attention and eyes tuned in on the guy holding the microphone. I was awestruck. He was tall, probably six-five or six-six, and his defined muscles were on display via the sopping wet black T-shirt that was plastered to his chest. His dark hair was shaved close to his head and tattoos covered both arms and crawled up the front and back of his neck. Small piercings in each nipple were also evident through the thin cotton shirt that clung to him.