“Wow you guys look great” he stated.
Tess finished signing us out she looked him up and down. “Not so bad yourself. Maybe we can find a sexy little thing for you to spend some time with tonight.”
At that, Noah looked me up and down, his eyes lingering on certain parts of my body for longer than the rest. Tess had somehow managed to talk me into wearing a dress and heels. I felt ridiculous, like a new born baby deer, but Tess assured me that my long legs looked smoking in the heels.
When his eyes finally met mine, he looked me dead in the eye and said in a slow sexy voice. “Yeah, maybe we can.”
Okay, maybe Tess was right. Did Noah like me more than a friend? Or was he just being nice like always? I wish I could read people better. I couldn’t think about Noah right now, though. All I could think about was that I was going to a party where Charlie would be and I was anxious as to what the night would bring. I just hoped we all could have fun without any drama.
IT WAS nearly ten o’clock by the time gotten the house all ready for our little shindig. People would be starting to show up soon. Jaimie finally emerged from her room, where she had been getting ready for hours. Her makeup was coated on thick and her super short dress left so very little to the imagination. She glided across the floor in her sky high heels making her way over to the couch where Zach and I sat playing Xbox for a few¸ before the chaos began.
“Nice of you to finally join us sis, now that all the work is done” Zach said, not taking his eyes off the TV screen.
She snorted, “You can’t rush perfection like this.” waving her hand in front of her scantily clothed body. I shook my head as she sat down on the couch very close to me.
Beating Zach for the third time in a row, he threw the controller to the floor “Fuck”
I chuckled. “You suck dude¸ I thought you had been practicing?”
“Whatever man. I been too busy playing with my real life girlfriend, instead of this bullshit game.” he said, getting up. “You want another beer?” I nodded yes, and he exited the room to the kitchen, where we had set up the two kegs.
Jaimie leaned her body into me the moment Zach was out of sight. “I’m so excited to have fun with you tonight” she said, as she placed her hand on my thigh and started scooting it upwards. I stood abruptly, to stop her journey to my junk. She looked up at me from the couch with a familiar pouting look on her face.
“C’mon Jaimie, be cool tonight okay I don’t need any bullshit I just want to relax and have a good time.”
“Fine Charlie, but if you change your mind later in the evening like you usually do you know where my room is.”
The doorbell rang just in time, saving me from the unwanted conversation with Jaimie. I went to answer it, people started showing up and pretty soon the house was full of our classmates and the music was thumping loud. Zach and I were standing in the kitchen, along with most of the other guys from varsity hockey team. I leaned into Zach to talk over the music.
“Where’s your girl at? I thought you said she was coming?”
“She sent a text, said they were on their way, should be here any minute” I nodded. He said “they” so that meant Ashton really was coming. I had my doubts when she told me she decided to come. I poured myself another beer. I suddenly felt so anxious about her impending arrival. I headed to the bathroom and took a leak. When I was done I looked at myself in the mirror. It was hot in the house and my cheeks were a little flushed. I splashed some cold water on my face and took a deep breath. Time to get my game face on, if everything went the way I had it planned I would be kissing Ashton again tonight and possibly more.
I walked back out to the party of dancing people. Glancing around the room I found Zach he had his back to me but there was a small arm wrapped around his middle; that means Tessa and Ashton had arrived I made my way to the group, scanning for that one specific blonde girl. She was nowhere to be seen.
Damn!
Had she flaked out at the last minute? I looked at Tess. It was like she could read my mind and she nodded her head towards the hallway with a weird look on her face. I weaved my way to the hallway and when I finally found her, I had to look at her for about a minute to make sure who I was looking at was actually Ashton. She was all dolled up. She looked smoking hot but she was so naturally beautiful she so didn’t need all this extra stuff. She was leaning her back against the wall and that guy Noah, or whatever, was leaning against the other side and they were fully engulfed in conversation. I kept watching her as she laughed at something that loser had said. A couple of people went walking down the hallway and this caused Noah to move closer to Ashton. My blood started to boil when he placed his hands on her waist and motioned for her to walk forward. When she did so, it was a little unsteadily, that made me wonder how much she already had to drink. There was no way I was leaving her around this guy if she was drunk. When she raised her head and looked up, her eyes met mine. I just starred at her. She walked right up to me full of confidence.
“See Charlie, I’m here.” she said mocking.
I took a long drink from my red solo cup. “I see that.” I said as my eyes ran down her sexy body and long legs.
“So, I’m not boring anymore??”
I laughed before deciding she had just set herself up perfectly for me. “I don’t know Ash, why don’t you show me how not boring you are?”
She narrowed her eyes at me into a mean looking glare, I was taunting her and I knew it, but I loved it when she got worked up. She took my drink from my hand and downed the entire thing. Handing it back to me, she licked her lips slowly that caused me to be immediately turned on. Noah shifted, uncomfortably behind her noticing our heated little banter he reached around Ashton extending his hand out to me.
“I’m Noah, I don’t think we have met yet.”
We were about the same height but our builds were different. He was pretty lean whereas I was athletic and had more muscle, he wasn’t intimidating at all. I shook his hand a little harder than I should have, sending him a silent guy message I hope he received loud and clear.
“Charlie Ingram.” My eyes fell back on Ashton, she was still staring up at me with those baby blues of hers. I smiled at her while reaching down I clutched her hand in mine.
“Noah, we will catch you later, help yourself to the keg. Ash here, owes me a dance or two.” She gasped in surprise at my words, but allowed me to pull her into the sea of swaying bodies anyway. I found us a spot and tried to pull her in closer to me to dance, but she shook her head no.
She leaned up on her tippy toes, I bent my head down so she could speak closer to my ear. “I don’t dance.” I turned my head getting so close to her ear that my lips brushed against it when I spoke.
“C’mon Ashton you’re not the boring one remember.” She scowled at me and gave my chest a slight push.
“You are annoying you know that?” I laughed shaking my head yes.
I placed her arms around my neck and slowly started to move to the beat. It felt so good having her pressed against my body, I was getting way too worked up just from a dance. This girl made me lose control. My hands held her hips as we moved our bodies together. She never took her eyes away from mine.
“See you’re a good dancer.” She smiled and continued to grind on me with a little bit more confidence.
The song switched, so she stopped dancing and began to walk away. I reached down and laced my fingers with hers.
She stopped and looked down at our joined hands. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, just keeping my newest minion close to me tonight.”
She frowned, “Charlie I will never be one of your minions.”
Smiling at her and giving her hand a little squeeze. “We’ll see about that.”
I led her to the keg where Zach and Tess still were standing together. I made another drink and handed it to Ashton, but quickly grabbed her free hand and held it at our sides as we stood. Tess looked at our joined hands and then at Ashton with a
grin on her face. Ashton instantly dropped her head and looked in the other direction. I was finding that she did this when she was embarrassed or didn’t know what to say. Tess leaned up and whispered something in Zach’s ear, he smiled and bumped my shoulder.
“Hey everyone, let’s play suck and blow” someone called out. Ashton automatically rolled her eyes, suck and blow was a step up from playing spin the bottle, but what the hell, when in Rome. A large group of us formed a circle and I made sure I was standing next to Ashton, but that Noah guy had the same idea because he quickly chose the spot on her other side.
“What are we going to use?” Tess asked, just as I produced my wallet from my back pocket and pulled out my driver’s license, holding it up between two fingers.
Ashton snatched it from my hand and eyed it before smiling up at me. “I guess I will start.” She raised the card up to her face, so I craned my neck down in preparation to take the card from her lips. Before she placed it there, and began the game, she rested her hands on my biceps and whispered. “Hope you are good at sucking Charles Duncan.” A mischievous smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. I shook my head back and forth “you little sneak, you know my middle name now I have to kill you.” She smiled sweetly and then sucked the card against her lips. I touched the card to my mouth, taking it easily from her and the game went on. The card was passed from person to person. It eventually came back around Noah took it from a girl that stood on his right. He bent down to pass it to Ashton, just when she was about to take the card it fell and their lips were pressed together. She pulled away fast but Noah seemed to linger for a moment. Ashton wiped at her mouth while everyone hooted and hollered. She picked up my ID from the floor and looked at Noah who was smiling down at her.
“You suck at blowing Noah,” he shrugged his shoulders innocently while everyone laughed. She turned to me and handed me the card. If looks could kill, Noah would be dead on the ground. I wanted to punch the guy so bad. “Here” she said, placing the ID in my hand and pulling gently to get my attention off of Noah and onto her. I looked down at her before taking hold of her hand and leading her away.
The night progressed, and slowly Ashton started to loosen up more and more. She was laughing along with the group and adding sarcastic little remarks here and there. She still allowed me to hold her hand, and every once in a while I would rub my thumb across the space between her thumb and pointer. Noah was standing in the corner talking to a couple of girls but he had been shooting daggers at me all night. I couldn’t care less about that dude, he was just mad I had the one thing he wanted.
As it got later into the night only twenty or so people were still in the house and the music had been turned down. I was having such a good time with Ashton. Suddenly, there was a loud thump from the other room. I looked at Zach, who immediately ran towards the sound I followed behind him only to find that the noise was coming from a very drunk Jaimie she had fallen against the wall with her friend and was laughing hysterically as they both lay on the floor.
“Damn Jaimie, come on let’s get you to bed.” Zach chided. I helped Zach get her up off the floor she had one arm around hers brothers neck and the other around mine as we tried to help her walk to her room.
“Charlie you coming to bed with me right?” She slurred, I instantly met Ashton’s eyes. She was standing there watching the entire scene unfold. She turned and walked away with Tess going after her.
SHIT!
After I helped Zach get Jaimie to her room, I started searching for Ashton. I found her sitting on the couch in Zach’s dads study, of course Noah had taken the opportunity to swoop in and was sitting close to her, talking quietly.
“Ashton I need to talk to you.” As I walked further into the room, Tess got up and walked passed me to go back to the party. Noah was glaring at me but not moving from his seat next to her. “Please, I can explain what just happened back there.” Yeah, I know I probably sounded like a pussy but I had to fix this I wasn’t going to let what happened on our date happen again.
“Okay” she answered quietly. She gave Noah a small hug. With that, he rose, and stalked from the room leaving us alone but not before giving me a smirk. I came and kneeled on the floor in front of her, placing my arms on either side of her legs on the couch and leaned in close to her face so she had to look at me. I wanted her eyes on me not the damn floor right now.
“Jaimie is just drunk, she didn’t know what she was saying. There is no way I was going to go to bed with her. I had so much fun with you tonight. You’re the only one I want to spend time with. Nobody else.”
She processed my words for a little while before she spoke. “It’s not like we are together Charlie, you can sleep with or spend time with whoever you want. I’m not mad I was just…disappointed, I guess, because I had a good time with you tonight too.” I took a chance moving in and kissed her gently on the lips. I pulled back and looked at her, she was so beautiful. Kissing her once more, I let my lips remain on hers, just breathing her in.
Reluctantly, I pulled away and smiled at her “I told you beautiful girl, you already have them all beat. Jaimie included.” I got to my feet and put my hand out for her to take. “Come on, let’s go find Tess and Zach.” I was happy that, for the time being, it seemed like I had dodged a bullet with her and she was still willing to sort of give me a chance.
An hour or so later we were all sitting on the couch talking. Ashton sat close to me and she allowed me to put my arm around her and surprising me, she took her heels off, nestled right into my side and sighed contently.
“You comfy?”
She looked sleepily up at me. “Mm yea; you always smell so good Charlie.”
“Glad you think so.” I hugged her closer to me and ran my fingers up and down her arm.
I felt her head slowly getting heavier and heavier, next thing I knew soft sleeping sounds were coming from her. Tess came up and smiled, “I guess I should get her home.” I didn’t want to let her go, it felt too good, her sleeping in my arms, I didn’t want it to end.
“How did you guys get here?”
“I drove them” Noah interjected, like he was very proud of the fact. “Here, I can carry her to my car.” He held out his arms like he was going to pick Ashton up but Tess shooed him away.
“Noah, I’m sure Charlie can carry her or she can walk. You go start the car and get it ready we will be out in a minute.” He looked from Tess, to sleeping Ashton, and then at me. He sighed and turned to walk out the door, grumbling something under his breath.
“He will get over it” Tess said quietly. I scooped Ashton up in my arms, she stirred and nestled her face in the crook of my neck.
“No, please don’t let them hurt me.” She murmured a little bit more but I couldn’t make any of it out.
“Ash you are okay it’s just me, I need to get you in the car.” Who did she think was going to hurt her? Placing her in the back seat, she curled up in a ball and was already out again. With Ashton safe, I began to walk back into the house.
“Charlie” I stopped and turned as Tessa stepped away from the car. “If you hurt her, you know I will have to cut your balls off, right?”
I laughed at her protectiveness. “Yeah, I figured as much. Don’t worry, I don’t have any plans to hurt her.” I didn’t know if it was from the alcohol she drank or what it was, but tonight, Ashton let her guard down with me completely; and for the first time, she genuinely looked happy, not so stressed, minus the Jaimie incident. The girl was way serious all the time. I was glad she and I had made progress, but what tomorrow would bring, I didn’t know. When I got back in the house, Zach approached me with a smug look on his face
“Never thought I would see the day.”
“What’s that?”
“I have known you our whole lives and I have never seen you hold a girl’s hand all night or be all cuddled up and let her sleep on you…it was bizarre.”
Zach had a point. Thinking back on how I behaved with Ashton tonight, I had never held
a girls hand for that long without trying to get in her pants. And cuddling? Forget about it. But when I was with her, the thought of it being weird or uncomfortable didn’t even cross my mind, it had felt….good. Great actually.
Damn, I really hope I wasn’t getting in over my head.
I AWOKE the next morning with my head pounding. In addition, my mouth feeling like it was as dry as the Sahara. I blinked a few times and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and I groaned when I found my hands smeared black with makeup from last night. Turning over and peering down from my bunk bed, I saw a blurry Tess. She was sitting at the desk and doing something on her laptop.
“Morning sunshine.” What had her so damn chipper?
I sighed and lifted the covers finding I was still in my clothes from last night. I stopped for a moment and tried to recollect the evening. I remembered dancing with Charlie, as well as all of us drinking and laughing. I remember that girl trying to get Charlie to bed….but after that, things get a little foggy. Ugh, I was experiencing my first ever hang over and I wasn’t a fan.
“I’m never drinking again Tess.”
She snorted at my misery. “That’s what everyone says when they are hung over don’t worry it won’t last forever.”
I let my head fall back on the pillow and threw my blanket over my head wanting so much to drown out the rest of the world. How my parents did this kind of stuff and worse every day was beyond me. My cell phone started ringing way too loudly. I grabbed it without looking at the ID, just to hush the sound that was killing my aching head.
“Hello?” My voice was groggy and didn’t even sound like my own. A light laugh was on the other end.
Getting Out Page 7