“Alright then,” he said, smiling slightly at my stated goal.
My brother was smiling at me and not in a mocking way. He was smiling at me in a more endearing way. It was so strange.
“I will see you later,” I said sharply, turning away from him and walking toward the beach, half-shocked that I’d just had the most civil conversation I’d had with my brother in seven years and had also made plans to hang out with him.
What was happening? Who was this girl who’d taken over my brain? I wasn’t sure, but I kind of liked her. She had moxie.
Chapter Ten
Later that night, I stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom appraising my outfit. I was going to hang out with my brother and people he’d met. This would not be the usual fraternity and sorority crowd I was used to. I nervously smoothed my straight, shoulder-length hair, wondering what I was getting myself into. Instead of slipping into the flowered sundress I initially picked out, I opted for jeans, a white boyfriend tank, and flip flops, hoping I looked just a little badass.
Then I dug out some funky jewelry and spent twenty minutes copying the instructions in Glamour on how to create smoky eyes. For good measure, I added some sheer lip gloss. A look in the mirror told me that although I looked different, I wasn’t really achieving the badass look I’d been aiming for. I looked more like Kristin Bell playing a bad girl in a movie.
I wasn’t sure there was much else I could do, though, so I let it go, hoping I wouldn’t stick out like an oddball too much. A few minutes later, I nervously knocked on Chase’s bedroom door.
“Enter,” he called out, so I did.
He was just shutting the window as I walked in. From the look, and the smell of things, he’d been smoking. Seeing my face, he methodically produced a bottle of Febreeze and sprayed it around the room. My brother was nothing if not an expert at disguising what he did.
He shot me a lazy smile. “You ready to get wasted?” he teased.
“Screw you,” I said lightly and with a fake smile, bringing us back to the reality of our relationship. I hated when he mocked me.
“Ah, see, you really are a bitch at heart,” he said, as he checked his reflection in the mirror, arranging a few of his carefully placed spikes to look more natural.
I had trouble countering his comment, as his assessment of me was sort of what I’d been aiming for as of late. I was a little glad it was working.
“You want a shot?” Chase asked, gesturing to the bottles of vodka, whiskey, and tequila lined up on his dresser. It looked like he’d already had a shot or two that night.
I shook my head. “No thanks. I think I’ll stick with beer.”
Chase rolled his eyes as he poured some whiskey into the shot glass and threw it back without a second thought. I shivered involuntarily just watching him. He gave me a look that told me how juvenile he thought I was being.
I wanted to tell him that I just wasn’t a big drinker, and I’d never tried anything stronger than beer. I was a little afraid of what it might do to me. I wasn’t sure explaining myself would help my case, though, so I stayed quiet.
I watched my brother mess with his hair for a few more seconds before he finally turned to me with a look that said he was ready to go. I appraised his overall look as he walked toward me, noticing for the millionth time how different we really were. Chase had the bad boy look down pat. He had on torn and faded jeans, a dark gray Diesel t-shirt with some obscure design on the front, and black Converse sneakers. His dark hair and dark, thick lashes complimented his olive skin, and his eyebrow ring glinted in the light from the lamp on the dresser. On his left wrist was a black leather cuff with flat silver studs, and he had a plain silver ring on this thumb. He looked like a badass. I just looked like I was trying too hard.
As Chase passed by me, I saw him look me up and down. I could guess what he was thinking about what I’d chosen to wear, but thankfully he didn’t say anything. I wasn’t in the mood for his judgement, but more than that, I knew the kind of verbal sparring match we could get into over something trivial like a comment about my outfit. I figured I should probably steer clear of picking fights with the guy who was giving me a ride to a place I wasn’t familiar with. I planned on coming home later, so I would need him at the end of the night.
Instead, I followed him silently downstairs, past Keely who was watching TV and waiting for some guy named Matt to pick her up. She’d met him on the beach the day before, and they were going out. I waved to her as we left, receiving a puzzled look in return as she took in who I was with. I just shrugged in response, figuring I’d explain later.
I continued to follow Chase, thinking we’d be taking my car, but he walked right past it, down to the end of the driveway.
“Where are we going?” I asked, hurrying to keep up with him.
“To meet Molly,” he said, as if I knew who Molly was.
“Who’s Molly?”
“This girl I met. She’s cool. We’re meeting her at her house.”
“Okay,” I said, wanting to ask a million questions that I knew probably wouldn’t be welcome.
At the forefront was whether or not my brother was hooking up with her. I knew he definitely wouldn’t entertain the answer to that question, though, so I stayed quiet.
It turned out that Molly’s huge beach house was just down the road from ours. Molly herself was waiting on the vast porch when we walked up. As soon as she saw Chase, she got up from where she was sitting on the steps and came toward us, kissing my brother on both cheeks when she reached him.
I tried not to stare, but it was hard not to. Molly was gorgeous in an unconventional, hypnotic sort of way. From far away, it looked like she had blond highlights, in her straight, shoulder-length hair, but when she got closer, I could see that the top half of her hair was platinum blonde whereas the underneath part was a deep purple. Her bangs were cut in a jagged sort of way that made her look edgy, her violet eyes were lined in thick black eye liner, and her lips were stained a dark red. She had a ring on the right side of her lower lip and a small diamond stud on the left side of her nose that sparkled in the overhead light from the street lamp. She was wearing a mid-drift bearing black tank top, a plaid pleated mini-skirt, and platform black boots that laced up to her knees. She’d pretty much achieved the look I’d been going for but never would have been able to pull off.
“Took you fucking long enough. Everyone else already left,” Molly said to Chase in a surprisingly British accent. The she directed her attention to me. “Hi! I’m Molly.”
She extended her hand to shake mine, which felt incredibly formal for the way she was dressed.
I took it hesitantly and ended up giving her a weak finger shake. “I’m Emily.”
“Ah, the elusive Emily,” she said, her eyes lighting up.
She gave me a welcoming smile as I tried to decipher what she meant by her comment. What exactly had Chase told her about me? I didn’t have time to ask, though, because Molly turned her attention back to my brother.
“I’m not fucking kidding,” she told him. “I’ve been waiting for like twenty minutes. I’m almost completely out of cigarettes. I’ve been chain-smoking like a fucking fiend.”
“Sorry,” Chase told her, “I had to do something before we left.”
“I can see that, and apparently you’ve forgotten your manners.”
I wasn’t really sure what they were talking about, so I just stayed quiet and watched them, pretty convinced that if my brother wasn’t sleeping with this girl, he was going to. She was just his type, or what I’d always imagined his type to be. And they definitely seemed to be flirting with each other, even if it wasn’t the kind of flirting I was used to.
“Ah, but I didn’t forget,” Chase teased her, producing something from his pocket that I couldn’t see. “For you.”
Molly’s eyes lit up when she saw it. I watched her take it from his hand. When he handed her a lighter, I knew what she’d gotten so excited about. She stood there for a moment,
the joint between her lips, and I watched her expertly light it, take a long, full drag, hold her breath and exhale all at once, before smiling and passing the joint to Chase. He took a drag and passed it back to her.
“You really have forgotten your manners, Chase. Emily didn’t get any.”
“Emily doesn’t smoke,” Chase said, at the same time I said, “Oh, thanks, but I’m good.”
I’d wanted to save face and not look like a total loser in front of this girl, but Chase had just ruined that for me.
“That’s cool,” Molly said, taking the joint from him. “More for us.”
They started walking, so I sort of fell into step behind them, wondering again what I was getting myself into. A few blocks later, we turned left down a path that cut through a grouping of pine trees. Not a big fan of nature, I wondered how long I’d have to rough it when suddenly the trees cleared and the beach was upon us. About fifty yards away was group of about thirty people scattered around a large, blazing bonfire.
Realizing how hard it was to walk in the sand in flip flops, I slid off my shoes and ran a few steps to catch up with Chase and Molly who, despite their inebriated states, were surprisingly fast walkers. Molly’s boots never slowed her down one step.
As soon as we made it to the bonfire, Molly took off toward a group of people she knew, waving wildly in response to their shouts at her. I noticed the same tall, lanky guy I’d seen on the beach earlier, give her a hug. Then I was left alone with my brother who was surveying the area, no doubt looking for the keg.
He spotted it on the other side of the bonfire and started walking, not bothering to check that I was still behind him. In fact, he hadn’t said a word to me since we’d met up with Molly. I scrambled to catch up to him, not wanting to be left alone at a party that was quite obviously not my scene. Chase silently filled a cup of beer and handed it to me before filling one of his own.
“So what’s up with Molly?” I asked, trying to engage him in some kind of conversation.
He turned around to face me, a serious look on his face. “She’s a friend,” he said, not going into any more detail than that.
“Are you sleeping with her?”
“No.”
“Are you going to sleep with her?”
“No.”
“Do you like her?”
Chase put his hand up, looking exasperated. “Em, this isn’t Sex and the City, and I’m not one of your sorority sisters who has nothing better to do than talk about who likes who, who’s hot, and who’s a bitch. If you’re going to hang with me, you need to take it down a notch.”
I stared at him, not knowing for sure what he meant. But I knew he was insulting me, just like he’d done in the car when the conversation had turned girly.
“Take a drink,” he said. “Relax. Be quiet.”
I glared at him, scrunching up my nose before putting the cup to my lips. Then I proceeded to down the entire beer out of aggravation that Chase was treating me like I was an idiot. I would prove him wrong. I could hang with him and his friends.
Or maybe I couldn’t. In surveying the crowd, I saw that I was definitely in the minority. I had no piercings, no tattoos, my hair was a normal color, and I didn’t look like I’d just crawled out of a nightclub. I was definitely not among people who were like me.
“Alright,” Chase said, taking my cup and handing me his full one. “Now do it again, and you might prove to me that you can actually hang.”
He was taunting me, which just urged me to show him I could keep up.
I glared at him and tilted the cup back, spilling a little on my shirt as I did, but managed to get it all down. Staring at him, I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head to the side, as if to say, ‘see, I’m not as out of place as you think I am’ and ignored the fact that I was already starting to feel a little buzzed and definitely felt out of place.
“See, I’m not so rigid,” I said, proudly. Chase just shook his head and smiled at me before walking away.
At the end of two hours, I was drunk, a little wobbly and definitely not in my right mind, but I’d achieved my goal and had to say it felt good. Chase had disappeared, leaving me to talk to two guys with multiple piercings who were engaged in a heated conversation about their motorcycles. Realizing that I hadn’t added anything to the conversation in about ten minutes, I decided to step away. They didn’t seem to notice.
I half-stumbled, half-walked over to the bonfire, where a guy wearing a backwards baseball hat over his dark hair was playing the guitar. A few people had gathered around to watch. He was in the middle of Paint it Black, my all-time favorite Rolling Stones song, his fingers dancing along the strings at a rapid-fire pace, his head down, as he concentrated. I watched him, hypnotized by his movements and caught up in the song as my head buzzed along, feeling light and fuzzy as I mouthed the words he sang. It might have been the alcohol, but was instantly enamored and couldn’t seem to look away.
When the song ended, the guy stuck his pick in his mouth and looked up, surveying the crowd around him. His gaze stopped on me, and I figured he was probably trying to place who I was and what I was doing there. I must have looked more awkward than I realized and offered him a small smile in the hopes of showing him I wasn’t as odd as I might have seemed. I waited for him to return the gesture, but he just looked away.
I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or not, and I should have looked away too, but something kept my gaze on him. There was something really familiar about him. I just wasn’t sure what it was. I knew there was no way I could have known him.
But then I realized a few seconds later that I was wrong. I almost gasped out loud when I realized he was the guy I’d talked to at the coffeehouse back home and then obsessed about for the greater part of a night. I knew I’d recognize those eyes anywhere. It didn’t seem like he remembered me, though, which was probably just as well. Beautiful eyes or not, I still had a boyfriend.
As he started playing Hotel California, I knew I needed to step away. If I’d thought this guy had been sexy when he spoke, it was completely game-over when he sang. I couldn’t hear his accent, but his voice rolled so smoothly over the words to the songs he played that it was hard not to get drawn in. If I wasn’t careful, in my inebriated state, I would do something I’d regret. Distance definitely seemed best.
I got up from the log I’d been sitting on and stepped away, looking around for Chase. He was talking with Molly off to the side of the bonfire. I didn’t want to interrupt them, especially if he was making his move, so instead I walked away from all the activity to a deserted part of the beach, down by the water. I fell on my butt as I tried to sit, realizing quickly that I was really drunk. I wasn’t as out of it as I’d been the night I’d hit Ashleigh, but I was close.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat and stared at the ocean, sipping my beer. After a while, I zoned out as I watched the waves roll in and out, in and out, the mix of classic rock songs emanating from the single guitar causing my head to move slowly in time. It honestly could have been ten minutes or an hour before anyone came over to me, but in a rush of movement and sound, Molly plopped herself down next to me and handed me a new beer. Her skinny, white legs in her tall boots extended out in front of her, giving me a full view of the bright blue koi fish tattoo on her left thigh.
“Alright Emily?” she asked, cocking her head to the side and assessing me.
I nodded, realizing how sleepy I felt all of a sudden, my head feeling heavier than usual. I drew in a deep breath in an effort to wake up, and said, “Yeah, I’m good”.
“Good, I’m glad. I know this isn’t really your scene.”
I looked at her skeptically, honestly a little irritated by her assumptions about me so soon after meeting me. The alcohol gave me courage, so I said a little too curtly, “And why is that?”
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly, catching my tone. “I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that Chase told me a bit about you.”
I raised my eyebrows and si
multaneously felt my cheeks get hot at the idea of Chase mocking me to his new friends, which he probably had.
“Oh yeah? And what exactly did Chase tell you?” I asked, a definite bite to my tone.
Molly sucked in her breath and paused, pulling a cigarette out of the pack in her hand. I waited for her to continue, watching her light it, inhale and exhale, blowing smoke toward the ocean. She extended the pack to me in offering. I shook my head, but kept my eyes on her, waiting for her to continue.
She took another drag before she said anything. I couldn’t tell if she was stalling or just someone who didn’t take things too seriously and therefore didn’t think it was a big deal to make me wait on her.
“He just said that you’re not like him. You don’t really do anything bad, ever, and you tend to look down on people who do – people like him. He said you’re in a sorority, you date a football player, and your friends are all just like you.”
Taking this all in, I realized that none of it sounded that bad to me. When I thought about it, I knew that was a pretty accurate description of me, but when Molly said it, it sounded awful. I came across as an intolerant, shallow person who only surrounded herself with people like her. Letting that sink in, I leaned my head back all the way and looked up at the stars above. There were thousands of them that I could see. It looked as if the sky had been salted like a pretzel. I never saw stars like that at home.
I tilted my head back up and noticed that Molly was staring at me, slowly smoking her cigarette. “What do you think of me,” I asked her, realizing that I suddenly needed to hear the opinion of someone who didn’t know me at all.
She thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t really know you, so I guess I don’t have an opinion.”
I closed my eyes for a few seconds. “Okay, not good enough,” I said, shaking my head. “What was your initial impression of me, just in meeting me tonight?”
Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns) Page 10