by Mj Fields
Lucas hands Jade his credit card. “I got dinner. Skip the bottle and go help Tommy out of this jam. If there’s any problem because of the wine, come get me. And leave a good tip. That should help avoid the problem.”
Lucas walks toward me as Jade heads into the restaurant.
“Baby, what’s going on?”
“I’m dancing, and I want you.” I grab him by the waist of his slacks then laugh because the word slacks is seriously hilarious. Slacks. Oh, right. “I mean, I want you to dance with me, or something, with me.”
“How about we talk over here for a minute first?” He takes my hands and walks us to a bench surrounded by pretty flowers.
“I don’t want to talk.” I plop down on his lap. “I want to dance or kiss your incredibly sexy face.” So, I do, and he kisses me back.
“Tessa, I love this, but you’re drunk.” Lucas’s voice is deeper than usual.
“Yes, I am, but I know what I want, and I’m sitting on it. Do you know what you want, Lucas?” I take his hand and slide it from my waist to my ass. “This, right?”
He nods slowly. “But not when you’re loaded, and not with an audience. Your cousin and Tommy will be out here any minute.”
“Then, how about these?” I pull his other hand up to my chest.
“Tessa”—Lucas pulls his hands away slowly—“stop, please. You’re killing me.”
“Ya know, I think I will be really good in bed.” I keep his hand on my chest. “Or right here on the bench.” I laugh.
When he doesn’t move, or even respond, I lean in to see what green his eyes are. “Why so serious, Lucas? This is supposed to be fun, right? And, just think, you got to second base on our first date.”
He stands up with me in his arms and begins moving.
My body, the one I’ve lied to, heats in places I’ve ignored.
Then my feet hit the ground as he unlocks his car. He opens the door and sets me inside.
Laughing, I ask, “Will you chill? I am eighteen.”
To that, he shuts the door and walks around to the driver’s side.
He doesn’t get in, though. Tommy and Jade do, and then he gets in and tosses his shades on the dash.
When he pulls out, he heads in the direction of home.
“I’m not ready to go home.”
“You don’t say,” he grumbles, yet he still heads that way.
“I have to pee. Can you pull over?” At a stop light, I try to find the door handle.
Lucas reaches over and puts his arm in front of me. “In a minute. We’ll pull into the park up here, all right?”
“Sure, I would love to pee in the park.” I giggle and hold his hand. “Pee in the park.”
A few seconds later, we’re pulling into the parking area, and as soon as he stops, I jump out and throw my coat on my seat.
“I hear music. After I pee, I am going to dance with you, Lucas … dirty dance.” And then I head toward the first building I see.
“This way, drunkard.” Jade grabs my hand and pulls me in the opposite direction.
Walking past the guys, I hear Tommy ask, “She okay?”
“Apparently not. I have no idea what brought this on, but drunk Tessa can get me in a whole lot of trouble.” Lucas laughs, and I can’t help but feel relieved. Not fully, though, because I really have to pee.
When we walk out of the bathroom, I feel much better. I think, anyway.
I see Lucas holding on to take-out containers and hurry as I skip toward him. He smiles.
“I squatted and peed because public toilets carry germs and diseases. By the way, Lucas, do you have any STDs?”
He shakes his head.
“Good to know. I wiped and washed my hands, and now I’m ready to find that music and dance. We need to find where it’s coming from. Let’s go.”
He grabs me. “Hey, I want you to do me a favor, okay?”
Smiling, I nod.
“I want you to take these two pills and drink this.” He hands me the pills and a bottle of water.
“If it’s a date rape drug, I can assure you that you don’t need it. I want to remember the first time you’re—”
Jade covers my mouth, and I pull her hand away.
“I’m a bit tipsy, so maybe a refresher tomorrow?”
He doesn’t respond, so I decide screw it and start toward the music again.
He grabs my arm again.
I look back. “Change your mind? Because, seriously, anything you want, Lucas. And I mean anything.” I pop the pills in my mouth and swallow them back. “Satisfied?”
“Not yet.” His voice is huskier than before. “Will you sit and eat with me? Finish the start of our date here? A picnic?”
“Sure, I will.” I spot a tree and hurry to it, sit down, and pat the spot next to me.
“Looks like Lucas is who Tessa wants to take care of her right now, Jade. Can you and I walk over there and eat?” Tommy asks.
Jade sighs. “Sure, just not too far, though.”
“Hell no. Go have fun. Break rules. Get to second base and catch up.”
“Tessa,” Lucas says, sitting beside me and placing the food containers between us.
“I want to feed you. I wanna sit on your lap as I feed you, okay?”
Lucas closes his eyes momentarily. “That would be nice.”
I hike my black skirt up so I can sit facing him, take a fork, and twirl it around in the pasta. As soon as I pick it up, it falls off, so I try again.
“Nope, you will not win,” I scold the pasta then try a third time. “Slippery little bastards, I’m gonna get you.”
I pick up the spaghetti with my fingers and shove it in his mouth. “See? I don’t lose.”
His eyes are smiling as I pull my fingers away and watch him chew.
“You’re so hot.” I wipe some of the sauce that I dripped on his lips and sucked it off my finger.
He shifts, and I feel him. “Your dog woke up.”
His eyes widen, and I feel sexy.
I wiggle a bit on his lap, and he closes his eyes and groans.
“That feels very good, Lucas.” And it does. It feels tingly, so I move again.
He grabs my hips, stopping my movement as he swallows the pasta. “Tessa, this is not—”
I quickly take another handful of pasta and shove it in his mouth. He nips my fingers when I pull them away, and I feel my nipples stiffen.
Looking down, I see them beneath my tank top. Then I run my fingers over them and gasp. I do it again then decide I’d like to feel them without my shirt covering them up, so I pull my shirt up to look at them.
Caressing my bra, it feels even better.
I look up at him and whisper, “Bite these, please.”
“Fuck, Tessa, I want you so badly right now, but you’re drunk. Therefore, I need you to cover yourself before I explode.”
I grab his face and tell him again, “Bite now, please.”
“Tessa, I’m going to tell you one more time—”
“I bet they’re big enough that I can do it myself. Huge boobs.” I scowl, looking down at them then back up at him. “So, what’s it gonna be? You or—”
“Pull your shirt down, or I’m going to get Jade over here, understand?”
“Okay, Dad.” I grin, and before he can start talking again, I shove more pasta into his mouth, pull my finger out, and lick the sauce from them.
Lucas begins to choke.
“Are you okay?” Jade asks.
I pull my shirt down. “Double dates, overrated.”
I hand him a bottle of water. “Put this in your mouth and suck it down.”
“Everything okay?” Jade asks again. Closer now.
“No, not really.” I look back at her. “He won’t touch my boobs, and Jade, they are great boobs. Look!”
“Tessa—enough!” Jade snaps.
“You need to lighten up. Have a drink. That’ll help. Look at me.”
“Tessa, get up and come with me,” Jade demands.
&nbs
p; “Are we gonna find the music?”
“Yes, we are,” Jade says, forcing a smile.
“Good, because I want to dance, Jade, and we’re gonna dance.” I stand then hurry past Jade to get to the music, but she grabs my hand.
“These aren’t running shoes.”
“Cool. Now let’s go find out if they’re dancing shoes.”
A few feet away, there’s a sign that reads, “LIVE BAND,” and an arrow pointing to the right.
“Thank God, because a dead band would suck.” I laugh.
Jade laughs, too.
“Eighties music!” I smile as I twirl around on the wooden dance floor, and when I stop, I do it in perfect fashion.
I squeeze Lucas’s arms. “Hot damn, Links.”
“Hot damn, Links?” I look up and see it’s not Lucas. It’s Jade.
“Girl, you have some guns.” I laugh.
“If I ever drink and act like this, please promise me you’ll hide me from all humanity.”
“Fine, but only if you promise to dance with me now.”
“Oh, my good Lord, fine.” She twirls me in a circle, and my stomach feels a bit off.
“No more twirling, either.”
We dance, we sing, we laugh, but we do not twirl.
From behind me, Lucas says, “Can I have this dance?”
“Yeah, but watch your toes,” Jade jokes. Well, I think she’s joking, anyway.
“Hey, I’m a good dancer.”
She laughs. “Best in the world.”
I look up at Lucas as he slides an arm around me. “I’m a good dancer.”
“Yeah, baby, you are.”
“Also, I called Jade, Links. You should feel her guns.” I step back. “Jade, come here. Let Lucas feel your guns.”
She laughs. “Piss off.”
I swing around and see Sadi standing close to us, but maybe I’m just drunk.
Screw it. “Hey, Sadi! How are you?” I laugh and wave at her.
Lucas turns me around. “I think we should get back to the car.”
“No way. I want to dance. Look, Lucas, my friend Sadi’s here.”
“Tessa, you’re drunk. We should go,” Lucas says more seriously.
“Buzz kill.”
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head.
“Please dance with me, Lucas.” I jump up in his arms.
“One dance, and then we leave, okay?”
The band plays Tesla’s “Love Song,” and he pulls me in tighter. We begin to sway and, within seconds, Tommy and Jade are right beside us.
“‘So, you think that it’s over,’” Jade sings to me, and this is when we join the eighties Live Band … unofficially, of course.
When the chorus begins, I raise both arms in the air and sing the entire thing. “‘Love is all around you …’”
I about pee myself when Tommy begins playing the air guitar, but not at him, because he is seriously good it.
“‘Love will find a way. Darlin …’” we all sing together.
The next song is “Eternal Flame” by The Bangles.
“Baby, do you know this song?” he whispers in my ear, sending tingles through my body, and I nod. “Sing to me, please.”
Holding his face, and with those amazing green eyes, I sing the whole song. When it ends, he kisses me in the sweetest way.
“Get a room!” Some rude bitch yells in an annoying as hell voice, and that rude bitch’s name is Sadi.
“Don’t let her ruin this moment.”
“I won’t.” I wrap my arms around him, push up on my toes, and kiss his neck.
“Check that out,” Lucas whispers as the next song begins. “Jade isn’t even trying to punch her in the eye.”
I step back, a bit shocked. “Probably because she didn’t attack her.”
“I know, baby. I’m just joking.”
Hurt. Yep, that hurt. I hiccup, and that hurts, too. “I don’t feel well.”
“Let’s get out of here.” He takes my hand, and I’m seriously not sure if I want him, too.
“Hey, Tommy, we’re going to head back to the car.”
“Oh, Tessa, he likes it in the front seat … with me on his lap!” Sadi yells.
“That won’t be happening. I’m not on birth control yet, Sadi. Don’t want to take any chances,” I yell then flip her off.
Lucas’s jaw drops. “Tessa, don’t be a bitch.”
My immediate reaction is to strike him, just as he has done to me. And when my hand does just that, I cover my mouth in shock. But, when he glares at me, I get pissed again.
Storming away, I hear Sadi’s wretched voice again. “Feisty little one, isn’t she?”
Within seconds, I’m in his car and pissed, so fucking pissed that I am ready to cry, and that is not happening.
Somewhere off of Route Thirteen, my mouth fills with saliva, and my stomach turns.
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
Lucas turns down a dirt road, pulls over, and I nearly fall out the door and begin vomiting immediately.
My hair gets pulled away from my face, and it doesn’t stop.
“Oh Tessa,” Jade whispers soothingly as she holds my hair.
When nothing more can possibly come up, I stand on shaky legs, a complete and total mess, with Mom’s words running through my head.
“Jade,” Lucas yells from the car. “Here’s some water, a toothbrush, and toothpaste.”
Embarrassed, I don’t dare turn around. “Did she get any on her?”
I look down at my tank and skirt. Then I look at Jade, my lip now trembling.
“A little,” Jade answers, rubbing my back.
Doors open and shut behind me as I brush my teeth and Jade pulls my hair into a ponytail and fastens it.
“We’re going to change these clothes, okay?” Jade says quietly.
I pull my tank over my head as she pulls down the skirt.
Teeth chattering, a sweatshirt goes over my head.
“So cold,” I say, hugging myself.
“Step in,” Jade says, so I do, and quickly.
“Do you have an old bag that I can put these in?” Jade asks as I squat down and cover my legs with the sweatshirt to try to stop my teeth from chattering and my body from shaking.
I hear doors open and shut.
“Okay, come on now,” Jade says, pulling me up.
I hear a phone ring, reminding me that he has a cell phone. He answers it.
As Jade hugs me to warm me up, Lucas tells someone, probably Sadi, “Give me twenty, and I’ll meet you.”
And then I cry.
“It’s going to be okay, Tessa. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
“No, I won’t.” I wipe my eyes and decide screw it. I don’t even care if he sees me. I’d rather that than to freeze.
I slide in the car, and he immediately asks, “You okay?”
Emotions change and, again, I’m pissed. “No, I’m not. You called me a bitch,” I snap then begin to hiccup again.
“I said not to be a bitch, Tessa. There’s a difference. And you slapped me, so …” He shrugs as he pulls onto the road and turns around.
“Really? Is that how it went?” Hiccup. “Because I distinctly remember you were sticking up for her and called me a bitch. Of course I slapped you! Call me a bitch again and see what happens next time.”
“Tessa, you’re drunk. Stop,” Jade pleads from behind me.
“Jade, he loves her,” I sing-song. “He wanted to be her baby—”
“Now you’re being a little bitch,” Lucas yells. “Just shut up!”
Chapter Ten
No one says a word for the rest of the ride home, not until we drive by the farm.
“Lucas, you missed the turn,” Jade whispers.
“Alex is meeting us at camp,” Lucas seethes.
“You called my brother?” I yell, voice breaking.
“No, I answered his call while your drunk ass was being changed on the side of the road.” He hits the gas.
&nbs
p; “And we’re done.”
“Yeah, you think you get to call it after that shit?”
“Both of you, shut the fuck up!” Jade yells.
Shocked, I look back at her.
“Nothing nice gets said in moments like these, Tessa. Not one damn thing, so shut up.” She shifts her eyes to Lucas. “You, too.”
When we pull off of Harvest Road and onto the dirt road leading to camp, the headlights shine on Alex standing with his arms crossed. He looks pissed.
Lucas throws the car into park and turns to me. “You stay.”
Alex walks toward his window. “She okay?”
“Just let her sit there for a minute, Alex,” Jade says sadly. “We went to dinner and she saw—”
“I know what she saw, Jade. I’ve known for a few days that Mom was seeing someone. Dad told me.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so much anger, rage, and fucking betrayal in all my life, but I am sure I heard what he just said.
I throw the door open and run toward him. “You knew, Alex, and you didn’t tell me? Dad knew?” I scream. “What the fuck is wrong with you two?” Batting away tears, I trip and fall over a fucking rock.
“Shit,” Lucas says, now beside me as he grabs me and helps me up.
“Is she drunk?” Alex yells at him.
“Yes, I am! I’m loaded, Alex. And guess what else? I showed Lucas my boobs and asked him to bite them, and I wanted him to!”
Alex reaches for me, and Lucas puts himself between us. “Not now, man. Leave her alone. Not now.”
“You need to leave, Lucas. I’ll deal with her. You’ve done more than enough,” Alex says through clenched teeth.
“Don’t talk to him like that! He was well-behaved. You should be patting him on the back. He wouldn’t touch me!” I scream at him, tears now falling like a summer storm.
“Tessa, enough.” Lucas wipes at my tears. “Alex, I got this, man. Give it a minute, please.”
Lucas then picks me up, carries me to the other side of the car, and set me down next to him.
“I’ll be back.”
Willing myself to stop crying, I listen as he tells Alex about tonight, starting with the restaurant and the wine, moving on to the way I was coming on to him and the fact that he was a perfect gentleman. He asks Alex about the man with Mom, and he tells him that he works at the hospital with her.