Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game

by Katie Ashley

  ***

  The party started just after dark and conveniently after Mr. and Mrs. Johnson left for the airport. When I parked the Jeep, I glanced over at Maddie. “I just want to prepare you for some of the things you’re gonna see tonight.”

  “I’m not a baby, Noah,” she snapped.

  “Okay, okay,” I muttered as I hopped out of the Jeep. She may have been putting on a brave front, but she would see. I’d just wait to see her reaction when a couple started going at it in front of her and naked people were running around. Then she’d be singing a different tune.

  We’d barely made it to the bonfire by the pond before Callie, the girl who I dated most of 10th grade, thrust two beers in our hands. “It’s so good to see you, Noah,” she slurred.

  “Um, yeah, good seeing you too.”

  Although she was standing with her latest flame, Callie inched closer to me. “Man, we had some good times together, didn’t we?”

  I shifted nervously on my feet—scared of what direction the conversation might be headed in. “Yeah, we did.”

  Running her finger down my chest, Callie shopped at the waistband of my shorts. “Do you remember that camping trip when we went skinny dipping, and we got all those splinters from screwing on Old Man Bradford’s dock?”

  Maddie squeaked beside me, and I knew it was time to get the hell out of there. “Yeah, good seeing you,” I muttered before taking Maddie’s arm and leading her away. Once we put enough distance between Callie and the ghosts of my sexual past, I turned to Maddie. “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s okay,” she murmured. She was eying the plastic cup in her hand suspiciously.

  “You don’t have to drink anything tonight.”

  She eyed me before downing half the cup. “Refreshing,” she replied, her body shuddering as the alcohol hit her stomach.

  I rolled my eyes. “Come on,” I said. Even in their drunken stupor, kids were shocked to see Maddie at the party. One guy stopped us. “Hey, I know you,” he slurred. “You’re that smart girl. What the hell are you doing here?”

  Before I could say anything, Maddie stepped forward. “I was invited.”

  The guy raised his eyebrows. “Cool. Wanna another beer?”

  “Sure,” Maddie replied.

  “Awesome!” he said. He glanced at me before giving Maddie a seductive grin. “If you’re not with him, maybe we could go somewhere and talk?”

  Maddie shook her head furiously from side to side. “No, no, we’re definitely together.” At her declaration, my brows shot up in surprise. She smiled sweetly at the drunken asshat before replying, “Thanks for the beer.” She quickly pulled me away.

  “So we’re together huh?” I questioned.

  Tilting her head, she replied, “It’s the truth, isn’t it? I mean, I did come here with you.”

  I bobbed my head while fighting not to say, Yeah, but that’s not exactly what I hoped your statement meant.

  After she took two long, lingering sips, I sighed. “Uh, don’t you think you need to take it a little slow—you know considering you’ve never had alcohol before?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she snapped, shooting me an exasperated expression.

  When I saw Presley cutting through the crowd towards me, I cringed. I’d avoided her at all costs since that night at her house, but it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get away this time.

  She smiled hesitantly at me. “Noah, can I talk to you?”

  The usual plastic cup was missing from her hand, and there was an unusual sincerity in her voice. I glanced over at Maddie. “Um, I guess so. But only for a minute.” As I started into the brush with Presley, I turned back to Maddie. “Stay right here, okay?”

  “Fine.”

  I followed Presley further into the woods. When she deemed we were far enough from prying eyes, she stopped. She glanced up at me through her eyelashes, and I swallowed hard. “Presley, I came out here to talk and nothing else. Do you understand?”

  She snorted. “Believe me, I don’t want to do anything with you but talk to you!”

  “Fine, then start talking.”

  Presley bit her lip momentarily before blurting. “I’m pregnant.”

  The world titled around me before spinning wildly in a crazy mosaic of colors like Willy Wonka on crack. I knew I wasn’t panicking because there was a possibility I was the father. It was the realization of who the father most likely was.

  “Say what?”

  Presley rolled her eyes. “You heard me the first time before you spazzed!”

  “Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to hear it again to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating or something.”

  “Fine. I’m pregnant, dickweed. Can you comprehend that now?”

  “Loud and clear.”

  Presley’s expression softened. “So…”

  “Is it….?”

  She nodded.

  I’ll admit that there was a small part of me that was pretty skeptical. I mean, we’re talking about the school mattress here. “Um, are you absolutely sure?”

  At my question, I expected her to be outraged and haul off and knock the shit out of me. But she seemed to anticipate it. “Yes, I’m absolutely sure. We were exclusively together the entire month of March, which is when I got pregnant.”

  I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, excuse me for sounding like a giant douchebag here, but considering your reputation, do you really expect me to believe without a doubt that Jake is your baby’s father?”

  Presley narrowed her eyes at me, and I took a step back in case she hauled off and knocked the hell out of me. “I will be happy to do a DNA test for you and any other assholes who want to doubt me, but there’s no way in hell that it is anyone else’s but Jake’s.”

  “Holy shit,” I murmured as I staggered back on my feet. Jake was going to be a father. The thought made me feel lightheaded. “So what do you want to do? I mean, do you wanna have it or have an abortion?”

  “No, I want to keep it,” she replied.

  That was pretty shocking considering Presley wasn’t exactly the maternal type. It was kinda like Paris Hilton, minus the Chihuahua, standing before me telling me she was dropping off the social scene to raise a kid.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’m positive.”

  “Wow…” I murmured.

  “Noah, I might have had a funny way of showing it, but I did love Jake. He’s the only guy I’ve truly loved with my heart—not just my body.” She slowly rested her right hand on her stomach and smiled. “Don’t you see how amazing this is? I’ve got a little piece of immortality growing within me—a part of Jake will live on through this baby.”

  My jaw dropped open, and I stared at her in disbelief. Seriously, had the world gone freaking crazy? The ultimate good girl, Maddie, had just begged me to come to a keg party and was now slightly inebriated. The ultimate man-whore and horse’s ass, Jake, had actually had a soft side. Now the reigning school slut had turned into a motherhood worshipper like Angelina Jolie.

  And me? I didn’t even want to begin on the wacked out rollercoaster of realizations I’d been through. Hell, I’d even become a hopeless romantic in love with “love” and the good girl. Jesus, it was too much.

  “Have you told Jake’s parents yet?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No, I wanted to wait until I was out of the first trimester. You know, in case something happened. I didn’t think they could bear losing Jake and his baby too.”

  “That was thoughtful of you,” I mused.

  “Besides I thought Jake might have told them first.” As soon as the words left her lips, she widened her eyes like she’d revealed a great secret.

  “Wait, are you telling me that Jake knew about the baby?”

  Presley slowly nodded her head.

  The world became tripped out Willy Wonka again. I steadied myself by leaning against a tree trunk. “Are you shitting me?”

  “No.”

  “When? When did you tell
him?”

  Presley refused to meet my intense glare. “The day before the accident,” she said in a whisper.

  “You’re kidding me, right? You’ve known for five weeks that you’re carrying Jake’s kid, and you didn’t tell anybody? What the fuck, Presley!”

  She continued staring at the intricate floral design on her toenails.

  “Didn’t you think that was something I needed to know?” I demanded.

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Try me.”

  She jerked her head up to glare at me. “I was afraid if I told people Jake knew I was pregnant, they’d think that—you know he killed himself or something instead of it being an accident.”

  Oh geez, I felt like an ass. “But Presley, people wouldn’t have thought that,” I protested.

  “Get serious, Noah. Of course they would have. A guy like Jake finds out he’s gonna be a father, and then he mysteriously blows up on a tractor? Wouldn’t you have thought that?”

  I shook my head. “No, I wouldn’t.”

  “Yeah right.”

  “I’m serious. Jake was never the kind of guy to kill himself—no matter what kinda shit had gone down in his life.”

  Presley seemed to appreciate my answer. “Whatever,” she mumbled.

  I took a tentative step towards her. “Um, what did he say? You know…about the baby.”

  “He was pretty shocked. I told him I was sorry I had to tell him over the phone, but I’d just gotten back from the doctor, and I was scared. He was really cool and calmed me down. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him I wanted to have it. I also told him I didn’t expect anything out of him—least of all marriage. He said we’d just have to see how it went, but that no matter what he would support our baby.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “And—” she began as tears welled in her eyes. “And he told me he really cared about me, and that he always had.”

  “That’s pretty wild.”

  She smiled. “Yeah it was.” She reached out and touched my arm. “Noah, I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anybody about Jake knowing.”

  At the pleading look in her eyes, I realized it would only cause more trouble and heartache if people knew the truth. I didn’t want to do that to Presley in her condition, and I didn’t want to do it to Jake either.

  “Yeah, I promise.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and kissed me on the cheek.

  “So how are you going to play this off?”

  She drew in a deep breath. “Well, everybody saw us together the day of the Pre Break Binge—I thought I’d just let them assume it happened then.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said. “So are you like what two months or something?”

  “Ten weeks actually.”

  Suddenly, it hit me like a searing bolt of lightning. “Whoa, wait a minute! You knew you were pregnant when—when you….when we….” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. Oh Holy Hell! Not only was I crushing on my dead best bud’s girl, but now I’d been in a partial hookup with the chick who carried his child. Seriously, I felt like I was on a warped version of the Young and the Restless or some lameass reality show.

  For once, Presley actually blushed. She shifted on her feet. “Yes,” she said.

  “Dammit, how could you!” I shouted. Like a raving maniac, I ran my fingers through my hair and then turned on her. “Don’t you know how sick and twisted that is for me? I defiled the girl having my dead best friend’s baby!”

  Presley rolled her eyes. “You didn’t defile me, Noah. It was just a make-out session,” she protested.

  “Oh, no, don’t cop out on me. You had your hand on my-my…”

  I couldn’t even finish my sentence. I glanced up at the sky. Oh yeah, I was going to hell for this one. I frantically thought about maybe going by Pastor Dan’s house and confessing my sins or something. Of course, I’d never be able to see Maddie after that. They’d probably ship her off to a convent or something—anything to get her out of my sinful presence.

  “Look Noah, I’m sorry. I’m really, really am. Yes, I came in the room that night with the intentions of doing stuff to get information out of you.”

  “But why not just ask me directly in the first place instead of talking to this,” I said, as I touched my crotch.

  Presley rolled her eyes. “Would you calm down?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m not the manwhore, remember?”

  “Look, I just needed to know whether Jake had told you about the baby or if he’d told his parents. I had to do in a way that you wouldn’t suspect, and for me, that was making out with you.” She cocked her eyebrows at me. “It wasn’t like we hadn’t before.”

  I wagged my finger at her. “That was 9th grade for Christ sake, and I barely touched your boobs then!”

  “I’m sorry, Noah, but I was desperate.”

  I heaved a defeated breath. “Okay, whatever.”

  “You can’t imagine how surprised I was when of nowhere you said something about a ring, and then I knew he hadn’t said anything. In the end, Jake would understand.”

  In a really warped way, I knew she was right. I started to open my mouth to protest when I heard cheering and yelling through the trees.

  “TAKE IT OFF!”

  “Yeah, Maddie’s got game!” someone else replied.

  Oh shit, I’d forgotten all about Maddie. “Presley, I’ve gotta go,” I said, before I turned on my heels.

  I started sprinting back through the woods. When I broke through the clearing, I skidded to a stop. Everyone was stripped down to their underwear and were swimming in the pond. I scanned the half-naked bodies for Maddie. My heart skipped a beat when I saw her.

  Casey McKenzie had her pressed to him, and his hand was inches from the curve of her ass.

  I didn’t bother taking off my shirt or jeans. I ran full force into the water, knocking people out of the way. When I reached them, I pulled Casey off of Maddie. He threw me a pissed look. Man-handling wasn’t on my top ten list of favorite things to do, but I grabbed Maddie by the arm and began dragging her out of the pond.

  “Way to be a cock blocker, Sullivan. We were just trying to have some fun!” Casey called.

  “Yeah, it’ll be real fun when I punch the shit out of you,” I mumbled.

  I pulled Maddie into a thicket of trees away from the others. She stood before me in the moonlight in a pretty daring white thong and a thin, white camisole that clung to her frame like a second skin and left very little to the imagination of what was beneath. Before I could stop myself, the horny male in me did a perverted rove over her body.

  It took only a nanosecond for that traitorous part to rear his head. I shifted on my feet. Quit being a perv, asswipe and think of something else!!! Then the most horrific images flashed in my mind. Presley and me together in her room, my mom and Greg hitting it on the couch, and finally, a furious looking Pastor Dan punching me in the face for thinking about his daughter in that way. The last one was the one that did the trick.

  I cleared my throat. “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded.

  She cocked her eyebrows at me. As she brought one of her hands to her hip, she swayed back and forth. “What does it look like I’m doing?” she slurred.

  “Well, it looks like you’re half naked and drunk off your ass!”

  “Maybe I am. What’s it to you?” Maddie questioned.

  “Jesus Christ, I leave you for less than thirty minutes and you’re drunk?”

  I knew in her defense she was a lightweight who had never tasted alcohol before. Hell, it probably only took one to get her in the condition she was in.

  “I was just trying to have a little fun,” she protested.

  “Yeah and so was Casey,” I countered.

  At the thoughts of Casey feeling her up, the blood rushed to my head, which thankfully caused the other part of me to fully simmer down.

  Maddie’s lips curled into a smile. “Noah, will you do something for me?�
�

  Oh, shit. I didn’t like the sinfully sing-song tone of her voice. “What?” I croaked.

  “Would you stop acting like a gentleman for five minutes and kiss me?”

  I swear to God her lips were already pursed, and she was purring. No lie, she was freakin’ purring like a cat in heat. Before I could protest, she wrapped her arms around me. Her full breasts pressed into my chest, and I groaned. She stared up into my eyes, and I couldn’t help myself. I brought my lips to hers. They were everything I’d imagined they’d be. Warm. Soft. Inviting. Sexy.

  One seemingly innocent kiss sent my hormones up and raging again. Almost on autopilot, I thrust my tongue into her mouth to dance against hers. My arms snaked around her waist, jerking her flush against me. I groaned against her lips as I thrust my hard-on against her. Instead of pulling away, Maddie rocked her hips back into mine. Holy hell! How was this chick a virgin? She was so fucking responsive to everything I did.

  Maddie released my lips and dipped her head, kissing along my neck. When she ran her hands teasingly down my chest, I moaned. She glanced up at me through hooded eyes. “I’ve wanted to touch you here for so long.” Raising my shirt up, her warm palms rubbed against my chest, and she giggled. “That day when Josh puked on you, and you had to take your shirt off—I wanted to touch you so bad.”

  I laughed. “I think I got that impression from the way you were ogling me.”

  “Noah,” she whispered, her breath was like fire scorching against my neck. “Will you be my first?”

  Motherfuckingshitdamnhell! My eyes snapped open as the world around me screeched to a halt. I shrugged away from her. “Maddie, you’re drunk. You don’t know what you’re saying,” I protested.

  She slowly shook her head at me. “No, I know what I’m saying, and I know what I want.”

  “Well, I know you, and I know the sober you would never be standing here in your underwear propositioning me to sleep with you.”

  Her face fell. “Don’t you want to sleep me? I mean, don’t you find me…sexy?”

  At her words, my lower half caught on fire, causing me to shift on my feet. I cursed under my breath. “Oh come on Maddie. Don’t ask me things like that.”