Take It Or Leave It
A/N: I don't own any of South of Nowhere unfortunately. New idea, let's see where it goes. Reviews would be great to let me know whether I should continue it or not. Thanks :)
"This is a pretty wild party," I stated evenly, lifting my drink for another sip, casually, letting the warmth of the alcohol seep through my body.
"What?" the guy next to me who we will now refer to as Aiden asked.
"I said this party's pretty sick!" I yelled and leaned into his ear as I did so.
He grinned, "Billy always throws the best parties."
I stood there bobbing my head to the music, silently wondering who names their kid Billy this day in age, but the thought quickly left me as rather heavy guy slammed into me, my mixed concoction sloshing but low enough in the cup so it didn't spill. I grumbled but didn't say anything, knowing this was how parties went and I knew it when I signed up for it.
"Ash, this is Billy," he yelled in my ear, and then turned to the guy who was clearly inebriated beyond belief, "Yo, Billy, sick party," they man hugged and I think if I'm not mistaken I just saw Billy spit or drool on Aiden who definitely didn't even notice.
"I'm just going to be round' here all night kay, dudes, so if you need anything just come finds me or something kay dudes?" he asked in his drunken state backing up to walk away bumping into a couple people as he disappeared out of my line of vision.
Aiden shook his head, "I swear he's a great guy. Just gotta meet him when he's sober."
"I'm sure," I muse scanning the room for any sense of familiarity. I wasn't surprised at the fact that there was nobody here I knew. I never knew anybody at parties. That's not say I'm a recluse, but parties have never been my thing.
"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" a small red head who was previously engaged in her version of sex with clothes on, yelled over at me insincerely while my thigh remained soaked with beer. Case in point.
"Do you think that guys her boyfriend?" Aiden asked me finishing off his beer.
"Who?" I asked uncomfortably, shifting my weight from one leg to the other.
"The guy who was just grinding up against the cute red head."
"You mean the cute red head who's the reason my thigh is soaked?" I asked perturbed.
He threw up his hands in defense, "What? She's hot."
I rolled my eyes and stalked off, having enough of Aiden, I entered the kitchen where three guys were doing a beer bong in the corner. Parties.
"Hey is that beer on your pants or are you just happy to see me?" some guy called out.
"Cute," I replied curtly.
He began to walk over to me, "Girl, you need to loosen up."
"So you can get into my pants easier?" I questioned him with a raised eye brow.
"If not for me, for some lucky guy, even if its just to get a dance out of you, come on!" he guided me over to the table, "Have you ever done tequila shots before?"
My brain flexed I'm sure as it tried to dig into my subconscious, desperately trying to remember if I have, I shrugged, "I'm not sure."
"Okay, well here," he lifted a bottle, "It's called Cuervos. Comma Jose," okay he was kind of funny, "We put this little liquid into these small glasses. They're called shot glasses," okay what was I, five?
I cut him off, "I know what shots are ass hole."
He smiled, "You seem a little lost so I wasn't sure how back to the basics to go. Anyway, lick your hand, pour the salt so it sticks, grab a lime to be ready. After we say go, you lick the salt off your hand, down the shot, and suck on the lime."
"Why?"
"Because it's fun," and he said it like it was the most obvious statement I'd ever hear.
"Sounds invigorating."
He poured the salt onto my freshly licked hand and handed me a small slice of a lime which I looked at and grimaced, "Can't we just take the shot and skip the lime?"
"Trust me, babe. You will want the lime."
"Okay, lets just do this."
He held up his glass as he held his hand closer to his face, "One. Two. Three!" he yelled out loudly, clinked my glass and then did the triple threat, quickly followed by me.
I coughed, "That was terrible!"
"But wasn't it exciting?" he asked as you could see his inebriation get deeper and he lost more and more control of his eye balls.
The last thing I remember hearing is, "Those pants would dry a lot better if you took them off. Hang them up." So I did. And I was gone.
~*~
Consciousness started hitting me on the head and I never realized consciousness hit so hard, I mean it hit really hard, like with a baseball bat. It wouldn't stop as it kept slamming me and as I began to lift my head consciousness had stirred the contents of my stomach too because nausea filled my every being. I groaned, slowly letting my head lay back down on the pillow, trying to ward off this feeling that I know to be hangovers. I've only been hungover two other times. Once was at my 17th birthday party when Julian brought a bottle of Captain Morgan because he decided it would be fun. The other being when I got accepted to UCLA because so did Aiden and he wanted to celebrate. Both times, I ended up in my own bed. I was definitely not in my own bed.
I opened my eyes again and slowly turned my head to angle a better position because my neck was getting stiff. I had to stifle a scream when I saw another body beside me, "Shit…," I lifted the covers a little to reveal that I was indeed in my birthday suit except the sad thing is it wasn't my birthday. Not even close, "You asshole better have used protection," I muttered to the blonde boy laying next to me, immersed in sleep and the covers.
The body stirred and I think this is the most fragile looking boy I'd ever seen, "Protection for what? My abnormally large dick?" she croaked out through sleep, obviously hearing my comment.
Oh. My. God, "You're a girl?" I ask calmly, hoping that my horror isn't evident.
"You tell me," she slowly lifted half of her body up and looked at me through the deepest of blue clarity.
My eyes bulged as I gulped down a whole lot of nothing down my throat, "I uh...I have to go," I rushed out, paniced.
Her eye brows furrowed in confusion, "Uh, okay? Good morning to you too."
"Please tell me there's a good explanation for why I'm naked," I asked quickly, pulling my shirt on.
"Oh it was definitely a good reason," she snorted.
Cue my face falling, "Well. This has been fun. Let's hope we don't end up in these circumstances again. Bye," I ran out of the room and out of the house and into my-car? Except, I don't even remember how I got here but my phone was in my pants pocket thankfully so I dialed the only person I could think of.
"You left me hear?" I yelled into the receiver.
"You told me it was okay and that you'd call me in the morning to pick you up," I woke him up, clearly.
"When did I say that?" yeah, that's right, I'm grilling him. That lying son of a bitch.
"Right after you played your second game of beer pong, I told you I wanted to head out and you said you were going to stay and that you'd call me in the morning."
"I played beer pong?"
I could practically hear him shaking his head on the other hand, "Yeah, Ash, you did. You sunk five. It was pretty epic. I'm on way so just hang tight, all right?"
"Yeah, okay. You better hurry."
I quickly jumped into the car before it even came to a full stop, "Drive, Aiden."
"What happened?"
"Let's just go home," I muttered.
He drove. I slowly walked inside and collapsed on the couch while the people in my head chiseled away at nothing. I thought he'd left but he emerged again with a glass of water and a couple of Ibuprofen.
"I'm going to just keep bringing you water until I've counted eight glasses," he cautioned.
"My bladder might explode and then there'll be worse problems than just a little pounding headache."
"That couch is ancient, anyway, it won't matter," Aiden brushed off as he made his way into the kitchen, "You going to tell me what happened last night or am I going to have to force it out of you?" he yelled from inside the fridge. Well, he wasn't actually in the fridge, though that'd be kind of cool. Just his head.
I let out some kind of inaudible groan and when he came back he was holding a sandwich, "BLT, light on the mayo," he smiled
My eyes widened as I inwardly cursed myself for moving my eyelids too fast, bringing on some sudden pain, "Gimme!"
"What happened last night?"
I know that look. He's not going to give me the sandwich, "Nothing."
"Well, then I guess I'll have to eat this sandwich," he replied nonchalantly, sitting on the recliner across from me, setting the plate on his lap.
"I don't remember what happened, Aiden. I honestly don't," I told him, embarrased.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"I know I was doing shots with some guy-"
"David," he corrected.
"Right! That's what his name was. I was having shots with David...and uhm...and then somebody said, 'Those pants would dry a lot better if you took them off. Hang them up,'."
He laughed, "Yeah, when I left you weren't wearing any pants."
I'm pretty sure I look mortified, "Why didn't you stop me?" I yelled and winced at the loudness of my own voice.
"I told you to put your pants back on and you said and I quote, 'Shut up, Aidey, I'm playing beer pong and I'm about to kick some ass,' unquote."
"Hm. I must be a very coherant drunk."
"Oh, no. It was definitely slurred. I just speak slur very well."
"So what happened after that?"
"I told you. I left. I don't know what you did after that."
The memory of this morning came flooding back which led to my thoughts of what happened after Aiden left, "I think I slept with somebody."
"Ew, David?"
"No…"
"Good," he loosened up a little bit. Aiden's so protective, I swear.
"I don't know...uh...her..uh...name."
"Whoa! A girl?" he looked like he was going to explode from surprise...or something else. Ew.
"Yes. A very blonde very pretty girl."
And now Aiden put on his thinking cap as he was clearly racking his brain trying to think about who it could have been, "Did she have a Monroe piercing?"
"That'd be a negative."
"That takes out Krissy. She's a wild one alright," he said as if he knows this for a fact. God, fucking Aiden, "What color eyes did she have?"
"Shit uhm...BLUE!" I yelled, her piercing orbs coming back to me, "They were definitely blue. The bluest shits I have ever seen."
"I think Meghan's eyes are like...hazel so it wouldn't be her. Plus she's super straight. Like abnormally straight. Not even willing to bend a little bit."
I rolled my eyes, "How unfortunate."
"Indeed it is...she was cute. Uhm...does she have this weird birth mark on her her boob?"
"Jesus christ, Aiden, I don't remember. What do you do when you have sex with a girl number her birth marks? I saw her face for like five seconds this morning before I sprinted out of there."
"Oh wait, I don't think Tammy was at the party last night anyway. I would have definitely remembered."
"Well, now that we've eliminated three girls it couldn't be, we still have the rest of the blonde female population of Los Angeles to worry about."
"Tough," he handed me my sandwich, "Hurry up and recover. You agreed to go to my life drawing class with me today, remember?"
"I don't see why I need to go to this."
"Because, I went with you to your How to Save the Planet 101 thing," he threw back.
"It was called Resource Conservation."
"Whatever. So you have to go with me to my life drawing class. Besides, my friend Coby is in charge of it. Actually, he's friends with Billy so he was probably at the party last night. Maybe he'll have an idea of who the girl was."
"No!" Aiden looked at me confusedly, "I mean...it was a one time thing. I'm not-I'm not gay, Aiden. I don't want people getting the wrong idea of me. Just...lets not tell people, okay?"
"Ash, nobody said you were gay."
"I know, but still. Just, don't, okay?"
He shrugged, "Whatever," and walked into his room to change, "It's kind of hot, though!" he yelled out slamming his door, blocking any answer I might have had to his lame statement.
The pain relievers were starting to kick in but, I still didn't feel well and my body screamed at me as I got up. That must have been some hardcore sex, that's all I have to say. By the time I'd showered and gotten some clean clothes on I did feel a little better. Showering really does relieve hangovers. Too tired to drive and too pissed off that I had to go, I made Aiden drive.
"Ashley, you look like a celebrity, hiding from the law," he poked as he parked his car and looked over at me, hunched down, wearing sunglasses while my hand rested on my forhead.
"I'm tired."
"Oh, just get up," he snapped as he slammed the door and began to walk to the building. I tired to just stay in the car but he wouldn't let me, "I'll send people after you if you don't come and it won't be pretty!" he yelled back as he kept walking, so I got out of the car.
~*~
"Hello everyone, nice of you to join us all here today on your Saturday mornings. Some of you look a little bit tired. Must've partied a little to hard last night," he joked and I could swear he was staring right at me. Have you ever gotten the feeling somebody knows but you're not sure what they know. That's now. "My name is Coby Jacobson and we provide a lot of classes at the Center, here, as you all may or may not know, and well, a little background, I graduated from the Art Institute in Chicago, moved here with my girlfriend Adrianna and have been teaching classes for a little while now. This is kind of a basics art class for those of you who want to learn the basics or those of you who want to sharpen your skills maybe, but this is life drawing. We learn to capture the essence of life, but in order to do that, we need to learn how to draw life in every aspect."
He spent the day teaching about shading and shapes and color and texture and to be honest I wish I was a better artist but I'm not. I can't draw to save my life and really if I was in a dungeon and the guy was like draw me something good or you're dead, I'd be killed. It's that bad.
"Nice apple," Aiden teased.
"I think it looks good!" I pouted.
"It looks like a drunken dinosaur," he giggled. Yeah, Aiden giggles, but he's not gay.
"I like it," I defend.
"Alright, everyone hold up your apples. I want to see all your interpretations of the apple on the stool. This is a judgement free zone, we have all different stages of artists in this room. Some of you don't even plan on being artists. Just show your creations."
I held mine up and the kid across from me laughed and I glared at him but he didn't seem to care, "That looks like a dinosaur," he yelled over to me.
"I told you!" Aiden cheered in victory.
"Whatever," I shrugged, "I don't plan on becoming an artist anyway."
"I see some of you are talking about it. That's good. Talk about your art. Let the conversation continue. After our next activity though. This is called life drawing, though and in order to be able to capture life, you need to capture people. I brought my friend in, today, who was happy to share her time with us as a live model. Let's welcome my long time friend, Spencer Carlin."
I was kind of staring and assesing my apple that I drew when I felt Aiden hit me and whisper in my ear, "Hottttt!"
I looked up casually and there a pair of ocean blues stood and if magnitism had it's way my head shot down, because my apple is way more fascinating.
"I want everyone to behave appropriatley, seeing as how we're all adults. Spencer has agreed to model nude for us to capture every form of the human life.
The men whistled and I kept staring down and when I did look up her eyes captured mine. I'm pretty sure I turned bright red.
"She just smiled at you!" Aiden not so subtley whispered.
"Shut up," I whispered back. I looked back up and she was staring at me, kind of blatantly, though everyone began to draw so I guess this was the position she chose. To stare at me. And to make me abnormally uncomfortable. Her expression was confident, it had to be if she was standing in a room full of striving artists naked, but it was confident at me. And analytical. I slid my beanie further down my face and put my sunglasses on.
"Everyone, I want you to really focus on all the features. Capture the essence of life everywhere on her. Note the curvatures of her that give her the classic female figure and all parts of the anatomy. Capture Spencer on paper, like you want to keep her forever, except not really because that'd be creepy," he laughed and received a few chuckles back. This guy was at the party last night? I don't remember him.
As we finished up, he reminded us that there was another session next Saturday and to mark it and as I met eyes with Spencer one last time I ducked my head and made an escape for the door but Aiden wouldn't let me.
"Ash, hold up!" he grabbed my wrist and walked me over to Coby, "Hey, Coby, this is my friend Ashley. She was at Billy's party last night."
He coughed a little in surprise, "Just friends?"
He always got uncortable when people asked us this, "Uh, yeah, just friends. Room mates. Anyway, she was at the party. She got pretty smashed."
"Yeah uh, I uh...saw you there. I remember."
"Do you happen to remember anything that happened after I left? Because she doesn't."
I elbowed him, "No, yeah, I remember just fine," I lied.
"Oh?" he gave me an amused expression, "Since we're introducing friends," he turned to the back of the room, "Spencer, come over here! I have a couple friends I want you to meet!" She smiled at him and walked over, "Spence, this is my man Aiden, I've known him for a while since he used to live in Chi-town. And this is his just friend, Ashley," he grinned. He so knew. He so fucking knew. She told him. Shit.
Her eyes danced in amusement, contemplating what to say, but she settled on something simple, "Hey, Aiden, I've heard about you in conversation before. Ashley. Beautiful name. I don't believe I've had the pleasure," she smiled politely.
Classy. Real classy. At least she's not a total bitch, "Were you at the party last night? I feel like I saw you there."
She seemed a bit taken aback by the question, not expecting to be asked that, not expecting to have to lie, so she didn't, "Uh, yeah, I've known Billy for a long fucking time. I was definitely uh...there," she looked at me. Her eyes were boring into mine and it was making me sick. Sick because I was so incredibly nervous because her eyes were so beautiful.
"Yeah, weren't you playing Beer Pong with Ashley when I left?"
"Yeah...we won," she answered hesitantly as the pieces started to come together in my head...somewhat.
I turned to look at Aiden and finally everything came together as I saw his eyes light up and suddenly it was an unspoken but known fact about what Spencer and I did last night, but nobody brought it up.
"Well, hey, Spence and I were just going to go get some lunch. You guys should join us," Coby offered and the look of panic on Spencer's face was so evident it was ridculous.
"Yeah, that'd be great! Let the girls get to know each other a little better," he smiled knowingly.
And don't think I didn't catch that. I know what he meant. Asshole.