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Chapter Seven - After the Tequila Sunset
You sit down with your book. It's been two days since Lydia moved out, and you kind of already miss her. A lot.
Mathew and Chris are arguing about what to order for dinner, but you drown them out, your thoughts swimming with the redhead. And the in she dances.
"Boys." She smiles, landing beside Mathew on the couch. "Who's up for a little bit of drinking?" She grins, holding up a new bottle of tequila.
"We're just about to order dinner, Lyds." Mathew tells her, not looking up from the takeout menu he's reading.
"But eating is cheating! And I thought we could get to know each other. A little 'I have never'? What'd you say?"
"That I know you already."
"Me too." Chris tells her.
"Well, I don't know Jess." She reasons. "Please, Math." She glances at the calender on the side table, Mathew and Chris following her gaze, and in doing so, Mathew springs into action.
"Oh, right. 'I have never'. Great. Chris get the shot glasses?" Chris retreats to the kitchen and Mathew stands, and takes your book from you. "Just, do this for her." He steps over the coffee table and sits on the stool, facing Lydia, who has moved to the middle of the couch, her legs crossed under her.
Chris returns, setting fout shot glasses on the table and sits in the chair opposite you, to Lydia's left.
"Okay." Lydia smiles, filling each glass with the golden liquid. "I'll go first, and then we'll go clockwise, so Chris, you are next." She smiles and then glances to you. "I've never had a book published."
You roll your eyes. "Cheap shot."
"Hey! Don't talk about José that way. He's a very dear friend." She laughs and you raise your shot glass, downing the shot. She smiles brightly and fills your glass again. "Okay, Chris. You're up."
"I have never been surfing."
You lift your glass, and down your second shot, while Lydia and Mathew also take a drink. "You surf?" You lift an eyebrow in her direction.
"Not well." She grimaces, filling up the three empty glasses.
"My turn." Mathew grins. "I have never gotten a tattoo."
Lydia rolls her eyes, and lifts her glass at the same time you do. When she set her glass down, she quirks her eyebrows, a silent 'You show me yours, I'll show you mine'. You sigh and raise your right arm, pushing back the sleeve of your t-shirt reveal a black outline of a star on your tricep.
You got it in California, the first time around. When you were eighteen, newly flunked out of high school. You'd met Ivy and Johnny on the boardwalk, when Ivy had stolen your book. After chasing her on a borrowed skateboard, they had befriended you. Sort of.
They brought you to a party that night on the beach. You drank a lot. Though all you remember is the red blaze of the bonfire and the pain in your head and arm the next day, when you discovered your new body-art.
You had found your book that Ivy had taken, shoved in the mailbox later that afternoon, and wedged inbetween the pages you found a note.
'Hope your hollow star is everything you wanted it to be. Ivy.'
You are brought out of you memory by Lydia's voice. "I like it. Sexy." She winks, and refills the two glasses.
"What about yours?"
"Not in a place I want to expose. Yet." She shrugs. "Maybe later."
"Okay." You nod, and then scratch your head, trying to think of your own confession. "I have never...travelled by plane."
All three of your drinking companions downed their shots. "Never?" Lydia asks.
"Nope." You shake your head. "The idea terrifies me. It's not natural. I prefer driving."
"Okay. My turn. I have never seen a 'Die Hard' movie."
"What?" You, Mathew and Chris all turn to look at her.
"I take it you three haven't either?" She points to your still full glasses. You all down the shots before turning to her again.
"How have you never saw 'Die Hard'?" You ask, filling the three glasses.
"Dunno." She shrugs. "Never appealed to me. I can, however, recited every word of 'Pretty Woman'."
"That's really not the same thing, Lyds." Mathew laughs.
"Whatever, Chris, you're up."
And so you continued to drink, though you notice that both Mathew and Chris' confessions are seemingly aimed at Lydia, in an attempt to get her as drunk as possible.
"I have never sang karaoke."
Followed by "I have never complained my shoes hurt."
And "I have never danced on a table."
Or "I have never slept with a professor." (To which, she throws her shoe at Mathew, calling him a jerk.)
On quite a few occasions you drink at the same time as her.
"I have never read Jane Austin."
"I have never smoked." (You give her a look and she shrugs it off with "I'm an occasional stress smoker, no big deal.")
"This isn't fair, there isn't much I haven't done." She complains, after drinking a shot that told the room that she had been skinny dipping before. "Okay, me again. I have never been to the Big Apple."
You take the shot, and internally wince at the memory of another girl who had referred to your home city as the Big Apple.
"I have never kissed a girl." Chris rubs his eyes, sleep and alcohol taking over.
"You kiss me all the time." Lydia points out.
"French kissed, then." He clarifies, and Lydia winks, before downing her drink. You laugh. There really isn't much she hasn't done.
"Mathew you're up." You nod in his direction, filling the glasses again.
"I have never stolen anything."
Both you and Lydia drink at the same time.
"A lipstick." She smiles.
"A gnome." You grin, and then watch as she pour you another drink. You try to think of your next confession. You don't know what possesses you. Maybe it's the excessive amount of alcohol you've drank. Or your hazy memories, resurfaced due to confessions, that involve the Big Apple, or having never finished a cup of coffee, or never being in a car accident. "I have never had sex with someone I love."
She quickly knock back her drink and then looks at you. "Never because you've never been in love, or never because..what?" She turns to Mathew, sitting facing her.
"Do you count?"
"Do I count what?"
"I love you, but do you count?" He asks.
"Oh, I dunno. We have to ask the 'I have never-er'. Jess, if you love someone, like Math loves me, brother-sister love, does that count? Or does it have to be crazy in love I wanna have a million babies with you kinda love."
"Latter." You tell her. "You've slept together?" You ask.
"Once." She shakes her head, "And I don't count." She tells Mathew.
"Thank God." He sighs, pushing away his glass. "I can't drink anymore. And I think Sleeping Beauty here needs to go to bed." He nods at Chris, who has fallen asleep in his chair. "Help me with him Jess?"
"Sure." You stand, feeling slightly shaky on your feet, and pull you friend into a standing position. After guiding Chris to his room, Mathew then calls it a night too.
"Night, Lyds!" He calls.
"Oh, goodnight hun!"
"Look after her." He tells you, before closing his door.
You return to the living room and sit down beside Lydia on the couch.
"So, was she pretty?"
"Huh?"
"The girl you never slept with. Was she pretty?"
You think back to bright blue eyes, soft brown hair and pink lips. "Yeah." You nod.
"And you loved her." It wasn't a question, but you nod regardless.
"The girl from the open house, right?"
You blink and look up at her. "How did you know...?"
"Mathew told me. Don't be mad. I'm kinda like his real life Dear Diary." She smiles. "And I figured that the girl who left you heartbroken and one night stand prone had to be the same girl from the open house."
"Yeah," You sigh. "I just think I should be over her by now."
"Well, it's only been a year. And a bit. But that's fine. It took me that long to get over Seth."
You shake your head. "No. This has been going on since I was eighteen."
"Eighteen?"
"Yeah."
"Well, amm..Oh, closure. I bet you didn't have any closure. I had closure with Seth. He died, and was never coming back. But tell about this girl and how it ended."
"We broke up at eighteen, when I left without saying goodbye."
"Aha!" She snaps her fingers. "No closure! Go on."
"I came back a year later and told her I loved her and then left again."
"I knew it! Still no closure. What happened next?"
"I changed my life and it wasn't good enough." You tell her quietly.
"And there's your closure!" She swats your shoulder. "Seriously. You've tried. That's all you can do. So move on." She smiles.
"That easy?"
"Yeah, it is if you say it is. And you know what? I predict that you will meet a girl, and she's gonna be fantastic, and you're gonna fall madly in love with her and have the best sex of your life."
"Oh, really?" You laugh.
"Yeah." She nods. "I've had a lot of sex, and I'm very wise. You should listen to me."She reaches down and picks up the two still full shot glasses and hands you one. "Here. To falling in love and the amazing sex it brings!"
"To amazing sex." You repeat and clink you glass with hers, before drinking the shot. You put the glasses back on the table and notice the bottle's empty. "We're out."
"That's probably good. I'm seeing two of you." She smiles, leaning towards you, leaning her head on your shoulder. Your head swims, dizzy with the mix of tequila and the smell of her perfume. You barely hear her when she mumbles into your shoulder.
"I guess I should tell you why I got you so drunk right?"
She sit up and looks you in the eye and you nod mutely. She places her hands on your shoulders, and pushes herself off the couch. Standing in front of you, she hooks her thumb under the waist band of her jeans. "You showed me yours, right?"
"Your tattoo?"
She nods, giving you a small smile and then pushes the waistband of her jeans down. You spot two lines, and squinting to focus your vision you realise what they are. "Dates?"
"Yeah, the June Fourth one is the date that Seth died. And yesterday's date is the date my parents died. It was their seventh anniversary. And my first away from home. Without Jamie."
"Your brother?"
"Yeah." She sits back down, and tucks her legs in under her. "He's in Europe and I called him, and he said he was fine. So I lied and said I was fine too, but I wasn't. I'm not. I still miss them. It's silly."
"It's not silly." You pull her into a hug, kissing the top of her head.
"Thank you." She sighs. "And that girl's an idiot if she didn't think you were enough. You're one of the good guys Jess. Hell, I'm drunk enough to say you're one of the best."
"And too drunk to go home."
"Very true." She nods, scratching her chin. "I can stay here on the couch." She yawns, stretching out.
"Come on." You pull her to her feet. "You can bunk in with me."
"Really?"
"Yeah." You laugh. "That couch is not comfortable."
"Thanks." She wraps her arms around your arm and put her head on your shoulder. "Hey, you don't snore do you?"
"No." You roll your eyes.
"Hog the covers?"
"No!"
"Got a t-shirt I can wear?"
You throw her a grey Pixies shirt and turn around while she changes. "You have been in the room while I've showered, you know."
"Wasn't looking at you though."
"I'm that hideous?" You hear her laugh. "You can turn around, prude."
When you do, she's already in your shirt and bed, under the covers. Her hair has been taken out of the elastic it was in, and sitting about her shoulders. "You getting in?"
"Oh, yeah." You shake your head to clear your thoughts, and then toe off your shoes and take off your jeans, and get in beside her. She already lying down, on her side, with her back to you. You reach over to turn the bedside lamp off. When you lie back down, you feel her toss, turning to face you.
"Goodnight Jess." She reaches forward and kisses your cheek. "I just know you're gonna meet someone fantastic. I know it."
"Night." You mumble, placing your hand over your eyes, squeezing your temples with your thumb and middle finger. Because you know you already have meet someone 'fantastic'.
And she's drunk and asleep in your bed.
I know, I used the tattoo Milo Ventimiglia actually has, but meh! What can you do! I do think it is quite sexy. :)
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