A/N- Sorry it took so long guys. I just moved to a different state and instead of unpacking all my boxes I decided to go on vacation with some friends. It was a great avoidance tactic. I highly recommend it to any true procrastinator. But, now I'm back and I can't find anything but my computer so here it goes…
The evening of the party was somewhat of a blur. Rachel and I made out for a little while. I was not really into public displays of affection- in terms of hand holding and whispering, etc. But, making out and other precursors to hooking up, I was definitely alright with. Yates and Vince ended up coming up and distracting us about the time things were starting to get a little bit hotter. But, at least they interrupted with alcohol. Rachel and I took a couple of shots before the once full bottle was painfully close to being empty. Yates was pretty gone at that point so I told Vince to keep an eye on him and suggested that Rachel and I go find somewhere to take body shots. We made our way upstairs to an empty bedroom. I didn't know Kershaun well enough to be able to decipher whose room it was. But, frankly, I didn't care. We started in the obvious places, on the neck, bellybutton, so forth, and slowly moved up and down to more exciting areas. We soon finished up the last of the shots but didn't stop there. We ended up sleeping together, which proved to be an entertaining party detour.
Not long after we finished, someone knocked on the locked bedroom door informing me that the cops were spotted and everyone needed to leave. It was very good timing, actually, because it allowed for any post sex awkwardness or pillow talk to be eliminated. I quickly pulled on my boxers, pants, and shirt. I checked to make sure that Rachel was clothed before opening the door. I saw Vince in the hallway, also with a girl. However, it did not appear that he had made it up to the bedrooms fast enough. People were starting to dash out of the house. He was clearly extremely drunk. I grabbed his arm, which was connected to this young lady, and pulled him towards the stairs. I noticed that Rachel was also following us. I guessed that this was to be expected.
We got out of the house and I saw Zack heading with a quickness towards his vehicle as the flash of blue lights flooded the area.
"Yo, Zack, can we catch a ride?" I hollered to him. He turned around.
"Yeah, man, jump in," he said, unlocking the doors. There were four of us and I sure as hell wasn't sitting in the back. We all got in, Vince and his girl in the back, followed by Rachel, and I got in the front.
"Kelly, not taking your car home tonight?" Zack asked the girl that Vince was with. He was obviously joking because this girl was clearly drunk.
She just slurred out, "No, Vince said I shouldn't drive." I agreed with Vince on this one, but I doubted his reasoning was really in her best interest.
"Alright, then, where can I take people?" Zack asked. I turned around in my seat and looked at Rachel.
"Where are you going?" I asked. I sure as hell knew that I wasn't taking her back to the house and figured she probably would need to get home eventually.
"I live up on Brevard," she said reaching out for my hand. What the hell? Did she really expect to do that? That was the main reason I was sitting in the front seat. Damn. I didn't want to be an ass but I didn't want to play the whole boyfriend role tonight.
Zack glanced over and couldn't hold in his laugh.
"Shut up, dick," I told him, giving her my hand. It was not only an extremely uncomfortable position, but extremely opposite of what I wanted to do. I liked Rachel and all, I guessed, but didn't want to hold her hand.
Just then, Zack slammed on breaks, for no apparent reason. But, it gave me an opportunity to bring my hand forward. I appreciated him for this move. Not long after this, we made our way to Rachel's house.
"You want to walk me to the door?" she asked me. No. I realized I may have made a mistake. Usually, in the past, hooking up or having sex with a girl did not involve riding home in the same car. This was new territory for me. I guess I had to pay for it. Karma's a bitch. I knew I couldn't say no. Guess this is what they refer to as rock and hard place.
As I slowly and resentfully got out of the car, I heard Zack and Vince laugh. I gave them the finger as I closed the car door behind me.
Rachel grabbed my hand as we walked towards her front door. I looked around for her father. I didn't see any signs of anyone. But, damn, she was really into this handholding thing. I sighed and thought about how it was almost over. I could see her door up ahead.
"Alright, well, this was fun," I told her, when we got to her stoop.
"Yeah, call me?" she asked. Call her? Doubtful.
"Definitely," I replied. She leaned in and I kissed her. Kissing was never something I was opposed to. I pulled away and made my way back to the car.
I got in and Zack was still laughing.
"Told you, man. Gotta watch out for those freshman girls," he smirked.
"Just drive," I said, annoyed with the whole situation. I hadn't realized what he meant till now. Clingy. I didn't look back.
"Where am I taking you guys?" Zack asked, looking back in his rearview mirror to an extremely drunk Vince and Kelly making out.
"Wherever," Kelly said.
I just sighed. "Fuck it, let's just go to my house," I said. I knew Vince couldn't take her to his house. And, if she was sixteen, she could probably stay out. He was going to owe me, big time. And I didn't care how, but he was going to get her out first thing in the morning. I didn't really want to expose Mia and Letty to all this.
We got to the house. The front porch lights were on but the other lights were out. Zack pulled up in the driveway and parked. We all got out, Kelly still gripping tight to Vince's arm. I was glad for him, but slightly annoyed at the same time. We made our way to the den. Letty and Mia, thankfully, weren't in there.
"Where can we sleep?" Vince mumbled.
"Basement. Grab the sleeping bags," I said. He sure as hell wasn't taking my bed. I was rooting for him, but wasn't willing to give up a nice place to pass out.
Vince went to the closet and grabbed a couple of pillows and sleeping back. Grinning as big as if he was about to get in a fight, he led Kelly downstairs. I pushed what they were doing out of my mind at that point.
"Shit, we're out of beer," I remarked.
"I got some Bud Lights," Zack said. "That is, if you think you can endure it."
He went out to the car and grabbed the rest of his beer. I turned on the television and we drank to Saturday Night Live.
"Damn, dude, you got schooled tonight," Zack said.
"What the hell?" I asked, not really knowing exactly what area this was in reference to. I figured, with being younger than Zack, there were many things a seventeen-year-old could call me out on.
"That chick is going to give you hell," he smiled.
"I don't want to think about it," I said, rubbing my head. I was trying to get all the unpleasantries, hence the handholding, out of my head. I wanted to focus on the positive aspects of the evening- sex.
"Was it worth it?" he asked, finishing off a beer.
"Guess we'll see how painful it is come Monday," I responded. It very well could have been. I appreciated that it had been so obvious that I'd hooked up at the party. I just hoped that I wasn't paying for it long afterwards.
"You'll be fine," Zack reassured. I gave a scoffed laugh. "Nah, Dom, don't worry. You'll be fine."
"Cheers," I said, raising a can of domestic beer to his.
"Want to come out to the races tomorrow?' he asked, clinking his beer to mine and taking a long swig.
"Sure. You gonna race?" I asked.
"Nah, like I said, ain't got no money. But Tran's racing. And, I'll make my way out to see him get his ass beat…again," Zack said. I didn't know Lance at all and I really didn't know Johnny that well. We had gone to different junior high schools. But, I respected Zack enough to trust his judge of character. I recognized the fact that he was taking me under his wing. I owed him enough to equally hate his competitors. That was what loyalty was all about, after all.
"I'm down," I replied.
Just then I saw Letty walking down the stairs. She was wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts. I figured she had been asleep.
"Hey," she said, coming into view. Her tan skin reflected well off her white tank top.
"Sup, Let," I said, trying to focus on the television. Zack was a lot older. I didn't want him to really know that I was so close to someone so young. But, I felt an immense conflict of interest that I wished I wasn't dealing with.
She didn't verbally respond, just shook her head. She made her way into the kitchen. I could feel Zack staring at me.
"What, you got them waiting around at home too?" he joked.
"Dude, she's thirteen," I said.
"No shit? Doesn't look thirteen. But, yeah, little young. Keep it in your pants," he said.
I just nodded. I didn't want to get into it.
Letty made her way out of the kitchen and back up the stairs. She didn't really say anything but before she had fully completed the staircase Zack said, "So, you at least fucked that chick, what was her name?"
Thanks, Zack, I thought. I didn't want Letty to think that I was such an ass. Fuck them and leave them. I didn't want Letty to write me off as just another self-centered male in her life. But, I couldn't not answer him either. It was evident that, at least for our crowd, a silence could be interpreted as a no. And, this was a conquest I wanted to admit to.
"Rachel Williams," I smiled and nodded my head. Maybe she wouldn't be able to translate the body language, I hoped.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. She was a hot freshman," Zack said, reaching out for a high five. I met his hand with mine. But, was pretty sure that she heard that. Oh well, I really couldn't do anything about it now.
Zack ended up crashing on the couch. We finished off the rest of his beers and he wasn't going to risk the bodywork on his car by getting in an accident. I could respect this. Around 3 o'clock in the morning I made it upstairs to my bed. I was drunk and ready to pas out. I accomplished this task extremely successfully.
The next morning I didn't feel nearly as hung over as I would have expected. I looked over at the clock. It was almost one. I stretched, yawned and decided that I should get up. I hoped that Vince had gotten that girl out.
I got out of bed and made my way downstairs. I saw Letty and Zack sitting around watching television. That was an interesting set up. I really hoped that Zack had not regaled Letty of all of our wonderful accomplishments from last night.
"What's up, man?" Zack called out as I made my way sleepily to the chair beside the couch. "How you feeling?"
"Tired but I think I'll survive," I replied.
"Good to hear. I'm glad we didn't get arrested last night," he mentioned casually.
"Yeah, that would have sucked," I replied, slightly taken back by his statement. I would have been pretty upset if I had woken up in jail this morning. Given as my Dad was out of town and would probably not rush back to bail me out of jail for pulling some idiotic teenage move, I was really glad I wasn't in jail. But, I didn't really think it had been that big of a danger. Maybe it had. I guess there had been a lot of cops.
"Yates got his drunk ass arrested," Zack informed me.
"Oh, damn, that's some shit," I replied. I wasn't extremely surprised. It was never good to hear that one of your boys had been picked up.
"From what Zack said, sounds like you had a big night," Letty smiled. Shit, thanks Zack.
"It was interesting," I said, trying not to show much enthusiasm. However, in actuality, it had been a pretty cool night. I was really happy to be hanging out with older guys and attending parties like that. It was definitely the path I wanted to follow. "Vince still here?"
"Um, someone came to pick up that girl about two hours ago. Vince left not long ago," Letty said.
Well, there went sparing Letty from having a pretty clear picture of how our night went. My morale was lowered by this. I didn't want her to see me like that. But then, I guess she was seeing me for what I had been, what I was becoming. Seeing myself through Letty's eyes help pull me back into reality. It was really a struggle. I wanted to be a guy that she could look up to and respect. But, at the same time, I wanted to be the kind of guy that Zack, Yates, Kershaun, and the whole street racing crew would respect. I didn't feel like these could probably be the same people. That was unfortunate because I feared the one I would choose would not be the one Letty would like. She was unbelievably important to me but what did it mean? I couldn't shape my life around the opinion of one thirteen-year-old girl could I? It seemed irrational.
Letty went into the kitchen to fix lunch.
"Dude, she's a trip. You should've brought her to the party last night," Zack said when she left the room.
"Nah, man, she's too young," I said. Why did he want me to bring her to the party? I was glad they got along but Zack was way too old to want to hang out with Letty. Maybe I was just feeling protective, maybe.
"How old is she?" he asked. Wow, he must have been pretty drunk last night.
"Thirteen so don't get any ideas," I said protectively.
Zack ended up hanging out for a while longer before heading home. We talked about the race that was going to take place that night and he told me that he'd call later about going. As soon as he left, I looked over at Letty. She looked up at me and when our eyes met she just smiled and shook her head.
"Oh, Dominic," she said.
"Oh, Letty," I copied.
"Heard about your
night," she remarked.
"Did you now," I said. I didn't
really want to comment any further. I had suddenly lost all the pride
that last night had instilled in my ego.
"You wouldn't even hold that girl's hand?" she asked surprised. Wow, Zack really had spilled the beans. I would have to remember to kill him later. I saw a look in her eye that resembled disappointment. Shit, this was something I had never wanted to do. I disappointed her. My heart sank down into my stomach. I was responsible for giving her that look. Damn. It definitely wasn't worth that. Nothing was worth that.
"That's not true. I did. I made sure she rode home with us and didn't get arrested. I walked her to her door and told her I'd call her. What exactly did Zack tell you?" I said, recanting all the things from the evening I had found most miserable to try to prove my case.
"Enough," she said, giving off no information. Typical.
"Alright, well never listen to just parts of a story," I said defensively. Was I lying? Not technically. All the things I had told her had actually occurred. Damn, I tried to shake it off. Why the hell did it matter? This was getting old. I needed something to clear my head, or make it so blurry that thoughts of Letty would be pushed out.
TBC
---
AJ