I walked down the hall towards my trig class. I hated math, especially trigonometry. I could not imagine a time that I would ever use it again. And, the fact that they were making me take it pissed me off every day I decided to go. In the few short weeks since school had started, I had gotten in the habit of skipping trig and leaving right after Weight Lifting class. I had this class with Vince. The football coach was the teacher but since neither Vince nor I were on the team, he pretty much didn't pay us a lot of attention. Vince and I were in a constant battle with another couple of guys in the class to see who could life the most weight that semester. It kept us strong and entertained. But, today, I'd come for the whole day.
That was when I saw it. I saw Letty leaning against her locker. She was talking to some guy. He had his arm propped up against the locker beside hers and was getting dangerously close. He was acting exactly the same way I did when I wanted to hook up with a girl. Oh hell no. I walked up to her just as he walked away.
"Who's that guy?" I asked inquisitively, trying to reveal absolutely no emotion in my voice.
"Just some guy," she said casually.
"He ain't got a name?" I continued.
"No," she stated resentfully.
I just stared at her. Letty dating. That was not something that I was prepared to handle. Perhaps I'd missed my opportunity. At this point, a whole different type of protectiveness came over me. I was no longer her shelter to run to. Instead, I just wanted to kick any guy's ass that thought he might have a chance with her. I didn't want to think about it. I tried to block the images that were starting to pop up in my mind out as quickly as they entered. This attempt was to no avail. All I could see was grungy, skeezy guys trying to cop a feel or worse.
"Alright, whatever," I said, turning and walking away.
"What's wrong Dom?" she laughed.
"Shut up," I said, still walking away. She threw a piece of paper at me. I turned around and glared at her. She just smiled. Damn, she had the cutest smile. I had to turn around before I smiled. I was trying to play it cool. That was clearly working out fabulously for me.
I had no idea what that fool teaching my trig class talked about that day. I kept thinking about that guy. I knew that I couldn't do anything to him. He hadn't done anything, yet. And, Letty would be pissed. I wasn't trying to piss her off. I didn't see why she didn't just not date anyone but allow me see girls from time to time, until I got up the courage to ask her out. Well, I could see why she didn't do that. But, I was driving myself crazy. Finally, the bell rang. I darted out of class very quickly. I glanced back over at Letty's locker. There was no one there.
"Hey Dom," Jenny, a girl I'd hooked up with last weekend, said. I hadn't even seen her and almost ran right into her.
"Oh, hey," I said, not really wanting to stop. I wasn't trying to be a jerk but I really didn't want Letty to see me talking to her. And, I didn't really have anything to say to her.
"Hey, what's the rush? I thought we could talk about stuff," she said, her hands coming down towards my waist. I picked up her hands and gently removed them from me.
"Listen, I can't right now. But, maybe I'll see you later," I said walking out the school doors.
I walked out to my car. I saw Vince. I didn't see Letty anywhere. She was probably talking to that guy. I would have to wait on her.
"Happy birthday brother," I said, walking up to him.
"Yeah, seventeen. Nothing much changes at seventeen. Not nearly as good as sixteen. But, hey, that much closer to eighteen," he said hopefully.
"Yeah, then you'll have to stop sleeping with those junior high girls. Wait it's middle school now, makes them sound younger, huh?" I joked. I knew he wasn't really sleeping with anyone in middle school.
"Funny," he said, not laughing. "Look who's talking?"
"She's in high school," I retorted. I knew he was talking about my infatuation with Letty.
"Now," Vince replied. It was absolutely no surprise to me that Vince would rag on me about this. I would have done the same to him. At least he never did it when Letty was around.
"So, whatcha wanna do tonight?" I changed the subject. At that point, birthdays were just one more excuse for us to drink. As if we really needed excuses.
"Get wasted and be seventeen," he replied.
"Alright, I'm down with that. My pops is at a race this weekend so you can bring some people over to my house," I offered. This weekend was my Dad's ninth or tenth race since he'd entered the pro stock-car circuit. He was on the East coast. Mia and I had the house to ourselves.
"Word," he said as Letty walked up. "Hey Letty you want to come to a party?" He was giving me a knowing grin the whole time. I just thought about how I was never going to tell Vince anything ever again. If he said anything, I swear to God…
"Um, sure," she responded looking between the two of us oddly. "Happy birthday."
"Thank you, thank you. Party's at Dom's. You should be able to find it okay," he said, giving her a hug.
"I think I can manage," she replied walking over to the passenger door of my car.
We got into the car. As soon as I cranked the engine the music started blaring. I decided that if the music played we would have a distraction and then I couldn't push her for more information about that guy. Besides, she would think it was weird that I was so curious. And, I didn't want to let on about my feelings. The possibility of being rejected was imminent and I had never really had to deal with that before. Regardless, I didn't think I'd handle it well. So, I just let he music play. We drove to Mia's school and sat in the parking lot. I cut the music down a little bit because other anxiously awaiting parents were starting to stare.
"You miss it here," I joked. It was odd that they'd picked that year to switch the schools over. But, I thought it was cool. I liked having Letty around. Of course, after seeing her with that other guy, I loved it a little less.
" Wasn't really here that much. Well, that long I mean," she corrected.
"I think you had it right the first time," I remarked. She never went to school. At least when she road with me I knew when she was going and when she wasn't. But, then, I wasn't really the best attendance example for her because there would be days when Vince, Zack, Hector, and I, and now Letty, would just skip and hang out at Hector's house or find other useless activities to engage in.
"Yeah, hilarious," she said unamused.
"It is what it is," I remarked.
"So, are you going to let Mia come to the party?" she asked, ignoring my previous statement.
"Hadn't planned on it," I replied.
"You're such a dick," she laughed.
"What? She's too young," I said in my protective brotherly voice.
"Okay, whatever. Have fun telling her that," she said as Mia ran towards the car.
"Oh, she wouldn't even want to," I replied. Mia really wasn't much into parties.
Letty got out of the car and pulled the seat forward so Mia could get into the back. She started talking about school and all the exciting things that were happening. I mainly let Letty respond to her. She was a lot better at that. I cared about Mia and how she was doing in school. But, it definitely wasn't something we had in common. I always felt very proud of her though.
"Are you going to your house or ours?" I asked Letty as I pulled onto our street. I didn't really know why I'd asked. It had been forever since she'd even stepped foot inside her house.
She looked over at her house as we drove by. There were some random cars parked out front. "Yours," she responded.
I pulled up in the driveway and let the girls out.
"Where are you going?" Mia asked when she noticed I wasn't getting out.
"I got to go pick some stuff up at the store. Vince is bringing some people by for his birthday," I said. It was easiest to tell Mia things when I had a quick getaway.
"Dom, you didn't even ask me if it was okay," Mia whined.
"Do you mind? We'll be downstairs," I told her. This was the best way of indirectly telling her that I didn't expect her to come.
"No, that's fine," she begrudgingly said.
"Cool, thanks Mi, you're the best," I said as I pulled away. Hopefully she got the point.
At just barely seventeen, there were very few places that I knew where I could buy beer. Something about my haughtiness caused me to refuse a fake id. There was one gas station in particular where the cashier had gone to my high school. He was older than me but had always been pretty good friends with Zack. He frequented the weekend street races and respected the work that my Dad and I did on cars. I don't exactly know how it started, but every time I tried to buy beer from him, he let me without any questions asked.
I rolled up to the store. I assumed that I would need quite a bit for anyone that Vince was planning on inviting. I loaded up the cart with an assortment, but mostly Coronas.
"You partying tonight?" the guy behind the counter asked. No, I typically just buy this many cases for myself.
"Sort of, it's my boy Vince's birthday, so, you know?" I said.
"So, you not going to be hittin' the streets tonight?" he asked.
"Nah, don't think I'll be in any condition to drive tonight," I replied.
"That's cool, maybe I'll
race then knowing I don't have to go up against your ass," he
said as I handed him the money.
"Alright, man, good luck," I
told him, taking all the beer and walking out of the store.
I got back to the house. I put all the beers in the refrigerator in the basement and sat on the couch. I turned on the television. I figured I would just stay down here until people came. It was Friday. It wasn't like I had anything else to do. The garage was closed and I certainly wasn't going to do any homework.
The door to the basement opened and Zack walked in. He was with another guy who was a lot younger. The young guy looked very nervous for some reason.
"What's up, man," Zack said, coming up and sitting on the couch. He had a little cooler with him. It was pretty funny.
"What's goin' on," I replied.
"This is my cousin, Jesse. He's the one that I was telling you about, that's working on those computer programs," Zack informed, pointing to the kid.
"Nice to meet you," I said, reaching out my hand. He nervously shook it and sat down on one of the chairs. "Yeah, I heard about your stuff. That sounds pretty cool."
"Th-thanks, man," he replied.
"Well we're partying here in just a little while. There's beer in the fridge if you want to go ahead and get started," I told them.
"Oh I brought my own. Wish we could stick around for the party. I talked to Vince a little bit ago. But, man, we got to go to a god damn family reunion," Zack complained. "I'm trying to delay the torture for as long as I can. Where's Letty?"
I shrugged. Why did he care?
He opened his little cooler and had a beer. He offered Jesse and I one. Jesse declined. I went over to the fridge and grabbed one of my own. I didn't know how old Jesse was, but he looked younger than Mia. Zack and I shot the breeze for a little while and Jesse didn't say a word. He just kept fidgeting with things. I started talking to him about the program for decals that he was developing and it really sparked his interest. He spoke about it so fluently and eloquently that he seemed to transform into a different person. I liked him. He was really knowledgeable about computers and seemed to have a real passion for cars. I talked to him about getting together sometime that next week to see what we could do about my own car. He agreed. After Zack finished his third or fourth beer they had to get going. As it turned out, their reunion was in Vegas and had started a couple of hours ago.
About an hour later, after I had sunk pretty deep into a television trance, Letty came down the stairs. I didn't notice her at first, but then she sat down beside me. She was wearing a white tank top and some low cut jeans that had holes in just the right places, in my opinion. Her hair was up in a loose ponytail. She looked hot. I had to try to act casual, though. I didn't want her to notice me staring. Luckily, a few minutes later, Vince walked in with Hector, Edwin, and a couple of other people. I stood up, glad to take my focus off Letty.
"Sup, fellas," I said shaking a few hands.
"Hey man," Hector and the other guys said.
"Sup Dom, Letty," Edwin said.
"Sup Letty," one of the other guys said eyeing her.
"Beers in the fridge," I replied, trying to get his attention off my, well, off Letty.
Hector grabbed a beer and tossed Letty and I one. We all watched television and drank a few beers. A good number of other people showed up, many of which also brought beer. This only added to the collection. After a couple of hours everyone had gotten pretty drunk and seemed to be having a really good time. We turned off the television and started listening to music instead.
The girl that Vince was currently crushing on, some chick named Maria, was chatting it up with him in the corner. I could tell that he was trying to put the moves on her.
I decided the only way to take my mind of Letty would be to flirt with someone else. This was the best plan my wonderful hormone-crazed teenage brain could come up with. I found Katie, a really attractive girl that I didn't really know very well. She seemed more than willing to consume my attention. I glanced over at Letty, in between Katie trying to "accidentally" touch me or give off flirtatious laughs. The fact that somewhat inebriated girls tried to pretend like they didn't mean to touch a guy always perturbed me. Most males were more than happy to welcome this type of attention. I saw Letty talking to the same guy that she had talked to at school earlier that day. I couldn't take my eyes off them. He was making her laugh. I had no idea what they could be talking about, but I wanted them to stop.
Just then one of the other females attendees said, "hey guys, let's play truth or dare".
"Nah, really?" I asked her.
"Yeah, it'll be fun. We used to have so much fun with it back in the day. Now we can take it up a notch," she smiled.
"Oh come on, how old are we?" I asked.
"Come on, Dom, it could be fun," Katie said. She moved her hand from my cheek, down my side, to my pelvis, pulling me over to the group by my belt loops.
How could I say no to that?
"Alright, whatever," I said, sitting down. I looked over at Letty. She just laughed and shook her head at me.
"You're an embarrassment," she stated, walking over to the circle everyone was forming. That guy was trailing behind her like a puppy dog.
"Come on, Let, be a sport," I joked.
"Okay, I'll start," the random female attendee, Jessica, said.
"Truth or Dare Eva?" she said looking over at an extremely attractive Hispanic girl I knew, shall we say, personally.
"Truth," Eva replied.
"Did you ever sleep with Dom?" the girl asked, shooting me a look. I looked at the floor.
"Dare," Eva said.
"No, you said truth, you have to answer the question," the girl said.
"Yes," Eva said bashfully.
"Truth or Dare Christina?" Eva said, asking another girl I also knew personally. I looked around at all the people who were there. Geez, what had Vince done? Invite all the girls I had slept with in LA? I thought he wanted to help me with Letty. I imagined this had the potential to cause the opposite effect.
"Truth," she said.
"Same question," Eva said.
I pretty much wanted to die at this point. It wasn't like my ego did not enjoy this. But, I realized that this really was doing very little to help my future attempts with Letty. And, what the hell? Is this the kind of thing girls thought was funny? Around a group of guys, just guys, I would have been totally down with this. But, in the mixed company of the girl I was crushing on, not so much.
"Hey, listen," I interjected. "Why don't we ask a different question?"
The girl looked a little hurt. But, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make for my own plight.
"Okay, fine. Christina, did you ever sleep with Vince?" she asked, smiling.
Sarah's face got beet red. It was funny. I knew she had. I tried hard not to laugh. I was unsuccessful. It was better to transfer the conversation to him. It was his birthday after all.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"Okay, Truth or Dare Letty," Christina said.
Damn, how did this happen? This would be interesting. I just hoped they didn't ask her if she'd slept with one of us.
"Truth," she said. I was very surprised she didn't go with dare. Letty always struck me as more of a dare type of person. Oh well, she keeps me guessing.
"Do you like Tony?" she asked smiling. I assumed that she was referring to the guy that was following Letty around. Apparently, at this age, Truth or Dare essentially turned into a game of embarrassment.
"I don't know. He's okay I guess," she replied. This was a very Letty answer.
"That's not an answer," she responded.
"It's my answer," Letty said.
"Alright, we will just translate that as a yes," Christina responded.
"Alright, my turn. Truth or Dare, Dom?" Letty said grinning.
That sucked. I decided to down my beer. It would make the cut sting less.
"Neither, I'm not playing," I joked. Letty could really call me out on some shit.
"Okay, then truth," she said still smiling. "If you aren't man enough to pick one yourself I'll just assign it to you."
I just shook my head. Anyone but Letty and I would have been pissed.
"Alright, let's have it," I told her. Vince passed me the bottle of tequila that he had started working on. I took the Eagles advice, took a shot of courage, and waited.
"Did you beat Tran in the race last week?" she asked. She knew how mad this had made me. This was precisely why you didn't play Truth or Dare with your close friends.
"No," I said pissed, not at Letty, just at having to admit this. I had beaten him twice. He wasn't going to give up though. He won in our third one-on-one race. I was furious about it.
"Yeah," she said conceitedly.
"My turn now," I said. This was going to be good. "Truth or Dare Vince?" I asked. He thought about this for a second.
"Truth," he replied. Pussy.
I thought hard. There wasn't really anything I didn't know about Vince. But, then I realized that there were things the other people around me didn't know. So I decided to be a dick.
"Did you ever sleep with Tran's sister?" I asked. This was a conquest he was never able to achieve. I had. It made him really angry. I knew a couple of people there, mainly guys, would really get the significance of this question. That made it funny.
He cocked his head to the side and gave me an eat-shit grin, "No."
"Truth or Dare, Dom," he said. This should be fun. No way in hell was I going to answer a truth to him. He had way too much shit on me for that.
"I just went," I said, trying to back out gracefully.
"It don't matter. It's my birthday," he replied.
"Dare," I said, awaiting my fate.
"I dare you to…," he continued to think. Vince was never extremely quick on his feet. He was sitting beside Hector and decided to whisper back and forth with him about what would be a good dare. Then he gave me a smile that indicated I was in some shit. "I dare you to make out with Letty in the closet."
"This isn't 'seven minutes in heaven' brother," I said.
"Scared?" he questioned.
Hell yeah I was getting kind of scared. I smiled. He knew how to challenge me, I'd give him that. I would never have let on that this bothered me.
"Wait, that's bullshit. What if I'm not down with that," Letty cut in.
"Don't worry. He won't have the balls to do shit," Vince reassured her. Ass.
I looked at Letty and offered her my hand. "You won't come with me?"
She hesitated. This could be really embarrassing. But, she put her hand in mine. I helped her up.
"But, this counts as a dare for me too," she added before following me into the closet. This was a stupid dare. Actually, this was a great dare. Vince knew exactly what he was doing putting me in this situation. I would have to remember to either kill him or thank him later…depending.
TBC
---
AJ
So you guys are probably going to be a little upset that I left it here. But, what's life without a little suspense, right?