Still want more? Jade
has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Theater, a master’s degree in
English, and a master of fine arts in Creative Writing. Obviously, she loves school and the student
loan folks love her. She works in human
services by day, teaches English and creative writing at night, and—in between
playing soccer mom and community leader—writes like a fiend. Someday soon, she’ll narrow it down to just
writing, but let’s get all those kids off to college first.
Excerpt:
We retired to the
living room, and someone put in a horror movie.
It looked like just another horror movie, and none of us were really
watching. Brad had brought out one of
the twelve-packs and the bottle of rum.
He’d had Nick help by bringing in five glasses filled with ice. Brad poured rum in four of the glasses and
then looked at me. “Sure you don’t want
just a little? Just enough to get a
little buzz?”
His eyes were so
warm, so persuasive. Ethan sat up
straight on the couch and leaned over, so close I could feel him. As though challenging Brad, he said to me,
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
But I trusted
Brad, and there was something in his eyes that made me want to say yes.
So I said, “Sure…just a little, though.
I’m the driver, remember?”
He chuckled. “Okay.”
So he poured just a tiny amount in my glass, at least two-thirds less
than what he’d poured in everyone else’s cup.
Then he poured Coke in each one until the liquid almost touched the rim.
Brad slid the
glasses to a position in front of each person.
“Bottoms up.” All four of the men
drank half of their glass in one gulp.
“You shouldn’t
have put ice in ‘em, Bradley. It’s
harder to drink.” Ethan smirked at his
friend.
“I thought, since
we were in the company of a lady, that we should show a little restraint.” I felt myself blush a little.
“Yeah. Whatever.
Top me off, pussy.”
Brad’s sense of
humor seemed to be dissipating. He
handed Ethan the bottle. “Do it
yourself, cocksucker.”
“Don’t mind if I
do.”
At that point, we did start watching the movie. I’d felt a little tense at the exchange
between the two alpha males in the room, but as they downed their drinks, their
emotions seemed to die down as well.
It didn’t escape
my notice that Brad moved to the other side of me on the couch…and he sat close
enough that his leg touched mine.
But Ethan kept
talking to me, just making fun of the movie, making me laugh. Nick was on the floor in front of the coffee
table, and once in a while, he’d catch a snippet of Ethan’s jokes and bust out
laughing. He was getting pretty
wasted. Zane was in a chair on the other
side of the room.
I hadn’t had much
of my drink. I guessed I just wasn’t
much of a drinker. And that was
okay. Ethan sat up and grabbed a Coke,
popping it open. He sat back on the
couch and whispered. “How about you
trade me your drink for a straight Coke?”
I felt a little
relief, and my heart warmed to my sweet Ethan.
He must have just sensed that I wasn’t comfortable drinking, and he was
going to rescue me. I smiled and
switched with him. All the ice in my
glass had melted, so he slammed it in just a couple of gulps. He licked his lips and looked me straight in
the eye. “Best one I’ve had all night.”
Was he just
teasing me? He winked and then leaned
forward again, this time pouring more rum in his glass but foregoing the Coke.
Nick started
giggling. “Oh, shit. This girl’s gonna get killed.”
Zane said,
“Yeah…we saw her tits five minutes ago.
Of course, she’s gonna die.”
The girl in the
film had been jogging through the woods but then discovered she was being
followed by the slasher in the movie. It
was the same old tired scenario we’d all seen in horror movies, a formula
beloved by the many. The girl tripped
and started screaming, panicking, and just being stupid in general. I sat up.
“Why is it that they always make these girls so dumb? Why does she have to trip and act stupid? Instead of going back the way she came or
following the trail, she’s disappearing deeper into the woods where she’s going
to die.”
Normally quiet
Nick was now Obnoxious Nick. “You have a
problem with that?”
Zane said, “I
don’t, as long as I get to see her goodies.”
I rolled my
eyes. “Real girls aren’t like that.”
Brad sat up next
to me and put his arm around my shoulders.
“Know what, Val? You’re
cool. Ethan has class when it comes to
women.”
I wasn’t sure
where he was coming from, but I couldn’t believe he was putting his arm around
me right in front of Ethan.
“Correction,” Zane
interrupted. “Remember Mary…the mouth?”
“Oh, fuck, yeah!” Nick broke out into laughter and fell on his
back.
Ethan said, “Can
we change the subject?”
“I kinda liked her
mouth,” Zane said.
“I just wanted to
say Val was cool. I didn’t want to get
you guys started talking about Ethan’s old girlfriends.”
Ethan slammed his
straight rum and poured another. Zane
said, “I want a girlfriend like that.”
“Shut the fuck up,
man.”
Zane sighed and
shrugged, then downed his drink. Brad
seemed to be in his own little world.
I’d tried to ignore his arm around me, and I certainly didn’t want to
draw attention to it nor encourage it.
But he started talking quietly, so no one else could hear. “I’m glad you and Ethan are friends.” I couldn’t ignore him anymore, and I turned
my head to look at him.
Holy Christ. The look in his eyes was undeniable. He wasn’t drunk, no. He might’ve been loosened up, but he wasn’t
trashed. He looked…sexy, and I had no
idea why he liked me so much, but the feeling was mutual.
I heard Nick
laughing at something on the TV, and Zane said, “Holy shit! That bitch can bleed!” I hoped no one else
was paying attention to me.
Brad asked,
“So…are you and Ethan dating or not? Are
you boyfriend and girlfriend? He won’t
say dick about it, and I can’t tell.”
God…how should I
answer that? Honesty…always the best
way. “I…uh…don’t think he considers us
that.”
Still…I really
cared for Ethan, and nothing was set in stone.
Until I knew for sure, I didn’t want to encourage Brad’s behavior. I took a deep breath and tried to smile. Then I stood up. “I…um…need a glass of water. Can I get anyone anything?”
Brad shook his
head, and everyone else ignored me, so I walked to the kitchen.
I was so glad I
hadn’t had anything to drink. In the
past, I’d been around friends who’d lost all their inhibitions too quickly
thanks to alcohol, and I knew I’d just escaped a precarious situation.
I’d come to the
kitchen to get my bearings. I stood at
the refrigerator for a good two minutes, just staring at the handle. Finally, I opened the door so I wouldn’t look
pathetic and lost, but that’s really what I was. I was confused. I didn’t know what I wanted, and it made me
angry. No, that wasn’t entirely true. My head wanted one thing, my heart
another. I needed a few minutes alone to
just think.
A few deep breaths
and I was starting to feel normal again.
I shut the refrigerator door and turned around, ready to go back to the
living room. But just as I did that, he
appeared in the doorway. Brad…the man
who’d made me question everything. And
he just stared at me with those smoldering eyes as if to say he knew everything
I was thinking.
Like a deer caught
in headlights, I froze. I was
paralyzed. I felt my heartbeat speed up,
as though a locomotive were driving it.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.
I could hear it in my ears and nothing else. And then he started moving across the
kitchen, closing the gap between us until it was nonexistent. I could hear as each one of his boots hit the
floor step by step, but I was helpless to move.
I felt a jolt in my bloodstream as my brain flooded it with chemicals,
and yet I still couldn’t move.
Brad stopped just
millimeters away from my body, and my eyes stayed locked on his. The thudding in my chest hadn’t receded, and
there was no way I was getting away. I
drew in one deep breath through my slightly parted lips, then another. Neither of us said a word. And then I felt something inside decide that
it would be okay. Honestly, I knew there
was nothing between Ethan and me, just some stupid stalkerish emotion that made
me feel like I loved him. And that’s
when I decided I wanted to give in to whatever had gripped me, whatever it was
inside me that was drawn to Brad. My
breathing slowed just a little, and I noticed his head tilt down as though he
was going to touch my lips with his.
Yes. It was okay. Maybe.
No.
I wasn’t ready for this. Not
yet. I closed my eyes as though in slow
motion and tilted my head to the side.
That would be okay, right? But
deep inside I knew it wouldn’t be, and I didn’t care. If he had been a vampire, I would have been
offering my jugular to him. Still I
didn’t care—he could have it.
I drew in another
slow, deep breath, anticipating the touch of his lips. Instead, I felt his breath on my neck, and
everything in my body tightened. First, my
breath caught in my throat, and then every single muscle in my body clamped
down, but where I felt it the most was in my feminine parts, a part of my body
that I’d religiously avoided like the plague.
But the sensation didn’t feel as sinful as I’d been led to believe. Oh, no.
It was a foreign feeling, yes, but it was not unwelcome. On instinct, my hands moved to his neck, and
I shoved my fingers into his thick, soft hair.
His breath on my
neck was warm and delicious. He brought
his lips to my ear, and they barely grazed the tender skin there. He said, ““I know you’re into Ethan, and as
long as you are, nothing’s gonna happen between us. But I want you to know I’ll wait.”
I didn’t know what
to say. There really wasn’t anything I could say that would make it okay. He had to know I was physically attracted to
him, or why else would he even feel confident enough to make a move like
that? It was in that moment that I
realized how intuitive and worldly Brad was.
He picked up on things that others usually just overlooked. He knew…he knew how I felt about him, about Ethan. How could he know that?
Either that or he
was just drunk.
No…it wasn’t that
he’d been drinking. He stepped back as I
loosened my grip in his hair. His eyes
stayed locked on mine as he just continued backing up, and then, as he got
close to the doorway, he turned around and left the room.
I was breathless
again. And I was even more confused than
when I’d come in here.
