“Dude, I thought you were going to be here like three hours ago.”
Grif surveys the remaining chairs and settles on a wooden bench. “I got held up. Mom needed me to trim the bushes.”
Several of the guys laugh and make comments about bushes under their breaths. Grif glares at them. Grif is a momma’s boy. And I’ve met his mom. If you so much as gave her side-eye, she would slap you into next week.
“How’s Momma?” I ask him, drawing his attention away to keep the peace.
“She’s good. Same old,” Grif says as he checks out the group of girls that just walked outside. Grif is a ladies’ man. The girls love him, and he loves them. But he has yet to find “the one.” And this is why he’s my wingman.
I glance up to the door and I’m more than a little shocked when a familiar set of eyes greets me. Megan Lennox. The girl next door who turned into my enemy.
“Fuck,” I mutter. I’m surprised to see her here. Even though she pledged Sigma Omega Rho, I’ve never once seen her at a party. She quickly turns away and disappears back inside the house.
“What?” Grif asks as he looks around. I know when he spots her leaving because his eyes widen. “Is that…Megan?”
I nod and rub my temple. “Yep.”
Grif looks around. “I didn’t see pigs flying on my way here, but…I think we’re in for a bacon storm.”
Evan walks out and nearly trips down the two stairs as his eyes are also on Megan. “Is that…” He trails off as he looks at us. “Well, shit.”
Evan and Grif are well aware of my past relationship with Megan, well, friendship, sort of, it’s complicated. A memory pops into my head as I chug my beer. A memory of the day things changed between us.
“I think I’m going to leave,” Megan says nervously as she glances over at the group forming a circle on the floor. Some kid had suggested we play spin the bottle just like he saw in the movies. I know for a fact that Megan has never once kissed anyone, ever. Hell, I only kissed Jessie Bland on a dare at Jimmy’s birthday party three months ago. She punched me in the face, so that didn’t go well.
“Don’t leave. They’ll make fun of you if you do,” I whisper to her. I can see her eyes glaze over with tears. Fucking great, just what I need, my best friend having a girlie freak-out in front of all our friends. Jimmy’s already telling people she’s a prude because she wouldn’t be his girlfriend. I can’t blame her, I don’t think any girl would want to deal with Jimmy, he’s a pain in the ass. Most of us are only here because our moms made us come.
Sue Carson grabs Megan’s hand and they sit down in the circle. I sit down across from them. Megan stares at me. I know she wants me to do something, anything, but I can’t. I know what will happen if I do. She needs to suck it up and just play along. She’s so uptight sometimes.
Sue spins first and it lands on Ken Paynter. She gives him a quick peck on the lips and sits back down.
Everyone stares at Megan. Shakily, she spins the bottle. I watch as it passes everyone once, twice, and begins to slow down until I’m staring at the top of it. Megan’s face goes from pale to green.
I give her a subtle shake of my head. If she runs away now, they’ll make fun of me too. And then there’s the part of me that wants to kiss, that’s wanted to kiss her since sixth grade when she finally wore a bikini at the community pool and I discovered that my best friend had boobs, like real boobs.
“I bet she’s gonna chicken out,” Jimmy says.
I can see her eyes dart to the basement steps. Before I know what I’m doing, I’ve crawled over to her, grabbed her face in my hands, and kissed her. And not some light peck on the lips. I kiss her like in the movies. I hear gasps from the other kids as I pull back and look into Megan’s shocked eyes.
“Damn, Moore!” Jimmy says.
Megan’s face turns red as she gets up and darts up the stairs with Sue two strides behind her.
I sigh as I’m drawn back to the party when someone drops a bottle of liquor and it shatters on the concrete.
“I’m gonna grab another,” I say as I take my red plastic cup inside. But I’m lying. I’m looking for Megan. We stopped hanging out in eighth grade. We stopped talking altogether after we graduated high school. Now, we just glance at each other from afar. I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that my wet dreams still center around that woman and that every time I stroke my cock, I’m envisioning it buried deep inside her. I’d also be lying if I didn’t admit I sort of want to strangle her for her bitchy behavior over the last seven years.
I don’t know if the beer is giving me the courage to deal with my issues, or if I’m just tired of us not being friends. Either way, I’m determined to end this stupid rivalry between us. No more running against each other for student government offices. No more trying to best each other’s grades in our classes. No more fighting one another for the valedictorian spot. This ends here.
Megan
I’m hoping that I can disappear into the corner of this room. Why, oh, why did Clark Moore have to be here? I have to pat myself on the back because for three years, I’ve done an amazing job of hiding from him. I mean, it’s not exactly hard since this is a huge university, but we do have the same major. Thank God that I know Clark doesn’t wake up before noon. I usually schedule all my major classes for the morning so that I can avoid him like the plague. And my plan has worked, until now.
I knew Clark belonged to APT, but I was ninety-nine percent sure he would be at his parents’ house for one more weekend. That family is tight and always has been. It’s something I was always jealous of when we were kids. It’s the biggest reason why I had agreed to come tonight. And yet, there he is. Fucking Clark. He didn’t even have to try. He was one of those people. Everyone loved him. He was always the life of the party. He didn’t have to make an effort to fit in or make friends, people flocked to him like a moth to a flame. And school. Yeah, he didn’t have to work hard at that either. He was a fucking genius. That’s one of the many things that drives me crazy about him. He barely has to think, and he gets straight As. Meanwhile, I have to work my ass off twenty-four seven and do extra credit to maintain my perfect GPA.
But deep down, I know why I really hate him. The kiss. The stupid kiss in eighth grade that changed everything. The kiss that’s left me thinking about how much I want more kisses like that one. He had made me like him with that kiss, really, really like him, and he knew that would ruin everything. We used to talk about it. How our friends would start dating and then never speak again after they broke up. He also knew that I didn’t have time to date. I had to get perfect grades, be the head of at least three activities, and president of the student body. I had goals and he tried to get in my way. That’s when I knew he wasn’t my true friend. He just wanted in my pants, just like fucking Jimmy did. Well, fuck Jimmy and fuck Clark. I didn’t need a man. I have time for that later. Right now, I had my eyes on an internship with NASA. My dream internship. And if I played my cards right, it’d lead to my dream job.
“Hey, where’d you go? I was going to introduce you to some of the brothers,” Stella says as she hands me a beer. I pretend to sip it because who the fuck knows what might be in it. Stella ought to know better.