When we got to our friends, they were ready to go back home. The day had come to an end and the sun was slowly sinking toward the horizon. Liam was already there with everyone else. We all packed back up in the car, and drove home. Liam was to stay for the night... Great, just what I needed. It wasn’t enough that he just had dumped his girlfriend and kissed me earlier. He had to not acknowledge my presence afterward, like he did the first time he had kissed me, and then come and sleep over at my house. I knew deep down that it would be that way. I mean, he always ignored me, right? But I still didn't have the strenght to stop dreaming that he would actually change his mind and declare his undying love to me. And that’s how Rose ended up here, with me, alone in my room.
I could hear the loud music coming out of the garage. I decided to ignore it, but I could still make out every song they were playing. And Rose wasn’t helping at all. She was signing along and dancing around, making it a point to not listen to me when I asked her politely to stop.
“Look, I know that it was a big and emotional day for you but can we at least have some fun and go down there?” She asked me when she realized I wasn’t going to go downstairs. I sighed heavily. My dad didn’t like it when I was with Ben’s friends. He was scared that they would hurt me or something. I didn’t find that likely with the way Ben treated them if they even looked at me a second too long, but I still respected his choice. Ever since my dad had told be what was bothering him, I was being discreet. Not making a show of myself when my brother’s friends were there and all. But tonight was different. My parents were gone, like always.
“Fine,” I said and she jumped up in the air with delight. She had a soft spot, just like me, for music, and especially the guys that played it. One day, she had also confessed that she found my brother super sexy when he was playing guitar.
I changed out of my pajamas, finding something to put on quickly. I was about to go downstairs when I caught Rose’s eyes.
“What? Do I have something between my teeth?” I asked worried and she laughed.
“No, you don’t have anything between your teeth, but did you look at yourself?” She asked, pulling something out of my drawer. It was a short summer dress. Something I hadn’t worn in a long time.
“You need to wear something more appropriate for the occasion,” she said, laughing once again. She pitched me the dress, and I caught it in midair. When she looked at me intently, waiting for me to put it on, I rolled my eyes.
“And what are you gonna wear to be appropriate?” I asked scornfully. She looked at me for a long time, a smile playing on her lips before pulling out a pair of low cut shorts and an orange flashy tank top who would most probably show off half of her stomach.
“Aw, I see... And can I know why you’re insisting that we dress up like whores to go see my brother and a bunch of his horny friends?” I asked, already knowing the answer. She always had a thing for my brother. Although she wouldn’t admit to me, or to herself, that she was maybe in love. And there was always the possibility of older and hotter guys that would probably want to hook up with her.
“You know, for the usual reasons,” she said, laughing again at my face. “Who cares why I am doing this! Put on that dress already and Liam won’t be able to resist you,” she continued. I finally gave up, putting the extremely short dress.
We headed downstairs, and I paused at the door that lead to the garage. I could still hear the music, louder than before. I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea. Ben would probably scream at us to go back upstairs. But I didn’t get the time to say this to Rose. She was sighed heavily and pushed the door before I could turn back around the way we had come. Now I could see Liam sitting at the drum set, beating them angrily. Ben was standing close to the door, talking to another guy, who had an electric guitar in his hands. A little bit farther, there were three guys that were talking loudly and had beer bottles in their hands.
Rose took a step inside and when Ben looked at her, she smiled.
“Can we hang out here for a while?” She asked in a soft voice. I knew instantly that my brother wasn’t going to say no. The expression on his face was clear, something in his eyes that was displayed whenever he saw a girl that had close to no clothing on. I already saw that face a thousand times, but right now, it was directed to my best friend. And I didn’t like that.
“Yeah, sure. No problem,” he said. Instead of turning back to his conversation, he followed Rose to the little couch that was in the corner of the room, close to the three guys.
I took a deep breath before entering myself. I didn’t know what to do really, since it had been an eternity since I’ve even talked to these guys. But I still remembered their names. There was Noah, who was the guy that had been talking to Ben seconds ago, the guy with the guitar. And Matthew, he was one of the three guys. He was an average height guy, with dirty blond hair, and I always thought that his eyes were gorgeous. They were a deep sort of brown, with green in the middle. Matthew was playing the bass and had written a few songs. Next was Aiden. He was a standard guy. Average height, average weight, average everything. I liked him when I was younger, but then his hormones kicked in and he began to think he was super hot and everyone loved him. And it didn’t help that he was in a band, he was constantly bragging about that. Talk about an ego. From what I heard though, he was much better now.
Right now, I caught him winking right at me. I turned around, to concentrate on the last of the guys. Devin was someone I hadn’t seen in awhile.
“Hey! Alicia,” he said, getting to his feet. He lost balance but caught himself just on time. I smiled at him, suppressing a laugh. He was quite drunk. Devin was a tall guy, blond hair and quite muscular. The dream guy, I thought many times. When we were young, he was always hanging around at our house, with Liam. He was one of the few that knew what I had felt for Liam, what I still felt. When Take a Chance had been formed, it was out of the question to take me with them. I was too young Ben had said. But Devin had tried really hard. He had read a few of my songs and was a huge fan.
When Ben hadn’t move at any of his arguments, he had left. He had said that if they weren’t going to take me, then he might as well not be there himself. He said, that I had more talent than him and it didn’t make sense that he could be there and not me. I hadn’t fully understood what that had meant for him at the particular moment, and I was even glad that he was going to give me some company these long afternoons when they were practicing and I could only watch. After a few months like that, I began feeling a little bit bad. But that feeling went away with the separation from the gang, and they took him back. He was now playing the second guitar, and doing the screaming.
“Come sit down with us,” he said, extending his hand toward me. I walked to where he was standing. I looked around the little circle that had formed. Everyone was there. They had all come to sit down either on the couch or on the floor around it.
“You want a beer?” Devin asked me. I nodded and turned to ask Rose if she wanted one, but stopped, seeing that she had one already. She was way ahead of me. A hand grabbed my arm and I turned to see who it was. Liam was standing just in front of me, so close that all I could see at first were his eyes.
And then, I saw his hand, extended. He was offering me a beer. The beer Devin had offered me a second ago. I took it hesitantly from him and took a step back. Silence was surrounding us, like a bubble all around that was protecting us from the world outside. My hand was still on top of his, and he didn’t seem like he was going to move any second. My eyes were traveling from our united hands to his eyes. It took me a second to realize that he was doing the same. Was he feeling the same thing as me, the heat that was tingling from my fingertips?
It all shattered in a second when the laughter of his friends erupted around us. Just like that, our bubble popped and we were back in the middle of the circle of friends.
“Looks like Liam was a little bit faster on this one, Devin,” Aiden said, laughing at his own joke.
“Well it’s not that surprising, considering that he always gets all the ladies,” Matthew said. He winked at me and elbowed me closer to Liam.
“Careful guys, it’s my sister,” Ben said, and I had to say that I was surprised to hear the mocking in his voice. He wasn’t as serious as he normally was.
“Yeah, we know that, but doesn’t mean we can’t have a little bit of fun,” Aiden said. He caught me by the waist and I felt his hand slip under my dress, grazing my thighs. I didn’t get the chance to react before Liam grabbed his shirt and pushed him away from me brutally.
“You stay away from her if you’re gonna treat her like that,” Liam said. His voice was low and I could barely make out what he was saying. I looked around to see if my brother was going to freak out with one of his she’s my sister for god sake, but he didn’t seem to have realized what had just happened.
Liam took my hand and guided me to the couch where Ben and Rose were sitting. My best friend was practically on Ben’s lap, and beside them, Noah had barely space to sit. Devin was already sitting on the floor and I sat beside him, Liam following me. There was an awkward silence following; only Rose was giggling in Ben’s ear. And that made it somewhat more uncomfortable. Then, Aiden made one of his not-so-funny jokes and everybody was back to their easy going attitude.
We talked for hours, laughing and flirting. It was so new for me, not caring what my brother or my dad would think about me if I flirted outrageously. But then, Ben was still there, right beside me, he was just too occupied and drunk to realize.
My legs were now on Devin’s lap and I was leaning on Liam’s shoulder. I didn’t know how I got in that position, but again, I had a few beers in my system... It was late, but nobody seemed to realize it.
“Your party was freaking awesome,” Devin said suddenly, slurring a little.
“Yeah, man, the girls were all crazy, it was amazing,” Aiden said. “Yo, Noah, tell your story again, it’s so fucking hilarious,” he continued, pointing at Noah.
“Okay, well a few of you already know my story...” He stopped.
“Yeah, but Liam and the girls didn’t hear it,” Aiden said. “Please.” Noah took a deep breath and started.
“Okay, so I was dancing, and then this girl arrives. She’s a year younger than us I think, ‘cause I’ve never seen her in any of my classes. She starts dancing with me.”
“Wait, what’s her name?” I interrupted him. There weren’t a lot of girls my age at the party, pretty much all my friends.
“I’m pretty sure her name was Holly. Do you know her?” He asked, turning to see me better. I opened my mouth to answer but Rose’s laughter interrupted me.
“You hooked up with Holly? Seriously?” She was hysterical. I couldn’t help laughing, myself.
“Holly... She was there today, at the beach, right?” Liam asked, leaning closer and making me fall off his shoulder. I laughed even harder.
“Oh, yeah. She was hot,” Ben said.
“Yeah, she’s kind of a slut...” I said, looking directly at my brother. He didn’t seem to realize.
“Yeah, well I know that already,” Noah said, and it provoked another round of laughter.
“So, we were dancing,” he continued, but got interrupted again.
“I saw you guys and it was more than dancing. Trust me, this girl was practically making love on the dance floor,” Devin commented. We all laugh and Liam imitated a girl screaming. I slapped him on the chest and he stopped.
“Sorry,” Devin and Liam said together. “Go on,” Liam said.
“Okay, so we were dancing and I asked her what was her name. She said that it was Holly and that meant that she belonged with the Lord... And that’s why she had come to see me,” I heard someone trying hard not to laugh and covering it with a cough. I also had problems not laughing, myself. Noah glared at us, daring us to interrupt him again.
“I know, it was a sucky pick up line, but hey, it boosted up my confidence. So, after a few songs, she takes my hand and pulls me to the stairs. She dragged me to a room,” he had to stopped there because he got interrupted once again.
“Which room?” Please not mine, I thought.
“Yours I think... But don’t worry; we didn’t do anything, that’s the funny thing. She pushed me on the bed and got on top of me. She was kissing me and undressing and then she just stopped dead and started crying. She was babbling and saying that she was still a virgin and that everybody thought she slept with everyone...” We all laughed hard. I was clutching my stomach, trying to stop the cramp that was building inside of me.
So Holly wasn’t sleeping around after all... But she wasn’t doing anything to change her reputation. A proof, she had lead Noah to my room and let everybody see that there was something dirty going on when, really she had bailed at the last moment.
“Aw, poor Noah, you must’ve been so disappointed,” Ben said, his voice plaintive, like he actually pitied him.
“Yeah, well she wasn’t that hot and she was awfully drunk. I heard that she had leaded some other guy in a room, but she passed out on the bed,” he said.
“Wow, I can’t believe it... Holly, a virgin? No, that can’t be true. I saw her do some pretty dirty things...” Rose said, still a little bit dazed.
“Yeah, well it looks like she likes her reputation a lot, since she’s not doing anything to deny it,” Liam said.
“I think that she wants to be a slut. She’s trying, she tried with Noah, but she’s bailing every time ‘cause she’s not ready. That’s my theory,” I said, locking my eyes with Rose. I knew that she didn’t particularly like Holly because of that reason. We both agreed that when we were going to lose our virginity, it was going to be with someone special, not some random guy at a party.
“Anyways. Guys, if you don’t want to be disappointed, don’t follow her, she’s just a tease. Nothing good is gonna come out of her,” Noah said, winking at us.
---> 