Bad Romeo (34 page)

“Try again,” Lucas says and waves his hand at me. “Do as Ethan says and take in more air, then hold it inside your lungs for as long as you can. That’s the best way to get a decent buzz.”

I do as he says. The smoke still burns, but I manage to hold it inside for a good ten seconds before exhaling.

“Nice,” Lucas says, and everyone gives me a light round of applause.

Jack takes the joint. “We’ll have you getting high like a pro in no time.”

“Awesome,” I say weakly as I grab Holt’s water again and take a long drink.

“I still can’t believe this is your first time,” Zoe says with disdain. “What self-respecting American teenager gets to the ripe old age of nineteen without getting high at least once?”

I shrug. “The daughter of the World’s Strictest Dad?”

Zoe screws up her face. “Cassie, that’s no excuse. Didn’t you see
Footloose
? The preacher’s daughter did everything but whore herself out after church. Having an overprotective daddy should have made you
more
wild, not less. Sheesh.”

For some reason, Jack and Lucas find her statement hilarious and crack up. It makes me smile. Zoe notices, and her face does a really strange dance between being pissed and happy. Happy eventually wins, and she grins at me as Jack passes her the joint.

Wow. Marijuana has a magical way of making mortal enemies like each other? Why isn’t this stuff legal, again?

Holt takes the joint from Zoe and squints as he inhales. His long fingers splay, and he sucks with pursed lips.

Beside me, Zoe moans. “Fuck me, Ethan, you have the best lips.”

He gives her a closed-mouth smile as he holds in the smoke, and I nearly choke trying not to laugh at the expression of lust on her face.

She has it so bad for him.

I know how she feels.

“Jeez, Holt,” Jack whines. “Do you have to hog all the girls? How about leaving some for the rest of us?”

Holt hands him the joint and shrugs. Then he turns and leans in as he grabs my head. At first, I’m shocked because I think he’s going to kiss me, which is weird because for the past few weeks we’ve been extremely careful to not show any affection in front of our classmates. But at the last second, he hovers his mouth over mine and exhales, and I realize he wants me to breathe in the smoke.

I inhale, my whole body tingling as he smiles while grazing his thumb super-slowly across my cheek.

Whoa. Fireworks under my skin. Tingly hot.

I can definitely feel the marijuana affecting me now. Everything seems to slow down and gain sharper focus, and for the longest time, all I can see is Holt’s face in front of me. He blinks slowly, and I can hear his lashes hitting his eyelids. Then he licks his lips, all slow motion and pink tongue. The thudding bass of a Barry White song starts up in my brain.

“Kiss her!” Jack yells before making obnoxious smacking noises.

Holt blinks, but by the time he looks away, my face is blazing hot and other parts of me, farther south, are even hotter.

“So what exactly is the deal with you two, anyway?” Jack asks, his voice tight as he inhales. “Are you actually fucking?”

Holt shoots him a withering glare before snatching the joint and handing it to me.

“You’re so goddamn classless, Avery. No, we’re not fucking.”

“Then what are you doing? Give us the horny details.”

“We’re not doing anything,” Holt says. “Change the damn subject.”

“I’d like to know, too,” Zoe says. “After
Romeo and Juliet
, we all thought you were screwing, but you hardly ever touch each other now that the show’s over, so we’re not sure. Clear up the rumors. Tell us what’s going on.”

Holt sighs and shakes his head. “There’s nothing going on. Taylor and I are friends. Nothing more.”

Even though I know he’s lying, it still makes me uncomfortable.

“Bullshit, you’re just friends,” Jack says as he takes the joint from me. “I have a vague recollection of you two making out on my bed on opening night. At least, I think it was you.”

Holt laughs before leaning back against a large tree and crossing his arms over his chest. “Avery, you were drunk and stoned out of your mind that night. For about an hour, you spoke to people only in Smurf language. It was smurfing annoying. You were imagining things.”

“You’re full of shit, Holt,” Jack says. “Cassie? Care to confirm or deny that you’re smurfing the hell out of Holt?”

My blush intensifies. “Jack, I can say with the utmost honesty, that I’m definitely
not
smurfing Holt. Wait, smurfing means having sex, right?”

How the hell do the Smurfs know what they’re talking about most of the time? Is it a noun? Is it a verb? I’m so confused.

“Yes, Taylor, we’re talking about sex.”

“Well, then no. Definitely not doing that.”

Unfortunately. Smurf it all to hell.

I exhale as I glance at Holt. One of his hands is in his pocket while he strokes the bark of the tree with his other. I’m mesmerized by his fingertips grazing over the rough texture. I’ve never been so jealous of a tree in my whole life.

“But you’d like to, right?” Jack asks with a knowing grin. “You’d like to smurf him up real good, huh? Smurf him long and slow? Or maybe fast and hard?”

Holt glares at Jack, who promptly shuts up.

“I know I would,” Zoe mumbles. “I’d smurf him ’til his fucking head exploded.” She looks up, apparently shocked she’d spoken out loud. “Oh, shit. You guys totally heard that, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t,” Holt says, feigning ignorance.

“Oh, well, I said I wanted to fuck you,” Zoe says before covering her face. “Oh, shit. There’s no chance you didn’t hear
that
, is there?”

Holt smiles and shakes his head. “Afraid not.”

“Zoe, you can ride me,” Jack says and gestures to his lap. “Climb on up. One decent-sized cock, no waiting.”

Zoe raises her eyebrows. “How decent-sized?”

“Seven and a half,” Jack says proudly.

Zoe nods. “Acceptable size. Tell you what, Jack, next time I get blind drunk, come see me. I might be able to cope with fucking you if I can’t remember it the next day.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Jack says. “It’s your loss. I could give you the best two and a half minutes of your life, lady.”

We all crack up.

Our laughter is loud in the quiet woods, and I glance at Holt. He’s smiling but staring at me in a way that makes a flood of heat rush through me. My laughter dies as I jiggle my knees to try and help ease the ache between my legs.

If I’d realized pot would make me even hornier than usual, I’d have passed.

“Man, I’m fucking hungry,” Jack says beside me.

“Me too,” I say to Holt’s crotch.

“If we leave now, we can swing past the cafeteria on the way to class,” Lucas says.

We all stand and head out of the trees on the west side of the school, heading back toward the Hub. The three boys walk in front of me and Zoe. When I notice her checking out Holt’s ass, I’m not even jealous. His ass is incredibly fine. It should be ogled.

“So, you’ve really never fucked him?” she whispers, as she continues to stare at his butt.

“Nope.”

I want to bite his butt. Not hard. Just little nibbles, all over those firm cheeks. Really unsure if this is the pot talking or I just have a weird body-biting fetish. Maybe it’s a little of both.

“I bet he’s amazing in bed,” Zoe whispers. “Just imagine it, all that intensity and passion he has in his acting finally letting loose. He’d be like a sexual stallion.”

Jebus, Zoe, would you shut up? As if I’m not having enough trouble not humping him. Stop making me want him more.

I drag my eyes away from his butt and watch my feet instead.

Whoa. Look at the grass. So many blades. So pretty. So green. I wonder what green would taste like.

“So,” Zoe says and nudges me with her elbow, “who’s the best lay you’ve ever had?”

Well, so far? Holt’s thigh. And fingers.
“Um…”

“Was there someone back in Washington?”

Not unless you count my old bicycle, which used to rub against me in strange and not-entirely-unpleasant ways.
“Well…”

“’Cause I’ve heard some of those small-town boys can be total perverts.”

A boy from my high school videotaped himself having sex with a watermelon. And a cucumber. Simultaneously.
“Well, yeah…”

“So who was it?”

I look back at Holt’s ass as I try to figure out what to say, because I’m betting that if I stare at it hard enough, the secrets of the universe will be revealed to me.

Do I tell her and risk ridicule? I mean, she’s being nice to me now, but what happens when the high wears off?

“Come on, Cassie,” she says, urging me on. “If you tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine.”

“Well, uh…”
No, no one must know. Just make up a name. Any name.
“His name was…”

Bob, Sam, Cletus, Zach, Jake, Joanne! Any name will do! Wait, no … not Joanne. Or Cletus.

Zoe grabs my arm and stops short. “Oh my God…”

“Zoe—”

“Don’t tell me you’re a—”

“No, don’t say it…”

She leans in and whispers, “You’ve never had sex, have you?” She says it with the same amount of hushed sympathy as if she’d just discovered I was dying of cancer.

I blush and pull my arm away from her, so I can keep walking.

“Aw, Cassie, don’t be mad,” she calls after me. “I’m not going to tell anyone you’re a virgin!”

The boys in front of me stop and turn, and Jack and Lucas look at me in disbelief. Holt glances at me nervously before shoving his hands in his pockets and staring at the ground.

“Crap,” Zoe mumbles behind me. “Sorry. My bad.”

“Taylor,” Jack says, a broad smile spreading over his face, “tell me it isn’t so. No one has planted their flag in your virgin territory yet? That’s just wrong.”

Lucas looks at me in genuine shock. “That’s impossible. How did this happen? Have you been dating blind men?”

I put my hands on my hips. “Would you stop treating me like I have a rare and incurable disease? I’m not a leper, for God’s sake.”

“No, of course not,” Jack says sympathetically as he walks over to rub my shoulders. “But, Taylor, really … what the hell are you waiting for? Are you one of those chicks who’s saving it for marriage? Because let me tell you, my mom did that and it was a bad move. Apparently, my dad is a lousy lay. That’s why I’m an only child. I’m pretty sure they’ve only ever done it that one time.”

I blush. “I’m not saving it, okay?”

“Then why are you still a virgin?” Zoe asks.

“Because…” I don’t want to look at Holt, but I can’t stop myself. “I just haven’t found a guy yet who wants to sleep with me, I guess.”

At that statement, he loses all interest in his shoes and looks straight at me, frowning and intense.

“Okay, now I’m going to have to call bullshit,” Jack says with a laugh. “Because I know for a
fact
that there are at least half a dozen guys at The Grove who would give their right ball to bang you, me included.”

Lightning fast, Holt punches him in the arm.

“Ow, dude!” Jack rubs his arm and scowls at Holt. “What the fuck was that for?”

“Just have some fucking respect, would you?”

“Settle the fuck down. I have respect. It was a compliment. Plus, I want her to know she has options.”

Holt looks like his head’s about to explode. “Banging you is not an option, you fucking Neanderthal. It’d be cruel and unusual punishment.”

Jack throws up his hands. “Why the hell does everyone keep dissing my sexual prowess? I happen to be a very sensitive and thorough lover.” He looks back at me and whispers, “Am I selling this at all? ’Cause if you wanted to ditch media class this afternoon so I could relieve you of your virginal burden, I’d be more than willing. I’m just saying…”

Everyone laughs except Holt, who hisses something under his breath and looks like he’s going to punch Jack again.

I subtly move between him and Jack. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass.”

Jack shrugs. “Well, okay then, but I’m always here if you need me. Twenty-four hour deflowering services available on request. Condoms provided free of charge.”

I sneak a glance at Holt, and judging by the look on his face, he’s imagining all the ways he could murder Jack and hide the evidence.

“Actually,” I say. “I’m kind of seeing someone, and I’m hoping he might be the one to do it.”

Whoa. Didn’t really mean to say that.

Or did I?

Okay, what I’m doing here will either be completely brilliant or unfathomably stupid. Please, God, let it be brilliant.

Holt’s watching me with a wary expression.

“Wait, what?” Zoe says. “You’re seeing someone? Who? For how long? What’s he look like? Holt, did you know about this?”

Holt’s eyes fill with panic for a second before they set into a steely glare. “Yeah, she may have mentioned something about a guy. He sounds like a dick to me, but apparently she likes him. I’m surprised she’s telling you all about him, though. I thought she was going to keep him a secret.”

“Well,” I say, “I don’t really see why I shouldn’t talk about him. I mean, I like him. And I don’t think he’s a dick. He’s just … complicated.”

Holt blinks several times, and his expression softens. “I guess he’s lucky you see it like that.”

“Well, come on then,” Lucas says. “Tell us, who’s the lucky guy?”

Zoe takes a step forward, her eyes bright and glassy. “Yeah, do we know him?”

Okay, brain, I know you’re high, but help me out here. Come up with something plausible.

“I met him while we were doing
Romeo and Juliet
.”

Okay, good. Not exactly a lie but vague enough to throw them off. Good job, stoned brain.

Everyone exchanges a look, and Zoe says, “Ah, a fan, huh? He saw you onstage and just had to have you?”

I nod. “Uh … yeah … something like that.”

“So, tell us more,” Holt says, and crosses his arms over his chest. “You told me the other day that you think he’s hot. How hot? Be specific.”

A fierce blush lights up my face, because he knows exactly how hot I think he is.