Everything I Shouldn't / Everything I Need (13 page)

When Livvie sees the look that I'm sure is on my face, she frowns. Then, grabbing my hand, she drags me back across the dance floor, half shouting, "I need to talk to you!" Seeing as she has a death grip on my hand, I don't really have a choice
but
to follow her. Leading me past the bar and down a narrow hallway, she pushes me ahead of her into the bathroom. There are only a few people inside, but Livvie isn't going to talk until the room is empty. Standing next to the door, she crosses her arms over her chest and glares at the few people standing at the vanity. Once everyone has left the room, she twists the lock before turning to face me.

"Okay, so I need you to promise you won't be mad," she starts, leaning back against the door in what I'm sure is a way to keep me in here while she tells me whatever it is.

"What did you do Liv?" I ask warily, knowing I probably don't want to know the answer.

Livvie is chewing the bottom of her lip nervously now; a sure sign that she thinks whatever she's getting ready to tell me is going to piss me off. "I had Emmett invite one of his roommates to be your date tonight so you weren't alone on New Year's Eve," she says quickly running all the words together and making it harder for me to understand.

My back immediately stiffens. "You did
what
? Why would you do that Liv? I'm not interested! I told you that the last time you tried to hook me up with someone."

"Um, because you'd never do it on your own? Seriously, SB, you've got to give
someone
a chance. Why shouldn't it be Wyatt? He's cute, sweet and he's loads of fun!" Livvie's giving me puppy dog eyes, begging me to go along with what she's done. Our entire friendship has been like this. Livvie finds out I don't want to do something, and she makes it her mission to
make
me do whatever it is. Sometimes that's a great thing, but times like tonight, it makes me want to scream.

We've been best friends our whole lives. She knows just how hard having a boyfriend is with my brother and his friends. "Livvie, I've tried having boyfriends. David and Jeremy just scare them all off!" Ugh, my first attempt at having a boyfriend, yeah, that was awful. Jeremy threatened my junior prom date with bodily harm if he touched me before making me come home early.

I don't have to tell Livvie any of that, she was at prom and she's been there for all the humiliations I've had to endure because of my brother and his friend. Not to mention, it's New Year's Eve, and where am I? Some trendy dance club? Nope. Out on a date? Negative. I'm at my brother's bar, because he says at least here he knows I'm safe and he can keep an eye on me. I'm almost twenty years old! They treat me like I'm still the sad fifteen year old who lost her parents too young. It's aggravating.

Livvie just shakes her head, "SB, you
need
to do this! You need to show your brother that you're a woman. Maybe then he'll concentrate on finding a woman of his own."

"Maybe we should concentrate on finding
him
someone so he'll leave me alone!" This whole conversation makes me laugh. I don't think even getting a girlfriend would make David back off. He's too over-protective.

She grins, "That's a fantastic idea! We need to do that, but first, you're going on a date with Wyatt."

I sigh, knowing that there's no way I'm getting out of this, so I may as well go along with them. "Fine, I'll hang out with Wyatt tonight."

Now, she scowls, "You know, you don't have to act like hanging out with him for a night is going to kill you. Wyatt's a hottie! Hell, if it wasn't for Emmett, I'd be trying to tap that myself."

I blush as pink as the streaks in my hair that Livvie talked me into getting earlier today. "Yeah, well, I haven't 'tapped' anything, ever."

"Oh, I know. Tonight is the first step in you getting away from your brother and his minion. We're going to get you to tap something this year, even if it kills you!" Her smile is evil, and I'm just a little terrified about what she has planned for tonight. I've hung around with Wyatt before, and he seems like a nice guy, but I'm not really into dating. The guy I want, well, he doesn't want me -- and that doesn't do great things for a girl's confidence.

Livvie is completely oblivious to how uncomfortable I am when I realize that the reason she dressed me the way she did was so I could "get some". I feel like she's pimping me out to this guy, especially when she starts fluffing my hair and straightening my dress. You would think by now that I know not to let Liv dress me like her barbie doll, but I do...constantly. Take tonight for instance; I'm dressed in a cream dress with bright pink flowers. It has a fitted bodice and a flared skirt that ends above the knees, even on me. She paired it with hot pink and cream four-inch heels that I can barely walk in and a cream colored coat. I guess I should be glad she didn't go for stripper-wear, even though that's what she's wearing.

Olivia is wearing a bright blue dress that matches the streaks in her own hair, but unlike mine, hers is very form-fitting and leaves little to the imagination. It has tiny straps and a plunging back. She's paired it with matching heels that are even higher than mine and has her hair pulled up in a messy knot, leaving curly tendrils down to frame her face. It works for her, but then, she's the one who always wants to be the center of attention.

After she's done making sure we're both presentable she grabs me by the hand, leading me back out to our table where everyone is pairing up, leaving me to be the third wheel, or in this case, more like the seventh. All of my friends have boyfriends, I'm always the odd one out. I should probably take that as a sign that I should give someone like Wyatt a chance, but by the time he shows up I'm thoroughly depressed, wishing I'd decided to stay home instead. He's a nice guy, but he's not
the
guy.

"Hey SarahBeth," Wyatt says as he leans down to kiss my cheek.

Turning to look up at him, I smile, "Hi Wyatt. How are you?"
God, this whole exchange sounds scripted
.

"I'm good. Liv said you needed a date for New Year's, so here I am." He grins back at me, obviously not realizing just how awful that sounds. Like she
had
to find someone to take me out. I'm perfectly capable of getting my own dates, I just don't want any.

Peering around him at Liv, I glare, letting her know that I'm
not
happy about any of this. She just smiles brightly, unconcerned with how I feel and I wonder why I stay friends with her. I'm still technically a teenager, not some spinster who needs people to take pity on her.

I turn back just as Wyatt sits beside me. He grins sheepishly at me before saying, "That really didn't come out the way I meant it."

"No worries," I say, waving off his apology, "I know how persistent Livvie can be."

Wyatt laughs, "Oh, she's definitely that alright." Leaning over, he whispers conspiratorially, "But, she doesn't have to know you're miserable. Let's just be friends tonight and have fun, okay? She'll think she did a good thing, and neither one of us will have to deal with unwanted advances."

Grinning back up at him, I agree, "That's the best offer I've had all night." Taking my hand, Wyatt leads me out onto the dance floor just as a fast song ends and the band starts playing a slow song. Wyatt pulls my arms up behind his neck before wrapping his own around my waist and holding me close. We don't talk, and I'm glad because I really don't know what I would say to him. I don't want to be that girl, the bitchy one who tells the guy at the get go that he doesn't have a chance, but I also don't want to lead him on.

Jeremy

M
y hand tightens around the whiskey glass to the point I'm surprised it doesn't shatter. SarahBeth is on the dance floor with this college guy who was in a class I did a guest lecture in. She hasn't even noticed I'm here. It dawns on me that this...this is what her life would be if I wasn't trying to keep her close to me. She'd have a boyfriend her own age instead of the old man, there would be parties and clubbing, all the things that I'm not really into anymore. Things she
should
experience as a young woman in college.

The longer I sit here watching them, the shittier I feel. I'm so engrossed in watching her talk and flirt that I don't even notice David come over to my side of the bar. My back goes ramrod stiff when his hand lands on my shoulder as I anticipate the questions I really don't want to answer. "She'll be okay, man. That's why I told her to come here instead." My shoulders slump in relief when I realize that instead of automatically questioning why I'm so interested in what SB is doing, he's concluded that I'm worrying about her the same way he is. If he knew what my thoughts really were, I'd never make it out of this bar intact.

Rubbing a hand across the back of my neck, I turn back to watching SarahBeth. "Yeah, I know. That guy just looks shady." He doesn't really, it's just all I can think to say. Maybe if he agrees with me, David will break them up.

"You think?" David asks, scratching his chin thoughtfully before shrugging. "He looks okay to me." Well, fuck. If the overprotective big brother doesn't see a problem, there isn't much I can do without drawing attention to the fact that I don't want her in someone else's arms. "I'll be back in a bit. One of my bartenders didn't show tonight of all nights so we're short staffed."

I haven't even noticed how busy it's been, or that one of the bartenders didn't show which makes me feel like shit. "Do you need me to help out?" I'm actually hoping he says yes, because at least that will take my mind off of her and the guy she's with tonight, but Dave just shakes his head.

"Nah, we'll be fine. Just...keep an eye on Sarah, okay?" I nod, even though it's the last thing I want to do tonight. Clapping a hand on my shoulder once more, David heads back to take care of customers, leaving me sitting alone with my thoughts.

A few drinks later, I'm buzzing pretty good when a hand lands on my arm. "Hey handsome," a voice says, and turning I see a woman who looks close to my age smiling up at me. Like SarahBeth, she's blonde, although it's obvious hers comes straight from a bottle and she's dressed to kill in a little black dress and sky-high heels. This woman is quite literally the opposite of my obsession in every way and I'm just buzzed enough to think that flirting with her is a good idea.

When I don't brush her off, her smile widens and she takes her hand off my arm to hold it out to me. "I'm Candace, but my friends," she looks over her shoulder where a group of women are watching our interaction, "call me Candy."

Cringing inwardly at the nickname, I take the hand she offered to me and kiss the back of it before letting go. Suddenly, I'm wondering why I thought this was a good idea. "Hi Candace, I'm Jeremy," is all I offer in return, already trying to figure out how to get away from her. This woman is obviously trawling for a one night stand and I'm just not interested in what she's offering. Everyone I know would think I'm crazy, because she's definitely attractive with her long hair, short dress and showing plenty of cleavage showing, but she's not the person I want.

I start to edge around her and she grips my bicep, looking up at me with a confused expression. "Where are you going? We're just getting to know each other."

Personally, exchanging first names isn't really
getting to know each other
in my book, but okay. Before I can say anything, she presses closer to me so that her chest is pushed up against mine. When I look over to where I last saw SarahBeth, she's still dancing with the college prick, but her eyes are on me, and the blonde standing in front of me. Her eyes are wide and I can see the questions in them from here. She's chewing on her lower lip the way she always does when she's worried, and even though it makes me ten different kinds of a dick, my heart beats faster at the knowledge that she's wondering what I'm doing with this woman.

SarahBeth doesn't realize that I see her, so I take advantage of her attention, smiling down at the woman pressing her obviously fake tits up against me. Trailing a finger down the bare skin of her arm, I watch as her eyes begin to glaze over and her tongue darts out to moisten her parted lips. I'm not going to bullshit here and say that having a woman get that easily turned on isn't an ego boost, but really, she's a means to an end. SarahBeth thinks she can play games and try to make me jealous, but she needs to know that shit like that isn't going to work with me. I'm a thirty year old man, not a twenty year old co-ed.

Candace, or Candy as she keeps trying to get me to call her, continues to make insipid small talk, telling me all about her job, her boss that she hates and how catty her co-workers are, but I'm not paying much attention. I'm trying not to make it obvious to either her or SarahBeth that my attention is riveted elsewhere. As soon as SarahBeth saw me put my hands on Candace, she narrowed her eyes and renewed her focus on the boy she's with. I can't believe I'm playing these games with her. When I see her break away from college-boy and head for the bathrooms, I excuse myself from the very uninteresting monologue this woman is giving me. I've only caught bits and pieces of it, but I know where she's going and while I'm all for putting SarahBeth in her place, I'm not looking to actually hook up with this chick. She's not happy about me interrupting her story about what a hotshot real estate agent she is and how we can go to one of the houses she's listed to have a little "fun", I've headed after SarahBeth before she can even ask me to wait.