Here For You (11 page)

“Richard, its just Becca.” I always had to remind him. I’d only met him once in person, now being the second time, and I’d seen him a few times when Emma would FaceTime with him.

I couldn’t remember the last time someone called me Rebecca. I felt like it was too long ago, but I prefer the name Becca. When I heard the name Rebecca it reminded me of my mother. My dad said that was her name. She’d wanted to name me after her, and since I could care less about her, I could care less about my name.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Richard apologized. Finally Emma let go of him, but not totally. She tucked her arms under his, moving in close. He put his arms around her shoulder and kissed her forehead. “I missed you, baby. So happy you’re here.”

They really were lovebirds. “I missed you so much. Ask Becca,” she said with a giggle.

He looked at me with a smile. Richard was a handsome guy. Underneath his navy blue shirt you could tell he took care of himself, something him and James could talk about. He had curly blonde hair, long enough to be wrapped in a small ponytail, and he had dark blue eyes and freckles that swam across his cheeks and over his nose. Looking between the two, I could understand why Emma said she didn’t want me to be the third wheel. They just saw each other and they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.

“Oh yeah, she wouldn’t shut the hell up,” I jokingly said.
But seriously.

“Hey,” she said, pushing me lightly before turning to Richard. “Hey, baby, let’s put your stuff in the car. James said we can follow him to the place we’re staying at, which by the way, there will be a party at tonight.”

Richard nodded his head in agreement.

I pointed to a bag behind him. “Is that it?”

“Yeah, but I can get that,” he told me, reaching for it but Emma didn’t want to let go of his hand.

Shaking my head, I told him it was okay. I grabbed the small bag, which wasn’t heavy at all, and tossed it into the trunk. When I closed the trunk I saw that they had made their way to the back. I guess
ed that meant I had to drive. I programmed James’ address into the GPS on my phone, and sent him a quick text before making my way out. We picked up Richard from St. Johns, which was about forty minutes from James’ house in Jacksonville. Great, I’d have to deal with swap spits back there until then. I hoped that by the time we got to James house he’d be ready so we could drop these two at his friend’s house and they could have all the fun they wanted. In private!

Chapter - 7

james

Becca: We will be there in 25 min…can't wait to c u (2:01pm)

I’d been waiting for that text for over two hours. Oh well, better late than never. Everything had been cleaned and packed. I went grocery shopping the night before, making sure to get Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, which was Becca’s favorite, and orange juice. That woman could live on that alone. I didn’t know how she could keep her figure when all she would eat was junk.

When Emma and Richard got here I’d need to take them to Brent’s house. I didn’t know if they wanted to hang out here until then, since we were all going to the same place later. While I waited I thought I may as well take a shower. I’d been to the gym earlier so now I was all sweaty and sticky. Not a cool combo.

As the warm water streamed down my back I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Becca coming down here. I didn’t get many visitors. The only time she’d been down here was after she’d turned eighteen. She had surprised me with a plant. Out of everything, a fucking plant. But it was supposed to be her housewarming gift to me so I just let it slide. That shit died four days later. That weekend we hung out and went to the beach, which she fucking hated by the way. The woman would swear there was a shark gunning for her out there. She wouldn’t let the water pass her knees.  

I never should have thought about the fucking beach, because now I couldn’t help but think how she would look in a bikini again. I instantly became hard. I couldn’t think about her. She was my best friend. She had a boyfriend. And I was in the fucking shower.

Calm down, James. Just breathe through this.

There was only one way to make this go away and there was no way I could do that when she was on her way.
Think fucking puppies and rainbows. Maybe a rainbow bikini?
This was the shit that happened when I went a week without anything. The whole fucking week my mind had been in the gutter. Now here I was thinking about Becca. It’s not like it’d be the first time I’d handled business with her in mind, but I was younger and immature back then. I should have been past this shit, like seriously. But as my hands ran down my chest someone banged loudly on the door, stopping me from going any farther.

That shit startled me. “I’m in the fucking shower!” I yelled out over the water.

“Sorry, bro, but Becca and her friends are here!” Paul shouted through the door.

Thank fucking goodness.

“Okay, I’ll be right out.” It was a good thing I didn’t go there. It would have been totally awkward to walk out to her looking at me.

I hadn’t seen her since the Fourth of July party. What a day…now here she was and she would be staying with me. That meant being on my best behavior. I quickly left the shower and dried myself off before putting on my red boxers, black basketball shorts, and white wife-beater. It was a good thing I’d brought these clothes inside the bathroom with me. The only things missing were my socks and sneakers. I threw the towel over my head as I walked out of the bathroom and dried my hair.

Becca, Emma and her boyfriend were in the living room, sitting on the sofa. I’d never seen him before but he seemed like a cool guy, a cool guy sporting a ponytail. I didn’t see that very often, but Emma looked happy as shit. Good for her. Becca was leaning her head back against the sofa, looking at the ceiling. She was probably tired of those two already.

As soon as Emma spotted me she jumped off the sofa and walked toward me with Richard connected to the hip. “James, hey, finally you’re out of the bathroom.” She said, tapping me on the shoulder before walking by me to go to the bathroom. “Richard, that’s James. James this is my Richard,” she explained. Richard said a quick hello before going in the bathroom.

“You better clean up your shit after you’re done having sex in there,” I said so everyone in the living room could hear. There was no way in hell I’d be cleaning up after someone’s business.

Emma waved her hand in the air while Paul and Becca laughed by the couch. Making my way toward Becca, I saw that she was wearing black daisy duke shorts with a red tank top and black sandals. Her hair was up in a loose messy bun allowing some of her hair to fall down her sides, her favorite hairstyle. When she saw me her beautiful smile showed. She had the perfect shade of pink on her lips with one dimple on her right cheek, which she was happily displaying. She had on black eyeliner, which complimented her beautiful light blue eyes that seemed to be full of stress. Hopefully some of whatever she was feeling would be let loose at Brent’s party tonight.

“James!” she said, standing up from the sofa with a huge smile on her face, displaying her pearly whites as she walked toward me.

Making my way to her, I tossed the towel onto the coffee table and reached out my hands to hug her, which she fit into perfectly. “Hey, babes.”

I held her tight, not wanting to let go, but eventually pulled apart. “I’m so happy to be here.” She sounded chipper.

When you’re not around someone all the time, especially when you used to be, you tend to appreciate their presence. I hadn’t seen Becca in a couple of months so it was nice having her here now, just like when we were teenagers.

“Happy you guys made it safe. I thought you were all coming a little earlier?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “Just a little disagreement on the way over here. Nothing big.”

She made her way to the kitchen and started to open cabinets, searching and looking. For what? I had no idea.

“Oh look, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,” she said reaching up to retrieve the box.

After a few minutes Emma and Richard exited the bathroom.

“I hope you cleaned up your mess in there,” I teased. Becca couldn’t help but laugh. Emma just glared, her cheeks flushed
.

“Sorry about that,” Richard said, nodding toward me.

“It’s no big deal.” I shrugged. “I know how it is.” Shit, when I was out and about and a quick fuck was waiting for me, the bathroom was the only room where I could do it fast with some privacy. Only bad thing was the line of people waiting for you to finish.

Becca cleared her voice, making me look toward her. She had the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in her hands. “Thanks, James. You’re the best.”

I walked toward her and told her, “Come on, I know you basically live on those things.”

I stood behind her and placed my chin on her shoulder, needing to bend down to get to her level. “So, where are the bowls? I checked all the cabinets but I can’t find them,” she said, pointing to the plain brown cabinets that lined my kitchen. It wasn’t the biggest kitchen. There were only four cabinets, a counter, sink, stove, and fridge. Shit, that was the important stuff.

“I have some in my room, why? Did you want some right now?”

“Why are the bowls in your room?” she asked me.

“Long story short, for some odd reason Paul always loses the bowls. So I bought my own and stashed them in my room.” I kissed her bare shoulder, before moving myself to fetch a bowl. Her lips were pressed together in a tight line.

“Here you go, babes.” I handed her the red bowl that I had in my room. She poured herself some cereal and milk.

Making my way back to the sofa, I heard Emma and Richard whispering.

“I thought they weren’t together?” Richard asked her, a little confused by mine and Becca’s relationship.

Emma shook her head no. “They’re not together, although they should be.”

Emma and her tactics. Since I’d first met her she’d been trying to get Becca and me together. I was almost surprised that it hadn’t happened because the chick never gave up. But Becca was Becca. She was awesome, funny, loving and beautiful. Me, I guess some would call me a man-whore, although I wasn’t as bad as I used to be. She didn’t belong with someone like me. I knew at times when Emma would try to push us together that Becca would get uncomfortable. It never used to bother me like it did Becca back then. I wondered how she felt about it now?

“Right, James?” I heard someone say my name.

“What was that?” I asked, not knowing who had even spoken.

“Can we leave soon so we can follow you up to Brent’s house?” Emma asked. I bet she wanted to go. She wanted to fucking jump this Richard dude’s manhood again.

“I figured since we were all going there later, everyone could just get dressed here. Then drive there about a half an hour before the party so you and Richard can get your things settled in your room.”

Emma and Richard looked at each other then me. “That sounds good. I just have to get our bags and bring them up,” Richard said, standing up.

“Well, ladies, make yourselves at home. I’ll help Richard with the bags,” I told Emma and Becca as I left the apartment with Richard.

When we finally came back up I had Becca’s duffle bag over my shoulder with Emma’s luggage. That shit was so heavy it were like she had a fucking dead body in there. Richard had his duffle bag with a smaller holdall. The women were on the sofa, cross-legged and laughing as they flicked through channels. I turned to Richard and he just shrugged.

“Where can I put our stuff?” Richard asked.

“You can just leave them by Paul’s door,” I replied, nodding toward the door he was standing next to. I handed Richard Emma’s luggage then made my way to my room to drop off Becca’s bag.

When I made my way back to the living room Paul was leaving his room, already dressed like he was ready for tonight.

“Where the hell are you going? The party isn’t until later,” I asked.

He flipped his hair over his face. “Tammie’s going to pick me up. I’m going to hang with her for a few before heading to the party,” he answered, making his way to the fridge.

This fucker was always meeting some new chick. “Tammie?” I asked.

“Yeah, some chick I met. She’s going to pick me up,” he paused, glancing at his black strap watch, “In about 10 minutes.”

That meant he wasn’t taking his car. “Well, if you’re not taking your car you mind if I use it?”

He just shrugged, taking a large gulp of beer. “Sure, whatever. Just take care of my baby.”

After a few minutes his phone buzzed. He said bye to us all and left.

“We have my car, why do you need his?” Emma asked.

I made my way over to the sofa and sat next to Becca, wrapping my arm around her neck. “How are Becca and I going to get home?” Since Emma and Richard were staying at Brent’s I didn’t want to take her car and leave them there. And I only had my motorcycle, which Becca refused to ride on. So that only left Paul’s car. We could drive in separate cars and when they stayed we could leave.

“Shit, I didn’t think about that.” Emma stood up and walked over to Richard who was now putting his bags in Paul’s room.

Becca peeked up to me, smiled and placed her head on my chest.

becca

My goodness, the day flew by so fast. I mean, where did the time go? One minute I was lying on James' chest and the next thing I knew we had to get dressed to go to the party. I was in James’ room, trying to decide what to put over the bikini that Emma had insisted I wore. After I had told her that I was wearing a one piece she almost lost her mind. She said I had better not try and hide my body and that I should show what I was born with. Now here I was with a black bikini top matched with hot pink boy shorts, figuring out what to put over it. She was going to kill me when she saw it covered up.

As I bent down to grab a crop top the door swung open scaring me half to death. James came walking into the room, looking hot. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, only black swimming trunks that hung low to expose the V on his hips, along with his red boxer briefs. I could see the tattoo on the side of his left rib that I’d spotted on one of his pictures on Facebook. It was one of a crow with its wings wide and the mouth slightly open. It wasn’t small, taking up the whole left side of his torso.

Taking my eyes away from his perfectly sculpted body, I realized that I was only in my bikini. Instinct kicked in as I tried to grab a shirt to cover myself. James had seen me in my underwear before, but right now, with him barely having any clothes on, and me like this, it just seemed weird, almost like we were naked and we shouldn’t be.

As I went to grab one of his t-shirts I saw his sandals in front of me. Slowly, I looked up to see his greenish-blue eyes bright with a grin. Why was he grinning? I wrapped my hands over my body, trying to cover as much as I could.

“Why are you trying to cover up, Becca?” he asked. He could not be asking me that question. Maybe because I had just had my boyfriend tell me that I needed to tone up and I didn’t need to hear the same thing from my best friend? That would totally suck.

Shaking my head, I said, “I’m just finding something to put over this. Anyway, when did you get that?” I asked him, nodding toward his tattoo.

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? You look perf…” he tried to say but I cut him off quickly.

I put my hands down slightly. “Yeah right, I need to cover this. Now tell me about your tattoo. When’d you get it? I like it.” I said, pointing to his side, trying to change the subject.