Take One (26 page)

“Good.” He laughed not in a mean way, but the way a big brother would laugh at his little sister’s naiveté. “Don’t be afraid
of having two. A couple beers won’t hurt you, and I’ll be there as soon as I can get away.”

There was the sound of a woman’s voice in the background, and Jake muttered, “Just a minute. I’ll be right off.”

“Rita?” Andi could hear now that it was her voice.

“Yeah.” He sounded bored. “We have to get some work done. You go have fun and I’ll see you later.”

“Text me when you get here. I’ll come out and meet you.”

He agreed and they hung up. As Andi got out of her car and locked the doors, she could imagine the stress of trying to memorize
lines and act out a scene without hours of rehearsal. Her dad had told her that sometimes the actors barely have time to run
the scene immediately prior to the shoot. Andi figured that would be the most difficult thing about being in front of a camera.
No wonder Jake and Rita were turning in such great performances, if they were working after hours to run lines. His work ethic
underlined what she’d already figured out at the set earlier.

That he was a nice guy after all.

Twenty-Four

A
NDI CROSSED THE STREET AND AS
she stepped up onto the lawn, she felt an almost electric rush. She was actually doing this, attending a frat party by herself.
A number of guys turned around or looked over their shoulders to admire her, and the attention sent a rush through her. By
the time she reached the door, two of them came up and introduced themselves.

“You’re in my math class, right?” The guy was solidly built, well over six feet tall. He wore an Indiana football jersey and
a baseball cap.

She couldn’t remember seeing him before. “Uh … a guy in my math class told me about the party, but …”

“That was Ben!” The guy laughed loudly. He was holding a beer and he sloshed it in the direction of his buddy. “I told you
Ben had more—” he seemed to catch himself. He held up his hand in her direction, “More nerve than the rest of us.” He sloshed
his beer again. “Good for ol’ Ben, asking you over. He’s inside. I can take you there if you want. I’m Lucas.”

“What Lucas means is, I can take you.” The second guy was black with a nice build and friendly eyes. “You don’t want to waste
your time on Lucas.” He held out his hand to her. “I’m Sam. And I’m available—in case you wondered.”

Andi giggled at the spectacle they were making of themselves. “That’s okay.” She took a few steps from them. “I’ll say hi
to Ben, and then I’ll come back outside.”

The guys seemed harmless, and when she moved on without them they didn’t look too disappointed. It wasn’t easy getting up
the steps and into the house. The place was packed with people squeezing past each other in every direction. As she worked
her way through the living room she spotted Ben in the kitchen. Suddenly she could feel everything about the situation filling
her senses. The loud Chris Brown music pulsing through the house, the laughter and multiple conversations, and the sense that
this … this party and everything about it was what it meant to truly live.

She felt the heat from so many bodies, and halfway to the kitchen a guy tripped near her and spilled beer on her sweater.
Andi only laughed and helped him gain his balance again. She’d never been around drunk people or drinking of any kind, but
she didn’t need experience to know that the guy was wasted.

“Sorry,” he tried to touch her shoulder, but he missed and nearly fell again. “Wow, so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She kept with the flow, and the drunk guy kept with his, moving toward the front door.

“Hey,” he yelled at her when he was well out of reach. “You’re beau’ful … you know that?”

Andi didn’t look back. She didn’t want the whole room to know he was talking about her. When she reached Ben, he looked beyond
thrilled to see her. “Andi Ellison, I never thought I’d see you here.” He had to yell to be heard above the music and conversations.

“Me either.” She looked over her shoulder at the packed house behind her. “A friend’s meeting me here.”

“Good …” he put his arm around her and slowly led her to an enormous trash can filled with beer cans and ice. “This your first
frat party, Andi?”

“How can you tell?” She grinned at him.

“You, uh … you look a little lost.” He snagged an icy can from the bin, popped the top, and handed it to her. “Here you go,
beer’s compliments of the frat guys.”

She took it, her heart pounding. This was as close to bad as she’d come. This and her time with Jake the other night. Was
she really doing this? Standing in the kitchen of a group of guys she didn’t know, holding an open beer? She fought the urge
to run from the house and throw the beer in the bushes on the way out.

“You’re not rushing, are you?” Ben was still right beside her, still with his arm around her shoulders. But the way he had
about himself he was only being friendly. At least that’s how his attention felt.

“Rush? For a sorority, you mean?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“No. I’m too busy. I do theater and acting, that kind of thing.”

“Oh, right.” He gave an exaggerated nod and took a long drink from his beer. “Your dad’s that producer. He’s in town making
a movie. Someone in math told me about him.”

“That’s my dad.” Andi would’ve bet the guy didn’t know about her family’s missionary background. And in this setting, she
was okay with that. She wanted to turn the attention away from herself. “You’re in this frat, then? Is that right?”

“For two years.” He raised his beer and across the room a couple guys saw him and did the same. “Mayhem and madness, but somehow
I’ve survived it.” He pointed to her beer. “Your drink’s getting warm.”

“Oh,” she looked around the room for a quick exit, but there was none. If she was going to drink, she wanted to do it on her
terms, not because some guy was pushing her.

“It’s good stuff,” he grinned at her, still shouting to be heard. “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it.”

Andi studied him, and she felt herself relax. Ben wasn’t trying to harm her. He was only being friendly. It occurred to her
that in the stuffy hot frat house she actually was thirsty. More thirsty than she’d realized. She’d come here to have fun,
after all. Jake had told her she should have a drink, and she’d agreed. Otherwise right now she would be home in her dorm
waiting for his call.

Besides, no one ever went to hell for drinking a beer, right? At least she didn’t think so. She was young and single and these
were supposed to be the times of her life. So what if she drank a few beers? She smiled at Ben. “I’ll drink it. I was too
busy talking.”

“Good. We frat guys like to take care of the ladies.”

Andi laughed because she didn’t know what else to do. Her heart was thudding inside her chest, making her feel sick to her
stomach with anxiety. What was she doing? She didn’t need to drink beer just because she was at a frat party. Wasn’t that
what she’d always told her mom during her last two years of high school? A few times she’d been invited to a real party, one
thrown by the kids of the local public high school. But every time her mom told her she couldn’t go.

“Andi, there’ll be drinking at those parties. Not only is that against the law, but bad things happen when kids get together
and drink.”

Always Andi would say the same thing in response. “Just because other people are drinking at a party doesn’t mean I have to.”

But here she was with an open beer in her hand. She looked down at the slightly foamy amber liquid sloshing around near the
top of the can. What if it made her sick? What if she drank it and threw up right here in the kitchen? What if it was wonderful,
instead? When she couldn’t take the struggle another moment, she lifted the can to her lips and took a long sip. The liquid
tasted awful and felt funny in her stomach. She waited a minute to see if she was going to suffer any strange side effects,
but there was just one.

Her heart had settled down.

“Good stuff, huh?” Ben moved her away from the trash can of beer to a slightly quieter corner of the kitchen. “Tell me about
your friend. Guy or girl?”

“Guy.” She brought the can to her lips again and took two long sips this time. It didn’t burn so badly as the first time,
but the taste was enough to make her shudder. She was glad Ben didn’t notice.

“Boyfriend?” Ben’s attention was moving past friendly and into interested.

“You could say that.” Andi liked having someone to talk to, but she wasn’t interested in Ben. He had a sloppy beer belly and
wild blonde hair. In a movie about frat houses, Ben would’ve been the rowdy, crazy one.

“New boyfriend?” he raised his brow hopefully.

She laughed and took another drink from her beer. “You could say that.” What was the taste? There was something familiar about
it, but she couldn’t figure out what. She drank more, nearly finishing off the can, and it hit her. It tasted like the smell
of dirty shoes. She shuddered again, but as she did, she noticed a warm feeling spreading through her veins. Not only was
her heart relaxed, but her anxiety had faded completely. The room swayed a little and she steadied herself against Ben’s arm.
“Woooah … sorry.”

“Hold on there.” Ben caught her and helped her find her balance again. “Don’t tell me you’re feeling one little can of beer?”
He gave her a helpful look that said he’d take care of her. Then he lifted his can to his lips, tipped it completely upside
down, and guzzled the contents in a single effort. He crumpled the can as he lowered it and then shot it across the kitchen
into the sink. “Score!” He raised both hands, signaling a touchdown.

Andi didn’t feel dizzy, not really. But everything about the party seemed easier, more enjoyable. “Hey, Ben … could I have
another?”

“Coming right up.” He left her side, grabbed two beers, and by the time he was back at her side he had popped the tops of
both. “There you go.” He feigned a mock look of seriousness. “Now this new boyfriend of yours … he’s a loser right?”

She wasn’t sure why, but the way Ben asked the question seemed funnier than anything Andi had heard in a long time. She started
laughing and when she couldn’t stop, she handed her open beer back to Ben. He put his arm around her again, patting her back
in a teasing attempt to keep her from choking. She stood up slowly and leaned on Ben again. “Why … why did you ask that?”

“Because,” he handed her the beer back, and he moved in closer than before. “He let you come here alone.”

Yeah. Andi hadn’t thought about it that way. Sure he had to run lines, that was fine. But he shouldn’t have wanted her to
come to the party alone. What else could that mean except that he didn’t care if she wound up in the arms of someone like
Ben. She frowned. “I need to think about that.”

He helped her lift her new beer to her lips. “You’ll need this. Drinking and thinking are great friends.”

Again she began to giggle, drinking long sips of beer between bouts of laughter. “How come you’re not this fun in math, Ben?”

“Math?” He raised his beer up and again received a similar response from a number of guys around the kitchen and living room.
“You can’t drink brewskis in math. I mean, how much fun is that?”

“True.” Andi almost didn’t recognize her own voice. Had she really just told this guy that not much fun could happen without
beer? She lifted the can and took another long drink. “Another thing is … you don’ laugh as much.”

“Uh-oh.” Ben covered his mouth with his hand, his alarm not in the least bit serious. “Someone’s slurring their words.”

“Me?” She hiccupped and began to laugh again. “Not yet.” This time it was Andi who raised her beer. If Jake was going to be
this late, then she could have fun with Ben. “This is only my secon’ one. No slurring yet.” She made a dramatic sweeping motion
with her beer, like something she’d seen in a pirate movie once. But the action threw off her balance again and she wound
up in Ben’s arms. Before she could lose her beer on the floor, she drank down the rest of it and handed the empty can to him.
“Yikes. Sorry ’bout that.”

“No worries,” Ben whispered the words near her ear, and while he was there he kissed the side of her neck. “I’ll take care
of you, Andi. You can trust me.”

She struggled to right herself, and this time there was no doubt. The room was moving. She opened her eyes wide and blinked
a few times. Had that really happened? Had Ben just kissed her? Whatever he’d done, it felt wonderful. She leaned against
him, willing the room to stay in one place. She tapped on his beer can and grinned at him. “That stuff ’s stronger ’an it
looks.”

“You still thirsty?” He was closing in on her, and in all the room she could only hear his voice. “Just one more, and then
you’re done. Okay? We’ve got lots.”

Andi had never felt this way before, but she knew what was happening and it both terrified her and thrilled her. She was drunk
and Ben was taking advantage of her. She had expected that if she let herself get into a situation like this she would hate
everything about it. The party, the drinking, and most of all herself. Instead, despite her deep fears, the entire experience
was wonderful and overwhelming, filling her senses and making her wish the moment would never end. “Yes, Ben.” She felt her
eyes grow softer, more seductive. “One more. Jus’ one.”

He opened the beer and dumped some of it out, at least that’s what it looked like. Then he grabbed a bottle of something and
poured it into the little opening. Or maybe she was imagining that. Either way, he brought her the beer and as she was drinking
it, he led her outside. The taste was different, but she couldn’t figure out why. As they walked through the crowd, she managed
to stay on her feet pretty well on her own. She leaned on Ben, but she wasn’t falling down drunk. That wouldn’t have been
fun. Outside he led her to the edge of the crowd, where there was less noise and people. “This is better.” He put one arm
around her waist and pulled her close, so their bodies were touching. With the other hand he finished his beer and tossed
the empty can onto the lawn.

Andi closed her eyes and rested her forehead against Ben’s chest. “You can breathe better out here.”

“You’ll breathe even better when you finish this.” Ben lifted her beer for her and with his help she drank down half of it.

“Hey! You lucky dog, Ben … I knew you’d score her.”

Andi opened her eyes and looked toward the voice, but the edges of things were blurry. Wait … she remembered that guy. Lucas,
right? Or was it Rufus? The guy who had talked to her when she first got here. For some reason she wasn’t offended by what
he said. She raised up her beer the way she’d seen Ben do, and she gave a happy shout to the guy. “Yep … Ben’s a lucky one!”

“Yeah …” Rufus sounded disappointed. “You can say that again.” A bunch of guys laughed and hit Rufus on the back and the group
of them headed for the house.

“Here.” Ben held her beer to her lips again and helped her finish it. “There you go.” He threw the can behind him, and now
that his hands were free, he slipped both of them around her. He was warm, and in the cool night it felt good to cuddle against
him. For a little while it seemed like they were dancing, swaying beneath the late September stars.