Wanna Bet? (15 page)

We both turn
to see what happening at the same time and see Matt choking on his
drink hitting his chest as Sophie laughs.

I glare at
her, in this moment I swear I could kill her.

She smiles
sheepishly at me “Sorry, it’s too funny not to” is all she
says.

Matt looks up
at Tucker and then to me and starts laughing again. “Matt” I
warn.

Tucker just
watches us all confused. “What’s so funny? I didn’t grope you again
or anything did I?” he asks looking worried making Sophie and Matt
laugh harder.

“
No, it’s
nothing, don’t worry about it” I assure him without actually
looking at him.

“
If I
did
. I’m sorry” he says
again.

“
You didn’t.
You kept your hands to yourself” I tell him only adding fuel to
Sophie and Matt’s laughter. “That’s it I’m going” I say and then
leave.

I decide to
skip the rest of my classes and head into town to but something to
wear to the party.

Once I’ve
finished getting ready I step out of the bathroom and walk past
Sophie and Matt that are sat on her bed waiting for me.

“
Is that what
you’re wearing?” Sophie asks taking in my black dress.

“
Uh…. No. This
is what I’m wearing on the way there, I’m going to put some jeans
and a t-shirt on when we
’re
in the car” I reply dryly.

“
It’s a bit
BDSM isn’t it?” she asks.

I smile to
myself at the description she just gave it. My dress is black,
strapless and has no back to it just straps of black lace with a
strip of black leather in the middle of each strip criss crossing
up my back.

“
Come on,
let’s go and no more dirty comments please” I beg as we head out to
Matt car.

When we
arrive the party is already in full swing. We head straight into
the kitchen to get some drinks; obviously we have some catching up
to do.

An hour, four
beers and four shots later Sophie’s pulling me towards yet another
group of guys.

“
Is this
really necessary?” I groan to her as she adjusts my dress for me
before we reach them.

“
Yes, you just
need someone to distract you, you’re spending too much time with
Tucker, that’s what the problem is here” she says impatiently as I
focus on standing upright without swaying.

“
Right so
that’s why every time he walks into a room you’ve been literally
dragging me away into another room” I reply dryly but slightly
slurred.

“
Oh god. No
more drinks for a while for you” she says looking me
over.

“
I missed
lunch” I snap.

“
Hey Brooke,
ha
ving fun?” Ethan says
joining us. He watches her with amusement as she adjusts my dress
in different ways to make the best of my breasts.

“
I was until
this one decided to take over me” I say not attempting to stop
Sophie, I tried once and got a lecture.

“
What exactly
is she doing?” he asks not taking his eyes from mine.

“
Her mission
is to make sure I have sex tonight” I announce amazed that Sophie
hasn’t caught on to the fact that we’re not alone.

“
I’m not even
going to ask”

“
Thanks” I
reply gratefully “Hey, you wouldn’t mind helping me out would you?”
I ask.

“
Uh … what did
you have in mind?” he asks nervously.

“
Distract her
so she leaves me alone please” I beg.

“
Sure” he
shrugs.

Sophie stands
up and pats my shoulders “Right you’ll do” she smiles at me and
slaps me on the bum before pushing me away from Ethan and in front
of two men that are in one my classes.

“
Hey Brooke”
They greet me smiling.

“
Hey, umm if
you’ll excuse me a sec” I say and quickly walk away before Sophie
can hunt me down and throw me in front of anymore men. I head to
the bathroom but there is a queue so I head upstairs to use the
ensuite.

In the
bathroom I adjust my dress to attempt to cover up some of the flesh
Sophie put on show but it’s no use, I prick my finger on something
and pull the top of my dress back to see that she has pinned it to
my bra. Where the hell did she get pins from? I walk out of the
bathroom shaking my head at her randomness and stop when I see
Tucker standing by the bed waiting for me.

“
Hi, Tuck.
You
okay?” I ask eyeing him
nervously, this is the first time I am looking him in the eye since
the dream.

“
Yeap … I’m
fine are you?” he asks watching me sway slightly.

“
I’m good” I
nod

“
You need a
ride home later?”

“
No, I’m
actually going to head home now” I start pulling the pins out of my
dress so I can pull it up a bit, just so I have something to
do
with my hands, trying to
avoid wringing them nervously.

“
Brooke … have
I done something to upset you?” I look up at him when I hear his
footsteps coming closer.

“
Umm, no why
do you ask?”

“
Well you’ve
been avoiding me” he
’s
looking into my eyes so intensely I have to look away.

“
That’s
Sophie, she’s been pulling me around the party since we got here,
thrusting me in front of as many men as possible”

“
And this
morning? This afternoon? Was Sophie pulling you away then?” he asks
frowning.

“
Umm … no” I
swallow.

“
Then why have
you been avoiding me?” he asks softly.

I look up at
his face, his eyes are concerned, his brows are pulled together and
there is no hint of a smile on his lips. Taking a step forward so
we are almost touching but not quite I rise up a little and kiss
him. I brush my lips against his softly to see if he will return
the kiss, he does and soon he is parting my lips with his tongue
and the kiss deepens. When I let out a moan that I desperately wish
I could take back
, I pull
away from him. He looks stunned so I take advantage of that and
walk past him to the door.

“
That’s why” I
whisper as I pass him and leave the bedroom wondering if I just
ruined our friendship for good.

I wake up
covered in sweat and shaking, looking around the dark room. The
little light that comes through our only window casts shadows all
over the room, squinting into the dark I can see that Sophie’s bed
is empty, so I turn on the lamp next to my bed and take a shower
hoping to wash away any remains of the nightmare.

Throwing on
one of my old baggy hooded tops and the first thing that comes to
hand from my underwear drawer I sit at the table nursing a mug of
coffee, knowing my chances of getting back to sleep are slim to non
anyway. To pass sometime I start up my laptop and log in to
Facebook. I click through the notifications that tell me I’ve been
tagged in a bunch of photos from the party earlier this evening.
Seriously who uploads photo’s at that time of night?

The flashing
light on my Blackberry catches my eye and I browse through the
messages and missed calls I got while I was asleep. A few are from
Sophie asking where I am and a voicemail from her sounding worried.
I quickly tap out a reply apologising for not saying goodbye but I
headed out early and fell straight to sleep when I got back. I have
two missed calls from Tucker but no messages so I send him a
message just saying ‘sorry’ and lock the phone, turning back to my
laptop and checking through my university email. My phone
rings.

“
Hello” I say
quietly, I’m not sure, why maybe because it’s so late.

“
Hey, can’t
sleep?” Tucker says just as quietly.

“
Bad dream, I
can never get back to sleep after them”

“
Do you want
me to come over?”

“
Umm” Do I
want him to come over? I’m not sure...

“
It’ll be
fine. I promise”

“
Are you sure
it’s like three in the morning”

“
I’ll be there
in two, pour me some of that coffee”

I look down
at my cup, surprised that he knew what I was doing. I hear him
chucking as he hangs up.

I shut down
my laptop and am pouring two fresh coffees when there’s a soft
knock at the door.

“
Hey” Tucker
greets as he walks past me straight to the table collecting his
drink. He’s obviously just got out of bed. He’s wearing a plain
white tee, jogging bottoms, socks, no shoes and his hair is
sticking up everywhere.

“
I’m sorry I
woke you” I say softly as I sit opposite him.

“
You didn’t
wake me” he smiles.

I feel like
an idiot, obviously if I didn’t wake him then there is another
reason he is rumpled. That other reason must still be in his bed.
Shit.

“
Oh” is all I
can reply.

“
Think you’ll
be able to get back to sleep if I stay with you?” he asks smiling
encouragingly at me.

“
Umm no, I
don’t think we should be spending the night together anymore … The
nightmares really aren’t that bad and I can catch up on any sleep I
loose in the nights in the day when I don’t have
classes”

“
So you’d
rather loose sleep than spend the night with me … What happened
last night?” he’s frowning at me now “Did I do something to hurt
you? Is that why Sophie was dragging you away from me
tonight?”

“
Eh … no.
Sophie was trying to get me to spend the night with someone else,
anyone else actually. She wasn’t exactly fussy with who she was
putting in front of me” I say frowning myself now.

“
Why would she
want you to spend the night with someone so badly, I don’t
understand?”

“
I’m not
answering that” I shake my head at him beyond
embarrassed.

“
Does my being
by you still keep the nightmares away?” he asks looking
confused.

“
Yes
…”

“
But what? I
know you didn’t sleep all the way through the night last night
because you were gone early this morning”

“
No I didn’t,
I got woken up”

“
By
me?”

“
Umm … kind of
… no … I don’t know. It was a first” I mumble.

“
Does this
have anything to do with that kiss at the party?”

“
Maybe, I’m
sorry about that by the way”

“
I’m not
worried about that. I want to know why it happened”

“
You’re really
going to make me say it?” I ask desperately.

“
Yes I’m
guessing Sophie knows so that means Matt knows, I’ll ask him if you
don’t tell me and I’m thinking you might want to tell me because
what ever it is I can guarantee he will make it sound a lot worse
that what it probably was”

“
I doubt it” I
say quietly but I know he’s heard because his left eyebrow rises.
“Okay fine. I had a dream … you were in it … it came out of nowhere
… It felt so real and it … well … lets just say the ‘climax’ of the
dream woke me up feeling breathless” I finish and watch as he
chokes on his coffee. I wait patiently for him to calm down. “Don’t
you dare tell
anyone
! You have no
idea how much crap Sophie and Matt have been spitting at me because
of it”

“
Wow … that …
umm … changes things” he nods at me “So Sophie wanted you to sleep
with someone else hoping the dream was as a result of you not
having sex lately and spending so much time with me?”

“
Not
exactly”

“
Then
what?”

“
She thought
it might distract me. Last night, or this morning was the first
time I’ve ever … I’ve never had sex before and well I don’t … you
know, myself and no boyfriends have ever … I usually just sort them
out to avoid it.” Why am I telling him all of this? Someone please
put a gag on me.

“
You’ve
never…”

“
Nope”

“
Not even
..”

“
No”

“
What about
…”

“
Nothing” I
shake my head.

“
And you were
avoiding me because…”

“
I was
embarrassed! We’re friends, you don’t dream of having sex with
you’re friends and wake up mid orgasm”

“
Right, well I
can’t say I’ve had any wet dreams but I’ve been thinking about you
in non friendly approved ways pretty much since that day I first
spoke to you.”

“
Really?” I
ask scrunching my nose up.

“
Yeap, I just
never thought you thought of me in the same way. But I guess the
feeling’s mutual”

“
So you agree
it’s not a good idea to spend the night together anymore then?” I
ask both hopeful and disappointed

“
Hell no, I
don’t agree!” he says grinning and standing up “Come on lets get to
bed, maybe you’ll be getting back to sleep after all”