Wreckless (14 page)

“I hope you punched her in the face.”

“I hope you pulled her hair out. Or stuck gum in it so she has to get a really bad haircut.”

“Or flattened his tires.”

“Or set them on fire.”

Rayla nodded at Jamie when she mentioned fire.

“Oh yeah, there's no coming back from fire.”

“Of course, there are the murder charges.”

“Yes, but seriously, who would find her guilty?”

“We should go set his truck on fire right now.”

They looked like they were actually ready to go do it.

Then the giggling started again.

I pictured setting Tanner's truck on fire and started giggling, too.

“His daddy would kill him. He got that truck as a hand-me-down instead of them trading it in for a new one.”

“Well, God only knows what he was doing in it. It should be torched.”

I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks. It seemed like a fair trade—my dignity for his truck. Fire suddenly seemed like a good idea. It seemed like it belonged on the list.

“Wait right here. I'll be right back.”

I hopped off my stool, catching my balance on the counter when I didn’t land like I expected. I steadied, my hand holding the edge of the counter as my head drifted just a bit to the right. That was weird. I looked down and suddenly felt like the floor might be moving a bit. The tiles looked wobbly and made my head dance like an Escher painting. The pounding of the bass must have been shaking the house.

“Uh-oh. Someone’s had too much punch.”

“Huh?”

“The punch. You're a little tipsy, huh?”

Tipsy? Well, that explained the wobbling. But I'd had that beer earlier. The punch couldn’t possibly be any stronger. I couldn’t even taste any alcohol in it.

Anyway… I glanced through the doorway, back on track.

“I'm fine.” I had a mission to complete. “Where's Jake?”

“Are you going to go steal him back?” Jamie jumped off her stool and peered into the room behind me.

“Nope. I just need my list.”

I spun toward the door, catching myself on the edge of the counter and then marching into the barely-lit living room where the furniture had all been pushed aside to create a dance space. Near one of the walls, Mish had herself plastered to Jake.

I wove between a few couples, knocking someone by accident and getting an earful from a couple whose kissing had been inadvertently unhinged when I tripped over the edge of the rug.

“Oops. Sorry.”

The girl glared. The guy seemed to think it was funny. But then he was kissing her again, so I guess it wasn't that funny.

I got to Jake and Mish just as a song ended and another one began. Almost enough of a break for me to get his attention. Instead, I had to grab one of Jake's arms, both of which were wrapped loosely around Mish.

“Jake, I need my list.”

“What?”

Mish gave me a little shove. “Back off, bitch.”

Wow. I'd never been called that. I just kind of looked at her a moment, surprised anyone would call me something like that. That she wasn’t worried about my response.

What was my response supposed to be? I mean, was this when one of those crazy fight scenes should break out like in the timeless classic
She’s All That
?

Actually, I wasn’t much for fighting. So no, not a fight. Hopefully not.

“Don't worry. I'm not trying to steal him back. I heard you were trying to get in his pants since Sarah dumped him but he doesn't seem interested. But I don't know. Maybe he is. Jake, are you interested in Mish?”

Behind me, someone snickered.

“Bridget,” Jake’s voice was more a low warning than an attempt to get my attention. “What are you doing?”

“Oh! I need my list!”

I reached down to Jake's pants to get my list out of his pocket. Sticking my hand in, I found nothing but his phone, so I squeezed between him and Mish trying to get in the other pocket. “Don't tell me you left it in the truck.”

“What the hell, Jake?” Mish was pushing my hands away from Jake's pockets while he held his arms up, laughing.

“Am I tickling you? I'm sorry. I just need my—here it is!” I waved the napkin at Rayla and Jamie across the room. “Does anyone have a pen?”

People had all stopped dancing to watch me look for a pen.

Finally, a guy pulled one out of his shirt pocket and handed it to me. Which had me looking at him kind of funny. I mean, who carried a pen around in their shirt pocket anymore? I put my hand to his chest to see if there was a pocket protector there, too. It would be really retro.

Nope.

He laughed while his girlfriend just looked at me like I was nuts.

“I’m not really a pocket protector guy.”

Oops. Had I said that out loud?

“Sorry.”

I forced Jake to turn around as Mish glared at me. Once he’d bent enough for me to use his back for a table, I wrote:

13. LIGHT TANNER'S TRUCK ON FIRE.

“Thanks.” I headed back to the kitchen to show Rayla and Jamie the list, but Jake caught my arm and snatched the napkin back.

“Not so fast. What exactly are you adding on th—oh, hell no, Bridget. We're not setting anyone's truck on fire tonight. I don't care if he slept with the whole school.”

“But Rayla made an excellent point.” I glanced toward the kitchen, my head feeling the turn more than expected as the room spun faster than I did. I put my hand out to steady myself and came away with a fistful of Jake's t-shirt. “He was probably sleeping with her in that truck.”

Jake placed a hand on my elbow to steady me. The look of pity was almost overwhelming before he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“And so we
have
to set it on fire.”

“Oh honey, your guy was sleeping with somebody else in his truck?” One of the other couples had stopped dancing to listen, too. “I'd totally set his truck on fire.” She looked at her boyfriend, stabbed a finger into his chest, and said, again, “I would
totally
light his truck on fire…and he would be damn lucky if he wasn't in the truck when I did it.”

“See?” I waved a hand at the girl and Jake just looked at me like I'd gone nuts.

“We'll talk about this later.” When did Jake suddenly become the voice of reason?

Well, no one said I had to do all the list things with Jake. What he wasn’t in on wouldn’t hurt him.

Mish had managed to somehow get her arm around Jake's waist as I turned to go.

“No more punch, Bridget.”

I waved a hand over my shoulder and let the music and the darkness swallow him up as the couples parted for me. Stepping into the kitchen, I caught my toe on the threshold and almost went down, surprised at how high the step was.

I didn’t remember there being a step there before.

At the counter, I handed Rayla the list.

“This is what I did after catching Tanner with Leah.”

They read the list, commenting on each point.

“Wait. Skinny-dipping?” Rayla’s voice had edged into squeal territory. “With Jake Moore? You went skinny-dipping with him?”

“Sssshhh!” I smacked a hand over her mouth. “Yes, but no. Yes, we went. No, we didn’t do anything. We took turns not looking to get in and out of the water.”

Jamie’s gaze had circled back around to the doorway where we could see Mish trying to climb Jake.

“You’re an idiot. What a waste.” She practically sighed the insult.

Rayla shook her head like I’d knowingly given away a winning lottery ticket.

I leaned in, waving for them to come closer. “Okay. So we
agreed
we wouldn’t look, but I
totally
may have peeked as he was getting out of the water. And he’s…”

Both voices fell low, matching mine. “Yes?”

“He’s pretty darn perfect to look at.”

Rayla fell back and fanned herself. “I wouldn’t have expected anything less.”

“Oh! Don’t tell anyone.” I felt the heat rushing over my cheeks again and wondered what I’d been thinking, owning up to that.

“Bridget.” Jamie was shaking her head at me again. “If I’d seen any part of Jake Moore naked, I’d take out a freaking billboard to let everyone know. You know that one by the courthouse? Yeah. That one.”

I played with my glass, hoping we could just move on. Nudity still wasn’t something I was ready to discuss. Well, not in detail.

“Let me see the list.” Rayla took it back from me, seeming to know I didn’t want to talk about the skinny-dipping anymore.

“Oh, I'm so glad you added the fire thing. I mean, that's genius.” Jamie definitely seemed to be the bloodthirsty one.

Rayla pointed at number nine. “Now we have to go downstairs and dance and you can hook up with a guy who isn't your boyfriend.”

This was exactly the plan I needed. I glanced at my cup on the counter and thought having a little more of a wobble in my head might help me with the kissing part. I picked it up, but caught Jake glaring at me over Mish's head when he saw me sipping from it.

He pointed at me and then at the counter. I shook my head. He stabbed his finger at the counter again.

Jake Moore was not the boss of me.

I watched him glare as I finished off the rest of the princess punch and
then
put the cup on the counter. Then, because I had no pockets in my dress, I stuffed the list into my built-in bra while Jake kept glaring.

“You guys go ahead.” Jamie reached for her cup. “I'm going to stay here.”

Rayla rolled her eyes at Jamie staring at Andy on the other side of the room. “Good luck with my loser brother.”

I felt rude for not finding a trash bin for my cup, but Rayla was already headed downstairs.

We made it to the bottom of the flight before I asked, “Jamie's into your brother?”

“Yup. Since we were eight. I'm still hoping she'll grow out of it.”

So it wasn’t Jake who Jamie was interested in. Not that I cared.

Nope. Not a bit.

Not even a little.

The basement was dark and they’d set up some type of strobe light. The music was louder than upstairs. I couldn't hear a thing coming out of her mouth, but Rayla was pointing to the mob of people moving around on the dance floor and grabbed my hand to pull me in behind her.

It was disorienting having a crowd push and pull me in all directions. My wobbly head tried to keep up with the craziness on the dance floor, but as I gave in to it and jumped around to the noise, I felt like I was flying.

There was a lot going on around me. The music, the lights, the people… Rayla grabbed my hand and led me onto a dance that moved as fast as the music.

I closed my eyes and jumped... Jumped into it all. Let myself not worry. No one cared. No one was watching me. No one was thinking,
That Poor Larson Girl finally snapped.
I was just another girl at another party getting a little tipsy and spinning around until the room stood still.

The music downshifted a bit, a bit slower, a bit quieter. Two guys who Rayla knew moved onto the floor with us and were dancing, leading us around. Rayla leaned over, pointed at the guy I was dancing with, and shouted, “Mike!” in my ear.

I looked at her, wondering if he was nice or if I should push him away, but she shrugged.

One dance fed into another and more people piled into the room, squishing us all together.

Mike swayed me into him, and it seemed easier to steady myself against his bulk than to let the tide of people knock me down.

He kept leaning in to ask me things like my name and if I wanted another drink. I just wanted to keep dancing. Just wanted to enjoy being that girl at that party that who the cute guy danced with.

Plus… I glanced up again. He was cute. Really cute.

This was
perfect.
I checked him out as covertly as I could from beneath my new bangs. He’d been dancing with me for a few songs now, so he must not be completely repulsed by me. Or maybe it was just really dark so he couldn’t see me. Or maybe he was drunk.

Any way you looked at it, he was perfect for list item numbers nine and ten.

I motioned for him to lean toward me and shouted to him, “Do you think you could kiss me?”

He looked surprised, so I think he heard me right, but he mouthed back, “What?”

“Kiss me,” I shouted. I pointed at him then at myself to make sure he knew who I was talking about. This was far more complicated than I’d expected. Of course, maybe it was always this complicated, and other people just managed to make it look easy. I mean, I’d only kissed Tanner, and that was only because he’d asked me out. “Do you think you could kiss me?”

Mike looked at me for a long moment, then took my hand and pulled me off the dance floor toward the wall at the edge of the room. He eased me back against the wood paneling. I waited, afraid to breathe, afraid to learn I’d been kissing wrong this whole time and that was why Tanner had dumped me.

He grinned down at me. “You're direct.”

“I have a list.”

“I think I'd like this list.”

I laughed. He was funny. I liked funny. I was glad to see I’d grabbed a guy with sense of humor. Maybe he could laugh off the bad kissing if I really did stink at it.

His hand slid around my side and rested against my lower back, which just made me laugh again.

“What else is on this list?”

“I just added something.”

“Can I see it?”

I thought about showing him the list, then remembered where I’d stashed it. It might be funny to pull it out of my built-into-the-dress bra that was obviously doing more work than it was supposed to tonight.

Thank goodness I wasn't chesty.

I mean, it wasn’t like I’d be showing him anything. It would be like pulling the bra out from under the dress without flashing a thing.

“Maybe.” I giggled.

I'm pretty sure it was a giggle. I wasn't really the giggling type, but this seemed very funny and I remembered that Leah giggled with guys all the time. That was probably one of the things she did to steal my boyfriend. Darn giggling.

He glanced down at my dress and then back up.

“Where exactly are you keeping this list?”

I glanced straight down to where I could see a bit of the napkin sticking out of the front of my dress.

“Really?” He grinned. “That's much better than a regular old pocket.”