The Rules
By Karen KalbacherOkay recently I did nanowromo again... and this is a piece of the resulting work. Basically Andy is trying to figure out who she is by learning to be like her best friend Brittany who lives by a set of "Rules" that are part good sense and part stupid superstitions but work either way... This is from Chapter 4 into Chapter 5...
“Tell me rules.” I asked her. “I'm the student. You're the teacher. And I need rules.” I laughed into my latest drink, a captain and coke. “Rulessssssssish.”
“Don't get cocky, you did good tonight. Be proud young HIT. Soon we will turn you into a PYT….well according to Michael Jackson anyway. See?” She leaned forward and smacked my legs. “You can get comp'd. You can get free drinks. You can dance. You can look pretty damn hot. All for following some fun little guide lines. Right?” Her eyes flicked up and her smile blinded me.
I looked over my shoulder. And there was Jake. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I bubbled.
Jake was looking pretty great for a guy who worked all night. He was soaked through his shirt. His wide spaced eyes were bright and the little gold flecks glowed with life. His sleeves were messy, not neatly rolled anymore and his towel was missing. “Hey, the bar is closing in a few minutes…”
My old instincts kicked in and I started to chug my drink. Brittany stayed my arm. She shook her head once for no. I stopped and looked up at him with a polite smile on my face. His eyes hit the ground then looked to the left and right. “So, I was thinking we could go for a walk on the beach. What do you say? I could bring you a long island ice tea?”
I looked at Brittany . I didn't know what to do. Should I say yes? Should I flirt but say no? Damn it were their guide lines for this crap too? Aw man… She was giving me a tumbs up look. “I don't think I need any more drinks.”
His face fell. He was actually disappointed? That's weird…
“But I would love to take a walk.” I turned to Brittany , “Can you get home all right?”
Brittany nodded, “Sure… I saw Emilie and Amie back there from the party. I'm going to walk back with them. Have a good time. Just remember number fifteen.” With that cryptic remark to me, she stood up and wandered off in a blind stagger.
I was alone with Jake. He looked down. I looked down and was mildly interested to see his feet were in these great leather thongs. “Those are cute shoes.”
“That is not what I normally here. Let's get you some fresh air. Okay?” He gently took my arm and little, little tingles raced through my arm. A boy was touching me intentionally. It was pretty cool.
We walked out of the makeshift bar and onto the soft sand. It was hard going. Sand is not the easiest thing to stand, walk or run on when it's loose and powdery. Luckily he moved me down to the water's edge where the sand was hard packed and better for a leisurely stroll. Above us about ten zillion stars just seemed to explode out of the darkness and glittered like sequins. The sand under my feet was softer than concrete which was so great for my danced off feet. Jake just walked beside me on the sand side and I could just look out and see the water. It was midnight black against a coal black sky.
The waves crashed and I got a little bit of sea spray. I laughed and skittered back away from the ocean. I was still not convinced that the ocean was in any way healthy. My skittering half crashed me into Jake. His arms went right around me. Surprisingly warm in the cool arm he held me for a few seconds. I felt his heart jumping against my back. I bounced away from him. I mean the strain of my extra weight could kill him.
“Whoa, you all right? I never seen anyone so afraid of sea spray before.” He slid his arm down my shoulder and caught my hand. “What else are you afraid of?”
“Bugs, gum and plants.”
“Bugs I understand but gum? Plants? You've got to explain those to me.” He was holding my arm and hand now to keep me up. I was a little unbalanced and I think I was constantly giggling or something. Why am I always drunk around guys? I stopped us for a second and turned to face him, the world spun for a few seconds and settled down on his face. I was starting to like his eyes. They were kind of nice.
“Gum is a stupid one…when I was eight I choked on that big blubbery grape flavored gum. I nearly died. My mom thumped and thumped my back until I coughed it up. I can't even swallow vitamins anymore. I have to get everything chewable.” I smirked. I know where a guy's thoughts go after a statement like that. I pressed on though with the plants. How do you explain the plants? “Plants are creepy.”
Jake ran a hand over his short blonde hair, “Creepy? How are they creepy? They just grow.”
“Exactly!” I pointed at him but I misjudged and tapped him on the nose. His smile widened. “They're alive. They get bigger but you never see them move. What is that? Why are they so sneaky? Why do plants not move? That's weird. What if they decide to just wrap their leafy vines around my throat one night and choke the life out of me.” I mimed chocking him but fell laughing against his chest.
He wasn't too tall. Well he was. I'm too tall and he was nose to nose with me so he was not too tall for me. I was very close to his little nub of a nose and I breathed out expecting him to cough from the fumes. He didn't. His eyelids lowered to half mast. My whole body got the tingles. Lips pressed against mine chenille soft and surprisingly, comfortably dry. I pressed against them enjoying the feel of an unexpected kiss.
The shock of contact zipped to my toes and back up against as we just stood together kissing. His lips moved all over mine touching and tasting. His lips parted and the tip of his tongue touched my lips and I don't know if it was the liquor or the fresh smell of the ocean but I let him part mine and I fell into the deepest, longest kiss of my life.
We broke apart and I fell in on my self as if I had been snapped out of a warm fuzzy dream. Jake had the stupidest look on his face. I bet I looked just the same with my eyes half closed, bemused and silly. He turned away from me and caught up my hand again. We just walked together.
We walked together and I wondered in the back of my mind if this was practice would it feel as great when it was the real thing? When it was with Mark?
Chapter 5: Rule # 27: The Morning After is no time to be seen. Hide until the Afternoon After, your skin will thank you.
I woke up to ringing. I grumbled and looked around but I didn't see a phone. I didn't see anything that was mine. I was in Brittany 's room. I slid my hands around the covers and hit something slick, cool and metal. It buzzed with a third and even still more annoying ring. I whipped it open to yell at whoever was on the other end, Cindy, Janet, Luke…
“Make it good.” I said as my opener.
“Brittany ?” A velvety smooth voice said. It was a balm to my ears. Much better than the pain sitting between my eyes… “ Brittany answer me. I've been calling for days.”
“Who is this?” I asked, piqued in spite of my massively horribly hangover.
“Aaron, who is this?” I liked his voice a lot. It was just wow, kind of severely masculine.
I rolled over onto my stomach and held the phone up to my ear. “I'm Andy , Brittany 's bestest friend in the whole wide universe. So who and what is an Aaron?”
“If you were her best friend you'd know.”
Uh oh, this was the ex? Shame.
“Oh that Aaron. You're the cheating son of a bitch pig who needs to die, aren't you? Why the hell are you calling Brittany ? She doesn't want to hear from you ever. Now go away.” I made to hang up the phone.
“No, wait.”
“Make it fast. I'm getting bored.” I just wanted my 1 st shower of the day and a pizza.
“Listen, I know I'm a jerk and I messed up. But I love Brittany and I want to make it up to her. Please. Can you tell me where you are? I just want to talk to her. I could come up...” His voice was getting high pitched and desperate.
I didn't care. “Hey listen Aaron, you know where you can go.”
I hung up and went in search of a take out menu. Brittany wasn't anywhere in the room. I stuck her cell phone in my pocket. On the counter were a few of those take out menus all delightfully informing me that pizza was available with loads of fatty toppings. Mmm mm. I am definitely ordering a medium and adding some cheese fries to the side. On top of the pizza, let's see… How drunk was I last night? On a scale of one to ten I would have been legally dead so that means…calculate it, carry the pepperoni, add the pineapple…the works. I was drunk enough to order the works. But in deference to my HIT Girl status I would forgo the onions. Mm…
“Hi, I'd like a medium pizza with the works, hold the onions. Yeah and an order of cheese fries with the cheese on the side…Liter of Diet Coke too, yeah. Okay. How long?” I hung up. Damn at least thirty minutes to pizza goodness. I walked into the ‘living room' and plopped down in front of the ancient television set. I leaned back and flipped it on. A news cast started talking about the dangers of gum. Good for me, I'm right and every one else is wrong. Gum is deadly.
A scrap of something was on the floor. Sunlight streaming in through a broken Venetian blind slat had lit the scrap up. Golden with its little reflected light halo, it was so tempting. ‘Get off the couch and pick me up.' That's what it was saying to me. I ignored it in favor of this really gruesome footage of an 8 year old choking on something square and gum like. He was frothing at the mouth. The scrap winked at me. The child fell to the ground in font of a dozen surprised friends. Light sparkled and distracted me from the screen, drawing my eyes back to the floor. “Fine,” I told the scrap. “Fine I will pick you up but you better be good.”
Leaning my body forward so I wouldn't have to really get off the couch, I scooped up the scrap. Relaxing back into my seat as the paramedics arrived on my TV to resuscitate the stupid gum chewer, I flipped over the scrap. Huh, it was part of a picture…there was Brittany smiling like her insides were all aglow with severe lust or possibly love. Next to her was a guy a few inches taller than her and way smaller than me. He had stormy ocean gray eyes, nice smile…nice hair wavy thick and milk chocolate. The picture had been torn into this scrap… That meant the hottie smiling up at me with a simpering, ‘I'm so in love I can make you puke.' look on his face was Aaron.
“Well hello there heartbreaker. Why don't I just tear you up into even teenier pieces, eh?” Except that I couldn't. Aaron just looked so… I don't know ‘in love.' Gah, I jammed the scrap under the cushion where no one would ever find it since no one ever cleaned these places. I tried to go back to my program but it bugged me. How could anyone want to cheat on Brittany ? Not only was she hot she was funny and good to her friends, loyal and man so much fun. She's perfect. So obviously Aaron couldn't be lying when he said he was still in love with her, right? Maybe I should have at least heard him out. Not that I would tell him where we were or nothing like that.
A knock broke my thought train. “Pizza!”
I bounced off the couch and raced to the door. I pulled some money out of my ‘last night's jeans' and dragged the door open. “Jake? Hi… you're the pizza man?”
“Nah, I just saw the guy who was on his way up. Trust me. You'll have a better appetite with me around. Can I come in? I did just buy you lunch.”
Is it weird that I just let him in? Well I did. He just well he was clean unlike me and he was holding a delicious smelling pizza in one hand and a bag that looked so greasy it had to be my fries. I needed the food. I will take the bartender in any day to get to the food. Ah, my one big failing! “Sure, sit down. You want a drink?”
He dropped my liter of coke onto the rickety coffee table and it creaked alarmingly. “Sure, something non-diet if you got it.” He sat down beside it and opened up the box. “Wow, pineapple, sausage, meatballs, onions? This is some serious pie.”
I rattled around in the fridge for a few moments. Everything was liquor and beer. Yes, I now look officially like a lush. Well that and I was still wearing the clothes from last night. I must be breaking about a gzillion rules right now. “Onions? Man I told them to hold the onions. But admit it, you are impressed with my pizza.” I dropped down onto the carpet next to him. I handed him a beer and shrugged. He didn't fuss. “And you didn't buy me lunch you bought me breakfast.”
“Well who cares, I bought you a meal.” He took a slice and folded it in half. “I get at least a slice for that.”
“Wow, thief.” I laughed and pulled a thick over-cheesed, over loaded slice out and stuck most of it in my mouth. Then it was a feeding frenzy. My stomach got a hint of grease and went for it like a mako. He did too and I was impressed by how much we could eat in one sitting. The cheese fries disappeared in a hail of ketchup and mustard. And the pizza went down just as fast. When we were done we both leaned back and I couldn't help a burp or two could I?
He burped a lot. And he had a second beer. “So sorry I just dropped by but you were pretty drunk last night and I thought I should check and make sure you got home all right.”
“Oh I guess so? I woke up in Brittany 's bad about an hour ago.” Did something happen? You don't think he felt me up when I was out cold do you? He doesn't look like a creep but you never know, right? I've seen Oprah.
Jake nodded, “I didn't know which one was yours. I picked the 1 st door and pitched you into the bed. Did Brittany make it back all right?”
“No clue.” I answered. Huh, why wasn't I worried about her? I just assumed she was fine. Not that she isn't fine, I just don't really know. Eh, she was probably sleeping it off on someone else's couch. But at least now I know why Jake came back. He liked Brittany . I didn't blame him. Everyone does. And it actually works out for the best since I have my eye on the guy who pushed past me on the stairs. Still Jake was nice. A nice summer fling would get Brit over that Aaron guy…
I twinged inside on that one. I don't know. That scrap of picture got to me somehow. Maybe next time the phone rings I'll have a little talk with Aaron about what kind of person cheats on Brittany and how he can spend the rest of his life groveling at her feet and she might still kick him to the curb. Well, again since she already did kick him to the curb.
To assuage my tiny feeling of guilt about not knowing where my best friend in the whole universe was, I got up and opened the door to my room. Loud snores escaped. Three or four girls were asleep in the chair, on the floor and one…Brittany was curled up on top of my suitcase. How did I miss that? “She's fine.”
Jake chuckled, a nice warm and fuzzy one like someone who liked you, not like someone who had just noticed you were fat and had something stuck in your teeth. I winked at him. He got up and went to the sink to wash his hands and throw out our empty cartons. He walked back and gave me a hug. My body stiffened in surprise. But there was that smell again like spicy and citrus fruits…only it wasn't laced with beer and buttery nipples this time. This scent was all man and all him. I must have relaxed because the hug lasted a second longer than I thought it would and then I was free standing and feeling a bit off kilter.
“I got to get a few things done before I go back to the bar tonight. Thanks for lunch. I mean thanks for breakfast. If you get a chance come by and see me okay?” He walked to the door and I trailed after him.
“Sure, yeah I can if I'm free…” I let him out and shut the door. Shaking my head I decided it was time for my first shower of the day and disappeared into the bathroom. What I didn't know was that Brittany was dreaming of the first time she had told Aaron she loved him. Consequently it was out side in the rain so…technically it was a wet dream.