Thirty-Nine
Stacy
“Can we turn on something besides a musical?” Drew complains, gesturing towards The Phantom of the Opera playing on my TV.
I shrug as Mae shoots him a dirty look. “I lost a bet to Mae four years ago. She’s had full control of what we watch together ever since.”
Drew groans. “But it’s Christmas.”
“Then Stace shouldn’t have lost the bet.” Mae smirks.
“Why do we have to suffer?”
“I personally like musicals,” Miles cuts in with a festive cranberry mimosa lifted to his shit-eating grin.
Mae rolls her eyes, pushing herself off of my couch to get a refill. “You’re being a kiss ass,” she mumbles, sliding past her biggest admirer.
“Is it working?”
Miles trails after Mae into the kitchen as the two continue to squabble like an old married couple.
I can’t wait for them to finally admit that they actually like each other one day. It’s practically inevitable at this point and boy , I love being right .
“Alright.” Christina raises her voice over our bickering friends. “Drinking game?”
“That’s not very festive,” Jamie complains.
Mae plops back down on my couch with a full flute of cranberry mimosa. “No, no, I agree with Christina. More alcohol, please. We’re in Christmas sweaters so it’s festive by default.” She gestures towards her hideous, reindeer-clad sweater complete with fully operational twinkle lights.
I glance around the room and bite back a laugh.
We all look truly ridiculous, adorned in the ugliest Christmas sweaters we could find.
Our friendmas celebration is in full swing, my whole friend group crammed into my apartment with holiday drinks, terrible white elephant gifts, and the smell of sugar cookies and Christmas dinner wafting around us.
I provided the Christmas ham but everyone else was in charge of sides, which has proven to me that all of my friends are nearly worse chefs than Reece.
Drew brought watery stuffing, Jamie brought burnt green bean casserole (and a plus-one named Jackson which surprised us all), Mae brought some very unpopular crispy Brussels sprouts, Christina brought a runny pumpkin pie, Miles brought some boxed macaroni and cheese, and Reece brought the saving grace — frozen yeast rolls.
Impossible to mess up, frankly.
We all giggled while we ate the mediocre dinner, talking about the type of pizzas we’re going to inevitably order later after the drinks have set in.
“Circle of Death ?” Drew suggests, wearing his own three-dimensional Santa sweater.
“Jesus, are you trying to blackout on friendmas?” Reece challenges from his place beside me, slyly placing his fingers on my thigh.
“Isn’t that, like, the whole point of friendmas?”
“Only if we can turn off this movie,” Jamie begs.
Mae huffs out a breath, picking up the remote to put on The Grinch instead. “Is everyone happy now?”
Miles throws an arm around her while Reece distributes playing cards to the group. Mae throws it off, swatting his chest before scooting down onto the floor next to Christina.
I chuckle at them before pushing myself off the couch. “I’m going to the bathroom before the game starts,” I announce.
Heading down the hall, I wobble slightly, my third mimosa going straight to my head as my cheeks flush.
I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or the holiday or Reece but a blanket of warmth has been surrounding me all day, a hue of pink touching my cheeks and genuine happiness wrapping around my heart.
The comforting feeling squeezes me a little tighter as I teeter down the hall to my bathroom, the roar of my friends’ laughter trailing behind me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always felt loved and important in some capacity.
I know my parents love me, they just don’t necessarily support me in all of my endeavors.
But this semester has surprised me. I’ve found a group of people who truly make me feel valued, make me feel genuinely cared for in a way I’ve never felt before.
And so much of that is thanks to Reece. He’s never failed to make me feel like I matter, to make me feel like I’m somebody’s first choice.
Like I’m his first choice.
I let my thoughts and feelings run rampant as I turn into my small bathroom tucked away at the end of the hallway. The door has barely clicked shut when it busts open again, Reece towering over me with a deliriously happy, tipsy smile on his face.
“What are you doing in here?” I whisper as he closes the door behind him, rushing up to me and cupping my face in his hands.
“I haven’t gotten to kiss you all night.” He presses his lips to mine over and over again. “It’s been driving me crazy.”
I laugh around his lips as he backs me up against my vanity. “What is with you and bathrooms?” I ask breathlessly as he moves his lips to my jaw.
Reece ignores my question, his teeth grazing the delicate skin of my neck. “Why can’t we tell our friends about us? Not being able to touch you is killing me.”
I giggle and throw my head back to give Reece better access to the hollow of my throat.
“Have you completely forgotten about our conversation with Propst? The more people who know about us, the more risky it’s going to become.
If Jamie, Christina, and Mae know, it’s only a matter of time before word gets around the team. ”
Reece groans against my skin, his hands slinking down to cup my ass through my leggings.
He brings his lips back to mine and whether it’s the champagne or simply Reece, I abandon my inhibition and tangle my fingers in his hair.
Our mouths meld together, hungry and needy as I start to wonder just how long we have before our friends begin to question where we are.
“Can you be quiet?” Reece breathes against my lips, his thumbs hooking into the waistband of my pants.
“Can you be quick?” I counter, the small of my back digging into the edge of my sink vanity.
Reece chuckles before pulling my lower lip into his teeth. “ Probably quicker than you’d prefer.”
Heat pools low in my stomach as Reece hoists me up onto the counter, a giggle escaping my lips as he pushes his hands under my snowman sweater.
I feel like a schoolgirl with the biggest crush in the world, every hair on my body standing at attention when Reece is around.
He makes something in my chest bubble over, he makes me want to be carefree and reckless for the first time in my life.
“I don’t have a condom on me. Do you have any in here?” he asks while my fingers fly to work the button on his jeans.
I shake my head and wrap my legs around his torso. “No. I have an IUD, though. And I’m clean. I’m comfortable without one if you are,” I tell him in between kisses, my voice nothing but a desperate pant.
Reece doesn’t hesitate before he nods eagerly, smothering my mouth with his own as he starts to shimmy my leggings down over my hips.
Truthfully, I’ve never had sex with anyone without using a condom.
I’ve never been worried about pregnancy thanks to my birth control, but it’s always been more than that.
How am I supposed to trust the people I’m sleeping with, how do I know these silly, college-aged men well enough to yield that part of myself to them?
It’s always been a scary concept to me so I’ve had a no-exception policy ever since I had sex for the first time with my one and only high school boyfriend.
But I trust Reece. I’m realizing now that I trust Reece more than I’ve ever trusted anyone in my life.
God, that should scare me, shouldn’t it?
“We probably have three minutes tops,” I whisper around greedy kisses, my leggings at my thighs.
Reece snorts. “I’ll have your legs shaking in two. ”
My stomach does a somersault as we melt into a puddle of quiet moans, tongues, and teeth, our hands desperate to get our pants out of the way.
“Stace, I’m coming in, I have to pee—” Mae’s voice cuts in as the door swings open mid-sentence.
“Holy fuck,” another voice says from the hallway.
Reece and I jump, our heads whipping in the direction of the door as we gasp, but it’s too late.
Mae stares at us with wide eyes and her jaw slack. Drew and Miles are wearing the same expression from behind her, mouths gaping as they all gawk.
I can hardly blame them.
Reece’s jeans are unbuttoned and unzipped, his hair disheveled as his chest rises and falls sporadically.
I can only imagine I look similar, the waistband of my leggings hitting me mid-thigh while I sport a flushed face and smeared lipstick.
My Christmas sweater is haphazard, my right arm out of it with my left arm still in the process of escaping.
Reece doesn’t move from in between my thighs, his right arm curled around my waist while his left hand clutches the fabric of my leggings like a lifeline.
No one says a word as Christina, Jamie, and Jackson join the others in the hallway, the same befuddled look on all of their faces.
Finally, Mae clears her throat and looks at me pointedly. “So… I’m just gonna go ahead and say it — called it.”