Chapter 5
One.
Two.
Thr—
The music pounded against my ribs hard enough to throw off my counting.
One-two-three-four.
One-two-three-four.
One-two—
Someone laughed too loudly behind me, and I lost the rhythm again.
“Fuck.”
My fingers twitched against the sweating glass in my hand as I walked toward the back of the room.
“Relax, Cry Baby. You so probably have this.”
Melodie slid up beside me and pressed a kiss to my neck. Her lipstick felt like wet chalk on my skin, and the cracking coat felt calming. I didn’t know anyone but Natalie…and the men from the foliage room, but they weren’t exactly talkative. Having Melodie was…nice.
“You look like you’re about to interview for an accounting position. Lower your damn shoulders and unbutton a few buttons for god’s sake.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” I protested, feeling her nails drag against my neck as she pulled the buttons loose.
“You know exactly how. It will come naturally. Just smile and be your quirky self.”
“No.” I swallowed. “I know statistics, and what you taught me in the span of a day and a shower…”
She laughed, and the sing-song tone was nice to hear amid the bar's harsh noise.
“No, sweetheart. Statistics don’t make someone want to kiss you. Make eye contact and tell him you noticed him.”
Across the room, the man caught my gaze and then looked down at his beer. He was so attractive I felt nearly giddy. What was this feeling? And why was my cock thick?
Brown hair, wire-framed glasses, and a sweater vest.
Maybe Melodie had picked him because he looked more uncomfortable than I did, like he’d apologize if someone bumped into him.
He was reading some kind of book, and I wondered if it was about sex by the blush on his cheeks.
Why bring a book to a bar?
My kind of person.
Melodie popped me on the ass, and I hastened my steps.
“You picked the cutest little nerd in the room,” she loudly whispered, and I turned around to give her a look.
“I did not,” I hissed.
“You’ve been staring instead of walking. Move your fine ass.”
“I was…reconning?”
“For six minutes?”
“It wasn’t that long!”
Melodie shook her head and smiled, shooing me away.
“Shit.”
“Go introduce yourself. You can do this,” I said to myself. “Noo…I’ll sound stupid.”
“You always sound stupid.”
I couldn’t help but agree with myself. My feet moved before my brain agreed.
Okay.
Deep breath.
Smile.
Not too much smiling.
Too much smiling looks like a serial killer.
Normal smiling?
Wait, wasn’t I worse than a serial killer?
I reached the table.
“Hi.”
The man looked up and I saw his pretty blue eyes and freckled face.
“Oh. Hi.”
“I’m Cry—uh. I’m happy to meet you.”
“I’m Ethan,” he said with a smile.
“So…”
Silence. So much silence, and he was staring at me like I was a lost waiter.
Shit.
“So…” I tried again.
More silence.
Oh for fuck’s sake.
My brain had emptied itself like someone’d pulled the emergency drain plug, and I looked over my shoulder at Melodie, but she was busy flirting with the bartender.
“You…uh…” I pointed and my finger landed on the novel in his grip. “Book.”
Kill me.
“Yeah.” He looked so uncomfortable that I started to sweat.
“You…uh, read?”
“Usually.”
I cleared my throat and leaned my arm against the wall.
“I also read.”
Fantastic. Yes. Keep to the similarities.
Absolutely incredible conversation, Cry Baby.
“Oh yeah? What do you read?” His eyes lit up, and I felt happy until I realized I couldn’t read, period, and had no idea about novel names.
“Oh yeah, I know…” I trailed off absentmindedly, and then my eyes landed on a porn magazine left abandoned on a nearby table, and I blurted “Porn…”
The guy laughed, and then he looked at me like I was a creepy bug he didn’t know whether to walk away from or squish.
I should receive an award for being such a horrible flirt.
Before I could recover, a familiar voice drifted over my shoulder.
“Oh my god, Jailbait. Don’t you know you gotta be at least this tall to ride those rides?”
Hollis.
Ugh.
That fucking cop was getting on my last nerve.
Of course.
He dropped into the empty chair beside Ethan without an invitation.
“Ethan, right?” he said, and his eyes were pure liquid, almost like Melodie’s.
Wasn’t this guy sucking face with a different guy the last time I saw him? Ethan blinked, and his attention landed solely on the pig beside him. “Yeah?”
“I seem to remember you very well.”
He flashed that perfect smile, and it was blinding how ‘movie-star-esque’ it looked.
Perfect teeth.
Perfect hair.
Perfect asshole.
Well, at least until he looked at me. Then that smile soured like he smelled shit, and there was a mocking edge that matched Natalie’s.
“Oh.”
That fake sympathy made me sick.
“I didn’t realize you were into little boys, Ethan. Should I let Allen know you don’t wanna play with the big boys anymore?”
“I wasn’t—”
“Don’t worry, I totally get it.”
My stomach tightened, and Ethan glared at me.
“No. He just came over here. I’m still down to hang out.”
“Oh, I get it. Little Pipsqueak is trying to flirt. How cute. He doesn’t really understand social cues.”
“Hollis, he’s just—”
“He means well,” Hollis interrupted. “And he makes a mean Shirley Temple.”
Every sentence chipped away another piece of me.
Ethan grew more and more uncomfortable as I grew more and more insulted, and I felt like I was deflating little by little.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
“I…”
Hollis kept going like I hadn’t spoken.
“Sometimes he gets attached to strangers. They don’t let him out of the orphanage much.”
Heat flooded my face, and anger bloomed in my chest.
“I think I’ll…” Ethan stood up and looked between us, the two of us glaring daggers at one another. “Grab another drink.”
He left.
Just…walked away.
The music suddenly sounded too loud again.
The lights were too bright.
The room was too crowded.
I stared after him, and Hollis was talking but I ignored him now.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Count.
Don’t cry.
Don’t.
Cry.
Hollis leaned back. Well.”He smiled. “Better luck next time, Jailbait.”
I didn’t answer, because if I did…
I’d scream and use the glass bottle left behind on the bar to kill this prick.
Let’s see you go ‘wee wee’ without all your piggies.
I walked toward the exit. I didn’t care if anyone saw me. I needed air, and this noisy fucking bar made me feel like I was drowning.
The cold night air hit my face.
Better.
Quiet.
Cars.
Streetlights.
Predictable.
Footsteps approached behind me, and I stiffened. Did that pig come out here to taunt me further?
No. Not Hollis.
Melodie.
She stood beside me without speaking for almost a full minute, and I felt her pity, and it made my skin itch more than the clothing.
“I hate him.”
“I can see that.”
“I really hate him,” I said.
“I can imagine why.”
“I looked so stupid.” I sighed.
She shook her head and grabbed my shoulder soothingly. “No.”
“I couldn’t even talk right. This is not going to work. Natalie is gonna kill me because I can’t kill that cunt no matter how many times I’ve gotten the opportunity.”
“You talked to him. That’s progress. I think being solo is a bit ambitious.”
“What does that mean? I sounded like an idiot.”
“You sounded nervous,” she corrected.
“That’s worse.” I could feel my cheeks burn, and I rubbed them with the falling tears.
“No, Melodie.”
She folded her arms. “Cry Baby. Fucking look at me.”
I finally did, after fighting with the salty stream on my face, and she smiled. “You know why that cop does that?”
“Because he’s an asshole.” The thought of Hollis alone made me feel the anger rise again.
“That’s part of it,” she snorted, then smiled sadly. “But mostly?
He knew exactly how easy it is to shake your confidence, and he does it because he likes you.”
“I don’t have the confidence to shake. And no, the fuck he doesn’t. He’s a bully.”
“You did,” she tapped my chest, “For about thirty seconds. You walked over there. You introduced yourself. You tried.”Her eyes softened. “That’s more courage than Hollis has. Typical bullies, pulling the girl’s pigtails instead of admitting they like you.”
“He doesn’t—”
The front doors opened, and Hollis stepped outside.
“What are you two lovebirds bitching about?” he said, swirling his drink in his hand.
Melodie ignored him and turned toward me, locking me in place with a sloppy kiss. I felt her tongue in my mouth and counted how many times it twisted with mine.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
“Mmm, you taste so good,” she moaned dramatically, and I could see Hollis’s glower deepen as he watched us.
“Fucking freaks belong to each other,” he growled, and then he was gone.
Melodie didn’t stop kissing me, and my body was starting to respond to the way her breasts pressed up against me and her overwhelming scent.
“I’ve got something to do, Cry Baby. Stay here. Stay hard.”
She ripped away from me without waiting for a response and disappeared inside. Five minutes passed, and she wasn’t back.
I sat against the concrete of the building and started counting each new minute as it came and went.
I was getting tired, and my eyes were starting to drift and droop.
Ten.
Fifteen…
Seventeen minutes and forty-three seconds later, I saw the doors open again. Melodie walked out laughing, but the sight beside her made me freeze.
It was Ethan.
He looked so relaxed now, smiling, actually smiling, like he was genuinely happy. Then, he spotted me, and it was gone.
“Oh,” he said, shuffling his feet. “Hey.”
Melodie slipped an arm around his shoulders, then the other around mine. “See. I told him you were adorable.”
My face burned, and I hissed at her. “You did what?”
“I also told him your brain occasionally outruns your mouth. Which he thinks is cute.”
“I hate you.” I swallowed thickly, and Melodie planted another passionate kiss on my lips, then leaned over and did the same to Ethan.
“No, you don’t,” she said against Ethan’s lips, and Ethan chuckled.
“I actually thought you were sweet. Hollis is an old friend. He can be a bit of a brute.”
“Really? You think I’m sweet?”
Stop sounding so fucking desperate.
“Really sweet.”
Melodie winked at me and definitely flaunted her power.
“See?” she said with a smirk, tossing me a set of keys I recognized as Natalie’s. They were the ones she carried from time to time.
“We’re going home.”
Home?
Oh…fuck.