Chapter 14 #2
He had me there. “I’m not much of a party person,” I said anyway. Of course, I’d never been to a real party so I didn’t know for sure.
“I have a solution.” JJ disappeared into the kitchen. He returned a minute later with a bottle of something clear and two shot glasses. “You need to loosen up.”
“I don’t know,” I said hesitantly. Was his solution always booze?
“Come on, Bear. Tonight will be a blast if you let it be,” he said as he poured a drink for both of us.
Again, I was about to say no, but then I thought back to my fight with Cara; she wanted me to take this job so I could live my life, have fun, that sort of thing. Maybe this was my chance to make up for all that lost time in high school that I always wanted but never really had.
“Fine,” I said and gave in, “but I better not regret this.”
JJ only grinned and picked up his shot. “To a night we will never forget,” he said, clinking his glass to mine.
“A night we’ll never forget.”
***
I cracked open my eyes, and the bright morning sunlight blinded me.
“What the hell?” I grumbled, sitting up in bed.
My head was pounding; my hair was a knotted mess; and my mouth tasted like alcohol.
I tried to remember what had happened last night, but all I could come up with was a big black blank.
When someone groaned and rolled over next to me, I yelped and grabbed a pillow for defense.
Lying at my side was a boy, and he had the familiar brown waves of Oliver Perry.
“Holy shit.” I scrambled out of bed.
Am I still dreaming? For the next minute I stood by the nightstand in hopes that, if I opened and closed my eyes enough times, Oliver would disappear.
No such luck.
Eventually I accepted that I was, in fact, awake, and my heart stopped racing. Then I realized that Oliver wasn’t wearing a shirt, and my heart jumped right back to pounding. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t look away from the dip of spine between his shoulder blades and the lean muscle of his back.
Then a horrible thought crossed my mind and my eyes went wide. I didn’t sleep with him, did I? Thankfully, I was still wearing all my clothes from the other day…but what about Oliver?
“Please don’t be naked. Please don’t be naked,” I chanted as I lifted the sheets.
I let out a sigh of relief when I spotted jeans with a bit of boxer hanging out over the top.
Hopefully that meant we hadn’t done anything.
There was no way that I wanted to lose my virginity to a rock star. How clichéd would that be?
So what did happen? If I slipped out of the room before Oliver got up, I could save myself the embarrassment of trying to answer that question, but I also knew that I would have to face him sooner or later. Better to rip off the bandage now. Leaning over the bed, I poked Oliver on the back.
“Hey.” He didn’t move, so I poked him harder. “Hey, Oliver. Wake up.”
“Not now, JJ. I’m watching Immortal Nights!” he muttered, clearly still asleep.
“Wow, that’s embarrassing.”
Oliver rolled over again, and I burst out laughing. Someone had drawn a pair of round glasses around his eyes and a lightning bolt on his forehead. Scribbled across his bare chest were the words “Harry Perry, the boy who passed out.”
“Stella?” he asked, my laughter finally rousing him from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes, which smeared the marker on his face, giving him what looked like two black eyes. “What’s so funny?”
I bit back a smile. “Nothing, Harry Perry.”
“I don’t get it,” he said.
“Maybe you should go look in the mirror.”
Oliver frowned at my response and climbed out of bed. Wanting to see his reaction to his reflection, I followed him, and when he pulled open the bathroom door, a white blur flew at our heads. We both ducked.
“What the hell!” I exclaimed. “Was that a… chicken?” I glanced around the bedroom wondering if I was still drunk, but sure enough, one very large bird was flapping around on the bed.
“Yup,” Oliver said as he grinned. “Must have been a killer party.”
As if that could explain the farm animal in the hotel room.
We found JJ curled up on the floor in the bathroom. He was wearing a bra over the top of his shirt, and his arms were wrapped around a life-sized cardboard cutout. I stepped over his legs to get a better look. It was a cardboard cutout of himself.
“Oh God, where’s your camera?” Oliver asked. “This is priceless.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” I said, which was a little worrisome.
I had no clue where my camera was or what happened last night.
Before I could give it much thought, my foot connected with something solid and I almost tripped.
It was a glass bottle, and it rolled away, clinking across the tiled floor until it hit the far wall.
“What’s with all the champagne bottles?” I asked when I noticed a collection of them resting at the edge of the bathtub.
Oliver didn’t answer. He walked over to the tub and peered over the edge. Inside was a bubbly, light-yellow liquid. “Brilliant,” he said, shaking his head in amazement. “Just brilliant.”
“You’re not going to think that when you look in the mirror,” I said, but to my surprise, when Oliver saw what had been scribbled all over him, he let out a deep laugh. I looked at him in disbelief. If someone had done that to me, I would be fuming.
“It’s pretty clever,” he told me.
“It’s going to be a pain to get off,” I pointed out.
He shrugged. “As long as I can scrub it off in a bath full of champagne, I’ll be happy.”
We tried to shake JJ awake, but he swatted our hands away and refused to open his eyes.
Leaving him on the floor, we decided to inspect the rest of the penthouse to see the extent of the party’s damage.
Out in the hallway, the floor was littered with red Solo cups, and it looked like a disco ball had exploded. Glitter covered everything.
I gasped when we walked into the living room.
If I hadn’t known about the party, I would have guessed a bomb went off.
Most of the furniture was tipped over, and a pair of pants was hanging off the ceiling fan.
Someone had TP’d the place with different-colored party streamers, and one of the walls was splattered with a red substance that looked like blood, but I had a hunch it was ketchup left over from our contest.
And in the middle of it all was Xander.
“Finally,” he complained when he spotted us. “Can you guys help me? I’ve had to go to the bathroom for like an hour.” He was sitting on a chair, and someone had duct-taped him to it. It must have taken a whole roll of tape, because his entire shirt was hidden underneath the gray.
Oliver was on his hands and knees laughing so hard that he was crying. “Best. Party. Ever,” he managed to get out between laughs.
“Shut up, Harry Perry,” Xander said. “I’m seriously going to pee on myself.”
I rushed to Xander’s side to help him, but before I could peel back a single strip of tape, the front door slammed open, and the entire penthouse shook.
A beer bottle toppled off the bar and shattered on the floor.
The clicking of heels filled the now-silent suite, and we all stared as a very angry-looking Courtney stormed into the room.
“Oh shit,” Xander said.
A cheerful whistle filled the air. “Morning, guys,” Alec said as he strolled into the living room. He looked freshly showered and dressed for the day, not like he’d partied all night long. When he spotted Courtney, he spun back around, attempting to escape before she noticed him.
“Don’t you dare move a foot, Alec,” Courtney hissed. “You boys were supposed to be down in the lobby half an hour ago. What the hell is going on here?”
“Well, we had a party,” Xander started to explain.
“Clearly,” she said, her impatience obvious.
“It wasn’t supposed to be a big one,” Oliver said, “but then—”
“Honestly, what’s gotten into you boys lately?
” Courtney said, cutting him off. She shook her head a moment later.
“Never mind. I don’t think I want to hear the answer to that question.
Someone go find JJ right now. You four have ten minutes to meet me downstairs.
” Then Courtney was gone, the door slamming behind her.
“Oh my God,” I said, slumping down onto the couch. “This is all my fault, isn’t it? I’m so sorry, you guys.” At first nobody said anything, but then Alec started laughing. When Oliver and Xander joined in, my mouth fell open. “What? Guys, this isn’t funny!”
“This is not your fault,” Oliver said between laughs. “Don’t apologize.”
“But you threw a party for me, and now Courtney’s pissed.”
Alec shrugged. “You know what? I’m glad.”
I gaped at him. “What? Why?”
Oliver nodded. “Me too. When was the last time we did something that pissed her off this much?” he asked, as if making Courtney angry was some kind of accomplishment he’d been missing out on.
“I can’t remember,” Alec answered. The boys considered this for a moment before grinning at each other like dorks.
“You’re all psycho,” I said, shaking my head. “Completely psycho.”
“Hey, guys?” Xander said then. “I still have to pee.”