Chapter 9 Rather Be With You
RATHER BE WITH YOU
“Shoulda went with Romeo and Juliette, dude. Who are you even supposed to be?” Micha asks, clutching his gut with one hand through his laughter. The other holds a blue can that looks like it might be a beer.
Beside him, Andy rolls her eyes heavenward as though to plead for reprieve. “He’s Westley, and she’s Buttercup.”
“Buttercup?” Micha frowns. “Who the hell is Buttercup?”
“Yo!” Kevin shouts from inside the large house with a mountain backdrop. Kevin, apparently, is wealthy. “Princess Bride. Fuck, yeah. Love that movie, man.”
“It would be Kevin,” Andy mutters. I snort to contain a laugh and blush when Holt’s amused eyes slide to me.
Holt bumps his fist to Kevin’s. “At least you’re cultured.” He throws a thumb at Micha. “This idiot doesn’t even know what The Princess Bride is.”
Kevin swings his arms wide, and his head rolls back enough to make him look cocky and sweet. “To be fair, I have a sister.”
“Yeah.” Elijah joins the group. “And Mr. Mack showed it in—what? Grade six?”
“I think the fool had Mono then,” Holt says. “Wasn’t he gone for a week or something?”
Andy bobs her head. “Yeah, I remember that. Idiot stole a kiss from Natalie, and she was sick the week before, right?”
“It was a dare.” Micha turns to walk away. “You all suck.”
“You walked into it,” Holt calls after him, shoulders bouncing with teasing laughter.
Micha waves a hand. “I need new friends.”
“Good luck with that!” Andy yells, but there’s humor in her eyes as she turns them on me. “He’ll be back.” Her eyes slide down my costume. “See you found that epic costume after all.”
“Yeah.” I beam. “Holt asked Mrs. Wilder to make them. I guess she used to make all their costumes when they were little. She was excited to do it this year, and she did great.” I do a spin, letting the red gown billow. “I’m going to keep this dress forever.”
“Game’s on upstairs,” Kevin tells Holt as Andy loops her arm through mine, tugging me away from Holt with a kind of strength that pays homage to her costume. She’s a sexy Wonder Woman, and she’s killing it.
“Love your costume, by the way,” I tell her as she pulls me through the house and into the kitchen where the sink is overflowing with ice and cans of Palm Bay coolers. She gives her shoulders a shimmy. “Kevin’s big sister bought the goods. Said as long as no one drives, she doesn’t mind.”
“Really?” I feel my eyes do a sweep of the room. “Where are his parents?”
Andy shrugs, grabbing a can from the ice. “I don’t know, but they gave the yes to the party. They’re probably in the city for some big thing for Kev’s dad’s company.”
She cracks the top and hands it to me. Cautiously, I take it. “I don’t know if I should drink.”
“Tate’s picking you guys up, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, but…”
“Just don’t get loaded.” She cracks another for herself, throwing her head back on a long drink. Then she frowns. “Have you drunk before?”
“No.”
Her eyes snap wide. “Really?”
I don’t know why she’s surprised. I’m fifteen. “Really.”
“I’ll watch out for you. So will Holt,” she assures. “We do lots of these parties. It’s a small town.” She shrugs. “Not a whole lot else to do in the winter, ya know?”
“Sure.” I take a cautious sniff. It smells sugary sweet, so I take a sip. “Not bad.”
“Right?” Andy throws back another big gulp before she loops her arm around mine again. And then we’re walking from the kitchen, up a wide set of stairs to a bonus room where a hockey game is projected on a big screen that’s been pulled from the ceiling. “Kevin’s house is super cool, eh?”
Glancing around, I nod. “What do his parent’s do?”
“His mom is stay at home, but his dad owns a law office in the city. He commutes every day, but he makes bank, so everyone is happy.”
Holt catches sight of me and calls, “Faye.” He taps his lap. “Come here.”
Andy tsks and releases me so I can go to him, which is really where I want to be, anyway. I lower into Holt’s lap just as the Vikings score a goal, and the room erupts. I take another sip of my drink as the cheers settle, but the happy buzz doesn’t.
Micha sits back on the couch beside us, pushing a sharp whistle between his teeth as he gives his knee a pat. “Andy.”
Her face flushes, but she hides it with another swallow of her drink as she moves across the room to confidently plant her booty in Micha’s lap. It doesn’t take long for Micha to set his hand on her hip, holding her in place like Holt holds me.
I wonder when the two of them will start being, well, the two of them. I cast my gaze to the screen as I settle into Holt’s lap. And then I realize I have no idea what I’m watching. Mom and Dad aren’t hockey fans, and as such, I’ve never watched.
Twisting in Holt’s lap, I feel his eyes slide from the screen to me. My heart gives a familiar flutter. It’s the flutter I feel every time he looks at me. “What position do you play?”
“Forward.” His eyes move from me to the screen and back again. “I like the action.”
“Oh.”
His lips quirk, and for the first time, he asks me, “Do you watch hockey at all?”
With a nervous laugh, I shake my head. “Nope. Not unless you’re on the ice. Even then, I only watch you.”
His eyes shine, like he likes that. But he says, “How did I end up with a girlfriend who doesn’t watch hockey?”
I lift a shoulder. “You got lucky.”
“Guess I’m just going to have to teach you.”
I think the alcohol makes me brave, because I breathe, “I think there’s a few things you’re going to have to teach me.”
His eyes heat, dropping from mine to my lips, and back up again. He’s not watching the screen anymore. His attention is fixed wholly on me. “Yeah?”
Heat prickles my skin at the drop in his pitch.
“Yeah.” Gosh, I’m breathless. My throat feels dry, so I take another drink.
Holt leans in. “Like what, baby?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I wiggle in his lap just enough to feel the hard ridge of him grow under my bum. Heat spreads through all the parts of me, and I take another sip. This time, to cool myself down.
It doesn’t work. There is still fire in my veins, magma in my core.
I’m addicted to this. To him. To us.
“Careful, Faye,” he warns darkly. I love the sound of his husky words. I want to draw more from him. With mock innocence, I give another wiggle in his lap. His hand snaps to my hip, holding me in place as his fingertips bite into my flesh. “You’re playing a dangerous game.”
“Am I?” I ask innocently, giving him wide, doe eyes.
“Jeez, baby.” He sets his beer down on the table beside the couch, his arms moving around my waist to tug me hard into his chest. Then I feel his hips move, just slightly, under me.
That fire spreads, a wild thing burning through me, entirely uncontrolled, even as I pretend to be chill.
“How’s that feel, huh?” His mouth is close to my ear now. He’s taunting me, I realize, trying to beat me at my own game.
I refuse to let him win.
Tipping my head back into the nook of his shoulder, I whisper, “So good, Holt.”
He curses, low and devilish, before I’m lifted from the couch and pulled down a hall.
The room is small and dark, but I can see by the blue moonlight that spills in through the little window, that it’s a bathroom.
The door closes, and then Holt’s hand is in my belly and he’s pushing me into the door.
His mouth connects with mine the moment my back connects with the door.
His kiss isn’t like the others. It doesn’t start soft and slow and curious. It’s instantly hot. Instantly wild. And I’m instantly set aflame.
I love these stolen moments with him. I love exploring and experiencing him.
His hands roam up and down my back, tugging my hips from the door as he grinds into me.
An explosion of aching need erupts inside me.
My hands move to the back of his neck, and I pull his mask from his face in the seconds before he lifts me onto the counter.
His hands find my knees and he pulls my legs apart, shoving his body between them before he’s kissing me again.
I can feel him there now. A whimpered, “Holt,” leaves my mouth.
He pulls back to murmur, “Just making out, Faye. Nothing more.”
And then his mouth is on mine again. His hands roam my body over my dress, exploring me in a way no one ever has. Nerves and need knot in my core. My skin feels different. Tight. New.
Everything with Holt is new.
I love it all.
We kiss for what feels like forever, and still, it’s not long enough. Then, a cheer unlike the others echoes through the house, shattering the spell as Holt pulls back, his forehead touching mine as he laughs.
“What?”
“The Vikings won.”
“Oh.”
“And I missed it.”
“I’m sorry.” I wince.
He shakes his head. “No. I’d rather be doing this with you, Faye. I’d just rather be with you.”
That’s when the music sounds loud. I feel the bass of it in my butt on the counter and laugh. “I guess the party is starting.”
He smirks. “You like dancing?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ll like it with me,” he promises.
I like everything with Holt, but I don’t tell him that as he pulls me from the room into the hall.
The lights have been dimmed, and there’s a red strobe-ish light beaming onto the floor below, where the party has begun.
Halloween costumes of all kinds move, clustered together.
The furniture has all been pushed to the side, making way for the dance floor where girls in flashy costumes spin and grind on the boys who appreciate every stitch of fabric they wear.
I suddenly feel overdressed and hesitant. It doesn’t last as Holt pulls me into the crowd of bodies, spinning me until my back is in his chest and his hands are on my hips. And then he starts to move.
I feel the same feelings I felt when we were in the bathroom. It’s like we’re making out all over again, but this time, with dance.
I love getting older, I decide. Getting older is fun.