9 Lana’s Party #2
“I said his name’s Monty! Anyway, there was this guy who came a little after my sexting story, when I was sixteen.
He was my first kiss. It was gross. He slobbered so much, his tongue felt like a snail.
Don’t laugh! And to make things worse, he tried to feel me up, and he clearly thought he was a total player, and I couldn’t stop laughing.
I’m super-ticklish, you know. The worst part was when he tried to take off my bra.
I couldn’t stop squirming and it made him super mad. ”
“Poor guy,” Ross said, still holding my wrist, which I’d tried and failed to pull away from him. “He was probably traumatized.”
“It’s not my fault I’m ticklish.”
“I’ll bet he’s never had the courage to try to take off a girl’s bra since. I wonder if you’re still that ticklish.”
In a panic, I shouted, “I am, b-b-but…” I twisted, trying to get away, but I was trapped in the car. His finger dug deep into one of my ribs. “Ross! Stop! Please!”
We were locked in a struggle. I couldn’t stop writhing and giggling as I swore at him, trying to get him to stop, but he was having the time of his life.
“Stop or I’ll hit you!” I shouted. He didn’t pay any attention.
Finally I managed to trap one of his hands, but the other one was still free.
I pulled my legs up and flopped them in his lap, trying to stop his other arm, but it was useless. He kept torturing me.
“Stop! Stop! Please!”
“Wow, you really are ticklish,” he said.
“Hell yes I am, asshole!”
“Easy, Jen, you don’t have to insult me. I was just checking.”
I noticed where his hands had stopped: one on my stomach, the other on my thigh, just where the hem of my dress ended.
I got gooseflesh when I realized he was rubbing me softly.
I don’t think he realized it. And the silence that embraced us then was different from before, with us so close and with the tension finally broken.
I had almost forgotten the rest of the world existed when he lurched back and turned around.
I didn’t know why he was being so stiff all of a sudden until I looked back and saw Will, Sue, and Naya getting in the back.
I pulled my legs back, sat up straight, and adjusted my dress.
“I hope we aren’t interrupting something,” Naya said with a grin.
Ross started the car with a smile and ignored her, instead asking, “What took you so long?”
“She didn’t know what to wear,” Sue said.
Naya announced that she’d wanted to look cute, and giving her a smug look, Ross asked, “You call that cute?” She leaned in between us and said, “Jack Ross, I’d like to remind you I know some very embarrassing stories from your childhood.
And if you don’t want them to come out, you’ll change your attitude about my dress right now. ”
“Don’t worry about him,” Will said. “He’s got no taste. You look gorgeous.”
They kissed, and Sue pretended to be vomiting.
When we parked, I looked at the enormous house with my jaw hanging open.
“This is a sorority house?” I said. “It looks like a museum.” The vestibule was empty when we walked inside, and it wasn’t until we’d climbed the marble staircase that we could hear the music.
We found people dancing and drinking in the hallway, but Ross walked past them to a door that led into a packed ballroom.
It must have been soundproof because we had barely heard any noise coming from it before we opened the door.
There was a bar with a bartender, an ice fountain, everything.
I would probably have appreciated how impressive it was if it wasn’t in Lana’s honor.
Will and Ross waved and said hi to people as we ordered our drinks.
Sue, well…what would you expect? Even after two years there, she didn’t seem to have many friends.
I got a beer and looked around, taking a deep breath and feeling worried that everyone could tell I didn’t belong there.
But I’m not sure why I felt so insecure.
They were probably just trying to have fun and hadn’t given me a second thought.
Ross joked, “Why are you glancing around so much? Trying to figure out who to send a picture of your boobs to?”
I went to slap him, but before I could, I heard that annoying voice shouting, “Babe!” and there Lana was, interrupting us.
Babe? Were we really starting with that shit again?
He smiled at her faintly and she threw herself—literally threw herself—at him.
I limited myself to taking a sip of beer while she squeezed him.
Finally, Ross pushed her away, visibly uncomfortable.
“I’m so happy you came! And you wore my favorite jacket! I can still remember the day I gave it to you. You used to look so sexy in it in high school…”
“Yeah,” Ross responded shyly, “it’s just the first thing I threw on…”
New rule: From now on, leather jackets were out.
“Jenna!” she then shouted, and gave me one of those weird hugs where you don’t really touch the person, you just sort of pat them on the back. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I mumbled.
I’d told myself I’d be nice to her. I’d have to see her if I was going to live with Ross. And she’d never shown the least bit of meanness to me. She didn’t deserve to be treated this way. But being nice to her was an uphill struggle.
“This place is huge,” I told her, just to say something.
“Once you’ve lived here for a while, it doesn’t feel like it,” she said.
“But yeah, we’ve got everything: a library, a common room, two kitchens, a game room, and on the top floor are all the bedrooms. Nobody can go up there though.
Maybe to one of the balconies, I don’t know, but we tried to lock everything so no one will go in there and break something.
Anyway, Ross, you should come with me for a sec.
There’s a ton of people from high school, and they all said they’re dying to see the two of us. ”
The two of us? OK, I was over this. “I just saw a guy from one of my classes,” I said, “I’m going to go say hi.
” It was a lie, but I needed a break from this.
Lana smiled, of course, and dragged Ross off into the crowd.
Surprise! There I was alone again. I walked over to the window, looked out, and saw the staircase that led down to the pool.
It must have been heated because there were people swimming in it despite the cold.
That seemed weird to me, but I guessed it was one of those things rich people did.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw it was Will.
He told me, “Stay here a sec. I’m going to go get a drink.
” He must have remembered I’d told him I would make up with Naya.
She looked happy and asked, “Don’t you think this sorority house is amazing! ”
“It’s bigger than my high school,” I said. “But listen, I need to tell you something. I wanted to apologize for…you know…just for being weird with everyone this week. Especially with you.”
“Jenna, you don’t even need to mention it.”
“I’m serious. It’s a bad habit of mine. I get upset and I take it out on people, and it’s not right. You don’t deserve that.”
“Listen, you’ve got your reasons,” she said.
“I’d have felt pushed aside too if I was you and someone like Lana showed up.
And we should have tried to make sure you felt welcome despite her.
Anyway, I couldn’t be upset with you. I still owe you big time for the night with the necklace.
If you and Ross hadn’t shown up, I’d probably never have gotten it back. ”
“What was the story with that, anyway?” I asked. “I mean, this chick invites you over and then treats you like that?”
She tried to protest that it was a long story, but I told her I had time, and she began.
“Back in high school, like I said, Will, Ross, Lana, and me were like the group. We were always together. But Lana started to feel like kind of a drag to me. She’s so perfect, right?
Not that I don’t like her, but…being her friend is like constantly being in her shadow.
And so I got this idea that I wanted to hang out with this other, more popular group of girls.
One of them was the chick who invited me to the party.
And she basically said if I wanted to be their friend, I’d need to run errands for them, carry their backpacks, do their homework, all that kind of stuff.
And I went along with it! And that same girl, one day she threw her food in the trash and told me I had to pick it out and eat it if I wanted to hang out with her.
And that was the end of my social climbing.
After that, they all started bullying me. Especially about my parents’ divorce.”
“So you went back to Will, Ross, and Lana?” I asked.
“More or less. Will always stood up for me. For Chris, too. Chris was older, but people picked on him a lot. Ross was there for us, too. Lana, though… She was always just so stuck up her own ass that it’s like she didn’t even realize we existed, really.”
Just then we saw Lana emerge from the crowd, hanging on Ross’s arm while they talked to what I assumed were their friends.
“The girl who stole my necklace changed schools, so I didn’t even think about her again till the party the other day.
I actually thought she’d changed and that she was going to say she was sorry or something.
But she made me feel like I was a stupid fifteen-year-old again.
You know, I even changed some of my classes here to avoid running into her and her friends.
And it was sort of lucky because one of the classes I added was in psychology, and it talked about dysfunctional families, and I think I might actually major in it.
That way when I grow up, I can help out people with the same problems I had when I was a kid. ”
“That’s really impressive,” I said, and we gave each other a hug.