34I sat down on the old, tattered couch whose cushions sunk in from one too many people sitting in them and the white stuffing coming out from a couple too many years of use. My legs ached from standing, dancing and running too long without a rest while my whole body felt tired and heavy from two days of little sleep and way too much going on. I bit on the edges of my Styrofoam cup that had long ago been emptied of what had been inside while I watched the moving masses around me.
It wasn't that I was enjoying myself, I was, even though I only knew about three people out of the countless others and I had long ago lost those three people. I was in the basement of the large house the party was being held at, to which there were no parents present to but plenty of adults, if you considered 20-year-olds who were almost completely drunk adults.
I felt the couch sink in from the weight of another and I looked over, half expecting to see the shining face of my best friend but was completely shocked when my eyes meet slightly glazed over ones. I delicately raised an eye brow at the guy sitting next to me and my hazy mind tried to connect his face with a name but I don't think anyone had introduced me to him.
"Hello." He said with a boyish smile that made the corners of my mouth twitch into a smile, even though I'm sure it looked quite awkward. It's not that I didn't do well with new people, it's just that sometimes my mind starts verbally assaulting me, nit-picking at every little thing that's wrong with my outer appearance until I'm left to a pile of self-conscience, berating mush.
"Hey." I was thankfully that even though my voice was a bit raw sounding, that I did manage to pull off a single greeting without stumbling or stuttering.
"Why are you sitting here all by yourself?" His voice was low and raspy, with a slight drawl that probably came from one too many Hard Mikes Lemonade's. I gave his appearance a once over, noticing for the first time that he was shirtless and his tan, muscular stomach was in plain few for me to gawk at, which I did but only for a few seconds. Why would someone like him be talking to someone like me? As in someone like me I mean a slightly overweight, ordinary teenage girl.
"I decided to sit before my legs gave out on me." I answered truthfully. See, it wasn't that I was shy because shy people would have just muttered 'I don't know' or something equally as lame but I was just unnaturally quiet. It's not like I liked people over looking at me or just blending into the wall paper but there was just no way around it. 16 years of my life was unusually hard to get over.
"Tired?" He asked, that boyish smile spreading across his face that had the beginning of a 5 o'clock shadow in his dark hair. Speaking of his hair it looked like someone had grabbed it and pulled for a while and when they finally released it, it stayed like that.
"A bit." I answered with a smile of my own while trying to simultaneously work the tension out of my shoulders and cover up my legs self consciously. "What are you doing here?" I asked then yelling at myself for wording the harmless question that way but I was rewarded with a deep chuckle as he moved closer.
"Talking to a pretty girl." I was in slight awe at how completely adorable he was because normally I would have thought that unbelievably corny and probably resisted the urge to gag but he said it the way a 5-year-old boy would and I couldn't help smiling at it.
"Should I get up so you two can be alone?" I asked. I couldn't help my attitude because for some reason, it always popped up in the most inappropriate situations.
"Probably." He answered with a serious look. I felt my stomach plunge before getting a little angry and making a move to get up. A tan, big arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back down into a sitting position but much closer to him then I was before. "I was just kidding." I looked at him, our faces only mere centimeters apart and could smell the alcohol and cigarettes on his breath. I should have been disgusted, I should have pushed him off right there and then but the little voice piped up in the back of my mind reminding me how long it's been since my last kiss and how utterly cute this guy was in front of me, even if he was a bit drunk. I had had a few drinks also throughout the night and even though I brushed the haziness off as my sleep depravation I knew it was more so because of the alcohol that was working it's way through my blood system.
"Oh." I managed to say before grinning like a fool. I bit my lip to try and stop the grin and he licked his lips.
"I'm going to kiss you now." He said in a playful tone that made me think he was younger than I had initially thought. He first brushed his lips against mine lightly, probably waiting for a smack or a knee in the groin but when none came he pressed his lips against mine in a somewhat messy kiss. Whoever describes kisses as flashing lights, fireworks and little naked babies with arrows is a complete dimwitted moron who has never been kissed before. (1) A good kiss is raw and almost indescribable except for that wanting feeling you have that makes your whole body buzz even days after the kiss. Now admittedly I'm not the best person to compare kisses because I've only had a few in my short-lived life but this one, was by far, at the top of the list.
His barely there beard scratched at my face and my fingers itched to touch it so I slowly let my hand wander from his remarkably smooth chest, almost devoid of all hair except his small trail leading to areas I rather not go into right now, to his strong jaw as I brushed my fingers across his stubble than traveled up to his soft, thick hair. About the time my hand hit his hair was around the same time bite my lip gingerly then sucked softly on the slightly swollen lip.
We broke apart when there was a sudden 'whoop' from behind us. I looked over his shoulder to the pool table, noticing that one of the many college guys was staring at us openly then noticed we were looking at him to which he just grinned and winked at us.
"Free porn!" He yelled and a couple guys that had not noticed us yet because we were in a slightly secluded part of the basement, turned around and started shouting things. I rolled my eyes skyward as the guy next to me buried his head into my shoulder and I felt his grinning mouth against my arm.
The guys quickly went back to playing their beer pong when they noticed we weren't going to do anything further, especially with them watching. The fuzzy headed guy looked up and gave me another one of his boyish grins that had probably gotten me into all this trouble in the first place. I remembered I hadn't gotten his name, which made me feel a little skankish but when I went to go ask he questioned me first.
"So where do you go school?" He asked curiously, not moving away even though we were basically on top of each other.
"Romeo." I answered and he nodded, pretending to know what school that was but by the blank look on his face I knew he had no idea where or what it was. "You?"
"Oh, not here, I live back in New York." I drew my eyebrows up at this as he adjusted his body so now I was more laying on him then he was on me. I thought for a second that I was cuddling with an almost complete stranger but quickly brushed it off which I later blamed on the alcohol for my carelessness.
"You here on vacation?" I asked, just trying to make conversation even though I was pretty positive that he was here on vacation.
"Yeah, you know the Fields?" He asked and I mutely nodded, my best friend was one of them and he was going out with my other best friend. "Well I went to high school with Jack-o back in Maine and I came here to visit him with a few buddies and then we got thrown into these parties." He gave me that boyish grin that I knew didn't go along with his age. Jack finished high school this year and when he said he went to high school gave away the point that he was no longer in school.
"How old are you?" I asked curiously. He gave me a toothy smile.
"How old are you?" He countered back.
"101." I answered with a grin and he gave me a light kiss on my slightly swollen lips.
"You're a bit old for me." Another boyish grin spread across his handsome face and I knew that if I died at that very moment, it wouldn't bug me so much.
Our conversation for the rest of the night stayed on the light side, talking mostly of old things like Nintendo-the original-, Indiana Jones, old cartoons like 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' and such things. Everything involving hands, lips and other body parts drifted to the more innocent things like small pecks, ticklish spots and sometimes licking to gross the other out. The slightly buzzed state my mind use to be in was wearing off and my tiredness grew throughout the night.
"Do you need a lift home?" He asked after my seemingly thousand yawn.
"No, sorry, it's not you. I just haven't had any real sleep for a couple days but I'm staying at my friends house down the street." I answered groggily, my voice even more raw from talking so much and the acids of the liquor that had worn away at my throat.
"I'll walk you." We both stood up, stretching out our sore and tired limbs that had cramped up slightly from sitting in the same position for so long on the lumpy and unstable couch. I cracked my back and he made a disgusted face at me. "Gross." He said in a childish voice, like I had just given him the cooties or something.
"Like your face-" I let out a girlish squeak as he moved quickly to my sides, digging his fingers in almost painfully then moving them about until laughter bubbled up as I tried to curl within myself.
"Courtney! I knew that was your laughter I heard!" I dodged quickly behind Kalii and Nathan, sticking my tongue out in defiance now that I had something sturdy to guard me.
"Guess I don't have to walk you home. Bye snug." I made a face at the nickname but before I could yell at him, he walked off to the new group of guys playing some game dealing with shots. Kalii grabbed my arm tightly and grinned up at me before we began walking, her boyfriend and my best friend trailing behind us with a disturbed look on his face.
I danced around my kitchen with energy that only came when I was home alone and was finally aloud to blast my music as loud as I want and do the cha-cha all throughout the house. It had been over a month since the party and my head was still buzzing from thoughts of the guy who I basically knew everything about, except his name. I was going to hound Kalii and Nathan for the names but Kalii went off to Florida two days later and Nathan went upstate about three hours after the party.
When they came back I thought it'd be too awkward to call him up, 'hey you remember me? That random girl you sort of made out with then talked to for a couple hours about two weeks ago?' Yeah, how about not?
So I just brushed it off as a great night and left it at that. Yes, I do admit that it'd be cool if he-
"Someone's calling me?" I asked with a grin, overly happy that someone was calling me because I hardly got calls, as pathetic as that is. I picked up my black and silver slightly scratched up cell phone and flipped it open. "Hello?" I asked. I would have done something absurd like 'you. What do you want?' if it had been a friend but the number was unknown.
"Hi, is Courtney there?" An unfamiliar smooth, obviously male voice asked. I looked at my reflection in the microwave mouthing 'who the heck' to myself.
"Speaking, who's this?" I asked, plugging one ear because I had forgotten to turn down the loud music that was now screaming 'you and me baby aint nothing but mammals so lets do it like they do it on the discovery channel'.
"Ron." He answered and that name rang absolutely no bells in my head. "Oh, I didn't give you my name?" He laughed and a prick of familiarity surged through me. "Ah, I'm such an idiot and this is quite awkward. So you remember a party like… a month ago?" He seemed embarrassed at such a question and I almost squealed in girlish happiness but instead spun around and did a little happy dance.
"Oh! Mario!" I said through laughter, remembering how he told me when he was little he use to have dreams about saving the Princess in the Marion games.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you that." He said with a chuckle as I continued to do my happy dance at him calling me and me being beyond ecstatic that he actually called me. I then questioned how exactly he got my phone number which made him laugh even more nervously. He explained that he went through Jack, who got it from his cousin Nathan, who happens, as I've said before, to be my best friend.
Without thinking I invited him over, even though I knew my parents wouldn't like it but I really had the need to see him. The silence seemed to stretch on and my happy dance stopped suddenly as my stomach leaped up into my throat.
"Sure." He said easily and I continued with my happy dance with simultaneously giving him my address. Talk about multi-tasking, huh?
When I got off the phone I noticed how dirty the house looked and how I was dressed still in my jammie's with my hair thrown-up in a pony tail and no make-up on what-so-ever. I ran around the house, cleaning up the messes I could then covering the ones that could be. I quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a long red Beatles tank-top.
I didn't have enough time to do anything about my hair or make-up as the dogs started barking their heads off and over the music I heard the faint sound of the doorbell. I ran towards, flipping off the radio on the way to it, then opened the door and smiled as I looked up at him.
"Hey, you can hear that music a mile away." He flashed me that boyish grin which I was glad didn't change like his voice had. His small stubble of a beard had now become a full one that my fingers twitched to touch by I resisted the urge as I noticed the two other guys standing behind him. "You home alone?" He asked while walking in, his two friends following him.
"No, my boyfriends in my room taking a nap so we have to be quiet." I said with a grin of my own.
"Smart ass." He cracked, kicking off his shoes before bending down and petting the two medium overly-happy dogs that were almost peeing themselves they were so happy.
"Rather a smart one then a dumb one." I commented before walking into the living room and plopping down on one of the two recliners.
"Hardy har har." He gave me half of the grin and sat down on top of me.
"Get off, you're heavy!" I said, laughing easily and glad that the air wasn't awkward from the month of not seeing each other or talking.
They all only stayed for about half an hour, which I was sort of happy about because I didn't want my parents walking in to see three 20-year-old guys in their house without their consent. That and also the two other guys were being kind of jerk-ish, calling me jailbait among other stupid names which at first didn't bother me but after the 20th time, it started irking me.
I think the real reason they left so suddenly was because of what happened involving cat throw-up. I hadn't noticed it until Ronald, which was his real full name that I enjoyed all too much calling him, was walking straight towards it. It was one of those situations where you see what's going to happen but part of you doesn't really care if it happens and the other part is just too damn slow to do anything to prevent it. Yet when he did step into the small pile of vomit I started laughing. And no I don't mean a chuckle or two, I mean full out snorting involved laughter that even when I was out of breath and could no longer breathe, I was still laughing.
That's when they left.
Which was good on one point because my parents walked in 15 minutes later, completely oblivious as to the three guys that had come over.
I was a little bummed about the situation because Ronald, no I'm seriously not kidding about his name, probably thought I was beyond mean and disgusting. Actually, I was full-blown out depressed about it but I tried to laugh it off as I was talking to my friend later the night about it when my phone starting buzzing and glowed that I had a new message.
I almost got up and did a replay of my pervious happy dance when I read the message from the slightly familiar number.
u owe me a new pair of socks snug.
1- I don't mean to offend anyone with that kissing comment, it's just how I feel about it. That's all.
Yes, this is an actual true story! And it happened to me so yes, I finally have my own slightly romantic story to tell. ::continues doing happy dance::