Bound Together (11 page)

We crossed the lobby and headed back to the others. “
Zoey’s
going to come with us,” I said.

“Not wearing that, she’s not,” Stephanie said, wrinkling her nose.

I thought Zoey looked fine in her jeans and T-shirt, but before either Zoey or I knew what was happening, the girls were carting her up the stairs by the elbows.

They emerged fifteen minutes later and I hardly recognized Zoey. She wore a black tank top and a tiny skirt and her long dark hair curled around her bare shoulders. She looked
smokin
’ hot, way better than either Amanda or Stephanie, though they’d probably taken three times as long to get ready. I looked away and re-checked my wallet, counting my money again, even though I knew I had forty-six euros.

We walked about a mile and reached
le Secret
, and paid to get in.  We stuck together in an awkward clump by the bar while we scoped things out. After shouting over the music to find
out what the girls wanted, Bobby and I returned with drinks. There were two floors with separate music playing, the main floor was more of a lounge and the second floor had loud-thumping dance music with lights and lasers flashing from the ceiling. There were basically two types of people there, tourists like us and sleazy guys trying to pick up the tourists.

Amanda and Stephanie held hands and headed to the dance floor, trying to put on a show. Bobby gawked at them. He wouldn’t have had a chance with either of them back home, but that was the funny thing about this trip, you could forge new relationships and be someone different than who you were at home. Bobby joined the girls on the dance floor and left Zoey and I standing together, sipping our drinks.

It was too loud to talk, but I tried anyways. “Having fun?”

She nodded.

I tried again. “Do you like to dance?”

She shrugged.

It wasn’t a
no
. I wanted to say something clever, like ‘when in Rome’ and grab her hand. But I took a sip of my beer instead. Stephanie headed towards us with a toothy smile. She grabbed my hand. “Come on.”
And pulled me towards the dance floor.
I glanced back at Zoey, but let Stephanie lead me away.

Stephanie swayed her hips in front of me, bumping her hips into mine. I think she meant it to be sexy, but it just seemed
forced
. I wasn’t good at dancing so I settled for shifting my weight from side to side. Stephanie grabbed my hands and put them on her waist. She smiled up at me. I wasn’t really feeling this. I looked back to check on Zoey, but she wasn’t where I left her. My eyes scanned the room, searching for her. Had she left? I looked around Stephanie’s bouncing head and spotted Zoey on the other side of the dance floor being freaked by some Italian stallion with his shirt unbuttoned too far. He had his hands all over her. I moved Stephanie to the side so I could get a better look, but she mistook my touch for attention and dropped down in front of me, grinding into my lap. I was about to go rip that creep’s hands off Zoey, but then I noticed the look on her face. She
wasn’t hating
it. 

The song turned to a slow one, and I side stepped out of Stephanie’s talons before she could pull me in. I walked over to Zoey and
Rico Suave
. “Zoey, come on, I think we should go.” I placed my hand on her elbow.

“What you’re the only one who can get any action on this trip? A bit hypocritical, don’t
ya
think?” She nodded towards Stephanie, who stood watching us, pouting.

“Zoey, you don’t even know this guy—he likes look he’s twenty-five.”

“Fabien, Matt. Matt, Fabien,” she introduced us.

He gave me a wink and pulled Zoey in close. I could definitely take him.

“Don’t be a cock-block.” She waved me away.

I felt Stephanie tugging at my arm. “Are you coming back?” I looked at Zoey one last time. She seemed so carefree, moving in tune with the music, smiling coyly at her Italian dance partner.

“Ah, yeah.”
I let Stephanie grab my arm and pull me towards her. 

*****

I checked my watch and realized we had fifteen minutes to get before our curfew. I gathered everyone up and we headed outside into the cool night air. It was sprinkling outside when we started the walk back.

“Who was mister tall, dark and handsome?” Amanda asked Zoey.

“
Fabien
.”

“Even his name’s sexy,” Stephanie said.

I walked ahead, a little embarrassed that I’d tried to interfere with
Zoey’s
pick up.

“Hey, Parker —
wait
up,” she jogged up to me.

“Hey.”

We walked together in silence for a few minutes. The sky opened up and the rained poured down on us in fat, wet drops. I looked up and let the water splash down on my face. It felt good, refreshing.

“Wow,” Zoey held her hands out in front of her, palms up, catching the rain.

“Come on,” I grabbed her hand. I wasn’t sure why, but I’d been
wanting
to touch her all night. I started jogging down the middle of the street, pulling her along. Our feet splashed clumsily in puddles as we ran. Zoey squeezed my hand tighter and we ran as fast as we could through the rain. The others were soon far behind us. I pulled Zoey around a corner, into an alley and held her with her back against the wall. I grabbed her waist, pulling her under the awning, away from the streams of water pouring from the blackened sky. Her eyes met mine and realizing I was clutching her waist, I pulled my hands away, quickly. I took a step back from her. We stood facing each other and our chests rose and fell heavily while we caught our breath. Water ran down her face and plastered her hair to her cheeks. Her tank top was glued to her body and she had goose bumps on her arms. She still looked beautiful and as always, her blue eyes captivated me.

“Hey, what are you guys doing? Mr. Rhinehart’s going to flip if we’re late,” Bobby called from the street. Zoey and I broke apart and jogged out of the alley after them.

When we reached the hotel, we left squishy, wet footprints through the lobby. Instead of heading for the elevator, Zoey turned towards the stairs. “I’m
gonna
take the stairs,” she said.

The others continued to the elevator, while I followed Zoey to the stairs. She pulled opened the fire door and started up the stairs. For the first two flights, I simply followed behind her, but when we reached the door to the third floor, I stepped in front of her before she could open it.

“Did you have fun tonight?”

             
“Yeah, did you?” she asked.

             
“Going to night clubs is definitely not a normal activity for me, but it was alright,” I tried to sound cool.

             
“Why didn’t you go with them?” she asked. “Stephanie likes
you,
you could probably hook up with her if you wanted to.”

             
I shook my head. “I’m done with girls like that.”

Zoey’s
smug smile told me she wasn’t quite convinced. “Well, this is me.” She motioned to the door. I moved away from the door so she could pass through. “Night,” she said behind her.

“Night.”
I watched her ass as she walked away. Yeah, I would definitely be thinking about that later.

Chapter Thirteen

Zoey

Okay so maybe it was Paris’ effects on me or the
glasses of wine
I drank
last night, but Matt Parker was getting under my skin. He walked alongside me, casting his big shadow next to my smaller one. We were supposed to use our free time each day to do research for our paper, but since we still hadn’t decided, instead we used the time to explore, eat, walk the city and eat some more.

Our group visited another museum, and then Matt and I had time to wander on our own. We stopped and sat in a beautiful garden, I wished I had my sketch pad. I wouldn’t have minded staying there all day, but our hunger won out.

We wandered down the street for a few blocks until we found a little
café
tucked into a narrow side street and sat at one of the ou
tdoor tables. Today Matt ordered for me without me having to ask
then poured water from the carafe into my glass. I didn’t trust the way he was looking at me. It was a foreign concept to have someone doing things for me. I felt useless. I was used to being in control and looking after everyone, but each day away from my family I got a little more used to it.

“So what schools are you applying to for next year?” I asked.

“I’m not,” he said.

I studied his face, trying to interpret the comment. Maybe he’d already been offered a full ride somewhere and didn’t need to apply.
“How’s that?
You get good grades, right? And obviously you’re the star of our rinky-dink town’s football team.”

“Yeah, my grades are fine.”

“So why aren’t you going to college?”

“I’m going to take over my parent’s auto parts store in a few years, so I’m going to start working there fulltime next summer. I’ll probably take a few business classes at the community college.”

“Well, I plan to get the hell out of South Lake I soon as I can. I’m
gonna
apply to State and Central since they’re both a few hours away.”

“That’s cool,” he said.

“So is that what you really want to do? Stay in South Lake your entire life?” The concept baffled me. I knew doing
good
in school was my ticket out of here. I didn’t plan to end up a forty-year-old
divorcée
waiting tables at the local IHOP. I wanted something better, and could never fall for a guy who wanted to stay in our small-ass hick town just for the fun of it. I couldn’t wait to get out.

“It doesn’t really matter, my parents need me and it’s the family business. What am I supposed to do? Just walk out on them? The store was always supposed to go to me and my brother.”

I didn’t dare say anything that had to do with plans him and his brother had made, I knew I’d never talk of him of this. “So, theoretically, if you were going to go away to college, what would you want to major in?”

He thought for a minute.
“Creative writing.”

Hm.
This boy confused me, sometimes he seemed like so much more than a small town jock, but then other times, like when he said he planned to stay in South Lake, I didn’t know what to think.

Our pizza came and we dug in, happy for the distraction.

“So, you really think you’ll be happy staying in South Lake?” I asked.

He nodded. “That’s why I wanted to come on this trip, to get to see some the world while I still have the chance.”

He talked like he was chained to our town. Only, I was pretty sure it was self-imposed. We finished our food and decided to walk back to the hotel rather than continue to wander aimlessly around the city. 

We passed by a little girl that reminded me of Cora, and I stopped momentarily to watch her push a miniature baby stroller in jagged lines, then stop to check on her baby doll every few paces. Her brown hair flipped crazily around her face, just like Cora’s did in the morning before I wetted it down and slicked it back into a braid.

“She looks like your sister, right?” Matt said, noticing.

I nodded and felt a lump rise in my throat. I couldn’t worry about the kids right now. I had no control over the situation. Besides, I would be home in a few days, so I might as well enjoy my time here. We sat down on the bench across from where the girl played and both Matt and I watched her until she was too far from view.

“I liked it when you wore your hair down last night,” his voice sounded soft, bringing me back to the moment. We were sitting close on the park bench and he was looking over at me. He moved his hands carefully up to my hair and I turned to face him. I felt him work my hair free from the black elastic ponytail holder I wore every day. My hair fell down around my shoulders. He put my rubber band around his wrist. It was stretched out from overuse, but it seemed to fit perfectly around his wrist. I combed my fingers through my hair, trying to understand what had just happened.

It felt like something had changed between Matt and
I
, but I didn’t understand what. We walked back to the hotel in silence. And when we got back, we went to Matt’s room, since I was pretty sure Amanda would be camped out in mine working on her homework.  I sat down at the desk and Matt sat on his bed.
Even though I’d been in here when I’d helped him through his migraine, it felt a little strange to be in the small room with him.
I felt clumsier than usual,
more unsure
of myself than I was used to. That hair comment he made completely baffled me. Last night, Stephanie was throwing herself at him and he barely noticed, but he seemed to pay attention to the smallest things about me. I needed to test this theory to see if I was completely losing it.