SWAY (Part 1) (24 page)

Calm down, Annie
, I told myself, pacing around the big fluffy chairs before I finally sat down on one.

“Wow,” I breathed, touching my still tingling lips, which curled into a huge smile, leaving my fingers stranded on my teeth.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it,
I repeated in my head, scooting back in the seat, forcing my brain to try and put the memory away. I grabbed the white, fuzzy blanket at the end of the seat and covered up with it.

When Justin reappeared, I laughed so loud that I startled him. “What are
those
?”

“I thought we might need something bigger than a flute.”
My eyes widened in agreement. He’d filled monster margarita glasses with so much champagne that it was spilling over the sides.

I steadied the glasses while he got under the blanket with me. “I hope were not breaking some kind of Christmas Law by drinking champagne from these glasses instead of a proper Champagne flute. I don’t know if I can take any more of Pam’s interfe
rence,” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry,” Justin said sincerely. “I shouldn’t have let her push me like that…” He looked at me. “I shouldn’t have kissed you like
that.
” 

“I kissed you back,” I said shyly. “It’s my fault, too.”

His eyes cut away from mine. “Well, we shouldn’t have any more problems out of Pam. I threatened to go back to school early if she comes out again.”

I was relieved, but Justin seemed so unaffected that it a
lmost hurt my feelings. Here I was, all weak and mushy because of our kiss, and he wasn’t anything—just normal.

Once I had a sufficient amount of my drink, I brought up my f
avorite subject.

“What happened with you and Denise?” Talking about her would surely distract me.

“It just didn’t work out.”

“Pam said you took her home the next day.”

“Yep.”

“Do you not want to tell me why or was that one my fault,
too?”

“I just don’t know if you want to hear it. It’s pretty twis
ted.”

“I think I can take it.”

“She didn’t like you.”

“Big surprise,” I grunted.

“Ironic. Huh?”

“Yeah.
Ironic,” I smirked.

“She said to tell you Oodles Castlegate
is her stripper name.”

“She knew what I was doing?” I thought she’d be too bu
bble headed to figure it out.

“
Everybody
knew what you were doing.”

“It’s not nearly as funny as I thought it would be. Hers is actually kind of cute. Mine sounds like a cross-dressers stage name.”

“What is it?”

“Frank Fanning.”

Justin laughed. “You named your goldfish Frank?”

“So. I was five. I had no idea what I chose to name that fish would be of such great importance later.”

“Frankie Fanning would work for you. It sounds hot.”

“Uh huh. I remember you had a dog named Bubba when we met.”

“Doesn’t matter.”
He shook his head. “Boys don’t have stripper names.”

“Boys can be strippers, too.”

“Not this one.”

I laughed at the thought of Justin on a stage somewhere in a thong prancing around to a techno song. He shook his head at me as if he’d seen my vision. I stopped laughing, put an apologe
tic look on my face, and moved the subject back to Denise.

“Why didn’t Denise like me?”

“She didn’t like that you and I are so close.”

“What’s so twisted about that?” It sounded like the usual pro
blem to me.

“She said she saw us in the yard arguing.”

“And that bothered her?” I thought it would have made her happy.

“Sort of,” he said hesitantly. “She said we fought passio
nately.”

“Huh?” I giggled at the sound of his voice attached to that word. It resonated in my brain. “She broke up with you because
you and I
were fighting. With emotion.”

“Not exactly.”

“What then?”

“It’s nothing.” 

“You lie, and not well, so spill it.”

“Well…she said there was no way that you and I didn’t have feelings for each other and that she didn’t want to stick around for the day when we figured it out.” Then he added, probably for my benefit. “Whatever that means.”

“Oh.” My tingly brain caught up. That explained his car
efulness in telling me. I thought about it for a second. I’d never considered that before. Of course I had feelings for Justin—just not those feelings. Well, at least I didn’t think I had those feelings for him.

“She’s right, you know—about the
feelings
.” I intentionally slurred the word.

“She is?” Justin’s voice cracked.

“Yeah—I love you.” I heard his breath freeze, and giggled. “You’re my closest friend and a very important and necessary part of my life.”

“You’re drunk, Reynolds,” he gasped, sounding relieved that I wasn’t actually declaring my undying love for him.

“No, I’m not,” I whined, but maybe I was. I don’t think I would have said that if I’d been sober. I’d never told him I loved him before. I did. I’d just never said it.

“You just drank a bottle of champagne,
you
have to be drunk.”

“There was a whole bottle in this glass?” I flipped it upside down, shaking it, proving its emptiness.

“Almost, and combine that with what you had before...” he trailed off. Okay, so he was right. I was drunk, but so was he.

I didn’t exactly have the highest alcohol tolerance, but Pam always bought whatever had the lowest content so she could drink lon
ger. It’s just bad etiquette to be bombed when hosting a party. Then I realized he’d changed the subject on me.

“Hey wait,” I protested. “Don’t you feel the same way about me?”

“Well, yeah.”

“So tell me.”

“I just did.”

“No you didn’t. You might as well have said ditto,” I smirked. “
Which is cheating.”

“Okay,” he paused a second. “Look at me.” I did, and we started laughing immediately. I spit a little on his face causing me to laugh harder as he wiped it away.

“Come on, Reynolds,” he complained. “You’re messing it up.”

“Annie,” I corrected him.

“What?”

“When you tell me you love me, call me Annie,” I instruc
ted.

“Okay.
A-n-n-i-e.” He distorted the sound of my name, dragging it out like an idiot.

We laughed again. I imagined we sounded like hyenas to an
yone listening.

When we settled back down, Justin looked at me seriously, his blue eyes dark and smoldering. I felt like my insides had been flipped inside out. I can’t describe how it made me feel when he said the words.

“I love you, Annie,” Justin breathed. “You are my closest friend and the most important and most necessary part of my life.” My heart throbbed, my breath quickened as he rested his hand against my cheek. “I love you, Annie,” he repeated, and then we were kissing again.

“This may not be the best place for that, son.” Justin and I reco
gnized Larry’s voice instantaneously. We stopped kissing and our eyes opened wide into one another’s. I was embarrassed by my posture once I realized the position we were in. Although Larry had directed the comment to Justin, I knew it was meant for both of us.

“Your mom asked me to make sure you hadn’t left.” I could tell from his tone, he was getting a kick out of catching us like this. I rolled to my side, pulling the blanket with me. It fell short of covering my face, barely making it to the base of my neck.

“Annie.” Larry nodded, his face full of amusement.

“Larry.” I looked away realizing my inability to hide from him. His mouth twitched as he fought the smile that kept creeping up, be
gging to become laughter.

I gave up on the blanket and clumsily rolled off the chair. “I’d better go,” I said, stumbling around, checking myself for an
ything that might be out of place. I touched my blouse, which was now un-tucked from my pants, making sure all of the buttons were buttoned, and then patted myself down, trying to find my pockets to get to my keys.

“Larry.” I nodded and then to Justin. I couldn’t even say his name. I’d hardly managed to glance at him for that half s
econd, and then I headed straight for my car.

About halfway there I realized that I couldn’t leave.
I couldn’t drive
. I had three choices; stay, call a cab, or call my parents to come get me.

Justin startled me when he came up behind me. He was laug
hing because apparently I had been discussing my options out loud.

“You’re right, Reynolds. You definitely can’t drive. You should just stay here.” Justin looked at me in a way that he hadn’t before. Not like I was his friend, the girl he’d practically grown up with, but like I was a girl he wanted, a girl he’d just enjoyed ha
ving his hands all over.

Panic began to spread, chilling the blood in my veins to the point of numbness. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I think I’m going to call a cab.”

“You don’t have to.” Justin put his hands on my cheeks and smiled. I groaned and closed mine so I couldn’t see him an
ymore.

“This is weird Justin. I don’t know what that was but…” I didn’t finish my thought, out loud, anyway.
I’m having a hard time getting what just happened out of my head, so I think it would be better if I left.
He took a step toward me. My eyes flew open; I put my hands on his chest to keep him from coming any closer.

“We were making out,” he grinned, placing his hands on my waist. I shook my head to stop the memory from playing in my mind. “And we’re really good at it,” he added, a touch of a growl in his voice.

“That’s not the point.” I was in complete agreement with him. We were really good at it. But that didn’t change the fact that it shouldn’t have happened.

“It was wrong,” I stated firmly. “We’re friends and you’re pro
bably dating someone who’s going to pop out of the bushes any moment now and yell surprise!”

“I’m not dating anybody and you’re overreacting.”

“No, I’m not. I have a boyfriend.” I cringed, thinking of what I’d just done to Ryan. “A boyfriend who trusts us,” I added.

Ryan had been so trusting of Justin and me at my insis
tence that he and I weren’t attracted to each other and that I hadn’t ever thought about
being
with him. But now—now I couldn’t say either of those things without lying, which was completely freaking me out. This was wrong on so many levels. I couldn’t believe I had allowed it to happen.

Justin and I were staring at each other intensely—too intensely. He leaned toward me, and my arms, which were su
pposed to keep him away, bent like overcooked spaghetti, allowing him to come closer. He softly pressed his lips to mine again. “Stay with me, Annie,” he whispered.

My mind was so foggy.
And he was kissing my neck now. My fingers impulsively began to pull inward forming fists against his chest. I could barely breathe, hearing those words, considering the invitation, until I was able to hypothetically slap myself in the face and force myself to think rationally.

I was so attracted to Justin in that moment that it was hard
for me to make myself say no, which really surprised me. I was in love with Ryan. How could I even consider…
It had to be the champagne,
I told myself, while praying that it actually was the champagne.

“We can’t,” I murmured and it took everything I had to push him away. I felt horrible because I wanted to give in. I wanted to go i
nside with him. I wanted to stay. It would have been so easy. All I had to do was take his hand, but there was no way I could. It would ruin everything.

“I
have
to go,” I murmured. “I’m calling a cab and I’m going home and I don’t want to talk about this again,” I said. My hands remained on Justin’s shoulders as I spoke, still leaned against him, which was a good thing. I’m not sure I would have been as strong if I were looking at him.

“We’re friends and this kind of thing ruins friendships all the time. We’re both drunk and I meant what I said back there. I don’t want to lose our friendship just so that we can experiment. It would end disa
strously. Alcohol makes people do reckless things they later regret or have to go on Maury Povich for a DNA test over and I really don’t want to go on national television.”

Justin chuckled. I moved myself to look in his eyes.

“You know what I mean?” It took him a second, but he agreed. I could tell he wanted to talk me out of it, but I was glad he didn’t try.