I stood up to stretch my legs and ran my hand through my hair. “Well, thanks for that. I’ll be sure to avoid her as much as possible.”
He looked up at me with a strange expression before busting out into another fit of laughter. “Good luck to you, son. I’d let her do what she’s going to do so that you can get it over with as quickly as possible. It’s kind of like ripping off a band aid.Band-Aid. Just let her do what she’s going to do and eventually the sting will go away.”
Lily bounced up from her chair and ran over to grab my arm. “I have an idea.” Turning to Bill, she asked, “Daddy? Could Hunter and I take your truck for a little while? I’m going to take him into town and show him around.”
“Well, sure, Lil — but you know the rules: No speeding and be home before midnight.”
“Midnight, Daddy?! You can’t be serious! I turned 18 three weeks ago. I should get an extended curfew now that I’m an adult!”
“Listen Darlin’, the only thing ‘round these parts that’s open after midnight are the bars, and considering that you didn’t turn 21 three weeks ago, you have no business being there. There ain’t nothin’ good that happens for kids your age after midnight and your curfew remains the same.” Uncle Bill stated his case and by the tone of his voice, it was obvious he wouldn’t budge from his decision.
Lily and I both groaned, but I was absolutely ecstatic with her suggestion that we get out of the house. I was never one to hang around one place for too long back home and I was starting to feel the effects of cabin fever after being holed up in this place for two days.
“Let me go change real quick, Lil, and I’ll meet you outside.” I quickly ran back to my room and changed into a clean pair of jeans and a button down black shirt. I wasn’t sure where she was taking me, but I wanted to make a good impression in case we ran into any one worth noticing.
I guess now would be a good time to mention how unfaithful I’d been to Tiffany the entire time we dated. I know it will make you hate me and I’m sure you’ve been questioning my lack of thoughts towards her during my exile. To be honest, not having to deal with her was the only good part about having all my stuff taken away. I could imagine the battery in my phone was already dead from the amount of times she undoubtedly called and I was almost afraid to remotely check my voicemails for fear of hearing her shrill voice. I knew that when I returned home, I needed to man up and break up with her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it when I thought about the hour of screaming I would endure after the deed had been done. I couldn’t feel bad about hurting her though, because I knew she was the type to replace me within five minutes of splitting up.
I shook Tiffany from my thoughts and raced back out into the living room. Uncle Bill motioned for me to go outside without turning his attention away from the television. “Wheel of Fortune” was on and I grimaced when Bill started shouting out letters like the contestants could actually hear him. Quickly finding my way outside, I spotted Lily by Bill’s truck talking to … well, shit … she was talking to Ellison.
As soon as I opened the door, the two devil mutts moved their little legs as fast as they could while cruising straight towards me. By the time they were by my side, drool dripped from their tongues and I reached down to pet them, only to come up with a disgusting mixture of dog spit and snot covering my palm. I looked at the black one and noticed that the front half of its body had long hair, and the back half had short hair. It was like someone cut two dogs in half and glued them back together, making it the most ugly and pathetic creature I’d ever seen. Oddly, it was so ugly, the little furball was cute. Ellison remained focused on her conversation with Lily and I took the opportunity to love on the dogs hoping to score some points and change El’s mind about exacting revenge. From what I was told by Lily and Bill, Ellison had plenty of experience in the prank department and I wasn’t looking forward to finding out just how creative she could get.
As I started down the rickety stairs, the dogs followed at my heels and Lily and Ellison looked over to watch me as I approached.
I ran my hand through my hair and then instantly regretted it after remembering the dog cocktail that had been left on my palm. “Uh … hey girls.” The dogs were jumping on my legs attempting to get my attention and I knelt down to lavish them with love. Ellison cocked an eyebrow in my direction and I smiled up at her in response. “Looks like the mutts have forgiven me for our less than stellar introduction.”
Ellison smiled and patted her leg to call them to her. “Yeah, that’s the thing about animals. They don’t really hold grudges like people do.”
Lily snorted out a laugh and Ellison looked over and smiled mischievously at her friend.
Shit … apparently she didn’t forgive as easily as her dogs.
“Well, I’m going to head inside, Lily, you two have fun tonight.” Ellison waved as she began to walk off and Lily lunged forward and grabbed her hand.
“Come on Ellison. It’s been weeks since we went out for some fun. Why don’t you come with us tonight? We can hang at The Tavern and have a few beers. Please Ellie!” Lily followed behind Ellison as she made her way over to her house and once they were out of earshot, Ellison turned around and spoke to Lily.
Feeling awkward standing by the truck, I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against the passenger door looking anywhere but in the direction of the two girls. A sudden loud squeal grabbed my attention and when I looked in their direction I saw Lily jumping up and down excitedly. Ellison opened the front door of her house to let her dogs inside, then closed it and walked back towards Lily.
Great … a night out with the girl who was out to get me … should be interesting.
I plastered on a fake smile as they approached and Lily immediately ran around to jump in the driver’s seat while El and I climbed into the passenger side. Ellison sat in the middle and when I squeezed in beside her, the smell of her hair wrapped itself around me. She smelled like coconuts and some flower I didn’t recognize and I had to admit — it was intoxicating. The cabin of the truck was cramped and the heat from Ellison’s body seeped into the side of my chest and leg. I trained my eyes out the window of the truck, but after a few minutes, I couldn’t stand the uncomfortable silence in the truck.
“So, where are we going?”
Turning towards the girls, I smiled and waited for Lily to respond. It was apparent Ellison wasn’t completely happy being in the truck and Lily didn’t disappoint when she answered.
“We’re going to The Tavern. It’s a local hangout where my boyfriend, Ryan, is the bartender. He’ll serve us, but only as long as the place isn’t packed. It’s a Thursday, so we should have no problems. Not many people do much at night when they have work the next morning.”
Nodding my head, I responded, “Sweet. It’s been two days since I’ve had any fun. I was wondering if there was anything around here besides trees.” Things were looking up and I was excited to be getting back to the types of activities that I was used to. Partying, drinking and socializing were definitely things I knew how to do well.
We pulled up to The Tavern and I looked warily at a rundown building that looked like it could have been a bar back in its better days. The makeshift parking area was nothing more than loose stones and there were four dingy vehicles parked on either side of the front door. Lily pulled to a stop and hopped out of the truck to quickly dart inside. Ellison looked over at me after a few seconds. I hadn’t noticed I’d taken to study the building.
“Not what you expected?” Ellison chuckled softly as she climbed out of the driver’s side door. Opening my door, I stepped out of the truck and called out to Ellison as she moved towards the front door of the bar. “Hey, El! Wait up!” Picking up my pace, I ran to catch up with her and grabbed her arm.
She turned to me with wide blue eyes and a smirk peeked out at the corners of her enticing lips. I didn’t know what was happening to me, but being this close to Ellison was causing my body to simmer with heat. “About this ‘getting
even’ thing, I kind of just want to get past all the crap that happened today and start over. I think everything has just been a misunderstanding and I want to apologize for my part of it.”
The smirk changed into a knowing smile. “Been talking to Lily or something? You seem a little nervous there, Hunter.”
I laughed and rubbed at the back of my neck. I could feel the embarrassment of admitting defeat burn along my cheeks and I smiled down at the gorgeous girl in front of me. “Well, yeah, I spoke to her this afternoon and she warned me that you can be creative when you’re mad. I just don’t want any hard feelings between us. I think we got off on the wrong foot and both did and said things that were stupid.”
My skin tingled when her eyes narrowed and she stepped back to look me up and down. After a few seconds she finally replied, “Yeah, I don’t know about that, Hunter. From what I can see under that shirt, I might enjoy looking at you without clothes. You know, you can still strip down and we’ll call this over.”
I looked around. “What? Here?”
Laughing, she answered, “Yeah. Why not? I know the owner’s son, he won’t care, and he’s the only one working tonight.”
Holding my hands up, I stepped away from her. “No. That’s insane. We’re out in public and I’m not stripping down to my underwear in the middle of a bar parking lot. I think that’s illegal anyway. There has to be some other way we can handle this.”
She thought about it for a moment. “I tell you what … why don’t we head inside and have a few cold ones and I’ll let you know later on what we can do to solve this. Sound good?”
I eyed her suspiciously. “Can I trust that you won’t do something to embarrass me or in any way torture me?”
She walked towards the door, but stopped to look over her shoulder and responded, “Not really, but what other choice do you have?”
Dammit, she had a point.
I hurried to the door and reached around El to open it for her. She looked up at me and grinned, but didn’t say anything as she moved inside. Walking in behind her, I immediately noticed that the smoke in the place was so thick you could barely see the back of the building from the front. Towards our right stood an old oak bar that took up the entire side of the room. Lily was on her knees on a barstool, leaned over the top with her arms around a guy that had the typical country look like my Uncle Bill. He broke from kissing her long enough to look over in our direction. Ellison waved and I followed her through the clusters of tables until she finally sat down in a booth on the left side of the room.
An old Southern Rock anthem blasted from the jukebox next to the bar and there was a couple in the middle of the room, drunkenly dancing to the song.
“What do you want to drink?”
I turned my attention away from the dancing couple and answered Ellison’s question. “Doesn’t matter. Why don’t we order a pitcher of whatever you want?”
Ellison shrugged and waved over the waitress to order two pitchers. The waitress smacked her gum loudly while eyeing me, but then turned to go to the bar and fetch our order. I felt awkward sitting alone with Ellison and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out a damn thing to say. It was weird. Never in my life had I been tongue-tied around a girl, but somehow her mere presence shut down my ability to formulate words. Her hair was windblown from the drive over and the look only made her hotter. The collar of her black shirt hung low enough that I could make out just a hint of cleavage, but it was enough to force memories of her mid-day shower back through my mind. I groaned at the imagery and forced myself to look away from her in search of Lily.
“So, did Lily bring us here just to ditch us or what?” I located my cousin sitting at the bar making googly eyes at the man I assumed was her boyfriend.
“Yep. That’s why I tried to decline coming along tonight. Ever since she started seeing Ryan, she pretty much remains glued to those barstools every time we’re here.
Great.
I turned back to Ellison. “So, this is it?”
“This is what?” Her expression remained blank, but the gleam in her eye let me know she knew exactly what I was asking.
“This is what people around here do for fun?”
“You could say that.” She laughed. “I have other things I consider ‘fun’ but I come here for Lily’s sake. Your uncle doesn’t like Ryan too much. He was the bad boy of our high school class and hasn’t been able to live down the string of women and wild parties of his past. He’s calmed down, though, and he’s been good to her, so I tag along to give her an excuse to come see him.”
“So, what do you do for fun?” I couldn’t help but inquire. I was intrigued to talk to a girl whose life didn’t revolve around socializing and partying. Back home, that’s all the girls did and Tiffany was their ringleader.
“A lot of stuff. Mainly, hiking, but I also ride my bike through the trails sometimes and fishing, swimming, camping, stuff like that. I enjoy being outside if you couldn’t tell by that list.”
Crap. She was a nature lover. I’d already suspected, but to have her openly admit that she and my arch nemesis were tight? That put a kink in my sail. As I’d mentioned earlier, nature and I didn’t get along. I’d attempted her aforementioned activities at least once in my life — each time returning home with scrapes and bruises, odd itchy rashes, and enough bug bites to drive any sane man mad. I wasn’t sure how I was going to find anything in common with her, but I was too damn stubborn not to try.
“Sounds like a good time.” Really it didn’t, but I had to play along. Well, maybe fishing. I’d seen it on television once and it didn’t look all that difficult. I mean, how much trouble could a fish give someone my size?
“I also read a lot, and play guitar … stuff like that.”
Okay, now we were getting somewhere. I continued my interrogation and about three pitchers later, I’d somehow agreed to go hiking with Ellison the following day. She mentioned something about starting me off on the “easy” trail, but I had to act like a badass and insist on taking whatever trail it was that she normally walked. There was too much alcohol in my system to concern myself with what that would entail, but I had a sneaking suspicion I would be kicking myself for it the next morning.
Ellison and I didn’t have much to talk about and I was putting away tall ones faster than I wanted to admit. With the liquid courage running through my system, I decided to break up the boredom by asking Ellison to dance. Lily was still sitting with Ryan and I was dying to get up and move around. Ellison accepted my offer and we made our way out onto the dance floor.
“I have to warn you that I don’t dance all that well. I can get through the basic steps but I wouldn’t attempt anything fancy.” Her cheeks reddened with her admission and I couldn’t help but grin.
“You don’t dance? How is that even possible? Pretty girl like you, I’m shocked you don’t have guys hanging all over you.”
“You can stop with the cheesy lines, and, no, I don’t dance. As for guys, I’ve only really dated Finn and we’ve been off and on for a little over two years.”
I stopped moving almost instantly. “Wait, Finn? That guy with your brother yesterday was your boyfriend?” I wasn’t quite sure why I was so bothered by it. I was only going to know this girl for the summer and then I was heading back to real life — but for some damn reason I had the overwhelming urge to escort Finn to a boat and send him on his way to his own little island in the Caribbean — far away from Ellison.
She shook her head. “No. We broke up over a year ago, but he still hangs around because of his friendship with my brother.” She rolled her eyes and I chuckled at the look of dismay plastered across her face.
“Judging by the look he was giving me yesterday, things aren’t completely over between you and him — at least in his head, it isn’t. He looked like he wanted to smash my face in after he caught us down in the mud.”
Ellison laughed a deep belly laugh and her head fell backwards. My eyes ran down the smooth stretched skin on her
neck and then lower to her chest before lifting again to catch her twinkling blue eyes as she straightened. I couldn’t help but smile and I knew the two dimples on my cheeks were standing front and center due to my beaming grin. Her laughter was infectious.
“Finn? Smash your face in? Hardly. He may be a redneck, but he’s not a hot head. If anything, he would diffuse a fight before he would join one. That’s what I liked about him at first. He didn’t feel the need to puff out his chest at every insult. He just let shit roll off his back and kept doing his thing.”
She looked up at me and the light bounced off her golden hair, making it look like she was glowing. I should have been paying attention as she sized up the competition for me, but I was too damn distracted by the beauty of the woman in my arms. My hands brushed down her back and I instinctively pulled her closer in to me. I stared down at her silently and my eyes focused on the pout of her lips and the way the lip-gloss she wore glistened. I wanted nothing more but to reach down and taste her lips to find out what flavor she’d chosen. Her eyebrow cocked over her eye in question after I’d been staring for too long and she placed her hands on my chest to push me away.
“Think we’ve danced enough, big guy. You want to split another pitcher?”
“Sure do.” I wanted to get her drunk. I know it’s awful and, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t attempt to get a girl wasted, but Ellison seemed to have opened up some and I figured it had to do with the alcohol. I wasn’t planning on doing anything with her; I just wanted to keep her talking.
And that’s when I realized that something was definitely the fuck wrong with me. Never before had I given a shit what a girl had to say. Typically, I would lose interest after the first few sentences they uttered and focus my attention on what their body could offer me. But Ellison was different. She didn’t talk about normal shit like clothes and celebrities and the next opportunity she had to get fucked up. We were on opposite sides of the line when it came to our lifestyles, but I was damn interested to find out more about her.