Angie looked at Kelso. “So, how long have you known the girl?”
“A few weeks.”
“And you’re going to marry here just like that? You must love her bad.”
“Yeah, I do,” Kelso sighed.
“You don’t sound to thrilled about it.”
“I’d be more thrilled if it wasn’t the circumstances around it.”
“She pregnant?” Angie intruded.
“No! Why does everyone always assume that if its circumstances, it means pregnancy. I have HIV.”
Angie stepped back away from Kelso. “Nice talking to you. I have to go find Court.” She walked towards the table where Court and J.T. were concocting their evil party plan.
“Ok, missy, what’s going on with you and J.T.?” Ashleigh asked.
“He told me he loved me,” Heidi answered.
“Seriously?” Freedom asked.
“Yes.”
“So, that’s why you were two bump and grinds away from getting busy,” Dashelle remarked.
“Dash, you know neither one of us would do that,” Heidi said.
“Well, did you tell him you loved him?” Ashleigh asked.
Heidi smiled and stopped in front of J.T. “Yeah, I did.”
“Okay, ladies. Here’s the plan.” Court’s eyes glanced at the girls. “Um, Ashleigh, I do believe you have some business to take care of over there. Y’know, tall, blond, answers to the name of Kelso.” He turned Ashleigh around and pushed her toward her fiancé.
She walked back over to the table where Kelso was sitting. “Why do you look so sad.”
“I dunno. Once you tell someone you’re infected they don’t want to touch you with a ten foot pole. Why do they always act that way?”
“Not everybody acts that way. I don’t. My friends don’t. Don’t worry about what other people think about you.”
“I can’t. I’ve always worried about what other people thought about me. That’s why I don’t tell anybody I have HIV unless I get to know them first. Well, except for now. I just told Court’s date and she wouldn’t even talk to me anymore.”
“Her? Don’t worry about her. She’s as dense as the shallow end of the pool. I don’t know what Court was thinking when he asked her to come here.”
“I don’t think he was thinking—unless he was using his brain below the belt.”
“Yeah, he tends to do that when he’s had a dry spell.”
“Good to know. So, what are you friends up to?”
“I don’t know, but quite frankly, I’m a little scared for both of us,” she joked.
The music stopped and the DJ handed the microphone to J.T.
“Rumor has it, that there are two people out in the bar that are about to give up their bachelor and bachelorette hood. So, to commemorate this special night, their friends and I have decided to embarrass them royally. So, Ashleigh and Kelso come on up.”
Ashleigh and Kelso made their way to the stage. “This is going to be very embarrassing,” she told Kelso through clenched teeth.
“Nah, it’ll be fun,” Kelso remarked.
“For you, maybe. They haven’t known you since the eighth grade.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” Kelso smiled at Ashleigh. “I’m sure I can make it worth your while.”
Ashleigh raised her eyebrows and looked at Kelso. She knew she wanted to marry him. She knew he wanted to marry her. But, there seemed to be something missing every time they went out together. He said that he had fallen in love with her, but he hadn’t said I love you since that day at the hospital. In fact, she didn’t even remember saying I love you back that day. When was he going to say it again? Was he going to say it? She at least wanted that before they got married tomorrow.
“Okay, lovebirds, here is the deal,” J.T. began. “Your friends have compiled a list for a scavenger hunt for the both of you.” Court handed Kelso a list and Ashleigh a list. “You have the rest of the night to find that someone and retrieve something from their wallet or purse. Everyone going to play along?”
“Yeahs” and whistles were heard. “Okay, let the games begin.”
Kelso and Ashleigh looked at each other. “I can’t believe they want me to ask that!” Ashleigh said pointing to a line on her page.
“I can’t believe they want me to ask that,” Kelso added pointing to a different line on his page.
“Oh, well, should we do this together or split up?”
“It’ll be easier and quicker if we split up,” Kelso suggested.
“All right,” she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
She turned to go on the scavenger hunt, but Kelso caught her by the arm. “Whoa, wait a minute. You’re not going to leave me with a weak kiss like that.”
“Weak? “
“Yeah, that would’ve been a nice kiss . . .if you were my grandmother.”
“I kiss like your grandma?”
“There’s a striking resemblance,” Kelso remarked. “You are going to go off and talk to all kinds of guys without me. I want something to remember you by in case they sweep you off your feet.”
“They won’t.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.” Kelso pressed up against Ashleigh, pushed her hair back and planted a kiss on Ashleigh’s lip that made her kick up one leg.
“Well, now Mr. Stark, I do believe I won’t forget that.”
“You better not. Now, let’s go get this list completed, so we can go someplace alone.”
“Um, all right.” Ashleigh didn’t know what else to say. She wasn’t quite sure what Kelso meant when he said he wanted to be alone. They were always getting too close to each other when they were alone. Once they got to close, neither one of them would give in to the other. They just pushed each other away and stared out the window. Why exactly were they getting married, she thought.
They walked in opposite directions in hopes of finding enough people to fulfill their list.
“All right, Angie, how about that dance?” Court asked.
“I told you, Court, I don’t dance,” Angie reminded her date.
“Everybody dances,” Court remarked. “You just shake your bootie,” Court joked.
“Well, shake your bootie with somebody else. I don’t dance.”
Court let out a deep sigh. “You are coming with me and we are going to dance.” He took Angie onto the dance floor.
“Thank God, she’s gone,” Freedom grumbled.
“Hey, what was with you tonight?” Brady asked. “The first impression she got of us was you wanted to deck her.”
Freedom eyed Angie on the dance floor. “There’s something I don’t like about her, that’s all.”
“What?” J.T. asked.
“I don’t know, yet. She’s too defensive,” Freedom remarked.
“Oh, and you’re not?” Parker asked. “The first words that come out of your mouth are always defensive.”
Dashelle put her hand up to Parker. “Just stop right there, Parker. We’ve had enough fights in this group of ours over the past few weeks. We don’t need to start any more.”
“Then, I suggest you find someplace for me to go before I stick my foot in my mouth.”
“Fine. Follow me.” Dashelle walked onto the dance floor and Parker decided he would follow her.
Angie looked at Court on the dance floor. “Court, I’m serious. I don’t dance.”
“I can teach you.”
“Many have tried, many have failed,” Angie remarked.
Court started moving to the dance beat pounding from the floor. He put Angie’s hands around his neck and he put his hands on her waist. “You just haven’t had the right teacher,” he whispered. “Whatever you do, don’t look down. Look right here in my eyes.”
“This is so Dirty Dancing,” Angie remarked.
“Hey, it works. Trust me.”
J.T. and Heidi came over to them on the
dance floor. “Well, here they are. The most sexually frustrated twosome I know,” Court joked.
“Court, would you stop it, please,” Heidi pleaded. “For the last time, we were just having some fun.”
“Then, why did you set my friend J.T.’s face and other various parts on fire?” Court asked.
Heidi looked at J.T.’s face. He crossed his arms as he looked away and nervously whistled.
“I think we need to go find out how the scavenger hunt is going,” Heidi said as she left the dance floor hoping J.T. would follow her. Thankfully, he did. They bumped into Ashleigh who was talking to someone that was #13 on the list: the oldest guy in the club.
“How’s it going, Ash?” Heidi asked.
“Well, the list is going all right, but I’d rather be with Kelso right now. Thanks for not making that possible,” Ashleigh remarked.
“Oh, come on, Ashleigh, you’ll have the rest of your lives to spend together.”
“You mean the rest of his life. Look at him over there.” She pointed. “He hasn’t looked that way since he was in the hospital.”
J.T. looked at Kelso for a minute. Ashleigh was right. What was he thinking? He should’ve thought of something else for the impromptu party. Then, the idea came to him.
“New plan, scavenger hunt is off. We’re going to play a new game,” J.T. said. He looked over at Heidi who was staring into space. “What’s the matter, Beautiful?”
“Is it true? What Court said?”
“Uh, can we talk about that later? This isn’t the place I want to talk about that,” J.T. asked.
“I guess,” Heidi sulked.
“I promise. I won’t let it go.”
A half smile crept onto her face. She nodded.
J.T. went off to find Kelso.
Kelso was sitting with a beautiful woman. She was talking with a foreign accent-number 5-a woman from another country.
“Change of plans, Kelso. Follow me.” J.T. motioned Kelso to follow him to the table where this whole big charade started.
The rest of the group showed up shortly sans Angie. Court said that she got a call and had to go back to work. Freedom gave a sigh of relief. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to control her feelings about Angie any longer than she had.
“Okay, Bohemians, it has been drawn to my attention that I screwed up,” J.T. remarked. “So, in order to fix this mess, I have come up with a new game called How Well Do You Know Kelso or Ashleigh. So, this is how the game goes. Each one of us is going to come up with a question for these two-the more embarrassing the better and Kelso has to answer about Ashleigh and Ashleigh has to answer about Kelso. Kapeesh?”
J.T. looked around the table for nods and okays. “Who wants to go first?” J.T. asked.
“I’ll go,” Dashelle said. “This one is for Kelso. What is Ashleigh’s favorite movie and why.”
Kelso snickered. He knew the answer to this one. “The Little Mermaid. She has a crush on Prince Eric.”
“Okay, so this is more embarrassing than the scavenger hunt,” Ashleigh remarked.
“My turn. Ashleigh, what celebrity does Kelso think you look like?” J.T. asked.
Ashleigh looked down at the floor. She couldn’t look anybody in the eyes when she answered this one. “I’m a combination of a brunette Jessica Simpson from the chest up and a J-Lo from the waist down.”
“You told her that?!” Court asked.
“Not what you guys think,” Kelso remarked.
“Were you in the same room at the time?” Freedom asked.
“Hey, I’m smart enough to know that is not something I’m going to tell her face to face.”
“I’m up,” Heidi remarked. “Kelso, what was your first impression of Ashleigh when you first saw her. And I mean, the first time you saw her and didn’t know anything else about her.”
“Oh, come on, Heidi. This is supposed to be fun, not mushy,” Parker grumbled.
“It doesn’t have to be. Inquiring minds want to know.”
Kelso smiled and looked at Ashleigh. She smiled back and rested her chin on her hand waiting for his answer. “I thought that she wasn’t my type.”
Ashleigh stopped smiling and turned away like she’d been slapped in the face.
“Let me finish, Ash. You were too beautiful for words and I had never been with anyone that was as drop dead gorgeous as you are. There was no way that I thought you’d want to go out with me. I mean, look at me. I’ve got scars of track marks all over my arms. I’m so skinny and pale and I look like death warmed over for Pete’s sake. Why did you want to hang out with a guy like me? That’s what I thought.”
“Kelso, you didn’t look like that when I first met you,” Ashleigh said.
“Yeah, I did. I was hiding behind the jacket.”
“No, you weren’t. You were hot. Ask Dashelle, she knows what I was thinking the first time I saw you. She even thought the same thing,”
“ASH!” Dashelle exclaimed. Her cheeks reddened.
“When I saw you for the first time up close, I looked at your eyes. Everyone knows that’s my weakness.” Ashleigh looked straight into Kelso’s eyes like there was no one else around. “I saw hurt in your eyes and I wanted to fix it. Your smile was gorgeous, but I knew you were trying to overcome something. I just didn’t know what it was and now I know.” The two sat and stared at each other in silence for a minute. No one said a word until it got incredibly uncomfortable for the rest of them. Of course, that was when Court spoke up.
“This one’s good, Court remarked. Ashleigh, who’s the better dancer-you or Kelso.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Ashleigh said. She pointed to herself and gave an onery grin. “Me.”
Kelso pointed at her. “You?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Uh oh, I think we have a failure of communication,” Brady noticed.
“Oh, no we didn’t. I’m the better dancer, hands down. Ask anybody around,” Ashleigh joshed. She knew she was going to get what she wanted in a minute.
“Do you really want to settle this here?” Kelso asked grinning.
“Yes. I can dance circles around you.”
“Only to keep up with me,” Kelso remarked.
“Well, let’s do this, then,” Ashleigh slammed her palms down on the table.
“What is with this group and contests?” Kelso asked.
“We can’t accept the fact that anyone is better than us,” Ashleigh remarked. “Meet me on the dance floor. You’ll see me. I’ll be the one the crowd is gathering around.” Ashleigh walked away.
The group of friends let out a hissing burning sound in unison.
“I think you just got served,” J.T. remarked.
“Yeah, I believe I did.” Kelso took a drink of his Bud Light and then walked onto the dance floor.
“We might as well go see the show,” J.T. said. He walked to the dance floor with the others close behind.
Ashleigh was being her normal sex kitten self on the dance floor. That was the only time she was a sex kitten, though. She was working the crowd every chance she got. Whenever she saw Kelso, she danced over to him and playfully summoned him to come join her.
He played along and hesitantly made his way over to her. Once they were together, the competition began. Whatever she would do, Kelso would copy and add something new. Things got a little hairy when Ashleigh ended her dance combination with the splits. Kelso thought for a second before he started his dance combination and ended with a back flip.
Ashleigh looked at him for a minute. He was having a good time and he didn’t even look like he had HIV. Kelso was smiling and laughing. She looked at his eyes. For once, she didn’t see hurt in his eyes, but the happiness she’d been searching for. The music stopped.
“I think it’s a tie,” Ashleigh told her fiancé.
“Yeah, but it sure was fun trying to outdo each other,” Kelso said.
“Hmm, I wonder what els
e we could outdo each other on,” Ashleigh thought aloud.
Kelso grabbed Ashleigh in a bear hug so they were facing the same direction. “I can think of a few things,” he seductively whispered in her ear.
Ashleigh’s knees turned to Jell-O. “Check, please,” Ashleigh spat out.
“Wait, our game isn’t finished, yet,” Parker said. “I know I said I didn’t want this to turn into something mushy, but I think everyone wants to know the answer to this one. Its one for both of you.”
“Make it quick, Parker,” Ashleigh snapped.
“All right, okay. When was the first time you told each other I love you?”
Kelso hands dropped to his sides. Ashleigh looked up at Kelso. The hurt came back into his eyes.
“No, not now,” Ashleigh whispered to the floor. She didn’t want anyone to hear her.
Kelso stared at Parker while he was thinking of his answer. He knew he said those words to Ashleigh. He had to have, right? He just couldn’t remember when. Maybe, his medication was playing tricks with his mind. That’s why he couldn’t remember.
Ashleigh knew the answer. He had only told her once. It always seemed to be a given. They didn’t need to say it for it to be true. Or did they?
“Parker, that’s personal,” Ashleigh finally said.
“You don’t remember, do you?” Parker asked knowingly.
“That’s not it,” Kelso said.
“Yeah, that’s not it,” Ashleigh said. She walked toward the door and Kelso went after her.
“Parker, what kind of question was that to ask?” Heidi asked.
Parker shrugged. “Obviously, the wrong one.” He looked at his watch. “Well, its getting late, I’m gonna go back to the dorm and hit the books.”
“I’ll come with you,” Dashelle said.
The rest of the group went their separate ways-well, almost their separate ways.
CHAPTER 24
J.T. and Heidi ended up in her dorm room.
“So, you did it, Heidi. You accomplished Operation Curfew,” J.T. said. He was searching for anything to talk about.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Heidi sighed. She threw her keys on her desk and twirled around to look at J.T. “Can we talk about tonight now?”
“What is there to talk about? Kelso and Ashleigh are as love torn as ever.”
“Not them, Jayson. Us.”
J.T. looked out the window. “Oh, that.” He plopped down on Heidi’s bed. She came over and sat next to him.