“Shit,” he stammered. “Charlotte, let’s go somewhere else and talk, okay? Baby, this is a private conversation.”
“Is it?” I snapped. I felt the heat of everybody’s eyes on me. Little tiny prickles of heat spiked across my shoulders and chest. I couldn’t let a boy talk about me like that, especially when it wasn’t true. “Or is it because you don’t want everybody to know how much of a disgusting liar you are? Because I don’t know whose legs you’ve spread, but they sure as heck weren’t mine.”
Anthony coughed and cleared his throat, fidgeting and squirming. He still held his hands out to me. “I’m not angry with you, let’s just go someplace and talk, okay?”
Moving closer to him, I leaned on the side of the boat and got in his face. “You’re not angry with me? Well, isn’t that a relief! And here I was thinking about how I should be pissed off at you for lying about sleeping with me. But, I’m just so glad you’re not angry with me. It makes it so much easier to tell you just how over this relationship is.”
I turned to Jase, who was smiling his stupid ass off, and asked, “Are you coming? I feel like having a few drinks for your birthday…since I’m single and all.”
Laughing and stumbling, Jase jumped up and fell over the side of the boat. Jase made me climb onto his back for our usual piggyback ride. He turned to Anthony and said, “You don’t deserve a girl like Charlie. Now get the hell outta my way, Assmunch.”
He carried me to the bonfire, and Joey handed me a red cup filled with some dark liquid.
I looked at the inside of the cup, curiously.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Charlie,” Jase whispered hotly in my ear. “But, it’ll make what just happened with your boyfriend go away.”
“Okay,” I said, taking the cup from his hands. I took a small taste. It burned the insides of my mouth and my throat, flooded warmth in my chest, and warmed the pit of my belly. I grimaced and almost coughed one of my lungs up. “That burns; what the Hell did you give me, gasoline?”
Jase laughed. “It’s Jack Daniels whiskey. We all raided our parents’ liquor cabinets and brought something. That’s my father’s. It’s an acquired taste, but you get used to it.”
Scrunching my nose up, I grimaced. “Why in the world would anyone want to get used to drinking something that tastes like burning gasoline?”
Joey bumped his arm into mine. “You’ll see. After a few sips you’re going to feel nice. And you’re going to forget all about Anthony Charles.”
I shrugged my shoulders and took another sip from my cup, feeling the burn slide down smoothly. “Who is Anthony Charles?” I laughed. Looking up, I noticed Jase’s eyes on me, intently watching. I took a bigger gulp, the burn in my belly making me feel a little braver. “I’m more interested in trying to forget about Kylie Simpson giving a certain someone a blowjob.”
“Come here,” Jase demanded, pulling me gently toward him and wrapping his arm around my waist. The heat of his hands, mixed with the burn of my drink, made my head start to spin. Joey smiled next to us. “I forgot about Kylie the minute I zipped up my pants.”
That made me take a bigger gulp of the burning gasoline. “Blah, you’re making it worse.”
Jase’s eyes locked on mine and he pulled me tighter against him. “You don’t think it affected me thinking that you were screwing Anthony? Besides, she was all teeth.”
An array of loud giggles exploded from my mouth, and I was unable to stop them. “That’s horrible.” Laughing, I took another big gulp and spilled some all over my shirt. I looked up at him deadpan, feeling the bravest I ever felt in my life. “I’ll make sure not to use any teeth, Jase. And I’m damn good at it, I’ve been told.”
“Fuck, Charlie,” Jase whispered into my hair.
Hours later, Joey, Jase, Ava, and I were stumbling around in my backyard, trying to climb up the tree house ladder. The swaying of it turned my stomach so violently that I ran to the bushes and vomited out whatever it was I drank that night. When I finally finished, and I looked up to see the dark sky spinning overhead, I realized that Jase had been behind me the whole time, holding back my hair.
“Feel better?” he whispered.
I giggled an answer. “Happy Birthday,” I whispered back.
“Come on, Charlie, let’s get some sleep,” he said, pulling me to my feet.
Carefully, we climbed up the rope ladder; it took a few giggling tries and Jase’s hands on my ass pushing me up the whole way. Joey and Ava were already asleep on the beanbags, and I tried to take a picture of them, but ended up tumbling over and falling into Jase.
Lifting me in his arms, he gently laid me down on my sleeping bag and positioned himself on his—next to me. I turned on my side to face him, snuggling into him while he stared into my eyes. I tried to keep my eyes on his, but my lids became too heavy and my world seemed to tilt into oblivion.
The last thing I remembered hearing was Jase’s low whisper against my ear, “Stay in the rabbit hole with me this time.”
I hoped it wasn’t a dream.
The first thing I heard the next morning was someone moaning. It wasn’t a pleasurable moan in any sense; it was a moan of pure, intense agony. And it seemed to be coming from deep within my aching throat. Slowly blinking my eyes open, my head seemed to torpedo into a million tiny pieces and hammer against my skull.
I tried to lift my head off the sleeping bag, but it was too heavy and thick. And dizzy–why was I so dizzy? And who in the world was snoring like that?
Peeking around the room, I was taking inventory in my brain of who came back up here with me last night, and what I might have done. My stomach rolled, and the tree house tilted and whirled around me.
Dark wisps of brown hair fell out of the sleeping bag next to me. Reaching out my hand, I pulled it down to sneak a look at who it was, and Jase’s calm, sleeping face was hidden beneath. Feeling safe, I snuggled my body against his and fell back to sleep.
It was late afternoon when I blinked open my eyes again. The throb in my head was gone and the world stopped its crazy, jerky movements around me. Below me, under the heavy branches of the tree house, I could hear someone calling my name, pleading with me to come out.
Who the…? Was that…Anthony?
Lifting the sleeping bag off my body, I hauled myself into a sitting position. With just a hint of a churning deep in my belly, I smiled. I might have slept the entire day away, but I could drink like the boys!
Anthony’s pleading voice was still calling my name. Jerk.
Looking around the small room, I noticed Joey sprawled out on one of the beanbags, watching me. Ava was gone; hopefully she hadn’t gotten in any trouble for staying at my house all night.
Then, my eyes landed on Jase, who was rolling up his sleeping bag with a tight, angry scowl slashed across his face. He must have noticed me staring at him, because he stopped moving, just crouched over his bag for a moment, frozen. Finally, he turned his face toward me. His eyes were bloodshot and his hands were squeezing and twisting the material of the sleeping bag so tightly his knuckles were turning white. His teeth were clenched together firmly, and the pulse in his neck throbbed.
Damn, he looked like one of those crazy wrestlers on TV.
Anthony screamed out my name again, and something hard thumped against the side of the tree house, like he’d just thrown a rock.
That stupid son of a….
Jase’s eyes darkened and his chest started heaving heavily as his eyes focused on mine. “Your boyfriend is outside with a handful of flowers for you.”
I got to my feet steadily and walked to the window. Jase’s eyes were on me the whole way. I opened it with a hard shove and stuck my head out, peering down.
Anthony was staring up at me with a handful of red roses, “Charlotte…Charlotte? Please, let me talk to you? I’m so sorry. I know I messed up. Please let me talk to you. Please let me explain,” his voice cracked, like he was about to cry, “Charlotte Stone, I...I love you!”
&n
bsp; From inside the tree house, somewhere behind me, Jase grunted and threw something hard against the wooden slats of the floor. Turning my head at the noise, my eyes met his icy blue ones, and I couldn’t look away. I had no clue what was going on in Jase’s head. However, with the intense way he looked at me, like he was some sort of wild animal, ready to devour me, I almost lost the ability to stand. I wanted him to look at me like that forever.
I searched those eyes long and hard in that brief moment, and in my head, I told him everything I ever felt for him. I lifted my voice and called out to Anthony, “Hey Anthony? I hate flowers. Giving me those stupid, nasty, smelling things isn’t going to take your disgusting lies back!” I screamed, shaking my head. “So, I don’t accept your apology. I will never think it was okay that you spread lies about me. Go home.”
Slowly, Jase’s expression changed. His scowl softened. His eyebrows lifted and his lips parted, revealing his surprise.
Suddenly, Jase was standing an inch away from me, tilting his head to the side; the heat rolling off of his body sent tingling waves against mine. His hands grasped my shoulders as he bent down and brushed his lips against my forehead, “That a girl. Don’t let anyone walk all over you.” His longs fingers softly squeezed my skin, spreading a surge of warmth across my chest. “And, don’t forget, Charlie. We have a conversation to finish.” The huskiness in his low whisper caused small sparks of heat to dance deep inside my belly.
I blinked my eyes rapidly, like an idiot.
Jase stepped back, letting his hands fall to his sides, and Joey was instantly next to us, placing a hand on each of our shoulders. Joey’s lips twisted into one of his beautiful, goofy smiles. “I feel the need to celebrate, if I may be so bold to say that I am hoping to finally have my two best friends no longer at each other’s throats.”
Jase and I both nodded our heads.
“Good. We’re getting drinks tonight…and I know just the place to go,” Joey insisted. “Tooties. They don’t card anyone. We’ve been inside there a few times, so they know us.”
“Wait a second. You mean a bar? Like a real bar?” I asked.
Joey smiled a cocky smile at me. “Yep. The bartender who works there used to race in the weeds with us, so he lets us come in. Charlie, we’ve been going there for a few months.”
“Seriously? To a real bar? Where the hell have I been?” I asked.
Jase snorted, “In Little Bumblefuck Dick Land, USA. Spending all your time with its King, the assmonkey, cockwaffle, dick-sneezing, fuckbutter, jerkass–Anthony Charles.”
I stepped back and looked up at him through narrowed eyes and snapped back, “Yeah, I did. But, don’t forget your hundreds of mini-vactions to Twatwaffle- Coochieville-Jiztit, USA. I hope you got your shots before visiting all your vacationing areas, because God only knows what nasty-diseased cooter roaches might have bitten into your dick!”
Joey groaned and dragged his hands down his face. “Holy crap. Can you two stop?” Stepping between us, he puffed out a loud breath and then smirked. He smirked! And then, you know what he said? He said, “You two are both still virgins, so get over yourselves!” Then he let go of us and walked to the door, “And…we are going out to Tooties tonight. Ava’s going to be there with a few people, too. Go get showered and dressed, we’re leaving at eight. Idiots.”
Jase was still a virgin?
My insides caught fire. Oh, sweet little baby Jesus. I wanted to be that boy's first.
I left the tree house with Jase Delaney biting down a stupid, red-faced smile, as I wondered what in the world he could be thinking.
After showering and trying to dress myself like I was older, the three of us walked into the next neighborhood and strode right through the front doors of a little hole-in-the-wall bar. I’d never stepped foot in a bar before, and I gasped out loud as my surroundings came into sight. The walls were covered with photos, masks, baskets, and old retro advertisements. Bicycle parts and stolen traffic signs hung from the ceiling throughout the room. A long cluttered bar ran along one side of the wall and a few pool tables, ripped red leather booths, and tables and chairs, littered the back. It smelled like stale beer and pee. To be more specific, it reeked like a few of my mother’s friends.
The place was crowded—stock full of kids from my school. How illegal was that? Everybody seemed to be holding a bottle of beer or small glass cups filled with dark liquid.
Jase tapped Joey on the shoulder and pointed to an empty booth in the back. “You two go grab that booth. I’m going to buy us a special drink I read about online.”
Scared shitless, I grabbed Joey by the back pockets of his jeans and followed close behind him. I kept thinking that at any minute the cops were going to bust in through the doors, guns blazing, and arrest us all. I wondered if my mother would even come and get me from jail. I even wondered if they’d call my father, who I hadn’t seen in four months, because he was traveling all over Europe with his new wife. Crap, I had no one to bail me out if I needed it.
After five minutes, Jase scooted himself into the booth across from me, placing three medium-sized, clear, plastic cups with an amber liquid inside, in front of each of us.
“What level octane of gasoline will we be drinking tonight, Mr. Delaney?” I teased.
Jase raised a dark eyebrow at me and lifted the corner of his lips in a teasing smirk. “That would be a negative on the gasoline, Ms. Charlotte. Tonight, we will be drinking something called A Mad Hatter.”
Joey chuckled next to me. “Hmmm. A Mad Hatter, huh?”
“Yep. It’s made with vodka, peach schnapps, lemonade, and Coke.” He held up the hand that was holding the glass, exhaled deeply, and quoted word for word from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:
“’But I don't want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked. ‘Oh, you can't help that,’ said the Cat. ‘We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.’ ‘How do you know I'm mad?’ said Alice. ‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn't have come here.’"
Then he drank down his entire drink, and burped.
Joey laughed next to us and held his glass up, bumping me with his shoulder. “Have I gone mad? I’m afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are.” Joey gulped down his drink next, and yelled, “Charlie, my sweet innocent Charlie, it’s your turn! Drink up!”
Giggling, I brought my drink to my lips and sipped at my drink until it was empty. “Curiouser and curiouser.”
After forty minutes of giggling, swapping seats repeatedly, and singing to each other in the booth, Joey stood up with his third (or fourth) Mad Hatter in his hand and cleared his throat. My head had started feeling a bit wobbly, and I seriously loved everybody, even the scary bald man that sat in the corner staring at everybody.
Holding his glass up, Joey’s lips curled into another one of his goofy, beautiful smiles, “I think we need a real toast, don’t you guys?”
“To best friends,” I smiled back at him.
Jase softly nudged my foot under the table and pointed his finger past Joey to where Ava Maria sat alone in the corner. He looked at Joey and pointed him in the direction we were both looking. “To having the courage to talk to the girl you like!”
Joey stood up taller in front of both of us and let out a long, low sigh. Leaning my head back against the cool leather of the booth we were hiding in, I stared at him, at everything that was completely Joey. Something strange and unlike anything I’d ever felt passed between the three of us then, something that whispered our love and our friendship; in a thousand little words that never needed to be spoken.
Then Joey raised his glass higher. “Here’s to falling…” He leveled his eyes on both of us. “…in love…and to the best example of it that I’ve ever seen, which is sitting right in front of me. And here’s to hoping my two best friends finally find the guts to tell each other they’ve been in love with one another since the fourth fucking grade. Cheers.”
Downing his drink, he slammed it on the table in front of us
and walked away.
Here’s to falling…
I sucked in a loud breath and almost started choking to death on my own saliva. Okay, that’s a sorry-ass exaggeration, but that’s what it felt like. “W-wait. Whooa…Hold up,” I stammered.
Jase raised his head slowly, to meet my gaze. Stretching out his long legs under the table, he raised his feet up and planted them on either side of me on the cushions of the booth, trapping me in.
What? Did he think I was going to run? Well, I didn’t want him to run, either! Grabbing both his legs, making sure he couldn’t get away, I leaned forward. “You…you love me?”
He sat staring at me as if trying to decide what to say. Finally, as his teeth raked a hard line over his bottom lip, he spoke, “In millions of different ways…but the one that means the most to me you never knew about, did you?" He raked his hands through his hair. "Ever since the day I moved next door to you, and you stood up to me with that skull picture you drew…Joey’s right. I’ve been in love with you since fourth grade, Charlie." He rubbed at the back of his neck and his voice lowered. "It’s the only thing in this world that I’ve ever been sure of. When you went to that stupid dance with Mason a few months back, you took my heart with you. You ever feel like you wake up and part of you is missing? You were that part. Kinda been lost without you.”
My thoughts scattered, exploded like a sky full of fireworks. My body quivered with the effort it took to control myself and not jump into his lap.
Running his hand through his hair, he looked at me with that confident grin of his. “What do you say, Charlie? Want to try jumping down the rabbit hole again? I promise I’ll be better than any adventure you could ever read. The way I see it, Charlie, is that you’ve always belonged to me—”
“Jase Delaney, you make my freaking head spin, and I think I’m going to enjoy years of therapy because of you and your adventures,”
A loud crash broke through our conversation, echoing its sharpness against the heavily decorated walls. It sounded like someone spilled a ton of beer bottles on the floor, and then sheer pandemonium let loose as people screamed and a chair sailed through the air. Immediately, I thought it was the police raiding the bar for serving under-aged kids. People scattered and crowded around the entrance; my heart throbbed in my throat as I scanned the chaos, trying to find out what was happening.