When they got back to Brinkley, Brady stopped the car a few houses down from Lorylyn’s. Her stomach did a flip. He’s probably gonna kiss me! she thought. She was more excited than she could ever remember being, but also more nervous. She had never even kissed a guy before. What if she sucked?!
“I had such a good time tonight,” Brady said, and she could tell he was grinning at her, even though it was dark and she couldn’t really see his face. “I always have fun with you. You’re just a fun girl.” He reached over and tickled her, and she squealed and twisted away, giggling. “So...thanks for going out with me tonight. Do you wanna do something maybe some night this week? Like come over to my house or something?”
“Sure!” Lorylyn agreed, psyched. She couldn’t believe he’d invited her to his house!
“Awesome.” Then all of a sudden he leaned over and kissed her. It only lasted a split second, and she blinked in surprise; she’d expected it to be longer. When she opened her eyes, Brady’s face was still only inches from hers and his eyes were questioning, as though asking for permission to do it again.
Lorylyn smiled at him, and he brought his lips back to hers. She didn’t really know what to do, so she let him lead. It sort of felt like he was massaging her lips with his. Then he slowly eased his tongue inside her mouth. She had read about this in books; weren’t you supposed to just kind of pretend your tongue was wrestling with his? She paid attention to the way he moved his tongue, then tried to imitate his motions with her own. He tasted like Texas Roadhouse, but it tasted wonderful. And he smelled so good too....She could smell his cologne, and the husky, masculine scent was intoxicating. She wanted to kiss him forever. She thought this was the happiest she’d ever been in her life.
Finally Brady pulled back and touched her cheek gently, letting his fingers trail down it and slip off. They grinned at each other in the dark car. Then Brady pulled back and started the car again. Lorylyn was practically floating as he drove down to her house and pulled into her driveway.
“Night,” she said when he stopped the car, not really sure what else to say.
“Night, hottie,” Brady replied, a smile in his voice.
Lorylyn grinned happily and shut the car door. She had to make an effort to walk normally up the steps to the door; all she wanted to do was break into a joyous dance. This was definitely the best night of her life.
***
Hillary and Dirk were together, but Hillary wasn’t allowed to actually “date” until she was a sophomore, and it didn’t matter anyway because Dirk couldn’t drive yet. So they all hung out in a large group that usually included Todd and his friend Doug from SRT.
Jill and Todd were becoming known to everyone as “really good friends.” They often sat a little apart from the rest of the group, laughing and talking quietly together. Their talks were never about anything serious, and Jill really didn’t know that much about Todd at all, but she felt a bond between them that thrilled her. She was just along for the ride, hoping it would lead somewhere exciting...and romantic.
Sometimes Lorylyn and Brady came, but Lorylyn was allowed to date, and she and Brady were officially a couple now. Since Brady was sixteen, he could drive and they liked to go to Logan, which was a much bigger town than Brinkley or Caldwell.
On the group outings everyone went bowling or to the movies, and sometimes they went to Bennett’s because even though he didn’t live on a lake, he had a huge backyard that was great for making bonfires.
Jill was a little jealous of Hillary and Lorylyn, who were both in their own little worlds with their new boyfriends, but she didn’t feel too left out since there were so many single people in the group too. They didn’t hang out much with most of the sophomores anymore, and Jill wondered if it was because of the Lorylyn and Brady and Brooke situation. Jill knew Hilton still hung out with Lindy and Brooke sometimes, and Cassidy and Sam spent most of their time with Kat or the sophomores now. Sam didn’t even seem to mind that Jill and Hillary didn’t ever invite her to do anything anymore, because she and Cassidy were glued at the hip. Jill felt like the odd one out at her lunch table on gold days now, because the other four girls – Brooke, Ashley, Cassidy, and Hilton – would talk about what they had done the previous weekend. And even though Brooke was perfectly nice to her, Jill felt out of the loop. She kind of wanted to hang out with them some weekend, and she wished the huge group she had been part of this summer at Landon’s parties hadn’t split in two.
But Landon was having a Halloween party, so that was definitely something to look forward to. Even more than hanging out with everyone, Jill was dying to play spin the bottle, because she knew Todd was going to be there...
chapter 5) landon’s... halloween
Jill, Hillary, and Lorylyn were supposed to be Rachel, Phoebe, and Monica from Friends for Halloween. Friends had been their favorite show all through junior high, and they had been waiting for an occasion to dress up as the female characters. They hadn’t had one in junior high because there was never any kind of Halloween party. They had their outfits all planned out and everything. Jill was Rachel, and she was going to wear a waitress outfit with a tight shirt, a short black skirt, and a little apron.
When Hillary announced the Tuesday night before the party that she and Dirk had decided to go to Landon’s as a Catholic school girl and a dirty old man, Jill was furious.
“What?!” she shrieked. “We’re supposed to be Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe!”
“Oh, yeah...” Hillary said, as if it had slipped her mind. “I’m so sorry, Jill, I forgot, and I already went out and bought a plaid skirt to wear...”
“How could you forget?!” Jill cried in exasperation. “We planned it for three years! Oh well, whatever.” She stormed out of the school, where she and Hillary had been waiting for rides home from practice, and stood against the wall outside, fuming. Hadn’t they all promised to stick together this year?
She called Lorylyn as soon as she got home.
“Really?” Lorylyn said. “That sucks, I had my outfit planned out. That would’ve been so fun. But Sam wanted me and her to be hula dancers. So now we can do that. You should be one too!”
Jill rolled her eyes at her carpet. A hula dancer, woohoo. “Thanks, maybe I will,” she said glumly to Lorylyn.
The next day in English she asked Todd what he was going as.
“I don’t know, maybe a baseball player or something.”
“Wow, that’s original,” Jill teased sarcastically. “That wouldn’t even be dressing up as something! You already are a baseball player!” She laughed.
“Well, like a pro baseball player or something. I have some jerseys I could wear. What are you gonna be?”
“Well, I was supposed to be Rachel from Friends, and Lorylyn was Monica and Hillary was Phoebe, but Hillary ditched us.” Jill’s eyes hardened. “And I had a cute outfit too. A waitress outfit.”
“Real-ly,” Todd said, raising his eyebrows at her. “Too bad I won’t get to see that.”
Jill giggled and punched him lightly on the shoulder, secretly thrilled. “So I don’t know what I’m being now.”
“You should still be Rachel.”
“I can’t do it by myself! That’d be dumb. It has to be all three of us.”
“Hey, can I be Ross?” Todd asked suddenly.
Jill leaned back in surprise. “What?”
“Yeah, I wanna be Ross,” he said decidedly. “Then you can wear your cute little waitress outfit, and it won’t be just you by yourself.”
“Um...okay,” Jill said, completely stunned. “That’d be awesome!” She grinned and clapped her hands. “Yay, Todd, I’m so excited now! Thank you!”
***
Even though she knew Todd had just offered to do it because he was her friend and he didn’t have a good costume idea, Jill couldn’t wait to show up at the party with him wearing costumes that went together. It would look like they were a couple, just like Hillary and Dirk. It was all she could think about on the ca
r ride to Landon’s with Bennett, Todd, and Bennett’s mom. Todd had offered to let her come with them because he thought they should probably show up together so people would understand their costumes. Plus, he hadn’t really known how to dress as Ross, so Jill had gone over to Bennett’s early to help him. She had brought a white T-shirt, size youth large, and she had written FRANKIE SAY RELAX on it in big block letters and colored them in with a black marker. She was basing it off a shirt Ross and Rachel had argued over after their breakup on the show last season. It was way too small on Todd, as it had been on Ross, and Jill made him wear khaki pants with it to further imitate Ross’s look. She was thrilled with the results. Todd looked so sexy she just wanted to be touching him all the time.
As they climbed out of the car and walked around to the back of the house, Jill felt enormously proud to be with Todd, and she hoped everyone noticed them. Tonight, just like she sometimes did on their group outings when she and Todd sat together and talked, she could almost pretend they were a couple. And tonight, she would get to do it the whole night.
***
This was the biggest party Jill had been to at Landon’s. It wasn’t just the cheerleading and football crowd; it seemed to Jill that half the school’s 2000 students must be here. There were even some juniors and seniors.
Jill had basically followed Todd and Bennett around ever since they’d gotten here, partly because she wanted to be around Todd and felt like she had a good excuse because of their costumes, and partly because all her girlfriends were hanging out with their boyfriends, or other boys. Hilton, dressed as a model in four-inch stilettos and a short navy blue dress with an even lower V-neck than the dress she’d worn to the Homecoming dance, was spending most of her time with Cassidy, Landon, Matt, and Kevin.
“I love your dress!” Jill told her, unable to take her eyes off it. Hilton really looked like a model, and Jill wondered where she had gotten such an awesome, sexy dress. Her own mom would never let her buy anything like that.
As if Hilton could read Jill’s thoughts, she leaned in and whispered, “I went to Chicago with my aunt a couple weeks ago. I loved this dress and she let me buy it, and I had no place else to wear it, so I had to make good use of it somehow!” She grinned. “Oh, by the way...you guys are unbelievably cute.” She glanced at Todd and then back at Jill, and she and Jill shared a smile that told Jill Hilton knew exactly how much she was loving this.
“Ahhh!” Lorylyn squealed when she saw Jill, putting her hand over her O-shaped mouth. “You guys are sooo cute! I love it!”
Jill couldn’t help but giggle a little too, but since Todd was standing right there, she tried to act as though she thought Lorylyn was overreacting. “Thanks,” she said uncertainly, and then offered Todd a small smile. As they walked away, though, she turned back to Lorylyn and mouthed, “I know!”
Lorylyn winked and gave her a thumbs-up.
***
Finally Jill had to leave Todd’s side so she could go inside to use the bathroom. She worked her way through a throng of people in the living room, most of whom she couldn’t recognize because all the lights were off and their costumes disguised them anyway. The hallway was dark too, but the bathroom light was on and the door was ajar. Figuring the bathroom must be vacant, Jill pushed inward on the door. When she saw a figure inside, she immediately let out a small shriek and covered her eyes, hoping whoever was in there didn’t get pissed. “Sorry!” she cried.
She heard giggles. “It’s us, Jill,” Hilton said.
Jill took her hands away from her eyes and looked into the bathroom. Hilton and Brooke were standing by one of the sinks, huddled over a plastic keg cup. Hilton had a silly grin on her face, and Brooke flashed Jill an enticing look. “Come join us!” she said.
“What are you guys doing?” Jill asked.
“We’re gonna try to drink beer through our noses,” Hilton giggled. “We heard if you do it, it comes out your ears.”
“What? Are you serious?” Jill laughed as she stepped into the bathroom. She could tell by their smiles and the way they were talking that Hilton and Brooke were both tipsy.
“Ssshh, shut the door,” Hilton whispered loudly, putting a finger to her lips.
Jill giggled and obeyed her.
“Okay, we’re ready now,” Hilton said in the same exaggerated whisper. “Who’s going first?”
“I’ll go,” Brooke said. She leaned down over the straw sticking out of the cup and put her nose right on the tip. She inhaled vigorously through her nose, then immediately jumped back, scrunching up her face and waving her hands in the air as she coughed loudly. “Oh, shit!” she giggled when she finally stopped coughing. “That was so funny! But don’t do it that fast! It was way too much!” She wiped the knuckle of her index finger under her nose and sniffled.
“I’m next!” Hilton said. She positioned herself exactly as Brooke had and gripped the counter with both hands. She didn’t inhale as loudly as Brooke, but Jill saw beer fly up the straw, and a second later Hilton was jumping up and down, squealing. “Eww! Eww! It’s in my nose!”
“It’s supposed to be in your nose!” Brooke and Jill cried together. They looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“No, but I wasn’t ready,” Hilton cried, wiping at her nose. “I was just trying to take a deep breath first, and I didn’t think it would come up yet!”
“You inhaled!” Jill exclaimed through her laughter. “How could it not come up the straw?”
Brooke was bent over at the waist and holding onto the counter, laughing hysterically.
“Okay, Jill, it’s your turn!” Hilton said a moment later when she recovered.
Jill approached the cup, but as she was about to put her nose down, she pictured Hilton jumping away from the cup as if it had stung her, and she doubled over in laughter.
“Come on!” Brooke encouraged.
“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Jill said as she finally dragged herself up to the counter. She put her right nostril over the straw and inhaled gently, hoping she wouldn’t get as much as Brooke and Hilton had.
The beer exploded into her nose, cold and stinging. “Ew! Ew! Ew!” Jill cried, bouncing on her toes and pinching her nose with both hands. “Ew! It’s cold! It kinda hurt!”
All three girls collapsed on the floor in giggles, still wiping their noses with their fingers.
“It so didn’t come out our ears!” Hilton said.
“Okay, I’m doing it again!” Brooke said after a minute. “I swear, my cousin did it! It came out her ears!”
Jill and Hilton pulled themselves to their feet after Brooke and stood on either side of her as she bent down to put her nose above the straw again.
Just then the bathroom door swung open and Jill jumped in surprise. Landon stood there staring at them, a bewildered smile forming at the corners of his mouth.
“What the hell is going on in here?” he asked in an amused voice.
“We’re snorting crack,” Brooke said very matter-of-factly. She stood up straight, faced Landon with a serious expression, and wiped underneath her nose with her knuckle again. Then she sniffed as if making sure the crack got all the way up her nose.
A small giggle escaped Hilton’s throat, then she looked at Landon and repeated Brooke’s gesture.
As Landon turned to Jill, she did the same thing, but she couldn’t hide her grin.
“Wow,” Landon said. “Can I get in on this?”
“No,” Brooke replied in the same serious tone. Her gaze didn’t falter.
“Okay, then. That’s cool, I guess. Well, I’ll leave you guys to it, then.” Landon flashed a grin as he left and pulled the door shut behind him.
Brooke, Hilton, and Jill looked at each other in silence for a moment, then all three of them fell to the floor again, shaking, rolling, and kicking in fits of endless laughter.
***
Later, when Brooke saw Landon alone, she sidled up to him. “Hey, are we playing spin the bottle?” she asked, smiling at him flirtat
iously.
“I don’t know, I doubt it, crackhead. There’s probably too many people.”
Brooke put her hand on his chest and leaned into him. “Oh, come on, we have to play! Hey, I know! We could do it by grades or something. Like have each grade make a different circle.”
Landon shrugged. “All right, that’s cool.”
Brooke stood on the stone wall in her French maid outfit and blew a whistle she’d taken from somebody’s referee costume.
People started turning to look at her. Brooke met Jill’s eye and briefly touched her knuckle to her nostril. Jill giggled, and Brooke flashed her a secretive smile before turning back to the crowd.
“We’re playing spin the bottle!” she yelled. “It’s by grade! So, freshmen up by the house, sophomores right by the wall, over here by me...”
As Brooke went on, Jill quickly found Lorylyn in the crowd. She didn’t seem bothered. She and Brady kissed quickly on the lips and then walked off to their separate circles.
A few people who were down on the dock stayed there, and some people went in the house, but spin the bottle got quite a large turnout.
As Jill joined the freshman circle, she noticed all the boys were sitting on one side. She didn’t want Todd to get sick of her following him around, so she left him and went to sit on the other side with her girlfriends.
“Don’t you see what she’s trying to do? She wants to make out with Brady without you around!” Hillary hissed to Lorylyn as they sat down.
Lorylyn looked over at Hillary, surprised. “Who, Brooke? Why would she do that?”
“She likes him! What the hell do you think she was trying to do Homecoming week at the pep session, or at Lindy’s house?”