Double Pleasure: Alpha Male Taboo Forbidden Romance (7 page)

I stopped at the next red light and took a deep breath. Her apartment was close. If I made a turn, I could pull up in her driveway and tell her. Doubts assaulted my mind from all angles. The local college radio station was on in the car. One of the student DJs mentioned some sort of the big party on campus, but I blocked it out and thought about confessing my love to Clarissa.

Even her name excited me. When I said it in my mind or spoke it out loud, a sense of calm washed over me. She was everything I wanted in a woman; smart, funny and sexy as hell. I pulled up in front of the house she lived in and parked on the street. After another deep breath, I got out of the car and headed toward her front door.

Halfway up the porch, I noticed a group of people sitting next door. I nodded my head at them briefly. They watched as I knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. The same song that had been on in my car when I parked was blaring out of their speakers. It ended and the DJs mentioned the big party on campus again. Apparently, costumes were involved.

“Hey,” I called to the other porch. “You guys seen Carissa around?”

“She’s at the party, man,” a guy with dreadlocks yelled.

“Where’s that at?”

“Over on Rex Street. But you’re going to need a costume.”

“Thanks for the heads up. You know of a costume store around here?”

“This late?” He laughed. “Come on over here, man.”

I walked over and onto the neighbor’s porch. When I stepped up, I saw a tie-dyed sheet tacked to the roof. It would make a good costume in a pinch.

“Hey, can I buy that tie-dye?”

“What? No, man. That’s our house flag.”

“I’ll give you twenty bucks.”

“Try a hundred.” He held out his hand.

“For real?”

“You want to go to this party, don’t you? Only way in is a costume. Supply and demand, man.”

He was right. I dug out my wallet and get five twenty dollar bills.

“That works,” he said then reached up and tore down the sheet. “Here you go.”

“You have some scissors so I can cut some eye holes into it?”

“What the hell kind of costume is that going to be? A tie-dye ghost?”

“The ghost of Jerry Garcia.”

I smiled and nodded my head. The genius of my idea dawned on the budding businessman.

“Not bad, man. Not bad at all. You might get some chicks with that line.”

“I’m not after just anyone…”

“Oh, yeah. Carissa. She’s hot.”

Did this guy sleep with her?
I looked him over. “You know her well?”

“Not too well, man. You dating her now or something?”

“Or something.” I lifted the sheet. “Thanks for this. You got some scissors?”

“Sure, man. You can even use them for free.”

He went inside to get the scissors. The other four people on the porch – two men and two women – looked at me and nodded their heads. After a few more awkward moments, the guy with dreadlocks returned with the scissors. His housemates watched in horror as I cut two eye-holes into the tie-dye sheet. When I threw it on and said, “Boo, I’m the ghost of Jerry Garcia,” they laughed approvingly.

I took it off and went back to my car. Rex Street was infamous for being the place where most campus parties took place because it was nestled in a contested area between two jurisdictions. Buddies of mine said it was like a mini-Las Vegas, but I’d never been to any parties there myself. I had to park a block away so many people were headed to the party. I put my costume back on and locked the car before I left.

When I walked around the corner, I realized five houses were participating. The parties in a single house on Rex Street were legendary. I couldn’t imagine what was going to happen with five houses going at the same time.
Someone’s making a shitton of money tonight,
I thought to myself as I made my way up to the first house in my path, which had a yard sign with a “5” painted on it in green.

Instead of going in the front door, I headed around to the back, a tactic I’d learned my freshman year in college many years previously. Before I got around the house, I heard a female voice yelling loudly about being able to skip ahead to the last house – number five is alive – because she was a senior. Her language was much more forceful and would have made a sailor on leave blush.

A moment later, I saw her – the sexiest cupid I’d ever seen in real life or art throughout the centuries. Basically, she was naked with a few strategic pieces of her flesh hidden. A quiver covered in glitter was strung over one shoulder. It was full of cardboard arrows.
Or are those real?
I asked as I walked over to her and the college guy standing close by. She pulled the string back on her bow.

“You two gotta go,” the bouncer, who had on a wrestling jacket, said to them menacingly.

“Hey, it’s okay. Follow me,” I said to her.

The bouncer eyed me suspiciously, but I ignored him and attempted to get her to walk around to the front of the house with me.

“I’m the ghost of Jerry Garcia. I think you’re going to want to follow me,” I said.

“Fine,” she said, still seriously upset.

She followed me around the corner of the house to the driveway. The guy she’d been with wandered away without a care in the world.

“Fuck,” she said when she noticed. “Where’d my man go?”

“Never go up against a bouncer straight-on,” I said, trying to get her mind off the fact her guy had ditched her.

“What?”

“You want to get in the party, right? Well, I have a better way to do it.”

“You remind me of someone,” she snapped.

“Oh yeah?” My face perked up.

“Yeah, they get on my fucking nerves too.”

“Does cupid need a joint?”

After having been practically ripped off when buying the sheet, I’d swiped a few doobies off the table on the porch without them noticing. They were so stoned and drunk, they would never realize it had been me. I wanted to smoke all three of them with Carissa, but I could use one to stabilize Cupid and get some good karma built up before I decided which house to try to find her in first.

“Yeah, that would be cool.”

“Where can we smoke?”

“Fucking anywhere, man. Light it up.” She studied me closely for a second. “You’re kinda old. Are you a student here, or what? I have mace in my purse.”

“Settle down, I’m okay. I’m looking for my sister. She goes here. I’m just a little older than her.”

“Well?” she asked impatiently.

Confused, I tilted my head. “Well what?”

“Light the joint, dude. Or were you just saying you had one to lure me into your van?”

I retrieved one of the joints from my front jeans pocket. It was a little bent and scraggly looking, but hopefully the weed was good and would calm cupid down. If I was really lucky, she might be able to help me find my stepsister. Cupid was cute, but too skinny for my taste. I liked my women curvy like Carissa. She took the joint and examined it.

“You didn’t have this down your underwear, did you?”

“What?” I chuckled. “Of course not. You want some free weed or not?”

“I don’t know, dude. You seem kinda sketchy.”

“Look, you’re not my type, okay?”

“Yeah? What kind of women do you like?” She lit up the joint and took a long hit before passing it to me.

“Curvy. Smart.”

She exhaled and coughed. “I have someone perfect for you!”

“I’m not here to find someone. Well, I am, but a specific someone.”

“Well, let me introduce you to my friend. If you don’t like her, we can keep looking for your mystery woman.”

I nodded my head. Giving her my Carissa’s name would probably help in finding her, but I didn’t want to take the chance they knew each other. The last thing I needed was someone to know I was in love with my stepsister. After I took a hit through one of the eye holes in my costume, I passed it to her.
I should’ve cut out a mouth hole,
I thought to myself as we smoked.

Three

Carissa

In the backyard of the first house, someone working security gave me a stamp on the back of my hand, saying it would get me into the second house. I thanked the guy and wandered next door.
If I had to get stamped, Amy was probably not too far ahead of me. She’s probably in the second house.
I walked to the house next door.

“Stamp?” a guy standing in front of the steps to the back porch.

I held out my hand, palm down. He nodded and stepped aside. The vibe in the second house was different than the first. It had a laid back stoner vibe even stronger than the first house. A nice pile of brownies were on a table in the kitchen with a note that said, “Eat me.” No one else was in the room, so I swiped one and scarfed it down.

To wash it down, I grabbed one of the bottles of water set up on the counter in neat rows. As soon as I walked into the living room, I was certain I would spend the rest of the night in the house. A black light made everything seem even more psychedelic. But it wasn’t glitzy or fake at all. I found it hard to put my feelings into words as a group of twenty-something stoners all looked at me when I came in.

“What’s up, guys,” I said as casual as I could muster with the mix of weed and alcohol in my system.

“We’re about to smoke,” a bearded one said. “Join us?”

“Sure…” I sat down in a recliner. The huge cushion swallowed me, trapping me.

“I’m Edison,” the one who’d invited me in said.
Ginger beard is Edison.
I said in my mind, hoping to remember at least one of their names. The other four introduced themselves one after the other, but as soon as they spoke, I forgot their names. I nodded my head, flashing my smile, which had gotten me out of many college situations in the past.

“I’m Carissa,” I said when it was my turn. My costume gave me a little courage.

All of them nodded their heads, not smiling. They were like wise weed wizards or something. That thought caused me to giggle, a reaction they studied with intense curiosity. Edison handed me a twelve inch green plastic water bong. After I took it from him, he passed me a lighter. The costume had a way for me to easily lift the cloth covering my face.

All five weed wizards gasped in surprise when I revealed my face.
Are they gonna start hitting on me now?
I wondered. Without waiting for my brain to come up with an answer, I put my mouth into the tube and lit the bowl. After it filled with smoke, I pulled the bowl out and inhaled deeply. I held the smoke in as I leaned forward and passed it to the guy to my right.

The bong made its way around the room as the brownies I’d consumed began to affect my mind.
This is a big buzz. It almost feels like…
My eyes opened wide as I turned to look at Edison. He appeared alarmed when he saw my face, but he didn’t say anything. If I asked if the brownies had magic mushrooms in them, he’d know I’d snatched one for myself without paying.

“The sign said eat me,” I blurted out.

He laughed, starting with a small chuckle but soon leveling up to a full-fledged guffaw.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“It’s fine. They’re free.”

“Is it shrooms? Just pot? What the hell was in those?”

“Not a lot of shrooms, unfortunately, but some. You may begin to get a bit buzzed.”

When he used the “zzzz” sound, I laughed out loud. “You guys are pretty cool, I said.”

“Are you going to join us downstairs in a bit?” Edison asked, staring into my eyes.

“I don’t know. Maybe. What’s downstairs.”

“Just another part of the party,” he replied with a sly grin.

All of a sudden, I didn’t trust him for some reason. The effect of the alcohol was long gone as I began my psychedelic journey. When the bong made its way around the room to me again, I turned it down. My mind was long gone. The recliner cushion had sucked me in completely. I doubted it I could move at all. After I passed on the weed, Edison stood up.

“Party time. Brownies assemble,” he shouted, breaking the silent mood of the house.

He looked at me and smiled as a group of naked men and women filtered into the living room from the basement. Once again, my eyes got huge – like in a cartoon.

“Take your pick,” Edison said. “Everyone who took a brownie gets a person to please them.”

I found the strength to sit up and escape the chair. Before he could question my look of horror, I pulled the flap of my costume down to cover my face. It was hard to see clearly through the small eyeholes, but I hightailed it to the front door, which was locked. I panicked for a second before instinct took over. I bolted for the kitchen, screaming like a kung-fu expert from the movies.

Everyone – clothed and unclothed – made a path for me. I burst through the door and into the backyard. The bouncer working security snickered at me. I glared at him and held out my hand to get a stamp for the third house. When I had it, I wandered away while staring at the back of my hand. Having two stamps made it look weird, unnatural. The shrooms were kicking in.