Escape In You (10 page)

I growl a little at that, and she laughs. “But I’m sure we can rearrange our plans.”

“My friend Fred just got home from school this week. We talked about hanging out tomorrow. You guys want to come over?”

She hesitates. “Is this going to be another party like at Preston’s house? 'Cause I don’t think I can deal with that.”

I shake my head quickly. “Nah, Fred isn't a thing like Preston. And it would just be us and Ellie and Hunter. Or whoever you want to ask.”

“Okay. I’ll see if Ellie is down.”

I lead her back downstairs and out to my car, hoping her friends will be cool with getting together. I want Fred to meet her, for reasons that aren’t that clear to me. I just know he’ll like her, and I really want her to like him. Fred isn’t like my other friends, if you can even call them that.

“You want music?” I ask, once we we’re both settled in the car.

“Sure.”

I plug my iPod into the dash and scroll until I find a good playlist. When the strains of The New Pornographers come over the speakers I set the iPod in its slot, satisfied.

“Isn’t this car really old?” she asks.

“1968 Dodge Challenger,” I say, proud.

“A 1968 Dodge Challenger has an iPod dock?”

I laugh. “I installed it. In fact, I restored this baby pretty much from rust all on my own.”

She shakes her head. “So you’re an amazing artist, and you can pretty much build a whole car. I don’t know, Taylor. I doubt I can keep up.”

“Oh, I beg to differ.” I reach over to take her hand, then rest it against my knee. “I think you can keep up just fine.”

Chapter Eight

Zoe

“I’m really not sure about this,” I say as I watch the houses blur by through the open car window.

“Shut up,” Ellie says. “Stop being such a wimp. A hot guy invited you and your friends to hang out. What, exactly, is the problem?”

Maybe that he’s much, much more than a hot guy,
I think. “What if it’s like Preston’s?” I ask.

“He told you it won't be. Do you have a reason not to trust him?”

“No,” I mutter, knowing I sound like a child. The truth is, I’m terrified to see Taylor again. I feel like we connected more last night than I have with just about anyone else, ever. Surely this is a situation not to be taken lightly.

We pull up in front of a modest house in a neighborhood not too far from Ellie’s. I look up at the house and allow myself a brief moment of relief. At least it’s not a mansion. The thought of seeing Taylor inside, though, still scares the crap out of me.

“Look,” Ellie says, turning off the car and facing me. “What do I always tell you when we go somewhere unfamiliar?”

“That we can leave anytime I want.”

She nods. “Exactly. Tonight is no different. I’ll be there with you the whole time. Everett and Hunter, too. If you’re uncomfortable or whatever, we take off. No biggie.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Okay.”

She makes a face at me. “Good. ‘Cause I don’t think I can handle much more of you acting like a moody, teenaged girl.”

I reach out and tug on a strand of her blue-tipped hair. “Screw you.”

She laughs her familiar throaty laugh and unbuckles her seat belt. “Right back at you.”

As we climb out of the car Everett pulls in behind us, Hunter waving from the passenger seat. I do feel better, even if it weren’t for Ellie’s promise that we can leave. These three are pretty much the best friends I have and knowing that they’ll be in there with me calms me immeasurably.

“What’d you bring?” Ellie demands as they climb out of the car.

Hunter holds up a brown paper bag. “Jack and Coke.”

“Good boy.”

The four of us head up the lawn, and the front door opens before we reach the porch. “Hey,” Taylor calls from inside. “You made it.”

“Hey, Jet,” Everett calls back, and my stomach flips again. But then I’m falling in line behind Ellie to pass through the front door, and I order myself to follow my friend’s advice and stop acting like a teenage girl.

I avoid Taylor’s gaze as everyone says hello and removes their jackets. I can feel him watching me, and I know I’ll blush if I look up. “Guys, this is Fred,” he says, and I finally raise my gaze to look at our host.

He’s not at all what I expected. Taylor had assured me Fred wasn’t like Preston, so I think I assumed he’d be more like Jet—tattoos and scruffy hair. Instead he looks completely…average. Short brown hair, black rimmed glasses, fairly tall. He’s dressed in faded blue jeans and an Avett Brothers t-shirt. I see Ellie’s gaze flick down to his bare feet and grin to myself. She has a weird thing about guys in jeans and bare feet. Immediately she sidles an inch or so closer to him.

“Fred, this is Everett, Hunter, Ellie, and Zoe.” He gestures to each of us in turn.

Fred looks at me for a second too long, and I wonder what Taylor has told him. He beams at me.

“Nice to meet you guys,” he says, but he’s still looking at me. “Glad you could come.” Fred leads us through the kitchen to the basement steps. “It’s nothing fancy, but we have some couches down there. It’s not a bad place to chill.”

I end up at the back of the group, next to Taylor. He takes my hand before I can follow my friends down the steps. “Hey,” he says, his voice low and scratchy. It sends a little shiver through me. I imagine what it would be like to hear that voice against my ear, whispering dirty things, and heat floods through me.

“Hey,” I say back, hoping he can’t see how affected I am already. He grins, and I know he knows. It seems like he always knows.

“I’m glad you came.” He tugs on my hand a little, pulling me toward him. Immediately I’m breathless, yearning for his lips to touch mine. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about last night.”

“Me too.” I lean forward until our foreheads are touching. “I wouldn't mind a repeat performance soon.”

He smiles and brushes his lips against mine, groaning softly at the contact. The sound sends my heart into overdrive. “Want to ditch them?” he whispers.

I laugh. “Since none of them know each other, I’m thinking that’d be kind of shitty.”

He sighs dramatically. “Fine. Let’s go join them.”

When we reach the basement, I note both Ellie’s and Fred’s eyes are on us and try not to let it bother me. We gather on the couches, passing around beers. After a few minutes of general chit chat, I relax. Fred seems like a really nice guy. He’s polite, asking us each about what we do and where we go to school. I tense slightly when he says he goes to U of M, wondering what he’ll think of my community college, but instead he just asks me about my classes, not batting an eye when I tell him it’s my first full year.

I’m two beers in and feeling pretty good when Ellie groans. “I’m getting antsy,” she says. “Let’s play a game.”

I give her a warning look. We tend to play a lot of drinking games when we’re chilling like this, and I’m pretty good at some of them. But, knowing Ellie, she’s going to pick something that will embarrass me. Sure enough—

“What’d you have in mind?” Fred asks.

Ellie sits up straight, rubbing her hands together as she considers it. “How ‘bout Never Have I Ever?”

I groan softly. Ellie knows I hate that game. It’s far too personal, particularly with our current company.

“What’s that?” Fred asks. I can tell already he’s eating right out of her hands. I can't blame him—I’d seen many men felled by the force of Ellie Canter’s overwhelming magnetism, and she’s been making eyes at him since we first walked in the door.

“We go around the circle and everyone says one thing they’ve never done,” she explains. “If you have done that thing, you take a shot.”

I can see Taylor watching me out of the corner of my eye. I wonder what he thinks of this game—he’s not the most open guy in the world.

“Ells, that game is lame,” I say. “We should play Let’s Go Camping or Kings or something.”

She shakes her head, grinning widely, and I know she knows exactly why I don't want to play this game.

“We need cards for Kings,” she reminds me. “And the last time we played Camping you picked the hardest places. We all got wasted, and you were stone-cold sober.”

I glare at her, but she only continues to beam at me. “Who’s in?” she asks the guys.

“I’m game,” Hunter says, tossing his empty beer can on the coffee table.

“Me too,” Fred says.

Everett nods.

I look at Taylor, who raises his eyebrows at me, as if in question. I sigh. “Fine.”

“Good,” Ellie says. “Hunter, come over here. We need to be in a circle.”

We arrange ourselves into a loose semi-circle on the ground, Ellie grabbing the bottle of Jack and a few plastic cups from Hunter’s paper bag. She passes around the cups and sets the bottle in the center of the circle. I sit with my legs crossed, leaning against the couch. Taylor stretches out next to me, lounging on his side, supporting himself on one arm. I stare at that arm, at the way the weight of his body makes his bicep strain under his dark-green t-shirt. One of his tattoos peeks out from the tight fabric, a tendril of something in vivid blue. I want to run my finger along it, lift the arm of his shirt up to see what else is inked there. He chuckles softly and I look up to see his eyes on me.

“Whatcha looking at?” he asks, clearly amused.

Embarrassed, I look away, but he leans into me.

“I can show you my tat later. In fact, I can show you
all
of them.”

I laugh in spite of myself. I should be mortified that he caught me ogling his body, but, somehow, when he teases me this way it takes away my embarrassment, makes me want to laugh right along with him.

“Okay,” Ellie says, and kneels up. “I’ll get us started.” She stares straight at me and says, “Never have I ever taken my top off while standing on a bar in a packed club.”

I am going to kill her. I know this was what she had in mind when she suggested the game. She wants me to spill all my secrets in front of Taylor—it’s her own twisted way of trying to push us close together. Or she just likes watching me squirm. Giving her my best death stare, I grab the bottle of Jack from the center of the circle and pour a shot, which I swallow quickly.

Everyone laughs. Of course, I’m the only one to take a drink.

“Yeah, I’m gonna need some details on that one,” Fred says.

“I was drunk, and it was a dare,” I say, glad that at least I’m not blushing. “I’m not the kind of girl to back out on a dare.”

Taylor reaches over and rubs his palm over my knee. “Wish I’d been there,” he mutters, and I tremble a little.

“Okay, my turn,” Hunter says. He thinks for a moment. “Never have I ever…had sex with a girl.”

“Nice,” I laugh, watching as Taylor, Fred, and Everett pass the bottle between them, each pouring his shot. When Ellie grabs the Jack from him and takes a drink straight from the bottle, I’m pretty sure Fred’s eyes are going to pop out of his head.

“Are you kidding?” he asks.

She winks at him. “What can I say? I like to expand my horizons.”

“My turn.” I think for a moment, trying to determine what might embarrass my friend. The problem is that she’s so damn confident about everything. She doesn't have any secrets and doesn't feel embarrassed about her mistakes like normal people do. Finally, I grin. “Never have I ever surprised a boy at work with candy and a teddy bear.”

If looks could kill I’d be melted by the sheer heat of her glare. Instead, I just laugh as she takes a gulp of Jack. “The first person I see smirking gets a kick to the nads,” she growls.

“We’re not smirking,” Everett says, patting her shoulder. “We think it’s really great you’re secretly such a sweetie.”

“Let me go before Everett loses his testicles,” Taylor says drily. “So…never have I ever left the country.”

Fred and Hunter both take drinks. “Wow,” Taylor says, looking around. “Not a very sophisticated bunch, are we?”

It goes around like that for a few rounds. Most of the statements are fairly benign, though every question Ellie asks seems custom designed to embarrass me. I do my best to get my own back at her, racking my brain to remember every sappy, girlish thing she has ever done and will now be ashamed of.

“I’ve got a good one,” Hunter says. “Never have I ever been arrested.”

I look over at Taylor, wondering how he’ll react when I take the bottle, only to discover he’s reaching for it himself.

“You’ve both been arrested?” Everett asks. “Jeez. Talk about a match made in heaven.”

Taylor flips him off as he hands me the bottle. I take my swig quickly, not wanting to be reminded of the night I’d been forced to spend in the city jail. Not one of my finer moments.

Taylor gives me a rueful smile. “I won’t ask if you won’t.”

“Deal.”

It turns out to be quite an illuminating game. By the time we’re all too drunk to continue, I’ve discovered that Taylor has been arrested, has been in more than one bar fight, has smoked pot but never tried anything harder, and has never been in love. In turn, I’ve had to admit that I’ve done ecstasy, broken a girl’s nose, shoplifted, and been suspended from school. Even better, Ellie’s had to confess that she cried over Jonathan Rigby for four days straight, that she sleeps with a night light, and not only that she goes to visit her grandmother in a nursing home every other week but that she also plays bingo while she’s there. In spite of my steady buzz, I’m feeling pretty proud of myself.

“I need food,” Everett says. He leans back against the couch and closes his eyes. “If I don’t eat, I’m going to be sick.”

“I’m too wasted to go out,” Fred says. He’s lying flat on his back on the floor, his torso and head under the coffee table. I’m not sure why he chose that spot, but hearing him talk from under the table makes me giggle.

“Come on, tipsy,” Taylor says, holding out his hand to me. “Let’s go upstairs and scrounge up some food.”

I take his hand, still laughing, and he guides me up the stairs.

“You feeling okay?” he asks, looking over at me. “I think Ellie was out to get you down there.”

I scowl. “That’s Ellie. She gets a kick out of embarrassing me.”

“Don’t worry, you held your own and got her back. Besides, I don’t think anything you revealed was all that bad.”