Metamorphosis (12 page)

Right before we walked inside,
Evie
realized that she had forgotten her phone in her car
on the charger. I turned around to go with her to retrieve it, but she stopped
me and told me to go ahead inside and let Jess know that we were there. I
wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of her walking alone at night to
her car, but she pointed out to me the numerous lights dispersed across the
well-lit lot, the security driving around in a golf cart, and the mace
container she held in her hand. Without another good reason for her not to go,
I entered the restaurant on a hunt to find Jess in the sea of bodies.

It didn’t take long for me to find
the back of Meg’s platinum blonde pixie cut hair across the waiting area,
standing at the bar. I could only assume that Jess’ short self was standing
next to her. I slithered through the people, trying not to step on anyone or
accidentally hit someone’s arm that was holding a drink, to make my way to
them. As I got closer, I noticed that standing in between Meg and Jess was none
other than Ash. There was no mistaking him, even from the back. Oh shit. It
appeared my will was going to be tested earlier than I had thought. One foot in
front of the other, I could do this.

When I got just a few feet behind
them, I overheard Ash ask Jess, “Five? Who else is joining us?” I froze. I
really didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to
know what his reaction and response was going to be when Jess told him that we
were the ones meeting them there.

“
Evie
and Scarlett. Why? Is that okay?” Jess asked looking up at Ash.
He didn’t reply at first, or at least not that I heard, but he
must’ve made a disapproving face because Jess raised her voice at him.
“What’s the problem, Ash? You told me nothing happened between you and Scarlett
last weekend. You said that y’all just stayed up late talking and passed out
because she was having a hard time sleeping. I warned you to stay away from
her, Ash, goddammit. I didn’t want anything like this to happen. I knew they
were going to be hanging out with us a lot… and she’s so good Ash, she really
doesn’t need to deal with your shit.”

“Nothing happened! I told you
nothing happened, it’s the truth,” he argued. “Look, Scarlett is a very sweet
and pretty girl, but that’s what she is… a girl. You know I don’t mess around
with virgins. I learned my lesson the hard way with that shit. Either they are
never going to let me fuck them, which I respect their decision and all but
that doesn’t work for me, or they decide that I’m the lucky bastard that they
give their most virtuous gift to and expect me to fall in love with them and
spend forever together, which REALLY doesn’t work for me. So whichever category
Scarlett or any other vestal maiden that may come along falls into, it’s never
going to work for me.”

“Not to mention, she’s so not his
type,” Meg chimed in. “She’s not blonde and her tits aren’t big enough. But for
me on the other hand…”

“You’re not helping Meg and you
need to stay the hell away from her too.” Jess warned.

I could not believe the
conversation I was listening to. The three of them were talking about
me and my virginity
like they were discussing what they were
going to eat for dinner, just no big deal. I didn’t have much time to analyze
the multitude of emotions that had converged together to form a huge knot in
the back of my throat and a matching one deep in my abdomen because
Evie
walked up next to me, grabbed my hand, and forced me
to follow her to where the trio stood. I’m sure she thought I was just too
nervous to approach Ash.

“Hey guys, I hope you haven’t been
waiting long,”
Evie
greeted the group. All three of
them turned around to face us with a somewhat guilty look on their faces, or
maybe I just thought I saw that since I knew what they had been discussing and
I thought they should’ve felt guilty.

“No, we haven’t been here too
long,” Jess replied hastily. “The hostess said it would be about 20 minutes
when we checked in and that was probably 10 or 15 minutes ago.”

“Cool.”
Evie
replied.

I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t.
Ash’s eyes had locked with mine and I could tell he was concerned that I had
overheard their conversation. I could feel the tears welling up behind my eyes
but I would be damned if I gave him the pleasure of making me cry. I
successfully willed them away and tore away from his stare. Determined to act
as if nothing was wrong, I then said hello to each of them and asked how they
were doing. Thankfully, the hostess walked over to us at that moment to let us
know that our table was ready.

Dinner itself was painfully
pleasant. Jess and
Evie
carried the conversation
throughout, the other three of us piped up every once in a while to add our two
cents. I paid quite a bit of attention to first the chips and salsa on the
table and then to my main course once it arrived. I felt Ash staring at me a
few times but I did not dare look his way. His and Meg’s words were playing on an
endless loop in my head. She is a girl… It’s never going to work for me…
She’s so not his type… She is a girl. I sat in my chair exploding with
emotions-embarrassment, rejection, and flat-out anger were the three at the
top of my list, in no particular order. However, in the end, anger won out and
I couldn’t wait to get to the party to be in Dylan’s arms to show him just how
much of a girl I was.

The scene at Jacob and Nicholas’
was much the same as the week before except with double the number of people. I
recognized quite a few of the people as we made our way from the front door to
the kitchen. Several of them even stopped to ask if I’d be playing the guitar
again to which I replied an honest “I’m not sure.” I found Dylan in the kitchen.
He was drinking a beer, leaning against the island, looking hotter than I
remembered. He had gotten his hair cut or buzzed I should say. Normally I
wouldn’t think that I would like a guy with hair that short, but somehow it
made Dylan even more attractive. He was dressed similar to the last time I saw
him - a pale blue polo, cargo shorts, and deck shoes.
All-American
boy indeed.
As soon as his big brown eyes found me, a huge smile spread
across his flawless face, and I hurried over to him. He greeted me with a warm
embrace, a hug so tight that he lifted me off of the floor. We were in complete
oblivion to the people around us, other than the fact I was secretly hoping Ash
was watching. When he sat me back down, he leaned towards me and spoke with his
lips brushing against mine. “I couldn’t wait to see you, Scarlett. A week is
way too long to go without seeing your lovely face.”

Feeling wanted and cherished, I
whispered back, “I missed you too, Dylan.” I stuck my tongue out and traced his
lower lip with it, taunting him to kiss me harder. Dylan did not disappoint.
The invitation of my tongue on his mouth must’ve been exactly what he was
waiting for because he immediately swept me away in a demanding and powerful
kiss. His tongue plundered and pillaged my mouth while his hands rubbed up and
down my back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my body firmly
against his.

When we broke apart, a round of
applause and whistles broke out among the
party-goers
in the kitchen that had witnessed our exchange.

“Damn girl, if I didn’t know
better, I would’ve thought y’all were long lost lovers reuniting after years
apart,”
Evie
leaned over to me and said. There was no
doubt that my face was
beet
red, I could feel the heat
in my cheeks. I didn’t mean for the kiss to become so passionate right there in
front of everyone, but once it got started, I couldn’t help but release all of
the pent up emotions that I had yet to deal with from dinner and it just felt
so good to be desired.

Dylan didn’t seem to mind the
attention; he smiled smugly and continued to hold me close to him with both
arms snaked around my waist. Everyone resumed whatever it was they were doing
and I felt an overwhelming need for fresh air.

“Can we go outside? It’s a little
warm in here,” I whispered in Dylan’s ear.

“Of course. Come on,” he answered
and kissed my forehead.

He led me through the crowded
kitchen to the back door, and as soon as we stepped on the wooden deck, I
filled my lungs with the warm humid Texas air. It was calming and refreshing.
There weren’t nearly as many people in the back yard as inside - just a few
couples sitting on and around the deck, some talking, some doing more than
talking, and a group of smokers that stood in a circle in the middle of the
yard. The smell of both cigarettes and pot lingered heavily in the muggy night.
Dylan walked us to an area of the deck railing that was unoccupied. He lifted
me up so that I was sitting on the wide railing, eye level with him.
Instinctively, I opened my legs wide enough that he could stand between them. I
pulled him to me and without saying a word, I picked up right where we had left
off inside, crushing my mouth on his. I was still irritated and hurt over Ash’s
cruel words, and as hard as I tried, I could not stop thinking about it… until
Dylan had kissed me in the kitchen. So I figured as long as I kept kissing him,
I would be perfectly happy. There could be worse things, right? And damn if he
wasn’t a superb kisser. Kissing Dylan was different than kissing Ash, I
couldn’t put my finger on how exactly, but it was incredible nonetheless.

After several minutes of getting
our mouths reacquainted with one another, we were finally ready to talk. Dylan
stayed close to me, in between my legs with each of his hands on my bare
thighs, his face was just inches from mine.

“I really like the boots,” he said
smiling while he looked down at my feet. “They’re very sexy Texas.” I grinned
at the compliment and wiggled my feet for him.

“But I love the pigtails,” he
murmured as he leaned in to me once again. He kissed right below my left ear
and then whispered, “They make me think very naughty thoughts about you.” I
whimpered as similar visions crossed my mind and my wet pussy ached with want.

“Oh God, Scarlett. Please don’t
make sounds like that. I’m having a hard enough time controlling myself as it
is,” Dylan pleaded but kept his face nuzzled in my neck and his body up against
mine.

“Sorry. I got a little carried
away there. You aren’t the only one fighting to stay in control,
ya
know?” I replied. We continued to stand like that for a
little while, I had my arms wrapped around his neck and I was running my hands
over his freshly cut hair. I loved the way the hair felt under my hands, it was
soft and smooth if you rubbed your hands one way, but stubby and prickly when
you ran it the other direction. He continued to
lay
against my chest, kissing my neck and ears every so often, both of us were lost
in thought. This was quite different from last Saturday when we spent the
majority of the time talking and getting to know one another. I wondered what
it would be like to be in a different setting with Dylan, like a real
dinner-movie date kind of thing. And then I wondered why he hadn’t asked me out
yet. We had talked or texted every day this week, but he never brought up
seeing one another outside of these parties. Before I could jump off into one
of my notorious overanalyzed hypotheses on why that was,
Evie
and some guy walked out the back door towards us. The competition had
officially begun.

“Hey Sam. How you doing out here?”
she asked as her and her male friend approached. I could see the wide grin on
her face and the sparkle in her eye and I knew that this was her so-called
chosen “prey” for the evening. He was cute, a little dorky, but still cute. He
was tall and skinny, had short black hair, and his pink polo,
seer-sucker
shorts, and loafers screamed “preppy frat boy.”
The look was so over the top, I couldn’t help but snicker into Dylan’s back. I
knew that this “genre” of book boyfriend was not
Evie’s
top choice, she much preferred a guy with some rough around the edges, but she
was sticking to the guidelines… almost a little too well.
A
pink polo, really?

“We’re good. Sorry to bail, there
were just so many people inside the house, and I was getting overheated and
claustrophobic,” I told her apologetically.

“No worries, I just wanted to make
sure you were doing okay. And I wanted to introduce you to Anthony,”
Evie
grabbed his hand and jerked him closer to her. The
move startled the poor guy, but he wasn’t about to protest.

Dylan and I both introduced
ourselves
and shook the guy’s hand without moving from our
position. Dylan had just turned around so that his back was leaning against my
chest, still standing in between my legs. My boots were hooked around the front
of him, resting on his thighs; my arms snaked around his middle, hands clasped
together at his waist; and my chin rested on his right shoulder. I loved having
his neck and ear in such close proximity to my mouth and every so often, I
would kiss and nip at his soft skin. The moans I could feel vibrating in his
neck that had escaped in the back of his throat fueled me to continue.

We spent a while talking outside
with
Evie
and Anthony, who actually turned out to be
a pretty normal guy, despite his questionable clothing decisions. I could tell
that
Evie
was bored with him about halfway through
the conversation, but she was not going to forfeit the win easily. She tried
her hardest to get Anthony to partake in some form of PDA, but he was shy and
reserved and any physical contact between the two of them was a direct result
of her initiating it. It appeared I had two breakfasts coming my way.