Metamorphosis (5 page)

Meg scrunched her pixie face up
and looked at me, “Sorry, that totally sucks.”

Before I could confirm the extreme
level of
suckiness
, a male voice called out, “What’s
this I hear about never having been on a date or to a party?”

Confused by the sound, I whipped
my head around only to see a gorgeous guy emerge from the hallway. My mouth
fell open as the breath escaped my lungs. He stood what I guessed to be close
to six feet tall with a lean but muscular build. His long dirty blonde hair
looked as if he had just run his fingers through it and the sexy five o’clock
shadow on his face made me want to feel the scruffiness under my hand. He was
dressed in a blue
guayabera
shirt paired with khaki
cargo shorts and brown
flip flops
. He looked as if he
had stepped directly out of a Hurley magazine ad with his deeply tanned skin
and surfer-boy threads. However, nothing could have prepared me for the
reaction my body had when I looked into his eyes. It was like looking into the
waters of the Caribbean Sea, with a sparkle that bounced back and forth between
the blue and green. I was captivated. My heart was beating so hard that I was
afraid he could see the pulse in my neck from across the room. I remember
thinking if he was a vampire, I was sure to be dead in a matter of moments, and
surprisingly, I was okay with that as long as he was the one to do it. I really
need to stop reading so many paranormal romances.

“It’s about time Ash, my God! Come
meet my cousin
Evie
and her roommate, Scarlett. Hurry
up!” Jess shouted again from the kitchen.

Startled, I quickly broke the
stare and turned around to face
Evie
on the couch
who
cocked one eyebrow up at me and had a questioning look
on her face. Before I had a chance to analyze what had just happened, Jess came
around the corner with a couple of beers and guided Ash towards the couch where
we sat.

“We were talking about Scarlett
here, and the fact that she’s lived an extremely sheltered life. Her parents
were a tiny bit obsessive and controlling, so they sent her to an all-girl
private school since kindergarten and never allowed her to go out - no parties
and especially no dates. So tonight will be her very first party - ever,” Jess
explained to Ash as they stood in front of us and she handed both
Evie
and I a beer. Once again she spoke as if I wasn’t
capable or if I wasn’t there at all. I wanted nothing more than to sink into
the cushions on the couch and escape the embarrassment of the conversation.

Ash didn’t respond to Jess, but
instead held his hand out to
Evie
. When she shook his
hand he said, “
Evie
, I presume? I’m Ashton Walker or
Ash, if you prefer. It is so nice to finally meet you.” Then I saw him smile.
Oh. My. God. The deep dimples that appeared on both sides of his face turned my
insides to mush. I always knew I had a weakness for dimples, I mean, didn’t
every female? There was just something about them that screamed youth and
playfulness and innocent mischief, and when placed on a handsome face
accompanied by hard, masculine features, they were undeniably sexy and
downright irresistible.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Ash,”
Evie
replied with a smile. He then turned to me, picked my
free hand up off of my leg, and held it in his. I was frozen.

“Scarlett, it’s a pleasure to meet
you as well. I can see why your parents were hesitant about letting you out of
their sight,” he said. “If I had a daughter as stunning as you, I wouldn’t let
her leave the house either.” I blushed furiously. Then without breaking eye
contact, he pulled my hand to his mouth. But instead of kissing the top of my
hand in a gentlemanly manner as I anticipated, he lightly pressed his lips against
the inside of my wrist, where the pounding of my heartbeat was about to break
through the thin skin. Well if he is a vampire, it’s about to be over for me.
Instead of taking a bite out of my fragile skin, he then reached his other hand
to my mouth and pulled my lip free of my bite. I was done for. His touch
ignited a fire inside of me that rolled throughout my body, spreading
a liquid
warmth from my head to my toes, with the hottest
embers settling directly between my thighs. My joke from the day before about
spontaneously combusting suddenly did not seem too far out of the realm of
possibilities. Who was this guy?

“Down boy!” Jess joked as she
playfully slapped Ash on the shoulder and broke our gaze at one another. He
then released my hand and lip and took a step back from the couch. I wanted to
argue that he didn’t need to get down, or better yet, how much I would like him
to go down, but instead I just sat there in a haze and continued to stare at
Ash.
Evie
nudged my leg breaking me from my trance,
and I then realized that I had not yet said a word to him.

“Nice to meet you too,” I managed
to squeak out. I was suddenly extremely thirsty and took a large gulp of the
beer Jess had handed me. The taste was awful, worse than I had imagined it
would be, but I reluctantly swallowed it, not wanting to make more of a
spectacle of myself than I already had.

“Now Ash, I expect you to be on
your best behavior around
Evie
and Scarlett, at least
for tonight while they get used to you. And they are both off-limits to your
dirty paws and overused dick, do you understand me?” Jess said somewhat
teasingly, but the stern warning in her voice was evident. She turned towards
Evie
and
me,
“Ash here has
mastered the art of charming the birds out of the trees and girls right out of
their panties. He’s our resident playboy, so pay no attention to him if there’s
a different bimbo on his arm every time you see him.” She wrapped her arm
around his waist and smirked, “It’s a good thing I’ve known him since second
grade and know that he truly is a decent human being, or I wouldn’t be able to
stand his usual arrogant ass.”

The scowl that left his face as
quickly as it appeared at Jess’ words didn’t go unnoticed by me, and he turned
to face her, “Don’t be jealous because I haven’t shared any of this
pleasure-inducing body with you Jess,” he taunted.

“You are disgusting, you know that
right? I know where that body’s been,” Jess sneered at him.

Meg, who remained quiet up until
this point, said from across the room while she stood up, “If you two are
finished bickering, can we please go to Jacob and Nicholas’s now? I didn’t get
dressed up to sit in this room all night. I’ve got a hot little cheerleader
waiting for me there.”

I was completely confused, and as
usual, I did a poor job of hiding the emotions on my face because Jess looked
at me and said, “Meg’s a lesbian. She’s been trying to corrupt this poor girl
since last semester, and I think she may have finally slithered her way in
somehow.”

Meg’s lips curled up in a
mischievous grin and she seductively licked her lips. “Oh, I plan to slither
myself in several places of hers if she’ll let me. Now let’s go!”

With all of us
laughing at Meg’s last comment and exaggerated facial expressions
,
we headed out
the door
. Thankful for the opportunity to get some fresh air as we
walked, I knew I needed to gather my thoughts and regain my composure after the
intense introduction to Ash. I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, if
anything at all, but I needed to get my hormones in check quickly. I couldn’t
allow my brain or my body to overreact like that every time I was introduced to
a good-looking guy or I was going to be in my big trouble.

Meg and Ash walked a few feet in
front of us, lost in their own conversation, while Jess gave
Evie
and me the quick rundown on a few of the people that
would be at the party.

“The party is at Jacob and
Nicholas’ house. Ash met them last year in some soccer class. We all went out
for drinks one night, Jacob and I hit it off and started dating, and shortly
after, the five of us just ended up hanging out all the time,” she explained.
“All of us are about to start our third year at UST.”

“Vicki, Nicholas’ sister, is a
year behind us and she is the cheerleader Meg’s been lusting after. You’ll
recognize her immediately because she looks like a twelve year old, female
version of Nicholas,” Jess said loud enough for Meg to hear.

“No she doesn’t,” Meg argued
without even turning around. “She’s just petite… she’s hot and you know it.”

Jess didn’t respond directly to
Meg but instead turned to me and said mockingly, “Not only is Meg a lesbian,
but she may also be a pedophile. You are at least eighteen right, Scarlett?”

I giggled and nodded.

“Good, then you should be safe
from any unwanted advances from my roommate,” she teased.

Without breaking stride, Meg then
turned around and looked at me. “Being of age isn’t going to save you from me
sweet thing. Not only do you have an angelic face and a hot ass body, but
you’ve got a pussy that has never been tainted by a man’s cock, and oh how’d I
love to know what that innocence tastes like.” She winked at me and turned back
around. “Isn’t that right, Ash? Can you imagine how sweet she tastes?”

My face burned with mortification,
and I wasn’t sure how I should respond to Meg’s comments, so I didn’t. I knew
part of what she said had been for dramatic effect, to get Jess to shut up
about Vicki; however, for a brief moment, I found myself wondering if she
really was attracted to me… and why my stomach fluttered when I thought about
kissing her. What was wrong with me? Did
Evie
slip me
some women’s Viagra tonight or something
?…
Before I
could contemplate the thought any further, Ash turned around and gave me an
awkward, uncomfortable half smile. And then it all made sense.

I was sure that the only reason
Ash had acted the way he did towards me was because I was a virgin… the
conquest of all conquests for guys, right? Jess had just told him about my not
dating and strict parents. I was such an idiot. Jess had made it clear that he
was basically a man-whore, and
he never
denied it. She even
went as far as telling him to leave me alone because she knew exactly what he
would do. He was probably just toying with me, knowing I would easily fall
under his spell of compliments and flirtatious gestures, trying to see how
quickly he could get in my pants. I was so pissed at myself for thinking there
was some kind of spark between us. But he was just a master manipulator, an
experienced player, and I immediately knew it would serve my best interests to
stay as far away from Ash as possible. I had completely overreacted to,
LITERALLY, the first guy I had been introduced to.

The remainder of the walk, Jess
continued to ramble on about other people we would meet ~ who was dating who,
who had dated who, who to stay away from,
etc
… I
tuned her out and instead spent the time silently brooding over my own naïveté
and gullibility. When we turned off the sidewalk to walk up to the house where
the party was,
Evie
grabbed my arm and pulled me back
away from the others.

“Are you okay? What the hell
happened back at the house?” she asked with genuine concern.

“I’m fine… I don’t know what
you’re talking about, nothing happened… Everything is just great, couldn’t be
better,” I lied with forced enthusiasm.

She gave me the I-don’t-believe-a-word-you-are-saying
look, but didn’t press me. “Okay, but any
time consider
using you’re ready to leave, just let me know.”

I nodded in response. I didn’t
want to talk about it, not then, not ever.

“Now come on, let’s have some fun,
we have some boys to meet! Oh, and don’t forget, tonight is preppy college boy
night not hot surfer playboy night… you have to stick to the rules or it
doesn’t count,” she said light heartedly as she grabbed my hand and led me up
to the front porch.

“There y’all are! I turned around
to introduce you to someone and you were gone,” Jess exclaimed as we found her
waiting for us outside the front door.

“Sorry, we had
to make a quick stop, but we are good now,”
Evie
responded, not giving her any additional details of our conversation.
“Lead the way,
Cuz
.”

We followed Jess into the house,
and the scene that greeted me was very much what I had expected it to be. The
furniture in the living room had all been pushed up against the walls, leaving
an open space for dancing in the middle. There were a handful of people moving
their bodies in harmony to The Killers song that blared from the iPod player in
the corner, but most people were either lounging on the couches or standing
around, drinking and talking. Meg and Ash were nowhere in sight. We followed
Jess closely as we wove in between other
party-goers
and entered the kitchen. Her eyes immediately lit up as she saw a dark-haired
cutie standing by the island. She snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms
around his waist. He jumped at the contact but when he spun around to see her,
a huge smile spread across his face. An unexpected twinge of jealousy ran
through me, as the need to feel wanted and loved emerged, but I quickly
dismissed it.