Chelsea, Paul, and Blue did three shots, one for each of them. They had hung out a lot in high school. Paul and Blue had been best friends, but after high school Paul had gone to college and was now in law school. But in a lot of ways he was the same burly kid Chelsea remembered. He was six five and easily two hundred and fifty pounds and he and Blue were constantly shoving and punching each other like they were sixteen all over again.
The party around them only got wilder. Blue and Paul did keg stands and then Blue and Chelsea played Paul and Jamie in beer pong. It was fun and carefree, exactly what Chelsea needed. At Hollywood parties, everyone had an agenda; they wanted to audition for a part or get a record contract; a party could never be just a party. But out here everyone was just having fun and spending a little bit more of their early twenties being young and reckless.
She was always with Blue. Chelsea could have left, could have slipped away, but she didn’t want to. She was electrified by the occasional touch of his skin against hers, his hand on her lower back, their arms pressed together. She always knew where he was. Even when she couldn’t see him, she could sense him behind her or over her shoulder and every time she looked up at him, she found him looking back.
“Come dance with me,” Blue said, pressing his head against hers and whispering into her ear. She shuddered a little and nodded and let Blue guide her towards the makeshift dance floor in the living room.
There was a DJ and he was playing slow R&B song as Blue put his hands around Chelsea’s waist and she rested hers on his shoulders. She looked into his dark eyes and couldn’t help but smile and then look away.
“You look good tonight, Chelsea Riley,” Blue said and he pulled her a little closer.
“Thank you,” Chelsea said, unsure of what else to say. “So you were really in Afghanistan?”
“Yeah,” he said with a nod.
“What was it like?”
“It was hot and dry and hard, that’s the best way to describe it. It was hard, but I knew what I had signed up for. I wanted to serve my country, I wanted to leave Snowbird behind, and I did that. It wasn’t all so bad. We used to watch soccer with the locals and go to camel races; some of the people were really great.”
“When did you come back?”
“About two weeks ago,” Blue said.
“Wow,” Chelsea said. She looked into his eyes and found he was staring back at her.
“It’s good to be back,” he said. “But, really, it’s good to see you.”
Her heart stopped in her chest and Chelsea didn’t know what to do or say. It was good to be home and to be with Blue. It felt right, like everything her sixteen-year-old self had ever wanted. “It’s been good seeing you, too, But this thing with our parents is...weird.”
“Yeah,” Blue said, rolling his eyes. “But Terrance seems pretty set on marrying her and he usually gets what he wants.”
“When we were in high school...” Chelsea started, but then she wasn’t sure what to say; she didn’t know how to talk about her worries about Terrance. “You said a lot of stuff about your dad, that he was mean and violent, that he hit you, that he only cared about money.” Blue nodded and clenched his jaw but said nothing. “And if that’s still the case, I can’t not tell my mom. I don’t want her to marry someone who’s going to hurt her.”
“I don’t remember your mom being a logical person who listened to reason,” Blue said and Chelsea had to agree. Colleen was stubborn and bullheaded and what’s worse she might not believe what Chelsea told her.
“Why did you come back to town?” Chelsea asked. “If Terrance is really so awful why are you back?”
“He is my father,” Blue said. “And this is my home. I honestly didn’t know where else I could have gone. Plus, he told me you were going to be here, and I wanted to see you.”
“Why?”
“You know why,” Blue said and he pulled Chelsea until she was flush against him and he planted a long deep kiss on her mouth. His arms were locked around her and Chelsea was trapped in his embrace and she never wanted to leave. He was so strong and solid; he was nothing like the men she had met recently and it was only at that moment she realized how much she had missed him.
She could remember sitting next to him in math class. Chelsea had always been terrible at math. No matter how careful she was, she always made a tiny mistake that threw the whole equation off. But Blue had been a natural; he would breeze through problem after problem, barely thinking about it at all. He used to push his tests to the edge of the desk so Chelsea could read the answers. He was the only reason she had passed Geometry.
Then there were the bruises. Blue always refused to tell her where they came from. When she would ask he would just shrug of his shoulders and tell her not to worry about it. His arms and chest would be covered in them and his face sometimes, too. He would come to school with a dark purple bruise under one eye and a split lip and claim he had been jumped on the way home.
He had never told her where the bruises had come from. She had always suspected Terrance, but he would deny it every time she asked. He would get mad when she pressed the issue and sometimes they wouldn’t talk for days. When that happened Chelsea would be inconsolable, lying on her bed and crying into the pillow until he finally forgave her and came back. So eventually she stopped asking.
She was leaning against his chest and breathing in the scent of him. He was running his hands up and down her back and then he slipped them up and under her shirt and she moaned at the touch of his skin against hers. She felt like she was melting into him; she didn’t know where she stopped and he started.
“Yo, where’s DeMarco at?” The voice was loud and dangerous and it carried over the sound of the music and the partygoers.
Gently Blue separated himself from Chelsea. “Who wants to know?” Blue called out and the party went silent.
“Blue, you don’t have to do this,” Chelsea whispered. “We can just leave.”
Three men appeared in the kitchen. They were all tall and muscular and the man in the middle, the ringleader was bald and looked to be about seven feet tall. “You remember me?” the man asked.
“Yeah,” Blue said with a nod, “I remember you, Jimmy.”
Paul suddenly appeared next to Blue. Chelsea looked from the group of men to Blue and Paul, but she didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know how to calm the situation down.
“Yo,” Mikey G said, appearing out of nowhere, “this is my house and if you want to be here, then you need to be cool. No fights in the house, man. This is a place of love.”
“Outside then,” Jimmy said and Blue nodded.
Chelsea stood on the dance floor dumbfounded as Blue and Paul walked outside followed by the three bigger men.
“What’s going on?” Jamie asked as she ran over to Chelsea.
“I have no idea, but I don’t think it’s good,” Chelsea said. Together the two sisters walked into the backyard with the rest of the party.
Blue and Jimmy were talking and then they were yelling, but Chelsea couldn’t make out what they were saying over the noise of the party’s music. And then Jimmy swung at Blue, but he was ready and blocked the punch and responded with an uppercut that sent the bigger man stumbled back. Chelsea couldn’t help but scream out, but it was too late. Paul and the other men had joined the fight and now it was a melee in the back yard.