Danny

“Is this what it has come to?”

“What do you mean?”

I gestured at his body in front of mine. I wanted to get passed him and I could have if I just slid past, but I didn’t want to run. He was challenging me, so sure that one kiss was going to make me into a whimpering ball of woman like before. I wasn’t so young and naïve now. What had started as a way to see him and how he was doing, was now more of a challenge that I wasn’t ready for. I knew that I shouldn’t have come and I was going to blame Mariss for this when I saw her next.

“I mean this. You’re going to stand here next to a bathroom, demanding a kiss? It doesn’t seem very romantic.”

“I didn’t know that you liked all that mushy stuff. Told me before that you hated it.”

“You were horrible at it and I was just trying to be nice. It was easier to just tell you that I didn’t like it. I’m older now and I know that it’s not true. I do like a little romance and this, upwind for the toilets, is not it at all.”

“Damn you’re busting my balls Danny. Do you know how long it’s been since someone did that?”

“Apparently a little too long Mack. You were always full of yourself, but I think it’s gotten worse.”

“So you won’t even give me a little kiss? Are you that worried about what will happen?”

He was goading me, I knew that, but there was a side of me that wanted to kiss him. I was attracted to him now, still as I had always been and I looked to his lips for a moment. It was just a kiss and if that meant that he was going to leave me be for the rest of the reunion, I was okay with that. Somewhere deep down inside I was blaming Mariss for bringing me and for wearing this red dress. It had picked up enough attention tonight.

“Fine, one kiss. It won’t change anything.”

I didn’t sound as sure as I would have liked to and I wasn’t given any more time to think. He was moving towards me and dipped me down for a kiss that made me smile. There was still this magnetism that he possessed and I was still just as pulled to it as I was before.

His lips were soft and insistent and it had the effect that he was going for. Each second that passed made it harder to stand and then the tongue pushed into my mouth made me moan. I tried to hold it in, but I had never been able to before. Mack still had the secret touch and I was lost in it for a minute. I forgot why I had agreed to it and I forgot why I had walked away. In truth, it was impossible to think when he was touching me like he was.

Neither one of us pulled free of the other. It was his name being called sharply behind us that pulled me from his voodoo spell and I was able to pull myself together. It was hard to, but the sound of Denise calling to him and then materializing was enough for me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Give me a minute Danny. I need to take care of this.”

I told him not to waste his time. I didn’t need him to take care of it. I needed to get away from him before I embarrassed myself any further.

“Don’t. I’m leaving. That was the deal.”

He tried to stop me, but Denise bitching in his face kept him at bay. I saw Mariss from across the room and went to her. “I’m taking off. I will get a cab if you aren’t ready yet.”

“No, I think I have had enough of high school for one night.” She looked at me and must have seen how distressed I was. “It looks like you have as well.”

“You have no idea.”

***

“So are you going to tell me what happened back there? I saw you talking to Mack.”

I grimaced at the sound of his name. “Yeah, but it wasn’t by choice. He came up to me and wouldn’t back off. Told me I had to kiss him before he would let me pass.”

I could see the giddy look in my friend’s face and I didn’t like it. She didn’t seem to get it as far as I was concerned. She seemed to think that there was going to be this fairy tale ending between us. I knew better. I don’t know why, but Mariss had always thought that I should have stayed with him. It wasn’t a conversation that I wanted to have, so I stopped her in her tracks with the next part.

“But then his girlfriend came up and was pissed off if you can imagine. So I just didn’t want to stick around.”

“His girlfriend?”

I nodded my head and agreed. It was a mess. A big mess and now at least she wasn’t looking like she was going to swoon from the romance of it all.

“Oh, well that’s not how I thought it was all going to work out. I thought you guys would get back together.”

I may have thought the same thing myself, but I didn’t want to say it out loud. I was far too worried about how everything else was working out. I’d seen him from across the room, alone and looking fine as ever. There had been a big part of me that wanted to see him and I’d felt the same needs and desires run over me, but there had been a difference this time. He wasn’t alone and all of those thoughts had gone out the window, whether he felt the same way about it or not. It hadn’t worked out like I wanted it to at all.

“I guess I didn’t think we would get back together, but maybe a night of sex would have been nice. He always had a way about him that I haven’t found again. He always was a god in bed.”

“So why did you walk away?”

“Did you not hear the part that he had a girlfriend there with him?”

“Was she introduced as his girlfriend?”

I hadn’t said she was introduced at all, but Mariss seemed to just know things. She was good at reading people and I trusted her instinct more than my own sometimes.

“Well no. He introduced her as his friend, but he introduced me the same way.”

“Oh, well that doesn’t have to mean anything. She may have just been his date for this thing. No one likes to go alone.”

“We did.”

“No Danny, we went together. There is a big difference. He probably brought her so that he wasn’t alone. If she meant anything to him, he wouldn’t have been kissing you.”

I knew she was right to some degree, but I still didn’t like that he brought some women with him. She might have saved me though. I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t been there. Most likely I would have made a mistake. A big one.