PRESENT DAY
Tonight I’m going to kiss a certain guy.
Err, correction.
Tonight I’m going to let this guy get to third base.
Fourth if possible.
“Hurry up, A!” my friend, Dyan, called out.
She was the only person in the world who called me A. My given name was Athena Isabelle and she’d baptized me as “A” on the spot the first time we met. She’d said Athena was too ancient-sounding and only one person was privileged enough to call me A.I.
She was giddy with excitement as she hurried up the steps to the dilapidated two story building. Was this place going to be able to stand a 2.0 earthquake? From the outside, it looked like the frame would crumble down with the slightest sneeze.
“Dy, are you sure we’re at the right place?” I asked, while trying to catch up with her which was proving to be quite difficult in the 3-inch black wedge sandals she’d let me borrow. I was on the up and up with attending my first ever frat party. I just didn’t know what the official attire would be so I had put on jeans and a sparkly top. When Dyan saw me come out of my room from the two-bedroom apartment we shared, she hustled me into her room and started rummaging through her closet. Clothes went flying and shoes went soaring and that was why I ended up wearing the shortest black skirt ever known to man.
“I’m sure. I’ve been here before you know.” Dyan glanced down to her phone and started typing. She was addicted to all types of social media – she usually fell asleep posting a selfie of some sort. “I’ve asked you many times to go with me…but you never do. What changed your mind tonight?”
“Nothing,” I shrugged, pulling on the hem on the skirt, it needed to be five inches longer.
“Will you stop that?” Dyan grabbed my hand and shook her head. “How are you going to ever get laid if you don’t show off those beauties?”
My boobs and my legs – she called them beauties.
For a 5 foot 5 woman, I didn’t have exceptional legs or anything, but Dyan always managed to make me feel good about them. She’d often said that I had gorgeous gams and although my push-up bra did all the work, my 36B’s were more than enough for me. Dyan had the Asian petite frame going for her, and she tried to overcompensate for her lack of height by buying shoes that could make Tom Cruise believe he was a solid six-footer.
“Shh...”
“Watcha shooshin’ for? You know our main objective is for you to get over the frights of achieving an orgasm…” She snickered, the poor street lighting made her green eyes look black and her red lips darker. She was boisterous, hilarious, and never seemed to run out of energy. The minute my mom and I saw her ad while we were hunting for an apartment close to the university’s premises on RoommateFinder.com, I just had a feeling she was going to be a riot. The power search offered by the site matched me with another roommate, but when I saw Dyan’s photo profile and her likes/dislikes, I took an instant liking to her. On her profile, she’d mentioned she liked lots of colors, hated cats, and abhorred boring people. I considered myself pretty boring so that short statement made me wish to be on her side. She’d also captioned herself as “a girl who took one for the road and three for the adventure.” I had no clue what she meant, but I craved that – the road, the adventure, and whatever she was taking. And even though my father could afford to lease an apartment for me so close to school, I wanted to live as a normal college student would.
“I’m not frightened.” I rolled my eyes, “I just haven’t felt like doing it with any guy.” Knowing her for over a year made me feel like I’d known her all my life. She called me out on my “boring habits” which were sitting on our apartment’s patio overlooking L.A.’s smoggy skyline for hours, and collecting the sample perfume ads from magazines. She didn’t hesitate to wake me up by blowing the vuvuzuela, creating a super loud monotone note in my room during exam days. She’d received the vuvuzuela as a gift from her ex-boyfriend who had traveled from South Africa to watch a soccer match.
“Until tonight.”
“Yep. Until tonight,” I agreed, my heart blossoming in exhilaration and the anticipation to see him was spreading through all of my pores.
He was going to be there.
He invited me to be there.
During class, he’d asked his friend, Mario, who was my seatmate, to pass me notes. He usually came in late for class and would walk up to the seat reserved by his friend since the class was full and most of the time, if you didn’t have a seat reserved, you’d end up sitting in the corner of the room where Professor Wallaby’s eyes frequented and asked you for your opinion. It wasn’t the fact that the professor was asking for your opinion that mattered, the thing was that if you didn’t read the hundred page assignments, there was no way you could answer his questions without looking stupid and stupidity was something you couldn’t afford in a roomful of over-achievers.
Anyways, his note was like his other notes… All written on torn sheets of white filler paper and he’d talk about how boring the class was which made me giggle. He could text me, but Professor Wallaby made us shut our phones off during class or we’d get docked a couple of points, worth a quiz or two, if it went off or if he saw us texting. The room was pretty big and the professor had superhuman vision because he’d had ten offenders this week, all sitting in the back row. When one of the offenders protested, he got docked an extra two points. Trust me, you need all the points you can scrounge up to pass his class with a low B.
The note today was different…he’d written it neatly and it had a question, “Go with me? Tonight?” I’d looked to his side and gave him a quizzical look, and he passed another note to Mario, to which the poor guy had drawn on with something that looked like a big hairy penis.
I ignored the vulgar drawing, and zoned in on the words, “Frat party. With me. Please?”
We’d been flirting back and forth since the beginning of the semester. We’d gone out for coffee twice after class. We’d planned to go out a few times too, but since he was the school’s star basketball player, he had to go to tons of practices and was out of town a lot. We’d been texting non-stop since he’d asked for my number right after the second week of class. He seemed like a nice guy and from what I’d heard from Dyan, he had more than 100K followers on Twitter. If I tweeted, I’d be stalking him all day too.
For some reason, he found me attractive and he didn’t hide it. Our class together was once a week, but he’d always manage to walk across from one side of the campus to the other so he could catch me before class and carry my heavy journalism books.
Denton Holmes.
My green-eyed dream guy. The one I’d been waiting for to show up for all of my twenty years of existence. He was the perfect blend of sweet and sexy. The one who I was giving up my virginity to. And one day, I would bear his children.
“Hey ladddiieezzz, watcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do when all this fine-ness comes at ya?” A skinny guy in a blue torn up shirt, metal chains hanging down his neck, and with the hideous smell of a dozen beers and twice the amount of whiskey breathed into me.
The minute we stepped inside the house, I had all my suspicions confirmed.
The place was going to go down like cardboard with the slightest tectonic action.
The EXIT was nowhere to be found.
And men were such pigs.
I’d been groped three times. My hair had become the Kleenex for a few uncovered coughing fits. My armpits had become the well of never-ending sweat and I had yet to find him.
How could I? When this place was filled with hormonal college students who were either making out like it was their last day on earth, grinding on the dance floor, which was basically any surface of this rotting house, and my ears had been bleeding for the last half hour with the thumping and grating sounds these people called music.
Beethoven would be cringing in his grave.
I lost Dyan right after she had licked salt from the top of a hot guy’s abs for a third tequila shot. I knew she wanted to have fun, and I wasn’t going to be a party pooper. No one cared if anyone was over 21. As long as you looked the part, you could grab some booze and enjoy real college life – Southern California style.
Denton’s last text came in five minutes ago. Where u at?
Downstairs, by the kitchen, I replied. The massive amount of bodies surrounding me would be a huge factor in him finding me, so I was actually thankful that these high heels gave me the fighting spirit to find him first.
I spun around to avoid getting hit in the head by a flying Frisbee, only to barely miss a can of empty soda being thrown in the air.
From a foot away, I recognized my Political Science classmate, Malik, an attractive African-American guy, who looked totally wasted and was barely hanging on by the arms of two women. In Professor Dufrey’s class, Malik could summarize the criminal justice system eloquently and vowed to stand for racial and gender equality. Seeing him barely standing on his own two feet made me think that he better be careful because videos of his current state of drunkenness could be used against him in his aspirations of becoming the future Supreme Court justice.
My chest was starting to feel tight. I needed to get some air. Anything outside of this packed Sigma Epsilon frat house would be oxygen.
“Ouch!” I screamed as I felt someone pinch my left leg, but with the heavy metal music blasting from the speakers, my scream might as well had been a whisper.
Why would anyone want to pinch me? At a party? Was this a new kind of kink?
I muscled my way into a small corner where a woman in tight jeans had her legs wrapped around a guy who was busy kneading and groping her butt as if it was made of clay.
“Hey!” Finally, the voice I’d been waiting for, the reason why I was wearing this poor excuse of a satin top, found me.
“Hey,” I smiled, hoping the deep cherry red lipstick I’d applied was still intact and the sweat slowly dripping from my forehead would stop falling. I needed him to see me at my best – anything besides the usual plain t-shirt and jeans I wore to class.
“Glad I found you.” Those bewitching green eyes were something a girl could only be lucky to stare into for hours. A smile formed on his lips and there was only so much handsome looks God could give a guy but for some reason, God gave it all to this guy.
“Where were you at?” I inquired, ignoring the crescendo of moaning sounds from my right.
“Upstairs. I was trying to win a video game, but eventually lost.” Denton’s eyes flickered in amusement at the escalating porn flick unfolding before him, his dimples showing. “Let’s go outside. It’s less crowded in the back.”
Yes, yes, yes! Let’s!
He clasped his right hand on my waist as he led us outside, away from the circus.
We made our way to the kitchen, passing a group of women who were alternating sipping something from a tube with multi-colored mouthpieces. A blonde lady stood up and made her way to Denton and I before we could completely step outside.
“Hey D, got a minute?” Her voice was a bit slurred, and the haphazard, unsteady way she was pointing her bright yellow nails at Denton made me think that one more drink would put her out of commission.
Denton managed to take a hold of her right hand before she tripped over a plastic white chair, and I moved away from his hold to give him a private moment, but he clung tightly to my waist.
“Maxine,” his mouth lifted in a grin, but his eyes were wary.
Maxine, the beholder of a see-through maxi dress, flung her hair to the side and since she was now close enough to Denton’s side, tapped Denton on his blue-shirt covered chest. “It’s been a while, D, when are we hanging out again?” Flicking her gaze to me for a brief second, she continued, “Just the two of us.”
Denton flashed a tight smile, his back stiffening as he replied, “Maybe another time.”
He pulled me closer to him, tighter to his side, and my legs felt the rub of his jeans. “We gotta go, Maxine. My girl and I got places to go.”
Wwwhhhattt? I’m his girl?
My stomach did a double backflip and my heart zinged as he removed his hold on my waist and lifted his hand to brush my chin. “Later Maxine, see you around,” he said without breaking his gaze on me.
Maxine’s brows shot up to her hairline, but she kept quiet and let us pass. Before I completely got around her, I heard her mocking loud whisper, “Flavor of the month.”
Close to 6’6”, Denton’s long strides were hard to keep up with, and even if he had a strong grip on my waist, my heels were not a match to his pace. My awkward stilted movements must have caught his attention because he stopped, his green eyes inquiring, “What’s wrong?”
“My shoes…” I confessed, pointing to his legs, “are no match to your sneakers.”
He gave me a heart-stopping grin, his white teeth flashing, and in the middle of all the noise around us, my whole body wanted to absorb this moment worthy of a thousand selfies, as Dyan loved to say, and forever keep it in my memory.
Gah.
He was utterly, adorably, undeniably handsome.
He lowered his head, close to my forehead and on my left ear, he said, “You’re friggin’ cute.”
I didn’t want him to find me cute.
“I’m not cute,” I protested, clutching my small black purse for life as a gigantic guy passed me.
Denton tugged on my waist again, signaling that he wanted us to be out of his frat-sponsored chaos, so I followed his noticeably slower pace.
As soon we reached the back of the house, he guided me to a small dark corner. I leaned against the wall, inhaling loudly, catching some much-needed fresh air. Anything outside of the smoke-infested and hookah-loving groupies was fifty times better for the state of my lungs.
“Athena, I like you,” he stated, holding my waist with his large hands, while rubbing gently and lifting the sides of my dress higher.
“I like you too,” I admitted, giving him the sultriest look I could manage, complete with eye-blinking and puckered lips as Dyan had instructed and critiqued me in front of our shared bathroom mirror a few hours ago. I hoped he could see that my lips were made for kissing and my eyes were a vortex of sexual energy.
“I think you’re a great girl…” Can he just stop talking and kiss me already? Thank goodness my armpits stopped raining cats and dogs. “And I’d really like to kiss you.”
He had my permission.
I raised my head up to meet his eyes. It was hard to see because of the dim lighting, but as he lowered his head, I felt his breath hitch. He tucked a finger under my chin, lifting my head up. My hands remained behind my back against the wall. I didn’t want to raise my arms because seriously, I was sporting some major waterfall sweat below my shoulders.
I closed my eyes, wanting to savor the moment, this was what I’d been waiting for, the stuff college dreams were made of. Gorgeous guy, star basketball player, and definitely nice.
I took a big gulp of air because I knew once his lips latched onto mine, I’d be like a piranha, munching on his lips, not ever wanting to let go.
I waited…waited…and waited, but his lips never met mine.
Opening my eyes, I saw a blur – Denton’s big body being lifted in the air like it was a puny sack of cotton and then dumped on a mountain of dried leaves. The guy who lifted Denton did something and Denton flailed like a sleeping puppy.
Oh. My. God.
Before I could let out a scream, the huge guy, Denton’s attacker, swiftly rushed to my side and muffled my scream with his rough hands.
In the dark, I couldn’t see his face, but I could outline his profile.
Broad jaw, buzz cut hair, and shoulders that looked like he could lift a Ford F-150 without any trouble.
Unlike Denton’s warm demeanor, this guy elicited a cold shiver up my spine. My body tingled in heightened alertness and maximum awareness as I stared at the prominent Adam’s apple bobbing on his throat. He was saying something, but I couldn’t decipher it.
I was too scared to say anything.
My body was locking up in alarm and panic and just as I was about to kick him in his groin as I’d seen in many movies, the words he whispered in my ear made me pause.
“Your father sent me.”