Catherine
“Where are you going?” I whipped around to see Morgan standing in the entryway to the living room. Xavier stood at her side.
“Making a run to Walgreens.” I held up the two twenties Elijah had just given me. “His face is so dark.” I tried not to smile but I had never in my life seen anything like it. “At this point I think he’s written down every home remedy that is proven to remove this tanner, and some that haven’t. He’s desperate.”
“Want company?”
Xavier hooked her around the waist and pulled her backward, her back flush with his chest. “Why the hurry to run off?”
“I’m not running off, I asked Catherine if I could go with her. It would be rude of me to make her go alone.”
I was just about to tell her I was okay to go alone when she gave me the look one girl gives to another when they are in desperate need of an escape and are relying on your help.
“It would make it easier to have a second set of eyes while trying to locate some of this stuff.”
Once we were in the car she turned to me with a smile. “So you and Red, huh?”
“I wouldn’t consider us a we or anything, just two friends.” I started the car and ignored the way she was watching me close.
“I was there last night. I think everyone was able to see and feel the attraction between the two of you.”
To say I was shocked at my actions from the night before was an understatement. I’m not a prude by any means, but making out with a guy I’d just officially met in front of a room full of people wasn’t something I’d normally do.
“I got duped into this because Clayton decided it would be fun to throw me to the dragon.” Turning onto the main highway, I looked over at Morgan and found her watching me with confusion. “Last night Clayton asked me to help him; I had no idea it was helping him load hundreds of balloons into Eli’s room.”
“By the way, I think it is cute that you call him Eli.”
“That’s his name.”
“Yeah, but everyone calls him Red.”
“I don’t get that.” I didn’t see the connection.
“I’m still a little curious about it myself but his hair used to be shorter and red.”
I still couldn’t see it.
“Anyway, I followed Clayton upstairs and when Eli opened the door, I saw his face. I could tell he didn’t really like that I had but it was too late to change it.” I can still picture his shocked expression when he found me standing in the hall next to Clayton. “That twin has a big mouth and proceeded to tell Eli that I’d helped, so now I’m being recruited to help clean up the mess.”
“Doesn’t he think after what he did to you, he deserved just a little bit of payback?” This dick in the face thing I think would follow me forever with this group. “But I do have one question.”
“What’s that?” I shouldn’t have asked. But it was too late.
“Did you see the Prince?”
It was my turn to be confused. I pulled into the parking lot of Walgreens and took the first available spot. With the car in park and the keys pulled from the ignition I finally looked over at Morgan.
“Prince?”
“Don’t know if you heard about the video yet, but apparently after Red passed out they were able to rouse him enough to convince him to wax.” My eyes grew wide and she laughed. “Yep, they videoed it and everything. But what surprised them all was that Red has a piercing.”
“As in…” I pointed downward.
“Yes,” with a nod she continued. “Of course Xavier covered my eyes and led me from the room but I heard enough to know what the guys were referring to. So I was wondering if you saw it up close and personal.”
“I was turned to the side,” I replied, but I did remember feeling something hard and unfleshlike against my cheek.
I climbed out of my car and moved toward the store quickly. It was embarrassing enough that every person in the house and probably out of it were talking about my mishap. I didn’t want to relive it with Morgan too.
“He’s had an interest in you since he first saw you at Pete’s.” I looked over at her while standing in front of the exfoliator sponges. “That day they all came in and he openly flirted with you—he doesn’t normally do that. Red is a private guy and rarely do the guys see him act as he did that day.”
I looked away from her, not really knowing what to say.
“I just thought you should know that he isn’t one of the guys from the house that makes his rounds. He’s hard to follow, hard to figure out, but he’s not a player.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know these things. Had I thought of him? Yes. I’d thought of him every single minute since our time together the previous night but my life was already complicated enough. Adding a guy like Eli would only make things harder.
***
Morgan and I entered the house and froze in the entryway. There was a mixture of hands and feet, arms and legs bound around one another, mixed with a lot of vulgarities.
“You challenged me,” somebody from the bottom of the pile said. Actually it came out in more of a grunt. “You said I couldn’t out do you.”
“You fucking tattooed me.” It was Elijah, he was hard to miss with his brown head. “With a dude’s name, you dick.”
“It’s universal.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Eli hooked his arm around the other guy’s neck and at that point I saw it was Clayton.
“It means it can be for a guy or a girl.”
Clayton wiggled free and Eli rolled over onto his back, noticing that Morgan and I are standing there. His arms are out at his sides, wrists up, and I see it. In big bold letters…
Blake.
My throat feels tight and I know I’m staring but I can’t stop myself.
“All you talked about last night was Catherine this and Cat that. So I branded you.” Clayton stood back attempting to right his shirt.
“Then why the fuck tattoo me with the name Blake?”
“That’s my name,” I mumbled as I stared.
The room grew quiet and suddenly I felt stupid for even opening my mouth. I nervously twisted the plastic bag from the store in my hand.
“Is that the stuff?” The topic of the tattoo quickly forgotten, Eli pushed up off the floor and stopped only a few feet away from me. I nodded in reply, looking up at him. It was almost impossible not to smile when he looked so hilarious.
“You look ridiculous.” He grinned at my words. “Let’s go get to work so that when I look at you the first reaction won’t be for me to laugh.”
I knew the tattoo would come up again. Right then I needed a distraction.