14
Four Years Ago
Shanna was cold as ice to me the next morning – and it wasn’t just her hangover. She gave me the glare of death the entire time I was getting ready, though she didn’t say anything.
Finally I turned around and blurted out, “I didn’t sleep with him.”
“What a coincidence,” she sneered. “Neither did I.”
I hustled out of there as fast as possible and went to my English class.
I know Shanna was pissed, and she had every right to be – but it’s not like I’d wangled a hot new boyfriend out of the deal.
In fact, I was absolutely sure I would never see him again.
Not like ‘see’ as in ‘go out on a date with,’ either.
‘See’ as in ‘run into around town.’
I had resigned myself to that fact for many reasons.
He was an incredibly good-looking guy (incredibly good-looking), in a band, cool, charismatic, funny, surprisingly smart – and he was used to picking up women and sleeping with them the same night.
He’d had a brief interruption the previous night, that was all. For whatever reason, he had abandoned a sure thing to hang out with me. (If Shanna’s drunk, she’s about as close to a sure thing as a guy can get.)
Then, when I’d ducked away from his kiss… that was it, I was sure of it. Never going to see him again.
I didn’t go to shows at the clubs, I didn’t try to sneak into bars, and I didn’t hang out where we’d ever run into each other. At best, I might see him walking down Main Street with some tattooed chick all over him. Our eyes might meet… a brief second of confusion on his part, followed by an amused look of Oh yeah, aren’t you that girl who turned me down?... and then he’d probably drag his breathless date into a hallway and commence making out with her, just to show me what I’d missed out on.
15
I have to admit, I was a little curious about what I’d passed up… so I asked around. I had a friend in my Sociology class who was known for crushing exclusively on guys in local bands.
“Hey, Lindsey… have you ever heard of a guy named Derek Kane?”
Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she looked like she’d just had a spontaneous orgasm. “Oh my GOD he is SO HOT.”
I took that for a ‘yes.’
“Does he… you know… sleep around a lot?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why? Did you sleep with him?”
“NO,” I said quickly. “No, but, he, uh… he made a pass at my roommate.”
“That figures,” she snorted. “He’s the biggest man-slut ever.”
Ew.
“‘Made a pass’?” Lindsey continued with a frown. “She didn’t sleep with him?”
“No, she, uh… passed out before they did anything.”
Technically that was the truth.
Lindsey smirked. “Your roommate missed out big time.”
I got a very naughty feeling when she said that.
“Did you sleep with him?” I whispered.
She blushed a light pink. “…um… yeah.”
“Oh.”
I knew I shouldn’t ask, I knew I shouldn’t ask –
“…was he any good?”
Lindsey’s eyes rolled back in her head again, and she looked like she was having a second orgasm. “Oh my GOD, he’s incredible.”
When she said that, I felt like somebody had stabbed me in the stomach.
“…did you guys… date?” I asked feebly.
Now she was back to blushing slightly. “…um… I don’t know if I’d say that, exactly… we were kind of… seeing each other.”
“Did you go out for awhile?”
“…um… three or four times.” She paused. “…not all in a row.”
“Ah.”
Things were becoming a lot clearer now.
She shifted nervously from foot to foot. “You know how it is… we’ll see each other at a show… or at a bar… and we’ll hook up again.”
“Does he call you afterwards?”
She suddenly frosted over. “No. Why are you so interested?”
“I, uh… I told my roommate he seemed like bad news, and that she should stay away from him.”
“Well, that’s probably wise,” she said as she walked off – and then turned around with an exuberant smile. “But if you see him again, tell him I said hi! And give him my number, okay? In case he lost it.”
Ew.