“Oh,” was all I could say.
Oh? I was somehow rendered mentally deficient. Please, someone locate my brain! It was desperately needed to stop me from acting like a total dork!
Garrett’s eyes dropped to my lips and I couldn’t help but wet them with my tongue. Something fierce and smoldering took over his typically unemotional face and I went from pile of goo to molten lava in point three seconds.
He was going to kiss me.
He was going to touch me.
We were most likely going to have sex again.
And just like that the evil sex beast busted from her cage.
Hell yeah! Mama wanted to get her sex on, right now, with this hunky slacker that tells me I’m beautiful. Apparently all it took was a syrupy compliment to make me spread the legs I swore would stay resolutely closed.
See, I was a total hussy!
“Yo, Garrett, you in here?” a voice yelled from the front of the house, yanking me out of my trance. Garrett blinked and he stepped away from me, giving me room to breathe again. His face pinched and he looked pissed off.
He gave me an apologetic look before calling out, “Back here!”
Suddenly the room was full of people. Cole and Vivian came stumbling in, barely standing. Behind them came Gracie and Mitch as well as Jordan and Maysie. But it wasn’t just our friends crashing the moment we had been having. It seemed they had brought half the town with them.
Garrett went back to put his guitar in its case, sliding it under the couch. I wanted him to look at me again the way he just had, but it was as though I were no longer there. I was apparently being ignored.
And that made me really, really mad. After being told you’re beautiful, it would be nice to be treated as though you were more than another piece of furniture in the room. Excuse me for thinking I was worth a bit more than that.
“You bailed, man. Lucky for you, I scored some great shit,” Cole slurred, passing Garrett a joint. The instant change in Garrett was startling. He effortlessly transformed from Mr. Look At Me I’m So Sensitive to I Couldn’t Give a Shit And Acting Like a Butthole.
And there it was. The familiar disgust I was used to feeling around Garrett.
Garrett pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the joint and gave it a long pull. He blew out a cloud of smoke, permeating the air with the smell of burnt garbage. I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face.
“Oh, I didn’t see Riley over there. What the fuck are you doing here?” Cole asked rudely, earning him an elbow to the ribs from Vivian.
“Shut up, Cole. You are such an asshole!” she yelled, pushing away from him clumsily. Cole stumbled backwards, grabbing ahold of Mitch so he wouldn’t fall over.
“What the hell, Viv? Don’t fucking walk away from me!” he hollered at her retreating form.
“Screw you, fucker!” she screamed back at him.
Cole took off after her and we could hear the back door slam and their yelling out in the yard. The party started to flow around me and I hated the way the Garrett I had seen a few moments before disappear the higher he became.
I had been forgotten.
Garrett lounged back on the couch and he was soon joined by a girl I vaguely recognized as one of the groupie skanks that were front and center for all of the Rejects’ shows. I didn’t know her name, only that I wasn’t used to seeing her with so much clothing on. And that was saying something, considering her boobs were barely covered by the thin, slip of fabric she had on.
Jealousy, hot and lethal, flashed through me and I had visions of ripping her away from him by her hair and then wailing on my chest caveman style.
But I realized quickly, Garrett Bellows was not worth the effort it would take to exert such violence.