In unison, the room bounces together, our hands in the air as we gyrate and shout ‘lager’ when the song tells us to.
Some guy, indistinguishable to me in the dark of the room, comes and starts to dance against Tahlia. She breaks off with him, leaving me to dance on my own. I’m feeling so wonderful that I couldn’t care less. I just keep bouncing along with everyone else, swaying my body and feeling the music vibrate along with my cells. Every piece of me seems to want to be a part of the beat, and I feel as though I have no control. I can’t do anything but dance.
After a while, Jeff appears in front of me and starts to sway along with me. He is truly the most beautiful man I have met so far. With his dark-brown hair, clipped close to his head and designer stubble sprinkled along his jaw line. I’m in awe.
I can’t help myself, I reach out to run my hand over his head. I have this great desire to touch it, to feel the short spikes prickling into the palm of my hand. He grins as I do, and takes me by the wrist, pulling me closer to him. Our dancing slows, and he leans down to speak into my ear.
“Have you ever been kissed Paige?”
He pulls back from my ear and stands in front of me, his eyes searching mine as he waits for my answer. I don’t give it to him. I don’t want him to know how inexperienced I am.
His mouth curls in a half smile as he places his index finger onto his tongue, and then slips it inside his pocket. When he holds it in front of me, there is a small white pill stuck to the end of it.
He holds it to my lips, and I open my mouth obligingly. But he pulls it back and shakes his head slowly from side to side, his eyes dancing as he watches me.
“This one is going to cost you,” he murmurs in my ear.
“I…I don’t have any money,” I stammer. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your money,” he says, placing the pill on the end of his tongue as he leans in close to me and brushes his lips against mine. “I want your first kiss.”
My urge to give him that kiss is so great that I don’t even think before parting my lips. I let his tongue, and the pill, into my mouth. He pauses, long enough for me to swallow, and then reclaims my lips with his.
His mouth moves over mine as I do my best to respond, my inexperience causes me to pause occasionally in a bid to catch up. As I close my eyes, my head spins, but I focus on his mouth, and the press of his body against mine, and just feel.
The sensations rippling through me are amazing, the slick texture of his tongue gliding over mine, the smoothness of his teeth as I run the tip of my tongue over them, and the softness of his lips.
We start to sway together again, locked at the lips as our hands start to roam. I’m loving the feel of the fabric of his shirt under my fingertips, and the firm build of his chest as it presses against my soft one.
We stay like this for, I don’t know how long, but eventually the music cuts out, and the lights are turned on.
Abruptly, he breaks away from me and starts calling out. My ears are buzzing in the absence of the music. But when Tahlia appears, leaning up against the guy she was dancing with, I realise he was calling to her.
We all head out to Jeff’s car, and I’m still feeling so wonderful that I don’t even think about the guy getting in there with us. I don’t even think about the fact that the house we arrive at, isn’t Tahlia’s house at all.
Tahlia leads the guy she’s with into a room as soon as we get inside, leaving Jeff and I on our own.
“You still feeling a little buzzed?” he asks, sitting down on the couch and patting the seat next to him.
“A little,” I reply as I lower myself to sit where he indicated. I’m still smiling. My face hurts, but I can’t seem to stop.
“I should probably apologise to you,” Jeff starts, creasing his brow as he looks down at his hands, and twists the gold band that adorns his thumb with his long fingers.
“Oh, really. Why?”
“Because I kissed you. A lot. I probably shouldn’t have done that.”