"You have to show me at least one of yours. I didn’t get a good look while you were changing."
His dark eyes pierced me for a moment before he reached around and pulled the back of his shirt up. Without thinking, I reached to help, pushing the soft fabric over his skin. I had to fight the urge to push it all the way off the top of his head.
At the center of his left shoulder blade, depicted in black ink, were the words "Veni Vidi Vici" entwined within the Olympic rings.
"Ah, of course you had to get an Olympics tattoo. I like it," I said, tracing my finger over the words. Before I finished, he stepped forward, out of my grasp, and pulled his shirt down.
"C'mon. Let's go get something to eat."
"I'm not hungry," I protested, not ready to leave the privacy and simplicity of his quiet room. In here we were just two people talking. Out there we were two people the world wanted to condemn.
"I am," he winked, and then walked past me. "And you should be. You're working out too hard and it's starting to show. Have you upped your diet?"
Oh god, what was it with guys and proper food intake? We had a nutritionist on the team and I ate healthy enough.
I didn't answer his question. Instead, I flexed my arm and grinned. It was toned but still pretty skinny. Liam laughed, stepped forward, and wrapped his fingers around my arm, pretending to feel my muscle.
“Does this look like the arm of a girl who doesn’t eat enough?” I winked like Popeye.
"Good thing you aren't a defender," he laughed.
"What!" I argued, dropping my arm. "Becca is a defender and she's my size!"
He nodded and moved toward his door. "True. But I'm not making out with Becca in dark living rooms, so I don’t have to worry about her well-being," he challenged, flicking the light off in his room and leaving me standing in the dark. I had no choice but to follow him out. The bastard.
"She'd never have you!" I yelled, running to follow him. Then I blushed when I saw him already standing at the end of the hall with Penn and Becca.
"Kinsley!" Becca exclaimed, jumping forward onto me. I wasn't prepared to catch her weight, so I toppled backward, landing with a thud on my ass and jamming my elbow into the ground.
"Ouch! Get off me, you mongrel." I couldn't decide if I should cry or laugh, so I just yelled with a smile on my face like a weirdo.
Penn shook his head and reached down to grab Becca, who had obviously had another cup of punch after we'd finished ours a while ago.
"You're supposed to be SuperGirl! You were supposed to catch me!" Becca stomped.
I pretended to spin kick her. She laughed and spun around and soon we were kicking and punching down the hallway away from the boys. Becca brought out the weird in me.
"My elbow seriously hurts," I laughed as we paused to catch our breaths.
Penn and Liam were standing a little ways down the hallway, laughing and nodding their heads in agreement. They were probably agreeing that they should ditch our asses for sexy, worldy, models that didn't pretend to be tipsy super heroes. Pfft, no. That sounded boring, who would want that?
"Is Peen cool? He's super hot," I joked, unable to stop the laughter from spilling from my lips.
Becca actually karate chopped my arm after that. We needed to get out of these costumes stat.
"His name’s Penn," she corrected, loud enough for the boys to hear, which made me laugh harder.
"That's what I'm saying: Peen."
Becca shook her head but couldn’t conceal her smile. "You suck, but yes, he's awesome and super funny. Cute and funny! Can you believe it?"
I high-fived her. "I'm going to go get something to eat with Liam, I think. How weird is that? Do you guys want to come?"
We started heading back to the boys.
"Nah, I think Penn is going to take me home." By the tail end of her sentence we were in range for the boys to hear our conversation.
"Yup," he confirmed, rocking back on his heels.
"Can I trust you with my friend, Penn?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips and pretending to puff my chest like a superhero would. I imagined my cape floating in the AC draft behind me for added dramatic effect.
"I got her," he winked. "Have no fear."
Liam laughed and stepped forward to grab my hand. "Let's go, SuperGirl."
I let him drag me through the front door toward his car but not before yelling goodbyes to Becca. All the while, I smiled about the fact that I actually got away with being Liam’s date at a party. Sort of. Okay, hardly. We weren’t together around anyone, and when we kissed it’d been pitch black. He also didn’t ever refer to me as his date.
But we were in matching Superhero costumes.
Sooo, it seemed pretty official to me.
"My elbow really does hurt," I said, finally sobering enough to realize that it was throbbing.
Liam reached inside his jean pockets and unlocked his SUV. He came around the passenger's side and opened to the door to let me in.
"Let me see," he said after I'd hopped up onto the seat.
I showed him the back of my right elbow.