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She tucked the strands that had escaped what looked like an intricate up-do with her free hand, and we stepped inside. Wall-to-wall bodies and mugginess you could only experience in a crowded place hit us. Almost immediately, someone was calling my name.
“Dex, bring your ass over here and get to drinkin’,” Ralph slurred as he made his way through the people. “Well, well, who do we have here?” He smiled at Noa.
She offered a small wave and a smile to match.
“She’s cute. I can dig it.” He downed the rest of his beer and threw the empty cup at the back of another guy’s head. “Piss off, Doug,” he yelled when the guy turned around angrily, but they both laughed and hugged it out.
I looked at Noa, worried this was too much for her already, but she was actually laughing at the idiots.
Cups were handed to both of us and Noa frowned. Before I could ask her what was wrong, Ralph grabbed me and pushed me toward another room.
“Look who finally decided to show up,” he yelled, and everyone cheered.
A few of the girls crowded me and I turned, trying to find Noa, but she wasn’t where I left her. I felt someone tap my shoulder and looked back.
“You done playing with that emo reject yet?” Becca’s words dripped with that fake sticky sweetness that made me cringe. She pressed against me suggestively and I could smell the alcohol on her breath.
“Get a grip, Becca,” I said, pushing past her.
Ralph leaned into me, throwing his arm over my shoulder.
He guffawed with his buddies over my exchange with Becca, and I was left looking for Noa again and praying Becca would leave me the hell alone. I walked back toward the front of the house and there she was, leaning against the wall, coat in one hand and cup in the other. She was looking at the cup with careful curiosity.
“I’m driving. If you…you know. Want to do that.” I didn’t know how to tell her what I meant without sounding judgmental. I loved Ralph but he looked like a moron out there, drunk and loud.
She shook her head and placed the cup on a table beside her. “Whose house is this anyway?”
I had to stand closer to her to hear her, which made it easier to smell her.Lavender and vanilla, I thought as I shrugged at her question.
She fidgeted momentarily before leaning forward to speak again. I held my breath as her lips neared my face.
Red lips. All over me.
“I have to use the bathroom. I’m guessing you don’t know where it is since you don’t know the house. I’ll head upstairs and pray I don’t see something that’ll scar me for life.” She held up her intertwined fingers for luck. “You stay here. I’ll find you after.”
As she stepped around strangers, I admired the way the dark blue fabric of her dress fit her. It was simple but sexy, and I couldn’t wait to tell her when she came back.
I watched everyone drink, dance, and act like animals while she was gone. I hadn’t realized I was still holding onto my cup, so I set it beside Noa’s untouched one.
I began to worry once she’d been gone for more than fifteen minutes. I maneuvered around bodies and climbed the steps slowly, my knee still aching from picking Noa up earlier. I was halfway up when a familiar face caught my attention.
Becca.
She was making her way down the steps. She smirked and pushed past me, the scent of alcohol coming off her in waves.
At least she didn’t speak to me.
I walked up to the first door I saw, but before I could turn the knob, it flung open and revealed Noa’s tear-stained face. “What happened?” I demanded, blocking her way out of the bathroom and shutting the door behind me for privacy.
“You used to make fun of me, Dexter?Really?” She pushed me when I tried to grab her, when I tried to reason with her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I explained, wishing she’d remember that I had no idea who Dex was before. “I don’t know the person I was.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” She wiped at her face with the back of her hand. “I was cornered tonight by a lunatic. What the fuck?”
Becca.
I wanted to put my fist through the wall. “Listen to me, please,” I said, holding my hands out, putting hated space between my body and hers. If she felt cornered when Becca verbally attacked her, I didn’t want to remind her of that.
