Page 7 of The Death of Kisses

“Well that settles it, partners for the term.” Mrs Harris’s voice caught my attention and my eyes widened.

Wait, what did she just say? Charlie slid out her book and a black zippo. The lid clicks open and closes every few seconds. Some kind of rhythmic movement. Probably a habit she doesn’t even know she’s doing.

The soft clicking combined with a melody of chatter lolled me into a false sense of safety. I felt my eyes closing and my head sliding down against my arms.

Last night -October 14- Town of Redmont - Population 12,234 - 18 yrs old

“Anna! Get out here!” Carrie yelled.

I shut the water off, fixed the smeared makeup and turned to check myself in the mirror. This outfit looked fucking ridiculous but if I could squeeze into a cheerleader outfit every game day I can do the black leather skirt and heels that screamed “I’m a short bitch.”

Pounding on the door made me jump, and I adjusted the crop top a little bit pulling my small boobs front and center.

“I’m coming, Jesus Christ!" I hollered when she pounded the door again. Grabbing the small clutch and kicking my discarded clothes in a pile against the window, I checked myself in the mirror one last time and walked out the door.

“Damnnnnnnn,” Carrie smiled, checking me out. She was wearing this leather and lace git-up that screamed hooker on a Tuesday, not that it was bad but she knew her way around. Not a hooker by any means, Carrie was a grad student doing research about the likelihood of roofies, thieves, and some violence at bars, clubs, and strip joints. It was really impressive to see her work and I had been following the stats closely since we’d met. Funny enough that was in therapy… funny how time flies.

“Let’s just go, I have school in the morning,” I groaned as she linked arms with me. We started walking, arms linked every bit the objectified hooker vibes.

“Ah yes can’t forget about goody two-shoes and the gang,” she giggled, pulling out a metal flask and taking a swig, “Chill out babes, I am only joking. Come on, take a sip.” She forced the flask to my lips. Another thing I loved about Carrie was she didn’t give a rat's ass about the whole “twenty-one and older” bull shit.

Her brother, Jesse had been in service with the military since he got out of high school and her motto was “if you are old enough to die you are old enough to drink.”

I took a sip, coughing and passing it back to her. I groaned out, “what is that, gin?” I hated gin and she knew it. She just pulled me along and smirked. This was going to be a long night.

“You know what we’re doing here right?” Carrie asked like it wasn’t the same at least a dozen times.

“First you charm, then you stumble and whoops there goes the wallet,” I rolled my eyes.

“Good girl, now go get us in,” she shoved me towards the body guard just outside the club and I swallowed.

You’d think that I would be used to talking and public speaking but I never was, there was just something so repulsive about it, I froze up every time I tried.

“ID?” he grumbled, and I smiled, reaching in my bag.

“Oh that asshole!” I huffed out as I pretended to find myself without my ID, dropping my bag and I bent down slowly. Cringing as the skirt rode up my ass and my thong crept into view. I could feel the heated stares from this guy and stayed in that position long enough for his mouth to salivate.

Then I stood up, not even bothering to fix the skirt and fumbled with my clutch again. “I’m so sorry, my asshole ex decided it was funny to swap my wallet with his, and all I have are his things, do you think you can let me in just this once?” I pulled out the photo ID of my “ex” which was really just another one of Carrie’s older brothers who had his license go missing a few weeks back.

The guy looked at me skeptical for what seemed like forever and finally Carrie came over and locked arms with me. “I’m so sorry, my cousin is terrible at telling the truth. I blame it on the cult,” she whispered loudly and began explaining some bullshit about my dad never letting me out of his sight and I just really needed a night of fun. Hurtful but true in some aspects, she proceeded to twirl her hand around his arm and flash her tits at him.

The guy nodded and waved us in without much delay.

“Fuck Anna, I swear do you always have to freeze up?” she teased as we walked through the hallway right before the massive sound proof club.

“You know I hate being put front and center,” I groaned.

“Come on baby, let’s get drunk,” she dragged me through the doors to where a base was thudding to one of the popular pop songs that was a tad bit sensual. I couldn't remember the name but it didn’t matter that much anyways.

My head moved on a swivel through the club as we made it to the bar without much interference, okay maybe some since Carrie ended up body humping some thirty year old that had one to many drinks. The dude’s wallet promptly left his pocket when her hands roamed over his dick and tugged his waistband closer to her. It was really something of a sleight of hand, she grabbed the back of his head, the wallet between her fingers and that’s when I moved.

I pulled the wallet free of her fingers and wrapped mine around hers, pulling the rest of her with me as we began grinding against each other to the beat of the music, and Carrie’s lips closed around mine as we danced our way to the bar. If the guy wasn’t drunk off his ass and horny he might have noticed the wallet but we would be gone before anything else happened. One down. Free drinks.

I wrapped her arm around my shoulder letting her hand rest on my collar bone as we ordered, still maintaining the closeness. We’d developed a system for the way we’d drink. Sure she’d been roofied a few times but neither of us ended in a horrible situation. Carrie took the pleasure of drinking the drinks if we left them unattended, of course leaving it to the druggie to take pleasure in the highs. Sometimes we ended up high off our ass other times I was dragging her body off to my car. When I asked her once if it was worth the risk she replied, “What’s the point in living without risks?” I never really understood it but as we swayed to the music with our drinks in hand I didn’t mind the risk.

“So babes! What’s the plan after this year? Moving out of PineRidge? Oh my god we could go vacation in Mexico!” She screamed, already deciding that I wasn’t going to answer with anything fun. I laughed just nodding along because the truth was I had no idea if I was leaving anytime soon. Sure my grades were good enough for scholarships at any legacy school but I just really hated the whole school atmosphere. Cheerleading was one of my hobbies but what I really wanted to do was become a writer. I had a passion for telling stories. What I didn’t have a passion for was public speaking so of course it wouldn’t work out but it was a fun thought.

“Hey sexy, can I buy you a drink?” A tall guy with dark hair and a smile that could dazzle the panties off any woman asked.