Page 31 of Damnation
He gives me a look that is both irritated and resigned. He’s about to say something else, but behind him, I spot a boy waving his arms to attract our attention. In the glare of the strobe lights, I almost recognize him. But yes, of course…it’s Vince. And it seems that he’s just noticed me as well, because he gives me a sly smile and greets me with a mouthed “Hello, Little Gem.” I ignore him, rolling my eyes. Next to him, another boy sips a cocktail. I notice Shana is perched on his lap, but she doesn’t do anything except glance in our direction.
Thomas waves Vince away and turns back to me. “Okay, go find the girls, and then come back here,” he orders. “I don’t feel comfortable knowing you’re alone in this place.”
He’s about to leave, but as soon as I see Shana’s triumphant look, I instinctively grab his arm and pull him back to me. He looks surprised. “What’s up?”
I stare at him. I look at Shana then back at him. “Don’t go over there without me. Let’s look for the girls together.”
Realizing that I’m jealous, Thomas barely restrains a laugh, whichI manage to silence with a menacing glare. Not giving him a chance to reply, I drag him along after me by the hand. We move through the crowd, scrutinizing the faces around us.
Thomas walks right behind me with his hands firm on my hips and his groin pressed against my ass. Every time his hands tighten, he pushes me harder against his body, and I’m overwhelmed by a series of electric bursts concentrated between my thighs. He’s doing it on purpose, I know, and so I smile when I feel a slight protrusion rubbing against my ass. Then he bends down to give the hollow of my throat a kiss so languorous that I cannot help the moan that slips from my mouth.
“Just so you know, that first one was just a taste. Tonight, I plan to fuck you so hard that the walls shake,” he whispers into my ear. The feeling in my stomach is less butterflies and more like…elephants. Doing somersaults. I lay my hand over his and intertwine our fingers, but I don’t have time to answer him, because Thomas is intercepted by Blake. Shockingly, he’s rude, giving me only a condescending look and a barely perceptible nod in greeting. God, he really is unpleasant.
As he leans close to Thomas’s ear, I move aside and let the two of them talk. The club music drowns out their voices and I can’t understand a thing they’re saying. They both seem very serious; Thomas even looks worried. They continue to have an animated discussion as Blake is joined by an attractive blond holding two beers. She stands there stock-still, just like me, waiting for them to finish talking.
But this conversation doesn’t seem to be coming to an end, and it’s starting to bug me. I untangle my hand from Thomas’s and mouth to him that I’m going to look for the girls. He looks a little irritated, but he nods and continues talking to Blake. What can they possibly have to say to each other that is so important it can’t wait until another time?
I head for the corner of the bar where I think I’ve spotted Tiffany, when suddenly the girl herself appears in front of me, as though she fell out of the sky.
“Where the hell were you?”
I jolt. Clearly that wasn’t her sitting at the bar.
“Uh…” Images of Thomas and me in the bathroom stall, himwith his hands all over me flash through my mind. But I try to keep a straight face. “I was with Thomas… We made up,” I add vaguely. “We’re together now. He even suggested that I move into his room at the frat house,” I finish, giving her a toothy grin.
She looks dumbfounded. “It’s great that your insane relationship is back to normal and that you’ve even upped the ante just to make sure you didn’t miss anything, but we have a real problem here,” she exclaims, her eyes so wide she looks like a bush baby.
“What?” I ask, alarmed.
“Junior Collins is out.”
My forehead wrinkles as I look around, as though I’m going to find her here in the midst of all this chaos. “She’s gone? But we drove here with her?”
“No, I meanout-out.” She points at a sofa behind me with a worried look. I turn and spot her. Oh no. Leila is sprawled on the cushions, her head slumped back. She must have drunk herself into a stupor.
Elbowing through the crowd, we quickly make our way to her sofa, where I shake her slightly, trying to wake her up. I give her cheek a gentle slap, but she doesn’t react at all. We call her name over and over to no avail, so we try to prop her up to standing. She clearly doesn’t agree with this decision, however, because she emits a whining moan and tries to push us away. Perfect; at least we finally got a reaction.
I turn to Tiffany with a dirty look. “Why’d you let her get like this?”
“Hey, this had nothing to do with me. When I saw she was starting to get wobbly, I told her to stop. I even took the drink out of her hand, but the girl is stubborn. She wouldn’t listen, and she just kept telling me that she could hold her liquor.” Tiffany defends herself with a shrug.
“And you believed her? Come on, Tiff, she’s tiny! A glass of wine would have been enough to have her seeing pink elephants.”
She runs her hands through her hair and sighs. “Okay, I screwed up. But there’s no use crying over spilled booze, right? What do we do about it now?”
“Go to the bar, and get as much water as you can; then go getThomas. He should be over by the other sofa.” I sit down with Leila, brushing aside some of the sweaty strands of hair that have escaped from her French braid and are plastered to her forehead. I gently shake her again, trying to get her to wake up.
Tiffany returns with a large bottle of water and Thomas, who strides past her furiously. “What happened?”
I stand up immediately. “She’s drunk; we can’t get her to wake up.”
He kneels down in front of her and grabs her by the shoulders, giving her a shake. “JC? Open your eyes.”
Leila shakes her head and tries to get away from him with a pretty well-placed kick to the knee for a girl who’s dead drunk. Tiffany and I trade bewildered looks.
“We should get her home; she needs to sleep it off,” I yell, but I’m not sure Thomas is listening. He just keeps calling Leila’s name to no response.
“JC, open your eyes, or I swear I’ll open them for you,” he snarls. Leila remains motionless. Until suddenly, without a moment’s hesitation, Thomas turns and grabs the water bottle out of Tiffany’s hands and splashes it all over his sister.
