One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

Lauren was livid. She lost count of how many times she has told Mike about Travis’s party. He would always reply with the same answer. “I don’t know.” To Lauren, it was either a yes or no question. Yes, I’m coming or no, I can’t. There was no in between. Since he finally told her that he couldn’t leave Carson City that weekend, she decided she wasn’t going to worry about it and lose herself in the celebration.

About half way through the rave, Lauren realized that she hadn’t seen Travis all night. Where could he be? It is his party. He should be out here with all of his buddies. In hopes of finding him, Lauren stumbled through the house, passing by people that she barely knew. She didn’t pay any attention to them. She was only focused on finding one… whom she found after teetering around for about ten minutes.

“Hey,” she said a little too loudly as she tripped over her own feet.

She fell to the ground without hurting herself. As she laid there laughing at herself, Travis hovered over her with a smile.

“Who ever is serving drinks has been really nice to you huh?” he teased as he helped her to her feet.

“Oh yeah. I don’t know what it was, but damn was it good,” she snickered as she clung to him.

For some reason, she thought he looked so sexy tonight. Even though he was in his usual jeans, t-shirt, and brightly colored DC shoes, Lauren couldn’t help but repeatedly look him over. If he noticed, he didn’t seem to mind.

“Was Mike coming?” he asked realizing that her eyes were wondering.

“Fuck no,” she blurted out rudely.

Travis couldn’t help but to let out a small laugh. He was never a big fan of women being intoxicated, but Lauren was just flat out funny to him.

“Did he give a reason why?”

“He had a contest to practice for,” she replied, stretching out words here and there.

“But that’s a pretty good reason.”

“Whatever. Why do you care?” she shot back unconsciously, Travis thought.

“Just conversing,” he simply said.

“What the hell are you doing out here anyway? There’s so many people inside,” she went on, stressing a couple words.

“There’s too many drunk people in there. But it looks like one followed me,” he teased as he put his arm around her to steady her as she wobbled a little.

“But you love me,” she said bluntly.

“How about we get you to bed? I don’t think you’re going to feel this good in the morning,” he suggested, feeling a little uneasy from her choice of words.

“As long as you come with me,” she said, taunting him playfully.

He didn’t reply but did smile slightly as he started to help her up the stairs. If he hadn’t been by her side, she would have probably fallen down the stairs…about five times. She giggled the whole way up with Travis concentrating on keeping the two of them balanced.

Once he got her to her room successfully, he gently lowered her down to the bed. She smiled up at him as he pulled the covers up over her. When his hands made it up over her waist, he was surprised that she grabbed onto his arms. Without having time to react, he was even more taken a back when she pulled him on top of her.

“Lauren…” he started but was quickly cut off by her lips connecting with his.

It was hard for him to comprehend what was going on until her tongue ran along the bottom of his lip. Her actions caused him to pull away abruptly.

“Lauren,” he started again as she kept kissing him, but this time only on his neck.

“Mmhmm,” she replied, not parting from him.

As her hands starting lowering down his torso, his voice seemed to be caught in his throat. No matter how badly he wanted this beforeand now, he couldn’t accept it. She has a boyfriend now.

She continued leaving small kisses on his neck and working her way back up to his sweet lips. The more she continued, the less Travis became aware of what was actually happening. Once her hands started to work his shirt off, he finally found his voice.

“Lauren, we can’t do this,” he said softly with their lips still hazardously close to one another’s.

“Why not, Travie?” she asked in a pouting way as her hands ran around his shoulders and down to his newly stripped back.

“What… about… Mike?” he managed to get out as Lauren continued to work her way down his neck.

She looked at him with a gleam in her eyes that Travis had never seen before. He hated to admit it under the given circumstances, but he liked it.

“He’s all the way in Nevada,” she smirked as she ran a single finger down his chest.

“Yeah, but I can’t…”

“What Mike doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” she cut him off before pressing her lips to his.

This time, Travis let her go through with her plans. He knew it shouldn’t happen. She was under the influence… and has a boyfriend. But that didn’t stop her. Why should it stop him?

There was only one thing that bothered him about the whole sanitation. What if she didn’t remember anything in the morning? That thought taunted him as he watched her sleep after their nightly happenings. The more he thought about it, the more things that bothered him. The worst being that he knew nothing would come out of this. Lauren had Mike. There was no need for Travis to be in her life like the way he was the previous night. The part that killed him the most was that he had to wait until morning to find all of this out.