Waking up in Vegas

It really felt like I was doing all the work trying to get the annulment. It was always me who was calling or texting John to talk about it. Sure, he would text me too, but it was never about the marriage. He would always just ask how I was or what I was doing, never anything about hey, wanna get this marriage annulled?

So there I was again, texting John, asking him if we could get together to talk.

He agreed, but in the process he also invited me to his friend Pat’s house to go swimming. Pat was the drummer in his band and I vaguely remembered him from Vegas and their show, but I was really intoxicated and there were a lot of boys there so they kind of blurred together.

I didn’t want to go over there by myself if there were going to be tons of guys there, but I really just wanted to talk to John to get everything taken care of and over with. So I asked if it was okay to bring a friend and he said sure, the more the merrier.

I texted Cassie first but she was busy. So I texted Jayla and she agreed. I tried the other girls too but they were all busy. At least Jayla had my back this time.

So I changed into a swim suit, threw on some clothes over it, and headed out to pick up my friend.

I got to Jayla’s house, put the car in park and turned off the engine, then walked up the sidewalk, knocking once before just opening the door. I figured I would give at least a little warning.

“In the bedroom!” Jayla called out when she heard the door shutting. So I headed back there to see what she was doing and to see if she was ready to go.

“Kendall, you are not wearing that swimsuit,” Jayla said as soon as she saw me. I don’t even know how she could really see it under my tank top, but apparently she could.

“What’s wrong with my swimsuit?” I asked defensively.

“Really? A one-piece? I mean, my grandma’s swimsuit is sexier than that.”

“I’m not trying to be sexy,” I stated.

“That much would be obvious to a blind monkey. That just won’t do.” She turned around and started going through one of her drawers. “I know my boobs are bigger than yours but some of these are small on me and I’m sure they’ll look just fine.”

“What? I’m not changing!” I protested.

“Oh, yes you are,” she said with a laugh. Why did all of my friends have to be so pushy and so set on getting their way?

She threw some bottoms at me and my eyes almost popped out of my head. “No Jayla! No way! I’m not wearing these. Does this even cover your vagina!?”

She laughed even harder and kept digging through all her swimsuits. She threw another bottom piece at me and I supposed it wasn’t too bad. At least I was sure it would cover everything up.

“Ok, fine.” I sighed.

She turned around, clapped, said yay, and went back to looking for tops.

She threw a couple at me and I immediately nixed all of them. “Jayla, I definitely need straps. This will fall down in a second.”

“Ok, fine.” And she went back to looking.

“Here this is perfect! And it’s too small for me so you can keep it!” She turned around with a top in her hands and I actually smiled. It was totally me.

“Thanks Jayla. I guess you were right too. I was being a little too conservative. But this is weird right? Going over to hang out with these guys when I don’t even really know them. I mean the only time we’ve ever been together is when we were majorly intoxicated. And, you know, the whole marriage thing. I just don’t even know how to act.” Especially after all the awkward moments we’d had.

“Just act like yourself Kendall babe.”

Easier said than done, I thought. But I went into the bathroom to change and Jayla and I left to head over to the Kirch household.

Only a few seconds after we rang the doorbell the door was opening and the one with long hair was hugging me. I was assuming he was Pat since he was answering the door.

“Kendall! I’m so glad you came!”

“Uh, thanks. Is John here?” I didn’t really want to waste time. I wanted to talk to John.

“Yeah, he’s out back with everyone. Come on!” Pat smiled brightly at us and led the way through the house. My eyes widened in shock when I saw their backyard and the pool. It was huge and it reminded me of the one I used to go to with my dads over the summer.

“Kendall!” I heard John shout my name as soon as we walked through the door. He got out of the pool and I couldn’t take my eyes off his chest and I couldn’t help but think of the nickname Cassie had given him in Vegas; “the tall one with the tattoos.” It was definitely the truth. And now, with his swim trunks on, I could see all of them.

“Hey John,” I greeted him as he walked over and tried to give me a hug. I pushed him away though, because he was all wet and I still had all my clothes on. He looked a little hurt but I pushed it to the back of my mind.

After a few minutes of greeting everyone and being reintroduced, Jayla and I stripped down to our suits and jumped in the pool. It was hot outside. Jayla was one of the most outgoing people I knew, so she had no problem talking to everyone as if she had known them forever. She joked around with the guys and the few girls that were also lounging in the pool.

I kind of floated off to the side, observing everyone and not talking too much. John swam over towards me and we started having our own conversation.

Pat and John and some of the other guys went in to get everyone drinks and only one of the guys actually came back out. I was just about to ask where John was when all of a sudden someone flew into the pool with a huge splash.

“What the fuck!?” Jayla shouted and we looked around for the source. That’s when we heard laughter up above. We looked up and saw four of the guys standing on the damn roof, John included.

There was a yell as one of the guys jumped off the roof and a huge splash as he hit the surface of the water. Everyone else was laughing as Jayla and I were frowning. I couldn’t believe they were doing something so stupid and dangerous.

John was apparently next to be an idiot because he was running towards the edge of the roof, jumping off and yelling bonsai!

After the huge splash he didn’t surface, and I was kind of starting to freak out and think of all the possible things that could go wrong with jumping off the fucking roof into the pool, when I felt my leg being pulled under the water.

I squealed and John surfaced with a huge grin on his face, laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world.

“Are you fucking crazy!?” I yelled at him and his smile instantly fell.

“What?” he looked confused and if he was really that dumb I didn’t want to even talk to him. I swam towards the edge of the pool and got out quickly. But John was quick to follow and I didn’t even make it five feet before he was grabbing my arm, spinning me around to face him.

“Kendall, it’s not a big deal, we do it all the time,” he laughs. “No one’s gonna get hurt or anything.”

“And how do you know that? You guys are just so stupid!” I didn’t really know why it was that big of a deal to me. I didn’t know these people that well, why did it matter to me what they did? Whether they wanted to jump off roofs or not? But for some reason it was really pissing me off and I was actually worried about their safety and well-being. “I just want to talk about the annulment. Can we do that? Huh?”

“Wow,” he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Yeah, we can do that.”

“Good.” I started walking towards the chair where I had left my clothes so we could get dressed and go inside or somewhere away from everyone else to talk. I didn’t see what anyone else was doing because I was still too busy being pissed off at John and his dumb friends. And it was too late when I finally realized that Jayla and John’s bearded friend were running straight for me. They grabbed me and carried me to the edge of the pool, and no matter how much I squirmed and tried to get away; they were too strong for me. They threw me into the pool on the count of three and before I even had time to swim to the top I was being pulled up.

When I surfaced I saw that John was the one who had rescued me, not that I really needed rescuing.

“Are you okay?” he asked, and now it was his turn to look concerned and worry about me.

“I’m fine,” I replied and looked to where my friend was standing, laughing her ass off by the side of the pool. “But I’m gonna beat Jayla’s ass!” I raised my voice so she could hear and she started laughing even harder.

John looked at me and it was like I could read his mind because we both basically ran over to her and she was so busy laughing that she didn’t even notice until we were right there. I grabbed one leg while John grabbed the other and we pulled her in. This time when she surfaced it was my turn to laugh. I locked eyes with John again and he winked at me before swimming me over and engulfing me in a hug.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said into my ear with his arms still wrapped around me.

“It’s fine,” I replied, rolling my eyes. I knew that I was probably overreacting but I was glad that he was apologizing.

“Who wants to get lunch? I’m thinking Denny’s!” one of the boys shouted and everyone soon agreed. We all got out of the pool, got dressed, and headed out to Denny’s, all thoughts of the marriage and annulment talk slipping from my mind.