A Step to Love

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he said. “Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Seriously…Who the hell is being a bitch now?”

Before I even thought of leaving, Alex took my arm and backed me against the end, imprisoning me. “Answer my question. You have been ignoring me for almost seven months—I can’t take it anymore.” He sighed and let go of my arm to pace slowly in front of me. “I don’t get it…What did I do?” He asked and I almost believed that tone of innocence he added.

“You just…confuse me, Alex,” I admitted. He stared in confusion, but I didn’t exactly want to explain myself any further. I had decided not to tell anyone about my feelings besides Sasha and Jake. But Jake was the only one that knew the entire version which meant Sasha probably thought I still had feelings for Alex. “Look, I don’t know which game you're playing, but whatever it is, please, stop. Or at least, don’t play it with me.”

“I don’t understand.”

I smiled. “It’s okay. Let’s just leave at that.”

“Lilly, I don’t want to leave things like they are.”

“Now I’m the one that doesn’t understand,” I replied. “Why wouldn’t you want to leave it like it is when you’re the main cause of this situation existing on the first place?”

“The cause? How am I responsible?!”

“Alex,” I breathed, “you are constantly leading me somewhere and it just so happens that every time we’re about to get there, you simply back away.” I paused. “What am I to you? Just another girl you can take and throw?”

“I still don’t get what you’re talking about…”

“…just forget it.” I walked passed him, toward the living room of the house. Agh. It’s merely unbelievable how a person can be so oblivious. Is it too hard to understand? Is it so complicated that by telling him straight up what is it, he still doesn’t get it?

“…piece of fucking franksicles,” I muttered silently while making my way up the stairs. “He says, ‘I still don’t get what you’re talking about’…I still don’t get it, my ass.”

“Lilly...” I swore mentally that if Alex was following me, I would shove something up his ass so hard that he was bound to lose his virginity again. With jaw set and ready to launch, I turned around. “Hiiiii,” a very drunk Brody slurred just a few feet away. “You pretty today.”

Oh, God. “Brody, sweetie.” I came toward him as fast as I could and took one of his arms and wrapped it around my shoulders, so he could rest against me. “Why are you drunk?” I whispered, remembering the strict rule about no alcohol.

“You pretty today.”

“Yeah, you said that already, thanks.” I sighed. “Come here…” I took him by the waist and pulled him hard against me, so we could make our way toward the stairs. I had to take him upstairs before one of the adults saw him. I couldn’t imagine facing Pat’s disappointed face if she saw Brody like this.

“Hmmmm.”

“Brody…” I kept on whispering. “Stay with me, please.”

“I’m here!” Thankfully, we had already reached the end of the stairs, so no one could hear with the heavy waves of music downstairs. I took his shirt and pulled him to the bathroom. “Whee. Where we gone?”

I made a ‘shhh’ sound. “Please, you’re starting to give me a headache.” I let go of his shirt and as soon as I did, he stumbled all the way toward the bathtub. I took the opportunity to text somebody. I thought about texting Brittany, but she was probably making out with Joe somewhere by now. I decided to text Sasha…

She was so going to kill me…

Five minutes passed before I got her reply saying she would come immediately.

“Where is he?” was the first thing she said as she arrived. I turned my head to the blonde playing with the solid soap in a corner. “Wow, uhm…I love you and you’re probably going to hate me for this, but Lilly, I think you should get your boyfriend out of here before my mom finds out and decides to cancel the party,” Sasha suggested while Brody slurred things I couldn’t understand.

I sighed, frowning. “I know.”

She came in and closed the door behind her. Then, she took my arm and I sat on the edge of the bathtub while she ended up sitting on top of the toilet’s lid. “He’s not the only one, though.”

I lifted my gaze to meet hers. “What do you mean?”

She took my hand. “Swear you won’t be alarmed or anything.”

“Yeah, on my cat’s grave.”

“Pinky swear…” She held up her pinky.

“Wow, you’re serious about this.” I laughed, entwining her finger with mine.

She smiled for a brief second before letting go. “Well, I saw a group of guys come in with him. Some were equally as drunk as he was, but some were completely alert. The thing is, I didn’t recognize none of the guys and I don’t think they came to party it out for a bit, either.”

“Well, where are they?” My eyes widened, and I could feel my heart starting to hit faster, even though I had just promised her I wouldn’t get alarmed.

“They left a while ago,” she reassured.

I nodded and took Brody’s arm gently. “I’m going to take Brody home. Don’t worry Sasha; they were probably just some friends he was hanging out with it. No big deal, ‘kay?” I said, dragging Brody to the door. I wanted to make sure Sasha believed me, but I could barely believe it myself.

~*~*~*~*~

“Your turn, Lilly,” Sasha said. “Truth…or dare?”

I sighed as I mentally cursed at the stupid bottle for pointing at me for the fourth time in a row. I had already answered Gaby’s question about being a virgin, Brittany’s question about my most embarrassing moment and I had already stolen Mr. Gibson’s boxers from his drawer thanks to Joe.

I hesitated for about ten minutes, mostly, because I was still worried about Brody. I had taken him home hours ago. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a soul inside his house and it scared me to know the irresponsible choice I had made of leaving him alone.

“Remember, if you refuse, you’re going to have to take off an article of your clothing,” Sasha teased.

“Yeah, and I don’t want to see boobies, so please, play every time,” Brittany added what I knew Sasha was also thinking.

“Truth,” I finally responded. It felt kind of weird how time seemed to pass incredibly. We were the only ones left—even Pat had already left. Out of the twenty boxes of pizza we had bought, there was only two left and were soon going to end with Gaby, Joe and Alex here. Good thing Jake had left, too because then, we would have none.

“Hmm.” Sasha paused and took a sip of her Sprite before responding. “Where do you think you will be ten years from now?”

Even though, I hadn’t really thought of life that far away before, I knew exactly what to respond. “I think I would be already working, living in my own home and probably thinking about a family.”

Sasha nodded. “That sounds reasonable, I suppose.”

I took the silver bottle in my left hand and spun it as hard as could. I watched in enthusiasm when I noticed it wasn’t pointed at me like I thought it would. “Gabriel,” I said, still smiling.

“Dare,” he said.

“Okay, you know I suck at this, but…I dare you to go to the fridge and grab as much ice as you can… When you do that, I’ll tell you what to do next.”

“Well, why not now?” Alex asked.

“Just go,” I told Gaby and once he did, I turned to Alex, “Because if I do tell him now, then he is going grab as little ice as possible.”

“Ooh, smart choice, then.”

After a few seconds, we heard somebody nearly run up the stairs and then we saw Gaby, making weird facial expressions. It wasn’t until I saw how much ice he had brought, that I understood. I giggled, thinking of what he was going to do when I told him he had to shove that into his pants.

“What next,” he groaned.

“You will insert that ice in your pants until it melts,” I finished, adding a smile at the end.

He raised an eyebrow and I thought that if looks could kill, Pat would be making funeral arrangements for me at this moment. “You…you—I’m taking my shirt off!” He walked toward the trashcan and dropped all of the ice there.

I let another laugh escape. “Why?”

“I am not shoving ice down my pants, Lilly. My sperm could die…or my dick can become numb for the rest of my life—I don’t know! I’m not taking any risks.”

“How can your pe—?”

But Sasha interrupted me by rolling her eyes and saying, “You’re being so ridiculous, Gabriel.”

“You know you want me to take my clothes off, Sas,” he replied.

Then, Brittany scoffed. “I don’t think none of us want to see your diminutiveness.”

“How are you so sure is diminutive, Brittany?” Gabriel asked her before taking his shirt off. “Joe, you better watch what your girlfriend does, she’s freaking me out a bit here.”

“Please…,” she muttered and Joe just smiled.

Even though, I knew I shouldn’t, I blushed at the site of Gaby’s chest, wide and muscular standing before us. He didn’t reply anything to anyone as he spun the bottle and this time, it landed on Joe. “You know what to do,” Gabriel said to him.

“I’m going to go with dare.”

“Excellent,” Gaby replied, showing a grin that reflected malicious thoughts that only he was aware of.

It didn’t take long for us to grow a little tired, even though the game was getting a bit interesting…for them at least. I had decided I would answer all of the questions and that I would do all of the dares even if they turned out to be completely disgusting like liking Sasha’s foot. I shuddered. Of course I washed my mouth three times after that.

Joe decided not to do it when they asked him to, though. Instead, he took another piece of his clothing off—leaving him in his boxers only.

“You better do the next truth or dare,” Brittany whispered to him after that, causing him to laugh and for the rest that didn’t hear to look at him questioningly.

“Am I the only one fully clothed here?” I asked them noticing it instantly.

“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “After the next time Alex picks a dare, you won’t…”

Before asking, I analyzed what that meant. The rules of the game were that when a dare had to do with another person, that other person had to also pay the consequences.

And to make matters worse, the bottle had stopped in front of Alex. I just braced myself for whatever Gabriel had in mind.

“Hm, look at that,” I heard him whisper.

“I’m going to please you; hit me with your best shot,” Alex said to Gabriel.

“You know what I want to see,” he responded and I tried to imagine what that would be.

Alex sighed and turned his sight to me. “Kiss me,” he said, receiving cheers from the rest.

Without even thinking about it, I responded. “No.” Did he not think at all? It would be betraying what Brody and I had. It was definitely not something I wanted to do.

“Fine,” he said, getting ready to take his boxers off. “Remember you only have a dress on.”

Crap.

“Wait!” I yelled, absently taking a hold of his hand. “I don’t want to see your thing,” I added.

He grinned and quickly took my face with both of his hands. I closed my eyes as I felt his pale lips being pressed against mine for the second time in my life.

The touch was so soft and even more experienced than Brody’s. He started parting the softness of his perfect lips causing mine do the same. Then, he let his tongue crawl inside of my mouth, letting it explore anything it would and anything it could. Mine played along, tracing sweet patterns in his mouth.

I could still feel his sweet taste when he pulled away, leaving me completely breathless. “You’ve gotten better than the last time we kissed,” Alex said out loud and it was followed by ‘ooh’s’ from everybody. “Guess being with Brody helped you in a way.”

“We should go to sleep now,” I said to all of them, trying not to make it obvious that I had enjoyed it, that I was disappointed by the fact that it happened way to quick and that I felt so guilty because of it…