Truth in Cliche

The best part about December in Florida was definitely the weather. It wasn’t humid for a change and it also wasn’t cold. It was so unlike winters in South Dakota where it was so cold that your blood seemed to freeze right inside of your veins. Winters here were about 50 degrees on an average day.

It was so funny though to watch the people. As soon as the weather got below 70, all the people whipped out their fur and boots, where if it was 70 in South Dakota everyone whipped out the booty shorts and t-shirts.

Buckley was having a bonfire at his parents land just outside of the city this weekend. He’d only intended to invite a few people, but somehow the whole class heard about it and then the whole school, so by this point there was going to be music, booze, and apparently college girls.

To be honest, I didn’t think my parents were going to let me go. They never would have let me go in South Dakota unless they went and checked it out first. When I asked my mom she got really excited. She asked if Lara was going to be there and if we’d gotten any closer to dating. Unfortunately, we hadn’t, but it was still nice of her to ask.

My dad gave me the whole speech on not to get into a car with anyone who’d been drinking, etc., but Buckley had already assigned Kendra as the designated driver for him, Kendra, Lara and I because Kendra didn’t drink anyway. I didn’t really either, but Kendra volunteered first.

On the night of the party, I went over to Buckley’s after school with a few of the other soccer guys. We drove to his parent’s lot with all the stuff that we had to set up for the party. The good thing was that with all the help we got done fast. The bad thing was that because we finished so early we ended up just hanging out.

We were just shooting the breeze when someone asked me about Lara. It was this guy Prashant, who was really a nice guy, but he just didn’t have a filter on his mouth. “So are you and Lara fucking yet?”

I nearly spit out my drink. “What?”

“Obviously not,” he said.

“We’re not like that at all,” I tried to explain.

“I just thought because it was Lara. I don’t know. Like every guy on this soccer team has slept with her. She’s not exactly hard to get with.”

“Don’t talk about her like that.” And suddenly Buckley was part of the conversation.

“Sorry, I was just asking a question.”

“She’s a human being. She deserves to be treated with respect,” Buckley defended Lara.

“Right Buckley. Like you didn’t tell us all about how easy she was, and how she was such a slut. And then you fell in love with her.”

Buckley was starting to turn red. I grabbed his arm before he could lunge at Prashant. “Hey Buckley, he’s just antagonizing you. He’s only jealous because he’s an ugly virgin,” one of the other guys said.

Prashant rolled his eyes and muttered something about spoiled rich brats.

“Well guys, I see that things are all hot and heavy and I don’t mean to interrupt, but Max and I have a gift to present towards the party.” And there stood Benji. Max was behind her, but I was too busy looking at her.

“Hey Cowboy!” she said. I felt my cheeks heat up and a few of the guys laughed or punched my arm.

She handed Buckley a white paper bag from her purse and winked at him. “It’s on the house as long as you share with everyone.”

Buckley pulled two large, glass coke bottles from the bag and set them down on a table.

“What is it?” I asked one of the guys.

“Homemade Moonshine.”

I had no idea what that was, but I assumed that it was liquor of some sort.

“Hey Buckley, what’s the time?” someone asked.

“Almost eight.”

“Oh well, I guess we’ll just stay and hang with you lovely athletes then,” Benji said and had a seat in the grass. She talked and flirted with all the guys and Max. I was kind of amazed that all the guys liked her so much because from what I knew about stereotypes, the jocks and the punk kids kind of weren’t supposed to hang out. Benji seemed to kind of be an exception to that rule though. She seemed to just be friends with everyone.

It was only about 15 minutes later when Benji and Max started doing shots. A few of the soccer guys joined in, but I sort of didn’t want to get drunk yet. I kind of wanted to see Lara first.

Benji was laughing with Buckley and another guy, David. I went and sat with them because Buckley hadn’t started drinking yet and most of the other guys had. A few people had also started to filter in and someone had started playing music.

“You have the best cheekbones, Cowboy.” Benji placed her hand on my cheek. Despite it being chilly out, Benji’s hands were so warm.

“Um thanks.”

“God, you’re so adorable. Like you remind me of Buckley when we were in like seventh grade.”

“Benji.” Buckley looked a little embarrassed.

I never really thought of Buckley ever being the shy, blushy type, but it was a long time ago.

“How old are you anyway?” Benji asked.

“Fifteen. Sixteen in three months.”

“Aw, we’ve got a baby here tonight.” Benji grinned and flipped her hair away from herself.

Buckley excused himself to go greet some people from another school that had just showed up. That left just Benji and I because I guess David had slunk away at some point in our conversation.

“God, he is so attractive.” Here it was again: people talking about how attractive Buckley was. I mean, yeah, he was older, and maybe he was actually more attractive, but I just hated how everyone had to rub it in.

“It’s really hot.” And then I noticed that Benji probably was pretty hot. She had a shaggy, blue faux fur coat on that was kind of ugly, but Benji rocked it. I think. I didn’t know much about fashion.

With that said, Benji unbuttoned the coat and shrugged it off of her shoulders to her elbows. I’d already taken many notes on the fact that she was barely wearing shorts over ripped tights, but to say she had even bothered with a shirt would be an overstatement.

Her shirt was some sort of fancy bra maybe. There was probably a word for that. But when a pretty girl is sitting in front of you in just a bra there’s not much else you can think about.

“We need to get you drunk.”

“What?”

Benji pulled me up by the arm and led me to Max. She said something to him and then handed me off to him. He shoved a glass into my hand so I drank it, against my better judgment. I coughed half of it up, so I thought it probably wouldn’t do much anyway. I guess I only drank it because I kind of trusted Benji, but maybe I shouldn’t have.

Max led me back to Benji once I started reeling. She looked so touchable. I took some of her hair between my fingers. It was so soft. Even in my state, that surprised me a bit. Usually girls’ hair that was dyed wasn’t that soft.

Benji shook her head. “Max sure knows how to mix a drink.”

“You look so pretty,” I found myself saying.

“God, you’re not even rude when you’re tipsy.”

“I have to go talk to Lara,” I said. I had seen her familiar face in the blur of all the other people.

“Yeah, you might not want to go over there.” Benji didn’t let go of my arm.

“I have to talk to her.”

“She’s not going to want to hear it. Whatever you say right now won’t mean anything to her.”

“Let go,” I said. I pulled my arm out of her grip.

“Evan. Stop.”

I pushed through people to Lara. She saw me and smiled, then ran up to me and gave me a hug. She smelled so good.

Benji had chased after me though. Why was she so persistent that I didn’t talk to Lara? Why did she suddenly care?

“Lara, he’s with me.”

“He’s not with you Benji. Leave him alone. Just because you can’t control yourself doesn’t mean you can control other people instead.”

“Fine,” I heard Benji say. “You deal with him.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Lara asked me.

“Nothing,” I said.

“So how is it so far?” Lara asked.

“Okay. I guess.”

“Just okay?”

“Well it was just okay. And then you were here.”

“You’re so sweet Evan.”

“You smell so good,” I said. I really desperately wanted another hug.

“Are you drunk?”

“No. Tipsy.”

“Evan.”

“What?”

“Seriously. Who got you drunk?”

“Maybe I did it by myself?” I said, but it came out more like a question and Lara rolled her eyes. I knew she didn’t believe me for a nanosecond.

“It was Benji wasn’t it?”

“No.” I lied, but whatever. “It was all me.”

“Can you take me to go get a drink?” she asked.

I looked at her. I didn’t quite believe that she wanted one after all the questions she had asked me, but then I noticed the pain on her face. I looked behind me and I saw Kendra and Buckley dancing together. Then I understood. I mean, I kind of understood.

Lara was tipsy after only two or three shitty beers. We were sitting behind some chairs in the grass, just talking and laughing.

“Buckley is such an asshole. He knows I like him and he’s all over Kendra anyway.”

“You could like me instead?” I drunkenly offered.

Lara smiled. “You’re so sweet.”

Our faces got really close to each other. She smelled like beer and her good scent. Our lips barely touched for two seconds before Lara pulled back giggling.

“This is so funny because you’re gay.”

“No I’m not.”

“You’re not?” she asked. Her face fell a little, but then she started to laugh again.

I laughed too. I wasn’t really sure why, but even though she’d just insulted my manliness it was pretty funny.

“Come with me to my car. I want to show you something.”

The way Lara looked at me I could tell she was sobering up. Truthfully, I was too, but I’d kind of rather stay lost because it was more fun that way with Lara.

She brought me to her Mustang. She sat in the front seat and I sat in the passenger’s seat. Kendra had her keys, so we just sat there and stared out the window.

“My head was ringing from the noise and music. Sorry.”

“Naw, it’s nicer in here. And warmer,” I said. I’d started to notice the cold a little while ago, and suddenly my soccer warm-up jacket wasn’t warm enough.

Lara looked at me with her big, brown eyes. I knew something was up.

“What is it?”

I faced her and she touched my cheek. Her face fell for a moment, but it was barely noticeable.

She stretched across the center console and kissed me. I had no idea what to do. I’d kissed girls before, but none of them were Lara.

We finally fell in to somewhat-of sync, pulling apart every few moments to get air. Lara was halfway on the center console and halfway on my lap. I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t enjoying it, but Lara was definitely more drunk than I was at this point, and I didn’t want to do anything that she might regret.

I turned my face away from her. “What are we doing Lara?”

“We’re going to have sex.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re hot and I want to.”

“Lara. I’m not hot.”

“Ugh, shut up.”

And so I shut my mouth and became increasingly more nervous by the second.

“Lara?”

“What?”

“You know I’ve never done this. I’m probably no good.”

“I told you to shut up.”

And so I shut my mouth again. Lara had all but shoved me into the backseat. She took my shirt off and it was tossed up onto the dashboard. Her shirt was thrown somewhere up towards the front of the car, and that’s precisely when I stopped paying attention to things like where our discarded clothes were ending up.

At some point Lara had found a condom in the glove box, and we were just going and I had no real idea what I was doing beyond instincts, and the car door opened and then slammed right back shut. Whoever had opened it, had undoubtedly saw my pale, bare ass and probably some other stuff as well. Lara didn’t even seem to notice. She was off in some other world. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, but when I voiced my concern she said I was fine.

It felt like forever had gone bye, so maybe I wasn’t so bad, when Lara pushed me onto my back, switching us around.

She was so much better than me. I was gone in three minutes tops and she was there in about four. “God Buckley,” she said and let loose half a moan before pressing her lips to mine.

That’s where her mind was. I should have guessed that she didn’t actually like me, and I probably shouldn’t have been as upset as I was, but I was a little bit pissed. Just because it didn’t take a genius to figure out, didn’t mean that I wasn’t hurt. For a little while I’d honestly believed that we had something.

I didn’t feel like moving, but I moved anyway. I found my clothes and did my best to put them on in the small space. Lara watched me. Her face didn’t give away any emotion. I had to get out of here because I felt like I was in some sort of dream that had started out so good and ended so badly.

I practically fell out of the car and then made my way back to the party. I found the drinks and had a beer to try and get rid of the feeling of Lara. It’s not that I didn’t like her, I just hated that she used me. Maybe I was being a girl, but it was a horrible feeling.

Benji of all people plopped down next to me. “How’s it going?” she asked.

“Fine.”

“No. You’re upset. I can tell. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Fine.” And Benji and I just sat there.

“I don’t want to make you feel any worse, but Buckley is pissed as hell at you.”

“Why?”

“I think you know.”

How Benji knew about Lara and I was beyond me, but I didn’t see why Buckley was mad. He was the one who told me that Lara and I should try and get together. It was his entire fault for even introducing us in the first place. Maybe he was just like everyone else and thought that I didn’t have the guts to do anything, or maybe he also thought I was gay.

Benji lay back on the grass. She shut her eyes and she just looked so peaceful even with all the drunk people and loud music around us. I ended up lying next to her. We just looked up at the stars that you couldn’t really see. It was too bright around here, but back in South Dakota the skies were so pretty.

I got a little bit homesick for a minute. I wished that I was back home because if I was, there would be no drama in my life. South Dakota life was much simpler.