Gone

“Are you sure this skirt isn’t too short?” I mumbled, turning around to look at my backside in the full-length mirror of Manny’s bedroom to make sure my butt wasn’t making any kind of an appearance. “I seriously feel like I’m not wearing anything.”

“It’s a bandage skirt, so it’ll stay tight against you, even if it is short. You’ll be fine.” She glanced over at me just to roll her eyes before leaning back into the mirror to finish her eyeliner. “And with those legs of yours, you’ll probably give a boy or two a heart attack.”

I faced my reflection again, biting my lip a little bit. I did look good, I had to admit, even if the outfit was a little more revealing than I was used to. And thanks to the push-up bra Manny made me buy for the occasion, my normally on-the-small-side chest looked perky and full. I never knew bras could work such miracles.

“Oh, and Frankie?” I faced my friend again, smoothing down the shirt nervously to make sure it wasn’t wrinkling. “I’m on the prowl for Liam tonight, so if you want me to be designated driver, it’s fine with me.”

“Cool,” I agreed with a smile. Letting a little loose sounded absolutely perfect. The past week of practices had been incredibly rough with Liam. He was cocky and arrogant, and there were a couple of times where he tried to give me direction, even though I was his captain. Snapping at him put him in his place temporarily, but it was almost as if he were a toddler that had to be reminded every ten seconds not to put the Lego in his mouth. So finally letting my defenses down and not worrying so much sounded perfect.

But then I realized what her statement meant. “Wait, Liam’s going to be there?” I whined. “Why?”

“I invited him,” she replied. “But don’t worry about him. He’ll be a little…preoccupied.” She straightened up, done with her makeup after a full twenty minutes, and gave me her signature slutty smirk.

I let out a long breath and tucked a piece of my curled hair behind my ear. “Like I said, do whatever you want, as long as I don’t have to hear the gory details. And don’t work him too hard. He needs to be in top shape for practices.”

She burst out laughing and shook her head. “Then think of it like I’m giving him a workout.” She smoothed down her tight dress and checked out her perfect ass in her vanity mirror. “Okay, we’re good. Ready to go?”

I nodded and picked up the small wristlet I’d bring to the party. Manny and I used to go to parties empty-handed, bringing only ourselves, but one time, my mom’s car broke down, and it took about ten years for us to convince the mechanic to fix it, even though we had no money. He was the old and grumpy type, and he probably figured that we did something to damage the vehicle ourselves, but he eventually caved. Maybe because of the fact that Manny was completely messed up, and he wanted her out of his garage. But we learned our lesson, and I always kept my credit card on me in case of emergencies.

The ride to the kid’s house that I couldn’t remember the name of only took a few minutes, but the party was already bumping. The second my feet hit the pavement, I could feel the pulsing of the beat of the music under the soles of my high heels, and people were congregated all over the lawn, talking and laughing in different states of sobriety.

“Are you sure my hair looks okay?” Manny questioned quickly in a low voice as we made our way toward the party.

“You look hot,” I assured her. “Liam’s going to die when he sees you.”

She grinned widely at me one last time, clearly pleased with my declaration, before taking on her regular sensual face. Anyone who saw her would know she was on a mission, and if they valued their lives, they would do nothing to interfere with it.

The second we got inside, a girl from the soccer team approached me and started chatting about a play she was having difficulty with, while Manny disappeared into the crowd to find her beautiful British boy. It made me feel at ease immediately, being able to talk about something so firmly in my comfort zone as I got her and myself a cup of beer.

“Oh, and I have to ask,” she continued after I finished up explaining the mechanics of the play with her, “is there anything going on between you and Liam?”

I almost choked on my mouthful of beer as my face started to burn with embarrassment. “Um, no. What makes you think that?”

“You guys have this…” She bit her lip as she tried to think of the proper phrase. “Sexual tension thing going on. I didn’t know if it was foreplay or something.”

Oh, God, I felt nauseated. “Oh, no. There’s nothing going on.” I almost told her that I’d never even thought about him that way, considering how much I disliked him and the fact that Manny wanted him to be her next conquest, but I realized that insulting him would just ruin the cohesiveness of our team.

“Just wondering.” She shrugged and took a sip from her beer before flicking her brown eyes back up at me. “You guys would look cute together, you know, if anything did happen.”

I didn’t really know what to say to that, but it didn’t matter, since she found someone else that she wanted to talk to and clung to their side, leaving me standing in the kitchen, completely alone.

As the party progressed, I mingled and finished my cup of beer, and then another, and then another. My head was starting to feel a little foggy, but I wasn’t really drunk or anything. My wits were still sharp, though maybe my reactions weren’t, and I only wondered a couple of times through the night where Manny had gone. If things went her way, she usually stayed up in a bedroom for a significant length of time, so not seeing her was a fairly common occurrence.

After I finished my third cup of beer, I made my way out to the living room, which was working as a makeshift dance floor. I mostly danced alone, since I wasn’t looking for some guy to grind up on me to go tell his friends about it later, but I didn’t feel alone. Just having so many people dancing around me felt like we were all friends, all working toward the same goal.

“Hey, Frankie!” someone called out. I didn’t recognize the voice immediately, but when I saw his face, it registered. He was someone Manny hooked up with a couple of times, but she started to lose interest when he 1) groped her in public and 2) called her crying in the middle of the night after his fish died. “Do you know where Manny is?”

“She couldn’t come tonight,” I lied smoothly. I used to be a terrible liar before Manny started racking up the exes. “She has the flu.”

“Someone told me they saw her,” he fired back angrily. “Where is she?”

“Maybe they saw someone that looked like her?” I suggested, keeping my tone calm and steady. “But she’s seriously not here.”

His face started to get a little red, his anger probably fueled by whatever was his drug of choice for the night, but after a second, someone intervened.

“She’s telling the truth, mate. She walked into the party alone.”

I could have recognized that British accent anywhere, at any time, even with my head fuzzy with alcohol. And soon, I could feel Liam standing next to me, his body heat transferring to my arm. I had no idea where he’d come from, but I wished he would leave.

The guy, instead of looking for a fight, just glanced between the two of us and left. He probably figured Manny wasn’t worth the trouble.

And after he left, I tried to do the same, weaving through the crowd to get away from the British boy. I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go, but I soon found myself standing in the chilly nighttime air, the cold slapping me in the face and making me feel a little more sober.

Sitting down on the steps and stretching out my legs, crossing them at the ankles, I started to take a couple deep breaths. The freshness felt great, and I hadn’t realized how stuffy it was inside the house until that moment.

“You could have said thank you.”

I glanced up at the curly-haired Brit and sighed. “I could have handled him,” I laughed. “A toddler could have knocked him over with a feather. Did you see how high he was?”

“It’d just make him more violent,” Liam replied as he plopped down on the steps next to me without asking. “But you’re welcome, anyway.”

“How did you even know what was going on?”

“Are you serious?” I looked over at him and raised an eyebrow to show how serious I was. “You really didn’t see me? I was four people away from you all night.”

“Then who is Manny fucking?” The words poured out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I immediately burst out laughing. I’d probably just ruined all her chances with him, but I couldn’t seem to get myself to care.

“I don’t know,” Liam replied. “But it’s not me. I told her about two hours ago that she’s beautiful, but not my type.”

“So what’s your type?”

There was a long time where neither of us talked after my word vomit before Liam said, “I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it out.”