Pinky Promises

A few hours later I found myself struggling with the large blue cooler Jimmy instructed me to take out to his truck and put on the back. I grunted and turned sideways to try to fit it out of the narrow doorway and finally, after smashing my fingers twice, made it through. I wasn't sure what the hell Jimmy was thinking by making me do this instead of Matt.

"Stupid cooler. Just...a few feet more.." I said out loud as I bent my knees to slightly hold it up with my leg for the rest of the way. I knew I looked ridiculous but when I heard the chuckles coming from behind me I gave up and let it slide to the ground.

"Don't let me stop you." Matt's voice chided.

I turned around and saw the tall, muscly, dark headed man with dimples grinning at me. "You'd think you would be a nice friend and help a lady out." I said.

"I would if I saw one." His grin grew bigger at my dirty look. "Hey, you're the one always telling us you can do this, or you can do that, and you don't need any help because you're not a 'helpless little girl'. I'm just letting you prove it."

I let out a long groan and bent down to pick up the cooler again, lifting with my knees. I managed to get it in to the air and then quickly but carefully got it to the truck.

Matt waited patiently to see if I could hoist it over my head but after a few seconds he walked over and made me set it back down.

"Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." He said.

"Hey!"

"What?! I'm actually being nice! If you hurt yourself you know the three stooges are gonna ask what you did. Then when you have to explain they're gonna laugh at you. So isn't it better this way?" He bent down and grabbed a hold of the cooler like it was nothing and lightly tossed it in the to back of the truck.

"Not everyone can be as ripped as you." I said.

He grinned. "True."

As I was helping Matt finish with the rest of our packing Charlie and Dillon pulled in looking rather excited. They hopped out of the car and made their way over.

"What's with you two?" Matt asked.

"Some girl we know at work invited us to a pit party." Dillon said. His curly brown hair was pulled back in a small ponytail.

"Ah, you've never been to a redneck get together?" I asked.

Though Jimmy and Matt were from California they had lived in
Maine much longer than Dillon and Charlie who had recently arrived here.

"Nope, not until tonight. You guys wanna come?" Charlie asked. He was a lot like the other guys, though a little more round. His face was covered in stubble of a beard he shaved and grew off more than I shaved my legs.

Jimmy appeared from out of nowhere, like he always did, and looked around. "What's going on?"

"They want us to go to a pit party." Matt said.

"What? Fuck yes!" Jimmy's excitement was obvious on his face. "I
haven't been to a good party in months."

"Me either." Matt agreed.

"Well it's settled then. I'm gonna go drop Charles off at his place so he can shower and I'll take one at my apartment then we'll head over here and meet up, sound good?" Dillon asked.

Everyone agreed and I watched them all depart, including Matt who said he needed to go to the nearest alcohol store and pick up a few bottles.

Jimmy stood next to me quietly for a few seconds then cleared his throat. "So, when were you planning on tellin' us you weren't gonna go?"

I glanced sideways at him. "Huh?"

"I know you. You don't really wanna go to this thing, so were you gonna wait until it was time to go then bail or what?"

I gave him a weak smile. "I don't know."

"Come on. Come with us. I want you to come." He said and grabbed my arms like a kid would when they wanted something.

"Jimmy..." I said.

"It won't kill you! Just come with us. Please."

"I don't know."

"Please. I'll let you off the hook for the next six parties. Just this
one."

"I don't know..."

"You say that, but you do know. I don't ask you for much do I?" He stuck out his bottom lip. If there was one thing I couldn't resist it was when Jimmy gave me that sad puppy dog face. It literally worked on me.

"Why do you want me to go so bad, I'll just cramp your style."

He pretended to be offended. "How could you say that?"

"I don't know, what if you wanna pick up some chicks?"

"Chicks? Like, more than one? I'm a one girl at a time kinda guy."
He said and winked. "Except for those few times."

"Ugh, Jimmy!"

"Okay, okay!" He let go of my arms and sighed. "If you don't wanna go you don't have to. I'm just saying, you should. Get out and have some fun. Forget about your nice little dinner with Ted."

"You know, I don't even think Ted was his name." I said aimlessly, sending Jimmy into an unexpected fit of laughter.

"Either way. Please, come with me." He pouted again and finally I couldn't take the baby blues he was putting on me.

"Fine, I'll go. You know what's gonna happen though don't you? You guys are gonna ditch me again, and I'll be left with no one to hang out with."

Jimmy shook his head. "Not tonight. If you don't want me to go anywhere without you, I won't."

I felt my heart tug a little and I smiled. "Alright. I'll go."

"Yes!" He yelled and pulled me in for a hug with his long arms.
"You promise you won't back out last minute?"

I sighed heavily knowing very well what it meant if I broke a promise to Jimmy. He already had his pinky sticking out. "I promise" I said latching mine on to his.

Jimmy's face broke out in to a grin. "Thank you. Just do me a favor."

"I'm already doing enough for you, aren't I?" I teased.

He rolled his eyes. "Have fun tonight."

I nodded. "Don't you worry. I'll have all the fun in the world."

-

Chester pit. Where all of the towns biggest and craziest parties happened, and usually it never failed to be a witness to some out of control fight. Of course, then the cops showed up and everyone scattered but what went on until they got there was the worst.
Then again, some parties remained mild. Jimmy never drug me to a place he thought I wouldn't be comfortable, including parties with drugs that I didn't want to be around. He was my best friend, but he also liked to try new things that I didn't. I cared about him too much to really push the issue, unless he was getting carried away.

We pulled down the long dirt road and before we even reached the pit we could see the glow of the bonfire. The sounds of people's voices yelling over loud music also could be heard from our distance.

"I wonder who's here." I said as we crawled out of Jimmy's truck.

"Everyone. Someone. Anyone." Charlie said with a squinty look on his face.

"Going all macho already?" Dillon asked him.

"You bet. I've got my party face on. Let's go."

Charlie and Dillon never wasted time when it was time to party.

"Who wants to bet that one of those two fools will be a part of any fight that happens tonight?" Matt asked as we watched them slide down the slope of the pit. It was a long way down and there were quite a few vehicles parked inside of the pit with their tailgates down. Typical 'redneck' fashion.

"Yeah. Wouldn't expect any different, would you?" I asked.

Following the lead of the other two we slid down over the bank,
Matt holding a case of beer on his shoulder and Jimmy with some
of the camping chairs slung around him, and found a place to put down our stuff.

"I hope Ash isn't here." Matt said as he cracked open a beer.

"She didn't seem like the type to really want to come to these things." I said as I grabbed the one he handed me.

"Yeah well, if she even thinks that I'm anywhere near here with a girl she'll be around." He said.

"Man, you're always with a girl." Jimmy said and looked at me.

"Yeah right, Layla doesn't count." Matt snorted and I pushed him playfully. "She knows what Layla means to me, she wouldn't worry. But if I was with another girl. Fuck it, I'm going to find me a girl to have a good time with. You two got your shit under control?"

"We just...got here and set up and you're gonna ditch us?"

He grinned, showing those dimples that I knew he could real in any woman there with. "I'll be back. Don't worry."

"When you tell me not to worry is when I start to worry!" I yelled after him to which he waved a hand.

"Worst wingmen ever." Jimmy said and plopped down in his chair.
I took another look around before I sat down in mine.

"I'm sorry. Do you wanna go mingle?"

"What? No."

"Are you sure? Not cramping your style?"

"Am I drunk or have we had that conversation before? And recently?" Jimmy asked with one of those grins on his face. He was smoking another cigarette. He always smoked more when he got drunk.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I just remember you telling me that I cramped your style."

"I never said any such fuckin' thing."

"Yes you did! You were like 'Layla you suck. You make everyone think I'm uncool for hanging out with you'.... you were very clear in your words."

Jimmy leaned forward and grabbed my chair, pulling it backwards and causing me to tip. I flailed my arms but landed with my head in his lap.

"I never said those words. Thank you very much." He said.

I looked up at him, his face was outlined by the orange and reds of the fire, and I realized there were faint butterflies in my stomach.
I blinked. Hard. A few times. What was going on?

"You did too!"

"When?"

"I couldn't tell you WHEN exactly!"

Jimmy let me drop a little bit more, causing me to squeal like a little school girl and thrash around.

"Admit that I never said that and I'll let you down without dropping you on your head." He said.

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"No you wouldn't."

"You wanna bet?"

"Yes. You wouldn't drop me, we have that whole best friend trust thing going on, I know you wouldn't let me get hurt."

Jimmy bent his head down close to mine and smiled. My heart started racing in my chest and I was glad he couldn't hear it.

"What?"

"Nothing." He then let go of the chair once more, but caught me just before I hit the ground. I didn't even flinch. I knew he really wouldn't do it.

"You're lucky I'm just a nice guy." He said, the smile still on his face.

"Jimmy!" Dillon's voice broke our concentration on each other and he pushed my chair back to a sitting position.

"What?"

"Dude, you have to come here. There's this kid over there who's got a sixty nine charger. Black. Mint fucking condition. He says it's his but you know it's gotta belong to his dad or grand dad or something. Still though, you have to come look at this beast. Layla, you too." He said looking at me.

"No that's alright. I'm gonna sit here and guard the stuff so no one runs off with it, but you go Jimmy. I know how much you like those old cars."

He smiled then hopped up and he and Dillon bounded off in the direction of the track. I leaned back in my chair and glanced up at the sky which was now dark and littered with stars. It was peaceful out here even though there were so many people yelling and screaming.

Someone said something about fireworks and I zoned out as the first few colors burst in the sky. I was amused that they had even let fireworks become legal there, but knew they were making a killing on the money. Everyone loved fireworks, as a kid that was the one thing I really looked forward to on the fourth of July.

"Hey."

I broke back to reality at the sound of a man's voice, only to find a tall tattooed, dark haired man looking at me. He had a goatee and plugs that stretched out his ear lobes.

"Hi." I said.

"Mind if I take a seat?" He pointed to Matt's chair and I shrugged.

"Go ahead."

He plunked down, careful not to spill his beer that was in a glass bottle, and smiled at me. He was cute I wasn't gonna lie, but there was something about him that I wasn't quite getting yet. Almost like he looked familiar.

"I'm Josh." He said and stuck out his hand.

"I'm Layla." I took his and he gave it a light squeeze.

"You from around here?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah I live on the other side of Lincoln actually. You?"

"I live down near Bangor. I'm visiting family for the fourth and my cousin is around here somewhere. She told me to come, but I wasn't sure why. These things aren't really my style."

"Oh really?" I asked sitting up a little straighter now. "What is your style?"

"You know, go to a club or something. Have a party at the house with the big screen, listening to some jams."

"So you're more of an indoors kind of guy?" I smiled.

"Hey, don't get me wrong. I love camping. Fishing, kayaking, hiking. I do all that shit, but nature is nature. Why should there be partying?"

I laughed. "It's a sand pit, I don't think nature really cares if we're here or not."

He grinned at me and took a sip of his beer. "So, Layla, are you single? Or was one of those guys you showed up with your boyfriend?"

I shook my head. "No, no boyfriend. I've been single for over a year now."

"What? You're kidding. Why?"

"I don't know. It seems like all the guys I've ever met just aren't...what they say they are. They tell me what I wanna hear and then they end up being the total opposite."

"Really? Well, I promise, I do like all the stuff I just said. What's your favorite color?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"No seriously, what's your favorite color?"

"Green." I lied.

"What? Mine too!"

I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm just joking, relax. Green is a terrible color, mine's black."

"Oh really?"

"Yes really. See? If I was just agreeing with you to impress you then I wouldn't say how bad your favorite color was would I?"

I smiled and shook my head. "I guess not."

I saw Matt as he was walking by with two girls. He looked at me and cast me a wink. I waved it off and he just grinned, showing off the dimples once again.

"He one of the guys you came with?" Josh asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, that's Matt."

"That dude looks like he could wreck just about every guy here."

It made me laugh that he seemed intimidated by Matt. "Yeah he probably could."

"Hey Layla, what's up?" Jimmy's voice interrupted our conversation and I motioned toward my company.

"This is Josh. Josh, this is Jimmy."

Jimmy nodded but didn't offer his hand.

"Hey man, how's it going?" Josh asked.

"Oh, it goes. Just checking out some of the cars these little kids brought. Seems like everyone's getting everything handed to them these days."

Josh nodded. "No kidding. Well hey, I'll let you guys talk or whatever but a little later if you want we should hang out or something." He said looking at me.

I smiled. "Yeah sure I'll be around."

"Right on. Nice meeting you, Jimmy."

Jimmy nodded. "Sure. You too."

I wasn't sure how long Jimmy was going to be able to contain himself as Josh walked away. Finally when he was out of hearing distance he frowned at me and sat down. "That guy is scum."

"What?" I looked at him. What did he mean Josh was 'scum'? He just met the guy!

"I'm telling you, he's scum. He's no good. Don't hang out with him later."

"Jimmy-"

"No, I'm dead serious. Don't hang out with him. He's just an
asshole who's trying to use you."

"How do you know?" I asked getting a little angry now. What right did he have to tell me who I could or couldn't hang out with?

"Because I can just tell. He's such a fake asshole. You can't see it because he's good lookin' or whatever but I'm telling you the
truth."

"I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself Jim." I said standing up.

"Layla, I'm not trying to start anything, I'm just being honest."

"Are you sure that's what you're doing? You never like ANY of the guys I go out with!"

"Well am I ever wrong?" He asked.

"You're so smug! Yes you're wrong! I usually just end up saying they were bad because I don't want to make you upset!"

"Wha- That's stupid! Why would you make me upset if you went on a date that you actually enjoyed?"

"I don't know!" I said quickly. In truth I wanted him to think I hadn't found anyone so he wouldn't be tempted to go ahead and look for someone himself.

"Right! Look, I don't care if you're mad at me or whatever, just please please, don't go anywhere alone with him okay? He was looking at you like you were fuckin sausage."

"Sausage? REALLY?" I crossed my arms. "I'm fine, I can take care of myself."

"I know you can but-"

"No, Jimmy! I'm gonna do whatever I want while I'm here. You go off and do shit I don't approve of all the time but I never say anything!"

"I do? Fuck it! Fuck what I feel, say something to me! If you're my friend you'd think you could at least tell me if something I was doing wasn't worthy."

"Ugh! Come on!"

"I'm dead serious! You know what?! Fine! Go with him, but don't come crying to me when he hurts you or uses you to get in your pants!"

I let out a small growl and turned leaving him behind. I decided I was going to go wait in the truck until the party was over and then they could take me home. There was no reason to spoil their night just because Jimmy was being thick headed.
I was almost up over the hill when I heard a voice calling to me. I turned around to see Josh headed my way. He didn't seem to look to menacing to me.

"Hey." I said.

"Hi. You alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah I'm good. Just had an argument with Jimmy, which, well, is nothing new." I thought about all the times that we had fought and really there were only a handful, but they were pretty bad when they did happen.

"Oh..well is there anything I can do?" He asked.

I shook my head, glad that he was being nice enough to ask. Jimmy really was just over reacting, though I wasn't sure why.

"I tell you what, you wanna sit on the back of the truck and watch the rest of the fire works with me?"

I looked around and realized we were alone but nodded anyway. I wasn't going to let Jimmy's words make me paranoid. "Sure. I've got some beers here too we can have."

He grinned. "Alright, let me help you up."

We got comfortable in the back, Josh threw a blanket down so we didn't have to sit directly on the bed of the truck, and we leaned against the side. The colors of the fireworks were blue, then green, and a few red and white ones, then blue again. I watched intently, trying to forget everything else. That was, until I felt
Josh's hand move up my leg.

I looked over at him sharply and he smiled. "Sorry, you don't want me to do that?"

"I don't really know you...so yeah... do you mind?"

He shook his head innocently. "No, I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Though the words came out rather convincingly, I wasn't that comfortable with him now. My heart started to pick up and I tried to scoot away without it seeming obvious.

"Hey, I won't bite. Not unless you'd like me to." He said.

"No thanks." I said giving a nervous laugh.

"Are you sure? It wouldn't even leave a mark."

"No, that's really quite alright."

"I can make it so you can hide it from your guy friends, they won't even know."

"No, really. It's fine. I don't want you to bite me."

Josh fell silent for a few seconds and I took this as my chance to leave but when I leaned forward to get out of the truck bed he reached out and grabbed my arm.

"Hey, let go of me!" I yelled but he tugged causing me to sit back down.

"You're such a tease. You made it sound like you wanted me to come back here with you. You even got in to a fight with your friend about coming with me. I can show you a good time, I promise you won't be disappointed."

"Thanks, but no. That's not really how to win over an argument, now let go of my arm."

"You're gonna like it. I bet you've never seen somebody like me before." He said and leaned forward smashing himself up against me, his lips on mine like some kind of wild man.

"Get off!" I yelled and tried to shove him but it wasn't working. He was too strong.

"Come on, just go with it. I'm not gonna hurt you if that's what you're worried about!" He said trying to mesh our lips together again.

"Get the hell off of me!" I yelled again. "I'm warning you, get off!"

"Come on, darlin'. It's just a little bit of fun."

Josh didn't see it coming because I was much quicker than even I had intended on being. After my episode with Jeremy, my ex who couldn't keep his hands to himself, I was pushed to learn defense techniques. Of course, that was all thanks to Matt and Jimmy who told me it was better to learn to do it myself than depend on someone else to come to my rescue. I was glad they saw it that way.

One of my hands managed to get free and I immediately went for the only spot I had a good shot at. His throat. Don't get me wrong,
I was a woman, and a woman in trouble, so my punches weren't that hard but I hit him as best I could which thankfully knocked the wind out of him. I then kneed him in the crotch and shoved him backwards as hard as I could.

"Fuck you!" I yelled at him and hopped over the side of the truck, shaking at the adrenaline flowing through my body.

I stormed back to where our things were to find Dillon who was pawing through a bag for another beer. When he looked up at me and saw the look on my face he rushed to my side.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

I nodded, though I'm sure it wasn't that convincing.

"Layla, who did it?" Dillon asked sternly.

"No one." I croaked.

"Who did it?" He repeated.

Before I could open my mouth again Jimmy appeared and even though he had a scowl on his face when he arrived, as soon as he saw my face it changed.

"Someone shook her up, man." Dillon said stepping aside.

"No, I'm fine. Really I'm okay. I just got a little bit spooked is all-"

"It was that guy, wasn't it? That Josh fuck."

"No, Jimmy it's okay, it's fine. I handled it."

"It was him though, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but I handled it."

"How?" Dillon asked.

"I punched him in the throat then kneed him in the junk." I said.
Dillon smiled. "Hell yeah!"

"Where is he?" Jimmy asked, he was far from impressed.

"I don't know..we were at the truck-"

"MY TRUCK?" Jimmy yelled, clearly now livid. "He wants to try to force fuck my best friend on MY fucking truck? Fuck no! Where is this fuckin' bitch?" Jimmy asked quickly leaving and heading toward where we were parked.

"Ugh, Dillon, go get Matt. Tell him Jimmy is pissed and it's not
good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Now go!" I said and ran after Jimmy who was already at the
top of the hill. "Jimmy! Stop!" I called after him.

"NO!" he yelled back.

"Come on! I handled it, it's fine. We can just get in the truck and go, it's not a big deal!"

He spun around and looked at him. "Not a big deal?" He spat.
"How the fuck is it not a big deal, Layla? I made you promise to fucking come here and you didn't want to. Then I warned you about him and instead of making you listen I just got mad and let you go off and do something I knew you shouldn't have. I'm not gonna let that little asshole think all he got was a slap in the throat and a punch in the balls!"

"Hey! It wasn't just a slap!"

"Yeah well, to him it probably was. I'm going to show him what it's like to feel some pain." Jimmy turned around and headed back to the truck again and to my horror Josh was stumbling toward us.

"That bitch is crazy!" Josh said pointing at me. "She punched me in the throat man! Said I was trying to feel her up and shit, I was
just-" But his sentence was cut short by a tattooed fist to the face. It didn't stop there.

Jimmy was punching him over and over in the face, then finally in the stomach and chest. I screamed at him to stop, it wasn't Josh's fault it was mine for leading him on, which only made him more angry at the man he was beating on.

"How dare you let her think this is her fault!" He screamed at him as he knocked him to the ground and jumped on him.

"Jimmy please!" I begged.

"JIMMY!" A loud voice broke through the yelling.

I hadn't realized there was a crowd around us.

Matt's body came in to view and he rushed over to where Jimmy was beating on Josh. "Jimmy stop, now!" Matt yelled and grabbed on to him, pulling him backwards.

"Let go of me, Matt! I'm going to beat the ever living fuck out of this kid!"

"Jimmy stop! Calm the fuck down and tell me what happened."

"He fucking tried forcing himself on her!"

"What?" Matt asked looking down at the kid on the ground.

"He tried touching her and shit!"

"Excuse me?" Matt let go of Jimmy for a second and looked down at Josh. "Did you fuckin' try touching my friend?

"No, man. She's fucking crazy. She was all over me."

"BULLSHIT!" Jimmy yelled and tried to go at him again but Dillon lunged and grabbed him.

"You callin' my friend a liar?" Charlie's voice was now loud enough for everyone to hear.

"NO!" Josh yelled.

"Well, this is how I see it. I don't know you, and I know her. She would never lie to me about that kind of thing because she knows how I feel about people who do that shit. I trust her and believe what she says, and I don't trust you. I don't believe you. So you have one more chance to tell us the truth. Did you fuckin' try forcin' yourself on her?" Charlie asked calmly.

"Guys, I wanna go home. Let's just go. Come on. Please. Let's go." I begged.

"I want him to answer me first." Charlie said.

Josh pushed himself up to a standing position and looked at all of us, including everyone standing around. He then looked directly at
Jimmy and smiled. "Fuck you and that crazy bitch."

The next thing I really remember was the sound of someone yelling that cops were on their way and everyone scattered to get in their vehicles. I didn't know what Josh looked like after the fight because Matt went up against him while the others got me in the truck.

"I'm never making you go to another party as long as we live." Jimmy said to me quietly in the backseat. He had his arms around me like a protective shield.

"It's okay, Jim. I'm not fragile." I said with a slight smile on my face.

"I don't care. I'm never letting that shit happen to you again. I promise." He said. I could feel his heartbeat change in his chest and when I looked up there was his pinky stuck out. I smiled and took it with mine.