The hotel was even more stupendous and ridiculous than we had expected. Our parents really did go all out: it was a New York-themed hotel, with a roller coaster and a replica Statue of Liberty, as well as a miniature Central Park and even a little model of Greenwich Village. The girls and I joked that we were really getting to see two cities for the price of one!
It was our third morning in Las Vegas, and we still had five luxurious days of lounging, gambling, drinking, and eating at the all-inclusive buffet. Becky had managed to convince us to spend one night outside the city, exploring the mountains that flocked the city, but the rest of our days were full of a whole lot of nothing, which was exactly what we wanted. After all, when you don't have anything planned, you can really be up for anything.
"Umm … seriously, Alicia?" I asked, eyebrows cocked. Okay, maybe Alicia DID go overboard, I thought to myself. She looked back at me, her green eyes puzzled.
"You so totally did. Last night. Don't you remember? On the roof?" Becky said, grinning from ear to ear. Alicia blushed bright red, bringing her hand up to her mouth.
"Oh my God! You guys, I totally forgot! Oh my god! I don't even remember what it was like! Oh, well, you know, that doesn't count, then," she said, taking a long sip of her drink and waving her hand in the air dismissively.
"What? What do you mean it doesn't count? You did it. You totally smoked weed last night," I said with a snicker.
"Well, did I seem like I got high? Was I acting weird?" Alicia asked, looking somewhat embarrassed now that we were calling her out.
"No, actually. I remember pretty well – you didn't seem different at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure you went on a little rant to those guys about how it must have been fake … " Becky said thoughtfully, looking into her own drink as though it was a crystal ball telling her about the past.
"Oh, those guys … I nearly forgot all about them … " Alicia said, sighing. Of the three of us, Alicia had the most experience with guys, and she was also the most likely to ditch the rest of us for a date. We loved her for it, though, because she never got bothered when we teased her about her boy-crazy ways.
Becky, on the other hand, liked to have steady boyfriends, and had dated two guys throughout all of high school: one in freshman and sophomore year, one in junior and senior year. Scott, who was her current boyfriend, would be going to Washington for college in the fall, and they'd decided to break up right before summer vacation so that neither would feel pressured into a long-distance relationship. That was a very Becky sort of thing to do: play it safe. She was the one we all believed would get married and have kids before the rest of us.
Me? I guess I was kind of a wild card. That's a lie; I was really more like a joker, because I wasn't even in the game. I'd dated guys, had a few boyfriends from time to time, but I wasn't really about the whole relationship thing. It seemed dumb to me, to date someone in high school when you knew everyone was just going to wind up leaving sooner rather than later. That wasn't supposed to sound so depressing, it just seemed to be the truth.
Besides, I wasn't so much like other girls, who saw a hot guy and got all flustered about it. I thought guys were cute, or handsome, or whatever, but I wasn't really the sort of girl who spent homeroom doodling the class cutie's name into her spiral-bound notebook, you know? The few times I'd allowed a boy to go farther than just kissing, it wasn't anything worth writing home about, and I usually didn't let them do it again. I wasn't prudish, more like selfish. If it wasn't going to do anything for me, why should I bother letting some guy paw at me?
So we all had our own missions, and they were pretty clear-cut reflections of ourselves. Alicia, flighty and easily amused, looking for a fun drug to experiment with just like she experimented with different cute boys. Becky, always on the straight and narrow and never willing to take a chance, wanted to take a risk and possibly lose it all. Me, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and thought it would be a lot easier to enjoy myself with someone that I knew I didn't have to impress, or even ever see again.
As boys – and full-grown men – passed by the three of us, we were all well aware of the looks they were giving us behind their sunglasses. Some of them weren't even trying to hide behind sunglasses, and others actually drew attention to themselves by physically lifting their sunglasses. I couldn't blame any of them: we were three young, gorgeous, healthy young women in bikinis. Plus, we were kind of like the Powerpuff Girls: orderly, raven-haired Becky, feisty and carrot-topped Alicia, blonde, baby-faced me.
I'd always thought of myself as kind of the middle ground between Becky and Alicia. I was literally in the middle if we lined up in height order, with Becky towering over both of us and Alicia only coming up to my shoulders. Becky is thin as a rail, Alicia is voluptuous, and I'm somewhere in between, with a healthy jiggle in my hips and belly and nice, round breasts that are just enough to cup.
So, at any rate, you can imagine the reaction we usually got when we went out together: something for everyone! Of course, Alicia usually ended up with most of the attention, because she was flirty and sharp-witted and was actually eager to talk to different guys, whereas Becky always had a boyfriend and I never really cared.
4
I was holding the blue fishbowl in one hand, trying to corral Alicia with the other. Like always, Alicia was way ahead of Becky and I in terms of drinking: she was almost totally wasted, but thankfully she was a pretty harmless drunk. Kind of loud, and definitely prone to running away, but overall very easy to manage and cute enough to get away with plenty of shenanigans.
I'd just bought one of the hotel bar's signature fishbowl drinks, a mysterious-smelling drink of many flavors, tinted a brilliant, nearly glorious, blue. There were two crazy, colorful, swirly straws (one for me, one for Becky: Alicia was demoted to water for the next hour).
"Oh my God, Samantha, just like, let me dance!" Alicia said, way too loudly, right in my ear.
"Not until you get some food in you," I said, trying to direct her to the table where Becky was waiting with a plate of French fries.
As I tried to pull Alicia next to me, she veered towards the crowded dancefloor, and the heavy drink wobbled in my hand. It was like everything suddenly moved in slow motion: I could feel Alicia's weight pulling me one way, the gravitational force of the drink pulling me the other way, my grip on both loosening, and then finally a last-ditch effort to keep hold of both of them that ended in me losing control of both.
I decided the drink was a lost cause, and turned towards Alicia, grabbing her by the elbow as she stumbled away from me. I closed my eyes, waiting for the telltale crash of the fishbowl against the floor, preparing myself for embarrassment.
When I never heard the crashing, I looked back to where the drink should have fallen. Alicia bumped back into me, causing me to stumble over slightly. To be honest, though, it wasn't just Alicia's drunken antics that caused me to stumble: it was the sudden vision I had of a Norse god holding my bright blue fishbowl drink, a devilish smile in his eyes.
"Looks like you've got your work cut out for you with this one," said the tall, blonde, blue-eyed, Thor-like man as he held my drink out to me. "I hope that second straw isn't for your friend here?"
"Oh, no, she's on a water diet for the next hour," I said, blushing bright red. Jesus Christ, this guy's handsome, I thought to myself as I grabbed the fishbowl. "The second straw is for my other friend."
"Oh, okay," said the stranger. He eyed me up and down, taking in my blue party dress and done-up hair, before giving me another smirk and turning.
"Wait," I said, trying to get his attention before he disappeared into the crowd. For the first time in my life, I'd stumbled upon a man who actually stopped me in my tracks with his good looks, and I wasn't about to let this opportunity get away. After all, my objective during the trip was to kiss a random stranger, and I thought I'd found the random stranger for me. "Can you help me with her? She's a handful and … and I'm worried what'll happen if you're not around to catch my drink next time."
I prayed that what I'd said didn't sound desperate or anxious, but cool and flirty, like I intended. The stranger turned to me, a glint of humor in his eyes.
"Should I be in charge of the drink, or the girl?" he asked, giving me a lopsided grin. I felt myself blushing under his gaze. I'd been so enamored with his boyish but burly good looks that I hadn't actually looked at the rest of him; as my eyes glanced over his long, tall body, my heart sped up.