ROYAL ROCK(77)

I wasn’t exactly hurt that they got married without saying anything to me, but I was a little annoyed. This was wife number three for him, and so I guessed that he was probably pretty sick of the big weddings. Still, it would have been nice to at least have been invited, or maybe just deemed worthy enough to be told ahead of time.

But no, that was typical of Jonathan Forester. He did whatever the hell he wanted without a care in the world. Meanwhile, he expected perfection from his only daughter.

“Is she angry?” one of the guys called out, looking at Lydie.

“No. She just has a resting bitch face.”

“I do not!”

“You totally do, Claire.”

I frowned and took another sip of my drink. This was typical of her, taking the side of some random guys, busting on me all night, until eventually she decided to ditch them and leave with me. She wasn’t usually like this, just basically when she got too drunk. And with my dad’s people providing all the drinks we could want, she was getting plenty drunk.

“Sorry about them,” Tommy said, sitting too close to me on the booth couch. “He can be very obnoxious sometimes.”

I smiled at him. At least he was trying to be nice, and I really shouldn’t be such a jerk to him. Who knows, maybe he would turn out to be a decent guy, someone worth finally giving my V-card to.

That was my biggest shame in life. I was a virgin at twenty-one, basically a social pariah. Well, I would be if anyone knew. I’d had some boyfriends in the past, and everyone just assumed we had slept together, and I never bothered correcting them. The truth was, every time I finally got close to wanting to have sex, they’d leave me, calling me frigid or crazy.

Which was classic asshole guy behavior. They couldn’t get what they wanted right when they wanted it, and instead of working for it or just taking it like a real man, they acted like prissy little babies. I was better off in the long run and I knew it.

But still, I felt like such a weirdo. As far as I knew, I was the only one of my friends that hadn’t had sex yet, and it was like a badge of shame. Sex shouldn’t have been so important, or at least it didn’t seem like such a huge deal to me, and yet I thought about it all the time. I didn’t want to be a virgin, but I also had enough respect for myself that I wasn’t going to give it away to the first horny idiot I saw.

Lydie said I just hadn’t met the right guy to really ignite my panties. And maybe she was right. Maybe I just needed to get it over with.

“Come on, have a shot with us,” Tommy said, smiling like a sleazeball. I couldn’t help but mentally want to gag every time he spoke.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I have to be up pretty early tomorrow.”

“Have some fun, Claire!” Lydie called out, handing me a shot glass.

I frowned at it. “Are you sure? You know my dad wants me up to meet my new stepmom and stepbrother.”

“I’ve never been so sure before in my whole life.”

“I don’t think so. I shouldn’t get this wasted.”

I put the shot glass down on the table.

“Oh come on, Claire. For once don’t be such a virgin.”

I gaped at her, totally shocked. The two guys laughed and took their shot, not really noticing what had just gone down. Lydie stopped short, her whole face falling, realizing what she had just said to me.

“Shit, Claire,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know what you meant.” I stood up and slipped past Tommy, inwardly praying he didn’t touch my ass. Fortunately, he was too busy checking his brand new iPhone to even notice it right in his face.

“Claire, come on. I’m sorry,” she called after me.

I walked away quickly, anger rising in my chest. Of everyone, Lydie knew how I felt about being a virgin. She knew I was embarrassed about it, like it was some disease or something. She had never thrown it in my face like that before or used it against me. It was worse that she did it in front of some stupid guys over a stupid shot, all because she wanted me to party like she did.

Well, I wasn’t Lydie, but I could still party. I headed over to the bar, winding my way through the crowd, and stood toward the end. The place was packed with people, from normal preppy dudes to your classic Jersey Shore meatheads. We were all the way down in the Outer Banks, and yet if there was a beach, there would be plenty of Guidos and Guidettes, or whatever they were calling themselves.

I watched patiently as the totally overworked bartender filled drinks as fast as he could. For some reason there was only one guy back there making drinks, and he wasn’t even glancing my way.

I stood there for something like ten minutes. I was nearly ready to give up. All of my thunder was slowly subsiding and I was more tired than mad. Frankly, I didn’t really want another drink and was pretty much ready to go home. I was all filled with anger and indignation at first, but the longer I stood there, the more deflated I felt. I had planned on finding a guy and showing Lydie what kind of virgin I was, but that plan was just a stupid fantasy.