The Bad Boys of Summer Anthology(49)

I decided that I needed a little retail therapy to help me get out of my funk over my parents, not to mention my clothing options were still limited with what I had bought the previous weekend. Evie had a headache and wanted to take a nap before we went out that evening, but she let me take her car to the mall. Shopping by myself was a new concept for me; my mom or Evie had always accompanied me before. I felt a little lonely not having someone with me and I missed Evie’s honest assessment of clothes I tried on, but I knew that one thing I really needed to work on was learning how to make choices for myself, no matter how big or small. Choosing clothes that I wanted to wear seemed like a harmless place to practice my decision making skills. A few hours later I headed back to the apartment with several bags in hand and a pleased smile on my face, feeling confident that I had excelled at my self-assigned task.

Evie was in the shower when I got back to our place so I decided to make us a quick snack before getting ready. Once I heard the water turn off, I called out to her, “Hey Eve, I’m back! Didn’t want to scare you!”

“Hey Sam! Did you find anything good?” she yelled back.

Instead of continuing the conversation through the walls, I walked into her room. “Yeah, I found a few things. I can’t wait to show you, I hope you approve,” I said. “It was no fun without you there though! How’s your head anyways?” I asked concerned.

“I feel better. I don’t know what happened, I just had this awful pain behind my right eye and then this nagging headache developed. Maybe I spent too much time looking at my computer screen last night and this morning, who knows? The aspirin and nap took care of it and I am as good as new now,” she smiled a bit hesitantly.

“Okay, if you’re sure… we don’t have to go tonight if you aren’t feeling up to it,” I offered.

“Don’t be silly, Scarlett. I’m fine. It was a headache and it’s gone, now drop it,” Evie warned and turned to her closet. “What are you wearing tonight?” she asked changing the subject.

I knew that the conversation was over, but there was still something that didn’t feel right. Evie had experienced several headaches in the last few months which was odd for her, she never was one to feel bad or get sick. Her parents had been concerned as well, but much like she just did to me, she assured them that it wasn’t anything serious and would resume to her usual cheerful self. I promised myself to insist she see a doctor if it happened again.

“I bought a new dress today that I want you to see. What about you?”

“I’m not sure yet…” Evie continued to sort through her options hanging in the closet. “But you better get moving, we need to leave here in like an hour!”

“An hour? Why so soon?” I was confused. I looked at the clock and confirmed that it was only 6:30. Last Saturday we didn’t leave until close to 9:00.

“Didn’t I tell you last night? Jess wants to go grab dinner at this new restaurant beforehand. We are supposed to meet them around 8:00.” She walked out of her closet still in just her bra and panties and holding two different sundresses. “Which one? The pink and yellow one with a low cut neckline that whispers ‘Please fuck me’ or the red and black striped one with a shorter skirt that screams ‘Fuck me now!’”

“Let’s go with the whispers and the please for tonight. We are still on preppy college boy duty, right? I sure hope so since I’m meeting Dylan there. Plus we don’t want your inner Dominatrix scaring them away,” I snorted. “We’ll save the other for the night we are hunting deviant, misunderstood rocker boys.”

“Then we need to do that soon,” she retorted with a playful frown. “Because I look hot in this dress.” She held the red and black one up across her body while staring at her image in the mirror. “Hmmpph… I guess you’re right. It may be a bit much for tonight.” And she threw it back into the closet.

Moments later I jumped in my own shower to soap, shampoo, and shave. After I carefully applied my makeup and styled my hair in two long braids, I nodded an approval at my image in the mirror. Moving to my closet, I chose a white eyelet matching bra and thong set. I knew that I was a long way from being ready for Dylan to see me in my panties, but just knowing what I had on under my clothes made me feel sexier and more confident. My dress was a gauzy white sundress with a sweetheart neckline and a hem that fell mid-thigh. Again, I wore my boots and accessorized with a long turquoise necklace that hung low on my chest. A few minutes, and one last look in the mirror later, we were headed out the door.





Chapter 8

We weren’t in the car five minutes when Evie approached the subject I knew she had been anxious to discuss all day, the conversation I had dreaded.

“So what are you going to do about Ash tonight?” she asked with a little too much sweetness in her voice.

“What do you mean exactly?” I asked, playing dumb with the same over-the-top sugary tone. She glared at me warning me that she was serious. I sighed loudly and slumped my shoulders forward.

“Oh, Evie, I don’t know.” I confessed. “I’m just going to act like nothing happened, I guess. What else am I supposed to do?”

“How do you feel about him? You know, now that you’ve had a week to process everything that happened and now that you’ve been talking to Dylan more and more.”

“Confused. I feel completely confused about the whole thing. I mean, like I told you before, there is this intense attraction that I feel towards Ash. It’s not just physical, its… more. I just don’t know how to describe it. But obviously, it’s not just me that he has that effect on, girls throw themselves at him all the time, and from the way Jess talks it’s always been that way. I’m just one of many gullible girls that easily fell victim to his charm. I’m not silly enough to think I’m anything special to him, despite what he says.”

Neither of us said anything for a few moments. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince Evie or myself that it really wasn’t a big deal to me… that he wasn’t a big deal to me. There really was no reason he should be. I had literally spent less than twenty four hours with the guy, I hardly knew anything about him, and the things I did know were like flashing neon signs telling me to stay away. But not a day had passed during the week that he didn’t creep into my thoughts at some point. I saw those incredible greenish-blue eyes staring into me, I heard his voice whispering in my ear, felt his breath on the back of my neck. It almost seemed the harder I tried to stop thinking about him, the more I did. I was still curious about the reason for the text, but doubted that I would mention it to him unless he brought it up.

“I think you should just have fun, Scarlett.” Evie said, interrupting yet another daydream I was having about Ash. “If there truly is some undeniable attraction between the two of you, then ya’ll will end up together with a magical, fairy-tale, happily-ever-after. But you know as well as I do that it takes a bunch of other bullshit in between to get that point - a bunch of unnecessary angst, some preventable misunderstandings, and you both need to make some ill-advised and senseless decisions. So right now, I think you should just let everything happen and stop over thinking all of it… I know that’s easier said than done.” She stopped and gave me a heartening smile. “You know I just want what’s best for you, Sam. And right now, Ash is right in that you need to experience a lot more of what life has to offer. Plus, who else is going to help me sample all of the book boyfriends?”

I smiled back at her, so incredibly thankful that I had such an amazing friend. She always knew the right thing to say to me to both comfort me and lead me in the right direction. “You’re right Evie. I’m going to try my best to just take that night for what it was, which when I think about it now, really wasn’t much of anything.” I thought about what I had just said and hoped that I would be strong enough to resist Ashton Walker.

I changed the subject to improve the mood before our night out began. “Speaking of our book boyfriends and the contest, you are participating in the competition tonight aren’t you? I don’t like pity wins.”

“Absolutely. Last week was just a warm-up round… just letting you get your feet a little wet.”

“My feet weren’t the only thing getting wet.” I joked in a mock sultry voice. “No, seriously,” I continued. “So tonight we are doing preppy college boy again since I kind of don’t have a choice with Dylan being there and all, but what’s next and when?”

“Hmmm… I haven’t thought about it really. I’ll start working on it though.” Evie looked downright giddy thinking about our next adventure and we hadn’t even started on tonight’s.

We sat in comfortable silence until we got to the restaurant. I was in such a good mood and was suddenly really looking forward to the night ahead. After finally finding a parking place in what seemed to be the next zip code, we hoofed across the parking lot to the front doors. People were loitering outside, some sitting on benches while others were smoking cigarettes. I hoped the wait for a table wouldn’t be too long, the place looked packed and I was starving.