“What do you think, Beast? Red sweater dress or T-shirt and jeans,” I ask, holding the items up for Beast to look at. He doesn’t even lift his head. His big body is lying across my bed with his head on his paws.
“You’re right. The dress is too much.” I take off my boots, dress, and leggings. I put on my tight, straight leg, dark blue jeans with holes all over them.
With my jeans on, I decide to go casual and pull out my converse sneakers that are gold with glitter. I put on a long sleeve, scoop neck, white T-shirt and a black, zip front hoodie.
“Now, hair up or down?” I ask Beast, who still hasn’t moved.
“Okay, I agree. I'm just going to leave it down,” I tell him, putting on some lip gloss. I look at the clock and I'm running late. Once out the door and in my car, my nerves start to get the better of me.
“Calm down, calm down, calm down,” I chant out loud to myself. It’s not helping so I turn on music and start singing along. Okay, not singing, I’m rapping. I love listening to rap music. Yes, some of the stuff they say is a little, um, questionable, but it makes me happy.
So, with music thumping and me rapping, I pull up in front of Stumble In. There are a lot of cars parked out front. It seems this is the place to be on a Thursday night. I check my face in the rearview mirror and add more lip gloss. I get out and start walking towards the building. My hands start to sweat and I feel slightly sick.
Once I open the door, all thoughts leave my head. Asher is sitting at a table with three other guys who all look similar to him. The thing that gives me pause is the girl standing next to him. She is so close that her giant boobs are squishing out of her white tank top. I can also see that she’s wearing a red bra. I mean, really. Who does that? I want to puke or run away but all I can do is stare at him. Then, she bends her head to the side with her blonde hair hiding what she’s whispering into his ear.
“Hi.” I jump at the sound and turn my head. “You must be new. I'm Nick.” The guy standing next to me says and I take a step towards him so I'm not blocking the door. He’s very cute in that boy next door kind of way. He’s all dirty blond hair and blue eyes. He’s wearing a button-up shirt that’s perfectly pressed and khakis. He’s also the only guy that I’ve met here that wasn’t wearing jeans.
“Um, yeah. Hi, I'm November,” I say, putting my hand out. That’s when I'm pulled by my waist. I scream because I'm startled then I look up. Asher is standing behind me, holding me against him.
“Not happening, baby,” he whispers in my ear. I can’t help the shiver that slides down my spine.
“What?” I ask, completely confused.
“Later, Nick,” Asher growls and I realize what he’s doing.
Heck no! I walked in and he has a girl practically sitting on his lap but I can’t even introduce myself to Nick. I pull myself away, or try to because his arm just gets tighter. Screw it. I stick out my hand in Nick’s direction. “Hi, Nick. I'm November. It was nice to meet you but I just realized that I forgot to wash my hair and need to go home and do that. So, maybe I’ll see you around?” I tell him.
“Ugh, yeah sure,” he says, looking between me and Asher while running his hand down the back of his neck. With that, I pull myself out of Asher’s grasp and walk out the door that I walked through less than three minutes ago.
“Hey, what the f**k? Slowdown.”
I spin around, almost running into him. I’m so pissed that I can feel my blood heating. “Look here, buddy,” I yell while poking his chest. “I don’t know what your problem is but you just embarrassed me. God!” I shout. “Why the hell did I even come?”
“He was going to hit on you and that’s not happening, especially not right in front of my face.”
“Really, you big jerk. I'm shocked that you noticed because you had big boobed Barbie basically sitting on your lap when I walked in.” I poke him in the chest again. “And, for your information, all Nick was going to do was shake my hand.”
“Big boobed Barbie?” He laughs and I want to kick him. “Are you jealous?” he asks, smirking.
“I'm not jealous. I'm embarrassed and pissed off.” Even though I was jealous, there is no way I would tell him that. It seems to me that he probably already had trouble walking into buildings with the size of his big fat head.
“Okay, I’ll try not to embarrass you anymore. Now, will you please come inside with me?” he asks, giving me puppy dog eyes. “My brothers are here but they have to leave in a couple hours and we want to get a few games of pool in before that.”
I really must have lost a lot of brain cells when I was attacked because all I can say is, “Fine.” I start walking back toward the bar with him when he puts his arm around me. “God, I must be crazy,” I say under my breath.
“Just so you know, you look beautiful tonight,” he says in my ear. “But if any motherfucker touches you, I will not be happy.”
“Can you please try not to be a jerk and piss me off for the next hour?” I ask, looking up at him.
“I’ll try,” he says, bringing me closer to his body. I try to pull away but he just holds me even tighter. So, I do what any woman does when she doesn’t get her way. I cross my arms over my chest to let him know that I'm in no way cooperating. I hear him chuckle. I look up and glare at him but all it does is make him smile bigger. Getting inside, we walk up to the table he was sitting at earlier. The girl is gone but the other three guys are still sitting there. And they are all gorgeous.