Crossing (8 page)

My hands curl into fists. “No, I had a reputation for being the girl that hung out with the gay kid that fucking killed himself.”

Liam’s eyes go sad again. “Well, don’t do it anymore. You deserve someone who wants you every time you walk in the room.”

I don’t have a witty comeback for that. It’s the nicest thing any guy has ever said to me.

Okay, maybe I do have one. “I’m going to step outside and then come back in. You let me know if you think anyone in this drag bar wants me.”

“I cou--”

“And this one,” the server says, “is from the guy over by the stage.” She sets down a single Corona.

WHAT was he going to say? I could? I could what? Want me? No. He could let me know. Duh.

“Hey, Andrea,” Liam says to the waitress. “If anyone else wants to buy me a drink, tell them I respectfully decline. I’m here with my friend and they’re being rude. Oh, and while you’re at it, Dani needs a fresh beer and we’ll each have two more shots of tequila. Thanks.”

I smile at him and decide to change the subject before things get any more awkward and I start getting weird ideas in my head about Liam liking me. “So, I guess you’ll start working on
Townsend House
next week, huh?”

He downs his nearly finished beer and pushes the new one off to the side. “The read-through is Tuesday night, which I’ll miss ’cause I’ll be working here, but we’re not going to start pulling costumes until Thursday night.”

“How often do you work?”

“I bar back Monday and Tuesday and tutor high school kids in Spanish Thursday and Sunday afternoon.” He sets his elbows on the table and puts his face in his hands, rubbing his palms over his cheeks. “What about you? I haven’t heard you mention work.”

I run my fingers up and down the condensation on my empty beer bottle. “I have a deal with my parents. They pay my tuition, and I don’t work during the school year. I lived in the dorms last year, which they paid for too. But I waitressed all through high school and last summer and saved every penny, so I had a good chunk of change sitting in my bank account waiting for me when Elizabeth and I decided to get a place.”

“That’s one hell of a deal.” He taps his fingers along his jaw line. “I’m going to be paying off student loans until I’m fifty.”

“I know. I’m totally lucky.” God, I wish this beer had a label to pull off! “I think my parents are just grateful I didn’t develop a meth habit after what I went through senior year.”

“There you go again, using your friend’s death for your own personal gain.” He winks at me.

I sigh. “I know.” For once, thinking about Chase brings a smile to my face. “He would’ve appreciated that comment. He was scathing in the best way.”

Liam smiles back at me. “I can tell you miss him.” His eyebrows draw together. “So, was it like having a boyfriend, but without the sex, the whole hag thing you had going on? I always wondered what the dynamic was in those relationships.”

I shrug. “I guess. We were best friends. We were supposed to go to college together and have dorm rooms across the hall from each other. Later we were going to get an apartment. I was going to write poetry and bake and he was going to compose symphonies and bring home hot bisexual boys for me to make out with.” Deep breaths, girl. “We had plans and stupid dreams, just like any other couple.”

The furrow between Liam’s brows grows deeper. “I’m really sorry he left you behind.”

My eyes threaten to tear up. I don’t know how Liam gets me to talk about things I don’t even talk about with Elizabeth.

Andrea comes back with my beer and our shots, plonking them down on the table. “Put it on your tab, Liam?”

He nods. “That’d be fine, thanks.”

“I will definitely get the next round,” I say.

“And I will let
you
buy me a drink.”

We hold up our shot glasses.

Liam bows his head to me. “To not being addicted to meth.”

Lick, shoot, suck.

“To…hey I think the DJ is going to start spinning.”

Liam lifts his second glass and hands me mine. “To you dancing and me watching you dance because theeeres no way in hell you’re getting me to dance. So don’t even ask, or look at me that way like getting me to dance is your ultimate challenge. Yes I know I should’ve not said anything and you might have left me alone.”

Lick, shoot, suck.

“Nah,” I say, feeling the liquor loosening up my body. “You were always gonna have to dance with me.”

X

Liam is a horrible dancer. Closed eyes, white man’s overbite, the whole shebang. But, I will give him bonus points for knowing that and doing it anyway. I try not to think about what this means for his general rhythmic ability in other pursuits.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m wanting, more than ever, to be the someone else he puts his body part in, even if he does look to be having a fit of some kind at this moment.

The redhead makes her way across the dance floor toward us. She stops next to me and narrows her eyes then smiles like…like a bitch. My mind is a little tequila foggy.

“As you can see,” I shout so she can hear me over the music. “He can’t dance. It’s best if you move along and let the poor boy be.”

She slides in between us and puts her hands on his hips, tossing back at me, “Maybe he just needs a better partner.”

I wait for Liam to be offended on my behalf again, but he puts his hands on her and pulls her closer to him.

Ouch.

I suddenly need to put my lipstick on so I can stop feeling so damn invisible. I run to our table and grab my backpack and then head to the bathrooms at the back of the club.

I catch a glance of myself in the mirrored hallway. I’m a little sweaty, but I still look good, for me. Down the hall behind a curtain I hear the drag queens getting ready for their show. They’ll dance with me.

The door to one of the two unisex bathrooms opens up and the guy that bought Liam a drink comes out of it. He meets my eyes and lets the door drop just as I’m about to grab it from him.

“Thanks, fucker,” I say to the back of his head. He flips me off.

I pee and then really lay the lipstick on, convinced that constant reapplication might have made my night go better. I stick my hand up my shirt and paper towel off my armpits, sniffing myself. I smell like tequila. Rightly so.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I square my shoulders and thrust my chest out. “It’s okay if he goes home with the skank, Dani. You’ll live.”

I turn and walk out the door to find Liam waiting for me.

“I thought I was dancing with you,” he says, grabbing my arm as I try to walk by.

“Sure you did.”

“I really did!” He looks at my mouth and licks his lips. “You were supposed to keep me from embarrassing myself. I open my eyes expecting to see you, and I’m practically nose to nose with the redheaded skank.”

Hooooooold up! “Why were you nose to nose if you thought it was me?”

His gaze falls to my lips again. Liam takes a step forward, his hand still on my arm. He brings his other hand up and cups my face, tilting my mouth to his. He kisses me lightly and then pulls his face back. I leave my face in the same damn place, hoping he gets the signal.

He does. This time he kisses me properly, harder, taking his time, tugging at my lips with his. Liam’s grip on my arm lessens and he moves his arm around my waist, pressing me to him.

A little moan escapes me, and his mouth smiles against mine. I lean my head back and look up at him. “I’ve lipsticked you real good.”

I raise my hand to rub it off his mouth, but he turns his head to the mirror and checks himself out. He brings his hand up to his lips and instead of wiping it off, he uses the pad of his ring finger to even the lipstick out.

Of course Perfect Red would look more perfect on him than me. “I’ve got some eyeliner in my backpack if you want me to do your eyes too,” I joke.

He raises his eyebrows at me in the mirror and then tilts his head to the side.

Okay, he’s drunk, but if he wants some guyliner, who am I to judge? I shrug my backpack forward and open it, taking my make-up bag out and choosing a kohl black pencil. “Turn your face back to me and look up.”

He does as I ask, and I quickly and expertly line his right eye. The instant I pull the pencil away, he’s looking at himself in the mirror. I lean into him in an attempt to get his attention. He faces me again and looks up without a word. I do his left eye.

I step back to get a better view, but he pulls me closer again. There’s a noticeable difference below the belt.
Noticeable.

He glances at himself in the mirror again and then puts his mouth on mine, kissing me slowly, teasing my tongue with his. His hands move to my ass and he grabs it, which is good because I’m about to melt into a puddle of goo onto the nasty black and white tiled floor.

Someone walks by us and says, “Get a room,” on his way into the bathroom.

Liam raises his eyebrows at me again. “Whaddya say?”

“To what?” More PDA outside of the RUMORS restrooms? Mascara? Blowjobs in the alley?

He kisses me quickly. “To not a one night stand?”

“Yes.” Like I had to think about that?

“I’m hoping you live closer than I do,” he breathes, “because it’s going to be a hell of a long bus ride to my place.”

“I live three blocks from here,” I say, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. “How do you wanna do this?”

“Well,” he whispers into my ear, “I thought I’d get you naked and then insert tab P into slot V, but I’m open to other ideas.”

I take a step back and gently slap him on the chest. “No, I mean, do you want to go out first and I’ll count to ten or whatever and then meet you outside?”

He gasps, clutches his chest like I’ve wounded him, and then grabs my hand and pulls me out into the club over to our table. He takes my coat from the back of my chair and helps me into it.

“Are you wearing make-up?” redheaded skank snorts from the edge of the dance floor. I notice she’s dancing alone.

“Let’s get out of here,” he mouths, grabbing me by my coat lapels and planting his lips on mine in front of EVERY. FREAKIN.’ BODY.

Strangely enough, I’m not panicking. Probably because I’m not entirely sure this isn’t a super crazy tequila-fueled dream and I’m really passed out on the bathroom floor at RUMORS.

Liam’s holding my hand, hasn’t stopped holding my hand since we left.

“I might not be very good,” I say, looking at him sidelong.

He squeezes my hand. “You kiss like you are. I’m not worried.”

A block into the walk to my house I ask, “Sure you still want to hit this?”

“Yup.”

Two blocks into the walk I say, “Sure you still want to jump my bones?”

“Yup.”

One block away from my house I say, “Do you have any condoms?”

He stops and I kid you not, he growls. “Nope. Damn it!”

I shrug. “It’s okay, I’ve got an IUD. No alien babies will be made.”

Liam pulls me into a hug. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t have sex without protection.”

I bite down on the inside of my lip. So close! Why did I have to be so stupid and ask about condoms? I could have waited until I had him naked and begging for it, unable to make healthy choices like most guys.

“What about your roommate, would she have some?” he asks, his voice on edge.

I shake my head. “No, but the girls next door will.” I take a step back and pretend to wipe my brow. “Phew. I thought I was going to miss out on the only non-self administered orgasm I was going to get all year.”

“I don’t know,” he grins, “I might not be very good.”

“Yeah,” I drawl, clicking my tongue. “You almost made me come during a backrub yesterday. It’s not going to take much. I’m not worried.”

I pull him along the longest block of my life and then run up Kristin and Cam’s front steps. Not bothering to knock, I barge through the front door. The weed smoke is thick and Xanadu is playing on the TV. “I need some condoms,” I announce, before noticing that people other than Kris and Cam are in the room.

Some douche stoner dude looks me up and down. “Why do
you
need condoms?”

“Because I’m going to nail the hell out of her, jerkoff,” Liam says, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist.

“Oh, Happy Day,” Cam says, getting up out of her papasan chair. “How many?”

“One?” I say.

“Four,” Liam says at the same time.

Kristin chokes on her hit. “Four-or-or?”

Douche stoner dude feels the need to give more color commentary. “Does anyone else think it’s weird we’re all sitting around talking about this guy with make-up on banging this chubby girl?”

Cam comes back down the hall from her room and hands me four foil wrapped packages. “Use them all, I have more.”

Liam and I back out of the house and close the door.

“You live on the other side?” he asks.

“Uh huh. I have the room upstairs.” I’m suddenly nervous.

He leans in and kisses my neck just below my ear. “Lead the way.”

X

Elizabeth isn’t home, and I can’t recall where she was going to be, but I’m glad to have the house to myself. Hopefully, Liam will be able to sneak away without my roommate giving him the stink eye.

I take off my coat and drop it and my backpack onto the chair by the door. Looking at the condoms in my hand, I laugh. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but four seems a bit adventurous considering we’ve both had a lot to drink.”

Liam takes the condoms from my hand and stuffs them into his jeans pockets. Grabbing me by my hips, he swings me around and presses me against the front door. “Shut up.” His mouth captures mine as his hands slide down the outside of my thighs. “Oh, fuck me, are you wearing garters?” he breathes.

“I am,” I say, hoping he’ll shut me up again.

Instead, he gets down on his knees in front of me and lifts up my right foot, slipping my shoe off. He does the same with the left.

I have no idea what’s going on, so I just stand there frozen, contemplating what I’m going to do if it turns out he has a foot fetish and wants to suck my toes.

Let him. Duh.

Slowly, Liam inches his fingers up the front of my legs, bunching up my skirt as he goes. When the material is above my garters, he holds the hem with one hand and brings my hand over, tucking the fabric into my fingers. Looking up at me, he moves his face closer to my inner thighs, trailing kisses across the top of my leg to the clip on my garter. While he repositions his mouth on my other leg, he unhooks my right garter, front and back with one hand. The left side gets the same treatment.