SIX DAYS (7 page)

Dale told me that he and Kasey knew each other because Kasey’s dad had defended him on a possession charge a couple years earlier. He’d somehow managed to turn a felony possession into a misdemeanor with two months of community service. “The man is a fucking magician,” Dale proclaimed.

The seven of us had a few more drinks, and talked and laughed until after two in the morning. Then Frederick drove us to Kasey’s house. His parents were out of town—with other people from what I’d overheard.

Tosh’s mom thought she was at
Hazel’s. She said that when she stays away from home the condition is that Frederick has to drive her and stay put. Vita just had no idea that Frederick did whatever Tosh asked and kept his mouth shut about it. Why that was, I had no idea. My mom thought I was at Tosh’s and apparently Chase and Luke were like Hazel and didn’t have to answer to anyone.

I wasn’t fazed by the giant houses and all the expensive things inside them anymore. I’d been in several over the past few days and was now a bit immune to it. Kasey’s house was no exception. He said it had recently been renovated, that his mom was so pissed after finding out about his dad and Candy that she redid the entire main floor.
It looked amazing, but must have cost a fortune, which was probably what she’d intended. I figured her way of getting even was sort of like my mother’s—spending her husband’s money on something unnecessary.

I followed everyone downstairs to the playroom, as
they called it. The space was huge. The first thing I saw was a kitchen, which wasn’t unexpected. Most of the homes I’d been in, including mine, had at least two kitchens. 

Kasey’s was industrial looking, and equipped with a lot of stainless steel. One of the refrigerators had a full glass door with nothing but alcohol visible through the glass. Everyone grabbed a
beer from inside, except me. I still felt a little tipsy and didn’t think I could handle drinking any more.

Then I saw theatre seating. Luke hopped into one of the chairs and reclined it back. Tosh crawled into his lap. Chase and Hazel followed suit, taking a chair the next row down. Luke flashed a remote control. “What’ll it be, bitches?” he inquired, flipping through a movie menu.

“You wanna come with me?” Kasey asked. I nodded; he took my hand and walked us to a nearby room. “This is my dad’s old office. He works at the municipal building downtown now. He hates it, having a schedule, someone telling him what to. He hardly comes in here anymore.” Kasey paused a moment, his eyes sweeping the room. “I guess it’s been a while since I’ve been in here, too.” I smiled, but he didn’t look at me to see it.

Kasey motioned to a brown leather sofa in front of a fireplace and we sat down. “I know
it’s summer, but it seems wrong to be in here without a fire going.” He clicked a button on a remote control and the gas logs inside the fireplace lit up with a faint poof.

I was looking around, taking in the rest of the room, which was filled with books and animal trophies, and smelled faintly of pipe smoke and leather, when I realized Kasey was staring at me. I smiled before I looked at him.

“What is it?” I asked.

“What you did tonight—I wasn’t sure until then that you liked me.”

I grinned sideways. “I’m pretty sure I thoroughly embarrassed myself last night because I like you.”

“No, you embarrassed yourself last night because you’re attracted to me. You can be attracted to someone and not like them.” He had a point, I guess. I smiled, feeling my cheeks redden. Kasey touched my face, watching me, gazing at my mouth.

“I need to kiss you,” he breathed.
Need
? “I’ve been thinking about what it would be like since I first saw you.”

“You have kissed me,” I muttered. Surely, he hadn’t forgotten.

“That peck at Scratch isn’t what I mean.” He brushed his fingers across my mouth. “I want to kiss you, really kiss you,” he said, delicately. It felt like all the air in the room had escaped; I was having a hard time finding my breath. Kasey leaned closer. I was so anxious my heart was throbbing, swelling in my chest. I wrapped my hand around his neck and slid my fingers into his hair as our mouths touched.

The kiss was deep, slow, and sweet all at the same time. It hadn’t been that long since I’d been kissed, I just didn’t remember it feeling so good. It also made me realize that I’d never
really
been kissed at all. What Kasey was doing took serious skill.

Kasey’s hand traveled up my leg, his arm twisted around my knee and pulled slightly. I inched up my dress and shifted myself into the position he was hinting at and straddled his lap. He murmured something about how he liked being so close to me before putting his impatient mouth back on mine. His words gave
me chills, which were chased by a warm sensation that slowly filtered through my body.

Kasey closed his arms around me, drawing me closer, pressing me against him. Realizing that I had excited him energized me. I exhaled hard, tightened my fingers in his hair, and kissed him deeper. His hands moved from my back to my waist and over my thighs. It was hard not to seem so eager. I had to work to keep a slower pace as we kissed since my body was making my brain believe that I could devour him whole.

His breath, heavy and slightly staggered, Kasey’s mouth moved to my neck, his tongue brushing small circles on my skin until my own breath became uneven. “I want you,” he breathed, then melded his mouth back to mine, sending a quivering ache down my spine.

I startled when his fingers slid past the elastic of my panties. “Do you want me to stop?” he asked, not moving his hand away, kissing my neck. “No,” I breathed. I was too turned on to stop. I wanted to be in the moment. To do what felt good and not worry about being judged for it. I wanted to live as they lived.
Fearlessly. And that’s exactly what I decided to do.

As Kasey unzipped my dress, I knew
that was the moment I would need to speak up if I wanted to change my mind. He pulled the dress over my head and tossed it aside. “Beautiful,” he murmured before filling his mouth with my breasts.

Hearing that word, feeling his breath, his lips on my skin electrified my insides. It made me think of what Hazel had said
earlier about fist fighting a monkey for Kasey’s attention. I unbuttoned his shirt—my bottom lip caught between my teeth—not believing that a guy like Kasey could want me, and pushed it off his shoulders taking in the beauty of his suntanned skin. I ran my fingers over his chest for the brief moment Kasey allowed me before standing us up. He kissed me while he finished undressing us both. Before going any further, I did make sure he had a condom. I couldn’t live
that
fearlessly.

Kasey laid me down on the couch and settled in the center of me. “You’re sure,” he mumbled, staring into my eyes. “Yes,” I breathed, but was suddenly nervous. Although I’d slept with Derrick plenty of times, somehow I felt grossly inexperienced.
Too inexperienced to be with someone like Kasey. Even still, I wanted it to happen. I reached out to touch him, running my hands up his tensed arms. He leaned down and kissed me as he pushed himself inside me. A hard breath escaped my throat. I held onto him as he moved, my hands curling into fists. As if the friction Kasey was creating between us wasn’t driving me crazy enough, he slowed his pace, kissing me sensuously, his tongue like velvet in my mouth. That was it. I was done for. It felt so good; I think I actually lost consciousness for a second.

Kasey rose up and looked at me. “Are you okay?” he asked in a tangled breath. I smiled in response. I was better than okay. He sat up, pulling me to his chest, taking a blanket from the back of the couch to cover us. I snuggled my face against his skin and listened to the sound of his heart beating while he held me. In that
moment, I thought I’d never heard anything more beautiful in my life.

At the same time, I couldn’t believe I’d slept with a practical stranger, although it hadn’t felt that way. I was comfortable with Kasey. Lying there in his arms I didn’t feel a need to explain that I’d never done anything like that before, or that I’d only been with one other person before him, or that I’d made that person wait four months and tell me he loved me first. Although now, I wasn’t sure that Derrick did love me because it had been so easy for him to let me go.

Kasey had been gentler with me than Derrick had ever been. More considerate, too. Derrick never asked me if I was okay after we had sex—not even the first time. Kasey touched my face and put his hands in my hair. He’d done the kinds of sweet things I’d only seen in love scenes in movies.

“I’ve never done that before,” Kasey muttered, nuzzling his face into my hair. “There’s just something about you…” he trailed off.

I smiled, shaking my head, unsure I should believe him.

“You don’t believe me?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I muttered. “You could bring home any girl you want any night of the week and I’m supposed to believe that you don’t.”

“Yes,” he answered simply. “I told you, we’re not promiscuous. I’ve been with two other girls. We were in committed relationships before we had sex.”

“So, what’s the thing about me that made you—” “Want you so badly?” Kasey asked, cutting me off.

“Yeah,” I said, feeling heat rise in my cheeks.

He smiled. “I don’t think I could put it into words.”

I unintentionally smirked. Kasey laughed. “Let’s just say that I’m attracted to you, too.”

When we went back out to the playroom Hazel, Chase, Tosh, and Luke were still sprawled out over the theatre seats smoking a joint.
16 Candles was playing on the movie screen.

I didn’t think they had a clue what we’d done until they started applauding us.

“Damn bro.” Chase reached out to slap hands with Kasey, a wide grin on his face.

“Yeah, really Kasey,” Hazel’s eyes widened.
“I had no idea,” she laughed.

“You sound sexy, Ryen,” Luke moaned, passing the joint to Chase. “Tosh sounds like a cow in labor when she gets off,” he laughed,
then collapsed backward against his seat. Tosh slapped his arm. “We’ll maybe he did something to her that you’re not doing to me to get a reaction like that,” she threatened. Hazel and Chase ooohhhed, then laughed.

My cheeks were as red as a fire engine, the heat from my flush burning me. “How did they hear us?” I mumbled to Kasey, embarrassed.

“There’s an intercom system in the house. My father installed it when he was working at home. He used it to spy on potential clients. He’d leave the room and listen to what they said, if anything. I should have told you, but I had no idea they’d be listening. I guess I should have known better because they’re that fucking twisted,” he said, louder.

“Yeah, we listened—would’ve been better with a visual though,” Luke broadcast.
Ew
.

“Jesus Christ, Luke!” Kasey threw a lighter at him. Luke caught it and laughed.

“You throw like my nana,” he taunted.

“Next time let him watch,” Tosh begged. “Maybe he’ll learn something.”

“Like you couldn’t stand to pick up a trick or two,” Luke told her, smiling artfully. Then they both burst out laughing. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I looked at Kasey, hoping that the crushing humiliation I felt at that moment was worth it.

“I’m sorry,” he soothed. “I honestly didn’t have any idea…” he brushed his fingers down the length of my arm, “that
that
was going to happen.” He looked at everyone else. “What Ryen and I do when we’re alone is none of your fucking business.”

“I know you’d like to think it’s possible, Grayson, but none of us have any privacy, so good luck with that shit,” Chase said passively.

“He’s right, Kasey. It’s pretty impossible to keep things from each other,” Hazel said. “Ryen, I hope you’re not mad. We didn’t mean any harm, and no matter what pervy-ass Luke says, we never would have watched.”

That brought little comfort. “I’m not mad. I just don’t know why you would want to listen to us either.” 

“Like Kasey said, we had no idea that
that
was going to happen. I mean, with the whole Hallmark love story you had before, we figured it would have been a while before you let him have you.” That made me feel a little self-conscious, but out of all of them, I think I was probably the last one who expected me to give it up so fast. 

“We started out listening to see if the two of you were hitting it off. And I would say you definitely hit it off,” she smiled. “I would also say that you’ve decided to take my advice,” she winked. I had.
And I truly didn’t care what anyone thought about me and Kasey sleeping together. I just didn’t want the whole world to hear about it.

“We love Kasey and just want to see him happy. He’s been missing a partner for a while now. And you’re falling beautifully into that empty space,” Tosh said. I noticed the others nodding in agreement with her. It made me feel good that they felt that way about me. I’d never really felt like I fit beautifully into any space before. Then I wondered how Kasey felt about everyone assuming that he and I were going to be together now. Sex didn’t guarantee a commitment. Nothing really did anymore.

DAY THREE

My eyes cracked open just enough to see Tosh and Hazel leaned over me giggling and whispering.

I hardly remembered leaving Kasey’s and going to Tosh’s. The sun was coming up when we finally decided we needed to sleep.

I wanted to ask them what they were doing, but my brain wasn’t awake enough to make my mouth operate.

“Finally,” Hazel complained. “I thought I was going to have to shake you—you snore by the way, but not like a lumberjack or anything. Like a ballerina…or a mouse,” she snickered.

“Shut up.” Tosh elbowed her, and then looked at me. “So?”
she asked, wide eyed.

“So—what?”
I managed to eke out.

“Kasey,” she gasped. “What was it like being with Kasey?” The excitement on her face was funny to me.

I normally wouldn’t have discussed something so personal, but if I was going to be all in with them, I knew I had to. Besides, they’d already heard the whole thing anyway. I focused on the two of them, watching me, waiting for me to spill. Thinking back, I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Then a giggle slipped out. I slapped my hand across my mouth. I hated that. I was so not a giggler.

“Damn! I knew it! He just looks like he’s great in bed,” Tosh sighed. “I bet he’s beautiful underneath his clothes.” The way she was swooning made me wonder if she’d had a crush on Kasey at some point, too.

“Is he?” she asked when I didn’t say anything.

“Very,” I moaned.

“Was he better than Derrick?”

I smiled wider than I should have. I felt bad for comparing the two of them; especially since they would probably compare me to the other
girls they’d been with. The thought made me nervous.

“How big is it?” Hazel asked, raising her eyebrows up and down.

I gasped. I never would have asked her that about Chase.

“Oh, give up the surprised act, Hallmark. Kasey totally knows I’m asking you that question right now and he’d be okay with you answering honestly.”

“I don’t want to answer at all.”

“My guess is huge,”
Tosh giggled.

“Is he circumcised?” Hazel asked.

“Oh my god,” I groaned. That was such a ridiculous question. Hazel laughed at my discomfort. “It’s all right, Ryen. I don’t need to know. As they say it’s not the size of the wand…” She and Tosh looked at each other, “…it’s the magic inside,” they finished the saying together and laughed. Tosh laughed so hard that she fell backward on the bed. “Yeah, but it would be gross if he had extra skin wadded up on the end of his wand,” she said, breaking through her laugher.

“
Ew,” Hazel laughed and rolled over on Tosh, making them both laugh harder. I had no idea what was so funny, but I wasn’t seeking out uncircumcised penises to make fun of either.

When she and Tosh finished laughing, Hazel sat up and looked at me, her features bending back to normal. “I’m about to tell you something, but don’t get mad—or freak out, okay,” she directed. That wiped the smile right off my face. “I sort of watched you for a few days before I came over and introduced myself,” she announced delicately.

“You watched me…” I trailed off.
How would that not freak me out
?

“Yeah, and the more I learned about you, the more I thought you’d be perfect for Kasey, so I told Tosh what I was up to, and we planned the sleepover so you two could meet.”

“Because he would never have agreed to be set up,” Tosh added quickly. Hazel’s eyes widened, she turned to Tosh. “I could have killed you when you told her we’d been waiting for her. I mean, how ominous did that shit sound?”

“I thought I was going to end up choking to death in somebody’s trunk,” I said.

“What?” They both gasped, starting to laugh.

“Jawbreaker,” I said solemnly. They laughed harder. I’d seen that movie at a sleepover when I was ten. It gave me nightmares for two years afterwards.

“That’s so wrong,” Hazel said. 

“Tell me about it,” I mumbled.

Once they recovered from my confession, Tosh looked at Hazel. “We should take her with us to GiGi’s.” They smiled at each other as if sharing a private joke or something.

“Who’s
GiGi?” I asked.

“It’s a salon and spa. We go once a month for maintenance.”

They were nineteen, I couldn’t figure out what on them needed maintenance.

“I’ll call and ask them to make room for one more. You can borrow something of mine to wear,” Tosh said, and bounced off the bed. She snatched her bedazzled
iPhone from the nightstand and began dialing. 

When we arrived at GiGi’s, we were greeted by a girl named Candice, whose job was to make sure we were on time for our treatments, and to get us anything we requested during our visit. Something Hazel took full advantage of.

After showering, the three of us were split up for our first treatment. I was taken to a small, dark room with a few lit candles spread around. The sounds of crickets, frogs, and birds chirping piped through a single speaker in the ceiling. The air tasted fresh, clean with a hint of earth and eucalyptus.

I was asked to remove my robe and lay on a table beneath a tent that covered me from my neck to my toes. Once I was inside, the tent began to fill with eucalyptus-scented steam. It smelled nice and the treatment was surprisingly relaxing considering that I was lying nude and sweating on a table in a mock forest.

Next, Tosh, Hazel, and I were reunited for hot stone massages, which we also had to get naked
for. Naked or not, I was glad to be back with them. Except for a few deep breaths and some moaning, it was the only time they were quiet. I’d never had a massage before and felt like jelly when it was over.

After that, we were taken to the salon. Our hair was trimmed, and then our eyebrows were threaded. Afraid they would make fun of me, I hid how fascinating I thought threading was from Tosh and Hazel, who probably weren’t ever impressed with the process at all—only the results.

When that was done, we sat in the most incredible chairs on the planet and sipped champagne while having pedicures, which I’d also never had, but enjoyed. Then we had manicures. I only had my paint changed since I’d gotten acrylics the day before.

“It’s her job,” Hazel squawked when Tosh suggested that she could refill her own glass instead of asking Candice to do it. “She gets twenty percent of our bill; her share comes to almost two-hundred-fifty bucks at last count, so in my opinion, she can’t refill my glass enough.”

Tosh rolled her eyes and changed the subject.

The moment our manicures were finished, Candice came to get us for our final treatment. The announcement made Tosh and Hazel laugh out loud. I thought maybe they’d had too much champagne, but realized that wasn’t the case when they refused to tell me what our final treatment was. I figured it had to be something terrible and began having jawbreaker flashbacks.

Tosh and Hazel were full on laughing as Candice escorted us to a room that had a few chairs, an examining table, and pamphlets about skin care inside.

“Are we getting facials,” I asked excitedly, relieved by the thought.

Candice frowned at Tosh and Hazel, who were trying to keep their faces straight, and said that Ms. Beverly would be with us in a moment, eyeing the two of them hard before she left.

“What are we having done?” I asked, slightly panicked. Then the door opened again. A large woman with garish red hair wearing an eggplant smock stepped inside.

“Hello Ladies,” she said, introduced herself to me and then asked, “Who’s first?”

Tosh and Hazel volunteered me.

“I don’t even know what we’re doing here, so I’m not volunteering for shit,” I barked, crossing my arms hard over my chest. Ms. Beverly laughed. It made her whole body shake, which made me think of Santa Clause.

“Surprise waxing, huh?” she asked, her thin eyebrow cocked at Tosh and Hazel.

“Waxing?” I asked. “But, I just had my eyebrows threaded.”

Tosh clamped a hand over her mouth, laughter escaped anyway.

“She’s not going to wax your eyebrows,” Hazel hinted, raising her own eyebrows.

“Well, what then?”

It only took a second longer for it to hit me. “She’s gonna wax my…” I gasped. Everyone laughed riotously—except for me, of course. I didn’t think that shit was funny at all.

“We wax, too. It makes it better for…you know...” Tosh gave me a slow nod,
like I should know what she meant. I stared back at her, thinking.

“She means oral sex, sweetie,” Ms. Beverly piped in, matter-of-fact, sliding her big bottom onto the stool at the end of the table.

“Oh—ohhhh,” I exhaled, catching on. Tosh and Hazel burst out laughing again.

“So, I guess you and Kasey didn’t do that last night.” My face instantly reddened.
“No, we...No.”

I’ll admit the first thought I had was,
we barely know each other
,
that’d be gross
. But I’d sort of killed that argument before I could even make it since I’d had regular sex with him. So why would they think I’d be opposed to having oral sex with a virtual stranger? The thought made me nauseous, even though no one else in the room seemed put off by the idea at all.

“I bet he’s good at that, too,” Tosh whispered. I blushed. I couldn’t help it. Thinking about it was slightly embarrassing. Honestly, the fact that we were having a conversation about
that
at all was super awkward.

My girlfriends in high school were nothing like Tosh and Hazel. There were girls like them at school, but I wasn’t ever friends with them. When I told my best friend, Monica, that I’d slept with Derrick she said, “Oh my god, you did
it
. I can’t believe you did
it
.” And that was the extent of our only conversation about my sex life.

“Chase is good at it,” Hazel admitted and shivered a little.

Tosh laughed. “I had to show Luke a video and say
this
is how you do it.”

“What!” Hazel gasped.

“He said that my junk was confusing, not as straight forward as his. He appreciated the lesson though,” she snickered. “And I appreciated how he put that lesson to use.”

“My first and third husbands were good at it, but the other three didn’t know squat.
Especially the fourth one. He sucked all the way around. He wouldn’t have known where to stick it if I hadn’t shown him,” Ms. Beverly deadpanned, making us laugh—mostly from shock, I think. But whatever. I was just glad that Tosh and Hazel were laughing at someone other than me.

“Okay. Here we go,” Ms. Beverly announced, patting the table. I cringed at the sound of that paper barrier crinkling beneath the pressure of her mannish hand.

The whole waxing process was easier to get through than I thought because the three of them were cracking jokes and laughing. Don’t get me wrong, it still hurt like a mother, but laughing did take some of the sting out.

That Ms. Beverly had one seriously dirty brain in her head. She was spewing words I’d never heard another person say out loud before—including Hazel. We were all laughing so much that it made me wonder what the people beyond the door thought we were doing.

After getting to watch Tosh and Hazel cry and squeal in pain, which made what they’d done to me almost worth it, we showered again. As we dressed, we laughed; repeating some of the vulgar things Ms. Beverly had shared with us. Tosh’s phone rang. She was somehow able to compose herself to answer it. Excited about something, she hung up and looked at Hazel. “She’s in,” she squealed. Then they both looked at me and smiled like giddy little kids.

When we got to Tosh’s, she said our first priority was to find something for me to wear. She snatched my hand and dragged me to a room across the hall from hers. It was filled with racks of clothes and boxes of shoes stacked at least four feet high across one of the walls. There were no less than six hundred boxes. I imagined there were actual shoe stores that didn’t have the kind of inventory Tosh had.

“My father sends me things when he’s gone—which is always. Sometimes he sends so much that it arrives in crates. I used to have clothes and shoes spread all over the house, but Vita said I have to contain it to this room. I’ve had to give away things I’ve never even gotten to wear before.” She still had so much stuff that I could have spent two full days in that room and not seen everything.

Tosh stood still and studied me for a moment, chewing on her index finger, seemingly making mental notes. “You’ll need to wear a dress, a nice one. Designer. I know it’s a party, but it’s a very exclusive party. Invitation only.”

She’d already told me the party wasn’t a plus one sort of thing. It was an individual invitation sort of thing and since I had one now, I could go with Kasey, who’d also been invited.