Winning Back Ryan (31 page)

              “So, Ben,” the DJ asked, “Would you be willing to help Annie sing her song?”

Ben brought the microphone closer to his mouth.

              “Of course. Anything to help her out.”

His answer
was met with several ‘awws’, a few more catcalls and a few more screams that he needed to impregnate some females immediately.

             
“So what’s the song?” The DJ asked.

             
“There’s really only one appropriate one for the situation. Jason Derulo’s Whatcha Say,” I replied.

             
“Ouch, man, sorry, but it’s the lady’s choice,” the DJ said to a crestfallen Ryan. “And here’s the words up on the screen to help you out in case you need them,” he informed us.

             
Before the music started, I said into the microphone, “My friend Ben here will be playing the part of my cheating, loser ex-boyfriend Ryan tonight.”

The song started, and Ben took control of the room. He had such a presence, and he owned every woman’s attention as he theatrically played out the song, making Ryan look like an even bigger fool.

              I could tell that he glanced at the words a few times to make sure he had them right, but no one else could see his move, since his eyes darted quickly from the screen to me. When the song was done the entire room roared with applause. I knew very well that they were applauding for Ben, but I didn’t care. He deserved every clap.

When the applause died down, I turned towards my ex.

              “I don’t care how many diamond rings you shove in my face, we’re not getting back together. Get a life, another girl, and stop embarrassing me in front of my friends and random strangers.”

             
I heard people hissing, “Ooh burn!” Others saying, “She told you!”  A guy near us at a table suggested, “Just move on, bro.”

The look in Ryan’s eyes, however, was one that I have never seen before. His eyes were unreadable. I walked back to my table, sitting back down.

             
Ben was smiling brightly, his arm around my shoulder. “I’m buying you another round, Princess, because it seems that you’ve found your long lost pair of brass balls.” I couldn’t help but laugh with him as he kissed my forehead. When the waitress came back around, Ben ordered more shots. Once we received them, I held mine up to drink.

             
“Wait,” Ryan said, “Why don’t we make this a little more interesting?” I glanced up at the man who I was starting to loathe, wondering what Hell sent words were about to spew out of his mouth. “Why don’t we play a game of Truth or Dare?”

I sat there with shots of vodka lined up in front of me waiting for the group’s reaction. They all glanced at each other awkwardly, but remained silent.

              “So, who wants to start?” Ryan asked.

             
“Ooh, I will,” Amanda squealed. We all turned towards her, waiting. Her eyes narrowed on me. “Annie, truth or dare?”

I’m pretty sure due to her angered state that I should choose truth. If I picked dare, she might make me lick dog poop off the sidewalk.

              “Truth.”

             
“Did you or did you not try to sleep with Brian while you were in a relationship with Max, even though Ryan proposed to you?”

             
Uh oh. “Why does it matter to you?” I asked frostily.

             
“I was just wondering how many men’s hearts you’d play with this month.” I sat there questioning why I was ever friends with this girl. When did she become such a bitch?

Curiously, Ashley came to my defense.

              “Who says she’s playing with anybody’s heart?”

             
Amanda’s eyes narrowed. “I was there when Brian received the text message that she slept with Max.”

             
“It’s my understanding that the two of them have talked about it, and Brian is fine now. She didn’t hurt Max, or Brian. As far as Ryan goes, the way I heard it was that he broke up with Annie after cheating on her…repeatedly,” Ashley spat back.

I sat there dumbfounded as to why this woman knew so much about Brian’s and my life, yet I never met her before.

              Amanda shot daggers at Ashley with her eyes before saying, “You don’t know her like I do. Ryan deserves better.”

I decided at that moment that I was pretty much done with Amanda.

              “I’m sorry for what I said to you at Brian’s. It was classless, unnecessary, and I had no right to speak to you that way. I hope you can forgive me one day. My head just wasn’t right that night. But, don’t sleep with Ryan tonight because you want to get back at me. Sure, I loved Ryan. That’s why I was with him for the last two years. But, that’s over. It’ll never be again. Sleeping with him won’t hurt me.”

              “Apology
not
accepted,” she spat through gritted teeth. I sighed, my pinky rimming around my first shot glass. “Why do you get them all?” I glanced up, questioning her.

             
“Amanda, Annie apologized. If you don’t want to accept, that’s one thing. But, I suggest you stop talking,” Ben warned darkly.

             
She shot him a dirty glare. “I will not! And why are you sticking up for her? She’s toying with you, too.”

             
His jaw flexed momentarily. “She’s not toying with me. She never has. You’re wrong again…as usual.”

             
She cringed at his words before continuing on. “Everyone needs to know that Miss Innocent here is really just a whore, and you’ve all fallen for it!”

Ben’s eyes turned vacant looking, his entire demeanor cold.

              “I warned you.” He glanced around the table. “Raise your hand if you’ve fucked Amanda.”

George, Brian, Ben, and Ryan all raised their hands. They glanced at Max.

              “What? She’s a skank,” he offered then glanced at her. “No offense.” She seethed in response.

             
“And now you know why we liked you around Amanda. We always knew we could count on you for a nice blowjob or a quick fuck when we were bored,” Ben said his voice as cold as ice. I had never seen him act or look this way in my life. It was as though he turned off every emotion inside him. It was a little terrifying to be honest.

Her lower lip quivered as she glanced around the table. I felt sympathetic for her.

              “Ashley,” Ryan said, “You seem very nice, so here’s a piece of advice. Don’t make the same mistake that I did and get mixed up with these two.” Ryan pointed to me then to Brian. “The others won’t tell you, so I will. These two want each other. I wasted two years of my life on her to realize she’d always want him more.”

             
As my eyes squeezed shut, I shook my head. “Are you done making a spectacle, Ryan? Why don’t you go home?”

             
“Why should I have to leave?” he yelled.

             
“Because you weren’t invited!” Ben shouted. “None of you were! This was supposed to be my hang out with Annie. I don’t know why you all fuckin’ showed up! But, I want you here least of all!”

             
“Actually, I invited Max because I thought that you invited everyone else,” I whispered to Ben, grimacing, “Sorry.”

             
“So then it should only be Annie, me, and Max,” Ben amended.

             
Ryan crossed his arms. “I’m not leaving. She’s the one causing trouble. Annie should leave.” 

             
“You’re right,” I said, standing up. “I’ll go.”

             
“Don’t you dare!” Brian, Max, and George said at the same time.

I glanced at them, questioning.

              Ben finally said, “Just get the fuck out of here, Ryan. I can’t stand the sight of your stupid ass.”

             
“Why are you guys pissed at me? I was just trying to be honest to Ashley about the type of guy she was about to get involved in. She should know,” Ryan snapped.

             
Ben rolled his eyes. “You’re no saint either. You keep whining about these two liking each other, but did Annie ever cheat on you? Nope. You sure as hell fucked Kelly, though.”

             
Ryan stood there, the anger rolling off his body in waves as he stared Ben down. Ben refused to look away,  not intimidated.  Ryan finally tugged on Amanda’s arm. She followed him, waving goodbye to everyone as they walked out together.

Ben shook his head while George looked at me. “Are you really alright with Amanda leaving with him?” I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. They all looked at me disbelieving, so I sighed. “Who needs enemies with friends like her?”

I turned towards Ashley.

             
“Don’t listen to my ex. He’s just an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Brian is a great guy, a real gentleman, fun to be with. You’ll have lots of fun with him tonight.”

“I know,” she said, smiling brightly.

I was left confused by her comment. What exactly did that mean? Did she want Brian? Was he going to sleep with her? “Well, that’s good,” I offered.

             
“I know he has feelings for you, and I’m fine with that even though I’m out with him. I’m alright with you having his heart, but I still plan on fucking him tonight,” Ashley replied matter-of-factly. Ben spit out his drink all over Max’s face, while Brian’s face paled.

             
“What the heck?” Max shouted, grabbing a napkin to wipe his face off. Max stood up. “I’m going to try and clean off,” he said, walking towards the bathroom.

             
“I see. Well, have a good time then,” I realized that my voice quivered. I tried clearing my voice. “Hey, Ben, do you want to dance?” I asked.

             
Ben and I walked to the dance floor.  I wanted to hurt Brian. I wanted to hurt him like he was hurting me. I couldn’t believe we ruined our friendship. I wished I had never started taking us beyond friendship in the first place. The poisonous thoughts that ran through my head pictured Brian naked with that whore-who I was sure looked amazing naked- screwing all night long. This was too much after the Ryan debacle, and my heart could only take so much.

             
Ben and I danced and it started off innocent enough. I was not interested in innocent, however. Dancing innocently wouldn’t turn Brian’s head. So, I changed the game after the first song, turning around, rubbing my butt right into Ben’s crotch. At first he froze, but then put his hands on my waist and went with it. Brian was now on the dance floor and I watched that slut-God, I hated her- work him. It reminded me of the strip club when we danced and my heart clenched painfully. Clearly, I needed to behave more outrageously. Another song in, and I practically dry humped Ben. And those shots? How my ass wasn’t on the floor was nothing short of a miracle.

             
By the next song, Max finally came out of the bathroom. I made a mental note to talk to him about that. Heterosexual men would never take that long in the men’s room.

             
“Max,” I shouted out.

I realized that the only thing better than grinding with one guy was grinding with two. As he came over, I pulled him to me and made myself an Annie sandwich. I grinded against Ben so hard that he reacted positively to my dance moves. Part of my brain screamed that I was acting like a completely skank and that I needed to stop. The other part screamed that it didn’t care. The only thing being a good girl had ever done for me was get my heart broken and humiliated.

              After three more dances, I turned and looked at Brian and then wished I hadn’t. That tramp -she’s
clearly
the tramp only dancing with the one guy that she was on a date with as opposed to me dancing with two, of course- was bent over shoving herself into him. I glanced at Brian who met my gaze and I smiled viciously. I would treat him the same as I did Ryan, because I felt betrayed.

             
Max told me that he was going to the bar for another drink and walked off. Well, now I needed to figure out something to up the ante. I turned around and glanced at the two Bens in front of me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and whispered in his ear, “I’ve always wondered what it’s like to kiss a guy with a tongue ring.” He stood there frozen for a second as I moved in to kiss him. “Annie, what are you doing?” he asked me, pulling away. The rejection stung far more than I knew it should.

             
“Kissing you? We are on a date after all.”

             
“Annie…” He trailed off, looking around. “Listen, I want to, but…”

             
“But what?” My words came out sharp.

             
He glanced at me regretfully. “You’re drunk. And aren’t you trying to work out things with Brian?”

             
“What are you talking about?” The words came out nearly a shriek.

             
He sighed. “We all know how long Brian’s had a thing for you. He’s our friend, so you’re untouchable to us. We can spend time with you, we can dance with you, I can tease you mercilessly, but that’s it. Anything beyond that and I’m asking for a savage beating, and I’ll lose Brian as my friend for a while until he decides to forgive me. That’s how it goes. It’s Guy Code.”

             
“So, none of you can touch me,” I repeated. Ben nodded. “And he knew this before the date started.” He nodded again. “We just wanted to take you out and blow off some steam from the week and all this Ryan drama. That’s all. It was never going to go anywhere. It can’t.”

             
“So, while I have to sit here and watch him get with that girl, I’m to be left alone,” I spat.

             
“Annie, he’s just dancing,” Ben said to me as though I was the one being absurd.

             
“Just dancing,” I repeated, snorting. “Fuck your excuses and fuck him. I know what cheating feels like when I see it- like someone has just ripped out your guts,” I said, pointing my finger in Ben’s face. “I’m no man’s girl. I’m especially not his after tonight. You can take your double standards and shove them up your ass.” I walked back to the chairs grabbing my pocketbook. I barely kept it together. “George, Max.” I nodded before making my way to the door.

             
“Annie, where are you going?” I heard them ask. I also heard another voice shout, “Brian!” I was already out the door and into the night ridiculously drunk at this point, having skipped dinner to save calories, so I stumbled around with no destiny in mind.

             
“Annie, where are you going?” I heard a voice shout, grabbing my arm. I turned around to find Ben standing there.

             
“What are you doing here?” I asked, irritated that he followed me.

             
“I am your date remember?” he asked, smirking.