“You mean to tell me you had sex with Alex!?” Lacy yelled into my ear.

“Shut up! I’m still in his bathroom!” I whispered harshly.

“What!?” I groaned. The girl didn’t know the meaning of the words shut up.

“I need you to wake Robbie up and have him take my shift at the rink, and if you could please come and get me?” I heard her keys jingling.

“You owe me,” she said and I breathed relief.

“He lives in the apartment complex to the left of where the party was. I’ll be in the lobby, and thanks Lacy.” I said.

“You’re that close? I stayed at Jason’s house with Sasha and you’re only a block away.” I sighed. Thank god.

“Then in that case I’m walking out of his suite now. I’ll see you in a few.” Closing my phone I slowly opened the door and tightened the sheet around me. Looking around the room I saw my shorts, panties, and corset, but no bra. Shit.

“Are you looking for this?”

“Holy shit!” I yelled jumping. Turning to face where Alex’s voice had come from I saw him holding my bra. He looked me up and down and smirked.

“What?” I asked annoyed. He laughed and pointed to the floor. I had dropped the damn sheet when he startled me. Quickly picking it up and rewrapping myself I heard him laugh.

“Why so modest, it’s not as if I haven’t touched you in every place possible anyway,” he said and walked closer to me. I stepped back and he kept following me.

“You may have touched me but that doesn’t mean I’m going to put my body on display for you on a daily basis.” I said and snatched my bra from his hands.

“Why not? We had fun didn’t we?” He looked at me expectantly with a smirk gracing his lips and his eyes sparkling.

“Never the less, I don’t make it a habit of being easy. Now if you’ll excuse me, my friend is coming to pick me up and she’ll be here soon, I need to get dressed.”

“I’m not stopping you,” he said and sat down on his bed. Scowling I picked up all my clothes that had been discarded and stormed into the bathroom. What a prick.

After putting on all my clothes and throwing my hair into a ponytail with a band I walked back into his room, looked at him for a few moments, and turned towards his door.

“Well aren’t you a pleasant one?” He said.

“Actually I am rather pleasant, but for some unknown reason, your demeanor seems to piss me off. Goodbye,” I said and walked out of his room and down the hallway that had my shoes discarded. I heard him padding along behind me.

“You could give me a kiss goodbye you know,” he said. Turning around I was taken aback at his comment.

“Why the hell would I do that?”

“You seemed to like kissing me last night,” he said and leaned against the doorframe. I growled and counted to three before standing up straight and walking towards his door.

“Go to hell,” I said as I stood in the doorway.

“Only if you come with me babe,” he said as I closed the door.

~!~!~!~!~

“Girl you are so lucky! You had sex with Alex Weston! He’s THE hottest guy to be in our county! Even Peyton doesn’t compare!” I looked at Lissa across the table.

“You do know you’re shouting at the top of your lungs and his brother is just at the next table don’t you?” I asked her and she blushed, sinking slowly into her seat.

“Wait, who’s brother?” She asked.

“Peyton’s.”

“Oh, well who cares about that, Peyton knows he stands no chance against Alex.” I looked at her and laughed.

“You my dear have some very weird logic,” I told her as I took another fry and drenched it in ketchup.

“And you have a fetish with ketchup,” she said, scrunching her nose at the ketchup on the fry. I smiled and shoved the whole thing into my mouth, relishing in the taste.

“Gross Car, you could be a little more girl like.” I turned to see Jade standing very zombie like at the end of the table. I grinned.

“And drinking yourself into a stupor is more girly?”I asked her in a high pitched sing song voice.

“Yeah yeah, shut up and scoot over,” she said and I complied.

“Oh! My! God! Carly Kaylynn Fremont! You better start talking right now!” All heads in Daisy’s Diner turned towards the door where Robbie stood, holding his phone up as if it were some important document. Groaning I let my head slam down onto the table and sighed.

“Don’t give me that ‘I don’t want to talk about it attitude’ missy! You had sex with Alex Freaking Weston and think you can get away without giving me details!? Nuh uh honey!” Robbie had stormed over to our table and held his phone in front of my face. Looking closely I saw he had a text message open from some person named Brent.

“Your predicament came true. Carly and Alex hooked up.” Looking at Robbie I let my mouth hang open.

“How the hell did you get that?” I asked him.

“Brent happens to be my cousin. He told me about the plan and I leaked it to the school, now spill about your little escapade,” he eyed me closely.

“Well…”

~!~!~!~!~

“Hey, I’m outside,” Peyton said after I picked up my phone that had been ringing for the last minute or so.

“Alright, I’ll be right out,” closing my phone I grabbed my money and jacket as Michelle stared at me from my bed.

“He didn’t come to the door?” She asked incredulously. “How unromantic.”

“Well who ever said Peyton Davenport was a romantic?” I asked her as I walked out my door. “I’ll see you when I get home!”

“You better wake me up!” I laughed and ran down the stairs to see Peyton through the window still sitting in his car. I sighed. He was definitely not turning out to be the ideal date. Already he had two strikes, and just how many did you give a person on the first date?

“Hey,” he said as I opened the door of his Chrysler New Yorker. I tried not to think about how all of my grandparents had the same car.

“Hi,” I replied and buckled myself. Looking over to him I could see clutter through the corner of my eye and tried not to be disgusted as I saw a pair of boxers that looked as if they’d been sitting there for a good few months.

“How are you this fine day?” He asked me as he pulled out of my driveway.

“I’m really good. And what about yourself?” I hated awkward car rides and I was positive this was going to be one of them.

~!~!~!~!~

“Not only was it a boring car ride, but it was a boring as hell date as well! We got to the pier and of course I paid for myself at everything we did, and when we weren’t doing anything but just walking, he made no conversation! I got so sick of the lack of talking that I started singing Barney in my head! When he finally asked if I wanted to go home I accidently let the ‘we’re a happy family’ part slip out of my mouth! It was so mortifying I had to tell him about Austin watching Barney every day and he looked like I’d grown three heads!” Lissa, Lacy, and Jade all stared at me, and I watched slowly as they all processed what I had just told them. It took longer than I thought it would but the first thing out of their mouths was hysterical laughter. Lacy even started crying and Jade fell over onto my floor. It was then I decided even if I had been miserable for three hours of my life where I’d contemplated murdering Peyton with the pen I’d won, at least I entertained my friends for days.

After finally calming down, Jade looked at me seriously and said, “Well lucky for you, I ran into someone who was looking for you today.” I arched an eyebrow and she grinned.

“Someone named Alex said he knew you worked at the Rink.” My mouth dropped and she smiled. I assumed she’d gotten the reaction she was hoping for. “I told him to call you around ten if he wanted to talk to you.” Falling backwards onto my sleeping bag dramatically I groaned.

“Why do you all hate me?” I asked them as I felt around for my phone, eyes closed.

“We love you, that’s why we torture you with impeccably gorgeous men,” Lacy said simply, handing me the phone that had been by my feet before speaking once more. “I call two minutes after ten!”

“I got four till!” Jade exclaimed placing down a five in the center of us all.

“You jerks started without me! I call ten on the dot!” Michelle yelled rushing over to her sleeping bag and putting down her money.

“I take three minutes after.” Lissa placed her money calmly on top of the pile.

“Yes, well I bet he calls at one minute after ten and hangs up after the first ring and calls back two minutes later.” They all stared at me with their eyebrows raised.

“What? He woke up at exactly 9:01 the other day and I ran into him at the mall as he was leaving at exactly 7:01. I bet he hangs up because he thinks he’s being stupid and I bet he calls back because Brent or someone’s sitting next to him telling him to stop being a pussy.”

“Alrighty then…” Lacy straightened the money and we all laid down facing my phone.

“We all know the rules right? No talking from the moment the first bet’s time starts and no talking during the conversation. All facial expressions are to remain straight. Are we ready?” Lissa asked as she looked at her watch and we shook our heads. “Okay, time starts…Now!”

Staring at the phone I realized how excited I was. My dream after my date with Peyton was about my Prince Charming, but only this time, he had a real face, and it was no longer a cartoon, I realized it was Alex sometime this morning.

“Down by the moonlit sta-“ Everyone stared at me as my phone stopped ringing. I grinned and looked at the TV clock. 10:01. I just won myself a bet, but I guess it helps I knew him more than they did, even if it was only a smidgeon more. Our only differences were I’d talked with him for a few moments, and of course, I was the one that had sex with him.

“Down by the moonlit stars, lift your open hand, strike up the band and let the spotlight-“

“Hello?” I hid my face from my friends who were staring avidly at me.

“Carly?” The smoothness to his voice sent chills up my spine and I suppressed a shudder.

“Yeah, who is this?”

“Alex.” I smiled, he wasn’t going to say anything more for fear of my not remembering him.

“Oh, um… hi.” I had to try and pretend I was still sore at him from the morning we woke up together.

“What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“At the moment nothing, why, what’s up?”

“I could answer that with a blunt answer or I could ask you out. It’s your choice.”

“Depends on the specifics with the second choice.”

“The beach in the evening and the pier at night?”

“I think it sounds doable.”

“That’s not the only thing.” I grinned. Had this been the morning after we had sex, I’d have walked out by now, but seemingly enough, this just made me smile.

“Alright hotshot, are we meeting there?”

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow say, six o’clock?”

“Sounds fine.”

“Your address?”

“The blue house on the corner of Cole and Tiffin.”

“Be ready. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.” I closed my phone, held out my hand for the money, and kept my head buried into my shoulder.

“You’re not getting away with that, you’re like a blushing bride. It’s all the way to your ears!” Lissa exclaimed.

“It’s true. The color stops right… here!”

“Ow! What the hell was that for?” I yelled as I glared at Jade.

“It got you to look up didn’t it?”

“You should have let her have her moment to compose herself. We gave it to you when we caught you coming out of the boys’ locker room and your shirt was on backwards,” Lacy said simply. I smiled, Lacy was never really serious, but she always got defensive on my behalf. I especially loved it when she was defensive with Jade because the lord knows Jade deserved the third degree.

“I thought we’d agreed not to bring that up again?” Jade said through gritted teeth.

“No, you told us if we ever said a word you’d smother us in our sleep. Don’t you think Carly deserves the same privacy as well?” I loved Lacy.

“Alright girls, just drop it, when Car wants to talk she’ll talk, but let’s drop the Alex part and go to the Peyton part.” I turned to Michelle who was grinning broadly before they all cracked up laughing again.

Grabbing my cell phone and walking out onto the balcony, I went to my received calls list and pressed, NEW TXT MSG.

You just caused a catastrophe, I hope you’re proud. :P

What?

My friends just got in an argument on our behalf and now I’m being tortured mercilessly. I’m blaming it all on you.

Blame me all you want, but I’m not the one who took you on a lame ass date.

Now how the hell do you suddenly have access to my life?

Your friend was desperate.

Meaning?

Sex for Info.

:O BRB.

So you know, there was no sex, not that it needs justified on my end.

“Which one of you did it?” I asked walking back into my room, phone in hand.

“Did what?” Lacy asked like I was psychotic. It wasn’t her. Her acting sucked.

“What are you talking about Car?” I looked at Lissa and decided she was a suspect.

“Which one of us did what?” Michelle asked. She was my sister and a virgin so I knew it wasn’t her.

I looked towards the money still in the middle and let Jade come into my vision. She was fiddling with her hands and somehow I wasn’t surprised. Jade had always gone and had sex with anyone I did to say she was just as good as I was. Plus, she’d been the one to give Alex my number, the only friend who had met him. Of course it was her.

“¡Jade, usted es una puta!” I yelled. I was so tired of her having to have everything I did. She didn’t know it, but I knew she’d been the reason my boyfriend and I broke up last year, and I knew she’d had sex with Kyle this year the day after I did effectively breaking us up. I was tired of it.

Michelle walked over to me calmly and said, “Jade honey, you’re speaking in French, calm down, and tell us what’s the matter.” She held my shoulders and I was thankful she was older than I was. If I were her, I wouldn’t have known what to do. Taking three deep breaths, I looked at Jade.

“I want you out of my house, out of my life, and if you so much as talk to Alex again, I will tell my mother about you and David.” She looked mortified and everyone turned to looked at her.

“What the hell did you do?” Lacy asked angrily.

“She’s the one who slept with Braden last year, and she’s the one who slept with Kyle this year. Not only that, she propositioned Alex today. If he’d have had sex with her, she’d have given him all the info he wanted about my life.” I turned to Jade and saw she was frozen to her seat. Still mad I carried on, “Oh, and let’s not forget the day after my mother and David got married, she came over and they fucked on our kitchen counter while my mother did last minute shopping for their honeymoon.” Everyone’s faces turned into disgust as they looked at her. She stood up, shaking, and had she not done all this to ruin my life, I might have felt sorry for her, but what she did that would hurt my mother took the cake and I was glad she’d be out of my life.

Wanting to calm down as I waited for her to leave, I walked back out to the balcony and opened my phone that I’d been ignoring until the confrontation was done.

So you know, there was no sex, not that it needs justified on my end.

It’s the principle of the matter but thanks for clarification.

Well what did you just go do?

Got rid of a pest.

That Jade girl?

Yeah.

Why are you so pissed about it?

It’s a long story.

I’ve got time.

Well I don’t but to make a long story short, she fucked two of my boyfriends, my mother’s new husband. The fact she propositioned you was just the icing on the cake.

Ah so you like me enough to get pissed about your friends finding me sex worthy? ;)

If you want to take it that way you can, ‘I’m not stopping you’.

Haha. So what are you doing that she was over anyway?

Girls night, but I’m about to end it.

Want to go out for a bit?

I’d love that but I’d have to sneak out and I’m not very good at that.

What if I could help?

How?

I’ll see you in 20.

Closing my phone I looked over the balcony and saw Jade walking towards her car parked down the street. I sighed and went inside. My heart was still fluttering quickly in frustration as I looked at my friends who were already packing up their stuff.

“We decided you could use some time to relax. Michelle’s telling your family not to disturb you and we’re postponing our girls’ night until the day before fair.” I looked to Lissa and saw she was already finished and just waiting on Lacy. I figured Michelle had just thrown her stuff into her room.

“Thank you guys,” I said and hugged them both as they stood up.

“No problem, what Jade did was wrong, and we’ll stick by you.” Lissa picked up her stuff and Jade did the same.

“If it makes you feel better, I told her if any of us saw her near any of your past or present men, I’ll personally take my Pooh pen and shove it into her stomach, twisting it around in her intestines.” Lacy said seriously.

“Gross,” I told her as I scrunched up my nose whish I noticed was something I was doing a lot of lately.

“Hey, it just means I’m willing to commit murder for you cakeface.” Smiling lightly at the nickname from first grade, I walked them both to my door and said goodbye.

Quickly I got dressed into a pair of black silk shorts and put on a black lace tank before going into the bathroom to touch up my makeup. Putting on some mascara and a little eyeliner, I decided so long as I brushed my hair, I didn’t look too bad.

“What? Getting all dolled up for me?” Jumping quickly (again) I saw Alex standing in the doorway, something I believe he’d taken a liking to.

“If you wanted to say you rescued someone ugly by all means, I’ll just go put on my care bear pajamas and tigger slippers before putting dark eyeliner. Just let me know and I’ll change.” I told him smirking.

“You own care bear pajamas?” He asked.

“Two pairs actually.” He grinned and shook his head.

“Alright Dark Rider, are you ready?” He asked as I put my flip-flops on and began to walk past him.

“Yeah, let me just grab-“ Being yanked back to him, he placed me against the wall and smiled.

“I don’t get a kiss?” He asked, his breath once more brushing over my neck. I smiled, leaned up, and kissed him on his cheek before ducking under his arms to get my jacket.

“You cheated,” he said and crossed his arms.

“So we’re part of a game now are we?” I asked, quickly turning on my music to make it seem like when I left I was still here.

“Only if you want to be,” he said. I wasn’t sure what was behind the words, but they weren’t said with the demeanor I had learned to recognize as his.

“What do you mean?” I asked. We were standing a few feet apart in the doors to the balcony.

“Is this real or do you want it to be pretend,” he asked in a whisper, and somehow those words reminded me of my fantasy.

“Can you make real life turn into a fantasy?” I asked him seriously. He nodded.

“I can, but I can’t guarantee a happy ending for either of us.” I thought about it, and before I knew it, I had my answer.

“If life’s an adventure, why should you be a part of a fantasy?” I asked him.

“You’re telling me you want this to be real?” He asked, placing his hands on my hips as he came closer. I nodded, and leaned up to kiss him lightly. After returning the small gesture he let me go, and put his hand on the small of my back leading me out onto the balcony.

“How the hell did you get up here?” I asked him, looking around the balcony to see a ladder.

“That tree right there has more uses than you’d think,” he said, pointing to the tree that grew by Michelle’s window.

“You went into Michelle’s room first?” I asked him incredulously. He laughed and shook his head no. I guess it was a rather stupid question.

“The tree grows onto the roof so I climbed all the way up the tree and slid down onto the balcony.”

“How did you know this was my room?”

“It was the only light on upstairs so I took a really lucky guess.” He said as he pulled me over to the table. “Alright, so step on here and maneuver your way up onto the roof.” Doing as he said I walked over to the tree branch and waited for him to come onto the roof as well.

“Are you good?” He looked at my legs to see if I had any scratches and when he saw none he nodded.

“May I go first now?” I asked him grinning. Climbing trees was my specialty, but I’d never really thought of climbing the one in the front yard. I never really figured letting my neighbors see up my dresses was a good idea.

“Why not?”

Taking hold of the branch on top and placing my feet on the branch below, I walked out and sat down. Dropping to the branch below me carefully, I placed my hands next to my feet and let my feet hang down. Lowering myself I let my arms hold my weight and dropped. Sticking the landing much to Alex’s amusement, I walked away to let him come down. He was down in a little less time than it took myself, but he was taller and took a different branch and just jumped. He was showing off.

“Alright, so where’s your car?” I asked him. He grinned and shook his head.

“It’s not a car per say,” he answered with a smirk.

“What, do you drive a truck?”

“My mode of transportation is not a truck. It’s more of a… well… you’ll see in a second.” We kept walking and turned a corner.

“No way in hell!” I said upon seeing the motorcycle.

“Awe come on, live a little,” he said poking my sides.

“That’s why I’m not riding it you dumb ass!”

“I’m not going to kill you.”

“And who says someone drunk isn’t riding around and we won’t die because of him? Dying was not on my list to do today.” I folded my arms and refused to get on.

“It’s not on mine either. I promise I won’t let you get hurt.” He held out his hand from his spot on the motorcycle and hesitantly I gave him my hand.

“Please tell me you have helmets.” He handed me a purple one and I grinned. I put on the helmet, wrapped my arms around his waist, and he took off with me holding on for dear life.