Follow You Down (15 page)

An hour later, Jasmine is standing in my apartment looking like a fucking supermodel. She is just effortlessly beautiful. She walks around my living room looking at pictures.

“Are these your parents?”

“Yep.” She’s eyeing the picture of my dad in his uniform holding me by his police car when I was a baby.

“I’ve never heard you or Jason talk about your parents. What do they do?” I grab my keys and we head toward the door.

“My dad was a business man and my mom stayed at home. They died when I was thirteen.”

“Oh, Jasmine, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

She shakes her head at me; there isn’t a hint of sadness in her voice. “Don’t be. You didn’t know.”

We get in Jasmine’s car. It looks just like her. Pink steering wheel and seat covers and it smells of flowers. I notice a picture of her and Jason folded by her gas gage.

She begins driving and clears her throat. “Jason raised me after they died. We have grandparents, but they all live in California, and I didn’t want to leave the only home I had ever known, so Jason became my legal guardian. He was only twenty-one.”

Suddenly, Jason’s protectiveness over Jasmine makes total sense. He doesn’t just act like her big brother; he acts like her dad, too.

“Ya know, if I had a brother, I hope he would be as protective of me as Jason is of you.”

“Psh. You say that, but it would probably drive you insane. Don’t get me wrong, I know my brother loves me, and I love him more than anything, but I need some freedom. He needs to learn to let go a little, give me some room. So what if I fail. It’s my failure, not his.” She quickly ends the conversation.

“So, tell me about this guy. I’ve seen him with you a few times. He’s cute!”

“He is so much more than cute. He’s smart, funny, fucking sexy, and exhausting.”

“Oh, aren’t they all.”

We pull into a newer looking shopping mall with a few different boutique type stores in it. We shop for the next few hours, going from one boutique to the other. All the shop workers know Jasmine by name and we get the star treatment. After I am officially worn out from shopping and wondering where the hell I am going to wear all the new clothes I’ve bought, we decide to get some lunch.

Over lunch, I spill all of the details of Lucas’ and my short relationship to Jasmine. She listens intently the whole time, waiting till I’m done to say anything.

“Wow. You got yourself in a shit storm, sister.”

I’m quickly realizing Jasmine doesn’t think through the things that come out of her mouth before she says them.

“I’m not an expert in the relationship department at all, but I think you should give him just what he wants. Leave him alone. Let him sweat it out. If he really wants to figure out whatever is going on between y’all, he will come to you. Until then, fuck him. Have some fun!”

After lunch, we head back to our apartments to drop of our stuff, and then meet at Jasmine’s to do what two confused twenty-something girls do best, drink and talk about boys.

I’m not a wine drinker, but Jasmine has a lot of it, so we just start opening bottles, trying a little bit of everything. Before I know it, I’m pretty much shitfaced, and so is Jasmine. We’re having fun though. We watch
Bridesmaids
; then spend hours combing through Pinterest looking at clothes that we will never wear and recipes we will never make.

Around seven, Jasmine decides we should order pizza, but in her drunken stupor, she calls Jason instead of the pizza parlor. I can hear him screaming at her from across the room, but she doesn’t get upset, she just says “wrong number” and hangs up on him.

A little while later, when someone knocks on the door, we both assume it’s the pizza guy, until Jason walks in.

“What the fuck are you doing, Jazzy?”

“It’s Jasmine. Jas-MIN!” Yep, I think we officially drank too much wine.

“Well, Jas-MIN, why are there empty wine bottles everywhere?”

“Funny thing, big brother,” she tries to take a sip from the glass in her hand but Jason intercepts it,- “Dani and I found some great wine bottle craft projects on Pinterest, but the bottles had to be empty first. So basically, we’re doing craft projects.”

She looks over her shoulder at me, where I’m sitting on the couch, and we both start laughing.

“You think this is funny, Dani? I thought that you would be a good influence on her. I guess I was wrong.”

“Hey! Don’t be mean to my friend! I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m in my house drinking, not at a bar, and there are no boys in sight!” She sticks her tongue out at him, grabs an open bottle off the coffee table and takes a swig.

“No, fuck this, Jazzy. You are not going to get shitfaced and act a fool, even if it is in your own house.” He points his finger at me. “And you, where is your phone?”

“Ummm…” Where is my phone?

“You have no clue, do you?” I shake my head at him and continue drinking my wine.

He sees it on the counter and grabs it.

“You know you have like ten missed calls and twenty text messages from Lucas, right?”

“Do I really?” I guess in my drunkenness I forgot to check my phone. Oh, well, fuck him.

“I have a serious question though.” Jason and I both look at Jasmine. “Did you bring our pizza?”

With that, the drunken giggles begin. Jasmine falls on the couch and we keep laughing long after the joke quit being funny.

I don’t know how long we laugh at her pizza joke, and at the sight of Jason throwing away empty wine bottles while cursing under his breath, before there’s another knock on the door.

“Pizza!” Jasmine jumps off the couch and runs to open the door.

“Hey, you aren’t the pizza guy?”

I can’t see who is at the door, but I instantly know the voice. “Sorry, sweetheart. No pizza here.”

I look at Jason wide-eyed. “You called Lucas? What the fuck?”

“What did you expect me to do, Dani? You’re drunker than a depressed sailor! I couldn’t let you go home alone like that.”

“You’re a fucker, Jason Slade.”

Jasmine raises her hands as if she understands me completely. “That’s what I always say!”

“Hey, Red, you ready to go?”

“Don’t call me that.” I shoot invisible lasers at Lucas’ pretty face, and then at his crotch, but quickly stop. I can’t even imagine doing invisible harm to the beautiful thing in his pants.

I stand up and wobble to one side for a second before Lucas catches me. “Okay, this is going to piss you off, but it’ll make getting you down the hall a lot easier.” With that, he scoops me off the ground, throwing me over his shoulder.

I kick and hit him in the back, but he’s not fazed.

He stops in the kitchen to talk to Jason. “Thanks for the call, man, and sorry about the other night.”

“No problem.” They do the man nod at each other as Lucas heads for the door.

“Bye, Dani!” I wave at Jasmine as I walk by her and flip Jason the bird when he tries to smile at me. He really is a fucker.

Lucas carries me down the hall, only putting me down when we get to my doorway. He has my keys in his hand and unlocks my apartment.

Once inside, I walk past him and straight to my bedroom with Lucas hot on my tail.

“Ya know, you didn’t have to come over. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Thank you very much!” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I trip over the rug in my room. Fucking rug, always getting in my way. Why do I need a rug anyway? Like, who invented the rug in the first place? Stupid rug inventor!

“Dani, you know I can hear you talking right?”

I laugh, “Oh, sorry!”

“Just let me help you get in bed and then I’ll leave you alone, okay?”

“Whatever.” He acts like I’m not capable of putting myself in bed. I am very capable of that. Jackass. I took care of myself just fine before Mr. Self-righteous came along.

“Dani, you’re talking out loud again.”

“Ugh! Damn it!”

He laughs at me and watches as I struggle to get undressed.

I finally get my clothes off and crawl into my bed with only a bra and panties on.

“Why do you have underwear on?”

“You would notice that, wouldn’t you?” He shrugs.

“Well, if you must know, I went shopping today and I don’t like to try clothes on commando. It’s weird.”

“Fair enough. You need anything? I’m gonna sleep on the couch.”

“No, I don’t need anything, and you don’t have to sleep…” I feel the puke rising, and from the look on Lucas’ face, he can see I’m about to blow. He grabs me off my bed and runs full force to the bathroom, placing me on the floor just in time for me to throw up in my bathtub.

After I thrown up the multiple bottles of wine I drank, I lay my head down on the side of my tub. Lucas grabs a rag and runs it under warm water before using it to clean my face.

“Feel better now, Red?”

I nod, scared to speak. “Want to try to go lay back down?” I nod again and Lucas carries me back to my room, this time, putting a trashcan beside my bed before he starts to leave.

I call his name right before he walks out my door, “Lucas?”

“Yeah, Red?”

“I lied.”

“About what?”

“About wanting to be your girlfriend. I do want to be your girlfriend. I’m just scared you don’t want me to be.” I instantly feel like a thousand pound weight has been lifted off my chest when I finally say it.

Lucas says something, I know this because I can hear him, but I can’t make out the words. I’m too tired now to try to talk.

Wine hangovers are a motherfucker.

Fucking, Jasmine. I see the trash can beside my bed and all the small details from last night come flooding in. The pizza. Jason showing up. Lucas showing up. Puking in my bathtub. Oh God, what did I say to him last night? I know I said something, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was.

I make my way out of bed, putting on my hangover clothes, a college t-shirt of my dad’s and shorts, and head to my bathroom to inspect the damage. Surprisingly, there is none. My bathtub is spotless.

I brush my teeth five times before I start to head out to the living room. I need coffee and Diet Coke ASAP. That’s when I smell it. Bacon. And eggs. Who is cooking breakfast in my house?

I am met with the most amazing sight; Lucas wandering around my kitchen in just basketball shorts, cooking. There is a pile of bacon on one plate and eggs on another. He’s flipping pancakes, too.

He can fuck my brains out and cook pancakes; well, he just doesn’t play fair at all.

He turns around to lay another pancake on the stack he has made on the island and sees me. “Morning, sunshine.” I groan at him and sit down at one of the stools in front of all the food he’s made.

He places coffee and Diet Coke in front of me, and then hands me a plate with way too much food on it. “Dig in.”

And I do. The bacon is crispy, the eggs are fluffy, and the pancakes have chocolate chips in them. Everything is perfect, too perfect actually.

“Your mom called you.”

“Oh, shit!” The last thing I need today is to deal with a hangover and Gail.

“I answered it.”

“You what?”

He holds his hands up defensively. “Hey, would you have rather had her calling out a fucking search party for you? No. I just answered and told her you didn’t feel good so you were resting and I was here to take care of you so she shouldn’t worry.”

“Oh.” What am I supposed to say, thank you?

“She said you told her yesterday that you felt sick so she was glad I was here to take care of you. I also told her I would remind you to call her before you went to work.”

I just nod at him.

I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do right now. Why is he still here, in my house, cooking breakfast? I thought we were over.

“Dani, can we talk?” Oh great. Here we go. The usual ‘it’s not you it’s me’ bullshit speech where he asks if we can still be friends. This should be fun.

I shovel more eggs in my mouth. “Sure, Lucas. Talk away.”

He clears his throat causing me to look up at him. I realize he actually looks nervous.

“I do use Nikki and my dad as a way to avoid relationships. I’ve been fucked over before, so I don’t want to have that happen again. I know that I spew bullshit about not wanting to settle down, but I do it so I can be upfront and honest from the beginning. It makes me come off as a prick, I know, but I’m really doing it so I don’t hurt anyone.”

He walks around the island and sits in the stool beside me, so he is facing me. “Dani, you are not like any girl I have ever been with. And yes, I do feel something for you. And I know I’m the one who made this complicated, okay? I know that.”

He pauses for a moment. “I also know that you say we can’t cuddle, but you like to tangle your feet with mine when we sleep. You say that I can’t stay past breakfast, but sometimes, I hang out here all day. You say that this is just physical, but I know that your favorite breakfast is chocolate chip pancakes because your dad used to make them for you every Sunday. You say that you don’t want to be my girlfriend, but then you get drunk and tell me that you do want to. Those are all the things you say. Well, here are all the things I say,” he pulls me so that we’re standing up, and then lifts me on the counter and stands between my legs, “I say that I don’t do relationships, but I have basically been in one for weeks. I say that I don’t want to talk about personal shit with anyone, but I’ve told you more than I have my own brother. I say that I can’t imagine sleeping with one woman for the rest of my life, but watching you cum and hearing you scream my name is my favorite thing in the world.” He puts my face in his hands and wipes away the few tears that have slipped out. “I say that I’m a dick, and I don’t know how to do relationships, but I want you to teach me. I say that settling down scares the shit out of me, but with you, it’s a little less scary. I say that I may fuck this up terribly, but I’m willing to try if you are. So, what do you say?”