Hometown Girls: Beginnings (Hometown Girls Series Book 1) (10 page)

“Well this is going to be an interesting night,” Becca said watching Marissa Lou and Randy slightly stumble to the dance floor before pulling her own date to his feet and followed suit.

“How about you?” Katie asked Daniel.

He paused for effect, but after a moment without a word he stood up, grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She nestled up to his arm as he led her a few feet away to the dance floor. When they reached what was deemed the dance floor, Daniel looked around and spotted Marissa Lou and Randy dancing close to each other so he decided to play it safe and lead Katie to the opposite side of the floor. Once he was satisfied, he spun her around and brought her close to him, causing her to giggle out loud. But when he laced his arms around her lower back, he felt her skin for the first time and the atmosphere between them became very tense. Her skin was so smooth and flawless that he couldn’t resist but to run his hand ever so lightly up and down her bare back. It amused him because when he did, he could feel goose bumps flare under his touch.

Until that point their interactions were innocent; a few kisses here, a hug there, but at that moment he wanted more. Deciding to test his limits he placed his lips on her shoulder and lightly kissed her skin. By the way her body reacted with quivering heat, he could tell she liked it, so he lightly kissed up from her shoulder, to her neck, to her cheek, then stopped at her lips, feeling her body respond with each touch. With their lips merely inches apart, he breathed her in. He could smell the Vodka on her breath, despite what Becca said about not being able to, but it wasn’t offensive; actually it was warm and sweet.

She parted her lips, as if inviting him to kiss her, so he did. When their lips touched it was like the world stopped spinning and it was just the two of them, dancing and kissing with months of built up passion. The longer the kissing lasted, the more intense it got. With swirling tongues she wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting and needing more.

He placed his hands on both sides of her flushed cheeks and slightly pulled away to look into her eyes to see if she was feeling all the same things he was. He knew she wanted to take it slow, and he had respected that up until that point, and he didn’t want to pressure her. But by the look on her face he could tell she wanted him just as badly.

“You wanna get out of here?” he asked her and lightly kissed her again before she could even respond.

She didn’t speak, only nodded her head ‘yes’.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded her head again, and he knew she meant it, although she didn’t seem to want to stop kissing him.

He kissed her one last time before dropping his hands to hold her hand and led her out of the gym.

Marissa Lou spotted Daniel and Katie as they danced. Their bodies were pressed so close together that it was hard to tell where he began and she ended. It hurt her heart to see. It was supposed to be them here together at their senior prom. Somehow everything went wrong. Then something happened that almost made her sick to her stomach. They began a hot make-out session that could set the gym on fire.

What made it worse was watching them leave the gym hand in hand directly after. Katie always swore she was going to wait to have sex until she got married, but Marissa Lou knew exactly what they were heading to do. Her mind was screaming for her body to run after them. To stop them from doing something that would no doubt bring them even closer together, but her body wouldn’t listen. Instead she buried her face in Randy’s chest and cried.

Marissa Lou didn’t think anything could have been worse than prom night, but once again she was proven wrong, like many occasions before when graduation day rolled around in mid June. A day that was supposed to be epic, one that was meant to put an end to an era and a beginning of another. Instead it turned out to be the end of it all.

By the time graduation came around, Marissa Lou had a full on problem, although she didn’t realize how bad it was. She just brushed it off as stress like usual.

“I can’t believe this is the end,” Jess said sadly.

“This isn’t the end,” Becca said to her and draped an arm over her shoulder to comfort her.

“Yes it is! Today we graduated. School is over.” Jess buried her face in Becca’s arm.

“Don’t worry, Jess, we’re going to college together. It’ll be like high school, but more fun,” Becca said beaming. “Speaking of, where did Marissa Lou get off to?”

“Beats me,” Katie said. “Last I saw her she was getting off the stage and walking away with Randy.”

“She wouldn’t have left without saying anything, would she?” Jess asked.

Jess, Becca, Katie and Daniel all looked at each other before turning around to scan the crowd for Marissa Lou. They all knew, when it came to Marissa Lou those days, there was no telling what she would do.

“Look, over there!” Jess said pointing at Marissa Lou walking from the school parking lot with Randy at her side, his long arm draped over her shoulder per usual.

“Marissa Lou! Over here!” Becca yelled to her.

Marissa Lou looked up at the sound of her name and vigorously waved back at Becca.

“We thought you left,” Jess said to her once she was close.

Marissa Lou ran a hand down the side of her face, her eyes darting around as a way to not look anyone in the eye. “Yeah, umm, we went for a walk,” she said pointing her thumb behind her where she had just come from.

“Looks like someone started celebrating early,” Becca said laughing.

“What? Who, me? Nah I’m just happy.”

“Yeah, okay,” Becca said crossing her arms over her chest. Unlike her other friends, she’d see Marissa Lou like this before.

“I’m happy too. I can’t believe school is over,” Katie said bouncing around excitedly, oblivious to what was going on with Marissa Lou and Becca.

“You know what this means, right?”

Everyone turned to look at Becca.

“Duh, party! You know there is going to be a good one, somewhere, sometime tonight. It would be un-American not to.”

No one was surprised that was what their beloved red headed wild child would want to do.

“Speaking of, does anyone have a camera? I want to remember this moment,” Jess called out sounding nostalgic.

“Hold up,” Katie said before leaving the group and running up to her mom, who was a few feet away talking with Marissa Lou’s mom. A moment later she walked back to her friends with her mom in tow and a very snazzy looking piece of equipment in her hands.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen, huddle up,” Katie’s mom said.

Daniel and Katie were the first to link arms, then came Jess, Becca, Marissa Lou, and begrudgingly to the others, Randy. With each person’s arm across the people beside them, squeezing them all in tight, they all smiled and yelled, “cheese!” in unison before the camera clicked.

“I still can’t believe this is it,” Jess said sadly.

“Jess, we talked about this already. There’s still college. There won’t be any difference because we’re all still going to be together, well except for Katie. She’s leaving us country folk for bigger and brighter lights.”

That made Marissa Lou smile wide, with a giddy happiness.

“Umm, no. We’ll all be at ECU together,” Katie said nervously.

Everyone turned to look at Katie. One by one the girls dropped their arms, breaking the group’s link, and quietly stared at her, waiting for an explanation. No one wanted one more than Marissa Lou.

“I decided to stay here for college,” Katie said simply. “I thought y’all would be happy about it. I worked hard to keep it a secret until now.”

“What happened to getting out of here? You’ve been saying for forever now that you were meant for bigger and better things than this small area could provide. What changed your mind?” Marissa Lou asked, needing some sort of an explanation.

Katie turned and looked at Daniel briefly before turning back to her friends.

Though Marissa Lou was wasted, she didn’t miss the look. Times like these she remembered why she hated being sober.

“Figures,” Marissa Lou snorted and hastily walked away with Randy hot on her heels.

Katie was supposed to move away for college so that Daniel and I can get back together. Her staying here was never in the plans,
Marissa Lou thought as she walked away. There was no way she was going to stand there and listen to Katie and Daniel’s plans for college together while hers were now ruined.

“Maris, where ya going?” Becca called out to her, but she didn’t stop. “What the heck was that all about?”

“Just let her go,” Katie said shaking her head then looked down at her feet. Of course Marissa Lou figured out why she wasn’t leaving for college after years of talking about it. One look at her and Daniel’s faces and anyone could see she was staying here for him. “I need some air,” Katie said walking away as well.

“Daniel?” Becca asked, hoping he would clarify what just happened.

Daniel turned from Katie’s descending back to look at the remaining girls. He shrugged his shoulders apologetically and followed after Katie.

“What the hell, y’all! This is our last night as high schoolers. We’re supposed to stick together.”

“Sorry, Becca,” Jess said and put a hand on her back for comfort.

After a while, the remaining friends left the school, each going in their separate directions to celebrate their accomplishments with their families.

When obligations were filled and dinner was had, Becca went to the graduation party that was being held in the honor of all the graduate’s hosted by Brad Thompson’s parents. Becca had been crushing on the football player all year so whether or not her other friends showed up, at least she could try to talk to him, finally after months of pinned up nerves. She was always the courageous type, but not when it came to things that really mattered. Things like major crushes on one of the hottest boys in school.

Becca steadily watched Brad as he mingled with a few people she recognized from school. He laughed easily and that thrilled her because her sole purpose in life was to be happy and laughing as often as possible. It tended to go hand in hand.

She kept an eye on him, waiting for the right time to make her move. When the conversation slowed and the group slightly dispersed, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly before standing up. She smoothed down her wild strawberry curls as much as the mass of tendrils would smooth and walked up to him. Without saying a word, playing it as cool as a cucumber, she stood directly beside him, encroaching on his personal space, and looked around the room as if he weren’t even there.

“Hey, Becca, right?” he asked craning his neck to look at her.

“Oh, hey,” she said nonchalantly as if noticing him for the first time.

“I’m Brad,” he said holding his free hand out to her, which she willingly accepted, even though she knew full well who he was.

“Hey Brad. I’m Becca, but I guess you already know that,” she said with satisfaction.
God he’s so cute,
she thought, trying not to stare at him, but all she wanted to do was push his loose brown hair off his forehead so she could see his marvelous green eyes better.

“Yeah, I think we had a class together or something. Maybe English.”

She made a gesture as if thinking about it then said, “Maybe.” Becca knew full well that she spent the better part of the school year in English class and during her lunch period staring at him with random fantasies playing through her mind.“So isn’t this the best day ever?”

He laughed and crossed his arms across his chest. “What makes it so great to you?”

“Well, duh! School is over. Good-bye high school and hello college life. I for one can’t wait.”

“And what’s so great about college life?”

He looked at her amused, but she could only stare at him like he just asked her to give up her first born child. She threw her arms out wide and said enthusiastically, “Everything!”

“Like?” he asked barely containing his humor.

She held out her hand and stuck her pointer finger up. “Less school days,” and another finger, “late classes since you get to pick your schedule, dorm rooms, the best parties; no offense, adult decisions, new friends, no curfew, keg stands, beer pong, random hook-ups.” When she ran out of fingers she straightened and shoved all ten of her extended fingers in his face and laughed. “Now that I think about it, it does sound a lot like high school.”

“Okay, okay. Good point. What college are you going to anyway?”

“ECU,” she said beaming.

“Ahh, Greenville’s a fun town.”

“You know it. So how about you?”

“NC State, baby!”

“Wolfpack, barf.”

“Hey, watch it. They gave me a football scholarship that I couldn’t pass up.”

“Well, I guess I won’t hold it against you then. Except for game days of course. Then you’re the enemy.” She smiled wide. She wouldn’t care which school he went to. She wasn’t about to tell him that though. Instead she said, “At least you’re staying in North Carolina.”

“I’ll take that.”

Over Brad’s shoulder, Becca saw Jess walk into the house. She was thrilled to see at least one of her so-called best friends came to their graduation party.

“Hey, Brad, I love talking to you, but I have to go say ‘hey’ to one of my friends.”

He nodded his head dejectedly.

She noticed the look on his face and quickly added, “Can I find you again later?”

“I’d like that.”

Becca hated breaking away from her conversation with Brad, especially after she finally had the courage to speak to him after months of crushing on him from afar. But Jess was her friend. Marissa Lou was always her favorite out of the group because they had so much more in common, although she would never admit that to anyone but herself, even though no one doubted that Katie and Jess had the same sort of friendship. Whatever the dynamics were before, she and Jess had grown closer this year, ever since Katie and Daniel decided to hook-up and put a strain on the friendships and Marissa Lou went insane and began hooking up with Randy Farris. She was really worried about Marissa Lou’s feelings at first. She knew how much Marissa Lou cared about Daniel, but it didn’t take her long to move on. So she began to relax, thinking maybe, just maybe she was going to be alright. That was until she realized how much of a bad influence her new boyfriend was. Becca didn’t care for Randy, and for a good reason. He was a bad guy and though Marissa Lou might have everyone else fooled, she was not blind. But Marissa Lou was a big girl and dealing with things the best way she could.

With all the new changes, it left Becca and Jess alone, allowing them to grow closer. They even made a pact to not date anyone that year, with fears of letting yet another boy completely tear apart what was left of their once inseparable group.

“Jess! Over here,” Becca called out.

Jess’ face lit up when she saw Becca waving to her. She made her way to her and when she was close she said, “I wasn’t sure who would be here. Have the others gotten here yet?”

Becca shook her head side to side. “Not that I’ve seen and really, at this point, I don’t even care. I’m so tired of the drama, you know?”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Their loss. We’ll have fun together. Just me and you,” Becca said putting an arm over her shoulder and ushering her toward the kitchen where snacks and drinks were laid out.