Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series) (40 page)

You gotta appreciate his honesty—in this area at least.

Not wanting to make matters worse or more difficult, I quickly collected my stuff and left the room without another word. Turning to walk down the hall, I almost tripped over Pete who’d crashed sitting up with his back on the wall. I thought about waking him up to tell him I’m okay, but then I thought better of it. My rationale is that I should just get out of here while Tristan is letting me and I still have the determination to go. It was really hard to leave him just now, but until I am away from him, I won’t know if the reason behind that is because I actually want to be with him or if it’s just a sheer physical thing and me being impulsive.

I tiptoed around Pete and pulled my phone out to text Kate and Melissa to see if they’re awake yet. I looked at my phone and thought, oh crap… I have two missed texts, one from each of them. The bright side though, is at least I didn’t miss anything from home. One of Tristan’s things last night while we were sequestered was that our phones be on vibrate so we wouldn’t be interrupted. In fact, he turned his clear off except when he sent texts asking for food or reinforcements.

Tristan had chosen a room—why, I’ve no idea—that didn’t have a bathroom in it, but there was one right across the hall. Anytime I had to go he’d stand guard over the bathroom door in case I tried to sneak away, and then when he had to go, he’d actually have Jeff or Mike provide backup to make sure I stayed in the room. It was either that or being taken into the bathroom with him, or, both of us staying put and me having to watch him pee out the bedroom window. He did give me the choice though.

Anyhow, I looked at the time stamps of the missed texts and saw that Melissa’s was first and Kate’s was only about ten minutes ago, so, the vibrating from both of them might’ve been what woke me up. I continued downstairs and found them and some other girls sitting outside around the still smoldering fire pit, talking.

“Hey, sorry I didn’t answer you…I was asleep,” I told them, leaving out all details because of the others present.

I have no idea who knows how much about anything that happened last night, but I really don’t want to be subjected to another volley of rumors that I have no way of disproving. However, now that I think about it, dozens of people saw Tristan drag me back to the room last night so maybe it’s too late. I don’t think our screaming at each other at any point in the night will make much of difference either, even if everyone heard it.

“No problem. We were just talking about getting something to eat, wanna go?” Melissa asked cheerfully.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” I’m hoping that it’ll just be the three of us though; I need to talk...

“Okay, well go get dressed and then we’ll get outta here,” she said, calling attention to my lack of adequate attire. All I have on is a pink hoodie and a pair of black dance shorts that barely conceal the tops of my thighs…not exactly appropriate even if it is just Denny’s.

“Um…I’m kinda hung-over and I really should eat before I take anything for my headache…I’m afraid it’ll be a bad one too, so can we just go now? I’ll throw my pants on in the car,” I said, meeting Kate’s eyes. I’m really hoping that saying I’m hung-over will make my desire to escape as quickly as humanly possible look less suspect to these girls who are kind of eyeing me strangely.

“Yep! Let’s get goin’ then,” Kate said, getting my meaning at once. She knows full well I could care less about having food before aspirin and even more telling in my statement was, if I was actually hung-over; I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with food.

We left the house quietly, not wanting to wake up any of the other partygoers passed out in assorted places throughout Mike’s house, and once we were safely driving down the street, both Kate and Melissa threw a barrage of questions at me. The first of Kate’s being more of a statement.

“You were running,” she said and looked at me in her rearview mirror.

“Yeah, my window of opportunity to leave was closing. Actually, I almost slammed it shut myself but, that would’ve just made everything else so much harder to figure out so, I had to make a quick getaway…thanks for picking up on that,” I told them honestly and thanking Kate once more for her awesome powers of divination.

While she drove, I covertly finished getting dressed in the back seat, simultaneously filling them in on various parts of my night. While rummaging in my bag for my bra though, I came across something I hadn’t packed so holding up the condom I asked, “What the hell is this and how did it get in my bag?”

“Oh, it’s a party favor. Turn it over and read the other side,” Melissa told me and giggled.

Reading it, I can understand why she thinks it’s funny. First, the condom is day-glow orange and written on the wrapper is the phrase: “I slept with Mike Foster.” Also included is the date of the party with a pumpkin next to it. Then I noticed it has a keychain through one corner of it.

“Everyone who stayed the night got one and were also included in the judging panel…pretty funny, huh?” Melissa said.

“OH! That’s what the box of condoms was about…when I saw Mike waving it around last night I was thinking Kristen and I were gonna have a really long night but for totally different reasons. That’s really funny! Who put it in my bag though? And what judging panel?” I asked while laughing about what I can now clearly see is a novelty condom keychain.

“I think Mike did right before Jeff brought it up to you. He wanted to make sure you got one, especially after you and Tristan won this year’s most memorable party moment hands down... The awards ceremony will be at lunch on Monday. The people who slept over were the judges unless they happened to be nominated in whatever category was being voted on. Oh, and the four of us won first place for best costume…we think Pete should keep the trophy,” Kate chattered.

“There was voting? So, not only did I get held prisoner all night and cried through the majority of it, but I missed voting and winning awards too…that totally sucks.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have been happy during the voting process…there was a lot of ‘well what about when’ kinds of things being thrown out because no one could choose which part was the most memorable and all the choices were you guys in some way or another, so, you probably would’ve felt kinda uncomfortable hearing like three or four dozen people relive their memories of the night. Mike actually halted the debate and called it a draw.

“I was sorta leaning towards when you let Pete do the body shots and Tristan’s reaction to that, Jeff and Pete were pushing for when Tristan threw you over his shoulder and stormed away with you...they were really pleased with Tristan for that by the way, and I think Mike was liking when Tristan lost it and beat the shit outta Zack (That figures…it was his prediction and all.) who might have a broken nose...oh, there’s a bet going on about that now too…I think there were a few others… Melissa, do you remember any other moments that were nominated?” Kate asked while trying to remember the public highlights of my night.

Okay, so there will be no preventing of rumors. I mean come on, there was freaking voting. Ugh.

“Um, there was the call for room service that everyone thought was hysterical and someone said something about when you tried to leave and he dragged you back kicking and screaming, but not that many people who stayed the night saw that. Mike did say it was pretty funny though. The bathroom breaks were kind of popular…”

Huh. I’m sort of surprised about that one. Although, it was kind of funny that no one in line seemed to mind that we would cut right to the front of it, almost like they knew what was going on and were just happy to be helpful. Oh hell. Yeah, everyone knew what was going on, there’s just no way I can delude myself any longer.

“Oh, Kristen and a few girls mentioned how once you guys were inside how he carried you up the stairs…they said seeing it was pretty spectacular and totally romantic,” Melissa added and turned around to look at me for confirmation.

Yeah, I think they all had the night pretty well covered…that’s just freaking great.

“Okay, Mike’s an asshole, he did absolutely nothing to help me but that last one I’ll agree with. Personally, I was thinking it must’ve looked pretty similar to Moses parting the Red Sea, but then he took those stairs two at a time which was probably very romantic looking…” I said and then gave them a few details of what transpired directly after Tristan got me to the room. I wouldn’t have necessarily called it romantic at the time, but yeah, Kristen and the other girls were right; it was.

We got to the restaurant and while we ate, we talked about the whole evening with me giving them a pretty comprehensive play by play but without giving up too many intimate details. I mean I did give them some, like the memorizing thing and what’d happened this morning, but overall, I left the specifics of what Tristan and I did pretty much out. And I wasn’t the only one who did some censoring in their re-cap of the night...

Without getting into specifics either, Melissa told Kate and I how after they’d retired for the night, Keith had been a bit more amorous than usual and that’s why she was relieved when he eventually started puking from all the drinking he’d done earlier. Apparently the puking was followed by Keith passing out and Melissa getting a pressure free and peaceful night’s sleep...

“You know on top of everything, I’m pretty irritated that he never actually apologized…I mean he didn’t once say he was sorry for any of it,” I told them as we were finishing up our post-party nourishment. Actually, Melissa was the only one who ate a real meal. I’d ordered fruit and I also picked at the French fries Kate had ordered but wasn’t really eating much of.

Kate looked at me thoughtfully for a minute or two and I could tell she was onto something, but was reluctant to say what she was thinking. I’m not sure why she’d be hesitant, but I gave her the go ahead to spit it out anyway. I’m more than aware that I need some help in sorting through my feelings on this so whatever she’s thinking, I need to hear it.

“Okay well, I’m wondering, do you really need him to say the words? I mean I never thought about it before but, Tristan is so not like Jeff or Mike in the way that he practically never says what’s on his mind.”

She stopped and sighed when I just sat there giving her an “I don’t get what that has to do with anything” look.

“Alright, lemme see if I can explain this…uh…Oh! It’s kinda like a book my parents have…I picked it up once when I was pissed at Jeff a long time ago and it’s all about something called love languages and how people give and receive love…not just romantic love, but you know what I mean…anyway, I found out that my love language is something called acts of service and Jeff’s is actually a combination of two of them, quality time and words of affirmation, and that’s why when I lecture him it bothers him so much, because when I talk at him like that, it’s like I’m taking one of the main ways he interprets love and use it to punish him without really meaning to.

“I mean, I’ve been thinking back over everything, Camie, not just last night, and it’s obvious to me now that Tristan is not only pretty complicated, but he’s a very physical person (uh-huh…duh) and from what I’m hearing, it sounds like he spent the entire night trying to show you that he’s sorry. I’d be willing to bet anything that Tristan’s primary love language is physical touch with a big acts of service kicker and if that’s true, I don’t know how much you’re ever gonna actually hear come from his mouth on the stuff that’s important. If you decide to take him back, you might need to learn how to interpret the things he does instead of hearing the words, because he might never say them, you know what I mean?”

“That actually makes a lot of sense, Camie. I already told you I’ve never seen him behave the way he does when he’s around you and I think Kate’s right. Little by little he’s been showing you how he feels for weeks and then last night was like a giant exclamation point.

“I mean he wouldn’t even let you out of the room until he made sure you heard what he was trying to say. That in itself is pretty telling in my opinion…because he let you go this morning even though he knew he could’ve stopped you. If you think about it, he even told you in a round about way that he was fighting his gut instinct to give you what you said you need from him, which is time and space…and it was obviously really difficult for him to do because he knew you hadn’t heard him,” Melissa elucidated for me as we headed back to Kate’s car.

“Huh. I guess I never thought of it like that. I mean I know he’s physical, sometimes in a scary way too, but I never realized it was his primary mode of communication. Now that you point it out though, I can totally see where you’re probably right. And actually, that could explain why he hates it when girls throw themselves at him or hang on him…

“If touch is how Tristan expresses love, then girls doing it in such a shallow way would be to him how Jeff feels punished when you lecture him. So if that’s really the case then, I guess it kinda says a lot that he let me hit him in anger last night too. I think he felt really bad about the boat stuff and calling me a bitch, which I was totally being, but he let me punish him because he felt like he deserved it, especially after everything else he’d done.

“OH! Wait, he actually said something like that…oh crap what did he say…? Oh damn, it was something about how what he did last weekend was hurting him because he knew it’d cause me pain or something like that and that’s when he said he didn’t know how to make up for it and he couldn’t take back anything he’d already done and asked me if we could just start over…so I guess maybe that was the acts of service part of him trying to apologize...he just didn’t know what he could actually do though.” He kept asking what he could do or how he could prove himself so this acts of service thing lines up with why he actually gave me an answer on some of the sex stuff too…it was very clear he didn’t want to but he did it all the same.

We left the restaurant and all the way to my house and into my room, we talked about every instance we could think of and how this new theory about how he works could explain the things he’s done. We’d decided during breakfast (or brunch, whatever…) that we’d come back here to hang out and just recoup. Kate and Melissa were positive that both Jeff and Keith would be sleeping most of the day anyway—not that Melissa was all that keen to see Keith today, but regardless... And I’d be surprised if Tristan hadn’t passed out shortly after I left because I don’t think he slept at all last night. I only got a couple hours myself, maybe, and since I’m like death warmed over I’m thinking if he’s not asleep by now, he’s gotta be like the walking dead.