Read The Exception Online

Authors: Brittany Wynne

Tags: #Fiction, #Young Adult, #Romance

The Exception (7 page)

BOOK: The Exception
11.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“Cute blonde, huh? Anybody I know?”

“Oh, she’s about your height, has that same adorable smile, and, come to think of it, looks exactly like…that girl over there.”

I gave him a playful shove. “Oh I bet you think you are pretty funny huh?”

“Yeah, actually, I do,” Jake smiled, while pulling me into his arms. “Now what can I get you?”

“Is there a soda anywhere? I don’t drink much either. Well, honestly, I’ve never actually had a drink,” I admitted.

“Two cokes it is then,” Jake said, popping the lid of the cooler up and grabbing two coke cans.

“Watch out. That’s a strong drink you have there,” Evan joked. “Don’t tell me Emma over here doesn’t drink either.”

I just smiled and shook my head as I enjoyed the first crisp taste of my coke.

“Nope. Not even a little. And it’s not because I haven’t tried, cause believe me I have,” Maya chimed in.

“How would I ever be able to keep you in line and out of all that trouble if I was drunk too?” I asked dramatically.

“Good point. I’ll drink to that,” Maya laughed.

“Cheers,” Evan said holding out his cup, “To trouble.”

“To trouble,” Maya exclaimed then quickly downed the rest of her drink. “Who wants to get this girl another drank?”

“Yes! Now that’s a girl who’s here to party. Allow me, madam,” Evan replied, bowing before going to grab Maya another drink.

“Whatever. I’m out of here,” Dylan grumbled before snatching another drink himself and walking away.

I could tell that Dylan walking away bothered Maya, but she quickly recomposed herself and shouted something about being ready to have a good time. I watched as she organized a group of people to play a drinking game. As she was explaining the rules to everyone, I knew this night was going to end up with me taking care of Maya. She was annoyingly predictable that way. An upset Maya plus alcohol always equals me taking care of her drunken self.

It has been this way since the beginning of last year. Maya’s dad had always been a jerk, but sometime last summer he decided to step it up a notch. The first time we hung out with the guys and they brought beer, Maya’s dad had torn into her before she left the house; so, she decided she should try her first beer. Once she popped open the can, she held it up and said, “To you, Dad. Now I can be just like you.” That night ended in lots of tears and Maya puking her guts out.

I knew there would be no reasoning with Maya at this point. She was upset about Dylan and had already had a few drinks. I decided I had to find Dylan and try to talk some sense into him if I didn’t want to be holding her hair back all night. When I told Jake I was going to find Dylan, he grabbed my hand and said, “Let’s go then.”

We spent what felt like forever looking for Dylan and never found him. Jake suggested we go check to see if he had wandered back over to Maya. So we walked back over to where Maya still had a group of people playing some other drinking game she had thought up. We quickly realized Dylan was still MIA but found Ryan and Gabe standing around drinking a beer watching the whole ordeal. When they saw us, they both gave me a knowing look.

“Why is Maya shitfaced, and why do I feel like I need to tell Evan to back the hell off?” Gabe asked.

“Good Lord. I don’t even know exactly what happened tonight. All I know is Maya seemed off when she first got here, Dylan has been in a pissy mood all day because of the guy from earlier, and something must have happened between the two of them because there was some awkward tension followed by Dylan storming off.”

“Wait? Dylan is still worked up about Talen?” Gabe seemed genuinely surprised as he exchanged a glance with Ryan.

“That’s what Maya said. What’s the deal with that guy anyway? I’ve never seen Dylan like this before.”

“Ancient history,” Gabe said in a flat tone, then looked back toward Maya.

I could tell this Talen guy rubbed them all the wrong way, so I left it alone. Not wanting to piss Gabe off too.

“Seriously, Evan needs to back off. Maya has had way too much to drink, and he is clearly taking advantage of that,” Gabe seethed.

The boys have always been protective of us. Sometimes they could be a little overbearing, but at times like this I was always glad they were. Heaven help any guy that got out of line with one of us. They would have three people to answer to.

“Yeah, he sort of moved in as soon as the two of them started talking.”

“He’s harmless,” Jake chimed in. “Don’t get me wrong. He loves the ladies, but Evan would never take advantage of a girl who’s had too much to drink.”

“Evan or no Evan, I’m about to go protect her from herself,” I stated.

“Nah, I’ve got her tonight. You two go enjoy yourselves. Me and Ryan will take care of Maya,” Gabe said.

“Are you sure? She’s going to be a handful.”

“I’m sure. Besides, you’ll have her all night,” Gabe teased. “Now go and try to have some fun tonight.”

I let out a small laugh because it was true. If she kept this up I would most certainly have to take care of her all night. “Thanks, Gabe.”

“You’re welcome. Now go before I change my mind.”

With that we were off. That was the most Gabe and I had talked all week, and I wasn’t quite ready to walk away now that he was finally talking to me. Not that he wouldn’t talk to me when we ran into each other, it just felt off. Like he was trying to avoid me by saying the minimal amount of words possible before making an excuse to leave. But I was glad that I was going to get to spend some drama free time with Jake.

“Can Evan really be trusted?” I asked Jake as we were walking away from the group.

“I know he doesn’t seem like it, but the guy is all talk. Get him out of a group and he’s actually a nice guy.”

“Really?” I asked in disbelief.

Jake stopped and faced me, placing both hands on my shoulders. “Really,” he said reassuring me.

“OK.”

“OK?” Jake questioned, as if to double check I meant what I was saying.

“Yes, OK,” I smiled.

I couldn’t keep from thinking that I had the sweetest boyfriend ever. I knew that if Jake thought I was at all truly worried about Maya and Evan, we would have walked right back over there and spent the rest of our night watching over those two. I trusted Jake, and if Jake said Evan was harmless, then Evan was harmless.

When Jake was satisfied that I meant what I was saying, he grabbed my hand and led me over to where some people were hanging out around a bonfire. We found an empty chair and Jake sat down, pulling me down to him. I settled in his arms, and we sat there watching the fire for a while – not saying anything and not needing to. We were both content with watching the flames and simply being close to one another.

“I’m really happy you came out with me tonight,” Jake said, breaking the silence and running the back of his fingers down the side of my arm.

Goose bumps erupted where his fingers had touched, and I caught my breath as I turned to face him. “Of course. Why would I not have?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged still staring at the flames, “Maybe you’d want to hang out with your friends or have a girls night or something.”

“Well, now I get to see my friends and my cute new boyfriend too.”

“He sounds like a cool guy,” Jake said, now smiling and looking at me.

“Well, he thinks so,” I teased.

I barely got my last sentence out before Jake grabbed my face and gently connected his lips to mine. I don’t know how he did it, but every time he kissed me my body responded in a way I wasn’t used to. Jake must have sensed it because he deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tight, sending off about a million different sensations from where his fingertips gripped my back. Both of us were breathing heavy when he broke the kiss.

“I have to stop, Emma,” he growled in a tone that caused my body to betray me and lean back into him before I even realized what I was doing. “I’m sorry I can’t,” he said in a more even tone, stopping me by grabbing both of my shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” I half whined when I spoke next, causing myself to blush. Stupid betraying body. I have got to get myself in check around this guy. I paused for a moment until I could trust myself to speak. “Did I do something wrong?”

Jake looked at me with a look that I couldn’t tell was concern or frustration. “Hell, no. You’re doing everything right. That’s the problem. If I don’t stop now, I would have a really hard time stopping myself from picking you up out of this chair and carrying you back over to my truck.”

“Oh,” was all I could get out, as I felt the heat in my face rise once I realized why he had to stop.

“Emma,” Jake began while grabbing my face and making me look at him, switching to the voice he uses whenever he is serious about something. “I’ll never take things farther than you want me to. And I have a feeling me carrying you back over to my truck isn’t something you’re ready for.”

I just shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. I couldn’t trust what I would say or do around this boy. Heck, I just made out with him in the middle of a party. Even though I don’t think anyone noticed because most people are either too drunk to care or are doing the same thing. Still, it is not something I would normally do.

“That’s what I thought,” he said sweetly, still using his serious tone. “I really do care about you, Emma.”

“I know.”

“Want to go walk around or just get out of this chair?”

“Yes,” I laughed. “Getting out of this chair would be good.”

We attempted to stand up, but somehow our feet got tangled or we tripped over the chair or something because just as soon as I was up, I was going back down and Jake was going with me. I landed with a thud right on my back. When I looked up at Jake he was holding himself up right above me. Our eyes met and we both froze.

“OK, we definitely have to get out of this area.” Jake quickly stood up then helped me up.

“Agreed,” I replied while brushing the dirt off the back of me.

We were walking away from the bonfire when we ran into Gabe and Ryan.

“Hey, have you guys seen Maya? I turned around for like a second to get another beer, and when I looked up her and Evan were gone.” Gabe spoke with disdain looking directly at Jake, slowly enunciating Evan’s name, not bothering to hide his agitation.

“No. Sorry man, we haven’t,” Jake lilted, still clearly amused from our little spill.

“You think this is funny, Reynolds?” Ryan jumped in. “We can’t find our very drunk friend who happened to disappear with one of your friends.”

“Whoa. Everybody chill out.” I stepped in between them with my arms out as if that would somehow diffuse all the rising testosterone. “Nobody thinks this is funny. And before you freak out, you have to think about Maya. It’s not like Evan had to drag her away to a dark corner. This is Maya we are talking about.”

Before I could say anything else, we heard a voice that sounded like Maya…screaming something. We all looked at each other, then took off in the direction of the yelling. At first I was relieved to find Maya standing fully clothed in the entrance of the barn with Evan a few steps behind her. Then I turned to see a not-so-dressed Dylan with some girl I didn’t know covering herself up the best she could.

“What the hell. Is. This?” Maya shouted a second and a third time.

“Don’t act so innocent,” Dylan spat, still scrambling to get dressed. “It’s not like you weren’t coming in here with him to do the exact same thing.”

Evan threw his arms in the air. “Look man, don’t get the wrong idea…”

“You’re right,” Maya shouted angrily with tears building in her eyes. “I was bringing a guy in here who actually knew what he was doing.” Then she kissed a very shocked Evan.

“Figures. Slut,” Dylan shot back as he walked out of the barn.

As soon as Dylan and the little tramp he brought in here were both out of sight, Maya crumbled to the floor and broke into tears. Ryan and Gabe were clearly pissed. Before I could say anything, Gabe was asking Maya what happened – never taking his eyes off of Evan. I hadn’t even realized Jake had grabbed my hand until I felt him tense up, getting ready to help his friend if Ryan and Gabe started something.

Through her sobs Maya told the boys to leave Evan alone. She said that she had started not to feel well and he was kind enough to ask her if she wanted to go somewhere quieter and where she didn’t have to worry about puking in front of everyone. Evan took that time to defend himself.

“Seriously guys. She just wanted to get away from everyone. I was just trying to help,” he said nervously and then looked at Jake, “Tell them man. I would never take advantage of a girl.”

All eyes were on Jake. “I already told them you were a big softy who was all talk.” Jake’s words caused Ryan and Gabe to both relax a little bit.

“Shit, Jake. I said help. Not ruin my reputation.”

The guys were looking back at Maya who was now crying into my shoulder.

“Maya, honey. Can you finish calling off the dogs so they don’t beat Evan’s face in?” I asked.

She pulled it together the best she could, then turned and looked at them with puffy eyes. “Both of you settle the hell down. If either of you hurt a hair on his head you’ll have me to answer to. Now, if you insist on beating the shit out of anyone, why don’t you focus on Dylan who brought me here, ditched me, and then hooked up with some whore. Mmmkay?”

BOOK: The Exception
11.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

ORDER OF SEVEN by Beth Teliho
Hunter Killer by Chris Ryan
Raising The Stones by Tepper, Sheri S.
Pawn of the Billionaire by Frasier, Kristin, Moore, Abigail
Islam and Terrorism by Mark A Gabriel
The Good Boy by Schwegel, Theresa
Hearts Racing by Hodgson, Jim
Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson