Page 1 of My Sweet Cherry
Chapter 1
Beth
“Ihave too done it before!” I faced my friends’ disbelief, planting my hands on my hips in faux confidence I didn’t deserve. The music crackling through the bar’s speakers covered the nervous doubt in my mind that told me both girls would see straight through me. Then Isabella cocked her head to the side.
“You lie,” she said, giggling while Amy’s laugh roared. My cheeks warmed with embarrassment I’m sure the entire bar was now aware of even though nobody looked in our direction.
I huffed, crossing my arms and popping my hip to the side. “I do not! I did it once in high school.”
“Okay, then why not do it tonight?” Amy mirrored my pose, smirking as she backed me into a corner I couldn’t make an excuse to get out of. Isabella looked between us excitedly before copying the pose herself.
I stood there with people dancing on my left and a line of golden tequila shots lined up on the counter while my friends faced me. “Because we have class tomorrow!” I threw my hands in the air thinking about the eight o’clock physics class that was going to be harder to wake up for the longer we stayed out.
“So? What’s one tequila shot?” Amy grabbed one of the shots from the counter, thrusting it toward me and scowling when I didn’t take it.
“I think she’s scared,” Isabella added, taking her own glass.
I grumbled, resisting the urge to stomp my foot. “As if! I’m not scared!” When I took a step back, I bumped into a wall of muscles that grunted quietly. I glanced over my shoulder and met the dark stare of an obviously-more-experienced-than-me man. He stared back at me, and I coughed, wishing I was anywhere but here when he lifted a brow. “Sorry,” I whispered turning back around and taking a small step back toward my friends. I lowered my voice, trying to mask the nerves and embarrassment behind a casual tone. “I’m not scared,” I repeated.
“Then take the shot.” Amy offered me the glass again, and I rolled my hands into fists at my sides. “I triple dog dare you.”
How could I say no to that? I couldn’t turn down the dare and look like I was really scared, even if I was. At least a little bit. “Fine!” I took the shot glass, smelling the semi-putrid, not-as-sweet-as-I-wanted scent that made my stomach flip. “Cheers.”
I regretted sticking my tongue in the glass when it burned. My mouth watered with dread. Closing my lips around it, I filled my mouth with tequila, swallowing it as quickly as I could to get rid of the taste. When I choked, the liquor burned the back of mythroat and the roof of my mouth, and it got worse each time I coughed. Then I heard a low chuckle behind me, and I wished I could disappear when I remembered the dude that had been standing there.
“You cool?” I turned around when he spoke, trying to act like I hadn’t just choked on the first shot of tequila I’d taken since the one I had with my older sister on my high school graduation night.
I nodded. “Totally,” I said, waving my hand to brush off his concern. “Guess I just swallowed wrong.”
“Looked like.” He smirked, taking the beer the bartender placed on the counter for him before he walked away, leaving me to bask in my own mortification. “Have a good one,” he said before he was gone.
“You too!” Why did I sound so eager? I groaned and as soon as he was out of earshot, I turned, looking at my friends with eyes so wide, they could be in a Saturday morning cartoon. “Ugh, how embarrassing!”
“You need to lighten up, Beth!” Isabella said, glancing over my shoulder in the direction the guy walked.
“I’m light! See?” I threw my hands in the air, waving them side to side as if it said I had no concerns in the world—as if she hadn’t just watched me embarrass myself in front of a dude like that. He definitely didn’t look like the type to choke on a tequila shot.
Isabella giggled, throwing her arm around my shoulders. “No, like you need to chill out. Have some fun!”
“I have fun!”
“You need to have stupid-girl-in-college fun.” She gestured around the bar at the neon lights reflecting off people’s faces while they bobbed and weaved, balancing their drinks while they danced around each other.
“Yeah, Beth! It’s homecoming week! It’s the biggest party week of the semester.” Amy started to dance, turning the rest of the crowd into a shiny group of background dancers.
I sighed. “I told you, I have fun!” I insisted, even though I knew neither of them considered reading a book in my dorm on a Friday night fun.
They looked at each other, exchanging a look that simultaneously told me reading in bed wasn’t what they meant by fun and they didn’t think they would be able to convince me to do otherwise. “Okay, if you say so.” Isabella dropped her arm, bumping her hip against Amy’s and lifting her hands in the air.
“I do,” I said, looking around the bar while my stomach sank with tequila-weighted anxiety. “You’ll see.”
Chapter 2
Carter
“Are you seriously doubting me?” Benny puffed his chest out, lifting his arm and flexing his bicep as I rejoined the group. “It’sme!”Suddenly the fresh beer in my hand wasn’t strong enough. I thought about the tequila shots the girls at the counter were taking.
“Absolutely! You havenogame.” Anthony nodded at me like he knew I’d agree, even while Benny looked offended next to him. He was the kind of guy that was obsessed with Twinkies, fried chicken, hot blonde women, and his own reputation, and he was always the last to doubt himself.
