Page 83 of Enemies to Prom Dates
Fitz was right. I needed some alone time to process what had happened. I didn’t even want to talk about it with Star. It felt too intimate. Too mine and Fitz’s to be shared. Slowly, I made my way upstairs, again as quietly as I could, but apparently not quiet enough as my mother poked her head out of her bedroom.
“Beth?”
“Yes, it’s me.” I tried to stay in the shadows in case she could look at me and tell that my nipples were nearly sucked raw.
“Where were you? I got home from the thing and the girls just said you were out.”
The thingwas a home party where bored women tried to sell handmade scented candles to other bored women as an excuse to drink wine and tell themselves they were actually holding down a job, despite making little to no money.
“I was with Fitz,” I said, not just because it was true, but because it felt like something I would be saying often in the future and she needed to get used to hearing it.
I could see my mother shaking her head. This might have been because when he hadn’t returned two of my texts and my mother had asked me about him the other day, I might have answeredFitz who?
“Spare me teenage romances,” she sighed.
“I wish I could, but I am, in fact, a teenager.”
She shook her head again. “Good night.”
“Good night, Mom.”
I didn’t ask her if she bought anything at the party. I knew she did because it was exactly the kind of thing she thought she needed to do to keep up appearances. I didn’t have the energy to tell her we couldn’t afford it. Tomorrow would be soon enough.
Once inside my room, I closed the door and flopped down on my bed.
No, I hadn’t had sex tonight, but I’d been sexual and that was also a big deal. Fitz was right, which really was an annoying quality about him. I’d spent so much time and effort thinking about when I was going to lose my virginity and how I was going to lose my virginity and what might happen if I wasn’t doing it at the same time as everyone else was, I missed the point.
Sex was something two people shared because they couldn’t not have sex.
That’s what I wanted with Fitz and that’s where he was taking me. I just had to follow his lead.
Happy to hand over some control of my life to him, I tried to stop thinking about what he might do next time. Changing into cotton shorts and tank top, I slid into bed blissfully happy that tonight had worked out pretty much how I’d wanted it to.
Fitz and I were a couple, and there was nothing the students of Haddonfield High were going to do to break us up.
18
Monday
Fitz
Iwaited outside the lunchroom for Beth. Last week I knew she’d been avoiding me on purpose and, of course, I’d avoided her all together in a stupid attempt to attract less attention toward her. Then she’d gone and showed up at Wick’s and now the whole school was talking about variations of events happening night.
Not limited to an orgy, a brawl and a drug bust.
Three key components remained the same. Beth went to a party at Wick’s house. I showed up at Wick’s house. I carried Beth off over my shoulder back to my house. Apparently, someone driving by had seen us.
I’d been harassed by every guy in school asking me if I punched Beth’s V card and I snarled successfully at everyone.
My teammate Jeff had the audacity to get pissed. “Hey, I’ve got some serious money riding on this. You are going to tell us when you finally nail her, right?”
He didn’t deserve the effort it took me to snarl at him, so I simply walked away. Now, however, it was important to make a statement. Things had obviously been confusing last week, which meant now I had to make it clear to everyone.
Beth was mine.
I saw her approaching the cafeteria with Reen and Janie and was happy she hadn’t decided to skip lunch. It looked like she was ready to make a statement, too.
I watched her face change when she spotted me. There was this melting effect, like her whole body was getting looser as she remembered what I’d done to her on my bed. Maintaining my control with her had been a Herculean effort, but the effect was glorious. When I had her, when I finally had her, she wasn’t going to be stiff and afraid and too much in her head. Instead, she was going to be screaming my name.
