“He’s my cousin, and he’s with me. Is there a problem?” Zak placed his hand on Kip’s shoulder, could actually feel the zits under the shirt.
The girls’ eyes widened, and Zak could see a change in their attitude right away. They weren’t jumping Kip’s bones, but there was something different in the way they looked at him. As if he was just slightly less disgusting to them.
“Hi,” Kip said.
The girls bust out laughing, turned their backs to him.
Or maybe not.
“Well, you bridge trolls have a good night. Let’s go inside, Kip.” Zak smiled as the girls gasped, mouths hanging open.
Kip snickered, looked over his shoulder at the group of girls. They were pretty, but Zak wasn’t there to pick up girls. Not tonight. Tonight was all about Kip, and Zak wasn’t sure how he’d pull it off, but he was determined to get his cousin laid. At the very least, a phone number.
As soon as they stepped into the house, music blasting, kids all shouting to be heard over the beat, all eyes turned on them. Conversations were cut off on a dime, and they all stared, whispering to each other, wrinkling their noses.
Zak thought for sure Kip would drop his head again, maybe wander off to a corner where he could hide, but he just smiled, waved at them all. Nobody waved back. Their eyes darted back and forth between Zak and Kip, clearly confused as to what was happening.
“Don’t sweat this shit, Kip. Let them stare, they’ll get over it.”
“It’s fine. I expected this, expected worse actually.”
Zak didn’t know how it could be any worse really. If he was in Kip’s shoes, he didn’t know how he would handle it. Would probably be suicidal or something. But Kip just smiled at them all as they stared, not a single one of them trying to hide their disgust.
Zak wanted to flip them all the double bird, but figured it would do more bad than good. Zak would have to take this slow.
Then he saw her. Jade already had her eyes on him, and she stood across the room with her two slutty friends, surrounded by guys. Each one of them rattled off their lines, doing their best to impress her, but she didn’t appear to be hearing them at all. She had eyes only for Zak.
“Hey, cousin. Why don’t you see about scoring us some drinks? Probably in the kitchen.”
“Okay. Um… what kind?”
“A soda or something for me. You should have a beer.”
Kip looked ready to refuse, but nodded instead. “Yeah okay. A beer… yeah.”
Kip trotted off, all heads turning to watch him go. Jade was already on her way toward Zak leaving her group of hopefuls behind, all of them watching her go with either longing or anger in their eyes. Even her girlfriends looked annoyed.
She looked fucking great. A tight, black dress that showed every curve, cut low to display her perfect cleavage. As she weaved her way through the living room, every male in the place noticed. Every female did too, only they eyed her up and down with disdain contorting their faces.
“Hey. You didn’t call.” She leaned in for a kiss, and Zak kissed back, but only because he didn’t know how else to react. She hugged him, wrapped her arms around his waist, slid her fingertips into his back pockets. “I missed you.”
Zak wanted to shove the crazy bitch away from him, but didn’t want to make a scene. And he knew this girl could cause one hell of a scene if she wanted to.
“I thought you were pissed at me,” he said. “You sure as hell acted like you were.”
She kissed his neck, writhed against him slightly. “So what if I was? Just because we had an argument doesn’t mean anything. I still missed you. Where’s your car?”
“What?”
“Your car. Where is it? We should leave. This party is fucking boring. I’d rather be alone with you anyway.”
Now Zak did push her away, but gently. “Look, Jade. I told you before and I meant it, okay? I can’t see you anymore. Not in that way.”
“That’s bullshit. Who could you possibly be fucking that’s better than me, huh? You know I can have any fucking guy I want, right?”
She sounded like a child.
“I’m not stopping you. Take your pick.”
She bared her teeth, and Zak braced himself for the onslaught. He figured he might as well get it over with. Maybe she would storm out afterward and then he and Kip could work on having a good time.
Before she could even start, Kip returned with their drinks. He handed Zak a bottled water, a cranberry wine cooler in his other hand. “They didn’t have any soda. And I found this in there. Says here on the label it’s got more alcohol than a beer… and I bet it tastes a lot better too.”
“Thanks, cousin.”
Jade spun around to face Kip, tried to press her ass against Zak’s groin, but he backed away. He had never seen a girl be so aggressive before.
When Kip caught sight of Jade, he visibly flinched, eyes widened. He smiled at her, but his stare coasted toward the floor by his feet. Zak didn’t blame him for this one—Jade was one intimidating bitch.
“Toad? What the fuck’re you doing here?”
“He’s here with me, Jade. And I told you I don’t like that nickname.”
She looked over her shoulder, bit her lip, raised an eyebrow. “Oh you don’t? Did I hurt Toad’s little feelings?”
“N-no. No you didn’t. It’s… um… it’s totally fine.” Kip hopped from foot to foot as if he was about to piss himself, then seemed to realize it and stood stock still. He took a drink of his wine cooler, made a face like he’d just taken a spoonful of cough syrup.
“You say I should take my pick, Zak? What if I pick your cousin, huh?”
When Jade stepped into Kip, wrapped her arm around his neck, Zak didn’t know what was more amusing: the look on Kip’s face or the look on everyone else’s.
Jade pulled Kip’s drink out of his hand, slammed it in a couple of seconds. She placed the empty bottle back in Kip’s hand, then she ran her fingers over his chest, the other combing through his hair.
“What do you think, Zak? Did I make a good choice?”
Zak tried to hold back his smile, but couldn’t possibly. Kip looked like he was in the clutches of a grizzly bear, his eyes wide, slightly rolling as Jade ran her nails over his scalp, caressed his chest. Kip looked at Zak for a split second, but then his attention moved back to Jade’s cleavage, which was pressed right up against him.
Zak figured this was probably the greatest moment in Kip’s life, and he felt bad because he knew Jade was only doing it to try and get a rise out of Zak. It was only a matter of seconds before she did something to humiliate Kip, and Zak was trying to figure out some way to intervene, to stop it from happening.
Not a single person spoke. Even the music had been turned down a few notches. All eyes and ears were on the hottest girl in school and the Toad.
“I think you made a great choice,” Zak said. “What do you think, Kip?”
Before Kip could answer, before he could even open his mouth, Jade slammed her face into his, locked lips with him.
Kip dropped the bottle and it shattered on the floor.
And then Jade shoved him away screaming.
Kip had been concentrating on keep his erection at bay. Jade had her breasts mashed against his chest, and from where Kip was standing, he could see right down in between them, could see the peach fuzz on her belly. A scent rolled off of her like raspberries. The fingers running through his hair and against his scalp felt good. But it was her hand rubbing his chest that was creating the issue in his pants. The acne there sizzled with passion.
Though it was obvious she was only doing this to try and make Zak jealous, Kip didn’t care. He’d take anything he could get. And having Jade Brewster press up against him like this, something he would have never thought possible in a million years, was like a dream.