Chapter 9: Flashback

My heart was speeding like a runaway train when my fingers wrapped around the door handle to the library. It was Thursday afternoon, and I knew Kemar was supposed to be at work.

And even though we hadn’t planned to meet, I had a vague hope that we would anyway. Unfortunately, when I approached the desk where he used to sit, I only saw the manager, a red-haired lady called Prudence.

She was busy with what seemed to be an important phone call. She glanced at me with a stiff, microscopic smile and kept on talking. Needless to say, I felt a bit disappointed.

I walked around for a minute or two, pretending to be interested in books about knitting and crocheting, when I in reality searched the room to see if I could spot Kemar elsewhere.

Sadly, I could only see regular people doing regular things, like they do in a regular library. Oh, well. It wasn’t like he knew I was coming here, anyway. No reason to feel sad.

But I was.

With my head hanging low, I put the books away and turned to leave. But since I had an almost supernatural ability to mess things up, I ended up crashing into a compact wall of a chest belonging to a man.

Instantly, my cheeks flushed red with burning embarrassment.

“Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry, sir. I’m terribly, terribly sorry. I didn’t see where I was going.”

Surprisingly, instead of the expected “watch where you’re going,” I didn’t hear a thing. I took a deep breath while I debated whether or not I should just bolt through the door or play it cool and save some dignity.

But since the person didn’t move out of my way, I didn’t have much of a choice other than to actually look at him.

“Going somewhere, sweetheart?”

My heart took several somersaults in my chest at the sound of his easily recognizable voice. It was him. It was Kemar.

His mysterious steel-gray eyes met mine, and his charming half-smile made thousands of butterflies explode in my stomach at once. And he called me sweetheart! Oh, my gosh!

“Hi,” I managed to say after several attempts of trying to act normal. I just couldn’t help it. I was so head-over-heels for this man that you could see it all the way from Jupiter!

“I-I was actually just looking for you,” I stuttered.

He tilted his head up a bit and revealed his masculine jaw and the cleft in his chin, while he studied me over the bridge of his nose. His cocky half-smile remained stuck on his lips.

“I’m a lucky man, then,” he murmured and winked at me. And if I didn’t have trouble forming words as it was, I sure had now.

Fortunately, he didn’t let me suffer in my public humiliation for very long. Instead, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the most secluded part of the library.

An old man was already standing there, flipping through the pages as fast as crooked, wrinkly fingers could manage, with his glasses hanging so low on his nose that it was a wonder they didn’t fall off.

He seemed to have found a really interesting book, judging by the deep, concentrated frown on his forehead. But Kemar pretended to show me a book so close to the old man that he pretty soon took the hint and left.

As soon as the man was out of sight, Kemar pressed his lips against mine and pushed me up against one of the bookshelves.

Then he deepened the kiss, and I struggled really hard to suppress a little moan that tried to squeeze through my vocal cords.

And it didn’t go unnoticed, because Kemar smiled against my lips before he broke the kiss to look at me.

“You’re gorgeous,” he whispered and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and his voice was so husky and alluring that I suddenly became painfully aware of how strongly my body responded to him.

I felt an insane tingling inside my entire body, but most of all in the bottom of my stomach. In ~that~ area. And I blushed tremendously when I felt the moistness between my legs.

He leaned in to kiss me once more and let his hands roam up and down my back, until he grabbed both of my butt cheeks and pulled me flushed to his body.

And I had no difficulties noticing his growing bulge, which made me blush even harder than I thought was possible.

Of course, it wasn’t the first time I had felt a boner. There had been classmates and other half-drunk guys grinding on me while we were dancing at parties and stuff, but that was different.

First of all, because Kemar wasn’t drunk. And second and probably the most tempting reason: he was eleven years older than me. This was a huge no-no! And the fact that we were at a public place only added to it.

“So, I was thinking about asking you out on a date, sweetheart. How does a movie and a nice candlelight dinner sound…say, tomorrow?”

He smirked and pulled my chin upward so he could flood my mind with emotions through his beautiful gray eyes.

“Y-yeah,” I said, and I couldn’t even recognize my own voice. I quickly cleared my throat and answered properly.

“Yes, that would be gr…,” I started. Then I remembered something important. “No! I’m…Uhm. I can’t.”

He raised his eyebrows questioningly and waited for me to continue.

“There’s this barbecue tomorrow evening and everybody’s going, and my friend, no, best friend actually, said that I had to come because if I didn’t, she’s going to pull me out by my hair…

“And I usually don’t do things like this, and I’ve got this dress that I…”

He put his index finger on my lips to silence me and kept staring into my eyes while he leaned against the bookshelf with his other arm above my head. I felt captured.

“You’re rambling, sweetheart. We don’t need that.”

He kissed my forehead, and his lips made the most beautiful, wet sound against my skin.

“How about Saturday, then?”

I gulped and tried to breathe like normal people do, but I sounded like I had severe COPD, stage worse than ever documented before.

And there was nothing I could do about it at the moment, since I couldn’t really control myself. I just nodded.

Kemar laughed his adorable short laughter that I’d quickly learned to love more than anything. Then he pinched my cheek, and I giggled because of the absurd feeling of being a baby again.

“Pick you up at seven, then.”

Then he left me standing there, panting, shivering, nervously giggling, and embarrassed as fuck.

***

“Wow, Skylar! That dress looks like a million bucks on you!”

Keesha was her usual, cheerful self, and I loved her to bits for it. With her second drink of the night in her hand, she grinded the air to the rhythm of the music while she sang along with the lyrics.

And just because she knew it would make me embarrassed, she slapped my butt cheek and laughed out loud when she got the response she wanted.

It wasn’t very often I participated in events like this. I kept blaming it on the amount of schoolwork, which was mostly an excuse because I didn’t feel comfortable in situations like this.

I strongly disliked dressing up and to be compared to all the other pretty girls around me, and I hated to be stared at by drooling guys who were barely able to control their own hormones.

And Keesha knew all that. She knew, and she didn’t bother me unless it was something extra. And this barbecue tonight was as extra as it could get.

We were in one of the most fashionable areas in Chicago’s suburbs. And the houses were so large and beautiful, that they weren’t even houses anymore. They were mansions.

And it was a good thing that the property we were at was enormous, because almost our entire college was here. At least that was how it felt when I saw how crowded it was. I wasn’t really surprised, though.

After all, the mansion belonged to the former Major of the US Marine Corps, who now was running a lucrative business in the car industry, which was why they had at least ten to fifteen cars of their own.

His son, Christian, was celebrating his twenty-first birthday and was the poster boy of being blond. The only difference was that he was far from being stupid.

In fact, he had the best grades in our class, close to a straight-A student, and he also played on the school’s soccer team. Of course he did—Not that that was a bad thing. Not at all.

Everything about him would be perfect, if it wasn’t for the fact that he wasn’t a very nice person. He was honestly the school’s worst bully.

Everybody knew that, except his dad, who bought the whole world for him and failed to see how badly his son treated people around him, whether they were friends or not.

Still, everybody wanted to be friends with him anyway, probably because they would much rather fake a friendship than to have him as their enemy.

It was no coincidence that almost the entire college was here. The only ones who weren’t, were the ones who didn’t get invited.

Or, truth to be told, everybody did get an invitation, but Christian made a big deal about uninviting the ones he didn’t like afterwards. Preferably in the cantina in front of everybody.

He was the prototype of an asshole. Nevertheless, he was an asshole who knew how to throw a party, and that’s why we were here.

“Hey, Sky? Brian and Simon! They’re over there!” Keesha yelled just loud enough so I could hear her over the music.

I looked in the direction she pointed and let her lead me over to her boyfriend, Brian, and they immediately latched on to each other like needy babies.

Simon stood next to them and looked awkward as hell. He was bobbing his head to the music and tried to look cool, but everyone could see that he in reality was quite nervous. Why, I didn’t know.

My ears hurt from the loud music already, and I wished we could go into the backyard, since that’s where the barbecue was.

But since Keesha and Brian were busy gnawing each other’s faces off, it took some time before we finally could take a breath of fresh air.

And it was like we’d stepped into a giant fountain of lights. I’d never seen a garden as excessively decorated as this. It looked pretty pompous in itself, with strictly lined hedges and flowerbeds.

There were statues and neatly trimmed trees that didn’t really look like trees at all, and there were at least twice as many roses than in an average garden center. And, of course, a pool.

Adding what probably were over a hundred lanterns, string lights, and stage lights that were blinking in the rhythm of the music inside, it was pretty overwhelming.

“Are you hungry, Skylar?” Simon asked casually. Although casually… I knew that he’d spent quite some time mustering up enough courage to even speak to me, and now I knew what was going to happen.

He would make one of his many unsuccessful attempts to charm his way into my pants, and I was not in the mood for that tonight.

“No,” I lied. I was, though. I hadn’t been eating all day for fear of looking fat in my way-too-tight dress.

Keesha told me it was supposed to be that way, but I still felt bulky and weird. And now Simon was glancing way too often at my chest area and ass than I appreciated.

“Wait. Maybe you could get me one of the small burgers over there?” I asked and pointed at the grill furthest away from where we were standing.

Petty, I know, but I felt relieved to get his attention away from me. At least for a while. And he happily obliged, just like a trained dog. Boring.

I found a bench underneath a huge tree with pink flowers and waved Simon over when he came with the food. I thanked him politely and returned his corny smile.

Then we ate in silence while we studied the many people who were drinking and partying like it was the last day of their lives.

I ate slowly on purpose because I didn’t want to start a lame conversation when I already knew we had nothing in common other than going to the same school.

If Keesha didn’t come to my rescue soon, I’d most likely die from boredom. Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion coming from inside the house.

I couldn’t quite make out what the fuss was about, but pretty soon I saw a bunch of guys carrying a screaming Christian between them, heading for the pool.

Moments later, Christian splashed through the surface and came up spitting both water and several kinds of threats and curse words. Unfortunately for him, the loud roar of laughter and applause drowned him out.

Hm. Maybe this party wasn’t going to be that boring after all.