“Oh, I think she’s got her plate kinda full right now,” he said. His eyes went wide at his own understatement. Taylor had wandered over to Drew’s place sometime after sunset looking for someone to talk to. It was easy to forget that Drew, having been pretty popular in high school, had hung out with Taylor and her usual crowd…but not so much that Drew was the first person Taylor turned to when she needed bro counseling. Jason had never imagined Taylor would need bro counseling at all.
Specifically, Taylor needed someone to hear her wide-eyed, breathless, can’t-believe-I-just-did-that confession of her lesbian demon sexcapades. She turned up looking a little tired and bewildered and hotter than hell. Then she just lied down on the couch and dropped the bombshells about her weekend while she stared up at the ceiling. Drew’s game character died instantly as he looked toward Taylor in shock. Jason’s controller fell right out of his hands.
It turned out that Taylor had an awful lot to say.
Petty or not, Jason felt a little irked that someone had already one-upped the glory of his double-blonde loss of virginity. The phone call from one of his guides into the awesomeness of sex had him feeling much better, though.
“Wanna coming over here?”
“Um. I was headed home, actually.”
“Aw. Come see me, Jason. I’m lonely and scantily clad.”
“You-um, what?” Jason blinked. He stopped in his tracks.
“Brittany won’t mind if I steal a little one-on-one time.”
His sensibilities quickly went into all-out war. He had already caught hell over all this just yesterday from his parents. Still, Taylor’s unexpected too-much-information dump had Jason feeling more than a little anxious. He didn’t plan to call either of the Brits tonight; he didn’t want to blow it by looking desperate, and he couldn’t figure out whether or not one would be offended if he called the other first. But Britney had just resolved all that.
“C’mon, Jason. I haven’t been able to think of anything but you since you went home. Get over here and unleash the beast again.”
That made up his mind. He inserted the key into the slot on his car door, smirked at the horrible symbolism there, and then heard the thump and the curse from down the block.
Jason looked over. That was Alex’s building. That was a limousine. And that was a limp body being thrown into the trunk. He quickly crouched down. Through the windows of the parked cars, Jason spotted several men: one in a cowboy hat and duster, another in a pin striped suit with an old Thompson machinegun, and a third with a longsword strapped to his back. All three of them stepped into the limo.
Jason jumped into his car, started the engine, and pulled out with a gutsier turn than he would ever make under any other circumstances. He hauled ass after the limo, slowing only to look up at the side of Alex’s building to note that, yes, his window was smashed out. That was more than suspicious enough for him.
“Britney, I gotta go,” Jason said firmly.
“What? What’s wrong?”
He was following men with guns who had just kidnapped or killed one of his best friends. He had no experience with this sort of thing. He didn’t know where it would lead, or what the hell he could possibly do about it, or what he would be able to do if they spotted him. There was a lot wrong right then.
“I’ll tell you later. Look, I swear to God, there’s nothing I want to do more than come over and hit that like the hammer of Thor, but right now I just can’t. I’ll hook up with you and wreck you as soon as I possibly can, okay?”
Jason kept his eyes on the road, but as he drove he realized to his horror what had just come out of his mouth. His jaw dropped at his own sheer stupidity. The hammer of Thor? Wreck you? Who says that!? Jesus fucking Christ, why would I actually say that?!
He heard silence, and then a single word: “…Promise?”
* * *
“How come we never hung out much before?” Taylor asked aloud. She still lay on the couch in Drew’s living room staring at the ceiling.
Drew sat on the arm of the couch near Taylor’s feet. “You and me did hang out in high school. Ain’t the first time you’ve been on the therapy couch.”
“No, I mean everyone. I always liked Wade. I always liked Jason. And Alex was… I didn’t want to date him, but of course I liked him.”
“You’re here now. We all love you. An’ it sounds like whatever you and Alex got going on is fine for the both of you. The three of you,” he corrected teasingly, swatting her foot.
Taylor put her hands over her face, laughing a bit. “God, I’m a total skank.”
“Hey, if you’re a skank, we’re all skanks.”
“Oh, whatever,” Taylor said, waving off his comment. She stared at the spackling on his ceiling. “Do you…I don’t know how to ask this…”
“Just do it,” Drew shrugged helpfully.
“Do you get jealous?”
“Of what?”
“Alex. Look at what he’s got. He’s slept with three women this weekend alone. Four, apparently, if you count whoever he was with Friday afternoon. And Lorelei’s loaded and devoted to him and she’s just so…she’s amazing, you know?”
“Shit, you’d know that better than I would, apparently. Skank,” he grinned. “Who the fuck else has he been with?”
“Some Goth chick from North Seattle. And he got it on with Jocelyn at the party.”
Drew’s eyebrows shot up, and then he laughed. “Okay, now I am jealous. That bastard.”
“I’m serious! You didn’t know? He didn’t say anything?”
“I think Alex isn’t the kind to brag about this stuff. I mean, yeah, he had one motherfucker of a shit-eating grin when he first showed up with Lorelei, know what I’m sayin’? But he ain’t one for giving play-by-plays. You’ve told me and Jason a lot more than he has.” Drew gave her a teasing grin. “But it ain’t like we didn’t know he’s getting all freaky. You haven’t seen the angel, either. Damn. Just damn.”
Taylor looked over at him. She had seen her, actually, but couldn’t remember much. “Is she prettier than Lorelei?”
“Nah, I wouldn’t say that. She’s crazy hot, but there’s something…I dunno. They’re different. Both put your jaw on the floor, though.”
“But you don’t get jealous? All that, and you don’t feel any envy at all? Not the other guys?”
“Well, I guess there’s envy and there’s jealousy. I mean, any guy who looks at that woman and doesn’t wanna hit that is, like, one hundred percent gay, right? Like not even a little bit into girls. So she’s cool, but…man, you didn’t see him when we were drivin’ around with that demon guy in the minivan. Alex had this look on his face like he was just fucked. He was like, ‘That’s it. That’s what I get to do from now on. Just hella crazy guys kickin’ my ass an’ tryin’ to take my girl an’ all my friends getting’ hurt.’ That’s gotta be some heavy shit there.”
“See, that’s what I’m saying, though. You defend him. And look what he’s got.”
“Look what I got, though. We told you earlier about the pool hall. The only complication there is figurin’ out how to tell our families and make sure it don’t look dirty, but man…four days ago I felt like I’d never be able to afford to go to college. Now I’ve got that licked. Hell, I’m probably gonna finally buy a car or move out of my mom’s place here. Maybe both, if I keep workin’. An’ Jason’s talkin’ about maybe selling his share if we can figure out how to swing that fairly, ‘cause he doesn’t want to be in business with friends. Says it’s bad juju.”
Taylor nodded. “I didn’t mean money, though. I mean women. Sex.”
“Hey, Alex and Jason were the ones who never had girlfriends. Sherri’s all over me. You can tell me grass is greener for Alex, but I wouldn’t know, ‘cause I’m busy takin’ care of my own. And Wade ain’t even been lookin’ for a girl, but I think he picked one up the other night.”