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I kind of felt like a bad girl for breaking the law. I wasn’t old enough to be drinking, yet here I was.
Whatever. I’m nineteen. I’ll do what I want.
“Thanks. It was my grandma’s place, but it’s mine now,” I answered quietly, trying to not let my sorrow show and shrug it off. I must have done a good enough job because Kendra downed another shot, and everybody began egging her on to take another.
With a grateful sigh, I took the moment for myself.
I missed her.
My grandma had mainly raised me as best as she could, but she’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was gone now, so I was on my own. She’d left me her house, which gave me a nice place to live. I wasn’t too worried about money because I had a job and a reasonable allowance to live off of from my godfather. It was enough to live comfortably and pay the bills, plus a little extra for some fun. I wasn’t rich by any means, but I was at least taken care of.
Ryan met my gaze, his bright green eyes looking at me with a hint of open curiosity. He poured several fingers of alcohol for himself before downing it too. Playfully, he winked in my direction and my breath hitched in the back of my throat.
I’d had a crush on Ryan for as long as I could remember.
I’d known him most of my life because he lived right down the street from my grandma’s house. His parents had known mine, at least before they died when I was little, and they’d always checked up on me over the years to make sure things were going okay for my grandmother and I. He’d been around more since she’d passed, which had been a nice distraction from my grief. In that time, it felt like we’d grown closer.
His smile grew as wide as the Cheshire cat’s.
“What do you say, Maci? Want to blow this popsicle stand and go for a drive with me? I’ve got someplace special I want to show you,” he offered, and the group quieted, watching us closely. I could practically feel them all holding their breath.
His emerald irises glimmered in the soft glow of my back porch lights. He ran his fingers through his shoulder length blonde hair, sweeping it to the side effortlessly, making my heart skip a beat in my chest.
I’d always thought he just saw me as some poor orphan, but in the last few months I’d started to think that was silly. Maybe, just maybe, he actually liked me too.
“Maci?” Ryan pressed.
“I’d like that,” I said softly and a round of hoots and whistles sounded all around us.
“Fucking finally!” Kendra declared and the rest of the group stood up and actually cheered with their excitement.
I blushed as bright red as a cherry tomato.
Honestly, I’d never even been on a date with a boy before, because that’s what this was right? He was taking me out for the night, just me and him. Maybe he’d even kiss me.
A first kiss would certainly round off the night and make it the best night you’ve ever had…
I knew I shouldn’t get my hopes up or let myself get carried away. Ryan was the bad boy of the group, and he’d dated only the popular attractive girls, nothing like plain Jane red-headed me. I had a smattering of freckles on my nose and these weird, blue-green eyes, none of which met the classical standards of the pretty models plastered all over Cosmopolitan magazine, or literally anywhere else.
“Come on, Maci,” Ryan urged, and I stood up from my chair. My stomach fluttered with a mix of excitement and nervousness and maybe a bit from the whiskey as he took my hand and tugged me into the front yard towards his car, a bright blue Mercedes Benz that his parents bought for him the year he turned sixteen. Like the perfect gentleman, he opened the passenger side door for me and bowed his head while I climbed inside and slid onto the soft beige leather seat.
“After you,” he winked, and I giggled softly.
He closed the door behind me and strode over to the driver’s side, stumbling a little along the way. Had he drunk too much already? I shook my head. That couldn’t be it. Ryan could hold his liquor. He bragged about it all the time, so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
With a nervous swallow, I smiled as he climbed in the car with me. After he turned the key in the ignition, the engine purred to life just like a kitten. With a wry grin, he backed up out of my driveway and drove off into the night towards the center of town, the soft rumble of the engine the only noise disrupting the quiet between us.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked, wanting to break the silence.
“It’s a sssurprise,” he replied, his voice light and only a tiny bit slurred. I told myself that he was fine. He had to be fine. Sure, I’d never been around him when he was drunk before, but he’s always kind of looked out for me in a way no one else did, kind of like the big brother I’d never had in a way.
Maybe he pitied me because I was an orphan after all, or maybe he’d liked me all along. Either way, I didn’t question it because I really didn’t want to find out it was the first.
“Come on, spill the beans, Ryan. Where are we headed?” I teased, the corners of my lips curling into a playful smile despite my never-ending frayed nerves trembling in the octaves of my voice.
He chuckled, his eyes glinting with a mischievous spark. “Ah, Maci, where’s the fun in knowing everything?”
I shot him a mock glare, but I broke out in a smile a second later.
