Teeny laughs, and Diana and the rest of their friends walk away to the backyard where the thick of the crowd is gathered, but I have other plans for Teeny. I drag her to the only room on the ground floor. The office-slash-den my mom’s been using to store boxes and a few of my grandparents’ things she hasn’t thrown away yet. It’s quiet in here without the music, and it feels like everyone else outside is no longer there and I get to have Teeny all to myself for the rest of the night.
“Don’t you have an entire party going on outside?”
“Yeah,” I answer, our bodies pressed against each other as I guide her to a lone desk in the corner. “I just wanted you to myself for a moment.”
“Oh,” she exclaims softly. I perch her at the edge of the desk and kiss her. No one’s watching, no one’s giving us an awkward side eye or telling us we’re being disgusting. It’s just us two, and I take full advantage of that. Her legs part, giving me access to step in between them, and it makes something frantic and desperate grow inside me. My hands start to cup her neck, stroking her jaw and cheek as I continue to dive deeper. A finger flicks the thin strap of her dress, letting it fall off her shoulder, and I start to tease the newly exposed skin. Her arm drapes over my shoulder, and my fingers follow, guiding her closer to me while I grip her wrist. Her pulse is wild, as is her breathing. Her free hand tucks under the hem of my shirt, and the coldness from her fingertips against my skin zaps through me like electricity.
I’ve never pressured Teeny to go further than she’s comfortable with, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want things to go beyond these heavy make out sessions. It’s unreal the way we react to each other. How the curves of her body shift to fit mine like a perfectly carved out puzzle piece. Or how everything about her becomes frantic and blazing. Her hands, her skin, her breathing, her heartbeat. All of it speeds up with urgency, and my entire body reciprocates with a steady flow. A rhythmic beat that thumps at a fast yet even tempo.
Bum-bum-bum, bum-bum-bum.
She pulls away first, both of us unsure of how far we’d take this even with the party going on outside. “We should get back out there,” she says, her gaze focused on my chest.
I cup my hand over the back of her head and duck my head so my nose nuzzles into her hair, finding that the glitter strategically placed on her arms has strayed to her scalp. “Yeah,” I whisper.
She takes my hand, leading back outside, and I feel a deep twinge in my chest. I have this impulse to tell everyone to leave, anything to be alone with Teeny. Not just to continue that kiss, but to just hang out with her. To hold her and have her catch me up on her gossip, maybe more intel on her friends and the potential boys they’ve been instant messaging on AIM. Maybe even watchTitanicif it hasn’t started playing on HBO.
Instead, we make our way to the coolers out back. Teeny dips into one of them, pulling out two Smirnoff Ices. We crack them open and start sipping. We’re invited to start a game of beer pong, and with my rusty techniques and Teeny’s novice skills, we’re outmatched against Josh and Kevin.
“I want to play again,” Teeny says, her speech slurred with her arm slung over my shoulder. I hadn’t realized when the alcohol she’d been consuming had transitioned from a happy buzz to her current sluggish state. Her body sways, and her smile looks lazy and relaxed, and I can’t help but laugh as she giggles to herself.
“I think you should sit this one out.”
Her smile shifts into a pout. “Noooo,” she whines, her cheeks growing flushed.
“I’m going to go sit her down somewhere,” I tell Josh, letting some of Teeny’s weight hang on my arm as her swaying grows sloppy. He answers with a nod and refocuses his attention on the game.
I help Teeny up the stairs to my room, and as soon as we walk through the door, the sounds of the party falling silent once again, she flops onto my bed.
“I’m in your room,” she slurs through heavy lids. She yanks at my hand, and I fall onto the bed next to her.
“Yeah.”
“Did you bring me up here to take advantage of me?” she adds, some of her words blending together.
“No,” I answer with a laugh. “I do think you need to sleep this off.”
“Nooo,” she protests, pulling me closer to her. “I want you to lie here with me.”
“Okay.” It comes naturally, the realization that I can never say no to her.
She nuzzles her face into my chest, and I give. I cradle her body against me while her breathing starts to grow heavy. I think she’s fallen asleep, but then I feel her shift before she whispers, “Everett?”
“Hmm?”
“Nothing.”
I smile into her hair. “What is it?”
“I just wanted to say your name,” she answers, the laziness in her words gone and a solemnness in its place.
I kiss her temple, taking a deep inhale of her shampoo, and it causes a significant chain of movements between us. Teeny lifts her face and kisses my collarbone, finding her way to my lips like a moth to a flame. Her hand tucks under my shirt, lifting it as her fingers trail over my stomach and chest. She hooks her knee over my waist, causing her dress to lift and expose her entire thigh. It’s fast and swift, the way she pushes me against my own bed and ends up on top of me. She continues to lift my shirt, urging me to remove it completely, and I comply. Because, of course, I’d do whatever she wants. My heart thuds in my chest, and I can feel it claw at me. The way Teeny’s hands move across my bare skin. How her hips press into me with need. How my own hands move over her possessively.
“Teeny,” I whisper between kisses. “We should stop.”
She shakes her head, her fingers fumbling with the buttons to my jeans. “I don’t want to.”
“But you’re drunk, and maybe we should do this when you aren’t.”
