𝔽₳𝜯Ǝ

Stepped Inside..

"Hey, shh, it's okay," I told her. I put my arms around her. I was careful to keep my pukey legs well away from hers.

She lost it, sobbing into my shoulder. I held her as close as I could with puke pants. Truth be told I was starting to come down myself. I was more than a little rattled.

Jeremy came back up the stairs with a couple of his teammates. "Ass clown is gone," he said.

"He's lucky I didn't kill him," I said. I felt like I was going to lose it myself, but I held onto my emotions in front of these guys.

"Heh, good thing I was here or Becky would be slow dancing with you at your next birthday in the state pen." He grinned, then held out his hand for a real hand shake, not a bro slap.

I took it. He met my eyes and nodded. That's right, we were Men, the nod said. We'd protected the girls. We gripped hands and shook. Man to man.

It made my chest swell up. I pursed my lips together and gave him another nod.

"Good job, man," he said, and there was no bravado. He meant it.

I nodded back again and just said thanks.

He pulled his hand back and looked down at my pants. "Looks like she got ya," he laughed. The moment was past. Party on, friends, party on.

I laughed a little, too, and again, almost lost it. But I just shook my head and grinned.

He gestured to one of the underclassmen that was a part of his entourage, "Hey, go get Jake some pants out of my gym bag in the trunk. He's about as tall as I am."

He called me Jake.

Not nerd, not dweeb, not ass-clown, or any of the other half dozen names he'd had for me the last seven years. I'd earned my name, I guess.

The guy nodded and headed out. I continued comforting Becky and within a few moments I had a pair of sweatpants. Not my good, black slacks, but hey, pants.

"Thanks man," I said as they got tossed to me.

"Don't worry about it. Alright, go get cleaned up; we'll see you later, birthday boy," He grinned, and he and his posse turned and left.

Alison was coming out of the nearby bathroom. She'd pulled her own hair back into a pony-tail haphazardly.

"How's Jenna?" I asked immediately

"Drunk. Drunker than I've ever seen her. Chloe and I are going to take her to the hospital to make sure he didn't slip her something as well."

I nodded, "Good plan. Let me change, and I'll get my car."

She shook her head, "You're all blocked in. It's fine. You and Becky stay here for me, okay? I can't leave the house unattended. Chloe and I will take Jenna in. I parked my car down the street."

I frowned but nodded.

Alison smiled and gave me a hug, a very tight one.

"You're fucking awesome, you know that Jake? Seriously. Thank God you figured out what was going on," she said and squeezed me tight.

Goddammit, I was going to lose it.

"Hey, no problem. I'm good for more than math tutoring right?" I said hoarsely, making a lame joke in order to cover up the emotional roller coaster I felt like I was on.

She pulled back, "You're good for a hell of a lot more than that. Becky's very lucky," she said in earnest seriousness.

I swallowed and just nodded. Becky tightened her grip around my arm.

"Take your man and go get him cleaned up, Becky. You guys can use the master bedroom. I kept it locked. It has its own bathroom," she handed Becky a set of keys.

"I'm going to go flash the lights and have Jeremy and everyone take last calls and stuff. Can you guys check in about forty minutes to make sure everyone's out and lock up for me?"

I nodded. "Of course. Call from the hospital if you need anything."

She nodded and squeezed my neck again, then squeezed Becky, who squeezed back.

Alison turned back to the bathroom, and she and Chloe started getting Jenna ready to go. I ended up helping them out to Alison's car which was parked down the street in front of a neighbor's house. I offered once again to go, but Alison shook her head and told me to get my pukey-pants ass inside and away from her car.

So I did. Jeremy and company were doing a fine job of getting everyone rounded up with Becky's help, so I went up to the master bedroom, retrieving my borrowed sweat pants from the hallway. The bedroom was huge - it took up most of the third floor actually, along with its bathroom, which was almost the size of my living room.

I stripped down and found, to my disgust. It stank badly.

I stripped down completely and got in the gigantic shower. It was one of those waterfall over-head ones, where the water comes from a wide spigot directly overhead. It was also hot almost instantaneously. I got in and shut the glass door behind me. The water sloshed over me like, well, a waterfall. So I guess the thing was aptly named. I washed up pretty mechanically, trying not to think yet, but that didn't last very long. It's what I did. Think...

The walls were stone, and I just leaned forward against them.

Then, I lost it.

The confusion from earlier worrying about Chloe. The high from making out and dancing with Becky. The rage and adrenaline from trying to kill someone who'd been about to rape one of my best friends. The aftermath. I shook from head to toe and sobbed a couple of times.

It didn't take long, but I was still sniffling when there was a knock on the door.

Someone said something, but I couldn't hear them over the shower and fan.

I shouted at them that I was almost done, because that's what you shout when someone knocks on the door while you shower.

Then the door opened.

"Hey," I exclaimed, "In use!"

"It's just me, Jake," said Becky.

"Oh, uh... sorry."

"No problem, it is a little loud in here isn't it?" she said over the fan and water.

"Uh, yeah." I tried to see through the frosted glass of the shower. It was pretty steamed up, so all I could see was the blue of her dress.

"Everyone's gone. I locked up like Alison asked."

"Oh good. That was fast."

"You've been in here almost forty-five minutes. I was starting to get worried."

Oh, damn, okay, maybe it hadn't been quick. Great water tank.

Through the frosted glass, the blue of her dress slipped to the ground, leaving fair pink skin in its place.

Uh. Gulp?

"Room in there for two?" came a quiet question.

No shit., fucking gulp.

"S...sure." I said. I wiped my face as best I could.

The door opened and Becky poked her smiling face in. Her hair was still up, but she was completely naked. She opened the door all the way and stepped inside.