Forever Yours

The Club [14]

14. The Club

Maureen

"So, you'll come?" he asked as we pulled up in front of the mansion.

I glanced at him, drawn out of my thoughts. "What?"

"The club thing tomorrow... Darren was telling you about it?"

"Oh, right..." I nodded. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go, honestly, but since Ryan was going... "I'd love to come. I'll just have to ask my mom and then I'll let you know."

"I hope you can," he said, turning in his seat to give me a wide-eyed puppy dog stare. I laughed. I was sitting right behind the passenger seat, legs tucked under me, chin on hand, like that first time we had talked.

"We'll see," I teased. He grinned.

I had unexpectedly had a great time at Darren's. Sasha was beautiful and sweet and only displayed any sort of anger when it came to Darren. Their spats were sometimes vicious, sometimes hilarious. I was caught between laughter and shock a good portion of the time.

Darren was just about the weirdest, most eccentric person I had ever laid eyes on. Figuratively, he was larger than life- in reality, he was tall and very skinny. His hair was spiked and brown and the tips were blond. He had that English accent- which I secretly like a lot- and kept chugging drinks as if his life depended on it. But he was funny and surprisingly nice- when he wasn't ragging on Sasha's nerves.

Adrian was pretty cool- a little too determined, but nice all the same. Jared was kind of quiet and somewhat introverted like me, so even though we didn't talk much, I had the feeling we could be friends someday. Gina was fascinating.

"Love takes the heart captive and refuses to free it but by increments," she had said, closing her eyes and tilting her head back, as if the thought alone was too overpowering. "I know it's wrong but love is now my master and I it's servant." I stared at her.

"Are you a poet?"

She laughed. "No... just completely bewitched."

"Speaking about love..." Sasha interrupted excitedly. I turned to her. "What is going on between you and Ryan? Are you guys going out?

I blushed red at the mention of Ryan. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh my gosh, it's so obvious- you're totally into each other."

"We are...?"

"They haven't realized it yet," Gina said knowingly, giving me a secretive smile. I stared at her, flummoxed. Realized what? That we were "in love"? I had only met him a couple of weeks before. Was that even possible? I gasped. Did he know- or even think- that I liked him? What if he didn't like me back? Or worse, what if other people were noticing?

"Well, regardless, they will soon. I mean, we've known Ryan for years... he's a priceless guy," Sasha added. "We can totally read him."

"What exactly are you reading?" I asked, leaning towards her, suddenly inspired. If they knew him so well... maybe I could find out what they thought of his feelings for me. If he had any, that is.

"He's, like, besotted with you." Sasha said, as if I should have known.

"He... is?" I knew that I was besotted by Ryan; but him with me? No. Impossible.

"There's definitely something there," Gina said mysteriously.

"And you like him too, right? So why aren't you two together?" Sasha pressed.