Secret Society

The Party Part 1

I had let him sneak up on me again. While I had been watching the boys from afar,I had noticed him come up behind me. I need to be better. I turned to face him, disentangling myself in the process.

"Hi Brady." I widened my stance slightly and placed my hands behind my back, trying to look casual while steadying myself for any acts of aggression from him. I needed to keep my head and not be so afraid of him. I could still feel the fear racing through me from his presence, so I tried taking deep breaths and pasting a lazy smile on my face.

"I see you took my advice about not hanging around with any other guys." He folded his arms across his chest, trying to appear bigger and even more frightening than he was. "The only reason I tolerate the frat boy asshole is cause a lot of his brothers are customers." The muscles in my back tensed at his words, but I carefully watched him skim the room with his eyes. 

"Do you know if he's here?" I shook my head in response, not trusting my voice to not hold the animosity I was feeling.

"I was just about to get a drink, did you want one?" I laced my words with sugar and put one of my tiny hands on his forearm, trying to lower his guard so that I could away from him.

"Yeah baby doll, grab me a beer." I stood on my tiptoes and placed a small kiss on his cheek, shivering in disgust as I turned and walked towards the keg where Cole and that other guy were standing. As I made my way over to them, I noticed that they weren't speaking out loud but using american sign language instead. When I reached them, the other guy that I hadn't met was saying something about getting it over with. I wasn't sure what he was referring to, so I reached past Cole to grab a plastic cup, brushing against his arm in the process. He jumped at my touch and turned his gaze in my direction, trying to figure out who touched him.

"Oh thank god," I heard him mutter under his breath. His body visibly relaxed and his friend was looking at me with questions in his eyes.

"Hey pretty girl." I knew he was putting on a show for not only his friend but the entire party, but my cheeks still flushed bright red at his compliment. 

"Oh uhm... hey." My voice sounded light and breathy, and I had no idea where it came from.

"Do you know how to pump one of these things?" he gestured to the keg that was off the side, past where his friend was standing. I shook my head once and he grabbed the cup from my hand and passed it to the brown haired guy.

"You mind Matt?" He flicked his eyes at me, letting me know that this was an important person to him and that I should remember his name. When he turned back to me, I kept my hands in front of me and as close to my body as I could manage and signed, "Brady is back there waiting for me. I'm ok for now. I think he is going to be working tonight."

I started playing with a chunk of my hair when I finished, nervous again about the night ahead of me. Cole's eyes hardened and he looked like he wanted to punch something all of sudden. Matt returned with the full cup and handed it to me.

"Thanks. I'm Tasha by the way." I punctuated my statement with a little wave of my hand.

"Matt." He nodded his head at me and then did the sign for catch with a letter M. I smiled at him grateful for the hint in sign language. He must have see me trying to talk with Cole. I looked down at the drink in my hand and back up at the boys.

"I need another drink. For me." I had totally forgotten I was supposed to have two. Matt went to reach for another plastic cup, but Cole stopped him with his hand in the air.

"Let's get the lady a real drink." He winked at me and I hoped that meant I was going to just get more fruit juice.

After Cole poured me a cup full of cranberry juice and told me it was called a "vodka cranberry", I made my way back to where I had left Brady. He now had a circle of guys surrounding him as he told some story that was probably made up. I squeezed past some of the guys and held up the drink for him while trying to remain unnoticed. He glanced at me briefly before continuing his story, this time punctuating with drinks from his cup. I leaned against the wall next to him and tried to scope out the room as best I could from where I was standing. As his story about a camping trip with his dad continued on, I spotted all of my guys positioned around the room.

Hunter was standing in the shadows by the staircase, Braedon had found an empty spot on the couch and looked ready to leap up at any second, Cole and Matt had moved back towards the Keg, and Tyler was still talking animatedly with the group of girls around the kitchen table. I did't see Jax anywhere, but figured he was running late or in a different room. Brady's story ended and all of the guys listening started laughing. I smiled not wanting it to seem as if I wasn't paying attention.

"Any of you making a trip to the pool this week?" The question sounded innocent enough, but there was an edge to his voice that made my gaze snap to his face. His were dark and he didn't look happy to hear any negative answers. Most of the guys around us nodded their heads but a few just looked down at the ground between their feet.

"We got these new chlorine tablets in that let you stay in the pool an extra thirty minutes." At this statement, the other guys in the circle finally looked up at Brady and smiled. Weird. Brady reached around and placed an arm around my shoulders.

"Let's go downstairs and play some pong Princess." I just smiled and nodded my head, not wanting to provoke him into hurting me or anyone else. I quickly signed to Cole the word downstairs as we made our way across the room.