Love At First Bite

chapter four

Heather's birthday was Sunday night. So, after she left the pool and showered, Courtney headed to Tanaka Manor, a stupid-huge estate house on the other side of town.

Heather's family was crazy rich, with most of her lineage (her parents included) being renowned lawyers and doctors. Heather however, much to her father's dismay, wanted nothing to do with the practice of law or medicine. And when she announced this matter-of-factly at a family dinner around six months ago, her father had decided she was too privileged and cut her off.

Courtney had immediately offered a job at the diner, trying desperately to bring at least a little bit of change to her droning work days, and Heather had reluctantly accepted.

Now, the senior was Courtney's closest friend, apart from maybe Bridgette, and they spent a lot of their free time hanging out at each other's houses.

Courtney loved Heather's house; a massive French Chateau-style mansion, complete with full on-call staff and butler.

As she walked up the front steps and knocked on the towering double doors, Courtney fully expected the Tanaka's butler, Josh, to open it; to greet her as he always did.

But to her immediate dread, she heard Heather call from inside, "Duncan! Will you get the door? I bet it's Courtney."

Courtney stumbled a step back. For a moment, she considered going back home; bringing Heather her gift at work tomorrow morning. But then again, she was bigger than that. She wasn't going to let some dumbass boy prevent her from celebrating her best friend's birthday.

But as she heard the lock click, her stomach dropped to the ground. This was undoubtedly going to be the most uncomfortable encounter of her life.

"Hey Princess," Duncan purred as he opened the door, releasing the before-muffled sounds of laughing people and loud music. She smiled uncomfortably, trying not to be impolite, but not quite ready to actually speak to him.

It wasn't that Courtney wasn't literally great at talking to boys, it was just that Duncan made her a very unique shade of nervous that she hadn't quite figured out how to deal with yet.

Swiftly ignoring the green-haired boy's attempt at furthering the interaction, Courtney softly shouldered past him; eyes darting around the room for any sign of a familiar face. She saw Bridgette first, and made a b-line for where the blonde stood.

"Courtney!" Bridgette exclaimed, wriggling her way out of Geoff's arms and meeting her half-way. Courtney grinned, relieved to be slightly farther away from Duncan than before.

"Hey."

"Are you okay? You seem upset."

"No, no I'm okay I promise."

"Okay well, why don't you go find Heather? Last time I saw her, she was setting up 'Just Dance' in the game room."

Courtney nodded slowly, trying to shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

She set off across the living room.

She found Heather quickly. Unfortunately though, since she was being slightly-too-aggressively pinned to the wall by Courtney's least favorite person.

Alejandro Burromuerto.

Alejandro was an eel. A real snake of a human being who actively enjoyed ruining other people's lives. Including Heather's. Heather didn't think this of course. She just saw him as a 'smoking-hot little latino firecracker'. Courtney aggressively disagreed with this observation.

As Courtney was formulating exactly thirty six ways she could have the snake imprisoned for one thing or another, Heather's eyes cracked open lazily; noticing Courtney standing twenty feet away. She grinned, sliding her arms between Alejandro and herself and pushing him off.

Courtney shot a glare at Alejandro, to which he responded with a quick flash of teeth before dramatically turning on his heel and strutting down the hall.

"I thought you two broke up," Courtney ground out, shoving her hands into the pockets of her cardigan. A guilty look passed over Heather's face before she schooled into her classic bitch smirk.

"We did."

Courtney rolled her eyes, turning around and heading back toward the living room.

"Courtney look," Heather called after her, "I know you don't like him but it's just...it's too tempting to say no to."

Without turning back Courtney sighed, "You don't need a guy to be worth something Heather."

A few hours later, Courntey sat in the game room; lounging half-awake in a recliner, watching a half-drunk Bridgette miserably failing at Just Dance against Duncan. He was surprisingly good at it, and Courtney couldn't deny that she kind of enjoyed watching.

When the song ended, Bridgette approached, drink in hand, and pulled Courtney from the chair.

"You need a drink." Bridgette muttered, tugging Courtney by the wrist to where the coolers sat at the far end of the room.

"No that's okay Bridge-"

"No no no no Courtney Hayden, you need to loosen up." She drawled, pulling a beer from the biggest cooler and shoving it into Courtney's open palm. "If you don't drink this I'm going to be mad."

Courtney chuckled, feigning offense, "Oh no, Bridgette don't be mad at me." So, just to humor her best friend; tripping over herself and unable to articulate words quite right, Courtney drank it.

And three more after that.

And maybe a few after that.

By 2 am, Courtney had lost count. People and words became blurry as the hours seemed to pass by like minutes.

"You okay there Princess?" Courtney couldn't remember when Duncan had sat down next to her. She had confined herself to the couch after beer number 3 and hadn't moved since.

"Wha you mean?" Court slurred, a stupid grinned plastered on her face as she reached up and poked Duncan's firmly-hairsprayed mohawk. She hiccuped and a smile crept onto his previously-concerned face. Courtney began to mumble something to herself as she played with, now using both hands, the top of the neon green shark fin.

Duncan chuckled, shifting to lean over the back of the couch and yell at Heather in the other room, "Hey Heather!"

"What!?"

"I'm going to take Courtney home!"

"Okay!"

Pleased with the simplicity of talking to Intoxicated Heather, Duncan returned his focus to Courtney. "Alright Princess, let's get you home."

He stood, leaning down and scooping her up bridal style since she was more than light enough to easily carry outside. Upon reaching the long winding driveway, he opened the passenger side door of his car, tossing the half-empty carton of cigarettes on the seat into the back, and carefully placed her inside, reaching over her to fasten the seatbelt around her torso.

Duncan thought Courtney was physically perfect. Maybe not wholly so, but on the outside at least. So it took a fair amount of willpower to avoid getting distracted by being this close to her. Shaking his head vigorously at the thought, he pulled his head out of his ass and also the open passenger side door.

He got in to the driver's side, put the keys in the ignition, started the car, and drove off.