I N T O X I C A T E D
Isabelle
Wrapped up in the comfortable, white sheets of my bed, I stir to wake. Stretching out, I slowly twist my head, blinking my eyes open. Thomas' arms cling around my bare waist, his breath fanning against my shoulder.
The top half of his tanned, naked body is exposed, the sun beaming through the window onto it. His chocolatey waves of hair fall onto his forehead. I take a moment to gaze at his elegant, handsome features.
"Did your parents not ever teach you it's rude to stare." He stirs, cracking one of his eyes open. I smile, turning around and advancing forwards to greet him with a kiss.
"Hi." I speak softly.
"Good morning." He happily croaks. He scoops my bare body closer and we snuggle up together. I swirl my fingers on his pecks, before placing a series of kisses on the skin of his shoulder. After a moment, I begin to suck on it.
"Are you trying to give me a hickey?!" He grabs me by the waist, tossing me to the side. I let out squeals of laughter as he rolls over me, trapping me underneath his muscular body. He tickles me and I wriggle around, trying to escape him.
"Stop! Stop, stop!" I plead. Eventually he does and I wrap my arms around his shoulders, our laughter fading out. He looks so cute in the morning, a big cheesy grin, tired lines underneath his twinkling green eyes. I wrinkle my nose up at him.
"What? What's that face?" He questions with a frown.
"Nothing." I shake my head, innocently. He narrows his eyes with a smile and leans down to give me yet another lengthy, soft kiss. His lips trail along my jaw and down to my neck. "Can we do a repeat of last night?" I whisper.
"You read my mind." He chuckles against my skin.
**
The next few days are incredible. It's as if I've completely forgotten about everything that has happened recently. I've been so preoccupied that the thought hasn't crossed my mind since Thomas came back.
This feels like the proper start for Thomas and I. We can't stay away from each other. We are having sex all the time, everywhere. Before we go to bed, in the morning, in the middle of the night, when I'm supposed to be making dinner, instead of reading or watching TV, even when we're meant to be going to class.
There's not an hour in the day that goes by where neither of us aren't thinking about touching each other and if we're not, it means we're already doing it.
Anyone can see. We're drunk, but not from any kind of drink or alcohol. We're drunk off of each other. The way we laugh, the way we feel, touch, look at each other.
I'm falling for him, everything about him. And there's absolutely nothing I can do to stop it from happening. It's inevitable, like we were always meant to be.
We find each other, completely and utterly intoxicating.
**
Licking my finger, I turn the pages of my book as I sit out on the balcony, enduring the chilly afternoon, the sun beginning to set. Thomas has been sat in my company for a while now and due to me not paying him the slightest bit of attention he quickly becomes impatient and bored.
"Are we still going to Wesley's later?" He brings my head out of my book.
"Yeah. I'm up for it if you are." I answer with a smile.
Wesley's parents are away so he's organized a big movie night in his cinema room and invited a bunch of his friends over. I can't even fathom how rich you must be to be able to have a whole room dedicated to watching movies on a huge screen.
Thomas continues to talk and starts playing with my hair, twirling it around his finger and brushing it against my face, sometimes in my ear. He tugs on it when I'm too engrossed in my book to reply to whatever he's going on about.
"Ouch, Thomas!" I cry out, dramatically. It doesn't hurt, I'm just teasing him.
He tilts his head and I narrow my eyes. With a cheeky smirk playing at the edges of his lips, he drags my chair closer to him, the light catching a naughty gleam in his eyes. I try my best to return to my book but from the side, he places a series of kisses along my neck, up to my earlobe.
"I'm so horny." He whispers.
"Hmm, I think I can tell." I return as his absence of him on my skin leaves me cold.
"When are you going to be done?" His hand finds my knee and slides itself around onto the inside of my leg. He slowly stretches his fingers along my thigh. I let out a tight sigh.
"I've got to finish this by tonight, so maybe... another hour?" I estimate.
"But that's so long." He complains, dropping his head back.
"I really need to focus on this! I've got a lot to catch up on otherwise class is going to get really hard because I'm so behind." I explain.
"You know what else is hard?" He moves forward, speaking between my lips. He gives me a teasingly, good kiss. If I didn't have as much self-control I would've given in by now.
"Let me finish." I escape the tormenting temptation of him, cupping his face with a free hand. "Then you can have my full attention later. I promise." I hold my pinky out. He reluctantly takes it, groaning with annoyance.
"I'm dying here." He lets out a long sigh.
"Well." I offer him a smile. "Why don't you go and work it out on your own?"
"I'm going to." He stands, planting a kiss on the top of my head. "I'll think of you."
"Have fun!" I call, patting my book on his ass as he saunters away.
**
Thomas parks his car out the front of Wesley's extravagant house. I unbuckle my seatbelt and step out, tightening my ponytail on the top of my head. Joining me around my side, Thomas takes my hand in his and leads me up to the front door. He knocks his knuckles against it and then moves slightly back.
He angles us to be looking at each other, him down at me. He has a look of awe in his eyes, a big grin on his face. This is by far the happiest I've ever seen him.
"Hope I'm not interrupting." Wesley's voice cuts through the air. We both turn to him. "How's my happy couple?" He embraces us, pulling us into his house.
"Good. How are you?" I ask after he stops squeezing me so I can speak.
"Great. Come on in, you're the first to arrive which is unusual for you Tom." He playfully pats the side of his arm.
"She wouldn't dare let me be late." Thomas rolls his eyes about me jokingly and I shake my head at the pair of them.
We continue to follow him down the hall, past where Wesley has spare rooms that have been set up for everyone to stay over in. We go through into his big, luxiourious kitchen, everything sparkling white. He starts getting out glasses and bottles as the boys have a quick catch up and talk about some game that was apparently on.
Their conversation is halted when the doorbell rings. He dashes out to answer and Thomas hops up to sit on the counter. He beckons me over, pulling me in between his open legs.
"You look so nice." He compliments, despite me wearing little to no makeup, a pair of grey sweatpants and a white tank top. The dress code was stated as casual, hence my lack of effort.
I smile up at him, lifting myself on my toes to give him a little kiss. I pull back when I hear other voices getting closer and closer.
"Hey guys!" Wesley comes back through with Paige who beams at the sight of us. No matter what Paige seems to always have a smile on her face. It's contagious.
"Hi. How are y-?" I lose my words as Cassidy and Lara follow in behind them. It's like everything in the room ices over. I stiffen up at her presence, knowing that last time she spoke to Thomas was when he chewed her out.
I don't want her here. Neither of us do but she's friends with Paige so it's kind of inevitable for her to have been invited.
Thomas squeezes me, twisting me until he can wrap his large arms around my front. My hands sit on his knees as I lean my back into his chest. Cassidy's obviously irritated glare looks over at us.
She's way more overdressed than everyone else, not to my surprise, with a face full of glam makeup and one of her many fur coats. Wesley and Paige are too busy sharing a quick kiss to have noticed how awkward it's become.
Across the room, she gets Wesley's attention and her sickly sweet voice talks about what drink she'd like. I try my hardest not to laugh, keeping my eyes trained to the floor and biting down on my whole bottom lip. It feels like Thomas is silently doing the same thing, gently squeezing me.
He hooks his feet together, trapping me in between his legs. I fall further back into his chest, covering his hands with mine as he takes my weight. He plants a kiss in the back of my head.
"If you two want to head on down, I'll bring the drinks. You know where it is Tom." Wesley gestures his head out of the room. Thomas takes no time hopping off of the counter and walking out. We get to the door and he stands still.
"Are you alright?" He questions, concern on his face.
"Yeah." I answer, sure of myself. I'm obviously not thrilled about the fact that she's here but I'm determined not to let it ruin our night. He puckers his lips, asking for a kiss. I grant him one before he turns the handle.
The door opens up to a large, low lit room. There's a couch at the back of the room at a slightly higher level than the one in front. The walls are completely sound proof and there are several fluffy bean bags left on the floor. Thomas throws himself on the first couch, bouncing into it's material.
He opens his arms out for me to join him when a blonde blur flashes past. A yell escapes Thomas' mouth as he protects himself from Sam who leaps into his arms. Laughter erupts from behind me and everyone seems to have turned up at the same time. Owen slings an arm around me, bringing me into his side as we greet each other.
"I dibs one of the bean bags!" Charlie calls from not too far behind.
**
One or two more of Wesley's friends show up that I don't know. With Paige's help, they host and set everything up. Thomas has taken it upon himself to reserve the couch at the back of the room for the both of us. I'm sat at the opposite end to him, wrapped up in a fluffy blanket. Wesley flicks the lights and they gradually dim until it's pretty much dark in the room except for the TV screen.
He leaps up, everyone laughing as he clatters next to Paige on the couch. He presses play and the movie starts. Everyone quietens down, shuffling into their seats. A light glows, highlighting Charlie's bleached hair as he's sat on his phone.
"Hey! Put that away!" Wesley hushes, shooting a piece of popcorn at the back of his head. They chuckle and he turns it off, looking up to the screen.
Once everyone is concentrating on the movie, Thomas' feet brush up against mine to catch my attention. I twist my head and he beckons me closer, causing me to frown. Slowly and silently, he leans forwards, pulling me to sit in between his legs so my back is on his chest and our legs are stretched out along the whole couch.
I conceal us with the blanket, hiding at the back of the group. I nestle into him and he snakes his warm hands up underneath my hoodie, holding onto and gently squeezing my boobs. He starts to nibble on the back of my ear. We quietly snigger with laughter, trying our best not to draw attention to ourselves. Tilting my head back, I grant him a kiss.
"You two better be watching this movie." Wesley comments. Scanning around, a few of them chuckle while Cassidy looks severely unimpressed.
"Sorry. Continue." Thomas apologizes and everyone goes back to the movie, despite his hands still secretly all over me.
**
"Isabelle, do you want the last slice?" Owen offers, pointing to one of the boxes of pizza on the kitchen counter.
"No. You have it." I smile, finishing my last mouthful. He gratefully takes it, tipping his head back to fit the end of it into his mouth.
While Thomas is preoccupied with a few of the other guys across the room, I slip out, heading for the bathroom. Walking down the halls, I pass several photos hung up of Wesley and his family. Suddenly, I hit into something hard, not looking where I was going.
"Hey!" Cassidy lets out a surprised cry, coming out of the bathroom. I take a step away from her as she flicks her hair out of her face. "Oh." She looks me up and down.
"Excuse me." I mutter, moving to pass her.
"Wait!" She starts and I turn back to her. She waits for a moment. "I suppose I should apologize to you."
"That's a really good way to start an apology." I say, sarcastically.
"I've been... a bitch when I didn't need to be so... I'm sorry." She mumbles, not able to fully look at me in the eyes.
"That's it?" I cock an eyebrow.
"Yep. That's about all as much as my ego can handle." She crosses her arms.
"Right." I pull myself up taller as if I'm literally growing a backbone. "Well let's just clarify that the only reason you're apologizing to me is because you've been caught out not because you actually mean it." With that sentence, Paige pops up, joining us.
"With that being said, I appreciate it but I would also appreciate you just leaving Thomas and I alone from now on." I instruct. Cassidy's jaw tightly clenches and she shifts her weight.
"Fine." She agrees, unhappily before taking off. After she's gone, Paige frowns at me and then follows me into the bathroom.
"What the hell was that all about?" She asks, shutting the door behind us. I give her a brief run down of the stress and grief Cassidy has given me until I let out a sigh.
"Why are you still friends with her Paige? She's constantly putting you down and probably only using you to get closer to Wesley's friends now that you're together. She doesn't seem like much fun to be around... at all really." Paige chews on her cheek, thinking on the answer.
"I don't know. I mean I guess I've got you guys now." She shrugs as I go to sit down.
"Yeah of course you do." We both smile at each other and then I clear my throat. "Right, we can't have direct eye contact while I'm peeing." We burst out laughing, shielding our vision from each other.
**
Thomas
It's just gone twelve and everyone has decided to leave or turn in early for the night. Wesley has given us one of his spare rooms for myself and Isabelle, not like there isn't enough room in his humongous house. Isabelle drops our bag on the end of the white sheeted bed, taking in the surroundings of the large, modern room.
She passes me my toothbrush with a smile and we dip into the en suite together. She hops up on the counter and I stand at the sink as we brush our teeth. Almost as soon as I finish, my phone rings in my pocket. Taking it out, I see a call from Elliot.
"Hey man!" I answer immediately.
"How are you doing?" He asks as Isabelle begins to fill her cupped hands with water and wash her face.
"Great. Hang on, let me put you on speaker. Isabelle is with me." I press a button on the screen and hold the phone out between us. "So, how'd it go?"
"Well." He starts. I can feel him grinning down the line. "I took Lexie down to the lake and showed her the boat, that took a little convincing. But once we were on, we rowed out to the middle and then I asked her."
"And after even more convincing, I said yes!" Lexie chimes in. Myself and Isabelle let out a cry of happy celebration, laughing together.
"Oh my god, congratulations you guys!" Isabelle moves closer to the phone, beaming. "That's so exciting!"
"Yeah. We're so happy for you." I say. "I was supposed to call you earlier but we've been... busy." I finish, Isabelle throwing me a knowing look, fighting off a laugh. We stay on the phone for another few minutes, talking about wedding plans, before ending the call.
I go back into the bedroom, taking my shirt off before sitting myself onto the comfortable bed. I sink into the soft mattress, leaning my back against the headboard. I scroll through my phone, chuckling at a few funny videos that are on my feed.
Isabelle clears her throat and I lift my head up to see her leaning against the door frame, dressed in one of my white button up shirts and my shirt only. It falls down to the middle of her thighs, shifting as she sticks her hip out. Her short hair is tied back, only a few loose strands falling next to her dewy, fresh face. She has her pink, bottom lip between her teeth, grinning at me.
"What are you up to?" I laugh, scooting forwards until my legs hang off the end of the bed.
She takes a few sultry steps forwards before sitting herself down on top of my lap. I support her, my hands fitting into her back. She winds her arms around me and leans into a long kiss. A breath escapes from my nose as her chest presses up against mine. She tightens her grip around me before I drop back against the bed.
"Is." I whisper as she ducks her lips down, planting kisses along my jaw and onto my neck. Gradually, she begins to walk the tip of her fingers down my torso. "Is. I'm not going to have sex with you."
"Why not?" She mutters, her mouth still connecting with my skin, her fingers waiting at the waistband of my sweatpants. Before she tempts me, I shuffle onto my elbows and she sits up.
"My friends are next door. I don't want them to hear us." I explain, tilting my head at her.
"I'll be quiet." She whispers with a low voice, closing in for another soft kiss.
"We both know that's not possible." I return, in between her lips. She retracts with a playful frown, lightly smacking my arm. "Besides." I shift my weight until I'm fully sat up, catching her so she doesn't get knocked off. "I like hearing you."
I roll over until she's underneath me, granting her another long, tender kiss. Shortly afterwards, I get up, moving away from her, back to where I was previously sat in bed. I rub my shoulders into the pillow I've propped up.
"You're being serious?" She cocks her head back, seeming offended. I nod. "But we promised?"
"Well it'll have to wait." I reach out to graze her elbow with my fingers but she moves in time, seating herself on top of her own bent knees, covering her nakedness with the shirt. "Is, our friends being next door doesn't exactly set the mood."
"So you don't want to?" She questions.
"I do. Of course I do but I'm not going to. Not now." She lets out a long sigh and then straightens up.
"Right. Get out then." She orders effective immediately, gesturing her head to the door.
"What? No?" I almost laugh at the idea but her face remains serious.
"Yeah. Get out." She shrugs at my wide mouth. "If you're not going to help me then I'll do it on my own."
"Are you kidding? You've got to be kidding." I can't help but scoff.
"No. Dead ass. You can wait outside." Her pretty face is dead straight and grave as she lays back on the pillows beside me with a slight bend in one of her legs.
"I can't stay and watch?" I check.
"No. You can't." She answers confidently but her voice is still gentle.
"That's crazy." I laugh. I quickly stop laughing, scowling at her, putting my foot down. "I'm not going."
**
I spend the next few minutes, quietly pacing up and down the space in the hallway, outside of the bedroom door. I sigh, resting the side of my head against the wall when I hear footsteps from behind me. Twisting over my shoulder, Owen comes out of one of the other rooms.
"Alright?" He calls to me in a whisper. I nod in answer. "Hungry." He explains, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. He steps past me and away through the darkness of the house, using his phone as a torch.
I wait, my arms folded across my bare chest. My eyes shut and I steadily breathe, now square to the wall. It's not long before I crack one eye open to see Owen on his way back with a glass of water and a packet of chips in his hands. He throws me a frown. I nod to the door and then gesture that she's on the phone.
"Oh." He whispers, holding his hand up in apology, thankfully believing the story. He silently sneaks off back into his bedroom.
I let out a quiet groan to myself before slowly opening the door to check in with her. With her legs stretched out underneath the covers of the bed, she's left herself in the golden light of the lamp, flicking through the pages of her book.
"Please tell me you did not just kick me out so you could read." I complain after I shut the door behind myself. She lets out a mischievous laugh.
"No. I'm all finished."
"When?" I ask, jumping out of my sweatpants. She pretends to look at a fake watch on her wrist.
"About a minute after you left." She laughs again as I get to the bed, opening the covers up.
"What?! I've been stood out there for ages!" She smiles, gleefully. "You little..."
"Go on. Finish that sentence." She teases, bringing me into bed next to her.
"You are something else Isabelle Daisy Dunn." She shrugs, nonchalantly.
"Says you Mr Thomas King." I playfully snatch her book out of her hands.
"Hey! I was reading." She cries out, as I place it on the bed side table.
"Not anymore. Now come here and cuddle me." She rolls her eyes at me but then flattens down into her side.
I turn over and she cradles herself around my back, snaking her arms around my middle. I don't think I've ever been cuddled by a girl like this. Saying that, it's very rare for me to be cuddling anyone at all. We lay wrapped up in each other for a few more minutes before she speaks.
"Close your eyes. I'm going to draw something." I smile and she peels off of me. She pushes the covers down to expose the whole of my bare back. Tickling her finger against my skin, she draws a series of straight lines that come together as a square with a triangle on top.
"A house?" She lets out a positive hum at the right idea and then pretends to rub it out before drawing the next one. She trails a small circle and then another with a box type of shape on top of it. "A car?"
"Either you're good at guessing or I'm a fantastic artist." She jokes, chuckling. She has a few more turns, gradually making them harder and harder to the point where I can't even hazard a guess. She draws the next shape delicately across the whole of my back.
"Is that a heart?" I grin to myself while she can't see my face.
"Maybe." She answers and I wriggle around, cradling her little face in my big hands.
I guide her forwards to kiss me. Pulling away, a sparkle catches in her pretty, brown eyes as she smiles up at me. I stroke my thumb along the soft skin of her cheek thinking about what I really want to say to her right now. The idea of those three little words make the back of my neck itchy and hot with nerves. I just stare at her, flitting between all of the perfect features of her face. The air is empty without the words I want to fill it with.
Her nose scrunches up as she lets out a yawn. I let her go, reaching my arm over her and turning the lamp off. I don't know what to say because I don't want to let anything slip out on accident. I fall onto my back and she looks at me while on her side.
"Today was a good day." She whispers through the dark and I smile.
"Yeah. It was." I agree.
"I didn't tell you but Cassidy apologized to me. It was all pretty much bullshit but I guess I don't have to worry about her anymore which is nice."
"You don't have to worry about anyone else." I reassure her and the advice that Mom gave me jumps to the front of my mind. "It's me and you. No one else."
"Me and you." She repeats after me.
"No one else." She snuggles up closer for one last peck before setting her head on my rising and falling chest. I wrap my arms around her and we nestle into the unacquainted sheets, comforted by the familiarity of each other.
****
- Frankie Kate