***** Brenley's Point of View *****
Sitting around the pool with Dylan Chase's friends ended up being really fun after that bitchy girl left that kept giving me the evil eye. I got the feeling she didn't like me for some reason. She had been shamelessly flirting with Dylan, but he was ignoring her, so maybe she was just in a bad mood.
Dylan's best friend Gabe kept flirting with me in subtle little ways, like shooting me a flirty smile and a wink, swimming up close and just giving me a look that said, "I want you."
It might have meant a little more to me if I hadn't already seen him doing the exact same thing to the other women at the pool party. He was hilarious, charming and handsome, but he had player written all over him.
Hooking up with some hit-it-and-quit-it, hump and dump player was definitely not on my itinerary for this trip. I just wanted to make it through the week unscathed, with my dignity and my heart still in tact. Then I could go back home to Iowa and start the next chapter of my life.
I was one of those people that had to plan ahead for things or else it made me anxious. My five year plan was to buy a house, find a nice local Iowa guy to date, get married, and then eventually have some babies. I was twenty one, so having all of that by twenty six sounded like a reasonable plan.
"Who's ready for a shot?" Gabe asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"A Shot? How about we try something a little stronger?" one of the girls said with a mischievous smirk, bringing out a little bag with some white powder in it. "I brought some blow with me," she said, shaking the bag up and down.
My eyes widened and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had never seen that stuff in real life, only on TV. I suddenly felt really uncomfortable and thought about going back to the guesthouse.
Dylan was standing next to the girl and he shook his head and said, "Put that shit away. I don't know what you're used to at other parties, but I don't allow that kind of shit at my house. We stick to alcohol here."
Her smiled faded away and she looked disappointed as she shoved the bag back into her purse, crossing her arms across her chest and letting out a frustrated exhale.
I was relieved to know that Dylan didn't do that kind of stuff. It would have made for an awkward week. Gabe poured two tall double shot glasses full of whiskey and handed one to me and one to Dylan.
"Cheers," Dylan said with a smile, clinking his shotglass against mine before tipping it back. I did the same, feeling the burn as it slid down my throat.
Gabe gave me a high five and another flirty smile, saying, "Damn girl. You took that like a champ," before pouring the three of us another shot.
I stopped after the third shot and so did Dylan, but the others had a lot more. The music and the noise of screaming and splashing water had gotten louder and that's when I noticed a few more people had shown up.
The other girls walked off and Gabe went to talk to his friend that had shown up, leaving Dylan and I alone. "Hey, ummm, thank you for what you did earlier. I've never been offered anything like that before. I don't know if you could tell, but I was freaking out."
"Yeah," he smiled. "I felt the same way when I moved here and got offered that crap for the first time by a celebrity I had really respected. Luckily I never fell into that trap. It's crazy how many actors get caught up in that kind of shit and it ruins their lives. That's why I don't allow it at my house."
"Hey! Who's ready to play chicken fight?" Gabe shouted, hooking an arm around each of our necks. Everyone cheered.
"What's chicken fight?" I asked, scrunching my eyebrows. "That sounds like a weird game." Getting invited to pool parties wasn't exactly a common thing for me.
"It's where two girls sit on two guys' shoulders in the pool and the girls fight to push each other off into the water. The first one that falls in loses," Dylan told me. "You wanna play?"
"Ummm. Maybe," I said hesitantly. "Let me watch another group to see how it goes first though."
We walked over and sat on the edge of the pool, watching the others play for a couple rounds, laughing. It actually looked like a lot of fun.
When they were done, Gabe shouted, "It's your turn Brittany! Get up on my shoulders!"
"It's Brenley not Britney," I corrected him, before standing up and walking over that way.
"Oh, you two are gonna be partners?" Dylan asked, looking back and forth between me and Gabe, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"We sure are pretty boy, and you're goin' down," Gabe said, ruffling up Dylan's hair before asking, "So who do you pick to be your partner?"
There were only two women that wanted to play, one was Alani, a beautiful Asian woman who was around my height, 5'6. We would've been a pretty close match up. The other was Abby, a pretty caucasian brunette around 5'10 that literally could have passed for a fitness model with her buff arms and six pack. She was intimidating and not someone I'd want to get in a fight with.
So of course, who did Dylan pick? You guessed it. He picked Abby, the woman that looked like she could crush cans with her biceps. She was going to break me like a little twig.
"Come on shortie. We got this," Gabe told me confidently before giving me a fist bump, and I gave him a reluctant half-hearted smile. There was no way we had this. I watched Dylan and Abby high five with both hands and then they both jumped at the same time and bumped their chests against each other.
I slipped into the pool and Gabe swam under the water and put his head between my legs, grabbing my thighs and then I felt myself being lifted up out of the water until he was standing up straight with me on his shoulders. I bent my knees and hooked my feet behind his back to make it easier to hold on. I had a pretty solid grip and felt pretty stable.
In front of us I saw Dylan rise up out of the pool with Abby on his shoulders and she looked ready for a fight, cracking her knuckles with a confident smile on her face, like she was sure she was gonna win.
That sparked something inside me, a deep desire to wipe that cocky look off her face. I narrowed my eyes at her and gritted my teeth, wanting to show her that I wasn't as weak as she thought. I hated when people underestimated me because of my size. It brought out my ugly competitive side.
The guys started circling around each other in the pool until they were close enough for us to reach each other. Without warning I felt a hard shove against my shoulders, sending me backwards, but I used my leg muscles to hold on as I slowly pulled myself back up and got my bearings, looking around.
Abby was still smiling. I reached out to shove her back, but it was hard to reach her because my arms were way shorter than hers.
"Get closer! I can't reach!" I shouted to Gabe.
He stepped forward and got right up against them so that Abby and I were only a few inches apart. I shoved her quickly with every ounce of strength I could muster up, before she had a chance to shove me again. She went flying backwards pretty far, but didn't fall off, using her core strength to lift herself back up. When she sat up straight, the cocky smile was gone from her face and she looked surprised. Apparently I was stronger than she thought I'd be.
"Yeah! Go Brittany!" Gabe shouted beneath me and I rolled my eyes.
"It's Brenley!" I shouted as the guys circled each other again.
We shoved each other back and forth a few times, before I finally caught her off guard at the exact right moment. She fell backwards into the pool with a big splash, and a few seconds later she came to the surface coughing, with her wet hair covering her face.
I raised my arms above my head in victory as the crowd of people watching us cheered and clapped for me. Even Dylan was clapping. Gabe lowered me down into the water and gave me a high five.
"I think that's the first time Abby's ever been beat at this game," he told me. "We make a good team."
"Yes we do," I smiled. "I couldn't have done it without you."
I got out of the pool, dripping wet and grabbed my towel to dry my face off. I saw the shadow of a tall figure standing over me like a tree. I looked up and saw that it was Abby, standing there with a straight face and her arms crossed across her chest.
'This is it. She's gonna kick my ass,' I thought to myself. I had never been in a fight before. The music turned down and everyone was watching us silently to see what was going to happen. I swallowed hard, waiting for her to let me have it.
Her straight face slowly morphed into a smile and she lifted her hand out to me for a handshake.
"You did really good. You're a formidable opponent short stack," she said with a grin.
I laughed at her nickname for me and decided to give her one too.
"You were good too giraffe," I said with a smile, shaking her hand.
The music turned back up and everyone started talking again since the drama was over. I went over to my lounge chair and decided to lay out in the sun for a while. I really wanted to get a tan before I went back home. I had just closed my eyes when I felt someone sit down on the edge of my lounger beside me.
I opened my eyes and saw Gabe sitting there with a white ball in his hands.
"You up for some volleyball?" he asked with his big white smile.
"Hey Gabe! Quit making moves on my girl before I have to kick your ass!" Dylan shouted from the pool.
That took me by surprise.
"Oooooh. Looks like Dylan's called dibs on you," Gabe said, smiling and nudging me with his elbow.
I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure he didn't mean it like that. He just means that I'm his guest."
"And what if he did mean it like that?"
I scoffed. "Then I would say, is that supposed to make me feel special or something? He probably says that to a different girl every week."
"Ouch," Gabe winced. "I can't believe you're hatin' on my boy like that. Believe it or not, he hasn't had a girlfriend in almost a year."
"Really?" I asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "That's hard to believe."
"Yeah, well it's the truth. Tawny that was here earlier, that was actually his ex. She did him so dirty he swore off women for a while."
"What did she do?" I asked, feeling curious.
"She ended up cheating on him with his director cause she thought he would give her a part in one of his movies. She broke up the dude's family."
"Awww. That's terrible," I said, shaking my head.
"Yeah. So Dylan's had his guard up and hasn't dated anybody seriously since her. I feel bad for the dude. When you're as famous as he is, it's hard to know who to trust and who just wants something from you."
I looked over at Dylan who was at the other end of the pool. He was standing there in a pair of navy blue swim trunks with his smooth tan skin, strong, broad shoulders and rippling six pack on display, flashing that million-dollar smile. It was hard to believe someone like him hadn't dated anybody in a year. He probably had beautiful, famous women throwing themselves at him all the time.
"I haven't seen him like anybody in a long time. Maybe you'll be the one to finally get him out of his dating slump."
I shook my head. "No, I can't. I'm only here for a few more days and then I'm going back to Iowa. I'll probably never see him again," I said, laying my head back on the lounger and closing my eyes, letting out an exhale.
"Right," Gabe said with a hint of a laugh, sounding like he wasn't convinced.
"It is right," I said firmly, without opening my eyes.