"We should stop," Sadie says, just as she laces her fingers together behind my neck and pulls my mouth back to hers.
"Definitely," I breathe, eager to feel her soft lips against mine, again.
"This is a bad idea."
"Really bad," I agree.
We're both soaked in rain water, but I don't even care. I've never been so close Sadie, and, now that I am, I never want to move away. The feel of her velvet skin underneath my fingertips, the taste of the minty mouthwash she uses excessively everyday, and the sent of her fruit punch shampoo. I am completely engulfed in her and it feels incredible. It's some sort of high–full of adrenaline–that I refuse to come down from. She wants me. The way she's grabbing my shirt, the sounds that are escaping her perfect little mouth; it's just fuelling a fire that has been burning within me for a damn long time.
Kissing her, I seem to forget. The fact that tomorrow's the last day at this tournament. How we were just screaming at each other ten minutes ago. This is euphoria. And she's right. This is a bad idea. But if something bad feels this good, well, then I'm in for a lifetime of bad decisions.
I don't know how much time has passed when Sadie gently shoves my chest and peels her back away from the lamppost.
"Carter," she starts.
God, I love when she says my name. I barely ever hear it roll of her tongue, and, when it does, she's never addressing me directly. But the way she says my name now, it's like some wall between us has broken down. And she's still Sadie; the infuriating, overachiever girl that I've been competing with for the past three years. But she's also Sadie; the girl I haven't been able to get off my mind, no matter how hard I tried.
I just nod as a response. Forming words has quickly become difficult.
"We can't do this."
I freeze. I don't know why, but this was not the response I anticipated. "Why not?" I ask, my voice small, as if there's something wedged in my throat.
She laughs, but there's no amusement hiding within it. "Oh, smarten up, Conners. Me. You. It would never work. You don't even like me."
You're wrong, I want to tell her. Instead, I say, "Do you like me?"
She stares down at her shoes, slow raindrops falling on them. "Not like that."
She's lying. I can see that she's lying. Please tell me she's lying. "Okay."
"Ugh," she groans, pulling on the ends of her hair. "I screwed everything up."
"No, you didn't," I say.
"I kissed you." She says it like it's such a bad thing.
"No, I kissed you."
She's trying to hold onto her frown, but I see the corner of her mouth turn up. "Smartass."
I smile because I can't help it. She's biting her bottom lip to stop her lips from forming the same grin as mine. What are we doing? I want to kiss her again. She doesn't want me to. She thinks it was a mistake. I disagree.
Sadie seems to have regained her composure. "I mean, we're always competing, and we can barely be in the same room without biting each other's heads off. Whatever that was, it would complicate things."
"I didn't ask for your hand in marriage or anything," I say, trying to defuse the ounce of tension I can feel suspended in the air.
Sadie buries her face in her hands, hiding frustration or a blush, I don't know. "See!" She exclaims. "You are so exasperating."
I don't know what to say to that. My brain seems to be short-circuiting. I can only think about Sadie, and her lips on mine, and us pressed against each other in the pouring rain. I need to get it together. If she thinks this was a mistake, then fine. She can think it's a mistake.
"Are we going to get groceries?" I ask.
She stares at me as if I didn't just ask a question, but then shakes her head. "I don't think we need them anymore."
"Should we call a ride and go back to the hotel?" I hope someone is fine with us entering their car dripping in rain water.
"No," she says, and I look at her, confused. "We're going to find Gracie and Felix."
My eyes go wide. "You want to go to a sixteen-plus club?"
"Fuck yeah, I do." And she turns on her heel and begins heading in the opposite direction. I just follow behind her.
It's almost as if the last twenty minutes never happened.
It's not a long walk to the club. The bright neon sign kind of gives it away as soon as you're within a mile radius. Now that we're here, Sadie looks anxious. I've never seen her at a party. Maybe one in freshman year, but, after that, if it wasn't organized by the school, she wasn't there. She definitely has the social status to be invited to them, but her, and her friends, always decline.
All of the lights in front of the building are off, but, through the windows, you can see coloured strobe lights lighting up people's face red and blue. There's a bulky man standing in front of the entrance to the club. He's dressed in all black and holding a clipboard. "IDs?" He asks as soon as we approach him.
"We're over sixteen," Sadie says. I don't think she knows how these things work.
"IDs," the man repeats, but it's not a question this time.
Sadie rolls her eyes and pulls her school ID from... the inside of her bra? The security guard looks at little shocked that this girl dressed in a soaking wet dress has identification hidden in her bra, but he quickly regains his neutral expression and gestures her to go inside. She does.
I hand the guard my Student ID, and, after glancing at it, he hands it back. "Why are you all wet?" He asks before I can escape after Sadie into the club.
"It was raining," I say.
"Okay," he says, but he sounds skeptical. "Don't drip water all over the floor. It's a hazard."
"Wouldn't dream of it," I reply, sidestepping him into the club.
He lets out an annoyed huff and mumbles somethings that sounds suspiciously like "kids" under his breath. He didn't tell us not to drink, but I'm assuming that it's implied that anyone under 21 has to stick to water and Coke.
I haven't been in a 16+ club since the incident with Dimitri, but it's all exactly the same. The brightly coloured lights to entice teenagers to dance instead of stealing bottles of beer from college students. The mass of hot and sweaty bodies grinding against each other and bouncing to billboard hits. It's loud and almost impossible to see anyone. Clearly Sadie didn't think it was necessary to wait for me by the door. So. Fucking. Difficult.
We're supposed to be finding Gracie and Felix, but we can't find anyone if we are not together. I head over to the bar, hoping to find Sadie sitting on a stool and not dripping water all over the dance floor. I'm surprised that it doesn't take long to find her.
"Can I buy a pretty girl like you a drink?" I hear a deep voice ask.
"Can an old man like you fuck off?" Sadie. Of. Fucking. Course. God, this girl is going to make me go crazy. If I haven't already.
I follow the voices to find Sadie sipping on a glass of ice water, while a man with balding blonde hair stands with his hand on the back of her seat. She wears an annoyed expression, while the man wears one that is downright predatory. The bartender is a few feet away serving a couple that don't seem to need anymore alcohol from the way they can barely stay on their seats. I walk over to the man and Sadie and push his hand off the back of her seat. "She's good," I tell him.
He rolls his eyes and struts off after a brunette girl–closer to his age–that just sat down.
Sadie turns to me, "Wow, my knight in shining armour." Sarcasm drips off her words.
I ignore her. "I was looking for you. You didn't wait up."
"No, I didn't."
Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. "Have you seen Felix or Gracie?"
She nods her head. "They're having the fucking time of their lives on the dance floor. Haven't you heard them singing at the tops of their lungs yet?"
Now that she mentions it, I can hear a distant "Go, bitch" from within the crowd. I resist the urge to roll my eyes again. "Are we heading over?" I ask Sadie, who has finished the last of her water.
"I guess."
I grab her hand and, surprisingly, she doesn't object. We weave through people making out against walls, a group collapsed in a drunk fit of giggles on the ground, and tens of people dancing. Clubbing has never been my scene. Dancing hasn't been either. My arm is extended as far as possible to hold onto Sadie as dancing frames threaten to disconnect us. The voice of someone who I can only assume is Felix is getting louder and I'm honestly impressed that he hasn't gotten kicked out yet.
When we reach the two partiers, Felix's shirt is unbuttoned and Gracie is cheering him on as he chugs something that definitely is not water. I tap him on the shoulder after he's done drinking and he startles, jumping straight in the air. "Carter? What are you doing here? Come to join the party?"
"You know it," I say, smirking at his dishevelled state. "Where'd you get the drinks?"
Felix points towards a guy with light brown skin and messy curls atop his head standing a few feet away. He's staring at Felix as he leans under a picture frame holding a photo of who I presume is the owner of this club, sipping on a cocktail. That's when it clicks. "You hooked up with him?"
Felix grins, shyly. "A little. We just made out in the bathroom."
Gracie cuts in, swaying slightly and giggling as Sadie tries to hold her upright. "He abandoned me."
"For like five minutes," Felix retorts. "And, besides, I brought you back a drink too."
Gracie giggles, "And cheers to that." They clumsily tap their drinks together, liquid sloshing over the brims of their glasses.
"You want some?" Felix asks me, shoving his drink that smells like straight vodka under my nose.
"We're not twenty-one."
Felix just shrugs, "Hasn't stopped you before."
I can't argue with that.
Fuck it. We're done all partner debates. Tomorrow is the last day. It's time to celebrate. I take the glass out of Felix's hand and drink the last of the liquid. It burns all the way down my throat and I cough slightly after I swallow. I'm not a drinker. I avoid it as much as possible when Landon, Dimitri, and I go to parties, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Maybe it's okay to get a little drunk with my friends.
Sadie declines the drink Gracie shoves at her, looking at the glass as if it's some disgusting cockroach that she's being asked to hold. Then she says, "Let's dance."
I don't know what the alcohol percentage of the drink Felix gave me was, but it must have been really fucking high to make me feel this buzzed after half a glass. Felix and the curly-haired boy have found each other again, and they're half-making out, half-dancing on each other under the moving red lights. Sadie and Gracie are dancing with each other, hands in the air and hair sticking up in all directions. I don't really know how you're supposed to dance at a club, so I just move my feet and sip on the dregs of Felix's vodka. That's until I feel someone slip their arms around my waist.
"Hey," a soft voice whispers in my ear.
I turn around–only swaying slightly–to come face-to-face with a blonde-haired girl who looks only a year or two older than me. She's wearing a short pale blue dress that matches the colour of her eyes. She smiles at me, her arms still hugging my torso.
"Hi?" I say, but it comes out like a question.
"How's it going?" She asks, her voice is soft and sounds like a purr.
"Good," I reply. She's pressed her body even closer against mine and I'm trying no-so-subtly to move away.
"You up for a dance?" She asks, already beginning to move to the music without waiting for my response.
I open my mouth to say "sure," but a different voice cuts in.
"I don't fucking think so, blondie," Gracie says, pushing the girl away from me. I guess drunk Gracie is not someone you want to mess with. "Sadie go dance with Carter."
Before we can say anything, Gracie tells the blonde girl to go dance elsewhere–earning some screeches of protest–and practically throws Sadie into my arms. I catch her no-so-gracefully and she curses under her breath.
"Gracie, what the fuck?" Sadie yells, scolding her friend.
"Thank me later, bitch," she replies, raising her bottle of I-don't-know-what in cheers and disappearing into a crowd of dancing bodies.
"Stop flopping around like a dead fish," Sadie scolds me.
"I'm not!" I protest, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what I look like.
"Here," she says, placing my hands on either side of her hips. "Just move with me."
Sadie begins rolling her hips back and forth and I grip harder onto the thin material of her dress, pushing her closer to me, so our bodies are flush against each other. The smell of her perfume and fruity shampoo is making me feel even more intoxicated than I am. I move my body against hers, running my hands up and down her frame.
"That's it." Her breath is hot against my neck and, God, do I want to kiss her again. I don't want to stop touching her. I could stay here with her forever. I don't care that there's probably a hundred other people in this club. It's only her. Only her I want here with me.
She throws her arms up in the air, grinding against me. Fuck, she's got to stop doing that or we're going to have a problem. Her dress has slid up her thighs and I urge my eyes to stay trained ahead.
When she turns around, our faces are mere inches apart. And then she tilts her chin up, forcing our lips closer together. I could lean down and kiss her right now. But it's a mistake, she says. We're too competitive. Better working against each other than together. I think that's bullshit.
"Are you going to kiss me, Conners?" She challenges. She has no idea what she's doing to me. And I have no idea what game she's playing.
I swallow. "No," I say. "That would be a mistake."
She nods, "And we don't repeat mistakes, do we?"
"No, we don't."
...
A/N
And here we go, Chapter 30 is finally out. I'm sorry it took so long. Between work and school, it's taken a while to get back into writing. But I'm back and ready to finish this story!
Also, thank you so much for 500 reads! You guys are actually the best :)
Chapter 31 coming soon...