Ashton Bennett
All decked out in a hideous shirt depicting a psychedelic tiger, jeans that Lacy swore made my ass look like a ‘Georgia peach’, and ridiculously neon shoes, I looked like an crazy little elf. Normally, I was only a mean little elf, but the outfit Lacy had practically dressed me up in took my elfin nature to a whole new level. An even worse level.
A rough jerk on my arm brought me back to my sad reality. Although I had to have at least a few pounds on her, I still lost my balance and nearly toppled the both of us over. Lacy steadied me with a disapproving look and returned to her strenuous task of lugging the both of us through the living room swarming with shimmying STDs and dancing dicks. A few of the shimmying STDs tried to grab at me and make me join their Orgy of Doom, but Lacy, defending my honor, glared murderously at them.
Lacy Kingston was a preppy cheerleader on steroids. Not only did she get her kicks by pumping pompoms and rolling around in a short ‘spirit-colored’ skirt, but she also fancied herself to be the nicest person in the universe as well as some sort of godsend What Not To Wear/Matchmaker mash-up. In reality, she was neither. Lacy Kingston was a bottle blond control freak dating my dear older brother Stephan, a huge pain in my pretty little ass that loved dressing me up like I was her life-sized Ken doll, and the motherfucking queen of the socialites.
My keeper strutted forward, ramming her elbow into a drunk girl who wasn’t moving out of her way fast enough. The now even more unsteady girl dumped half a beer on me, tripped on a bra that was mysteriously laying around, and collapsed on top of a stoned couple who were practically fucking against the wall.
After scowling at the back of Lacy’s perfect blond head, I quickly scanned the rest of the living room. The classy and obviously expensive décor was definitely a step up from the majority of parties Lacy and I crashed, but other than that, it was all the same: a whirlwind of drugged up, sexed up, and fucked up people, too much alcohol for their own good, and deafeningly loud dance music.
Ignoring the thumping of the speakers and the screeching of the masses, I spoke into my keeper’s ear, “Hey Princess, who’s party is this anyway?” I always felt mildly weird being in some person’s house and not knowing who it belonged to. Lacy never had any qualms though and began prepping me as soon as one of her minions even thought the word ‘p-a-r-t-y’.
She shot me a venomous look at the nickname but actually looked like she was considering the question as she continued yanking me forward. Her flawless face scrunched up and she began counting on her fingers, mouthing words- the dumb girl attended so many parties on a regular basis, I’d be amazed if she could come up with an answer.
“Let’s see Ashy,” I glared at her, but in typical Lacy Kingston fashion, she ignored it and carried on, “It’s possible that it’s Footballer Teddy’s, Hockey Mike’s, Tennis Katie’s, or some college guy’s.” Lacy shouted at me, looking troubled that, for once, she didn’t have all the answers.
I raised at eyebrow at her. “College guy? New boy-toy, Princess?”
Rolling her perfectly lined eyes, Lacy reached out to smack me. “Oh, Ashy, you know Stephie’s the only one for me. Just face it, the 2 of us are gonna get married, have lots of babies, and grow old together- or at least until the wrinkles start to show, cause then we’re gonna Botox it up…” Lacy grinned, deliriously lost in her picture-perfect plans for the future. “And yeah, some college guy. I can’t really remember his name, but he’s friends with Stephan and the rumor is that he’s Freddy’s newest dealer.”
Smiling knowingly, I let out a very unmanly giggle. There were 4 darling little Kingston kids in all - Melissa, Freddy, Ben, and Lacy - and it was widely known that the 2nd oldest, Freddy, was forever stoned off his ass. In my person opinion, Freddy’s revolving string of ‘newest dealers’ was due to his demanding too much weed for any one man to get his hands on, but Freddy swore that he was just constantly getting ‘shitty shit’. The boy was lucky he was pretty, cause he sure as hell wasn’t very bright.
“Oh shut up, Ashton!” Lacy defended her brother angrily. Schooling her face into her signature charming simper, my keeper shoved me roughly into the kitchen.
The huge room was less crowded than the bustling living room, but it still resembled the sight of a natural disaster. Illegal bottles of every shape, size, and color covered the countertops, red tell-tale cups were aimlessly tossed around, and, scrunching my nose up in disgust, I watched as a half naked girl that was sprawled out on the table giggled as a dude licked some sort of alcohol off her. Another undressed girl leered at me from the corner.
Still keeping her tiny tight fist around my wrist, Lacy flitted like a social butterfly into a crowd of drunken guys. I mentally groaned but followed obediently.
As she rifled through the impressive collection of liquor, I took my time assessing the group of 5, most of whom were busy staring at her derriere. They were all obviously drunk out of their minds, but still, they were decent looking. Lacy tossed me a beer before turning to the boys with an alluring smile. Like most males with fully functioning dicks, they all melted; looks like she wouldn’t be finding me my ‘prince charming’ in these pricks.
Officially, I had yet to escape the closet. In retrospect, my never having had a girlfriend in my 17 years of life and my track record of being caught staring at the footballers’ tight asses kind of gave away my preferences, but no one, with the exception of the scarily perceptive Lacy Kingston and my computer history (which was unfortunately full of a myriad of gay porn sites), seemed aware of my ‘infinite gaydom’.
“ -and this is my lovely brother Ashton...Ashton, say hi to everyone now!” I tuned back in to Lacy’s introductory speech.
At my blank look, Lacy stabbed her elbow into my ribs. I rolled my eyes. Knowing that these guys were straighter than rulers, I decided to have some fun and screw with Lacy. Cocking a hip, I flashed a coy smile, winked flirtatiously, and wiggled my fingers in a wave. In the gayest voice I could manage, I drawled, “Heyy Cuties.”
Lacy, forever trying to save face, played along. “Did I forget to mention that Ashy here is queer? Oh, silly me!” she paused and smiled as if letting them all in a secret. Immediately, the disgust (probably at the possibility of being infected by killer gay germs… Oh the horror!) melted off their faces and they unconsciously leaned closer to Lacy. “Sooo, any takers?”
I burst into hysterical laughter as they all tripped over themselves trying to get away from us. Composing myself for all of 5 seconds, I winked again and said, “Y’all come back now, ya hear?” I once again dissolved into giggles.
Lacy rounded on me, practically spitting fire. “Ashton!” she hissed. I could almost see the snakes growing on her head. “You ruined your chances of getting with one of them! Every time I find you perfectly nice, possibly gay men to beboyfriend, you act like THIS!” Lacy stomped her foot.
She looked as if she was preparing to launch into another angry tirade, so I quickly butted in. “‘Beboyfriend’? Lacy, I’m not going to act like a dumb slut and try my luck with every guy in the world! Those ‘perfectly nice men’ weren’t even gay and you wanted me to try to get them to fuck me!”
I could have sworn I heard some little bitch laughing his ass off at the two of us.
In front of me, Lacy visibly deflated. Her shoulders, usually set back with the perfect posture of a poster child, slumped and tears sprung to her eyes. She sniffled, “I was just trying to help you Ashton! There aren’t that many gays out there you know and I don’t want you to end up alone!”
“Lacy- ” I began, but she turned and fled the kitchen, becoming just another limb in the flailing crowd before my eyes.
Groaning, I tipped back the beer Lacy had given me. The taste was horrible, but I reached for another anyway. Sucking it down faster than I probably should’ve, I tossed the empties to the side and slumped back against the counter. Not only was Stephan going to murder me when he hears I upset his girlfriend, but now my only “friend” at “college guy’s” party was pissed at me. I threw an arm over my face in an attempt to block out the world. I failed miserably.
Someone chuckled- the same irritating laugh I had heard when I blew up at Lacy. My arm slipped away from my head and I glared up at the man who seemed to derive such joy from all my problems. He was tall, pretty much a fucking giant to me at 6 foot something, and muscled like nobody’s business. So the exact opposite of me, I thought bitterly. I immediately disliked him. When I glanced up at his face, intent on telling him to go fuck himself, I stopped and just blinked stupidly for a bit. He was beautiful. His molten jade-green eyes, shimmering with golden freckles and laughter, were framed with thick black lashes and shining down on me. Skin tanned to brown perfection, his face was all sharp angles and slopes. His pink mouth was twisted into a smirk that made me want to kiss him. My hands itched with the need to brush aside his halo of messy dark hair, just so that I could have a better view of his liquid eyes.
I caught myself leaning towards him and jerked backwards. Aiming a scowl at the piece of heaven looming over me, I mentally bitch-slapped myself; I was such a slut, throwing myself at the first pretty boy to walk past! Maybe I had been hanging out with Lacy’s cheerleader friends too much, or maybe I really was a lightweight, getting drunk on 2 beers.
Trying to keep the lust from coloring my tone, I frostily questioned, “May I help you?”
Although I hadn’t thought it was possible, his smirk grew even wider. “No Sugar, I think I may help you.”
Hearing his buttery voice, I nearly swooned.
“Oh, how so?” I was half amazed, half proud when my voice came out strong, not the high-pitched girly gasp my head was choking. “You think you can solve all my problems, or that you even know my problems?”
Mystery Man chuckled down at me. “Of course not Sugar. But I do know just how to make you forget all of them.”
With that, he reached above me, caging me in with his tall lithe body, and retrieved a sparkling glass from the cabinet above me. The delicious aroma of cinnamon buns and cologne swirled around me, going straight to my head. He grabbed several unidentifiable bottles from the surrounding countertops and began expertly pouring.
A tiny part of my mind began shrieking at me to remember Mrs. Moses, our guidance counselor, preaching to all of us about never accepting drinks from strangers and crap about date rape drugs and alcohol poisoning and yadda yadda yoo… I was too lost in the heavenly aura of the man.
He winked at me as he reached into his pocket. “Don’t worry Sugar, I’ll take good care of you, I promise.” In one smooth motion, he pulled a tiny purple tablet from his pants and dropped it into the drink. He swished the liquid around once, twice, three times before offering it to me.
I took the glass into my hands obediently. Although I could hardly bear to look away from his beautiful green eyes, I forced myself to glance down at his creation. The alcohol resembled a liquid box of crayons, I thought absently, dipping a finger in to the warm cup to trace a swirl. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
The man grabbed my chin, bringing my eyes back to his. He smiled down at me as he said, “Sugar.”
With my eyes still desperately holding his, afraid to let go and never see their beautiful greenness again, I brought a hand up to his mouth. His pink lips caught the wet finger and drew it into his mouth, sucking it clean for me. I watched, hypnotized by how his lips looked on my skin, until he finally released my finger with a pop. I trailed my hand down his chin, his neck, his chest, the hardness in his jeans, and back to cup the rainbow glass.
This time, I didn’t hesitate.
“Don’t worry Sugar, I’ll take good care of you, I promise.” he said, dropping a kiss onto my forehead.
I brought the cup to my lips and greedily drank the contents.
His beautiful molten green eyes receded, and, panicking, I let the glass slip from my hands. I heard it shatter on the floor, accompanied by his chuckle.
And then, all I saw, smelled, tasted, felt, heard, thought was the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.