For Authentication Purposes (5 page)

“Do you truly think that you can learn everything you need to learn from one”—he maneuvered his finger so that it was pressing into the space between my cheeks—“quick, hot session?”

I let out a startled gasp when his finger pulsed there. “I-I . . . I d-dunno.” I was stuttering.

He shook his head a little and moved his hand again. He raked his fingers against me as he let them play along the zipper of my jeans and then, in one quick movement, popped the top button. “I can give you that, if it’s what you want. But trust me. Just a few minutes of my cock in your pussy isn’t going to give you what you need.” His fingers played along the exposed skin of my abdomen, and I closed my eyes as a chill ran through me, making my nipples stiffen and the weight in my pelvis turn to an aching pulse.

“People don’t talk like that in real life, Warner.” I breathed in long and deep, attempting to regain my senses. “You sound like a bad porno.”

His laughter caught me off guard, as did his sudden release of my body. I almost melted into the floor, but managed to keep my bearings enough to slump against the wall, taking in a deep breath.

“What the hell do you know, Bunny Dawn?”

I glared at him and blew a piece of my hair from my eyes as I straightened up and buttoned my pants. “For one, you can stop calling me that god-awful name. I got my braces off five years ago. My overbite is long gone.”

He chuckled and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “You don’t even know what you want. It’s sad, you know. Let me ask you a question. Is your book based off any of those shitty eighties movies that you were so obsessed with when we were younger? Because you seem like the kind of girl to me who’s always wanted a Bender, never given a shit about her Duckie, and was always chasing assholes named Blaine. Even if they never gave her the time of day. But where does that leave a girl like you? Giving up her virginity to the first guy who was bland enough to take it. Living alone, not dating, and writing about imaginary men on boats.” He took one long breath as he turned and looked toward the 
TRON
cutout. He shook his head and walked over to grab his jacket off the chair, muttering under his breath the entire time.

“Where the hell are you going?” I asked, stepping in front of him to stop his exit.

“Home.” His answer was abrupt, his jaw pulsing with irritation.

I took the chance to look him over for a moment, debating whether or not to sock him one good time in his ’nads. “How do you know so much about those old movies?”

He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “You talked about them all the time.”

“Not to you.”

“You do know my mom isn’t even forty yet, right? She had me when she was seventeen. I wanted to know what the big deal was, and she was into those crappy movies, too. I watched them. Big deal.”

I couldn’t respond.

“There 
wasn’t
 any big deal about them, by the way. They were as much fantasy as the shit you’re writing about. So maybe I should leave you to your pretty boy on the wall and forget about trying to help you figure it out.” He made a move to get by me and I stepped in his way again.

“What did you plan here? You made it sound like it was just us having sex . . .”

He sighed and reached into his pocket for gum, depositing a piece in his mouth before responding. “Like I said, having sex once isn’t going to point you in the right direction. You have no clue about your own body. You don’t know a thing about pleasure. And yet you’re trying to sell it to the public? If you were doing this book on ancient history, would you just visit one website? Would you just read one book? Or would you do a shit-ton of research?”

My mind reeled with his revelation. “What are you saying?”

Warner moved toward the door again. “I’m saying that if you want my help, we do this my way. Get some damn patience, because I’m not going to make this fast for you. Or easy. And if you’re still interested in what I’ve got for you, then you can let me know. Otherwise”—he gave a dismissive shrug—“I’ll just hand in my portion of the fruit fly lab the day it’s due.” His hand wrapped around the doorknob, and he opened the door, letting a gust of cold air in from the breezeway. My voice was stuck in my throat as I watched his first foot step forward, but before he could make it all the way out the door, I yelled.

“I’m in, damn it! I’m in.
God
. You are such an arrogant prick, you know that?”

He smiled a little as the door began to swing closed behind him. “Yeah, I know. See you after classes tomorrow.”

The door closed with a very final click, and I stared in disbelief as silence surrounded me, leaving me with my thoughts, alone. My heart was beating in my chest and echoing between my legs. With a frustrated grunt, I stormed over to my backpack and pulled out my laptop, opened it, and queued up my Word document. My words appeared onscreen, and I stared at them with disdain as I pointed my cursor at the Edit button. With one heart-wrenching click, I scrolled down to the Select All option and then hit Delete.

It was gone. All of it.

My hands felt numb, and my head was dizzy as I positioned my fingers atop the keyboard and typed out the first words that popped into my head.

I hate motherfucking Warner Green.

The cursor taunted me as it sat there, useless.

With a deep sigh, I went to close out the program and ignored the Save notification when it popped up. I couldn’t bring myself to erase it. I’d worked so hard and it seemed like failure if I did. But Warner was right: there was no salvaging the shit I’d attempted to write.

My biggest hope was that the following night, he’d give me something to work with.

Wardo

She met me at her car the following evening, seeming much more at ease than when I’d left the night before.

“Are we headed to my place?” she asked, suddenly appearing apprehensive about the entire thing. Maybe that Frank guy had been in an ornery mood. Maybe she was about to start her period. I don’t know. I had noticed that her boobs were looking a little bit bigger.

I was chewing on the knuckle of my right thumb as she looked me over. “You know what? Why don’t you ride with me? I need to head over to my friend Gary’s house for a few minutes.”

This was my plan now, and she knew it, so she said fine and crawled into my car. She shoved some papers and cigarette packages out of the way before sitting her prissy ass down on my seat. I watched from my periphery as she settled in and secured her book bag in her lap, trying not to look disgusted by the sheer amount of trash in my car. I didn’t clean it up on purpose just to see if she would say something.

Looked like she wasn’t going to.

After a ten minute ride, Gary’s place came into view, and I couldn’t help but smile. If anything was going to make Dawn chill out it would be an hour or so at Gary’s.

I parked and led her to his door, where I walked in without knocking, pleased as punch to see him hunched over a pipe, mid-inhale. Giving him a nod, I jerked my head back a little to introduce him. “G? Dawn Bunny Sims.”

“Dawn,” she corrected me, her lips pursed in distaste. Coming to rest behind me she whispered angrily, “Are we at your dealer’s house?”

I laughed and moved over to the bar, taking a seat on one of the stools. “Wait. So because he’s smoking up, he’s gotta be my dealer? Nice. Real nice. You’re judgmental as hell, you know that?”

She shifted from foot to foot as she looked for a place to stow her bag. I motioned for her to hand it over, and she did blindly, not realizing that I intended to pull out her laptop.

“Dawn.” Gary let out a wheeze and a long stream of smoke erupted from his lungs. “You’re the bunneh, right?” He scratched his head, his nasty fingers scraping through his shoulder length hair. It was brown that day. I guessed he had washed it.

Dawn rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “Really, Wardo? You tell everyone about that shitty nickname?”

Gary raised his hands in defense. “No. Not everyone. We’re family here.”

“We?” Dawn’s words came out just a second too late, because one of the bedroom doors opened to reveal my friends, Jemma and Declan, tumbling into the living room, laughing hysterically.

And Jemma’s shirt was on inside out.

Classy.

“Hey, Warner,” she said in her scratchy voice. She was halfheartedly trying to tame her red just-fucked hairdo.
 

Declan scratched his chin and grabbed a cookie, throwing a peace sign at me in the process. “Heya, Wardo.”

Dawn’s eyes got huge. “
They
call you that, too?”

I shrugged, trying not to reveal that I’d kind of always liked her attempt at getting under my skin. It made me think she cared. A little. Whatever.

Declan sidled over to Jemma and pretended to chew on her face while I groaned at their rampant PDA. She tugged on his brown mass of hair, making it stick up another two inches when it had already been about three inches high when he walked in. He yanked on her red curls in response, and she palmed his face to shove him away.

“Guys, this is Dawn Bunny Sims. DBS, meet Declan and Jemma.” I didn’t look up from her laptop as I spouted off intros.

“You can just call me Dawn.” She huffed and gave a small wave in their direction, muttering about not having dibs on anyone under her breath.

I guessed her password and laughed when I made it in and opened her documents. “Okay, everybody, circle up. I brought this one”—I pointed Dawn—“over today because we need to run a few things by you for opinions. Are you in?”

They all shrugged in response.

“Perfect. Okay, here’s a good one. See, Bunny’s writing a book and she seems to be using some very interesting alternatives for words. First off, do any of you know what the hell a bodice is?”

Gary looked confused. “Bod-what?”

Jemma cocked her head to the side and chewed on a piece of cookie with her mouth open. “Bodice. That’s old underwear, right?”

“Old underwear? Like, dirty?” Gary scowled at her.

“Old fashioned.” Jemma pursed her lips together for effect.

“Oh.” And Gary lost interest.

“It’s like a corset,” Dawn said lamely

I smiled at Dawn. “Lose the bodice.”

“Eat me,” she retorted

“Not now, darling, we have guests. Maybe later?” I turned and gave her a smile.
 

She rolled her eyes.
 

“Ah! Declan. Do you know what pink pebbled love buttons are?”

“Uh, negative.” He scratched the back of his head and laughed.

“Is that code for clit?” Jemma asked, and Dawn covered her face with her hands, letting out a defeated groan.

“Aching nubs?”

“Did someone lose an arm?” Declan leaned forward to see the screen.

“Aroused flower?” This was getting fun.

“Oh my God. What the hell are you reading?” Jemma laughed and then started to choke on her cookie. Declan jumped behind her, slamming her on the back until she spat the cookie chunk out and it landed next to my elbow.

I pointed to the mess. “Silky wet expulsion.”

“You are such a shit!” Dawn yelled and punched me in the arm. “Look, I get it, okay? I get it. Just shut up, already.”

Swiveling a bit in my chair, I rested my elbow on the bar. “Jemma? When you
come
 . . .”

She raised her eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“Do you catapult into the stratosphere and burst into stardust before you see fireworks behind your eyelids?”
 

Jemma went stone still and her mouth fell open a little. “That sounds like a stroke or something.”

I clapped my hands together once and closed Dawn’s laptop. “Thanks. I think we’re done here.”

Dawn was mortified beyond belief, and I loved it.

“I’ve never had an orgasm like that.” Jemma eyebrows pulled together in concern. Her voice dropped to a conspirator’s whisper. “I mean, I’m a squirter, but I’ve never had that shit happen.” Her hands were waving in front of her like an umpire calling a strike.

“You’re a what?” Dawn stared, eyes wide and intrigued.

Jemma made a face. “Am I a what, what?”

Declan leaned over Jemma’s shoulder, holding up two fingers and wiggling them. “A squirter.”

“Oh my God,” Dawn whispered.
 

I handed her the laptop, and she hurried outside as I grabbed a few things from Gary and told everyone goodbye. Declan asked if my stepsister and her boyfriend would be coming over anytime soon and I had to tell him no. Again. Nolan being in the same place with Declan was too much for anyone to handle. He was always asking, like he had a man-crush on him or something.

Getting into the car, I grinned at Dawn slumped down in the passenger seat. “They like you. Said you should come back this weekend.”

“Yeah . . . I’m gonna pass on that. But thanks.”

Feeling a little bad about tricking her, I sighed and gave an encouraging pat to her shoulder. “Look, I know you have certain perceptions about me. And after I left last night, I got to thinking that maybe you feel like I’m just trying to get in your pants. I needed to show you reactions from other people so that you’d trust me a little. You never would have agreed if I had told you upfront. But aren’t you glad you got some credible feedback?”