Hanging on (Jessica Brodie Diaries #2) (21 page)

His head bent down intimately, looking deep into her eyes, and said something.

She jolted back, hand coming to her chest like a chick. After stared at him for a moment, she flung his hand away and stomped off the dance floor.

Apparently Adam hadn’t whispered sweet nothings.

He turned back to the joker, stared at him a second longer, all his muscles taught with tension, daring action, before calmly turning and following us off the dance floor. He'd pissed her off just to assert his manliness. Whadda douche!

Men really knew how to ruin a good time. If penises weren’t so fun, I’d have the whole lot of ‘em removed.

Lump reached us in a cloud of red. Without an upward glance, she
swooshed
past and away toward the front entryway. She’d get herself a beer, hang out for a while and calm down, then be good as gold. She knew how to get herself back to her happy place, and preferred to do it alone.

The next person to pass in a whirl, though a much less impressive one because he wasn’t wearing a flowing dress, was Adam. He watched Lump go with calculating eyes, but he didn’t follow. Instead, he met Claire and Flem at the stairs and held out his arms. They were happier to grab on than to ask what happened, and away they went.

“Well,” I said to those around me, "that was eventful.”

Moose laughed. “You sure got colorful friends. I’ll say that much. Shouldn’t you go check on…what’s her name? Lump?”

He knew her name! He was just hamming it up for his girlfriend!

And by the look on her face, and how she followed Lump with her head, she knew it. Big mistake Moose!

“Now for the hardest part,” Jane said, looking for Brad.

The stairs.

A few drinks later the girls settled around a table with a fresh round. Lump had cooled off and was back to indifference on the whole affair. She was never angry for long. We filled in Flem and Claire both of which would have loved to see the whole thing.

Flem, straightforward as always, asked, "So... what did he say that pissed you off?"

Lump shook her head with a scowl. "Asshole. I was just trying to help, right? I was just trying to cool the whole thing down and move on."

We nodded empathetically.
Yes of course. Naturally you weren't trying to control him. Obviously.

"So, I tried to tell him I already handled the situation. It was over. He could go back upstairs."

"Em hmmm. Yup," we said in unison.
Yes of course you would try to tell him that he was useless in that situation. That wouldn’t piss him off in the slightest. Perfect sense.

"But he wouldn't move. I didn't want to make a scene and force him or anything..."

More nods.
Basically, you tried until you realized he was way stronger than he looked, and you couldn’t move him. Got it.

"Then he said..." She paused. I could tell it really pissed her off. She rarely cared when someone talked trash to her, but this might stay with her for a while. Adam was shaping up to be a good match of wills for our little Lump, but I hoped they wouldn't hate each other too much; it’d really dampen our weekend.

"Ass." She put her hands on her hips. "He told me to stop smothering him with my maxi pad!" She shook her head angrily and huffed. It was such a chick response! The tom-boy was driven right out of her with this one.

Also a sexiest comment, but that was for later contemplation! We were loving it! Our Lump was a girl after all. Maybe even a feminist. How cute.

I said so. I got a glare.

We all started laughing.

That was, until Adam came over and asked if we wanted to join their table. Everyone fell silent, daggers replacing eyes. We had to pick a side, and of course we would pick Lump’s for another few minutes. You had to back up your gal.

Rather than backing down from five females with ninja throwing stars for personalities, which was pretty impressive considering Brad happened to be walking by at the same time, caught our glowers, and nearly stumbled out of the way, spilling his beer in the process, Adam gave a small smirk and waited on our response. He methodically looked at each of us. He met Lump's gaze last, then laughed.

"Alright ladies, we’re over at the other side if you wanna join us. Candace and Ty showed up finally." He nodded at me and walked away.

Lump resumed her indifferent face and drank her beer.

“Well, at least there are definitely only two of us chasing Adam,” Flem said.

“One. You. I’m after that brown haired one with freckles,” Claire amended.

“Which?” I asked.

“John? From New York?”

I shrugged. No idea. Everyone else did, too. Claire seemed unperturbed. Flem elated.

I said, "It would be rude not to go meet up with Candace. She is glued to Ty these days, but maybe we can wrestle her away."

Everyone nodded, and we climbed out of the booth, except for Claire who caught the edge of the seat with her shoe and tumbled onto the ground, landing flat on her face. I nearly pissed myself I was laughing so hard. Lump was bending over as well. Flem was pointing.

Some random guy hustled over to help Claire up, thinking it some huge accident. Claire, hauled up by her arm from the helpful man, shook herself free, wobbling to a stop against the table.

“Would ya
feck
off?” she yelled indignantly. “You’re gonna make a
scene
, like! Sure, I was just testing my sea legs!”

She pushed past him, laughing as hard as we were. Claire was no stranger to falling on her face. Or passing out at the bar. So far, she was keeping up with Adam drink-for-drink. It was probably just about to unravel, though. Adam, too.

In our wake was a bewildered guy half worried Claire was hurt, and half worried he’d done something wrong. We didn’t bother to notice him confusedly wander away to a chorus of male laughter.

We arrived at the booth were Candace was sitting too close to Ty, her hand placidly resting on his leg. When she saw me she beamed.

“Jessica!” she exclaimed, waving.

Adam surveyed our crew, his eyes resting on Lump for a second longer than normal as a smile flickered. He leaned back in mock relaxation.

Lump noticed but paid him no more attention than the unknown next to him. She thoroughly put the issue behind her, and once she was over it, she rarely let it bother her again.

Adam’s smile extinguished. Apparently he was expecting fireworks only to realize someone pissed on his sparklers.

“You all look so pretty!” Candace yelled, getting out of the booth to hug me.

“Holy hell, Jessica,” Ty said, looking at me, then sweeping his eyes across the rest of the girls. “It’s like a forest made entirely of legs and cleavage.”

Flem did a spit take and sprayed champagne cocktail all over Moose and his girlfriend.

“Sorry!” she said, putting her hand on Moose’s shoulder. She gave Moose’s girlfriend another sorry. “It was funny, though.”

“Shots!” I announced. “Candace, you’re coming with us. Ty, you’re not. Flem doesn’t realize your jokes only get worse.”

“Oh yeah, thanks for ratting me out,” Ty said, looking odd without Candace leaning against his body. The two were freaking inseparable. Which was only cute when you were in high school.

At the bar we did an easy shot, and ordered a Tequila for Adam and the boys. We figured we’d give Claire a fighting chance. Being that Adam was only tipping into drunk, and Claire was firmly entrenched, she didn’t complain.

“Wow, your dresses are so pretty!” Candace said.

“Do you ever have anything negative to say?” Jane asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Excuse Jane, she is a bit snarky lately,” I tempered.

“And horny. Where did Brad go?” Flem asked.

“He got stuck down at the lower bar with Jim,” Candace made a big show of choking down her shot. “I heard about you girls from the bouncer, then from every single guy that greeted Ty and I on the way up. And they were right, you girls are knock-outs!”

“Nice to know we’ve been talked about!” Lump beamed.

“Let’s go earn our reputation. Dance!” Jane retorted.

We towed Candace to the dance floor, assuring her that Ty would hear where we went from everyone else, then see her from the railing. The fog had come in, and I wasn't at all sure what was going on. I did recognize that the good sir bouncer helped us down the stairs. We were all clutching him and giggling. He probably never had so many girls grabbing onto him at one time. He tried to look all serious the whole time, but that crack in his crater face, when we all reached the bottom and each gave him a kiss on the cheek, gave him away.

Once on the dance floor, we did some moves that would probably make us sore in the morning. I got my ass grabbed, twice, and I took it as a tribute to my hard work at the gym. Caring was too hard, and I was too drunk. Especially because Lump took it as a green light to punch him in the stomach and then kiss him on the cheek to make the “I just got beat up by a girl” pill go down easier.

It was all going swimmingly for a while.
For a while
being the operative words.

I knew there was trouble when I saw Adam, William, Moose and Ty heading toward us on the dance floor with warrior faces. William, I knew, was way over protective these days, and Moose and Adam would get riled up if any of our feminine crew was in dire straits, but Ty wasn’t prone to overreaction. Him pissed meant there was real trouble.

I stopped and looked around me. Claire and Flem were with me. The others weren’t.

Where the hell did Lump go?

I couldn’t remember how long it was since she was dancing next to me.

I threaded my way through the grinding bodies in the direction the boys were headed. It wasn’t until I was nearly on the opposite side of the dance floor that I saw more guys from our party. Names unknown. Mostly.

The main focus was Lump, who was talking animatedly to three guys. Candace was trying to get her shirt straightened out, tears streaming down her face, and Jane was rubbing her backside with a helluva scowl. Looks like someone got grabby and Lump was sorting it out before the bouncers got there. No new news.

I headed over, even though I wouldn’t be helpful or needed, and even though I would have rather just kept dancing. Claire and Flem, having followed me, shrugged and followed along, even though they were probably also thinking this was something for the bouncers to deal with instead of us.

Speaking of, where
were
the bouncers? In L.A., bouncers would be swarming the floor by now. Men were the same in any town, but they acted less foul if they didn't think they could get away with it. It seemed as though here they obviously could.

Which meant it gave Adam, Moose, William and Ty, not to mention all their friends, which numbered a great few, reason to fight.

The last thing a bunch of drunk men needed was a reason to fight.

Claire saw it, too. “Not good, Jess!” she yelled over the music. “We shouldn’t make it worse.”

There was already a crowd gathering when we got within arm’s reach and saw that the star attraction was the guy that groped me earlier.

“Gonna be a fight, Jess,” Claire warned.

“What do we do?” I shouted.

Lump was wasted. She could barely stand. Which meant she was very low on control. Which meant a fight could really, seriously end in permanent damage to whoever touched her. Worse if someone touched any of us. Not good.

What made it worse still was that Candace was crying. You get a lot of drunk, pissed off men together and add a crying girl that has been sexually wronged somehow,
then
add her boyfriend to the mix...oh man. I wanted to get out of there. Back to a booth and a beer. Or a bed.

I was
way
too drunk for this. We all were.

And here came the cavalry. Adam walked up right behind Lump, grabbed her by her shoulders as he had done to me once, and put her behind him as he might an oversized doll. She said “hey!” or something to that effect, but was too drunk to do much about it.

Flem and I stepped up, Claire guarding us from whoever was behind.

"What happened?" I asked, desperate to be heard over the loud music. I wanted a quick risk assessment, to collect Jane and Candace, and to get the hell out of there.

Lump answered, "That asshole guy pulled your friend’s shirt down and grabbed her tit. What a
dick
! He was obviously looking for a fight, though. Where the hell are the bouncers?"

Adam was yelling something. We all turned our attention that way. The muscles in Adam’s shoulders, back and arms were rippling, tensing for action. William was pushed in beside him, putting himself into the fight, with an equally hard and delicious physique. I didn’t know Adam too well, but William I did, and he was two seconds from caving someone’s head in.

“Holy-guacamole, batman. That man is packing,” Lump said, looking at Adam’s taught back with big eyes. “He’s as big as yours.”

“Not the time, Lump,” Flem tempered. “Or the man. I totally called dibs on that, and Jess firmly has the other one.”

“Oh yeah. But that other guy, Moose, is taken. And too nice for me. Him and his girlfriend will never work, though. Mark my words. But that guy, there.
Whoooeee
, I bet he’s sassy in bed. I like to get my hair pulled.”

“Seriously,” Flem said, putting her hand on Lump’s shoulder to emphasize her point, “I called him.”

“Girls,” I placated, noticing William gesturing angrily with a glance back at me, “we are in the middle of a crowd, with disco lights and loud music, with my boyfriend ready to kick some ass, and all you can talk about is Adam?”

“Shut up, hooker,” Flem waved her hand in the air, leaning on Lump, who leaned back. They looked like an A-frame. “You have a hot boyfriend. I want one, too. I called Adam. The power of dibs is absolute.”

“Yeah, but,” Lump said, “that power doesn’t follow you out of the general area.”