Wanted (27 page)

I turned and just stared at Jeff
. “Rebecca
,
will
you and your friends give us a few minutes please?”

“Sure, I’ll be inside baby.” Rebecca
reached
up and kissed Jeff on the cheek. He briefly close
d his eyes like he couldn’t stand the contact
.

“
Jeff, what the fuck is your problem
? Why the hell would you embarrass Ari like that?
” I pushed my hands through my hair….what the hell was he thinking?
“
Holy fuck dude that was
a really douche bag move
.”

Jeff just to
ok
a swig of his beer and shrugged his shoulders
.

N
ext thing I knew,
“
I’m a Slave for You
”
by
Bri
tney
Spear’s
started playing
.

O
h fuck
…..
this
can’t be good.
Just then Ellie walked back up and had a confused lo
ok
on her face.

“
W
hat the hell
?” Ellie said just as Jeff lo
ok
ed out
to
the dance floor. His jaw dropped. I didn’
t
want to turn around but I did.

Dammi
t
……
I shouldn’t have……

Ari was da
ncing with Josh. I mean she was
dancin
g
closely
with Josh. There was some major grinding going
on
. I had never seen a girl move like how she was moving. There must have been at
least a group of ten
people
standing around w
hooping and hollering.
I saw her lo
ok
over towards Jeff and the lo
ok
on her face was sending a clear messa
ge.

“G
unner
,
do you know why
Ari
is
dancing like she
’
s staring in the next dirty dancing movie?
” Ellie asked over the music.
Fuck….what was I suppose to say. She
was going to be pissed at Jeff.

I lo
ok
ed at Jeff to see if he was going to say anything. Nope. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from where Ari was dancing.
W
e just stood there…watching Ari.
Amanda and Heather
joined in on the
dancing
. Josh lo
ok
ed like he had died and gone to fucking heaven. Even I was g
etting turned on just watching Ari dance with Josh.

A slower song started to play,
“
Fall
Into
Me
”
by
Brantly
Gilbert. I sho
ok
my head at Jeff and lo
ok
ed down at Ellie.

“I love this song……will you
dance with me Ellie?” I asked
as I to
ok
my hand and ran it down the side of her face.

Ellie lo
ok
ed over at Jeff; clearly she knew something had happened, and then she lo
ok
ed over at me and smiled.

“Or course I’
ll dance with you.”

I scanned the dance floor and saw Ari was danc
ing with Josh. I thought I saw her quickly wipe a tear away from her face
but I wasn’
t sure. Shit….Jeff fucked up big time.

I to
ok
Ellie in my arms and held her close. I to
ok
a deep breath
in
and breathed in her smell. She would forever smell like daisies to
me. She molded perfectly into my body
. She was tense when we first started to dance but I could feel her relax more
and more
as the song went on.

I lo
oked up to see Rebecca
and Jeff dancing…
……
and kissing.
Jeff didn’t even have his eyes closed. It was al
most like he was on auto pilot.

Stupid drunk bastard.

I was
going to fucking kill him tomorrow. I kept Ellie turned away. I didn’
t need her leaving me now
to go bitch out her brother
. I closed my eye
s and pictured Ellie and I all alone just the two of us dancing
.

The song ended and Ellie lo
ok
ed up at me with the most precious lo
ok
on he
r face.

“Gunner…..you have a beautif
ul voice.” She said as she star
ed into my eyes.

I could lose myself in those beautiful blue eyes. If
I had not known better I would think my knees were about to give out
from under
me. Wait……what did she just say? I had a beautiful voice? Was I singing?

“I didn’t realize I was singing out loud. I’m sorry!” I said with a laugh. “That must have been pure torture!”

God
damn, there
comes
that smile I would die for. It slowly spread across her cheeks along with the blush that I h
ave grown to love so damn much.

“No….it was……it was one of the most romantic things ever. I
t
to
ok
my breath away.” Ellie said as she lo
ok
ed down and away from me. She lo
ok
ed back up with a weak smile.

“You’re going to make some
girl very happy somed
a
y.”

Fuck. I had my work cut out for me. It was pretty damn clear she was sticking to this whole friend’s bull shit. She was just going to keep pushing me away. Patience is all I needed. If it meant ending up with Ellie the rest of my life….then I was going to have to learn to give her the space and time she needed.

Ellie and I danced together most of the night.
I was pretty sure I didn’t see Ellie dance with any other guy. Not that they were not asking her to. I saw her turn down more guys tonight than I cared to count.

I stopped drinking after my fourth
beer.
I needed to have a clear head. Between keeping
the vultures off of Ellie and her friends
, watching dick head Jeff and
t
rying to keep
Cry
sti
at bay, I needed to be as sober as I could.

The most
interesting part of the night was
when Ari stood right next to Jeff and Rebecca and danced to “
Shut Up” by Christina Aguilera.

“Okay, what is going on with those two?” Ellie asked me while she
watched Ari dance and never once did Ari
look away from Jeff. He looked like he was going to blow any minute.
I was just hoping that they di
dn’t rip each other’s eyes out.

I
shrugged my shoulders and prayed that Jeff didn’t kick Josh’s ass since he was dancing pretty damn close to
Ari and she
had a shit eating grin on her face the whole time. Jesus those two were going to be the death of me tonight.

The party started to wind down around midnight. I was standing in the kitchen talking to Scott and Brad when I felt someone come up behind me and wrap their arms around my waist. I instantly knew it was
not
Ellie.

“Hey there handsome, what do you say to a dance with me?” I to
ok
the arms that were wrapped around me off
my waist
and turned around to see
Crysti
standing in front of me. She lo
ok
ed like she was
wasted. Fuck, I wish
her
and
her
Barbie doll friends
would just leave already. Rebecca
had been clingi
ng to Jeff damn near all night.

“Ah, no thanks
Crysti
…..you might wa
nt to start gathering up your
friends. We’
re shut
ting things down soon.” I said
as I gave her a blank lo
ok. Last thing
I needed to do was encourage
her
anymore.

“What the hell Gunner…..you have a few high school girls at your party and we all have to go to bed earlier tonight? I know wh
o I want to go to bed with
……”
Crysti
said as she threw her arms around my neck.

Of course that would be the moment Ellie and her friends
had
walked into the living room. She was scanning the room. Probably lo
ok
ing for Jeff but he fucking disappeared about 30 minutes ago. She caught my eyes. She tried to keep her face
natural
but I was not
stupid. Her whole body tensed.

I pulled
Crysti’s
death grip arms off of my neck. I held her arms and pushed
her back slightly.

“
Crysti
that is enough, I already told you
no
and asked for you and your friends
to
start heading out. Party is over. Jack is packing up his stuf
f so there is no more dancing.”

Crysti
lo
ok
ed like she was going to cry but then she
started to laugh. What the hell
?

“Oh. My. God……tell me you are not into that little girl? Come on Gunner….don’t you remember how good we were together? I bet she can’
t make you feel the way I did.”

Fuck….Ellie was now just standing there listening to the whole t
hing. Could this get any worse?

I should not have
asked……just then I heard Rebecca
with her obnoxious
ly loud laugh. She and Jeff
were walking out of his bedroom
and down the hall
. Rebecca
was throwing her hair in a pony and Jeff was slipping a tee shirt on
over his head.

Oh fuck no
Jeff you didn’t……….

Ellie and Ari both spun
around
and lo
oked at them. Then Ellie turned
back around and lo
ok
ed at me.

“It’s time to go
Crysti
,
an
d take your tramp friend Rebecca
with you.” I said as I grabbed her arm and
lead her into the living room.

“Hey…..take your hands off of me you dick.”
Crysti
shouted.

“
Get out now
Crysti
.” I said as I lo
ok
ed a
round for Cooper. He was
taking them al
l back to their sorority house.

Once I got all of them all out the door and gone I started to clear out the rest of the
house. This party was over
since Ellie was sitting on the sofa with a clearly upset Ari. Amanda and Heather were all surrounding Ari so I didn’t notice Ari crying until Amanda stood up to say goodbye to Bra
d. Did he just hand her a piece of paper?

Amanda and H
eather walked up to me
. “Thank you so much Gunner. We had a really great time. We would say thanks to Jefferson but we can’t find him.” Amanda said with a weak smile.

“You girls are more than welcom
e. I’
m glad you had a good time and Heather you haven’
t had
anything to drink right? You’
ll be
okay
driving home?” I asked as I lo
ok
ed over their shoulders at Ellie watching me talk to he
r friends.
God this girl
was my undoing
….just a smile from across the r
oom could bring me to my knees.

“Nope…I have not had a drop! Thanks again Gunner. Hope to see you around soon.” Heather said as they headed b
ack over
to Ellie and Ari.

“Um
yeah sure!
See
ya
around.” I said.

Ellie walked them
to the front door. E
veryone was
now
gone. I watched as Ellie walked back over to the sofa a
nd sat down next
Ari.