she'd say that, to Cruise of all people, when I specifically enlisted him in activities that involve his honorary member, but it's clear she's completely toasted. Normally, I'd be upset, but I opt to file this misstep under drunken debauchery. Lauren's too shit-faced to realize what she's done. It's the "dicking around" I'm most looking forward to with Cruise.
I do a quick visual sweep of the area for her presumably sober BFF, so I can lovingly pass her along.
"Where's Ally?" It'll be midnight in less than five minutes, and if I don't find my smoking hot roommate, who knows whose lips he'll be gracing with my New Year's kiss?
"Dear God." Ally magically appears and helps me land Lauren in the stairwell. "I can't find her boyfriend." She shrugs into me. "Lauren thinks he's cheating." She leans in. "She's totally paranoid. He is so not cheating. Have you seen him? He's lucky he has Lauren."
"Right." I hope to God it wasn't Lauren's boyfriend who tried to give me a necklace of hickeys. I may or may not have accidentally kneed him in the balls to make my great escape.
"Oh look, there's Cruise." She nods behind my shoulder as her eyes swell the size of grapefruits "Never mind. Let's get Lauren to the car instead."
"Never mind what?" I try to spin around, but she secures me by the wrists. "Oh I get it. He's with some other girl." I give one bionic pull and wrangle out of her death grip in time to see Cruise heading in my direction sans any female appendages. I lower my chin and do my best to seduce him.
The countdown begins, and Ally jumps on the nearest jock.
"Just in time." I beam as he strides over. He gives the slight glimmer of a smile, but overall, he looks a little ticked as if some emotional altercation just occurred. I cut a glance behind him, and a girl with strawberry blond hair douses me with a look of venom. She sears me with a fresh brand of hatred and my stomach pinches as if I've genuinely done something wrong.
"Three, two - one!" The crowd breaks out in cheers and screams.
Cruise softens into me, molding his body to mine. He latches onto my gaze, and we meditate on one another for a brief moment. Cruise dips in with a grin. Our lips crash together in one hot, delicious kiss. His tongue maneuvers through my mouth, slow and deliberate. He holds the slight taste of beer and spearmint, and his warm, familiar cologne springs my senses to life. This was no frat boy trying to pick me up for the night. This isn't Pennington from whose touch I would repel. This is Cruise, and something about the way he kisses me, the way our bodies sway in time - it's as if we were meant to do this all along.
Happy New Year, Cruise. But I don't say it.
I don't ever want this special brand of magic to end.
Cruise races us home at speeds that exceed the sound barrier. I'm positive this measly cloth seatbelt is not going to prevent me from testing the dexterity of the windshield once centripetal force insists I meet my untimely demise.
He lands us in his driveway and whisks around to my side before I can ever get out of the truck. Cruise helps me along every inch of the way as if I've morphed into a hopeless geriatric.
I race him to the door, completely smitten with this playful side of him.
"Are you drunk?" I giggle into him as he unlocks the door. I turn on the light and bounce inside still reeling from the heavenly kiss he graced my New Year's with.
"Nope. Not drunk. I'm hopped up on something all together different," he says as he follows me in and bolts the door behind him.
Oh God, he's thinking with his little head - and as much as I find this exciting, I'm scared to freaking death.
"Aren't you going to ask what I'm hopped up on?" He lowers his chin and approaches me with a seductive prowess I haven't seen in him before. Well, maybe that first night when I was still a prospect, but I thought I took that off the table in a roundabout way. Didn't I? Weren't we saving my deflowering for some nebulous point in the future? I was sort of hoping heart shaped boxes and sappy greeting cards would somehow be involved. Perhaps an "I love you," but I don't really