“Yeah, and it was very anticlimactic, let me tell you. That’s why I can’t wait to be with arealman. You know, someone who’s older, who knows what he’s doing,” Lily says, nodding.
“That’s what I said about Bradley, but he wanted to wait untilIwas ready.” The truth was, I was ready last summer. “I liked the idea that he’d know what he was doing.” I thought I was doing the right thing. Now, I’m definitely glad I didn’t give him that part of me.
Lily snorts. “You think he would have known what he was doing?” She rolls her eyes.
“I know he’s not a virgin.” Especially now after seeing him with Brooke. He was definitely more experienced than me.
Lily steps over to me and places her hand on my shoulder. “It wasn’t meant to be. He wasn’t the one who’s supposed to pop your cherry, but maybe Alex is.”
I roll my eyes. I can’t comment. I don’t think anyone is ever going to want to pop anything on me, to be honest. As we finish getting all dolled up, I get more and more nervous. Lily seems to be buzzing with adrenaline while I’m sure I’m going to vomit. This is a first for me. I’ve hung out with Bradley at my house, and I’ve been to Vicky’s house before just not to see Bradley so technically, I’ve never gone over to a boy’s house before. I hope Alex doesn’t expect me to do sexy stuff with him tonight. I’m not ready for that.
We take the stairwell down two flights and enter onto the guys’ floor. Our building has both coed floors and floors with just girls and floors with just boys. My floor only has girls, and Alex’s only boys. The floor between is coed. As we enter the hallway from the stairs, it feels strange. It smells completely different than my floor too. I wouldn’t say it’s an unpleasant smell, but I wouldn’t call it pleasant either. It’s a mix of cologne, body odor, and other scents that shall not be named.
“Boys kind of stink.” Lily has her nose scrunched up as we walk down to the other end of the hall. When we reach the correct door, Lily knocks. I take a deep breath and the door is suddenly wrenched open by Hank.
“Ladies!” he says loudly. Raising his arm, he gestures toward his small living area. “Welcome to chez Hank and Alex.”
“Oooh, French. Do you speak fluently?” Lily giggles.
“Si,” says Hank.
“That’s Spanish, dingus,” jokes Lily.
“What can I say, I’m multilingual.” Hank shrugs.
Lily and I both laugh at that.
“Here, let me show you to our theater room.” He points to the small lounge area again. Their suite is just like mine. It’s the exact layout since it’s on the same side of the building. The only difference is the way they have their lounge area set up. Instead of one big sofa, they have two smaller love seats. I guess that’s so they each have a place to sit. They aren’t long enough for either of them to lie on, but I suppose it’s better than trying to sit two big guys that size on one couch.
The rest of the suite is the same, though. On the right is a bedroom that must be Hank’s. The center has the lounge area and the kitchenette, and on the right is a bedroom across from the bathroom. The door to the room that would be mine opens up. Alex walks out wearing those loose athletic shorts and a tight black T-shirt with the word LANY printed in simple white letters on it. He looks so damn good.
“What’s LANY?” I ask, approaching him.
“Oh, it’s a great band out of California.”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“Well, I’ll have to play some of their music for you later. One song in particular.”
We just stand there smiling at each other like idiots until Hank breaks us out of our spell, telling us to pick a movie. He gathers snacks together for us while keeping an eye on Lily. I’m surprised he can function. He seems to be fixated on her bottom in her tiny shorts.
My thoughts are interrupted when Alex whispers, “You look beautiful, Stella.”
“Thanks, so do you.”
“Can I get you something to drink? Want a beer? Soda?” asks Alex.
“Soda please.”
Alex heads to the fridge and lists out their drink options.
“We have Pepsi, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, Diet 7Up, Dr. Pepper, and Snapple.”
“Wow, you guys must like a variety,” I say.
“Well, no, we typically don’t, but I wanted to be sure I had something that you would like, Stella. I figured you’d probably ask for diet soda because regular soda would have too many calories, but I picked up regular too so you could choose one of those instead.”
That is such a sweet thing for him to do. I smile and request a Dr. Pepper. He grabs a Mountain Dew along with a can of soda for Lily and Hank, then takes my hand and leads me to one of the love seats. He plops down onto the couch, grabs me by the waist, and pulls me down onto his lap. I stiffen up because I know I’m going to break his legs. But he doesn’t seem to mind.
