“Thanks for your help guys.” Nash turns to me. “I’m going to have her stay in our room. I don’t want to leave her in her room by herself. Is that cool?”
“That’s fine, seriously take care of your girl, we should have plenty of Gatorade and Pedialyte.” I say as an Uber drops off a group of girls and I help Nash get Kate in the car.
“I can stay with her.” Ellie says. She’s twisting her hands and looks nervous and I realize she doesn’t want to leave Kate in this state with a man, even if it’s her boyfriend.
Nash seems to realize this too. “I promise she’s safe. My sister is staying with us, so Kate isn’t the only girl in our room.” This seems to make Ellie feel better. She nods and relaxes.
“Wanna go get a drink?” I ask as soon as the Uber drives off with Kate and Nash.
“Oh hell yes.” She says. “I feel like I haven’t been able to enjoy myself since I got here.” We force our way through the living room to the kitchen and grab drinks. We both opt for the safer options, her mixing her own drink and I brave the screaming fridge for a beer.
“Cheers and Happy Halloween” We clink our drinks together. Ellie gulps down her drink and pours herself another. She wasn’t kidding about needing to relax.She seems to be much more relaxed now with a drink in her hand. I take this as a chance to really take her in. She’s in a sexy Ghostbusters outfit. The shorts show off her great legs and the zipper is in a deep v showing off her breasts.
“We should take a picture!” She smiles and grabs her phone, trying to angle it to get us both in. She’s so short she keeps cutting my head off. I take the phone and angle it to get both of us.
“Hey, want me to take a picture of you two?” A black cat with smudged whiskers asks.
“Yeah, that would be great!” Ellie says. The black cat takes our picture, then shows us, Ellie approves it and puts her phone in her bra. Apparently, the Ghostbuster costume doesn’t have pockets.
“Ellie!” A female voice calls, Ellie waves.
“Do you mind if I join the rest of the Ghostbusters now that Kate is safe?”
“Yeah totally,” I watch her leave to join the other Ghostbusters. As she leaves two of my teammates call me over and I join them in a game of beer pong.
I finally get kicked out of the beer pong tournament; I’m several beers deep and I’m feeling it, eyeliner smudged, plastic sword tucked into my belt, gold earring sticker hanging on for dear life. It’s so damn hot from all the bodies. I see Ellie well, I hope it’s Ellie, there’s four of them in theGhostbusters costume.
I walk up to the Ellie shaped Ghostbuster and ask “Arrr you gonna dance with me or what?” Ellie turns around, her smile lighting up her face.
“That was terrible!” She laughs, her laughter scrunching the freckles on her nose. The music pulses around us, and her hair has fallen out of her high ponytail, little pieces framing her face.
“Lead the way!” The living room is packed. Bodies grinding together to DJ Werewolf’s Halloween mix. We find enough space to dance. Our drinks sloshing as people move around us.
“You’re gonna spill that on me,” she laughs, clearly feeling the drinks she used to relax after being on puke duty.
“I’m a pirate,” I say, leaning in so she could hear me over the bass. “We are known for our balance.”
She raises an eyebrow as she takes a long drink of something bright red. I can’t help but notice as her lips wrap around her straw. Fuck. Did it get hotter in here?
Someone bumps into us from behind and she stumbles forward, one hand landing on my chest. We both laugh at her face inches from mine cup crushed in between us, her lemon and vanilla perfume cutting through the room’s sweat scented air.
“Sorry, Captain,” she says looking up at me grinning.
“Permission to board?” I say, instantly regretting it. She laughs so hard she actually snorts.
Chapter 20
Elle- Present Day
After everyone gets their fill of Scream City we end up at Archer’s apartment. We’re gathered around his fire table. Deej and Mack left us at Scream City to go home since they live in the area. Cameron, Ty, Archer and Phoenix have set up a game of beer pong off the side of the balcony. The four of us girls are under blankets, Sadie and Vi are making s’mores, and Stephanie is showing me all the photos she’s taken tonight.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I took a ton of faceless photos that Archer could post. He explained that you’re a teacher and want to continue teaching, which I love for you and therefore need to remain anonymous. But his fans are chomping at the bit for any information about his new girl.” “No, these are amazing. Thank you! Would you mind sending me some? I would love to post them to my account and tag you of course.”
“Oh totally!” Stephanie says. I give her my number, and I instantly get the pictures. Damn she’s quick. I swipe through the photos; Stephanie truly has an eye for photography. If her career with the Wolves doesn’tpan out she would make bank as a professional photographer. “So not to be a dick but I’m curious about how keeping your identity a secret is going to work. Teaching while dating a very popular professional football player seems like it’s going to be hard.”
“Well, I spoke to my principal and superintendent earlier and they didn’t seem to have a problem with it. They said they will have increased security for the kids if my identity were to become public and if it becomes a problem.”
Stephanie smiles. “I’m surprised the guys didn’t get stopped more tonight.”
