Montey grinned. “Nah, we were just chilling, waiting for you guys. If everyone’s cool with it, I’ll go order the pizza now.” Everyone agreed and he started walking toward the stairs. “Oh, my mom wanted me to let you guys know she made brownies. If you want, I can bring them down.”
“Fuck yeah!” Token cheered. “Bring on the brownies!” Lavender rolled her eyes at him.
Ryder finally stopped changing the channel on the TV, and settled on some mindless cartoon. A moment after setting the remote down, he turned his attention to me and whispered. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with the partial boner Montey was rocking when he ran upstairs just now, would you?” His brow raised as the corner of his mouth curled upwards. “Idiot probably had to tuck it in the waistband of his pants just to get up the stairs.” He laughed to himself.
My cheeks burned from embarrassment and I slapped his arm. “Shut the fuck up!” He just kept laughing.
Fuck, he knows?
“Alright, alright! Jeez, calm your tits, Crissa.” Ryder shook his head before he stood, walking over to the other side of the basement where we hid our stash. Montey returned with the brownies and I struggled not to stare at his pants. He set the brownies on the coffee table and plopped down on the floor in front of me, giving me a little wink. My cheeks burned even more.
“Okay,” Lavender leaned forward to grab a brownie from the tray. “What’s the plan for tonight?” She took a huge bite out of one of the squares while Ryder returned with the weed and rolling papers.
Token rolled off the bean bag chair and crawled over to the table. “Well, since Montey and Crissa were nice enough to wait for us.” He shot Montey a look. “Let’s just smoke some weed and wait for the pizza to get here.” He shoved a brownie into his mouth, licking his fingers.
“Oh yeah,” Ryder chimed in. “They weresonice to wait for us. They definitely didn’t have other plans.” He finished off rolling the joint as we all gathered around in a circle. Lavender smacked his arm, making him laugh to himself. He then began to light up the doobie and took a heavy inhale. “Bet it had nothing to do with the fact that they wanted me to roll this so they wouldn’t have to deal with it.”
Montey reached out for a brownie as he glared over at his friend. “Ryder, just shut the fuck up.”
“Whatever dude.” Ryder’s lungs were full when he answered. He let out a long exhale that ended on a dramatic cough before handing the joint over to Lavender.
She shot him a judgey look. “Jesus, Ryder.” She took her traditional two tiny puffs and passed it along to Montey who inhaled deeply. “Learn some class.”
Token fell back, letting his head rest on the bean bag. “Montey, you're lucky your mom’s clueless as hell. I mean, we’dneverget away with this shit at our place, especially not for this long. We’ve been down here, fucking around for years.”
“Don’t talk shit about my mom, you fucker.” Montey snapped, handing the joint off to me.
Token’s arms raised. “Whoa, hey, I’m not! Relax!”
After taking a deep inhale, I let the smoke settle in my lungs before exhaling. I felt Montey’s hand wrap loosely around my ankle, gently stroking the skin along the top of my foot. It was a sweet sign of affection that was making my core go molten. I felt my face heat and my heart begin to race, pounding in my chest, and I hoped none of the others noticed.
Get a grip, Crissa.
I leaned over Montey as my arm reached to Token to hand off the joint. His scent overpowered the dank smell of weed, and consumed my senses. I felt weak being so close to him, feeling his body heat. And no matter how hard I tried to hide it, he was my fucking weakness.
Lavender shot up from where she was sitting. “Let’s find something to do while we wait for the pizza. Like…I don’t know, play a game or something,” she suggested. “We always just sit down here, get high, and eat. Can’t we mix things up? I’m fucking bored.”
“Well, doyouhave any suggestions?” Montey asked.
“No,” Lavender’s sulky tone made me chuckle. “I mean. there’s all these board games we used to play, over there.” She gestured to the book case that housed an eclectic collection of games that we had surely played dozens of times, especially as kids. Without a doubt all of them were missing at least a piece or two. “We could pull one out.”
Token scoffed and mocked her. Lavender just rolled her eyes, pretending his teases didn’t bother her.
Montey pondered for a minute. “Hmm. Maybe not one of those, but there’s so much shit down here, we’re bound to findsomethingto entertain us. My mom has hoarded so much crap over the years, let’s just look and see what we can find.” We all looked at one another before agreeing, passing the joint around until it had reached its end.
“Okay!” Token jumped up from where he was laying on the floor. “I have an idea. Let’s split up and see who can find the weirdest thing. We can make this like a weird, fucking scavenger hunt or something.” He broke from the group as the rest of us busted out laughing at the ridiculous idea. “Shut the fuck up!” He yelled from the other side of the basement, digging through shit. “I don’t see any of you coming up with better ideas.”
Just as we were all about to separate, the basement door creaked open. “Montey, the pizza you ordered is here,” his mom called down.
“Finally!” Montey clapped his hands together and stood from the couch. “I’ll be right back.” As he stepped away, he stumbled over my feet and fell, encasing me in his arms. “Whoops, sorry,” he whispered, honking my breasts, winking as he pushed off the couch and walked away toward the stairs. I knew my face was probably bright red and I tried to look nonchalant, but both Lavender and Ryder gave me a knowing gaze before walking away in opposite directions.
Get it together, Crissa!
I slapped my cheeks to focus before standing and wandering around the basement. I had no clue what the hell to even begin looking for, and my mind was cloudy from the lust and weed. I couldn’t stop thinking about Montey. I just wanted the rest of the group to leave so he and I could finish what we started earlier.
I bit my lower lip, fighting back a smile, losing myself in a little daydream.
“Crissa, did you find anything yet?” Lavender’s booming voice startled me from the whole other side of the basement.
