One More Time (Bremmy 1)

Chapterish 84

I turn back forward. Trix and Travis are watching me lead Alex through the crowd. They don't say anything, but I can feel their shock. Is it shock? Is it support? Maybe a happy marriage of the two? I raise the bottle to my mouth again for another long swig. It stings slightly.

"Slow down," Alex laughs, taking the bottle from me. Great, another babysitter. I'm about to argue with him when he just takes a sip and then gives it back, winking.

"Thanks you," I take it back. He's looking at me differently. I mean, in a way he has before but not in a long while, not since Brooks.

"Are you sure?" Alex asks, his voice low and silky and fuck he's smooth.

I decide right now that we're actually going to do this. I don't know what I planned when I originally grabbed him. Maybe it was to piss off Brooks or just to see the look on his face when I walked away with Alex.

Whatever.

I want to do this. Not just because I have the power and because I can or even because Alex and I have always been flirty toward each other. As I look over at him now –at his flawless smile and perfect jaw and the complete lack of judgment in his eyes –it strikes me how attractive he is. How attracted I am to him. And I know that he won't judge me for it in the morning. And it doesn't matter if Brooks will never forgive me.

I'm already never forgiving him.

"I'm sure."

We're leaving the beach and walking back to Alex's place before I know it. Halfway up the staircase I turn around, two steps above him, and lean into kiss him. I can't really remember if we ever made out before –you know, pre The Coupling –but damn I wish we had. He is an excellent kisser. And once I get past the laughing and swallowing drunk-Emmy's giggles, the make out turns real. R rated real. By the time he unlocks his door, we've lost our shirts.

He steers me to his bed and pulls me onto it. I catch a whiff of his scent on the sheets or blankets or pillows. Alex is over me in a minute, planting kisses down my neck. It's amazing the different techniques dudes have for the exact same things. Amazing how this –Alex –doesn't feel weird at all. More clothes lost. I wrap my arms around his back and up his shoulders, pulling him further into me.

"Em, Emmy!" Someone calls my name. My eyes are groggy.

"Hmm," My eyes open on sheets I don't recognize. Big Yikes Energy.

"Hey! Wake up!" I hear laughing. Someone throws a pillow at me. I roll over and lay flat on the bed. Alex is propped up next to me, a pillow in his hand.

"I'm up. Don't hit me again," I say, hardly keeping the smile off my face.

"That's a good sign," he says. When I look dumb he rolls his eyes. "You're smiling."

"Why wouldn't I be?" I ask, sitting up against the wall behind his bed.

His apartment is kind of messy and I can't unsee the BLINK 182 poster that must have watched us bang last night, but hey. There's a relaxing vibe. It matches Alex.

"Wasn't sure how much you'd remember," he says quietly. I can tell he's worried about how I feel.

I close my eyes and think back to last night. I see Trix's hair floating like weightless flames, Brooks and the hunger, a bottle of vodka and my hand leading Alex away from the bonfire.

"I remember it all," I smirk. Weirdly, oddly, waking up next to Alex after a night of poor decisions does not drive me to panic. In fact, I can't stop smiling.

It's that freeing feeling again. Like Trevor on Saint Patrick's Day.

"Good, so..." He hesitates. I'm not used to seeing a nervous Alex. Yes, I nudge with my eyes. "What was it?"

"Fun? Hot? Sex?" I laugh. "I can keep going."

"I know all that, trust me," he laughs back. Now I smack him with the pillow. "I've been thinking about that since high school. I just meant, it was just for the night, right?"

The way he says right makes he think he wants the answer to be yes. To be honest, the answer is yes. Still, I don't say it for some reason. Instead I watch the corners of his lips turn up. I admire the dip below his belly button and the black cords wrapped around his wrist. Lifeguard bands.

"Alex," I start.

"Hey, I'm good if you're good," he says, cupping my chin in his one weirdly giant hand. "I mean, I know you're good."

"Stop!" I squeal into his pillow. He throws another one on my head. I can feel his weight lift off the bed.

I hear the shower turn on.

He's gone and with it so is our night of fun, so is my abandon. And now we'll have to answer for our friendship sin. I smile to myself, thinking how perfect it was.

I needed it.

I was right. No judgment. From either of us. True millennials through and through.

My phone dings on Alex's nightstand. I stand up and grab it.

3 missed calls

2 voicemails

16 texts