In My Bed Read online

  It’s going to be epic.

  ***

  Before I open Rachel’s door, I take a breath. She’ll know I broke things off with Will the second she sees me, thanks to my hair. I know she worries about how I bounce from guy to guy and that one day, one of the guys I’m seeing will break my heart and hurt me. Little does she know I’ve already been there and I won’t let it happen again. Ever.

  I knock and walk into her room with my arms full of everything I need to get ready. I see her face, and even though she’s trying to smile, I can see that she’s concerned. “Nice hair, Jen! What happened?” she asks as I drop all of my stuff on her bed.

  We both know she’s asking about Will, so I answer her question without asking what she means. “Oh, you know, caught him making out with his ex-girlfriend this morning. He told me that he knew I couldn’t commit and he didn’t want to waste his time anymore. He’s an asshole. If he can’t appreciate what he’s got, I’ll let someone else worship my body.” That last part makes me smile because I really love it when a guy worships my body.

  “Are you okay?” She thinks I’m upset, just like she would be in this situation, but for totally different reasons. Rachel would be upset about the loss of a future with the guy while I’m upset thinking about the mistakes I’ve made in my past.

  “I’ll miss his tongue.” That tongue piercing was absolutely life changing. “But I can do better. Tonight I’ll fly solo, and then tomorrow I’m on the prowl. We’re going out with Jake’s bandmates right?”

  “Yep,” she says, a smile on her face. I can tell she’s excited about really getting to spend some time with Jake’s friends. The last time they met was brief and awkward.

  “Nate going?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. I already know he’s going with us, but I want to hear what she thinks about it.

  “Yeah, but we ended on good terms, so I think it’ll be okay,” she says, sounding a little unsure.

  “It’ll be fine. Jake’s one of Nate’s best friends and Nate knows how happy you make him. Plus, Nate’s not a dick. Will, on the other hand, is a dick.”

  “He sure is. And an idiot. A foolish, idiot, dick.” She smiles.

  “Damn right he was!”

  Even though she’s smiling, her eyes tell me she’s concerned. I appreciate that she cares, but I’ll find someone new tomorrow. Maybe even one of the guys from Jake’s band. When that thought enters my mind, I immediately think of Nate. I’ve always felt that intense physical pull in his direction, but with the Nate/Rachel/Jake love triangle that already happened, it might be too weird. But there are two other guys in the band—Toby and Brian. I start to think about the possibility of getting with Toby or Brian, and then my dirty mind quickly moves to thoughts of me with Toby and Brian.

  “Plus, you look hot with the new ‘do,” she compliments me, ending my imaginary ménage and bringing me back to reality. “So good riddance, Will!”

  I laugh. “Damn right I look hot. Now let’s get ready for tonight.”

  ***

  It was fucking epic.

  Over half of the room got up and flash mobbed the shit out of that open mic night. Rachel was completely surprised. She went from happy tears when Jake started singing, to shock, to full on excitement when she realized what was going on. By the end of the song, nearly everyone in the room was up and dancing.

  Rachel and Jake spent a lot of time putting together the event tonight, so Jimmy, Dan, and I offered to let them leave while we took care of the clean-up. Plus, after watching Jake’s performance, the way they were looking at each other was so sexually intense that I knew they needed to get into a bed immediately.

  “So we’re going out tonight, right?” Jimmy asks.

  I nod enthusiastically as I wipe down the last table. “Absolutely! Fairy Tale?”

  “I love going there on Friday’s,” Dan says, smiling at Jimmy.

  Fairy Tale is our favorite gay bar near campus. They have Fairy Tale Friday’s where the go-go dancers dress like fairy tale characters. Another really big draw is that their signature drink, Princess Punch, is half off all night. That shit is delicious and strong—five dollars goes a long way. That makes Fairy Tale Friday’s very popular among the coeds from all the different colleges in the area. And the three of us are no different.

  “Sounds perfect.” Jimmy smiles.

  At the end of the night, the three of us are exhausted. We had a bit too much to drink and had way more than just some fun. We shoved dollar bills at the guy they had dancing as Captain Hook, learned that Cinderella apparently has fake tits, and danced like crazy. But most importantly, I had a great night out with some of my best friends. And after the day I’d had, it was just the kind of night I was looking for.

  ***

  On Saturday night, I walk into Charlie’s Tavern with Rachel and Jake. The place is busy. Charlie’s is a good place to go near campus if you’re looking to hang out, but not so much if you want to party. The music is low and they always check ID, so there aren’t a bunch of freshmen with fakes. Another thing that makes Charlie’s low key is the fact that they’ll stop serving you if you’ve had too much; the bartenders will take your keys.

  Even though it’s a little chilly outside, I decided to dress for fashion instead of function, so I’m wearing a short, tight hot pink dress with my white leather jacket. I took extra time getting ready tonight because I plan on finding a guy to go home with. Since I just dumped pierced bad boy Will, I think I’m going to steer clear of Toby and focus my attentions on Brian. I like variety. I talked with Rachel earlier about the idea of me hooking up with one of the guys from Jake’s band and she was worried that it might make things a little awkward. She doesn’t understand that one night of sex without strings isn’t awkward for me. It’s amazing.

  We spot the guys at a table in the back corner of the bar and start to walk toward them. As we move in their direction, my eyes scan the table before stopping on Nate. He’s talking to the other two guys at the table, laughing as he tucks his blond hair behind his ears. I can see his muscles move under the fabric of his tight black v-neck shirt as he reaches down to lift his beer to his lips. I watch him drink his beer, taking notice of the way his throat muscles work as he swallows his drink. When my eyes wander back up to his face, he’s looking right at me, like he can feel my gaze on him just the way I feel him. My breath halts, my body trembles, my skin heats—my body reacts to just the sight of him. And when he smiles and waves us over, my heart skips a beat, responding to him the way the rest of my body does.

  Shut up, stupid heart.

  My body and heart are both on board with Nate, but my head denies my desires. He was just dating my best friend last week, and I don’t think I want to deal with the issues that may come up from that. Then there’s the fact that I couldn’t just be with Nate once. If the way my body responds to him is any indicator of the type of physical connection that we’d have in bed, I’ll need more than one night to work that out of my system.

  When we get to the table, Rachel and Jake sit across from me. After everyone says their greeting, Jake starts talking to Toby and Brian about a couple of songs he wants to play at their next show. I pretend I’m paying attention to their conversation, but I’m trying hard to listen to the exchange that’s going on between Nate and Rachel.

  I know she was concerned about seeing Nate tonight, and even though I know Nate is totally fine with what happened, I keep flicking my eyes over to them to see how he’s treating her. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but the conversation seems to go well. They both end it with smiles on their faces.

  The guys have been here for thirty minutes and already have a pitcher of beer at the table, so Jake flags down the waitress and orders another pitcher with three more glasses.

  “Okay guys, I know Jake told Rachel a little about you, but I’m kind of in the dark. So tell me, what makes you tick?” I ask, my voice dropping dramatically as I narrow my eyes and glance around at everyone.

  Everyone laughs
at my dramatic display.

  “No, seriously! This is our first time hanging out together and I hate hanging out with strangers, so let’s make friends.”

  Nate laughs loudly, throwing his head back and laughing the same way he did when we met. That laugh has to be one of the greatest things about him. It’s so open and free, his happiness taking over his entire body. “I told you guys she was something.”

  My head immediately whips around to look at Nate straight on. “So you’ve been talking about me?” Flirting with a friend is completely acceptable. It’s almost expected when the friends are both single and attractive.

  “Toby and Brian asked what you were like since we’d all be hanging out tonight. They only spent about five minutes with you last week,” he says, his eyes looking away for a minute as he mentions the last time we all hung out together. “Jake and I are the only ones who’ve actually spent any time with you, and it was up to me to tell all about you since Jake has been wrapped around Rachel.” He laughs.

  Rachel blushes and Jake throws a balled up napkin at him. “Shut the fuck up, man. If you were me, you wouldn’t be any different.” He laughs. Everyone tenses at the comment and when Jake realizes what he just said he stills like someone threw cold water over him and stops laughing, going as silent as everyone else.

  Nate clears his throat. “It’s cool,” he says to Jake, looking him in the eye briefly before taking a drink of his beer.

  I decide to change the course of the conversation before this night can get any more uncomfortable. “Sooo … Brian,” I say, my voice loud in the packed bar. “Tell me about yourself.”

  Everyone seems eager to move on quickly because Toby jokes, “Yeah, Brian. Tell the pretty lady about yourself.”

  Brian tells me he’s going to school to earn a degree in business. He spends his time either with the guys in his band or volunteering. That part makes me smile. He also tells me that he’s the bass player for Second Story, but I already know that since I’ve seen them perform.

  Toby plays guitar in the band and, since graduating last year, has been working for a company designing motors that can use alternate sources of energy. And when I learn that he and Nate have been friends since high school and moved out here from the Midwest to go to school, I have to cut in and ask some questions.

  “So tell me, what was Nate like in high school?”

  “He was tall and lanky and a total science nerd. He wore glasses and would always be in the bio lab doing some sort of experiment—”

  “Dude! You’re making me sound like Steve Urkel or something!” Nate laughs.

  “Yeah, you kind of were. You were awkward with any girl you liked and you even snorted when you laughed,” Toby replies.

  “He still does that sometimes!” Brian says, pointing over at Nate. I turn to look at him, worried that he may be offended that they’re making fun of him, but he’s smiling.

  “Whatever,” Nate responds, shaking his head with that smile still on his face. “Toby wasn’t the bad boy he is now, either.”

  “Yeah, I was a pretty big nerd, too. Still am in the right situation,” Toby says to Nate.

  It’s hard to imagine this guy sitting in front of me covered in tattoos with piercings was ever nerdy, but like they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

  What surprises me the most is hearing how Nate reacted around girls back then. He has the type of confidence that isn’t faked—it’s inherent. He seems so comfortable with himself that I can’t imagine that he was ever awkward around a girl. He’s incredibly attractive physically, but a lot of what draws me to him is his presence—his confident laugh, the way he moves, and the way he looks at me. It just seems so natural to him that I can’t imagine he’s changed that much. Then again, I haven’t heard him snort yet, and I’ve had him laugh pretty hard a few times since we met—that throw-his-head-back laugh.

  I decide my new goal of the night isn’t to go home with someone. It’s to get Nate to snort.

  “He was into bio and I was into physics. I took my interest and turned it into a job, and he took his and became a doctor,” Toby tells me.

  “I’m not a doctor yet,” Nate clarifies. “I put off med school for a year. I’m starting in the spring.”

  “You know, we were even in a band together in high school.”

  Jake and Brian start laughing, and Nate starts laughing with them.

  “What’s so funny?” Rachel asks, looking around at all of the guys.

  “Our band was called Weird Science and Toby’s brother was the lead singer,” Nate says, chuckling as Brian and Jake laugh even harder.

  “Hey!” Toby says, looking a little annoyed. “We were pretty good.”

  “Why is that so funny? I mean the name is kind of funny, but I don’t get it,” I say, my eyes darting between Jake and Brian.

  Jake takes a deep breath. “Toby’s brother was ten,” he explains, trying to reign in his laughter. “And Nate’s little sister would play the tambourine. We’ve seen a video of them performing and that shit is fucking hilarious.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was pretty funny.” Toby smiles.

  We spend the next hour talking about what we were all like in high school, telling stories and getting to know each other.

  Rachel: the piano prodigy.

  Jake: the troublemaker.

  Brian: the football player.

  Nate and Toby: the nerds.

  And me: the aspiring ballerina.

  I feel like The Breakfast Club all grown up.

  ***

  We are right smack-dab in the middle of a rousing game of I Never—sexy style. The way the game is played is someone says something they’ve never done in the bedroom (or out of it), and everyone who has done it has to takes a drink. We’ve gone around the table three times now and some of us would be really drunk if we weren’t taking such small sips. Let’s just say that there are a couple people in the group who have to take a drink nearly every round. And what’s really great is I’m learning a lot about all four members of Second Story and they’re learning lots about me and Rachel, even if the knowledge isn’t practical.

  “I’ve never been to a strip club,” Nate says for his turn. Brian, Toby, Jake, and I take a drink since, apparently, we’ve all been.

  I turn to Nate and raise a brow. “Really? You’ve never been to a strip club?”

  “Nope,” he says, giving me a smile. I’ve seen Nate smile a lot and this one looks different, almost forced.

  I go to question him on it again when Toby says loudly, “Jenna! Girls or guys?”

  I flip my head around to look at Toby, my hair flying as I do. He’s pointing at me across the table, his eyes flicking briefly to look at Nate before they move back to me. “What?” I ask, not understanding his question.

  “Did you see guy or girl strippers?” he asks, clarifying the question.

  “Guys. Jimmy and Dan went with me to Ladies’ Night. Fun times,” I say, laughing as I remember the two of them waving their dollar bills in the air. Surprisingly, they were the only two guys there.

  “I was hoping you’d gone to see lady strippers. Nothing hotter than seeing a girl get a lap dance from another girl,” Toby teases, his eyes flicking to Nate again. I turn back to Nate and see that same fake smile on his face.

  “Okay! My turn. Let me think,” Rachel says, smiling at the table. She’s had the least to drink out of all of us, but she seems a little more smiley than usual. As a matter of fact, I feel a little more smiley than usual. I rub my lips together and sure enough, they’re a little numb. That means it’s time for smaller sips.

  “I’ve never been tied up during sex,” she says, blushing a little. Her lips may be a little looser than normal, but she’s still a little bit shy.

  Toby and I both take a drink, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Nate take one as well. And when he does, it happens again just like it has been happening all night.

  Every time Nate takes a drink for something he’s done, I im
agine him participating in that very act—with me. It’s actually becoming a bit of a problem for me since I know I can’t do any of those things with him until I talk to Rachel and get her okay to hook-up with Nate. In fact, I plan on talking to her about it as soon as possible because the sexual tension inside of my body is at the breaking point, and only Nate can help me release it.

  I gave up on my plan to get with Brian a while ago. I was actually having such a good time, I wasn’t even going to try and find someone tonight. And then we started playing I never. I went first and said that I had never gone down on a girl. After all the guys had taken a drink, Nate did the next I never, admitting to never giving a blow job—no surprise there. The surprise came when I took my drink and I started to imagine Nate and what he would look like getting a blow job. From me. It was like one of the dreams I’ve been having, but even more intense because he was sitting right next me.

  I’m not a blusher, but I think I may have turned a little pink.

  And as we play the game, each and every time I’ve seen him take a drink, and whenever I take one, it happens again. I imagine fucking Nate in whatever situation was just described. We’ve had sex on the beach, in a public bathroom, at a concert and on an airplane. We’ve blindfolded each other, used candle wax during foreplay, and role-played. By the third imaginary hook-up, I decided that I would talk to Rachel about me and Nate.

  My body obviously wants him. And what would be so wrong with hooking up with him a few times just to get it out of my system? Nothing would be wrong with it. Let’s just hope Rachel agrees.

  “I’ve never done anything more than make out on a Ferris wheel,” Jake says right before Toby takes a drink.

  “What the hell did you do on a Ferris wheel?” Brian asks, laughing and shaking his head.

  “There were some mechanical issues and we were stuck at the top for a while. I didn’t really feel like talking with the girl I was with, so she found something more entertaining to do with her mouth,” Toby replies, raising his eyebrows as he smirks.