he<\/em>\u00a0likes. But maybe Mom and I will do something. At least I won\u2019t spend the whole night with you glaring at me.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t glare at you,\u201d I protest. \u201cI was making sure none of the assholes made a play for you. What was Bo thinking letting you out of the house with that bikini on? I spent the whole night reminding everyone you had just turned fifteen.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smirks. \u201cGot your attention, did it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you did wear it to piss me off,\u201d I exclaim. I knew it. Last year Charlotte had stripped off her demure bell shaped knit dress to reveal a white bikini with gold rings holding the various tiny triangular pieces of cloth together. When she spun around on her wedge heel and announced she was thirsty nearly every male there surged toward her. \u201cYou could have started a riot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI bought it for you,\u201d she says with a naughty smile. \u201cI\u2019d overheard you telling Nick during one of our boating trips that you loved white bikinis.\u201d<\/p>\n
This made me raise my eyebrows. \u201cReally? I don\u2019t remember having a preference.\u201d But I do now. In fact, I think I still have a picture of Charlotte in said bikini. I scroll through my phone and find it. Mmmhmm. I know what I\u2019ll be looking at later tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay away from the white bikinis tonight,\u201d she says but I\u2019m not paying much attention because a photo of one of the lacrosse players losing control of a beer bong and getting a facial from the excess beer is shared on the school forum. I show it to Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re obviously very occupied,\u201d she sighs.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, sorry.\u201d Hurriedly I put the phone face down but she\u2019s waving her hand at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo on. I\u2019m super tired anyway. Mom would kill me if she knew I stayed up this late to Skype with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We exchange I love yous and then I grab an impatient Nick and we head out of the city. It takes us about forty five minutes. We have to park about a half mile away because there are a crapton of cars that have arrived before us. Thankfully Nick doesn\u2019t say a word about our late start only asks how Charlotte is.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood. Spending a lot of time with the douchebag Colin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked him up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have anything to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would I worry about him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick throws his hands up. \u201cNo reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since we\u2019re nearly at the door of Waite\u2019s house, I don\u2019t pursue this any further. Charlotte doesn\u2019t like Colin. She\u2019s forced to spend time with him. There\u2019s no reason at all that I have to worry about the two of them.<\/p>\n
Inside the house there are wall to wall people. Thankfully between Nick and I we can muscle our way past the crowd. It only takes a couple of people to drop away before a path is cleared for us.<\/p>\n
Juliette is sitting on the patio in a lounger with several sycophants around her. She languidly raises her hand in greeting. \u201cThe Jackson boys are here. I suppose we can now start the party.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few of the guys look older\u2014college aged\u2014and they glare at us but Nick and I are solidly built. We could take \u00a0them. In fact, it might be kind of fun. I haven\u2019t had a brawl for a long time. I step back and allow my arms to hang loosely at my side. Nick steps to the side to provide spacing and adopts a similar stance.<\/p>\n
Three of Juliette\u2019s subjects get to their feet, their greek letters straining across their drug assisted chests.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoys is right,\u201d says the one in the middle. He must be the leader. The music continues to play but the energy out here on the patio has changed. There\u2019s a charge in the air and everyone out here senses it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got the guy in the middle,\u201d I say softly to Nick. \u201cYou take the guy on the right. The one on the left looks like he\u2019ll flail around searching for a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGot it,\u201d he nods.<\/p>\n
The leader charges me and I spare a glance to Juliette. Her eyes are sparkling with excitement. Yeah, she knew exactly what she was doing inviting these meatheads here. She probably talked up the fact that we were high schoolers and these frat guys showed up to teach us a thing or two. Good luck.<\/p>\n
I meet their leader in the middle, about five feet from Juliette\u2019s lounger and he swings at me, an obvious first that is meant to lay me out with one punch but I can tell by the wide sweep of his right arm as it moves toward me that he\u2019s never fought before. Or if he has, it\u2019s been with people as inept. His primary move seems to be the right jaw punch only it doesn\u2019t land. I step sideways and he stumbles between Nick and I.<\/p>\n
Nick grins at me but has to turn back to his smaller, but more experienced opponent. I watch as Nick swerves to avoid a combination and then counters with an open faced slap to the face. It\u2019s a complete insult and his opponent draws back to blink in surprise while everyone around them giggles. I shake my head. One of these days Nick\u2019s arrogance will be the end of him, but not today. The slap spurs his opponent to charge and Nick allows himself to be pushed back into a table.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m prevented from watching more when my guy comes roaring back. He\u2019s watched too many mixed martial arts fights on television because this time he tries an elbow to the forehead. A good move as an elbow can have a greater force impact on a target. But it has to land to do any damage. I pull on his elbow until we\u2019re flush together and then I press my other hand on the low of his back and pretend for a moment we\u2019re dancing. \u00a0This draws a roar from the crowd and a fevered look of rage from my opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t like dancing?\u201d I mock. Spittle is starting to form at the sides of his mouth. \u201cYou really picked a mouth breather this time, Juliette.\u201d<\/p>\n
I push him away before he slobbers all over me. \u00a0Yeah, okay. I\u2019m as arrogant as Nick. The leader motions to the third guy who is watching us and they both rush me. One of them gets a lucky fist to the side of my jaw and I feel another fist in my gut. The adrenaline is flooding me and since I\u2019ve not had sex in weeks, this feels almost as good.<\/p>\n
The third player is about six inches shorter than I am. He must have gotten the body shot in. He needs to go down first. I duck to avoid a punch from the big guy and then turn my body toward the third player. Two knees into the rib cage has him folding in half. I finish him with an elbow strike to the temple since he\u2019s lower than me and he crumples to the ground.<\/p>\n
The leader steps back, bounces around on his heels and rolls his shoulder like we\u2019re in some cage match.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou toying with your prey?\u201d I hear Nick say. He must have sent his opponent to a sweet sleep. \u201cDad wouldn\u2019t approve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNa but he\u2019d think this was sweet,\u201d I answer. Opening up my stance, I raise to the balls of my feet and then in one swift move bring my right leg and strike the asshole in the temple. Shock widens his eyes before the lights go out in his brain and he falls backward onto the ground. No one catches him. In fact, everyone moved out of the way.<\/p>\n
A silence falls and then cheers erupt, probably from North Prep kids. Juliette hasn\u2019t moved an inch from her lounger although I see a few blood spatters on the cushion.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery nice,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m guessing you didn\u2019t tell them that your high school friends were sons of a professional fighter?\u201d I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth but there\u2019s no blood there. It must not be mine. A quick check of Nick reveals he\u2019s fine too.<\/p>\n
She presses a finger to the center of her lips. \u201cHmm. I may have forgotten to mention that. Now which one of you victors is going to celebrate with me tonight?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019d be me,\u201d Nick says bending over and scooping Juliette into his arms. I drop into the now vacated lounge chair and someone drops a beer bottle into my empty hand. This has the makings of an epic party. I place an arm behind my head and prepare to be entertained.<\/p>\n
If you want the next scene delivered to your inbox on Friday’s, sign up for the newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First off, I need to thank a few more bloggers for participating in my new release. Thanks readers! Will Read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charlotte-chronicles","charlotte-chronicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}