Into the Darkness

“I’m saving that for the end of night,” he whispered in my ear. I felt my body flush. I didn’t know how this night would end, or who it would end with. I avoided eye contact with Lex. I knew he would be pissed right now, to quote him he didn’t share. Not that I was his, but try telling him that.

I continued to receive hugs from the others, of course the last being Lex. He stood in front of me, wearing black jeans, a blazer and charcoal grey shirt. His mop of messy hair gloriously styled, his chiseled jaw grinning at me, his eyes lighting up the whole room. He was sex on legs, I couldn’t deny that. I tried my best to keep my cool, worried that Julian was watching us interact but all I wanted to do was lay him on the table and pour sangria all over his cock while I sucked him off. Shit, did I seriously just think that?

“I guess I better hug the birthday girl,” he said leaning in to hug me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, inhaling his scent, careful not to close my eyes. The eyes are always the giveaway.

“That dress is not helping the fact that I want to fuck you right now,” he whispered.

“Is that a challenge, Mr. Edwards?”

I pulled away from his embrace, trying not to linger while I left him standing there flabbergasted. I know I shouldn’t have said it. I was still pissed at him for what he did but my brain was all up in that sex cloud trying to climb its way out but unfortunately not in time for me to respond with something more appropriate.

We all sat down at the round table. Julian was seated on my left and Bull’s on my right. Lex sat directly opposite me next to Adriana and Becky. Becky already looked like she was hyperventilating. Why Bull’s hired her was beyond me, or even invited her. Yeah, she was hot for a twenty-two-year-old. Damn I felt old now. I tried not to watch her interact with Lex but I couldn’t stop myself. I pretended to be looking around at the restaurant and people but when I made my way back to concentrating on the guests at my table, I would glance at them again.

The waiters rushed to our table filling our glasses with sangria which prompted Bull’s to tap her fork against her glass gathering everyone’s attention.

“I’d like to propose a toast, to the birthday girl, my best friend,” she announced. “You have given me seven wonderful years of friendship and there is no one else in the world who could put up with my shit like you do… Oh, except for you babe—” Rocky raised his glass, proud of his pussy-whipped status. “For something fun, I want everyone around the table to tell their story of how they met Charlie. I’ll start with Rocky and I.”

Oh God. Clumsy, awkward Charlie stories were not on my list of things to reminisce about.

“We met Charlie in our first year of college. She was to be my roommate. It was Friday afternoon and she wasn’t supposed to arrive till Saturday morning.” She laughed as she continued on. I laughed as well knowing where this was going. “Well Rocky and I decided to take advantage of our last day alone together. It was also the first time we decided to, um, experiment with a few things.”

I started laughing harder, the embarrassment still fresh in my mind.

“Anyways, Charlie had arrived early and walked in on us, Rocky tied up to the bed with a blindfold and chocolate sauce dripped all over him. I was shocked to say the least but not us much as she was. She freaked out and ran from the room, straight into the door. Her nose was bleeding all over. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to help her but Rocky was tied up and I needed to untie him. I stood there naked, rushing between the two of them, covered in chocolate as well.”

The whole table was laughing hard, Rocky almost crying of laughter.

“I gave Charlie a hard time after that but soon learned it was impossible to hate her. She became my best friend, supported me through the birth of Will, gave us the honor of being his godmother and helped me follow my dream professionally. I couldn’t have done it without you, Charlie.” She raised her glass again before leaning over to hug me tight.

“For the record I’d like to point out that Rocky was tied to what was supposed to be my bed. I couldn’t sleep without nightmares for weeks.” I chuckled.

“Better than the time you walked in on us in the kitchen,” he roared.

“Oh gee, Rocky, it took me years and hundreds of dollars in therapy to forget that. The moral of this story is always close your eyes and knock on a door when you visit Rocky and Bull’s.”

The whole table was laughing hysterically. Rocky continued to ramble on about his sexual conquests until Bull’s punched his arm, reminding him she was sitting right beside him.

“Me next!” Adriana raised her hand like an overeager first grader. She stood up holding her glass like it was a wedding toast or something. The image alone already made me want to burst out laughing.

“I met Charlie at school. We were both in middle school. It was my first day having moved from Chicago. I was eight and going through this stage of wanting to look like Blossom.”

“Oh em gee, I loved her!” exclaimed Eric. Of course he did.

“Anyways

, I was a little upset that day because no one would talk to me. It came around to lunchtime and I sat at the table alone. She came over to say hello. I knew her name was Charlotte because I thought it was such a beautiful name. She had long brown hair and these big brown eyes. I was envious given that I had a short bob cut, not at all like blossom. She asked me if she could sit down and introduced herself before reaching into her bag to grab her lunchbox at the same time I did. We pulled out our lunchboxes which both had Joey Lawrence on them. It was a match made in heaven.” She smiled. “She became my Siamese twin, practically lived at my place. She was the best friend I could have asked for.”

A hint of sadness entered her story but quickly trying to change the tone I rambled on about Blossom. “Our friendship did not help kill the Blossom obsession, that’s for sure.”

Lex laughed and put his glass down to speak. “If I had to watch another episode or hear Adriana talk any more about it I was going to go insane. I remember she had a shirtless Joey Lawrence poster stuck on the roof above her bed. Dad made her remove it and she cried for like a week.”

“I totally forgot about that!” When Dad made me take it down, we put it up in Charlie’s room above her bed. That lasted one night before Charlie’s dad made her take it off.”

I nearly spat out my wine remembering what happened next.

“The next afternoon, my dad and Dr. Edwards gave us the birds and bees talk. That it was inappropriate for young girls our age to be looking at older boys shirtless. It was so funny! Two grown men trying to explain to us in simple terms and Adriana of course kept asking technical questions.”

I broke out into laughter, the whole table following. She was such a big part of my childhood. God, I missed her so much. She walked over and hugged me. I didn’t let go and when I felt a tear fall down on my shoulder, I did what any best friend would do: I told her not to ruin her makeup.