Surrendering (Surrender 1)

Abbi shakes her head at me, “I got lucky that you had to pee because the whole way over here I was trying to figure out how to get you out of the car and up to the door.”

“So the whole ‘Steamroom’ thing was fake?”

“Yes, baby, we’ve been working on this for awhile. The only reasonable thing I could think of to tell you was that we were doing a special show tonight. Then you wouldn’t be curious about what everyone was doing because you’d think they were meeting you there.”

I look around at the whole crowd “I can’t believe you all were able to keep this a secret. Even Charlie.”

Harper cracks up and slaps me on the back. “That’s because we didn’t tell her until last Tuesday. We wanted you to be surprised and she would have ruined it.”

Charlie slaps Harper in return on the shoulder. “Bitch, I can keep a secret.”

“No you can’t,” we all yell together. She rolls her eyes and laughs. I look around and see that the whole room has been cleared of furniture and the band is in the back of the room near a bar. The bar looks fully stocked. In the front corner, there’s a DJ station set up. I raise my eyebrow at Declan.

“I told you this took a lot of planning. Kendall got Adam for the night.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re kidding!!”

“Nope, I knew he was your friend and I wanted there to be music. So, we worked out a small deal for tonight and he agreed.”

“There are at least twenty people here- where are all the cars?”

“Most people carpooled. The others parked around the neighborhood and my neighbors’ driveways.”

“You thought of everything.”

“I tried, baby. I aim for this to be the best birthday you ever had. Sorry your parents couldn’t be here.”

“That’s okay; I’m taking all the pictures for Jenna and James. I’ve already texted the picture of when she walked in,” Charlie says from beside me. She’s pointing her phone at us to smile.

“Your parents insisted on doing something so they actually catered the party. I tried to stop them, but your dad can be very convincing.”

“Do I even want to know?”

He grins and shakes his head at me.

“God, I love you.”

He gives me a quick kiss and I hold on. I don’t let him go until I hear the insistent click of Charlie’s phone.

“That’s hot! Should I send that to James?”

“Not if you want to live.” I smile over at her.

A little while later, Blake, Cooper, and Nate wave me over and serve up shots. I yell for the girls to join me, but only Charlie and Kendall come over. Before I can pour the salt on my wrist, Declan grabs my hand. He licks his own wrist and shakes salt on it. He puts the lime in his mouth, pulp side out, and hands me the shot glass. We all lick and take the shot at the same time. I have to lift up on my toes to get to my lime. Declan bends down and releases the lime, but licks my lips as he pulls away.

“Seriously, there’s a house full of people here. Can’t you two stop for a little while?” Charlie says a little too loudly. Heads turn in our direction, but I laugh and roll my eyes.

On the other side of the room, I see a few of my classmates including Brent. I excuse myself to talk to them. There are five of us working together on a group project: Mari, Brent, Kyle, Anna, and me. Besides Brent, this is the first time I have seen them outside of school since we started our project.

“Hey, guys, nice to see you? How’d you know about this?”

“Your roommate, Abbi; I ran into her last week and she asked me to come. She told me to invite our little group.” Anna answers.

“I’m glad we came; this is a phat shindig. There’s more man candy in this room than at ladies’ night. Which one is your boyfriend?” Mari asks.

I point to the crowd at the bar, “He’s the one in the black Henley and grey jeans. I would describe him as the one with the tattoos and piercings, but that wouldn’t separate him from that group.”

“Holy shit, he’s hot. Are those his friends?”