Free Saving Grace by Christine Zolendz Page A

laughed and said, "Please do not say jail cell, because I'll piss myself right here, dude."
    "Shut up," Shane laughed. He looked at Marie, "My answer is probably going to change later, but right now fire escape."
    "Boozer's bathroom," Marie giggled. Eww !
    "Car," Tucker said.
    "Park," Ethan whispered.
    When it was my turn , I leaned forward, wrapped my lips around the straw, and drank my entire drink. Holy Mother of All That is Good and Alcoholy ! What a head rush. Brain Freeze ! Yum, it was like chocolate coffee.
    Shane didn't take his eyes off mine. For a fleeting moment,
tightness
settled around those ice-cold blue eyes of his and I wondered what his point to playing this game was. Then my knees started to tingle and my teeth went numb. What the heck was in that drink?
    This went on for three more rounds. People pegged other people in particular or the whole group. I drank two more Mind Erasers, the last one when Alex point blank asked me how many people I had slept with. Shane flipped out when I did and he slammed his hand s down on the table and drunkenly yelled, "The point isn't to get fucking smashed , Grace! Be fucking HONEST!"
    I just sucked on the straw, with my eyes locked on his, until it made that slurpy nothing is left on the bottom sound and smiled, "Is that what the point is Shane?" I threw my straw at him.
    He bolted up out of his seat. "My turn for a question!" he yelled. His ridiculously beautiful face twisted in a scowl, "Answer this , Grace, how was it to fuck Ethan? While you're at it, answer this, while you were fucking Ethan , did you think about that ex-boyfriend of yours that you loved so damn fucking much you couldn't be with me? Remember Grace? The night you told me about him while your hands were wrapped around my dick!" He slammed his palms against the table and his drink spilled across the top it.
    Everybody fell silent. Next to me, Lea dropped her head in one of her hands and grabbed one of my hands to hold with the other. My head spun. Thank God, I had a few Mind Eraser's already, because if I
were
the least bit sober , I would have smacked him. Again. Harder this time.
    I sat up straighter, leaning forward so I could be perfectly clear when I gave my answer. I gave Lea's hand a little squeeze. "I don't know how it is to fuck him Shane, I did not fuck Ethan. I have never slept with anyone, actually. I was saving myself for that ex-boyfriend... he was in .. . um
...
jail, but when he got out, he didn't want me anymore and left." A sharp wave of embarrassment spiked through my veins. It spread out across my cheeks and down my neck, which I was sure , was leaving crimson streaks through my ivory skin.
    Shane dropped back down in his seat , speechless.
    Alex looked at me and then looked down into his lap, "Well, good evening there , Bruce McHardon , would you like to come out and me et the prettiest little virgin in the world? Grace, please, please, please, may I have your V-card. I will take such good care of it, I promise."
    I smiled at him and laughed sarcastically, "Thanks , Alex, but I'm pretty sure I've just been royally fucked over, so I'm good for now. Thanks."
    "There's no way you are a virgin! Like, you've never been with a guy before? What do you do?" Marie asked giving me a quick bark of laughter. Like the dog she was .
    I locked my stare on Shane again, "I've been with guys, just not full blown sex. And what do I do? Well one of my best friends is a vibrator. It goes from Oh Yeah to Who the Hell Needs a Man in ten seconds flat." I turned my gaze on her, " You should try it, Marie . I n the long run , it'll be a lot less heartbreaking than Shane can be."
    Tucker jumped up, stumbled around the table and drunkenly threw an arm around me, "Grace, you're so beautiful. Please don't give Alex your V-card. I took you to Masa , Grace. We could go there again and get that champagne you love, and then we could get a room at any hotel in the city." One of his hands grasped my knee and I flung