Free Love and Lists (Chocoholics) by Tara Sivec Page A

hard.
    Charlotte suddenly ends the kiss and pulls her head back to stare at me. Her eyes are wide with shock, and I’m pretty sure she’s completely mortified that she just kissed her best friend even if she’s drunk. She probably thought it was a great idea at the time, and now she’s regretting it because she can totally feel my hard-on pushing into her. A kiss between friends changes everything, even if it’s just a dare.
    She slides out from between my legs without saying a word, and I watch her walk back to the other side of the bar to her friends. They all start giving her high fives and scream her name in congratulations for a perfectly executed dare. They surround her, and in the midst of the chaos, she looks back over at me. She doesn’t smile. She just stares.
    Tyler smacks his hand against my back, and I break our eye contact to turn and look at him, hoping he witnessed what just happened so he can tell me it was real. It feels like a dream right now.
    “Dude, that was the best thing I’ve ever seen,” Tyler says in awe.
    Thank God. He saw. It was real. I wasn’t dreaming.
    “Right? I’m freaking out a little bit right now. I can’t believe that just happened.”
    Tyler nods his head in agreement and signals the bartender.
    “We need two shots of Crown for me and my buddy here. The most epic thing in the entire world just happened and we need to celebrate,” Tyler tells the bartender.
    The guy pours us two overflowing shots of Crown, and when he walks away, we each grab our glasses and hold them up in the air.
    “Tonight we toast to something amazing. A man was brought to his knees and will never be the same again,” Tyler states.
    I wasn’t actually brought to my knees since I was sitting. But it works. If Charlotte had kissed me while I was standing, I probably would have lost all feeling in my legs.
    We clink our shot glasses together, and as I bring mine up to my lips, Tyler adds, “To Mangina. Thanks for looking at some chick tonight and screaming ‘WILD PUSSY!’ at her. The punch she gave you to the face was the best thing I’ve seen in my entire life.”
     
     

     
     
    Rolling over in bed, I’m immediately assaulted with a pounding headache and the need to throw up. I groan as I move both of my hands up to my head and hold it in place. Slowly opening my eyes so that the bright morning sun doesn’t make it feel like knives are stabbing through my skull, I scream and scramble up the bed until I slam against the headboard.
    “HOLY FUCK WHY ARE YOU NAKED?!”
    Tyler opens his eyes with a groan and glances up at me. “Will you stop shouting? It’s too early for this shit.”
    I stare in horror as he reaches down and scratches his balls.
    “Dude, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU NAKED?” I yell again.
    Tyler yawns and scoots up until his back is against the headboard next to me. I immediately move as far away from him as possible without falling off the edge of the bed.
    He casually looks down at himself and then up at me. “Oh my God. I’m naked and you’re afraid. It’s the Ohio version of Naked and Afraid . You should be building a fire and trying to make a bikini out of palms right now.”
    “Why do we make such bad life choices?!” I shout.
    “Naked … and afraid,” he whispers menacingly with a laugh as he pulls one of legs up to rest his arm on top of it casually.
    “What the hell happened last night? I don’t remember anything after that last shot, except for a bunch of people screaming ‘Wild Pussy’ all night. Did that really happen?” I ask him as I get up out of bed and try to locate my cell phone.
    “I roofied you because I wanted you naked … and afraid,” Tyler says again in a sinister voice.
    As I get down on my knees to look for my phone under the bed, I hear my front door open and close. Before I can yell at Tyler to put some fucking clothes on, my dad is in the bedroom doorway.
    “Gavin, I brought over some of your mail that …”
    He trails off when he sees