Free Last Call by Michele G Miller Page A

fell into a depression so deep I didn't recognize myself.
    "You're right," I confessed. "I almost did make the decision to transfer to a school back home."
    Climbing up onto the picnic table, I finally let my skeletons out of the closet.
    "At Easter dinner, Daniel made a pass at me," I began.
    "You're kidding."
    "Shhh," I chided, holding up my hand. "Let me get through this."
    She shook her head and listened as I told her the disturbing details of him coming to my room and our seedy make-out session. "The thing is, I can't explain why I did it. There was always something about him that was so mesmerizing. I fell right into his hands that day, Candace. He asked me to meet him at ‘our’ old spot that night."
    Her mouth opened into a silent 'O', but she didn't speak. "I wish I could say I didn't go. I wish I could say I immediately grabbed my keys and came straight back to school. But no, I didn't. You know what I did instead?" I laughed at the stupid girl I had been.
    "I put on the sexiest outfit I could find and drove to the park where we had our first kiss. Candace, I swear I smiled all the way there, thinking about Mary Anne and how Daniel was going to tell me he'd made a mistake and he wanted me back. God," I moaned; shaking my head and burying my face into my hands. "I was such an idiot. He was already there waiting for me when I arrived."
    "He had the gall to bring a blanket. He spread it out under a tree and was sitting there all self-importantly like he knew I would come. Like there was never any doubt I would show. I should have run the other way, but instead I ran right into his arms."
    "What a lying cheat," Candace finally fumed. "Did you two have sex?"
    Shame crept through me when I admitted that we had. I couldn't justify it. I was dumb and blind and totally out of my mind.
    "I didn’t tell you that we never actually slept together when we were a couple. Actually, I'm pretty sure that was why he dumped me," I confessed. "He'd been pressuring me for a while, but I wouldn't budge. We even fought about it before he went off to school. When he broke up with me it was pretty funny, because we’d spent the entire time he was home doing some heavy duty making out. I was blindsided when he pulled up outside my house the day he was heading back to school and told me that he wanted us to both have some ‘freedom’. Claimed I deserved to enjoy my last year, and that he wanted us to both experience life before we settled down with each other."
    "What an ass."
    "Funny part was, I was going to cash in my V-card the night of my coming-out. He just happened to end it before I could do it."
    "Well I remember you coming back from Easter break and being this totally different girl. You were pissed ."
    I laughed and stretched out my legs, letting the sun warm them. "Yeah, Daniel pissed me off something fierce that night I slept with him."
    I recalled lying there as he slipped his pants back up over himself. We hadn't even bothered to get fully undressed. Talk about a hussy moment. He stretched out beside me and ran his finger along my collar bone, staring deeply into my eyes. We hadn't said more than ten words since I’d gotten there, and most of the words we did say were throaty exclamations of passion. He hadn't confessed his love for me, or his regret. He just told me how beautiful I was and how much I turned him on.
    As his finger dipped between my breasts he took a deep breath and finally spoke. "We need to keep this a secret, okay?"
    I remember blinking. The vision of a cartoon character shaking its head and trying to pound out something lodged in their ear because they couldn't hear came to mind. Did I miss something?
    "A secret?"
    "Well yeah, baby. Mary Anne can't know about this, and if we're gonna see each other again we need to play it cool."
    "Whhhaaattt?" I screeched, nearly knocking him over as I sat up. "Mary Anne? I just had sex with you, Daniel. I… I …oh my God," I gasped.
    I jumped up, grabbed my shoes and