Free Something's Come Up by Michelle Pace, Andrea Randall Page A

from under her lashes with me, looking like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
    “Do I look like I’m joking?” I asked, folding my arms and leaning against the bedroom door.
    “It was the captain of the football team, okay? His name was Ben Primeau.” She picked up her panties and started to put them on. “He and I had been...talking…since the first day of school...and sort of messing around for a couple of weeks. We agreed to meet under the bleachers after the homecoming game. He said he wanted to make out on the fifty yard line, you know, like every other fucking jock strap fantasizes about. But he was a senior and smoking hot, so I thought ‘what the hell’?”
    I could feel my heart rate double. I was sure she was going to tell me he raped her and I would have hunted his ass down. So I was completely blown away but what she said next.
    “I was psyched to lose my virginity to the big man on campus, but before we even got past second base, he came. In his pants .”
    The incredulous look on her face was hilarious and I had to bite my lower lip to stifle a laugh. I saw her eyes narrow, daring me to chuckle. I didn’t.
    “I was so pissed. So that night at the dance, during the homecoming court coronation, I sweet talked my two friends from the AV club into helping me change his name on the overhead slides to Benjamin Prematureejaculation.”
    Shocked laughter escaped me and her serious expression cracked. She covered her mouth to hide a smile.
    “That’s priceless.”
    Her expression was grim again in an instant and she shook her head violently. “No. It was awful. My brother, Cedric, was in the running for Homecoming King, too, so I was sitting there with my parents, patiently waiting for all hell break loose. When Ben headed down the aisle with his escort, the slide popped up and the entire audience freaked! My mom was completely mortified. My brother, who is always the diplomat, picked up the nearest microphone and tried to smooth things over. Ben obviously knew I was behind it all, so I think Cedric’s attempt to defend him sent him over the deep end. He ran out of the gym like some villain in a Disney movie. Later that night, he tried to hang himself.”
    “Jesus!” I blurted, knowing from the expression she wore she wasn’t playing.
    “Oh, he failed spectacularly. He didn’t tie the knots tight enough. I imagine he was probably in too much of a hurry . So the dumbass bruised his neck a bit and that was it. But he told his parents everything . My parents got called in and the story spread around school like wildfire. My AV geek friends both got suspended and I got expelled.” She’d been dressing while she spoke and was zipping up her jeans. Her eyes darted around for her blouse, which I now held up in front of her. She plucked it from my hand and tossed it on over her head.
    “Wow.” It was the best I could do under the circumstances.
    “Yep.” She brushed past me and out into the living room where we’d abandoned our shoes during the grope-fest the night before. I scrambled into a pair of boxers and went after her. She was lacing up her second shoe when I finally found my voice.
    “So, where did you go? Another Catholic school?”
    “Public school. It was so much more my speed.”
    “Who won?”
    She stood. “Huh?”
    “Who did they crown Homecoming King?”
    “Cedric, of course,” Red scoffed, as if the question were asinine. She grabbed her jacket and purse and headed out the door without so much as a goodbye.

Steph, January 2009
    I was sprawled across his dark, hot chest, holding the crop in one hand and running the fingers of my other hand up and down its length.
    “How long have you had this?” I rolled over and trailed the tip of the crop down the center of his chest.
    His almost-onyx eyes met mine. They were always darker after sex. “I bought it the day I left your place for the first time.”
    “That makes sense; you wouldn’t want to use your old stuff on