Renko
“Because I don’t want to.” I mean really, isn’t that a good enough reason not to want to go somewhere?
“Renko, you have to.” My best friend, Ashlyn wouldn’t give up on the pestering of wanting me to go to the big upcoming party next weekend.
Our friend Suri, well not really a friend but more of a rival in the social ladder competition that we were all trying to climb in our last year of high school, was supposed to be throwing this huge get-together for all the big who’s who of our school. Usually, that meant that the usual crowd would show up, like all the popular kids, and then they would be so drunk halfway through the party, that no one cared who else showed up. I mean I’ve been there and done that so many times that it was becoming routine anymore. The only thing about Tori’s that was different from all the other parties is that the group of partiers didn’t have to sneak around when parents weren’t home. Her mom, who was a hot, newly divorced and apparently, in love with that fact and could date anyone who came her way, allowed Suri to have these parties without any supervision.
“I mean really, Renko. Our senior year is our last year of school. Who knows if we will see each other after high school and you want to ruin the moment by being stubborn.” Ashlyn flopped herself down on my bed and grabbed a pillow to tuck under her head. She looked up at me with those big brown puppy dog eyes thinking I was going to cave in with just that one sad look.
Ash and I were complete opposites in our appearances. She had long blonde hair, dyed of course, brown eyes, and an almost perfect body. She could always pick out several areas that needed some plastic surgery, but no one else ever saw the imperfections.
Me on the other hand had brown hair, natural, that was shoulder length. It wasn’t silky, shiny straight like Ashlyn’s, or full of bounce and waves like some hair shampoo model. I was just normal, in all ways than just my hair. My looks were average, no exceptional facial features, no triple D cup size in the boob department, and not a Victoria's Secret model in the area of sexiness. I was a brown-haired, brown-eyed, average-at-everything girl from a small town in the Appalachians. “We’re going to the same college, Ash. We’ll see each other all the time.”
We both had applied to and got accepted into Southern New Hampshire University, home of Petey Penmen. We both had different majors, mine was undetermined at this point since I had conflicting ideas of what I wanted to do with the next fifty years of my life, but Ashlyn knew since she was a little girl that she wanted to be a pediatric nurse. So, she was off to the big world of nursing while I questioned everything that I’d done and hadn’t done up until now.
“I know, but you need to go. You know Vance wants to go and probably will end up going even if you don’t.” Ashlyn bounced up off my bed and strolled over to my desk. She opened up my laptop and got on my account on I*******m. Even if I had logged out on my last visit, she would’ve still been able to get on since she knew my password. Of course, it had to deal with me and my long-time on and off again boyfriend, Vance. “See, lookie.” She pointed to Vance’s latest posting. ‘Going to a killer party next week.’
“Okay, so Vance is going. He’s a big boy, and he can do what he wants.”
He never told me anything about this party that got him all hyped up. I glanced at his profile and of course, it still read single. We’d been back together for the hundredth time for over a month now. I had mine changed back to ‘in a relationship’ but apparently, he didn’t think of it that way. He still had a picture of us on his front page, our cheeks pressed close together, and we were smiling happily, but that was taken during the summer on one of the rare occasions that we weren’t fighting.
“You know you love Vance, and he loves you. I don’t know why you two have to make this whole relationship thing more complicated than it has to be.” Ashlyn tossed my hairbrush back down after she’d swept it through her hair about a hundred times.
“I don’t know why he thinks he has to cheat on me with every ass that wiggles in front of his face.” That was one of the main reasons that we always broke up. He’s one of the biggest players in the school, in basketball and fucking around. But, I kept being drawn back into his sorry ass ways whenever he groveled and said he was sorry, it was all a mistake with the other girl, he’ll never do it again, he loved me, and every other excuse he can think of to get me back.
“Well, because he’s as big of an ass as every other guy in the world. But even you have to admit, he has a sweet-looking ass.” Ashlyn walked over and gave me a quick hug. “I have to get going. We’re going shopping this weekend to get wicked outfits for the party.”
“Ash, I said—” My sentence was cut short by her waving goodbye and shutting my bedroom door on her way out.
I didn’t want to go next weekend, but like Ashlyn said we are seniors, and our time for hanging out and having fun was coming to an end. We graduate in six more months and then, it’s off to becoming adults, having families, and more responsibilities than I wanted right now.
Okay, one last party, or maybe two, then it was time to settle down a bit.
* * *
“Hey, baby.” Vance put his arms around my waist and pulled me back against his chest.
I felt the muscles in his arms twitch with each movement he made. He was really in great shape from playing basketball all through school. Also, being rated an eleven on a scale of one-to-ten in sexiness and good looks made him, even more, appealing.
“Hey, what’s up?” I scooted out from his embrace and slammed my locker shut. Okay, he might have all those great qualities that make him a sex god, but I was still pissed off at him for not telling me he was going to Suri’s party.
“Okay, what’s wrong now?” Vance leaned his back up against my locker. He looked agitated that I was ragging about something.
“You didn’t tell me about Suri’s party, and you didn’t tell me you were going.” I stood beside him, so the other students wouldn’t have to walk around me.
Vance shook his head and rolled his eyes. “First, you don’t even like Suri. Second, you said you were done partying. And third, you can come if you want, it’s not like I was trying to sneak around and go.”
He was right on two accounts, but somehow I just didn’t believe him about the last one. I think if he were truly committed to me like he said, then he would’ve said, ‘Hey, I’m going to a party do you want to come?’ But no, my oh so not considerate boyfriend decided to tell the rest of the world where he would be next weekend and not me. “Whatever, Vance. I’m going. Ashlyn and I decided since all of you were going, we might as well live it up another weekend.”
We started to walk towards our next class, which was the only one we had together this year.
Vance took hold of my hand and began to run his thumb lightly across my fingers. “Maybe we can have a little more fun than usual at the party.”
Oh, my God. Is that all he ever thought about was when he was finally going to get into my panties? I’ve told him no since we started our see-saw relationship back in our tenth-grade year. He still pesters and frustrates me to hell and back with his constant bullshit of
‘C’mon, baby. Why can’t we take our relationship to the next level?’
Well, how about I’m not ready, and you’ve been with how many other girls since we started dating?
Yes, I was still a virgin and yes, I wanted love before I decided to give all of me away to some guy. I’m just not sure if Vance is the right man.
I shook my hand loose from his. “Let’s just go to class.”
Vance let out an enormous sigh and opened the door to the classroom. There was the onset of welcomes from his fellow teammates, and he quickly left my side to be with them.
Why is it if I’m not giving out the goods, then he no longer acts interested in the total package? I took my usual seat by the sidewall and texted Ashlyn that we would be going shopping.
“Oh. My. God. You are going to totally rock the night.” Ashlyn slipped her arm through mine. She’d come over early so we could get ready for the big Tori party together. We did the two-hour shopping trip last weekend to get all the things that we would need to make our appearance known. The thigh-high stockings, high-heeled ankle boots, and of course, the tight little black dresses that clung to our bodies like a second skin.“Yeah, but this is like the most uncomfortable outfit I have ever worn.” I twisted and pulled the skirt part of the dress down so that maybe it would cover another half-inch of my skin. I don’t know why I allowed Ashlyn to talk me into getting matching outfits, but she always seemed to have that effect on me. I say no and she gives me some reason my answer is wrong, and why I should listen to her. Her rationale was that if I dressed like this, there would be no reason for Vance to have wandering eyes.“It&
I stood there for a few moments. Like did that shit just happen? Just because I didn’t want to fuck him on the deck, he gets all pissy.A few more people came out to join in on the big party, well really it was just me since everyone else disappeared. I so wanted to go home and leave all this shit behind. I knew if I didn’t leave, Vance and I would get into some nasty fight and who knew how long that would last—come to think of it—did I care? That’s all we ever did anymore was argue and fight. We both needed some serious help or just to step away from each other for a while or maybe call it off for good this time.I walked back into the house in search of Ashlyn. The crowd seemed to thicken since I was in here last. I saw her with Reese and several other people we hung around with on a regular basis. She looked like she was enjoying this party way too much for us to leave early.“Renko!” Ashlyn squealed and pulled me int
Vance looked shocked to see me standing there. His face was flushed, which could be because of his recent activity of the fact that I caught him red-handed cheating on me.The girl, or should I say, woman, grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around herself. “Renko—I, u-uh…” Obviously, she had no words for what was going on.“Sorry, uh, Linda, uh, Mrs. Greene, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” I looked over at Vance, who had his head laying on the pillow. “It’s over…like really over this time.” I couldn’t keep the tears from falling. I knew he cheated on me before, but to have him say he would never do it again, then to catch him with Tori’s mom blew my mind.I had to get out of there and far away from this party. I slammed the door shut on the way out. I raced down the hall and ran down the steps. I heard Vance yelling my name from the second floor and knew he was going to try and find me.
MAXAre you freakin serious?Now, what the fuck was I supposed to do?I ditched the so-called happening party an hour ago. Not my crowd or scene, but me and the guys had a special invite by Suri, who promised lots of beer, food, and girls.Again, not exactly what I was looking for. But my boys wanted to go, so I caved in. They were all hitting up with a few townie girls, ones that were shallow and pedantic, not of our kind, but I didn’t want any part of it.How could I?I wasn’t the average eighteen-year-old waiting to graduate high school, go to college, have fun before real life kicked in. Nope, I was next in line to follow after my father, the alpha shifter, who reigned over the whole Appalachian Trail.But now, I had an issue. A fuckin big one.I was running across the road, in wolf form, and a car came upon me.What the fuck was a car doing out here, in the middle of fuckin nowhere, late
MAXI heard and smelled some of the pack as I made my way home with Renko. Thankfully, most were on patrol and didn’t have time to see why I was out and about. My father met me at the door but never asked why I was naked and who the girl was I carried in my arms. I knew as soon as I laid Renko down and got dressed, I would be bombarded with questions.“Care to explain?” My mother confronted me as soon as I entered the kitchen.I grabbed bottled water out of the fridge and sat down at the table. “About?” I knew what she meant but might as well prolong the agony.Mom sat down across from me. Her expression already said she wasn’t happy with this scenario even before she said any words. “Max don’t play stupid. Your father told me what he saw tonight. Who’s the girl? Why were you carrying her here?”“Long story short, I was out running, a car came up the back road behind ou
Did you ever have that feeling that you weren’t whole? That something or someone was missing from your life. No matter who you were with, you always felt alone. I feel like that every day of my life. I have my friends and even a boyfriend, if you can call him that, but they just aren’t filling the void that seems to surround me all the time. It’s like the other half of me is someplace else, and I’m just this casing of a body that’s walking around trying to pretend that happiness is all around me. My mom even wanted me to go to counseling at one point in my life, during my tenth-grade year of high school, she was worried about me not being socially receptive. Whatever the fuck that is, right? So, I started going out more with Ashlyn, mainly to parties that her ‘social’ friends held. I even accepted Vance’s proposal that we date exclusively, meaning I only go out with him while he fucks the rest of the female populat