The Reason Why — Chapter Eight
Everyone has one
The lights went out, and the bright colored lights from the stage signaled that the band was ready to come out. The announcer came to the microphone and screamed something that I couldn’t understand. It sent the crowd into an uproar and the sound of a loud bass booming out of the amplifier wound them up even more.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any louder, Hunter came running up to the microphone which sent every girl screaming at the top of their lungs. He was dressed in a loose pair of jeans with frayed rips all through them while his wife-beater shirt was tight against his body and his muscles rippled as he threw his arms up in the air.
The band broke out into a song that I didn’t know, but I did manage to hear Joshua as he told me that it was the newest one that Hunter had written.
The people at the table kept the drinks coming as the band played. I had about four colas and was starting to feel good. It seemed my mind was allowing me to enjoy myself for once. After about the sixth song of Hunter singing, our group finally made their way out to the center of the dance floor.
I danced like I’d never danced before. I felt so free and hoped that Hunter was watching as I twirled around in my new dress making sure to bump and grind like the other girls were doing.
Joshua was always by my side, and I was thankful that he was such a good friend. I couldn’t understand why his brother couldn’t have as much interest in me as he obviously did. I wondered yet again, why was it that I wanted the wrong brother?
With Joshua pulling me close and doing provocative maneuvers, it made me thankful that the band was finally taking a break.
Joshua had let me go when a recorded song took the place of the live band. One of his friends had called him over to the sidewall, leaving me standing amidst a group of people I didn’t know.
“C’mon, baby. You can slide all over me like you were doing to him.” A guy pulled me from behind and began to grind his already enlarged member into me.
I felt his hands rising up my thigh and knew it wouldn’t be long before they were under my dress. I wanted him to stop or scream out for someone to help, but I felt frozen, as neither my voice nor my hands seemed to be working.
“Enough.” Hunter’s voice rang out, and the guy was being tossed off me. Hunter took my hand and led me away from the dance floor. “Are you okay?” He rubbed my arms and held my hands in his own.
I felt like I might have a massive panic attack at any moment. I took a few deep breaths and tried to recover from the assault that almost took place. “Yeah, I think I’m okay.” I leaned my head on Hunter’s shoulder. He smelled like a mixture of his musky scent and sweat. It was enough stimulation to get my stomach twisted in knots and a warm feeling stirring up in my groin.
“Where’d my brother go?” he asked.
I shrugged, indicating that I didn’t know. A slower song replaced the one that had been playing, and I watched as some of the couples began to move to the music out on the dance floor.
“We better go find him. He’s probably looking for you.”
He tried to move me, but I held my feet planted firmly on the ground. “Let’s dance.” I don’t know where this sudden sense of boldness was coming from, but I liked how it made me more assertive with Hunter. I tried to wrap my arms around his neck.
He gently held them in mid-air.
In one pull, I was able to get away from him.
“We can’t. I have to get ready for the second set.” He tried to grab my arms once more.
Then I managed to ring them around his neck and hold him in place. “Hunter, shut up and dance with me.” I slowly moved my body against his and felt him respond.
His hands went down the sides of my body as a look of passion passed over his face.
I felt him move with me. I swiveled my hips so that they were rocking right up against the zippered part of his pants. I felt a large, hard bulge and was ecstatic that I had made him feel this way.
“I wish I could wake up in your arms again. I don’t want it to be from you rolling over and forgetting who you were with, but because you want to be there. I think I have wanted you since the first day I saw you.” It felt so good to finally get my emotions out in the open. The way that I’d seen Hunter look at me when he didn’t think I was watching, I had a feeling that he might feel the same way.
I let my lips lightly touch his neck and heard a low groan come from the base of Hunter’s throat. I knew he wanted this just as much as I did. My teeth nipped at him while my hands began their exploration of his hard body.
I felt his hands on my ass and pushed deeper against him, so there was no space between us that wasn’t filled. Hunter lowered his head towards mine with his lips slightly parted. I just wanted him to put out this fire that had been burning inside of me since that morning we had woken up together.
As we came closer together, and right before our lips finally touched, Hunter leaned backward. “Were you drinking?” He took my arms and held them down to my sides.
I pouted my lips outward. “All I had was cola.” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked away from him. It was apparent that he didn’t want me. He could’ve danced with me, caressed me, or maybe even kissed me when I was kissing him on the neck, but no, he just pushed me away.
I watched as a mix of emotions crossed over Hunter’s face. With the way that he toyed with my feelings and the way that he hid his own, I could never tell if there was even a spark of interest on his part.
“Let’s go find Joshua.” Hunter took me by the elbow and walked over to where Joshua was standing with a group of guys from his team. “Did you give her alcohol?” Hunter yelled loud enough at Joshua so that most of the others standing around him also heard.
I hadn’t seen Joshua since he’d left me on the dance floor. He looked pissed that I was with Hunter, and maybe—just maybe—he'd seen what just happened with us.
“I got her regular soda. Why?”
“She’s drunk.” Hunter let go of my elbow, and I took refuge beside Joshua.
“I didn’t give her anything.” Joshua’s tone was just as loud as Hunter’s now.
I’d never drank any sort of alcohol in my life. I’d seen how it made my momma behave and I promised myself that I’d never get caught up in that whole trap. Maybe this was the reason I was feeling so carefree and acting out. The things that I was doing with Hunter as I tried to force him to dance with me were things I’d imagined only in my dreams.
As the two brothers continued to argue over my well-being, I felt humiliation and embarrassment for my actions. I didn’t even know if I would be able to ever face Hunter without thinking back to myself grinding on him, kissing and nibbling on his neck, telling him how I felt, and also the fact that he’d pushed me away.
Crystal stood in front of us. “What’s going on here?” She was looking back and forth at both her sons.
Both boys started to explain their sides, each trying to yell over the other.
“Hold up.” Crystal had to yell a bit louder than the both of them so that they could hear her. She stared at her oldest son. “Hunter, what happened?”
“He got Alabama drunk.”
“I did not!” Joshua yelled back at him. With his fists clenched tight and the alcohol stirring inside of him, it appeared his anger level was getting to the point of wanting to punch his older brother for the accusation.
Crystal turned to her younger son. “Is this true that you gave her alcohol?”
“I got her a coke.” That was one of the first things that he’d ordered when we came into the club. “I saw her with the same glass the whole time.”
“Alabama, did you take anything from the trays that were on the table?”
I looked over at the table we were sitting at. There were blue cups everywhere. It seemed they used the same sort of container to put all drinks in regardless if they had alcohol or not.
“I drank the coke that Joshua and some of his teammates had set in front of me.” I didn’t see anything different in any of the glasses that were given to me. They all had soda in them — well, at least I hoped that they did.
Crystal motioned to Hunter that the band was watching them from the corner of the stage. “You better go get ready for your next set.”
He looked to where the group was, and they waved him over. He gazed back at me again. I quickly looked away. “Yeah, okay. Just make sure she gets home safely.” This time he spoke directly to his mother, indicating he wanted her to take me back home and not Joshua.
Crystal nodded that she would.
Hunter jogged back over to the stage and walked to the back room with the band.
“You all are in deep shit.” Crystal pointed her finger at the team who’d watched the scene unfold but mainly focused on Joshua who was watching me as I stared off in the direction Hunter had gone. She grabbed my hand and started to walk in the direction of where she’d been sitting. “You can come sit with me for the rest of the concert.”
Before she got too far, Crystal turned back around and told Joshua she would be taking me back home and that he needed to spend the night with a friend at the dorms instead of driving after he’d had a few beers.
He nodded and turned his gaze away from us.
Hunter’s second half of the concert seemed to fly by. It seemed he was pumped up from the incident that happened during the break, and it showed in the way that he played the guitar and sang the songs.
The band hit every note on beat, and they sounded a hundred times better than when I heard them at practice. He was always on the move while on stage, but somehow his eyes always found their way back to mine.
The night ended with a standing ovation and the crowd screaming that they wanted one more. The band agreed they would perform another and came out playing their first hit, which sent the fans into a frenzy.
As I listened to the lyrics, it seemed to describe why the band had broken up in the first place and how it was all over one girl.
Finally, after two hours since my last ‘cola’, I felt like I was coming back to my normal sense of mind. Although I liked the carefree feeling that was obviously alcohol-induced, I liked it better to have a rational sense of mind that kept me in balance with my feelings.
My mind kept playing backward to when I was hanging all over Hunter, like the other girls did, and how it seemed he couldn’t wait to get away from me.
I listened closely to the last song since that was the one I remembered all the kids from high school had fallen in love with. It seemed as if the song was written about a true-life case in which the band had fallen apart before because of lies and betrayal from a girl.
“C’mon.” Crystal grabbed my hand once again.
The crowd was thick around the band, who’d centered themselves in the middle of the dance floor. The girls that were hanging on each of the band members seemed to have lost a lot of their clothing. Each was trying to outdo the other in hopes that one of the players would take them home, even if it were for only one night.
I heard that Hunter used to be involved with that sort of thing, but the whole time I’d been around him, I never saw him act like the playboy everyone made him out to be.
Crystal just bumped her way through, not really caring that she and I were getting dirty looks from every which way. When she finally pushed her way to the band’s inner circle, I found Hunter standing with two scantly clothed girls who were hanging all over him.
I’d sobered up a bit and tried to keep my focus off the fact they were rubbing him in all the places I had, but the only thing different now was that he seemed to be enjoying it.
Crystal let go of my hand as she wrapped Hunter in a tight hug. “That was the best.” She complimented him on the concert they just performed.
Hunter returned the hug and kept his eyes on me.
I was still avoiding his stare.
“Thanks.” He let go of his mother and went back to the two girls who’d taken roost under his arms. They were two well-endowed blondes who seemed all too eager to become his for the night. Even with his mother still standing there, they were touching him in places that should be left alone until they were in privacy.
I couldn’t even look at him. Not only was I extremely embarrassed about the way that I’d acted before, but he seemed way too preoccupied with the girls who were practically crawling up on him on the dance floor.
A push from behind sent me stumbling in his direction. Big, strong hands caught me before I took a nosedive to the floor.
“Um — thanks.” I backed up so Hunter didn’t have to support me anymore.
“No problem.”
As much as I didn’t want to let go, Hunter moved away from me.
The two girls automatically resumed their spots by his side. I thought I heard one of them hiss at me before I looked away.
“Did you enjoy the concert?”
I glanced back over my shoulder. Hunter was staring at me with those seductive eyes that always drew me in.
It seemed he didn’t even notice the girls who were practically humping him like that was the norm for people to behave like that.
“Yes,” I managed to choke out one word before having to look away.
“I’ll see you later.” Crystal must have noticed the tension between the two of us and figured the best way to solve the problem was to get me out of there. She patted Hunter on the arm once again and congratulated him.
The crowd thickened around him even more as I moved away from the scene. The last thing I saw before more bodies clouded my line of vision was one of the girls grabbing him by the face and planting her lips on his.
I walked away as fast as I could and waited for Crystal in the area that was less crowded. I saw the girl lay claim to Hunter and he did nothing to get away.
As they kissed on the dance floor, I saw Hunter’s eyes lock with my own. He kept a steady stare while this other girl assaulted his lips with licks and bites. I could still feel his gaze on my back even as Crystal led me to the exit.
