Ghouls

The hangover woke me up. My head pounded as I ripped open my dreary eyes, only making the pain worse. I managed to open my eyes enough to be able to look at my phone, noticing I had, like, a hundred missed calls and texts from both Cam and Jade, asking where I was and whether I was okay. I figured I must’ve crashed at Jason’s after the part, turning to lie on my back and raising my hands to sit behind my head in reminiscence, smiling at the pleasant memories and most importantly, Zacky actually asking me out. My smile spread right across my face that was until I noticed someone’s long, heavily built, tattooed arm was draped over me, his hand just under my right boob, groping slightly as his fingers twitching every now and again, as if trying to tease me.

My breath caught, mentally asking myself what other trouble I’d managed to get myself into last night. My eyes were dead, straight ahead of me, not daring to check to see who he was. I was led perfectly still, staring up and the ceiling until the unnamed body moaned and pulled my body closer to him. For a second, I enjoyed it; his chest was warm and felt well defined, to my left arm that was awkwardly squashed between us, and his arm, God his arm, was huge. I couldn’t help but stare for a while, imagining what kind of damage that monster could do, but I wasn’t scared; it felt he was protecting, I wasn’t worried that he was going to hurt me, damn, I may have even got a bit excited; the things that big, powerful, almost dangerous monster of an arm could do to me..

I was pulled from my R rated thoughts when the male moaned again. Feeling confident enough in his grasp, I turned to see who accompanied me and I near abouts gagged from the sight. Creepy Brian.

“Brian?! What the fuck!?!” I said, jumping up to sit, getting as close to the beds edge and as far away from him as possible.

“Don’t shout at me; you’re the one that jumped into bed to me,” he said, that infamous Gates’ smirk playing onto his lips, his eyes still closed.

I was so confused; on the one hand, he was a creep; always staring at me and holding me and rubbing my side after I got into bed with him when I was drunk but, on the other hand, he looked ridiculously hot right now. I found myself looking at his huge bicep again, the thoughts I had before returning, as my eyes drifted to his beautifully defined chest and up to his face where his eyes had now opened, watching me. Part of me wanted to pounce on him and have him (which, I imagine, he’d enjoy) but as my gaze passed his face and noticed the beer bottle sat on his dresser; I pulled away from my own dirty head and put it down to still being drunk.

In anger, I leaped off the bed, “what the fuck are you on?! I was drunk, you creep! And hey, even if I was, it didn’t give you the right to go and put your fucking hands on me!” I shouted at him.

“Well, I was cold,” he told me, one of his eyebrows rising. He wasn’t angry at all, he looked completely smooth; led in the bed in nothing but his boxers, watching me.

I scoffed, despite the attraction, “you’re such a freak.” I grabbed my phone and things as I stormed out of the room, racing down the stairs. Everyone was up, probably woken by my shouting.

“Hey, Lau, are you okay?” I heard Matt ask as Zacky leant out to grab my arm to talk to me.

“Yes. I’m fine,” I told them, not stopping.

As soon as I was out on the porch after slamming the door behind me, I was in floods of tears. I was so torn; how was Brian the creep so incredibly hot all of a sudden? How the fuck had I suddenly developed feelings for him, if there were any. But, he was incredibly charming. Argh! Fuck sake, Lauren. It wasn’t like I’d slept with him and suddenly found the freak attractive and completely discarded the genuinely nice guy or something!...wait...no...I started panicking; what if I actually had slept with Syn? It would explain why he was being so charming and cheeky with me all of a sudden and why he had his arm around me this morning. I started to shake, terrified that I’d given myself to him, after everything I’d been through, and that I’d probably thrown all I could’ve had with Zacky down the drain; Brian didn’t seem like the type that would shag a girl and not tell everyone about it.

The tears came faster as my hands shook, struggling to pick up my phone and start texting Cameron, asking whether he’d pick me up when the door opened up. I dropped my phone and wiped my eyes as fast as I could, looking up to see who had come out and it wasn’t who I expected it to be; (I’d expected Zack or Matt – Jason’s brother – or Syn to come out, trying to mess with me) but it was Jimmy.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, concerned. I’d spoken to Jimmy a little bit but not half as much as I would’ve liked but, to be honest, when I saw him talking to Brian in the garden I’d kind of been put off.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay; I was just about to call my brother to come pick me up,” I lied to him, smiling as I tried to assure him I was okay.

He was having none of it; he looked right past my acting, “no you’re not; you’re shaking,” he said, taking hold of my hands to stop my trembling, “what’s going on?” He was so caring, I very almost spilled to him; I felt completely comfortable with him which was an extreme rarity; over the years I’d developed some serious trust issues but yet I was completely ok with Jimmy; I could see us being really good friends, as and when I could tell him what was going on with me; I may be comfortable but I was in no position to tell him what had happened to me over the past few years; I couldn’t even tell my best friends back in England, shit, I could barely look at Cam and not feel guilty that I’d kept it all from him.

“Seriously, Jim, I’m fine, I’ve just got a load on my mind,” I smiled at him, trying to comfort him into not asking any more questions.

“Is it about why you left England to stay here with Cam?” he asked me, he genuinely looked worried about me.

My jaw dropped, shocked he could’ve guessed that as my heart thudding so loud I could hear it in my ears, threatening to burst out of my chest as more tears began to form, “partly,” I told him, looking down at him holding my hands, pushing back the tears.

Noticing I didn’t want to talk about it, he let go of my hands and stood up, “well, my and Zack were just about to leave and our places are just past yours, if you want a lift,” he told me, smiling down sympathetically.

“Yeah, that’d be really nice,” I accepted thankfully.

Minutes later, Jimmy and Zack came out of the house followed by Jason. I apologized to Jason for storming out and thanked him for having me and throwing an ace party before Zacky wrapped his arm around my shoulders, hugging me as we said our goodbyes and went to Jimmy’s huge truck.

The ride back to Cam’s was fairly quiet on my part; I just sat in the back and listened to Jimmy and Zacky laugh together and joke as they listened to the radio. As we pulled up to the beach hut, I thanked Jimmy expecting to get out alone but Zack came up behind me, holding his hand on my waist and walking me to the door.

“So, considering you were upset this morning, I thought, maybe, we could bring our date forward? Wednesday, maybe? It might be nicer as well; it might be a bit emptier; more... intimate,” he asked, nudging forward so he was pressed almost right against me.

“That sounds perfect,” I told him, looking into his eyes.

I could’ve sworn he was about to kiss me when the door swung open, revealing an obviously distressed Jade. In some ways I was grateful; I was ridiculously nervous about kissing him...about kissing anybody, to be fair, but I also really really liked him and kinda wanted him to kiss me.

“Where the fuck have you been? Are you okay?!” Jade screamed, pushing Zacky away from me and wrapping her arms around my neck. I hugged her back, looking Zacky from over her shoulder. He was smiling (which I was glad about; he could’ve gotten pissed off that Jade had pushed him away but he seemed to have seen the humour in it)

“I’m fine! I’m fine! I just got a little too wasted and crashed at Jason’s! Jimmy and Zack drove me home,” I told her, indicating Zack, now stood on the grass next to the porch after being pushed off of it, and Jimmy in the SUV at the end of the drive.

“Oh, shit, sorry Zack,” she held her hand out to Zacky, pulling him back onto the porch, “thanks for bringing her home, boys,” she shouted loud enough for Jimmy to hear in his car. He stuck up his fingers, waving at Cam who now stood behind me.

“Yeah, it was no problem,” Zacky told them both, “Lauren; I’ll see you again Wednesday, right? About 7-ish?” he asked, smirking.
“Sounds perfect!” I told him, blushing, as we all said goodbye.

Jade and Cameron were pestering me about Zack before we’d even closed the door, completely embarrassed that he could probably still hear us.

“Sooooo, you and Mr. Vengeance, ay?” Jade squealed, giggling, “I hope you’re gonna play hard to get! You want to make him want you, L!”

“He already wants me; he’s already been grabbing my ass and flirting with me,” I shared with Jade, blushing, grabbing us both a root beer.

“Right! I’m taking the dogs out; I don’t want to listen to this!” Cameron shouted, grabbing his keys and the dog leads.

“Oh really?! Mind remembering that the next time you want to finger Jade while I’m sat in the back of the car!?!”

They both gasped, letting out for Jade to burst out laughing over the kitchen island. Cam couldn’t even fathom words as he took his keys and jacket, instructing the dogs to follow him.

Jade and I sat on the couch together laughing for the next 3 hours, long after Cam had returned and hidden himself upstairs. Eventually, Jade broke out the wine and we both ended up spilling all of our emotional (and some sexual) burdens out on each other; having a real girly chat. I told her everything about Zack and Syn and how comfortable I already felt with Jimmy while she told me everything I didn’t want to hear about my brother like all his habits, both in the sack and out, while she also gave me some much needed advise about Syn and Zack; telling me to go out with Zack and just see how I like it and we can figure out what to do afterwards. The only things I didn’t (couldn’t) tell her were everything that had happened before California; she tried to ask a few times but I just dismissed them.

After our chat, Cameron came downstairs and we all ordered pizza and watched a film together; we watched Gangs of New York, coincidently, one of my all-time favourite films. After the film, Cam and Jade had fallen asleep in front of the TV with the dogs so I decided to get upstairs and have a shower. I did so and was sick, partly through the extreme amount of alcohol in my system but also because I managed to catch myself in the mirror before I got dressed. I dressed myself, brushed my teeth, washed my face and did my hair, all ready to go to bed.

Notes