now. Jason started to go over to her, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“I’ve been striking out all night, bro. Can you believe that shit?” Eric finished the last sip of beer in his cup. “You fuck any girls yet?”
“I just got here.”
“Lucky you. I had to deal with nothing but freshmen for like twenty minutes. They were the first ones here.”
“Of course they were the first ones here. They’re always the first to arrive to a party. Them and losers.”
“A lot of them are already shit-faced. I got our group down in the basement for later on tonight.” Each year the varsity football team always did some kind of initiation for the freshmen players, and the new varsity team always tried to outdo the preceding one. The year Jason had been a freshman, he had to run naked across the football field with a cookie clenched between his butt cheeks. If he had dropped the cookie, he would’ve had to eat it. This year the freshmen would not be getting off so easily.
“Where’s Andy?”
“Andy said he won’t be able to make it until about midnight. He has to work until closing.”
“Ugh, don’t mention work to me. My dad’s been up my ass about getting a job, says I need to learn about working and responsibility. I’m one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the country. My future is pretty much—”
“Hey, Lisa! Wait up!” Eric, having found his next prey, sauntered off.
“—set.” Jason finished his sentence, feeling unheard. He looked back to where Emily had been standing, but she was nowhere in sight. Damn. So not only had Eric not listened to him, but he had cockblocked him from getting with the hottest girl at the party. Some best friend he was. Or maybe Eric distracting him had been a clever ploy to keep Jason from winning the bet. Nah , Eric wasn ’ t that smart , Jason told himself.
Jason searched all over the house for Emily, from the den, where he took the time to participate in and win a raucous game of beer pong, to all the upstairs bedrooms, where he caught the belated Andy getting a blow job from some girl. It wasn’t until he desperately needed to take a leak that he found her. She was in one of the upstairs bathrooms, holding back a girl’s hair as the girl regurgitated into the toilet.
“We’ll be done in a sec,” Emily assured him, smiling.
Jason returned her smile. “That’s okay. Take your time.” He backed out of the bathroom slowly, maintaining his cool visage, then he hauled ass down to the other end of the hall once he was out of Emily’s view, hoping that the other upstairs bathroom was free, and thank God, it was. He undid his fly and let out a soft moan from the pleasurable sensation of emptying his distended bladder. He washed his hands and hurried back to the other bathroom to continue his seduction of Emily, but she was nowhere around. Again. Damn ! I should ’ ve asked her to wait for me . Frustrated, he pounded the wall with his fist.
“Jason?”
He turned around and saw Emily standing in the doorway of one of the bedrooms. Jason hoped that Emily wasn’t in the bedroom with another guy, and if she was, he hoped it wasn’t Eric. “Emily? Are you—what are you doing in there?”
“My friend Kim, she’s not feeling well, she had a little too much to drink, so I had her lie down until she feels better. But I’m happy you came back. I was hoping we could catch up. I feel like we hardly talked this summer.”
“You wanna go sit somewhere and talk?”
“Yeah, that’d be great.”
Jason took her by the hand and led her to a dark, empty bedroom. A flick of the light switch revealed a bed with black sheets and covers. Jason smiled. Perfect. They took a seat on the bed.
“So, friend, what’s new?” Emily asked coquettishly .
“Just preparing for the football season. Been thinking about which college I wanna go to. You?”
“Well, I just got back from cheerleading camp. It was really cool. And I broke up with Brandon, don’t know