Boys and Girls, Part I

Chapter 7 – Someone to Watch Over Me
“Ohhhh…

The sound of Jacy’s groan punctuated throughout the entire apartment on the Sunday after Spankman’s party. The poor soul was experiencing the hangover of the century as her head hung lifelessly in the toilet at Lani and Delaney’s apartment.

Delaney and Stephanie had to support Jacy as they walked back to the girls’ apartment. Stephanie had eventually declared the party as a bust, as she had not found one potential suitor for herself, and promptly left for her own apartment. Delaney didn’t have the heart to turn Jacy out, so she allowed the latter to stay on the grounds that she didn’t puke all over the furniture. Obediently, Jacy promised that all puke would end up only in the toilet and ended up spending the night on Lani and Delaney’s bathroom floor, curled up in the fetal position.

Delaney poured coffee for Jacy and herself. She walked with Jacy’s mug into the bathroom. Jacy looked…awful. Her long, brunette locks were plastered to the clammy skin of her face. Her head was held in place over the toilet. Delaney tried to avert her eyes from her friend’s puke as Jacy flushed it down.

“I brought some damage control in the form of dark roast.”

“Leave it on the counter,” Jacy instructed, without looking at Delaney.

“Did you need anything else?”

Jacy shook her head, when her cheeks puffed all of a sudden. She suppressed the vomit long enough to warn Delaney. “You might want to leave now, or you’ll be getting another show…and this is going to be a long one.”

Delaney said no more before turning around and closing the door behind her. She heard Jacy retch through the door and winced.

As she exited the bathroom, she glanced over through the open bedroom door of Lani’s room. Delaney had last looked this direction upon coming home from the party. The door had been closed. Delaney had impulsively opened it a crack, only to see Lani sleeping soundly in her bed…alone. At this moment, the door was wide open, and Lani was not inside. Lani was probably avoiding Delaney, and as Delaney thought about the things she had said the previous evening, she understood why.

Delaney realized what a bitch she had been. Lani had only been protecting her, and even though some of Lani’s comments were biased and unfair to Jason, it was because she didn’t know much about him. If Delaney was in Lani’s shoes, she was pretty certain she might have reacted in the same manner. Delaney thought about calling Lani but worried that she might still be nursing her anger and wouldn’t pick up the phone. She preferred to speak with Lani in person.

Delaney was stirred out of her thoughts by a loud knock at the front door. She walked over and opened it only to find Jason standing there in all his hot male glory.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Delaney answered. She inwardly complimented herself for having changed out of her pajamas already into a decent pair of jeans and her burgundy MWU t-shirt.

“Are you all right? I tried looking for you after I found Ryan, but –

“Oh,” Delaney began, “I-I had to take someone home.”

Jason’s eyebrow arched questioningly at what Delaney’ s answer seemed to suggest.

“No, no, I mean my friend got a little hammered, and I had to bring her here,” she restated. As if on cue, another retch sounded from the bathroom. “See?”

Jason grinned. “Which one? The pink one?”

“No, it would be the brunette…the cynical smartass.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes sense.”

Delaney laughed. Jason smiled as well. For a while, they just looked at each other. However, Jason had to break the silence.

“So…was something up between you and Ailani? Because before I left you guys…I don’t know…it was a little weird.”

Delaney’s smile faded. “Um…we had a talk, and…we both said some things that probably should have been left unsaid.”

“Oh. So, are you guys…

“We’ll be fine,” Delaney finished. “I’m going to talk to her, and hopefully, we can square things away.”

Jason looked visibly relieved. “That’s good.”

The awkward silence started again, and again, Jason and Delaney just seemed to stare into each others’ eyes. They were getting good at it.

“Delaney,” a voice from the bathroom mumbled, “could you please kill me now?”

Jason and Delaney snapped out of their episode of mutual gazing. Jacy looked surprised at Jason’s presence and maybe a little appalled at the fact that such a stud had to witness her in this state.

“Hello,” Jacy managed, staring at the big he-man standing in the middle of Delaney’s living room. Knowing that Jacy suspected something existed between Jason and herself, Delaney quickly turned to Jason.

“So I’ll see you around?”

“You’ve got my number. Give me a call anytime.”

Delaney’s eyes stole a quick glance in Jacy’s direction. As miserable as Jacy appeared, she still managed a convincing look of shock.

“Okay,” Delaney answered, opening the door. Jason gave Jacy and Delaney a quick wave as he left. Delaney quickly closed the door but only slowly turned around to face Jacy.

“Don’t,” Delaney said, holding up her hand to silence Jacy.

Jacy looked as if she was going to talk anyway, but fortunately (or unfortunately in Jacy’s case), her eyes widened and her cheeks puffed, and she immediately retreated back into the bathroom.

****

A knock sounded at the door.

Ryan spit out the toothpaste and wiped his mouth with his hand. Who the hell is knocking at this hour? He walked over to his living room and opened the door.

Holy shit.

A beautiful, toned creature standing at five feet and ten inches – just two inches shorter than himself – was on the other side. She wore a fitted gray athletic tee and short white shorts that seemed to lengthen her already long legs. Her short, black hair was brushed over to one side, giving her a heightened exotic quality that went well with those big, violet eyes that turned up ever so slightly at the corners.

“Is Jason here?” she asked.

Shit. So that bastard had gone for her after all. Ryan tried his hardest to remain composed and not look disappointed.

“No, he left kinda early this morning.”

“Where?”

“Damned if I know,” Ryan answered, shrugging his shoulders. God, she was hot. It was going to be real difficult to maintain his cool around this one.

She remained outside the doorway and stared to her right, as if she was contemplating something. Ryan kept his eyes on her and was a little surprised when those gorgeous violet eyes came back to meet his.

“Can I come in for a second?”

Sweetheart, you can come in for as long as you want, Ryan thought to himself. He wondered if she’d beat the crap out of him if he said that last statement out loud. He nodded. He extended his hand, as soon as she walked in.

“Ryan.”

Lani clumsily accepted his handshake. “Ailani – I mean, Lani.”

“Hawaiian?”

“Yeah, sure,” she answered half-assed, moving toward the couch.

Okay, so Miss Hot Stuff wasn’t in the mood to get to know him.

“Can I get you something to –

“Is Jason interested in me?”

Ryan was not expecting that. “Excuse me?”

Lani continued directing her purple gaze at Ryan. “Is Jason interested in dating me? I mean, does he have any plans – that you know of – to ask me out?”

Ryan’s confusion was plain to see. “Why do you ask?”

“Could you please just answer the question – yes or no?”

“I’d like to know what the implications of either answer are first,” Ryan answered, a little indignantly.

“How close are you to Jason?”

What the hell? Why was she fucking interrogating him?

“I mean, would you say that you’re good friends with him?”

Ryan risked an honest answer, “Yeah…yeah. I would say that we’re best friends, actually.”

“So you guys know each other pretty well, right?”

Ryan crossed his arms and leaned one shoulder against the wall adjacent to the front door. “Yeah…Jason’s kinda like a brother.”

Lani seemed to mull over that statement, as her eyes dropped to the floor. Ryan stayed silent, quietly studying her. She finally looked back up.

“Is Jason the type of guy who…who would use one girl to get to another?”

It was an honest question, right? But for some reason, Ryan was insulted. This chick obviously knew diddly about Jason Kent.

“What the fuck kind of question is that?” Ryan asked back in a tone that even he later regretted using.

Lani’s eyes widened slightly at Ryan’s language. “I was just asking a question.”

“Yeah, well excuse me, but I’m a little offended by it,” Ryan answered hotly. “You obviously know nothing about Jason.”

“I’ll take that as a no?” Lani ventured.

“You better fucking believe that’s a no!” Ryan responded, uncrossing his arms and moving away from the wall and closer toward Lani. He stopped barely a foot in front of her. Even though their eye levels were nearly equivalent, Ryan’s sheer size made him look a thousand times more intimidating.

Ryan’s storm gray eyes stared into Lani’s violet ones for a while. While Ryan looked clearly pissed, Lani’s expression was ambiguous.

And then, her mouth broke out into smile that came out of nowhere. “Thanks.”

Without another word, Lani let herself out, slipping past a very confused Ryan Mackey.