Between The Books-Michael Clifford

Twenty One

"Just telling your sister I work at the library and that was the first time I met you." I say, without missing a beat. Take that Scutter!

Michael's hair is a new color. Bright green.

"Yeah that's right. Your first night working there. Star and I had a rough time in the beginning didn't we, Star? The second time I saw her, was in a class we have together, that I didn't know she was in. She was freaking about flies so she moved down between me and this old guy. She jumped on my ass thinking I was hitting on her." He says, laughing.

God that was embarrassing. Just like now. Like how I guess this whole night's going to be. I fake laugh trying not to show that I'm totally weirded out with him sitting so close to me.

"Yeah, then NEXT I took her a notebook she dropped during that same class, was rude to her, then followed it up by yelling at her at the library after she called me an asshole! Sorry again, by the way, for acting like an idiot almost every time we run into each other. We did get along good the other night though, right? I didn't talk to you much, but maybe that's a good thing!" He smiles. "You still owe me a game of pool." He winks at me, pats my leg, then gets up and walks into the kitchen.

Breathe in, breathe out.

I look at Laney, who is of course grinning from ear to ear. "He seems nice now! Maybe tonight will go really good for you guys. Aw, I do love my Jax, but I want you happy, so whatever you decide, I'm with you. Try to let him down easy though, Star. Cause I know you're choosing Michael, and so do you even if you're not admitting it to yourself yet." She says, quietly, taking another drink of her beer.

Michael's in the kitchen talking to Marcus.

"You seem to forget, Michael has to ALSO be interested in me like that, Laney. It's not just about me."

"Star, you're beautiful! Funny and awesome to hang around with. You have huge boobs, so that's pretty much your way in. No guy turns that down." She grins.

"Nice. My boobs are not coming out, thank you. I just wanna have fun tonight, not keep making it all about me and Michael."

"Ok, I won't say another word about him...until you pull me aside and tell me how you really want to fuck him. Just so you know, I'll say go for it, dump Jax later."

"Of course you'll say that. You're all about sex, all the time."

"No. Not true. Marcus and I haven't fucked. Not yet, anyway. I'm hoping it happens tonight, because it's taking every ounce of control I had not to rip his clothes off and eat him!" She says, probably a little too loudly.

Oh my God. It's like smashing my head up against the wall, over and over again, when I talk to Laney. She's a walking hormone. No control.

"Well, Laney, if you decide to do that, I can promise you he won't stop you." Marcus says, appearing like a ninja out of nowhere.

He holds out his hand to Laney and she grabs it, grinning. She stands up and they disappear up the stairs to what I guess is Marcus's bedroom.

"So you're not gonna see them for a while!" Toby says, laughing.

Becca leans in and whispers something to Toby, who then stands up with her wrapped around him and takes her off down the hall.

"Come on, Star. Let's shoot some pool. We'll take on Synna and Scutter. They're both horrible, so we already have the advantage." Michael says, from the kitchen.

"Ok, let's make it with worth something. Mikey if you and Star win, you can dare us to do something, anything you want. If we win, same deal." Synna winks at me.

"Ok, deal. Star?" Michael's looking at me waiting for my answer.

Michael just said they're both horrible at pool. Should be easy enough.

"Yeah, ok Michael, let's do this." I say, standing up.

"Call me Mikey. One thing I forgot to mention. Scutter gets better at pool, the drunker he gets."

"Yeah, true shit, Star. Synna, start thinking up something good to dare Mikey and Star to do." Scutter says, grinning.

"Oh, Baby. I already know." Synna says.